Those Days

by jitterwhack

A whole bunch of shenanigans that involve Team RWBY, JNPR, the Beacon Staff, and CFVY. Read and Review. Be gentle please.

31. Knightshade

Disclaimer: The following is a nonprofit fanfiction of RWBY. RWBY belongs to Monty Oum(RIP) and Rooster Teeth. Any likeness to writings of others is not intentional. To help with improvements: Read and Review!

AN: Hey all you Knightshade fans. If you guys read the Arkos chapter and liked it despite not being your preferred ship, then I'll try not to disappoint with this ship.

Final Chapter B: Endgame-Knightshade

This was the endgame. Blake could feel it as the juniors and seniors went off to help the other areas. She didn't know how she got so comfortable. She came to Beacon to train and become a huntress and she forgot about it with all the good times she had been having with her friends. She didn't blame them though. With the fall of Cinder and Torchwick gone, she believed that it was all over even when with the White Fang still roaming the earths.

But with the awakening of Amber and the Maidens coming together for a fight for humanity, she was pushed back into reality. Ruby had radioed in from her post that Adam and the White Fang had entered Vale and were causing a ruckus. Even as their race was finally getting peace and fairness one day at a time, he still didn't think it enough.

Looking behind her, she saw them all planning their strategy. Her eyes had lingered on her partner's arm as she pumped herself up to join her. As their Bullhead pulled up, she sighed at what she was about to do.

"HEY! What're you –oof!" Shouted the voice of the Bullhead pilot, bringing the three out of their conversation.

The three students turned to see Blake kicking their pilot out of their transport before lifting it off the ground. As the three ran towards it, Blake shot a few rounds for them to step back.

"I'm sorry guys!" The cat shouted over the engine. "I need to do this on my own."

Turning away, Blake raised the ship high enough so they couldn't jump on. She had experience flying Bullheads, but after so long she had to familiarize herself with the controls once more.

Down below

"Dammit!" Yang pounded her robot hand into the ground, cracking it. "I thought she was past this!"

"She's too high up to reach." Pyrrha said frustrated at her friend's action. "What is she thinking?"

Staring at the two and back to the ship, the blonde knight thought of a plan that was Ruby crazy. The only problem was: only one of them could go.

"Pyrrha." He nudged her partner. "Use your semblance to lighten my armor. No questions, just do it. Now!"

Hearing how serious he was being, she did as she was told. Jaune felt himself floating a bit as she placed a hand on the back of his armor plate.

"Yang." He called out to her in the same voice. "I'll need you to throw me as hard as you can to the Bullhead. We need to do it before she closes the doors."

Quickly grabbing him, the busty blonde concentrated all her strength into the throw. It was a bit easier with Pyrrha lightening his armor.

"Go get'er for me." She shouted as she released her grip.

As he sailed upwards, the Amazon had continued to use her semblance to help direct his path to the ship. Feeling himself slowing down, the blonde knight reached upwards and was relieved to have caught onto the edge of the latch.

Pulling himself up, he walked in to see Blake busy fiddling with the controls. Getting behind her, he sat on the seat next to her, surprising her in the process.

"How did you-?" He held a hand for her to interrupt her.

"Land this thing." He told her looking mad. "We're not letting you go on this alone."

"I'm not going back Jaune." She ground out, going back to fiddling with the controls. "Now get out before I throw you out."

"That's not going to happen." He leaned forward, grasping her hand. "If you throw me out, I'm pulling you with me."

"Idiot." She huffed, not turning to look at him.

"Blake." He sighed, not letting go of her hand. "We want to help you."

"WELL MAYBE I DON'T WANT YOUR HELP!" She shouted, stopping what she as doing and slamming her hands on the hull. "Ever think of that? I don't want your guys help. …I want you all safe."

As she said this, she didn't turn to look as him. She was prepared for him to say something for her to land the ship, but she wasn't ready for what he did next.

He laughed. He laughed at her reason and lightly slapped her on the shoulder, making her look up at him with anger in her eyes. Seeing she was furious, he had cut it short to explain himself.

"Blake, all of Remnant is falling to crap." He said with a smile. "If you wanted us safe, you're more likely to have Yang cut her hair. So bring us down and we'll go and face Adam together."

"…I cant." She muttered, turning away once more. Seeing him about to protest one more, she cut him off to explain. "And I mean I literally cant. …I forgot how to land one of these."

"…Oh." He said dumbly, not knowing what else to say. "Shit. So what do we do now?"

"I still remember bits and pieces on how to fly and use autopilot, but other than that, nothing else." She mumbled, feeling embarrassed at her stupidity.

"…How did you plan on landing this thing, let alone getting off it?" The blonde raised a brow. Before she could say something both their scrolls had gone off.

"VPD have secured the last civilian." Scarlett's voice radioed on his scroll and to everyone in the school. "I repeat, the civilians are now secure. Requesting back up immediately to defend the city."

"…Looks like your stuck with me until we get back." He sighed, strapping himself in. Taking his scroll out he dialed in his partner. "Pyrrha, I'm going with Blake to fight Adam. You and Yang get on another Bullhead and help secure the rest of Vale."

"Jaune this is crazy." The Amazon answered back urgently. "Pull back now."

That was impossible. Turning to Blake, she had a blush on her face as she drove the ship forward into Vale. Being a good friend, he decided not to divulge why they couldn't.

"Sorry Pyr." He suppressed a chuckle as he talked. "But Blake's being stubborn, and someone needs to back her up. I'll see you guys once we kick Taurus's butt."

"…Stay safe." She said before hanging up.

Putting his scroll on the hull, Blake turned to him after putting the ship on autopilot. Unstrapping herself from her seat, she went to the back area to prepare her ammo and Jaune followed after her. As she loaded bullets into her spare magazines, he watched in silence as she did so. Seeing as the flight would take a while before they reached the center of Vale, he decided to have a talk with her.

"Why did you try to go off on your own?" He asked, leaning back to get comfortable.

"I told you." She muttered, putting the magazine down. "I wanted you all safe. I didn't want any of you to get hurt fighting Adam."

"Is this about Yang's arm?" He assumed her reason. "You know she's gotten over it."

"It's not just about the arm!" She said exasperated. "I couldn't bare the thought of losing any of you. And now you're here and I… I don't want to see you hurt."

"And you didn't think we wouldn't feel the same?" He shot back, moving closer to sit next to her. "You didn't think I'd feel the same?"

"It's different between you and me." The cat faunus said sadly, knowing he wouldn't see her as anything more than a friend.

"How?" The blonde pushed her, not knowing what it was. Seeing she wasn't going to answer any time soon, he pushed once more. "How is it different?"

"BECAUSEILOVEYOU!ALRIGHT?!" She snapped, the pressure of it all getting to her.

Closing her eyes shut, she waited for him to laugh or reject her for Ruby or Pyrrha. When she heard nothing, she peeked an eye open to see him staring at her confused and flushed as she was.

"W-what?" He said dumbly, his chest getting lighter.

"I love you, alright?" She huffed, feeling the heat rise to her cheek. "I don't know how, when, or why, but I just do. I have for I don't know how long, but I do!"

"Blake I-" Before he could say anything she had cut him off.

"Shut up!" She continued, deciding to get everything off her chest. "I like being with you and enjoy the time we spend together. I thought training together like you do with Pyrrha would help you notice how I feel but you're …so dense! I finally saw I wouldn't be anything but a friend to you, so I try to give up but I still love you. …And now the world is ending and I'm still… I'm still in love with you even though I know you won't love me back."

The airship was nothing but silence as Jaune processed everything the cat faunus had told him. She had confessed everything to him and was now breathing heavy to regain the air in her lungs. Taking a gulp, he was about to speak but was interrupted as the ship had rocked. Looking to the front, they saw that they were now in Vale by the tall buildings and the bullets flying in the air.

"Let's get to work." She sighed dejectedly, opening the hatch.

The wind was whipping past them as the Bullhead continued to fly ahead with the autopilot still on. Using her enhanced vision, Blake scanned the area for a familiar head of red wit horns. From Ruby's last update, he should have been close to the center of Vale. Spying nothing, she went to put the ship on idle before coming back to the opening.

"We'll be getting off here." She shouted over the engines to her current partner. "I haven't seen Adam yet, but he should be close by."

Nodding, the two had jumped off and used their landing strategies to get on a rooftop to avoid the Grimm running in the streets. They had to run far away form the Bullhead as it had been left in the air. Judging by the amount of bullets being fired at it, the White Fang were unaware that it was completely empty. The last shot got it in the engine and had caused it to spiral down into the streets and explode on the unsuspecting Grimm.

As the two parkoured through the roofs, Blake had silently taken down unsuspecting grunts while Jaune had knocked out a few that Blake had missed. As they continued to run, Jaune felt for his pockets to contact Pyrrha and Yang but found them empty. Remembering back to when he last had it, he remembered that he left it on the hull of the ship they had abandoned.

"Blake." He called after her, as they made it to another rooftop. "I forgot my scroll on the ship."

"And?" She asked, not turning to look at him. Apparently she was acting like back when they weren't so close.

"…We need to radio in and update our status." He told her, flinching at how cold she was acting.

Not stopping in her tracks, she had pulled her scroll out and tossed it behind her for him to catch. As he did, he radioed a public feed while still trying to keep up with the cat faunus.

"This is Whiteknight calling in." Jaune called Pyrrha and the others, using his codename. "Team KnightShade has landed in Vale and are on the look out for Adam Taurus. Does anyone have a visual?"

After a few minutes, someone had answered.

"Copy that Whiteknight." An older man's voice answered after a few minutes. "This is Loudmouth answering. Cameras have spotted Taurus has been last being in Central Vale. Sending coordinates to you now from your nearest location."

"Thank you Loudmouth." The knight said, getting the coordinates. Looking up to his current partner, he hadn't slowed down one bit to see the coordinates herself. "Blake, slow down. I have the coordinates to where he was spotted last."

Doing so reluctantly, she had grabbed her scroll back to memorize the map and directions before giving it back to him.

