Ah yes, my slice of life comedy fic of this rotation.

Chapter 20

Vale's national anthem played out across ever siren and loudspeaker in the arcology, and the volume rose, as it if were a strategic effort to drown out the last words of the dying, the groaning of the wounded, and the mournful cries of those who had lost everything. It was so loud that it hurt his ears. The walls were a slaughterhouse, and the ground behind it wasn't much better. Those sent to the line had been made to deal with a hundredth of the Grimm they had, but they'd also been far less trained for it, and dead bodies covered the roads for half a kilometre.

Squads of soldiers and volunteers moved about the wall collecting the wounded and checking the fortifications where the children had been housed. The way some of them staggered back out alone told him the "safest place" had not been entirely so. All it would have taken would have been one small Grimm slipping in, or something delivering the Rot inside.

Jaune would have felt something normally, but he wasn't really capable of it now. Chemical overload, he supposed. His brain had just been pounded by too many chemicals, some natural and others drug-induced, and now didn't know what to think. Nora was dead, Yang was dead, and all he could do was wander in the vaguest hopes of finding out if Ruby wasn't dead as well.

Somewhere along the way a woman stopped him and looked at his eye, speaking words he didn't hear and waving her hand in front of his face. He tried to push past her, but she shouted out and two people held him down while she pulled it out, pushed things into him, and turned one eye dark. He struggled at first, but soon gave in, accepting that he didn't have a choice. Something was pushed into his mouth and placed on his tongue, and he bit down, morbidly wondering if it were an EX-Pill and he might suddenly be spared it all.

It was a painkiller. Heavy-duty. Probably cocaine as well. It didn't so much wrap around his brain as hit it with a sledgehammer, further robbing him of any ability to process what was going on with his own body. Something was wrapped around his face and his hands were slapped away when he tried to pull it off.

"Bandage!" she said, speaking loudly into his face. She had to because the national anthem was almost deafening now. It was asking, in that accusatory way it did, why you weren't saluting and singing along, or cheering, or throwing wreaths out your windows. Jaune's mouth moved as he tried to find the words.

"—victory for the people of—"

"He'll live," snapped the medic, not sounding all too convinced. She must have had thousands of others who needed her, so if he was going to kill himself then she couldn't afford to take the time to stop him. They move on, leaving Jaune on his back, mumbling the anthem as one good eye stared up at the sky and imagined a space station looking back down on him.

People ran by around him, and families sobbed, and children stopped and shouted out, trying to find mommy and daddy. An engine rumbled as an APC trundled by less than three feet from him, almost crushing him entirely under its giant wheels.

"Tell them to cut the fucking music!" someone screamed. "I can't hear myself think!"

"—and we shall never surrender," slurred Jaune. "To claim Remnant Invicta…"

That was how Ruby found him.

On his back, bloody, torn up, with one eye missing and wrapped away, with blood splashed across his face and him mumbling out the anthem as he'd been taught to in so many lessons in school, ever since he was old enough to talk. Her face appeared above him, her eyes wide with concern, and her soft, small hands found his cheek and tilted his head to look at her. "Jaune…?"

Ruby had survived.

"I'm sorry," he slurred.

"Jaune, what? What are you sorry for?"

"I'm sorry you survived, Ruby."

Her face scrunched up adorably. "Eh—?"

She was bleeding badly, with cuts and bruises across her body and a chemical burn splashed down the right side of her neck, twisting her flesh into a horrifying, watery pattern of red flesh, and she was favouring one leg. It looked like she'd been through a meatgrinder headfirst.

So, in official terms, she was unharmed.

"It gets easier," said Jaune, mumbling still. "Or… Or it gets worse, but you feel it less. The human mind recovers. It always does. It's a fucking monster like that. N-No matter the pain, no matter how much you want to feel bad, it won't let you. It'll keep teasing you, mocking you, with the possibility that… that this time will be different." He laughed. "But it won't be. It's just deluding you. It just wants you to let your guard down so—"

Ruby's palm hit his cheek with an almighty crack.

His medic might have had something to say about that, but the pain did help shake him back to life. Pain was good. Pain was familiar. Pain let him feel like he was finally being punished for how much of a worthless human being he was. Jaune grunted as Ruby pulled him up into a seated position, her hands on his shoulders and her kneeling between his legs. Her face was close to his, staring into his one good eye.

"Are you awake now? What happened to your eye?"

"It clotheslined a Grimm…"

Ruby cracked a smile. "Did it win?"

"Yeah. Fucked it up."