"Let's go." She muttered, making a mad dash with him right on her tail.

Rooftop in Central Vale

The two had made it. Two buildings over, Adam stood atop near the edge watching the chaos below he had helped to create. From the looks of things, he hadn't noticed them at all, which was good to their advantage in Jaune's opinion. All they had to do was sneak up on him and blindside him. Blake on the other hand had other plans.

"ADAM!" She shouted, swinging her weapon in it's kusarigama mode after getting close enough on the same roof.

He had turned around to block it with his sheath-gun easily and smirked at seeing them.

"I see you've come back to me, darling." He smirked as he stared at her. The smirk fell once it fell upon the blonde accompanying her. "And I see you brought company. A blonde male this time too."

"Jealous?" She spat with a smirk of her own.

Trying to pull her weapon back, she felt it stuck as the bull faunus had not let go of it. With a mighty tug, the leader of the White Fang had pulled her weapon away from her grip.

"Yes." He snarled, tossing it into the Grimm filled streets. "I am."

With only her sheath in hand, Blake had charged in to hit him off the edge. Jumping high into the air, she made to swing in a downward slash only to see him ready an upward slash.

Her eyes widened in shock as she wouldn't be able to block it in time. Just as he made to swing, a familiar shield had came in front of the red katana and took the full brunt of the hit.

Jaune had flown back and had hit Blake on his way from the swing. As the two crashed to the ground, Adam laughed at them, finding humor in their show.

Growling at his mocking, the cat faunus grabbed the knight's sword and had made a dash towards the man she had once respected long ago to remove his head from his body. As she swung Crocea Mors, Adam had raised his blade effortlessly thinking that the blade would shatter just by it's simple appearance. He was sorely mistaken as it had pushed onwards and caused him to slide, almost having him fall off the building.

Readjusting his footing, he turned back to his enemies only to see a shield coming towards him. Too late to dodge, he had blocked with his arms and fell. Before the Grimm could get him, he shot a bullet out of his sheathe to bounce him to another area clear from Grimm. Cutting a few in his way, Adam ran through the alleys but not before giving the two on the roof a glance.

"After him!" Blake snarled, running to jump down to give chase. Jaune had stopped her by tackling her to the ground. "What are you doing? He's getting away!"

"What am I doing?" He said incredulously. "What are you doing? We're supposed to be working together, but you're charging in without a plan!"

"Get off!" She growled, digging her nails into his arm. He winced at the pain, but he still glared at her intensely.

"Not until you talk to me!" He growled back, leaning in to show how serious he was. "Ever since what happened in the Bullhead, you've been trying to avoid me."

"Now's not the time for that!" The cat faunus struggled, trying to wiggle her way out of his grasp.

"Then when?" The blonde ground out, tightening his hold so she couldn't escape. "I want to help you but you're acting so… so bitchy! Is this about what you said in the Bullhead? About confessing and thinking I don't love you?"

Wiggling a bit more and feeling him loosen up enough for her to use her semblance, she slid from under him to stand in a crouched position. She could have run but knowing the man in front of her, he'd just chase her relentlessly.

"It's not about that." She said lowly with her head down, but loud enough for him to hear. "…I'm just scared. …I'm scared that if I let you fight him with me, you'll die. I know you want to help me and all, but I still can't let you get involved. Not you, or Yang, or any of our friends!"

Getting off the floor, he walked up to her until their chests were close to touching. Picking her head up by her chin so they could stare into each other's eyes, Blake saw once more how intense he was looking at her. She then saw his face coming in closer to hers. Although, for some reason it was coming in at an alarmingly fast rate.

THUMP!

He had headbutted her. The jerk had headbutted her! It wasn't enough to knock her out or draw blood, but it still hurt. Judging by the red mark on his forehead, she could guess she was sporting the same mark on hers from where it was stinging.

"OW!" She winced, pulling her hands to rub where he had hit her. "What was that for you?"

"In Weiss's words: For being a dolt." He muttered, rubbing his own head. "I had to do it to get it through that thick skull of yours. I'm already involved in this. So don't try to block me out."

"But-" Before she could argue, he poked her on the same spot again to shut her up.

"I'm helping you." He ground out, pushing his finger slightly to drive his point. "Whatever feelings of doubt you have, ignore it. Take a chance and have faith in me. …We're going to win this."

"Why do want to help me so badly?" The bookworm grumbled, getting tired of his persistence.

"Because I want to." The knight answered, putting his sword away while never losing eye contact. "I want to help you like you've helped me. I want to help you stop this guy from destroying any dream you have. I'm doing this for you, me, and all our friends. …But mostly for you."

'You just cant let me stop falling for you, can you?' Blake thought, trying to stop the fast beating of her heart. Shaking it off to concentrate on the matter at hand, she decided to be a team player. "…Fine. And sorry. So what's the plan?"

"We radio in." He said, pulling her scroll out to dial in VPD. "This is team Knightshade reporting in. Requesting any recent sightings of Taurus. We are currently in central Vale hunting him."

After a few seconds, a new voice had answered.

'This is Hawkeye phoning in.' Jaune could have sworn he's hear this voice before, after a few seconds he remembered it was Reggie from VPD. 'Cameras have spotted numerous sightings of Taurus in the streets passing by troops and boosting enemy morale. Judging by the direction, I'd say he's headed to town hall. …Wait. Looks like he entered it. Taurus is in town hall. I repeat: Taurus is in town hall. Sending coordinates of quickest way to area.'

"Copy that Hawkeye." The blonde knight confirmed receiving the data. "This is team KnightShade signing out."

Looking at the coordinates, they had a long way ahead of them. Looks like Adam had taken advantage while the two were busy talking. Looking down the streets, Blake spotted her weapon dangling from a light post still in kusarigama mode. Jumping down, she was able to grab hold of it and swing back onto the edge of the rooftop.

"Let's go… partner." She nodded to the blonde male as they walked on the edge.

"When this is all over, we still need to talk about what you said." He reminded her as they made ready to jump. Before he could say any more, her scroll had buzzed alerting them to an incoming update much to her relief.

"This is Snowdrop calling in." Weiss's radioed on the public feed. "Winchester has been badly hurt. Currently taking him back for treatment. Status report."

Docks

"Team Matchstick here." A flaming swordsman shouted under the heavy fire and Grimm roars. His partner was on a crane fighting off Nevermores while dodging bullets. "We're not looking so hot. Both sides aren't letting up. Grimm are attacking both sides, but we're losing droids fast. Requesting backup."

"This is Loudmouth. Evacuate area team Matchstick. Cameras have spotted another horde of Ursa coming your way." Came the voice of Jenkins. "A Bullhead will be coming in to pick you up. Keep hidden until help arrives. Should be there in ten minutes."

"Shit!" Not liking to run but having no choice, team Matchstick had regrouped to find cover until help arrived.

Beacon Tower

"Silvereyes here." Ruby shouted while sniping on the tower. "Grimm have been eliminated but the White Fang are still coming in strong. I don't understand. We were winning a while ago!"

Seeing a student about to be impaled from behind, Ruby fired a shot hitting the attacker in the head.

"We still have a chance but are sustaining too many casualties." She continued, ducking from a sniper hidden in the trees. Taking aim, she fired a round that had him falling out.

"Hold strong Silvereyes." Weiss called in. "We'll be there in a few minutes."

Courtyard Area

"Team Brownfox here." Velvet grunted as she formed Coco's gun to mow down as many Fang grunts as possible. "The numbers are slowly going down on both ends, but we need backup ASAP."

"Look out!" Hearing the large swordsman shout, Velvet jumped out of the way from a sniper shot coming from the bushes.

Another sniper shot came from the tower, hitting the bushes and knocking whoever was in there out.

"Thanks Silvereyes." The bunny said on the public feed.

Cafeteria

"Team Pink reporting." Ren huffed after knocking a guy down. "The halls were overrun, so we had to move into the cafeteria. Things aren't looking great for us."

"Don't give up on me team Pink." Jaune answered, giving Ren an order. "If all else fails, do Operation: Bigfoot. Pass it on to Hammer."

"Got it." The ninja nodded, looking over to his childhood friend who just smacked ten men down. "Nora! Operation Bigfoot. Fearless leader's orders."

"Why didn't I think of that?" She smiled, throwing a grenade to encase the area in pink smoke. "Go!"

CCT

"Team Amp." A girl with a lightning lance shouted under her cover. "The VPD, droids, and I are currently at a standstill defending the area. My partner's MIA and she hasn't picked up her scroll. Requesting back up! I don't know how long we can hold up."

"Roger that team Amp." Coco answered back. "Expect back up soon. I'm heading your way."

"Wukong here." Sun shared the line. "I'll be with her too. Defend the tower long enough for us to get there."

"Thanks you two." The female lancer sighed in relief before getting up to strike a few down with a charge shot. "Better make it quick though. They're coming in waves now."

With Weiss

"Team RedLemon status report." Weiss called to Pyrrha and Yang. Hearing nothing after a few seconds she called again. "Team RedLemon status report now! …Answer me RedLemon."

Almost giving up hope on the two to declare them KIA, her scroll had buzzed with an unfamiliar number.

"This is RedLemon reporting in." Pyrrha's voice came through. "I'm sorry about the delay. We were indisposed a few moments ago."

"RedLemon your number is unfamiliar." The heiress pointed out. "Where are you at?"

"We cant divulge too much for safety's sake but know we need an extraction." The redhead informed her. "Location will be at Vale Police Station. Be there in three hours."

"Copy that RedLemon." Weiss sighed, happy to know they were alright. Before she could et to KnightShade, her scroll buzzed once more with a message from Pyrrha.

Disregard last call. Head to Tukson's Book Store in four hours. Bring heavy fire.

Taking the message, she looked out to see they were near Beacon. Bullets were flying in the air as students continued to fight on. Coco and Sun had jumped off heading to the CCT and the only one with her now was an injured Cardin and Neptune.