"Then that's good. This fucking anthem," she complained, matching his thoughts perfectly. "I can't even hear comms through it." She tapped her earpiece. "Yang isn't responding. Neither is Nora. I think it must be broken. I took a few – well, we all took a few hits, but I think I broke my comms. Have you seen Yang around?" Ruby smiled tiredly. "I need to find her and tell her I'm okay before she loses her mind worrying."

Oh…

Right…

This was just yet another reason why he hated being among the survivors. Why couldn't he have taken Nora's stretch of wall? It would have been a moment of shadow, a glance up as the acid came down, and then a brief instance of pain as your body was eaten away, but her organs would have given out quickly and taken all the pain away.

"Jaune—? Jaune, don't space out. I need you to help me find Yang—"

He lurched forward, arms trapping her in place and dragging her face into his neck. His brain, addled with adrenaline and drugs and crashing from the deprivation of both, couldn't find the right way to say it without breaking her in two, and so he blurted out the only thing he could.

"Yang said sorry."

Ruby went still. "W—What…?"

"Yang said sorry," he repeated. "Sorry for not being able to keep her promise to you."

There was a moment of stillness as Ruby tried and failed to process that, and he took that moment to unbutton her top and reach down into it. The younger woman didn't react to his hand brushing against her skin, but she definitely reacted when he took hold of her tags in his fist, namely her EX-Pill, and broke it off, taking it and hurling it under the wheels of an APC nearby.

It was an act every soldier knew, the moment you had to stop a squad mate taking their life for the wrong reason, and that clued Ruby's brain into why she might want to take her life, making the answer slam into her like a Beowolf.

"NO!" she screamed at him. "YOU'RE LYING!"

"I'm sorr—"

"YANG WOULDN'T! YANG PROMISED!"

"Yang tried…"

Ruby became a whirlwind of knees and elbows against him. "Let go of me! Let go! You're lying! Yang! Yang, help me! Yang!"

She almost broke free and could have quite easily if she were in her right mind. As it was, he was able to hold onto her despite his exhaustion, though he had to roll over and pin her down and lay atop her back. Ruby's fingers strained for the EX-Pill nearby, only to let out a mournful scream when the APC began moving and crushed it to dust.

Exhausted, overdosed, and badly injured, Jaune still managed to loop his arm under Ruby's neck and lock it in place, and squeeze his arm against his shoulder until she stopped moving under him, choked out. He rolled off her, the two of them laid on the concrete floor together. Ruby now knew what it was like to be the last survivor.

And he wished he could have spared her that.

/-/

Ruby came to in Beacon but didn't speak. They sat together in the showers, neither strong enough to move, both naked, with Jaune holding a detached showerhead to wash them both with. The application of hot water only served to show how ruined their bodies were, for Ruby's back was covered in blue and yellow bruises, and his own body didn't look much better. Water, dyed pink with blood, swam down the drains past their feet, and swirled away. The showers were empty, the common room too, and their entire dormitory wing was silent when they arrived.

They were the only survivors of them all.

He didn't even know how many students were left in Beacon, not that they could be called students anymore after their rushed graduation to the main forces. He'd always known the survival rates of huntsmen were low, but they'd well and truly lowered the average today. Yang and Nora hadn't survived a single day as huntresses.

Jaune kept the shower on them until the hot water ran out and it turned ice cold, and they stayed under it for a few minutes more anyway. Eventually, they had to move, lest they freeze to death, and Ruby remained still as he towelled her hair down, then her shoulders, her body and her legs. The smaller woman didn't react to any of it, and just let him dry and wrap her up in a bathrobe. He then marched her to his room, away from her own and Yang's, and set her down on what used to be Sun's bed.

"Nora…?" asked Ruby, at last, and with a hint of shame in her voice.

"A chemical attack got her," said Jaune. "I didn't see the body but it wiped her wall out, and she hasn't returned here so…" Ruby nodded. They had a saying in the arcology – "MIA is just KIA in a fancy dress". It applied here. "I was with Yang at the end," he said. "She didn't die alone."

Ruby clenched her fists tight. "She shouldn't have died at all."

"I know. I'm sorry."

"What do you know!?" she snapped, glaring hotly at him. "And why are you sorry? Because you caused this? Is that what happened? You brought your stupid fucking curse into the squad!" Tears were streaming down her face. "You've killed every squad you've been on and now it's our turn! And we trusted you! We let you in! We held you as one of our own!"

Ruby lunched for him, bowled him over and began flailing at him. Her fists, as small as they were, carried real force, and she quickly overpowered him. He tried to throw her off, but she beat back every attempt and then locked both hands around his throat, strangling him. Her lips were peeled back, her teeth stained pink, and her eyes bloodshot.