"Get down there and bring Cardin to the infirmary." The bluenette shouted as he gave cover fire.

Nodding, she hoisted Cardin over her and proceeded to race inside while using her glyphs to speed up more. A few had gotten in the way, but Neptune and ruby made sure to cover her. Getting to the infirmary and closing the door behind her, she saw nurses at work patching up more injured students while those who were able to walk had covered the doors in case any White Fang came through. From the looks of the bullet holes in the walls, the area had to be fought for.

"I need medical attention for an injured student here!" Weiss shouted, pointing to the heavy teen on her. As a nurse came to take him away, Weiss pulled her scroll out to call her other teammate. "Team KnightShade. Status."

With Blake and Jaune

The two had been hopping on rooftops to avoid the Grimm below. As they did so, they kept the radio on to hear how everyone was doing. From the sounds of things, Adam's boost in morale had turned the tides in his favor.

"We need to take him down more than ever." Jaune muttered as they vaulted to another building. "They wont stop until he's out of the picture."

"Yeah." She said with a frown. As they got closer to town hall, her scroll had buzzed again.

"Team KnightShade. Status." Weiss called out to them. The two had stopped once they were in front of the town hall.

"We're doing fine." Blake answered for them. "Got a lead on Taurus and are ready to investigate. If we take him down, their morale may drop."

"…Stay safe team KnightShade." The heiress said concerned. "And come back safely."

Hanging up, Blake changed her weapon into sword mode, and Jaune had unsheathed his blade and opened his shield. The power had been cut inside making it hard for humans to see. Adam had prepared, knowing they would find him here. The only light came from the fires outside and the moonlight shining into the windows and skylight.

"You kept me waiting." The extremist's voice echoed through the halls. Stepping into the light, the two saw him with sword drawn. "I almost thought you wouldn't show. That you ran away. Like you always do."

"I'm done running." She muttered, getting into her stance. Jaune was next to her with his shield raised to block any attack that came their way.

"Good." He said mockingly, moving to circle around them. The two had done the same, not allowing him to get behind them.

"Something about your friend seems familiar." He continued, cracking his neck. "Like I've seen his picture somewhere before."

"I could just have one of those faces." The blonde knight muttered, making sure to keep an eye for any sudden movements. "Or maybe it's the blonde hair."

"Speaking of blonde hair." Adam laughed, remembering something. "How is that girl who tried to save you? Is her arm doing okay?"

Something in Blake snapped as she morphed her weapon into gun mode and fired a shot that Adam deflected with his blade. He was hoping she was still bitter about taking her partner's arm, and he was right judging by her reaction.

"Touchy subject, my dear?" He teased with a smug smirk, enjoying the look of fury on her face. Turning to the blonde next to her, the smirk turned into a frown seeing him looking at him the same. "And what are you glaring at?"

No words were uttered from his mouth. Just a stare that showed how disgusted he was of the man in front of him. It infuriated Adam. It was the same look every human gave his race growing up. Seeing that same look directed at him once more instead of fear that should be there made his blood boil. And seeing the girl he claimed as his standing by that human sharing the same fury only drove his anger to a new point.

"ANSWER ME!" The bull shouted, not liking to be ignored. "Or do you think yourself above to talk to me now? Well?"

Jaune had learnt that anger in a fight was a great source of power depending on how it was used. As long as it did not blind your thoughts then you controlled the field. Seeing how Adam was staring at him with teeth bare, he could guess that he was plenty mad. He just hoped what he did next wouldn't drive him to his early grave.

Opening his mouth, Jaune made hacking sounds while collecting saliva on his tongue. Feeling enough pooled up, he spat in Adam's general direction while still glaring at him. If any were to ask if he survived, he'd blame Coco for being an influence.

"You SHIT!" The bull faunus snapped, charging forward to remove the prince in hiding's head from his body.

"Split!" Blake shouted, using her semblance to get out of the way.

Jaune had raised his shield to block the incoming attack. The only difference this time was that his feet were on the ground. As he felt the impact, he tilted his shield upwards to deflect the rest of the moment. It was a trick Pyrrha had taught him to lessen the strain and pain against stronger opponents. It was also useful as a way to try and tire an opponent out more.

Using this tactic, Jaune had continued to block most of Adam's strikes. He had concentrated on him personally and had forgotten all about Blake. The cat took this opportunity to go in from behind to give a surprise attack.

But the red swordsman detected her and was quick to move out of the way. As Blake descended, he stepped on her blade as it came down and kicked her in the chest with his other foot, disarming her in the process. With his back turned Jaune had made to stab him, but the bull had grasped his arm after the thrust and flung him into the cat faunus. As the two teammates collided into one another, they had recovered quick enough to get out of the way from a downward slash that would have cut both of them in half. Turning back to Adam, the two saw him holding Jaune's blade in one hand while Wilt was in the other and Gambol Shroud at his feet.

"I'm going to enjoy running your blade through you." The raging faunus growled, tightening his grip in both blades.

Getting an idea into his head as the bull charged forward, Jaune turned Blake away from him and concentrated his aura. As Adam got closer, he let loose a bright shine that covered the whole area. The White Fang leader was blinded from staring straight ahead with night vision active and staring straight at the source of the brief flash. Still rushing forward he never noticed Blake no longer being in front of her or Jaune dashing forward himself to meet him.

Just as Adam's vision started to clear up, he felt himself being swept off his feet. As his feet were kicked into the air, someone had grabbed him and suplexed him into the ground making a loud crack and causing him to release both swords in hand. It wasn't over as the next thing he felt after his head bounced off the cracked floor was an uppercut smashing into his head followed by the sound of a dolphin's cry. Jaw still in pain, he had no time to relax as his head was grabbed in mid-air and he was flung hard into the ground once more followed by his body exploding in pain from the impact. Luckily his aura was still strong enough to absorb most of the damage, but it was now half of what it was before.

Getting back up and readjusting his jaw, Adam saw Blake and Jaune standing together once more with his blade and hers in her hand while the blonde had his sword back. Rushing up to them with sheathe rifle in hand, he went on the offensive once more. He proved extremely skilled as he used the recoil from each shot to push or pull him into a safe distance whenever they had been close to cornering him. As Blake had made to slash with her own blade, Adam had countered it by catching it in both palms and taking it out of her hands.

With blade in hand once more, the three were fought once more aggressively. The blonde knight's shield was starting to become an annoyance to Adam, but with Blake attacking him from multiple directions he couldn't focus on him alone. Finding a pattern in her movements, he thrust his leg out after timing it perfectly and smiled as she had ran into his foot with it being planted deep into her gut just from the momentum.

As she fell to the ground clutching her gut, he shifted Gambol into gun mode and pointed it at her head. Turning back, the bull saw Jaune with sword inches from stabbing him in the back. He had paused once his partner had been downed.

"I'd put the sword down if I were you." Adam growled, shaking the gun in his hand to show he was ready to pull the trigger. "Unless she doesn't matter to you as much as she thinks you do."

"Don't do it Jaune." Blake rasped, still in pain from the blow. "He'll still kill us both."

Biting his lip and hating the man in front of him even more, Jaune had grudgingly dropped his blade. As he stepped back, he saw Adam tip his sheathe up to where the end was pointing at his head mere centimeters from touching him. Widening his eyes in realization, he had dodged at the last second as he heard a click. But he was too late as the fire dust had caught him in his left eye. Clutching it in pain, he felt tears and sediments in it while seeing a bright red in it while the other saw pitch black. He wanted to scream and curse, but he chose to hold it in to not give the extremist pleasure from knowing how hurt he was.

"JAUNE!" The cat faunus yelled, seeing him fall to the ground from the pain. A click from her gun in front of her made her take her eyes off him and go back to Adam.

"Jaune, huh?" He huffed, keeping the gun on her. "I think I've heard that name before. I'm not one to care for some human, but tell me Blake. Who is he?"

"He's just a friend." She snarled, wanting nothing more than to take her partner out of there.

BANG!

One of her cat ears was ringing while stinging from pain. Adam had pulled the trigger and had clipped her ear. She could feel the blood running down while burning in a painful sensation.

"No lying …darling." He said darkly, aiming the gun lower to her leg. "Tell me who he is."

After minutes of not getting an answer, he fired another shot that clipped her in the foot. "NOW!"

While he tried to interrogate her about the blonde, both didn't notice said blonde sneaking up on Adam. Hearing a small click behind him, Adam had turned quickly to fire a round behind him. Shooting nothing he had looked down to see Jaune crouched down close to him.

As quick as he could, the blonde knight had jabbed the bull faunus in the groin. Seeing him hunch over from pain, he had delivered three more for good measure. Getting back up, he head drove his knee into the head of his foe cracking the mask in the process and watched as he stumbled back. Blake had seen him stumbling her way and ran his sword through his back and out his chest before he could correct himself.

As Adam died with blood pooling out of his mouth, Jaune saw the life leave his eyes and felt nothing while holding onto his left one. Maybe he could have been saved, but that time may have passed them by. But right now their friends needed to be saved and his death was sadly what was needed.

As Blake pulled the blade out of his chest, she grabbed the sheathe off the corpse and strapped it to her back while taking her own weapon out of his grasp. Putting it away. She had walked up to Jaune while clutching her gut.

"Are you okay?" He asked, seeing the hole in her cat ear with his good eye.

"I'll live. Just a rib or three popped out of place and low on aura." She shrugged tiredly, looking him over too. "What about you? Is your eye going to be okay?"

"Low on aura too." He answered back tiredly. "I don't know about my eye, but everything else will heal."

"Great." She muttered, going over to grab Adam's legs. "Think you can help me drag this outside?"

After taking a bandaid out of his pouch to cover his eye, Jaune had hoisted the dead body by the arms and had Blake lead them out of the area since it was getting darker. As they passed a clock that was still intact, she saw that it was only four in the afternoon.

Half an hour later

The two had placed Adam's corpse on a statue outside the town hall and made sure no Grimm would get it. Taking out Adam's scroll, Blake had sent a feed to every White Fang member his corpse via picture. The two had immediately ducked out of the area to somewhere far away where they could get an extraction.

After ducking through alleyways and silently killing Grimm that got in their way, they found a rooftop area clear from any grunts. Taking out her scoll, Blake had dialed in Weiss.

"This is KnightShade reporting in." Blake whispered in case any grunts were hiding. "Taurus is dead. Requesting immediate extraction. Location is in an abandoned alleyway across from Dust til Dawn."

"Affirmative team KnighShade." Weiss said relieved to hear her voice. "And good job. The White Fang have pulled out from Beacon moments ago. We never understood why, but you just answered our question. Homing in on your signal. A Bullhead will be there in ten minutes. Snowdrop out."

Putting her scroll away the two had relaxed as they were now waiting for their rescue. Turning to Jaune, she saw he was still wearing the band aid on his eye. Slowly reaching over to pull it off, he had stopped her hand to do so himself. As he pulled it off, Blake saw that his aura was enough to heal his outside wound completely. But as he opened his eyelid, she took note that it was now completely white instead of the blue she got used to seeing.

"Can you still see?" She asked, feeling guilt for having him involved.

"It's fine." He whispered, grabbing her hand as she was about to pull back. "This one's on me. …I still got my other eye, so that's something."

Seeing as she was still looking guilty, he decided to make a joke to lighten the mood. Something to get her to laugh or smile.

"Geez, what is up with that guy and taking things from blondes." He said while waving at his dead eye and then to his arm. "First Yang's arm, then my eye. I bet every blonde he's met has something missing."

WHAP!

He wasn't expecting a chop on the head. Looking over to her again, she looked angrier than humored.

"It's always a joke with you!" She said angrily, glaring at him. "You could have died! I could have died! And now… now you're…"

Taking a deep breath and sighing, he pulled her into a hug with her head resting on his chest. Ass she tried to push herself away, he had fought her and kept her where he was.

"Don't think I'm not mad." He whispered, patting her head a few times while staring at the wound on her ear. "I'm feeling a lot of things after that battle. My eye is dead, your ribs are broken, and we're badly bruised and low on aura in the middle of a Grimm battlefield. But the guy that did this to us is dead, so why should I stay mad?"

"…Can you let me go?" She muffled through his chest after a few minutes. "It's getting hard for me to breath."

Quickly releasing her, he saw her glaring at him once more. Only this time, she was pouting cutely and looked more annoyed than furious.

"You stink." The cat muttered, wiping her nose from the smell of sweat and some blood. "…And …sorry for getting mad at you."

"Not the first time women have been angry with me." He shrugged, finally getting a small laugh out of her. With that achievement out of the way, he looked to the new blade she was now carrying. "So… you keeping that sword now? I think Ruby would have a field day looking it over."

"Maybe after changing the color scheme on it." She shrugged, pulling it out to show the red blade once more. "Red doesn't look like it suits me too well. I'm thinking black or white."

As the two chatted about anything, their rescue had finally arrived. Just as they were about to board it, bullets had been fired at the transport. Looking at the source, the two saw the White Fang's lieutenant with a small group firing at them. Before they could get on the ship, a rocket was launched destroying their transport and the pilot with it.

"Shit!" Blake swore at seeing him. "I thought he was dead."

"And who is he?" Jaune asked, peeking over to see the bulky looking amn with chainsaw in hand.

"Yang calls him Banesaw." The cat answered pushing his head down after a bullet flew over it. "He's the White Fang lieutenant."

Taking out Blush and giving Jaune her weapon in pistol mode, Blake had trained her sights on the shooters and started firing. Seeing one of them ready to throw an explosive she fired a precise shot, detonating it in his hand.

As the smoke cleared, the only one stepping out was the lieutenant. Raising his hand to point a finger at where they hid, he shouted something they couldn't understand and had to duck once more when snipers on the roof had started firing on them.

"We have to move." The blonde shouted over the fire after ducking. "We're sitting ducks here."

Nodding her head, Blake had grabbed him by the hand and made a dash for it, leaving shadows behind to confuse the snipers as they zigzagged through different roofs and ducked into alleys. It had taken them a while, but they had lost the lieutenant and the his men.

"I don't get it." The knight punched the wall in frustration. "I thought if we took Adam out, they'd fall apart."

Taking her scroll out to contact for another transport, Blake's call was cut off and replaced with a new one.

"Hello traitor." Came the voice from the angry chainsaw wielder. "You thought taking Adam down would have brought us down with him, well you're wrong. You've only gotten our full attention, and it's all on you."

Blake couldn't understand it. How could he have gotten a hold of their frequency? Checking the caller ID, it was Jaune's scroll. The same one that he had left in the Bullhead that crashed after they …oh.

Somehow her luck was just not doing any good today. As she hung up, Jaune had alerted her that the grunts had found them. She had deduced that one of them had traced the scroll's call. Dropping her scroll and smashing it under her foot, the two ran out of their hiding spot to find another one while shooting down as many grunts as possible.

Now deep in the Grimm infested streets of Vale with no contacts, low on ammo, and almost low on aura, the two had a slim chance of getting back to Beacon alive. Stealth was their only option at the moment if they wanted to survive. The cat had an ideal place in mind of where to go, and had hoped it was still in one piece. Hopefully, they'd meet up with Yang and Pyrrha there.

Vale Police Department

There was no luck for Blake today. VPD was down and was being overrun with White Fang using it as a new fortress. Apparently with the boost in morale, the grunts had taken to attack the police department. Guards had been posted up and were well armed. Normally they'd be easy for her and Jaune to take on, but the two were low on aura and were running on fumes now.

"Any ideas?" She asked, turning to him.

Looking up, he saw a transport with a detachable gatling gun attached on it's side. It was too heavily guarded for the two to take by themselves, but remembering who worked in the building Jaune had another idea. He just hoped nothing bad happened to it.

"That carrier up there is too well guarded." The knight started, pointing to the roof. "And remembering our last attempt to get on one, we'd have a high chance of being shot out of the sky."

"So no flying." She summed up, agreeing with that.

"Right." He nodded. "But that's okay. We can probably get to Beacon another way. It'll be hard, but I think we have a better chance. We just need to find a way to sneak in."

"That'll be easy." The cat nodded, unsheathing Wilt and Gambol Shroud.

"I've got an easier way." He stopped her, placing a hand on hers to put the swords away.

Ten minutes later

The two hunters were currently locked up in a standard jail cell with their weapons confiscated and all their equipment taken from them including their clothes. The cell had only one bed, no windows, a toilet, mirror, and a sink. From the looks of things, it wasn't used that much or cleaned that well either. So here they were, locked up together and in nothing but their underwear.

"Just wait until the lieutenant gets here." A female faunus sneered, spitting in Blake's direction. Turning to Jaune, she kicked the cell bars to antagonize him. "Enjoy this place scum."

"Any more ideas?" She mumbled, not liking his plan.

"A few." He shrugged, putting his hands on his underwear. "…You might wanna turn away from this."

The moment he had his hands on his crotch area, she had turned away to hide her blush.

"Hey." He called to the female guarding them. "Hey, miss guard lady? …I gotta pee. Think you could let me out?"

"I'm not falling for that trick. You even have a toilet in that cell." The guard scoffed. "And even if you need to go, I don't care."

"You really sure about that?" The knight pressed on, annoying Blake with his stupid plan.

"Yes!" The guard stomped a foot, turning to see him. "Now shut up and wait for your death!"

"…Okay. But I warned you." He sighed, not liking what he had to do next.

"Ooh, I'm so-" Suddenly, the female guard felt something warm and wet trickling down her leg and into her shoe. Looking to the source, she wished she hadn't turned. "WHAT THE FUCK!"

The human had pissed on her. He had actually pissed on her and it was on her leg too.

"You little shit!" She shouted, banging on the door. Staring at him, she saw him giving her a teasing grin and taunting her by waving a finger at her. "Rrr! Forget the lieutenant! I'm killing you here!"

Reaching for her weapon on her side, she felt that it wasn't on her. Glaring back up to him again, she went off to get her weapon to kill him.

"So what now?" Blake muttered, not liking that their death would be coming quicker than expected.

Instead of answering her, Jaune had done something even more stupid. He had gone to the pipe of the sink and had ripped it off, causing water to start spraying everywhere.

"All part of the plan." He said, aiming to throw it at the lightbulb above them.

He pumped a fist when it had popped, shrouding the room in darkness. Luckily Blake had night vision and was still able to see everything. She was a bit disturbed by how fast he was doing all of this.

"And what are you doing?" She asked, getting on the bed to not get her feet wet. She had to move a bit after he had grabbed the sheets and soaked them to get extremely wet and heavy. "It just looks like you're going nuts."

"Just trust me on this." He waved off, testing to see how well the sheet held together. "Sun and Neptune brought me here before. One thing led to another and we started talking on how we'd break out of one of these places."

"Why?" She had received a shrug as he limbered himself up.

"Guy talk." He responded, feeling a bit of energy come back into him. "By the way I want you to cover your eyes until I say now."

Before she could ask why again, the guard had returned with a gun knife in her hand. As she got to their cell, she grimaced at how dark and wet it was.

"I leave you guys for a few minutes and this happens!" She snarled, looking at the running water and the busted light.

She could see them through her night vision, but with the mask on, it was starting to impede a bit. Taking it off, she saw the blond with a wet sheet in hand while the traitor had shut her eyes. Raising her weapon to point at the blonde in front of her, a bright flash had blinded her and caused her to drop her weapon from the pain in her eyes. As her weapon dropped, Jaune took the moment to use the pipe to reach across and drag it over to him. With soaking sheet in hand, he wrapped the gun up but made sure the trigger was still showing.

"Now!" Tossing the wrapped weapon to Blake, she had caught it and had fired a few muffled shots into the guard, killing her on the spot.

Aiming at the hinges of the cell door, she fired a few shots and had broke them off freeing them. It might have been the adrenaline rushing again, but she had jumped on the blonde and hugged him tight while placing a kiss on his cheek. It got better for her when he had turned around to hug her back and return the kiss on her cheek.