"It should have been you!" she hissed, digging her thumbs into his throat. "It should have been you! It should—It should—" Her hands released his neck and she collapsed on top of him, bawling her eyes out. "It should have been meee!"

Her tears soaked into his skin as she wept atop him, and Jaune brought his hands up to rub her back. His neck hurt, but then so did his whole body so it went ignored. He simply let her cry on top of him, wailing her lungs out and begging the cruel world to give Yang back. As if the world gave a shit about them and their suffering. Ruby begged, screamed, threatened, pleaded, and offered up her own life in trade, but Yang remained dead, and the world remained silent but for the distant sounds of the anthem still playing some two hours later.

But when Ruby's fingers fumbled open his own bathrobe and started scratching over his chest, and when her lips began nipping and biting at his neck, he paid attention. His hands stopped on her back, as he categorised the sensations that, in his current state of exhaustion and agony, couldn't really be called pleasurable. His mind was still crashing from the cocktail of drugs and adrenaline, not to mention he was ready to pass out at any moment.

Ruby was no better, he imagined, and yet she desperately urged him to react, to do something, to take away the pain in one of the ways every soldier was aware of. Yang had even joked about it before, and then not-so-jokingly suggested that he offer it up to Nora if she felt she needed it. She hadn't, but Ruby had lost everything apart from him, and he wasn't surprised when she clung to the last thing she had left.

"Ruby," he breathed out. "Are you… Are you sure?"

"Please," she whispered into his neck. "Please. I want to forget. I need to. I… I won't be able to sleep. Everything hurts inside." Her voice cracked. "And I want it drowned out. Make me feel good. Or hurt me more. I don't care which."

Jaune wasn't sure if a better man would have said no. What he did know was that Yang would have wanted him to say yes, and to be whatever Ruby needed him to be, no matter how unhealthy that might be. He also knew his own dreams would be nothing but nightmares either. His hands slid around and under Ruby, parting her robe, and her lips found his.

Their first time was not erotic. It was not arousing. It was not pleasurable.

They grinded together hopelessly, with their teeth grating against one another and their bloody lips cracking. They each tasted of blood and drugs, and they reeked of sweat, dust and gore despite the shower. It was painful. His body was littered with cuts and bruises, and hers was too, to say nothing of bone fractures they were doubtlessly hiding under the surface.

None of that mattered.

It didn't matter when his wounds opened, and it didn't matter when she cried out in pain on having her first time taken so roughly. It didn't matter when her fingernails, reinforced with aura, carved bloody lines in his back, and it didn't matter when he roughly slammed her down and bit into her skin. It didn't matter when they both felt more pain than pleasure, or when his bandage slid off and revealed his horrific, ruined eye socket.

The only thing that mattered was that they felt something. Be that something pleasure, pain, or even simple exhaustion. Their bodies crashed together, spent, shaking, sweaty, bloody and crying out from a million aches and pains. They hadn't used protection, but that didn't matter, since neither was foolish enough to think they'd live long enough for it to matter.

"Promise me," whispered Ruby, clinging to him, legs and arms wrapped around him. The sheets were damp, and he suspected it was as much from blood as sweat. "Promise me, Jaune. Please. I know it's selfish, and I know you've lost so much, but I can't— I'm weak. You're strong. You've taken it before. You can take it again. I… I'm sorry, but I can't. I'm so weak."

Jaune sighed, and placed a hand atop her hair, pulling her into his neck.

"I promise you, Ruby," he said, and felt her sag against him in relief. "I promise I'll not die before you do."

"Hahhh…" Ruby curled into him. "Thank you…"

/-/

The meeting hall they'd all attended to hear the preparations for the defence of the arcology felt a lot larger now that there were less than sixty people in attendance. Jaune and Ruby had all the seats in the world, and yet she sat on his lap, her side to him and leaning against his chest. It probably should have looked romantic, but it instead came across desperate. Ruby had refused to let go of him all morning, even to use the shower or bathroom. He was sure it would fade once the reality of the situation settled in, but, for now, he let it be.

She wasn't the only one like this. Of the sixty in attendance, at least forty had partnered up and probably spent the night together. A rush of hormones and chemicals to the brain was a good substitute for combat drugs. For many of them, feelings didn't come into it. Sex was just a physical way of dealing with the crippling stress.

General Ozpin didn't comment on the "unprofessional" display as he limped out onto the stage. The last teacher of Beacon had survived yet again, though he had likely been in a command centre orchestrating the battle rather than on the front lines. Some would have seen that as the best place to be, but Jaune could only imagine the horror one would feel at knowing they would be the last to die. That they would have to watch, in terror, as everything fell and the Grimm slowly broke your doors down.