"Okay." She gasped, getting control of herself. "So what now?"

"Now?" He said, dropping the pipe. "We go and get changed."

A few minutes later

Getting out of the cell was easy, but now it was sneaking around that was the hard part. Blake had kept the gun while Jaune carried the pipe. From the looks of things, the muffled shots hadn't alerted any other guards, so they were still in the clear.

They had checked a room close by to see if their weapons were being held there, but had found they weren't there. A few guards had almost spotted them, but were quickly knocked out before they were alerted. Jaune had taken one of their weapons as a replacement for his wet and rusty pipe.

After searching a few more rooms, they had found the lockers. Luckily, team SSSN had told them their combinations whenever they passed by, so they were able to find a few things inside. Long those things included clothes and keys to Sage's motorcycle. No matter what they say, the two still wouldn't believe the bulky swordsman had gotten it from a Mystralian supermodel on his way to the theater.

After getting dressed in their friend's detective uniforms, the two had looked themselves over. They were wearing clothes similar to the two detectives that had chased Sun the first time he met Blake. The clothes had fit Jaune nicely, but it was extremely loose on Blake. She had to roll up her sleeves, and the only thing keeping her pants from falling was a belt and the cross suspenders.

"If we weren't sneaking around trying to get back to our friends, I'd say we looked pretty badass." The blonde knight commented, holstering his weapon. Showing he had the keys to Sage's bike, he had tossed it to her. "You still remember how to drive one, right?"

"We still need to find our weapons first." Blake nodded, pocketing the keys. "Once we get our stuff, we'll get our of here."

Sneaking back out of the locker room, the two had gone up another level to look for their stuff. After knocking a few grunts out and hiding the bodies, they had made it the chief's office where they found their weapons placed on the table. Quickly but silently grabbing them, Blake had equipped the two swords on her back in an X fashion while Jaune had strapped his to his back with shield open.

Quietly getting out of the office, they had snuck by a few guards who had their backs turned to them. Before they decided to take them out, another guard had run up looking panicked.

"We have a situation on our hands." The grunt wheezed, taking a breath. "Our men intercepted a call to all frequencies that there's a Grimm wave coming in."

"One of ours?" One of them asked, lowering his gun.

"No." He breathed out, standing up straighter. "That witch Salem. She's on her way here and she's bringing a huge wave. News says she's heading for Beacon."

The two hunters in training had quickly knocked them out and made a mad dash for the roof. Even on bike, they wouldn't make it to Beacon on time. Their only hope was that the transport wasn't taken.

VPD roof

As the two kicked the door down to the roof, they saw the transport lifting off with the lieutenant sitting by the gun. Spotting them, he had started firing on them while cursing.

They rolled out of the way and had returned fire of their own. Seeing the carrier rising higher, Blake had thrown Gambol Shroud to try and grapple on. She had hooked onto the gatling gun, but her weight wasn't enough as she had started rising with the carrier. Seeing Banesaw aiming down to fire at her, Jaune had given distraction fire to stop him from shooting her.

"Gah!" A bullet had grazed the chainsaw user's arms and neck.

Seeing as they were slowing down from Blake's weight putting them off balance, the lieutenant had detached the gatling gun and kicked it off the carrier. The transport had stabilized it's balance once more and had started taking off while the gun plummeted to the ground and broke.

As Blake fell, Jaune had caught her before she could hit the ground hard. Looking back up, they saw their only safe chance of getting to their friends flying in the opposite direction.

"FUCK!" The knight shouted, firing a few rounds into the distance, hoping it'd hit the transport flying away.

As he kept firing, Blake had nudged him to look in the other direction. Turning to where she was pointing, he saw a strange dark cloud coming their way. As it got closer, he saw that it was a flock of Nevermore heading straight to Beacon.

"Back inside!" Blake grabbed him by the arm and pulled him into the building.

As they shut the door, they heard the squawks and roars as more Grimm had appeared outside. By now the streets had been overrun and they were trapped in a building that may be close to being destroyed as well. For the third time in her life, Blake had felt complete despair. The first was when her parents died. The second was when Adam had found her in Beacon. And now this. Looking over to the one she confessed to, she hugged him tight and hid her face to hide the tears that were about to fall.

"I'm so sorry Jaune." She whispered, fear crawling into her heart. "We're going to die."

"Don't say that." He hugged her tight. "We still have a chance. All we need to do is-"

"Jaune!" She gripped his shirt tight and looked him in the eye. "It's over."

Pouting at the look she was giving him, he had done something to stop it one more time. He had headbutted her. Again.

"Ow!" She winced, rubbing the sore area.

"We're not done yet Blake." He gripped the hands on his shirt. "If we're here in a Grimm wave, then our friends are probably at Beacon fighting Salem by now."

Letting go to grip her by the upper arms, he had pulled her up to stand with him.

"I need you Blake." He continued, looking into her eyes fiercely. "They need you. They need us. But we cant help them being here acting scared."

She knew he was right. Their friends did need them. It wasn't time to give up.

"Let's go." She said after wiping the stray tears. "Our friends need us."

"Right." As he moved to pass her, he had turned around after getting down a few steps. "One more thing."

Grabbing her by the arms once more, he had pulled her in and planted a kiss on the lips that had surprised her. The surprise had later turned into pleasure as she enjoyed the feeling. As they separated, she had to fight the blush at seeing a trail of saliva connecting his lips to hers.

"I just wanted to let you know." He said, placing his hands in hers. "Just in case."

"If-When we survive this." She said, pulling him along now. "I'd like a proper date before we do that again."

"Yes ma'am." He smiled, letting her lead the way.

Garage

"Is everything all set?" Blake asked as Jaune readied to open the garage doors while she had the bike warm up first.

"All set." He said clinging onto her waist while holding the garage remote in his hand. "Too bad Sage didn't install a sidecar on this thing."

"I'm enjoying it." She giggled, leaning back a bit more to show emphasis. "Just don't grip me too tight."

Not saying another word, he had pressed the button on the remote for the garage door to open. As it did, the roars coming from the other side had gotten louder. Not waiting for the doors to open completely, Blake had sped out and swerved out of the way from the Grimm that were in front of them.

"Make a left here!" Jaune shouted behind her.

Despite her hair whipping him in the face, he was still able to concentrate on the road while making sure to shoot a few Grimm in the process. As they made it into more familiar streets, the two noticed something on Sage's bike they had completely looked over.

"Is that a radio?" Jaune shouted over the wind in his ears.

"It is!" Grabbing the device, Blake had passed it over to Jaune so he could call their teams while she drove. "Try to get in contact with the others!"

With Ruby and Co.

The fight with Salem was going badly. Team JNPR was working too wildly without their fearless leader with them and Yang was a burning ball of rage without Blake around. A Bullhead had been dispatched to rescue them, but it never returned. A call from Reggie had announced that the transport was shot down and the two were now MIA and could be considered dead now.

But Ruby didn't believe it. Looking at her scroll before her fight with Salem, Blake's vitals were in the orange. That meant that she was alive. That had also meant that Jaune was alive. Wherever they were, she had just hoped that they were safe.

"Freezer Burn!" The little reaper shouted as she and Weiss got into position. She was so into the battle, she didn't feel her scroll vibrate, signaling a message. None of them did with their scrolls.

Firing a few rounds at the Grimm surrounding the witch, they froze immediately on contact and had open enough time for CFVY to step in and clear them out, showing only Salem in the middle of it all.

"Now!" Weiss shouted, thrusting her rapier in the air. "Five Stars!"

Pyrrha had gotten into position along with the rest of the swordsmen and had made a pentagon with the Grimm witch in the center. As Weiss's glyphs started glowing beneath them, they raised their weapons to prepare themselves as they zoomed around the witch while being propelled towards her. As they did so, their speed had picked up making a pentagram from the blurs they made as they continued to cut into her.

"Enough!" Salem shouted, making a shockwave to stop the attack.

As she made to fly away, Raven had appeared and had cut off the Grimm she planned to fly away on.

"Give her hell Nora!" Ren shouted, picking off any Grimm the witch would try to form. "I've got you covered."

"This move was supposed to be Jauney's and mine." She muttered, glaring at the witch responsible for the chaos around her, then turning to Pyrrha. "Pyrrha! Shield ready!"

Nodding her head, Pyrrha had used her semblance to make the shield float in front of Nora. Charging herself up with lightning crystals, Nora's strength had tripled to the point the electricity was coursing through her whole system. Putting Magnhild in position, she tensed her muscles and let loose a fast and strong swing that sent the round shield flying towards Salem's direction.

A Grimm had to be summoned quickly to take the hit for her, but the bronze shield had cut through it like butter and had nailed Salem in the neck.

"Bullseye!" JNPR's vice leader shouted, seeing the item stuck in the witches neck.

Her happiness was short lived as the shield was thrown back at her with the same force. Luckily, she had ducked in time to avoid being decapitated by her teammates item. Looking back to Salem, Nora saw her fixing her neck as it regenerated from the blow. Cracking her neck, the pale witch had stomped towards her and was glaring menacingly with promise of a slow and painful death.

"That hurt." She growled, towering over Nora.

The others had opened fire on her back, but she had ignored it all as if they weren't doing much damage. Raising her hand in the air to summon a beast below Nora's feet to devour her, she didn't take notice to the loud noise of an engine as it got closer to her.

"Die you- GAH!" Before Salem could say another word, Blake and Jaune had appeared and had ran over with the motorcycle they came on.

Not giving her a chance to get up so soon, Blake had sped up and used Gambol Shroud to latch onto the witch and drag her body across the field. Swinging her into a pillar, she had detached Gambol from the witch and positioned themselves to be in front of the witch as she leaned on the pillar.

"Blake?" The knight asked as he felt her rev the engine. "What are you planning?"

Instead of answering him, the cat faunus had sped up as she was about to ram the bike into the Grimm summoner. Seeing they were fast enough, she had released the handles and had leaned back for her and Jaune to fall off. What happened next was the bike ramming into Salem at a hundred and sixteen miles per and into the pillar once more. After the bike exploded, the pillar had fallen on top of the witch.

"Sorry we're late!" Jaune shouted as he got off the ground and helped Blake up. "We got sidetracked."

"JAUNE!" Team JNPR had ran up to pull their no longer MIA leader into a group hug.

"BLAKE!" Team RWBY shouted, seeing their residential cat faunus still in one piece.

"My bike!" Sage shouted, seeing his bike explode.

Before they could chat, the two late comers had pointed to Salem who was now getting out of the rubble. Weiss had taken the time to call out another attack.

"Swordsmen!" The heiress shouted. "Seven Seas!"

"Make that Eight Powers!" A new voice entered the area, dropping from the sky.

"Penny!" Ruby shouted, seeing her friend arriving to help them.

"Salutations everyone." The gynoid bowed before them. "News traveled fast and I was sent ahead to assist in this battle."

"Great!" Weiss shouted, getting their attention again. "Now, Eight Powers!"

Yatsuhashi and Sage had charged in to double team Salem as they hit her high and low, giving her no room to cast or summon. Knocking her back with combined force, they had sent her to Jaune and Pyrrha who were in position to give their own onslaught of slashes. It had ended with Pyrrha jumping in the air to delivery an axe kick to her head and Jaune doing an aura enhanced uppercut to send her flying in the air. Blake and Scarlet had been quick to catch her in their binds and had pulled her to the ground fast.

"Ready Penny?" The heiress asked, summoning a knight sword above the bind witch.

"I'm combat ready!" Said robot girl nodded, preparing her ion swords.

"Go!" Blake and Scarlet had released their binds and had rolled out the way as Penny's blades pierced into Salem's hands and feet to stop her from moving.

Dropping her hand, the giant glowing knight sword had descended onto the witch. As a cloud of smoke surrounded the body after the impact, the eight swordsmen had lowered their guards when nothing had jumped out. That was a wrong move as a tremor had shook the ground beneath them.

"Pests!" Salem shouted, jumping out of the smoke in a blur and smacking Yatsuhashi and Sage down.

"Mongrels!" She snarled, waving her hand to Blake and Pyrrha causing a gust of heavy wind to blow them far away.

"Insignificant fools!" She shouted loudly, causing them all to cover their ears from the deafening scream. "You have insulted me!"

The only one to not flinch was Penny. Taking her chance, she charged up a beam to fire at the witch. Salem had seen her attempt and had rushed towards her in a blur. Without batting an eye, she had ripped the swords out of Penny's back and had stabbed it through her abdomen.

"Pathetic TOY!" She spat on Penny's body as she threw it to the ground.

Ruby and Weiss had waited for her body to get up. To shrug off the attack as nothing too severe. Sadly, it wasn't so. Penny was now offline.

A familiar feeling had welled up inside Ruby after seeing her friend taken down in such a way. It was the same feeling when the dragon had almost ate her friends. Feeling something powerful behind her, Salem turned to the source to see Ruby's eyes glowing brightly with shining tears leaking out.

"Silver eyes?" She gasped, feeling fear after such a long time.

Feeling desperate, she was about to summon a dragon but was interrupted as Blake had fired a shot at her with Blush. Before another shot could be fired, someone had beat the cat to the punch as bullets had rained down on her from above. Ironwood's fleet and the Maidens had arrived.

"The Maidens are here." Raven shouted, grabbing her daughter's shoulder. "You kids need to get out now."

"Not yet!" The blonde shouted to her mom. "We need to see this to the end."

"Yang!" It was too late. Her daughter and her friends had charged Salem once more.

Qrow and the Maidens had joined in, but they had to hold themselves back since the children had gotten in the way. Salem had no where to run at the moment, and she was getting weaker by the looks of things. The skies were losing their dark red hue and were starting to clear up a bit with the sun rising. It had been a very long day for all of them.

Raven had joined in the fight once more, trying to protect his daughter and Summer's child. Just as she felt they were about to win, Salem had made a wave of bones aimed to hit her daughter and Ruby. Teleporting to them, she had made to push them out of the way but someone had pushed her towards them instead. Looking up, she saw her little brother had taken the hit.

"Q-qrow…" She gasped, seeing him with a bone protruding out his chest. "Why?"

"Every kid needs their mom, sis." He choked out, trying to give her a smile despite the pain. "E-Even them."

"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby cried, running up to try and pull him out of the spikes. He was wedged in too deep for her to pull on her own. "Y-you're going to be alright! You're always alright."

"It's too late for me kid." He grunted, trying to hold on a bit more.

"…I'm gonna miss you." She sobbed, hugging his neck. He had used the last of his strength to pat her head.

"…Me too." As his hand fell from her head, it was official. A crow had died in the battlefield.

"You bitch." Yang growled, eyes blazing red as she was about to march up to Salem.

Before she could do so, Raven had knocked her out before she could get any closer.

"We're all leaving!" She shouted, grabbing her brother's corpse and teleporting the four out of the area.

"Guys!" Jaune shouted as his friends disappeared. Being distracted he didn't notice the bone spike sailing at him from his blind side. Turning back to the witch, he saw the spike but was too late as it had stabbed him in the shoulder. "AH!"

"Jaune!" Blake and Pyrrha shouted together as they were by his side.

"I'm fine!" He winced, pulling the bone out. "It's my darn left eye."

"Will you be okay?" Blake asked while Pyrrha gave them cover fire.

"Yeah, I'll be-" Before he could finish his sentence, Raven had teleported in front of them.

"Time to go!" She shouted sternly, opening a portal and pushing the three inside. She had done it for all the hunters in training and had stayed with them after getting them all.

Patch – Taiyang's house

As the group landed on the ground, the saw that they were in front of Ruby's house with the two sisters crying over their deceased uncle's corpse while their father sat on the porch covering his eyes in grief.

Getting off his seat after Raven appeared once more, he had marched to her with a fire in his eyes.

"Send me there." He snarled, gripping her by the shoulders. "Send me to Beacon so I can get that… that bitch!"

"Enough Tai." She sighed, gently taking his hands off her. "The Maidens got her. Salem is dead."

"Bullshit!" He cried, raising his hands in the air in anger. "I need to confirm it myself. I need to know that the one that killed my best friend is dead!"

"I can confirm that the one who killed my brother is dead!" She shot back, getting annoyed with his attitude. "And if she isn't, what will you do?"

"…I'm going to kill her." The old dragon growled, fist shaking in rage.

"In your words: Bullshit." She scoffed, crossing her arms. "You're not as strong as you were."

"Rargh!" She had sidestepped as the blonde man had charged at her.

She simply placed a foot out and watched as he tripped into the muddy snow. Getting back up, he made to swing at her but had it parried by a swat of her hand. Getting even more mad, he made to swing once more with her ready to give a swing of her own when a voice had cut in between them.

"STOP IT!" Yang shouted with tears in her eyes, looking up from her crying sister who was burying her face into her dead uncle's chest. "…That's enough. Just stop fighting."

Looking around them, the two only adults in the area saw the younger generation looking at them disappointed and hurt.

"Let's get out of here." Sun said lowly, grabbing his girlfriend's hand and walking off into town with her.

The teams had followed them along with Weiss, who had enough of family turmoil's. Team JNPR left soon after giving the two grieving sisters a hug goodbye. It was hard for their leader to do so since his shoulder was still bleeding. Blake had made to follow him but she needed to say something to her friends first.

"We'll be close by." She hugged her partner. "If you need us, we'll be there."

"Thanks." She whispered weakly, returning the hug. "…You're the best partner a gal could have."

"Take care Ruby." The cat patted the girl on the head after letting go of the blonde brawler. "Team RWBY forever."

"Thanks Blake." The little reaper sniffed, trying to give her a smile.

As Blake left with team JNPR, it was just the two parents and their kids. Whatever would be said, they would have to tread carefully.

"Girls?" The father called out to them as he walked to kneel next to them. "Why don't we… let's give Qrow a proper burial."

"…Alright."

As the three trired to pick up their deceased relative, they were joined by Raven who stood next to her daughter. Their talk would come later. For now, it was time to pay respect to the dead.

With the others

Teams CFVY and SSSN were wandering around the area looking for a place to stay. With the drama that would happen in Ruby and Yang's home, it seemed the best idea to give them their space. Blake and Weiss had followed team JNPR as they were looking for a hospital to treat their wounds.

Pyrrha had noticed Jaune's injured eye and had strung him and Blake along to find the nearest hospital. Luckily the Grimm wave wasn't as bad in Patch as the major areas.

"Here's a hospital." Ren said, standing in front of said building.

"Nice job Ren." The vice leader cheered, kicking the door open with Jaune on her back. "Let's go fearless leader. You're checkup is overdue."

As Ren and Weiss followed after his childhood friend with Jaune still on her back, Pyrrha and Blake had lagged behind to have a talk. Nora and Jaune may not have picked up on it, but Ren felt a tension between the two. Now that they were alone, it was time to fess up.

"I'm not happy of what you did, you know." The champion started, turning to fix a small glare on the cat faunus.

"I know." She sighed, running a hand through her face. "But things went down, and Jaune was being Jaune, so I confessed and then there was that kiss!"

"…What are you talking about?" The redhead asked with a raised brow. "I was talking about you trying to leave us and fight on your own."

"O-oh." Somehow, Blake had just dug her grave even deeper. "…That. I'm also really sorry for that."

"…So you and Jaune." She sighed, deflating a bit. "I know I said I would be fine with it, but…"

"Truthfully." The cat mumbled, looking to her feet. "I don't know if we really are or if it was just in the moment. We were close to dying in a sea of Grimm, so I don't know what we are. …All I know is that he wanted to give us a chance."

"I-I see." She said, her voice faltering. Lookng Blake over, the Amazon saw her looking lost and insecure. "I… I am happy for you."

Blake had to remember that the person in front of her was Pyrrha. She was always kind, even when others weren't.

"I don't know what to say." The book worm scratched her head.

"Just let me say my piece, then you might have some words." The champion smiled, stepping closer to her. "I want you to take care of him. And I mean really take care of him. No more running off on your own. No more blocking people out. And no more hiding."

"Pyrrha, I-" Before she could say anything, the redhead had placed a finger on her to stay quiet.

"I'm not done yet." She said with a half lidded stare. Letting her finger go, she was happy she wasn't interrupted again. "Good. If you hurt him or break his heart, I wont hurt you because you're a friend. But I will be there to take him away from you."

After she was done, she had waited for Blake to say something. After waiting long and not getting anything on return, she had simply patted her on the shoulder and walked inside to see how the three were doing.

Watching her leave, Blake didn't know why but her chest felt lighter. There was something in what Pyrrha had told her that made her feel like smiling.

No more running off on your own. The only thing she feared in the White Fang was Adam. With him dead, she had no reason to feel like running.

No more blocking people out. What did she have to block out now? Nothing. Her friends would always be there to help, and she's learnt to depend on them.

No more hiding. When she had faced Adam, she had declared she was done running. That also included hiding.

I want to help you like you've helped me. I want to help you stop this guy from destroying any dream you have. Jaune had really helped her. She could finally try to be happy. Turning to where Pyrrha had been walking, she knew what she wanted to do and say when she caught up with them.

With JNPR

Turns out that the hospital they were in was great at treating puncture wounds. Jaune already knew his left eye was blind, so it wasn't much news to him. Sadly, hospital protocol was that he had to stay in for at least a day at most before he could go. Apparently, the doctors wanted to give him a full on checkup since he's never had one in years. So here, the three were shooting the breeze to pas the time and kill boredom. Weiss had gone off into the bathroom to clean herself off with a much-needed shower.

"No, really Jauney." Nora poked his good eye. "I don't think pick up lines will cut it."

"Nora." The childhood friend rolled his eyes. "Pick up lines are crucial in forming conversations and making you more memorable."

"Yeah, if you wanna be a douche." She scoffed, sticking her tongue out.

"If I remember." He stroked his chin. "I used a line on you when we first met. I introduced myself as so: Lie Ren. The most interesting boy you'll ever meet."

"…That wasn't me." She huffed through gritted teeth, getting up to walk out the door. Before she had closed it, she turned to him with a dirty glare. "That was Cheng you used it on!"

SLAM!

"…You going to take that?" Jaune asked, staring at the door that just slammed shut.

"She's not wrong." The ninja said, the correct memory dawning on him. Quickly getting up and walking at a faster pace, he had got to the door and had almost bumped into Pyrrha. "Excuse me."

As Ren ran past her, Pyrrha closed the door on her way in and gave Jaune a questioning stare.

"Lovers quarrel." He shrugged, explaining what had happened. By the end of it, Pyrrha was giggling the same way she had when he had put on a dress. "But you know? If I did try to use pick up lines on Blake, I'd probably never see her again."

"I'm sure she wouldn't dump you that fast." She assured him, placing a hand on his lap.

"No." He smiled in a way that meant he was about to make a joke. "She'd probably hit my good eye out."

"That's mean." She giggled, smacking him in the arm. "If anything, she'd most likely throw you a book with better lines."

"That sounds better." He sighed, lying back down on the bed. "This day has been extremely long. We had to fight Grimm, kill an extremist group leader, get captured by grunts and escaped from a jail cell, then ride through streets crawling with Grimm to help you guys fight the mother of all Grimm."

"And in the process, kissed a girl and made her your girlfriend." Pyrrha added in, sounding a bit sad. "I guess there's no room for me in Jaune's grand life."

"You kidding?" He sat up to look her in the eye. "Pyr, that's the first dumbest thing you've said since I've met you."

"Why?" She pouted, crossing her arms.

"Even if I had a hundred girlfriends, they're not taking your place." He said, sitting on the edge of his bed. "You're not just my partner Pyr. You're my best friend. You always have been."

"But I thought Ruby was-" He had cut her off by raising a hand for her to stop.

"Ruby's awesome to hang out with, but you're my best friend." He continued. "You've always believed in me and had my back even when I doubted myself. If any girl told me to choose between you or her, I'd always pick my best friend because I know she'd do the same for me."

Without warning Pyrrha had jumped off her seat to pull him into a tight hug. Jaune would have been fine with it, but he had heard her starting to sob which meant she was crying.

"Pyr?" He asked, trying to pull away but found her gripping him really tight. "Are you okay?"

"I'm just happy, Jaune." She choked out after sniffling. "I'm just really happy you said that."

Not knowing what to say, all he could do was return her hug and wait for her to stop crying. Behind the door, Blake had listened in on everything. She wasn't sad or angry by his words. It was actually sweet for her. Taking a gulp and steeling her nerves, she had knocked on the door and slowly opened it.

"Is it okay for me to come in?" She asked, peeking a head through. Seeing the two hug, she was about to leave them, but the champion had released her hug to pull her back in. "Um… I wasn't interrupting anything, was I?"

"Not really." Pyrrha smiled, wiping away a wet spot on her eye. "Jaune and I were just having a wonderful talk."

"That's good." The cat faunus nodded, moving over to sit next to the knight. "I thought over what you told me back at the entrance and I know what I want to say now."

"Yes?" The redhead prompted, taking a seat across form her.

"I wanted to say thank you. All of you." She looked to them both. "You were right in saying what I needed to stop on Pyrrha and I thought it over. The cause for my nightmares is gone now. It took Jaune helping me and you talking to me to realize it. So again, thank you."

Placing her hand on Jaune's, she squeezed it tight and had looked over to Pyrrha to see her giving an approving smile.

"I also overheard your conversation a few minutes ago." She added in, seeing the two react with wide eyes and a blush. "And I'm actually fine with it. I don't want to be the reason you two can't be best friends."

"Thanks Blake." Jaune smiled. He was relieved that things were going okay.

"Although I didn't appreciate the tidbit about me punching your good eye out because of a pick-up line." She glared, causing him to turn pale.

"Any help Pyr?" Jaune asked his best friend.

"I think I need to go and wash my face." Said best friend stood up to walk out. "My face is a bit sticky from the tears."

"…" All Jaune could do was watch as his partner abandoned him to his new girlfriend. "You're sexy when you're angry?"

"Is that one of your pick-up lines?" The cat faunus asked, leaning in closer. Getting a shake of his head, she stopped as their faces were mere inches from touching. "Try telling me one and you'll see what I'll really do."

"…This isn't a trap, is it?" Jaune gulped, not able to read her intentions.

"Depends on what you say." That wasn't assuring to him. Seeing as he wasn't getting out of it and he was trapped in bed with her, he may as well let his last words be something great.

"Hey Blake." He started with a grin. "If I told you: you have a great body. Would you hold it against me?"

She had pushed him flat on the bed after he had said that.

"That was horrible and cheesy." She commented with her hand still pushing him down.

"I kno- mmph." Before he could say any more, she had pressed her lips against his to shut him up. As the kiss got deeper, she had pressed her body into his as she wrapped her arms around his neck and his arms had wrapped around her waist.

"And I would hold it against you." She said after they had released for air.

"OH MY GOD!" The new couple had forgotten that Weiss had been with them.

The heiress had stepped into the room looking completely refreshed with hair still damp and looking slack-jawed at seeing the two together. Her scream had alerted a nurse who had pushed the door open and knocked Weiss forward in the process. The employees couldn't kick Blake out because she was injured too, but they did give the two separate rooms to make sure nothing happened again.

Three days later

Café in Patch

Blake and Jaune had been discharged two days ago. They had ran into team CFVY and SSSN who had booked a hotel with the spare money they had on them. Sun had cheered at seeing the new couple and was extremely happy for them. When they noticed Jaune's left eye and Blake's cat ear being off, they commented on how rugged they looked now. There was even more teasing as they were still in wearing the same outfits. The hospital staff had cleaned them and patched up the holes and damages before returning it to them.

As it turned out, Ren and Nora had decided to be together-together. Pyrrha had been close by and had recorded the whole conversation on her scroll. Jaune had congratulated his vice leader and was rewarded by a smack in his blind spot by an embarrassed Nora. Turns out, she was a bit bitter at him thinking that his and Blake's news had outshone her and Ren's.

In other news, Salem's death was announced while team JNPR with Blake and Weiss were still in the hospital. Ironwood had confirmed it with Ozpin and Glynda backing him up. Sadly, there were also a ton of losses. Penny was unable to be rebooted. Her body was rebuilt, but the soul was gone. Besides Qrow, the Winter and Fall Maiiden had died in the process of sacrificing themselves for the others to deliver the final killing blow while a lot of Atlas soldiers and VPD officers had been killed. One of the officers was Jenkins. When team SSSN had heard the news, they had shot twenty-one bullets into the air form their hotel roof in respect. Neptune had taken it the hardest as he wept on all fours at the loss of his senior after he was given the honor to give the last shot in the air. Winter had survived, but had sustained a heavy blow to her throat damaging her voice box. She couldn't recover from it and had to resign from the army. Ironwood awarded her with a medal as she left his office. As for the White Fang that had escaped, they were shot down by one of Ironwood's fleets as they traveled to Beacon. No bodies were found, but it ad crashed into a Grimm infested forest. The only that was recovered was a chainsaw and a mask.

Everything was fine so far, but the only thing bothering the group now was their two missing members.

"Ruby said to meet her and Yang here, right?" Coco asked her boyfriend as she sipped her drink to warm her nose. "We're not in the wrong place?"

"I'm positive." He said, showing her his message. "She said café across from the bakery with strawberry cookies. We're in the right place."

"Hey guys!" A familiar cheery voice called out to them.

Looking up, they saw Ruby running up to them looking a lot more cheerful than when they last saw her. Yang was walking behind her with a smile of her own and looking well rested.

"We didn't keep you long, did we?" The brawler asked, taking a seat next to her partner. She took note of how close she and Jaune were sitting next to one another but had held back for now.

"Not long." Ren answered, putting his tea down. "We were just enjoying each other's company until you arrived."

"Well now that I'm here, the enjoyment gets better." She boasted, puffing her chest out. "So, what's the news?"

As they all filled in on the news they had heard, Ruby and Yang had consoled them on their losses. After they had all raised a glass in the air in the memory of the dead, they proceeded to tell them some good news. Yang and Ruby were elated to hearing of the new couples. Ruby was quick to stop Yang from asking personal questions that the couples didn't feel like answering.

"Enough about us." Pyrrha said, looking at the two sisters. "How have things been back home?"

The group had been completely silent as they looked to the two sisters. It was the main reason why they were called in the first place.

"Well…" Yang started, pulling on her scarf. "Dad's been better."

"Yeah." The little sister nodded weakly. "Things have gotten …weird. Not like weird-weird! Like new weird!"

Seeing the group not getting what was going on, Yang decided to be blunt.

"Our parents are thinking of getting back together." She blurted out. Before they could say anything, she continued. "I know, I know. It's super weird. But with our uncle gone and Salem gone, …m-m-…Raven feels like she doesn't need to be far away anymore."

"She wants us to try and call her mom." Ruby voiced in. "It's kind of …very super awkward since I didn't know her my whole life, but … meh."

"So that's going on in our house." The blonde muttered, swirling her drink in hand. "After the burial we had a long talk in the living room. Some words were said, stuff was smashed, and someone was left crying in the middle of the room after me and Rubes had to go to our rooms."

"It was really sad seeing dad crying in the middle of the room, but sweet after Raven had hugged him." The little reaper commented. "I don't really know Raven, and I'm not ready to call her mom yet, but I'm willing to give her a chance."

"Yeah." Yang nodded, putting her drink down. "Right now, I'm doing this for dad. It's still a bit scary walking into the kitchen to see her preparing something for us, but if it makes dad happy I'm willing to give it a shot."

That was a lot of information for the group to take in. They were having mixed feelings on the subject because it was happy but conflicting at the same time.

"…Did I tell you guys I'm planning to move into my mom's old cabin?" Jaune said, hoping a change in subject would stray away from the bomb of information the sisters had told them. It did the trick as Yang had jumped on that train.

"Aw, sweet!" She said, switching seats with her partner to get more info on the place much to Blake's annoyance. "What's the place like? It's in Arrr- that place you're from, right?"

Even outside of Beacon, Jaune's status still had to be kept on low profile. It took Pyrrha giving her a cold glare for almost saying the kingdom in a public area.

"Yes Yang. It is in that place, but farther out in an open field." He told her. "I have to go back for summer, and I just cant live in the other place with her."

"Right." Being someone with mother issues, Jaune and Yang had shared their pain with one another. "…Can I come see the place?"

"I was inviting all of you." That had gotten a cheer from them all. Especially Coco, who jumped across the table to pull Jaune in a hug while kissing the top of his head.

Years later

Church in Arcadia

"Geez." An older looking Jaune panicked as he looked at the clock on the wall. "Where is that guy?"

"Be chill, dude." A bluenette said, sitting by the window. "He'll be here."

"But he's late!" The blonde stomped back and forth, wiping the sweat on his head. "I can't do the ceremony without him."

"Yes you can." Neptune scoffed. "He's just the best man."

"Nep, just do me favor." He shook his head. "Just shut up for a bit."

Their talk was cut short as Sun had barged in, looking sweaty and out of breath.

"S-sorry I'm late." He wheezed. "I-I had to… Coco… and my baby girl. Woooo! I am getting out of shape."

"Yeah, yeah." Jaune said, picking him up. "Now's not about you. Get in there best man!"

A few minutes later

Coco sat in the front next to Velvet as she filmed the whole wedding on her camera. Pyrrha was chosen as the maid of honor after a fisticuffs battle with all the girls including her. She was smiling widely while wiping the tears as she saw the bride being walked to the front with Oobleck guiding her.

"She looks so beautiful." Ruby whispered to Yang who was blowing hard on her handkerchief. After getting their huntress licenses, they had stayed in Patch for a few years to get closer with their family. Raven had tried all she could to be a good mother and had not disappointed.

As the now aged archeologist/teacher let go of the bride to walk back to his wife, Jaune smiled as she stood in front of him. Looking to Ren, he nodded as things were now in place. The now short-haired ninja had lifted the veil to see his orange haired bride looking at him with a bright smile.

It was Ren and Nora's wedding day and Jaune was the pastor. Being a prince, he had the power to marry anyone. Sun and Coco had gotten hitched with their plans set before Jaune had told them, so this was his first time to give one.

"Dearly beloved." Jaune started, looking over the people inside. "We are gathered here today to join these two in holy matrimony."

As the sermon went on, Velvet had filmed everything. CRDL had came as guests. When they found out Jaune was a prince, Cardin had flipped trying to find the hidden camera thinking it all a joke. He became captain of a squad and his team, going beyond the boarders to find new lands.

Hearing Coco grunt a bit, the bunny had turned to her team leader.

"Are you okay?" She asked, putting the camera down and grasping her hand.

"I'm fine." She said, wiping a bead of sweat. "The baby was just kicking."

"You'll be fine." Blake whispered next to her, giving her a bottle of water.

She and Jaune had moved in together years ago. It was when he had set up his place in the cabin he had talked about. When it had dawned on the prince that she had no home besides Beacon, he had offered for her to live with him. She was about to reject it since it was a little too fast for both of them at the time, but when he had given the same offer to Ren and Nora who agreed, she was all for it. They were two couples sharing a cabin that was more like a cottage near a lake with a ranch.

Of course, Pyrrha was given a room as well. With the six of them graduating early, it was bound to happen that she needed to find a place of her own. And when said place was with her team and best friend, she was all for it as well. It was team JNPR plus one and all their friends who kept coming over from time to time.

Things were a bit awkward since the rooms weren't that soundproof though. It wasn't Jaune and Blake, but Nora and Ren who were very vocal at nights. When things had gotten that way, Blake and Jaune had taken to sleep in the barn while Pyrrha had rowed into the middle of the lake to escape the noise and get some sleep.

"If anyone objects to this, speak now or forever hold your piece." Just as Jaune was about to proceed, he was interrupted.

"Ugh!" The pregnant fashionista grunted, clutching her swollen belly. Seeing all eyes on her, she smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. Baby's kicking."

"…Okay." The prince nodded, getting back to the matter at hand. "You may now-"

"Come here!" Nora didn't waste time as she had taken Ren and dipped him to plant a big wet one on him. After letting go, she had scooped him up in her arms.

"…Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Mr. and Mrs. Lie." The blonde knight rolled his eyes at his teammate's antics.

"I'm throwing the bouquet!" The now Nora Valkyrie Lie shouted as she waved the band of flowers in the air.

Many women had positioned themselves in different area to catch it. They were huntresses of course. As Nora chucked it high into the air, the women had disappeared and left only their heels on the floor as they jumped high to grab the flowers before they touched the ground.

Coco had been the one to film it all since Velvet had joined in once more. When it was her wedding, Nora was the one to catch it and here they were now.

As the women appeared on the ground once more, Blake had raised her hand in the air to show she had the bouquet. All their friends whooped and cheered as they stared at the prince and his girlfriend. He was planning to propose on Coco's wedding, but after Nora's outburst of getting married, he decided to let his friend have her shining moment.

Night time

"That was exhausting." Blake sighed, as Jaune carried her to bed. The two had left the party early after Yang decided to bring out the karaoke. As he placed her down on the bed gently, he had walked out give her privacy to change. "You don't have to go, you know. It's not like we haven't seen one another naked."

"I know." He nodded, giving her a strange smile as he walked to the door. "I just want tot wait outside. I have a feeling you'll want to come out after a few minutes. …At least I hope it's a few minutes."

As he closed the door gently after leaving, she knew he was still behind the door standing there and waiting for her to finish changing. Shaking her head at his weird reason, she went over to her mirror to take off her earrings. Putting the earrings in a box, she then proceeded to take off the ring on her finger and place it next to the box.

"Wait a minute." She muttered, looking back to the ring she had taken off before she could proceed to undress.

She didn't remember having a ring. Picking the ring back up, she saw admired the diamond embedded in it. She wasn't dumb. She knew what kind of ring it was.

Turning to the door, she had ran out and opened it to see Jaune standing with a smirk on his face at seeing her expression.

"When did you- how did- is this?" He had laughed at how eloquent she was being.

"I slipped it on you during our dance." He explained, plucking the ring out of her hand. "Truthfully, I don't know how you didn't notice, but I went along with it. And yes it is. But just so we're clear."

Getting on one knee, he had shown the ring one more time. "Blake Belladonna, will you marry me?"

He was happy that they left Nora's reception early because he enjoyed how she had said yes. Turns out, Blake was more vocal when on a real bed and not on a stack of hay or in a boat floating in a lake.

END

AN: Hey all. Jitterwhack here delivering KnightShade. I didn't want it to be like a copy and paste of the Arkos chapter. So I had to put some butterfly effects, some extra fluffs, some action, and different closures.

Hope you like it. This chapter was the hardest to write for me since I wanted to capture Blake's self doubts and also her fears and guilt's.

I've had my share of experience of chasing after someone romantically and trying to get them to notice me. But when I do get it, I ended up hesitating and rethinking my worth to the point I drive them away or friend-zone them so I wont end up being the one hurt. I thought I'd give Blake this since her background could cause it.

Even the part of trying to give up on someone but ending up going through the feeling over again. It took a lot of lying to myself and soul searching to get over the person.

But like I've learnt from my mistakes, sometimes you gotta take a chance. You never know what'll happen if you don't try.

ANYWAYS!

Same as I've said before: Love it, hate it, I wont judge. It's your choice and opinion. I'm just doing what I do.

I'll probably post more mini-makes, but if I don't, then the next chapter is the final one. It's Lancaster.