Better to go down swinging with hope in your veins.

"Project Terminus has successfully launched," said Ozpin, skipping all the bullshit about congratulations and praising them for their patriotism. He probably took one look at the room and realised opening with that would start a riot. "The final weapon against the Grimm Queen is in the stratosphere and prepared to end her once and for all." He took a deep breath. "All that is required now is to give it firing coordinates."

Jaune sagged in his seat, and Ruby sagged against him. Someone else spoke their mind from the crowd. "I don't recall us being told we'd have to point the damn thing at her as well, sir. Would they like is to hold her in place while it fires as well?"

Such insubordination would have normally ended with punishment, perhaps flogging or something public like that, but Ozpin simply answered the question. "I'm afraid we had to keep some information back so as to avoid the Grimm Queen discovering it via the usage of her spies. If she knew the truth then she would have hidden away until everyone up there died of old age or ran out of food. As it is, we needed her to come out into the open. We needed her visible – and she is."

He pushed a button and the screen behind him lit up to show something truly horrific. It was a pod, of a sort, but Jaune couldn't help but think it look like a hive. A huge, oblong shaped thing with hundreds of little holes and tunnels like pores leading inside. The drones hadn't been able to see much down them, but Grimm poured out, and there were many more around the base that seemed determined to guard it.

"This is the Grimm Queen," said Ozma. "Or so we believe. Somewhere inside this, she lays – and this structure is larger than it might appear. Our estimates place it at over several kilometres wide. Wider than the channelled beam of Project Terminus firing down. A direct his will destroy her once and for all, but a glancing blow or, worse, a miss? That could spell disaster. We need to locate her. Ascertain whether she is inside or not. We cannot risk Project Terminus firing blind. And they cannot. They are so high up that specific details will be all but impossible to see. Instead, the design team created numerous beacons that will send a signal up, causing Project Terminus to move to an anchored position above and ready its weapon. This will then be fired once another button is pushed, piercing down and destroying the Grimm once and for all."

"And all we need to do is get inside and plant it," snarled Ruby, catching on. "Oh, sure. Why didn't you say so, sir? That sounds really easy. Let's just take – what, sixty people? – and send against the combined might of all Grimm on Remnant. Sounds like a plan to me."

"There are easier ways to commit suicide," said another. "Might as well take our EX-Pills right now."

"It doesn't even matter she retreated." said a third. "It just goes to show she's aware of the fact we have to come to her now, which means she'll be prepared. And we're not. How many are dead? How gutted are our forces?"

General Ozpin stood resolute up behind the podium. "We have lost 96% of serving huntsmen and huntresses, including those recently promoted, and 78% of serving military soldiers are either dead or too injured to participate. We have also lost 49% of our air force, 82% of land vehicles, and approximately 35% of the civilian population."

"I bet High Command is untouched," snarked one huntress.

"High Command lost 60% of its members," said Ozpin, silencing them. "A team twenty strong, all infected with Rot, infiltrated and began eradicating us while the battle raged. A decision was made not to raise the alarm and distract from the defence of the walls. Many of our oldest and most seasoned commanders were killed."

Silence reigned. No one knew what to say. It was just one more statistic heaped upon others, but it somehow felt like a worse sign of the state of the world that those in charge would just die quietly rather than rock the boat. He'd always felt he could trust the commanders to look after themselves and let the infantry do all the dying. That was the typical infantryman sentiment. The Grimm had really gone and turned the world upside down, hadn't they?

Probably not entirely. He and Ruby had avoided the TV because they both knew it would be showing nationalistic bullshit talking about how great their victory was and extolling the benefit of fighting for their freedom. They both accepted the battle had to be fought, but it was the casual aggrandization of it that drove every soldier mad. There was no glory here, only a desperate fight for survival, and hearing newscasters who had never once seen combat talk about it pissed him off.

"Just spit it out," said someone, and Jaune was surprised to hear it was himself. "What are we to do this time? How are we to die?"

General Ozpin closed his eyes. "You, along with many others, will be airdropped onto what we are calling the hive. You will fight your way inside, locate the Grimm Queen, and signal a remote firing laser to bring Project Terminus into a firing position."

A real suicide mission this time, then, with Project Terminus opening fire on them all. Ruby squeezed his hand, but there was a glint of something worrying in her eye. A lust for death or vengeance, neither of which boded well.

"Our counterattack begins tomorrow," said General Ozpin. "All ration stores and supplies, both medical and military, have been opened. Eat what you want, take what you want, use what you want. The arcology will be throwing everything we have at her in one last attack." He paused to see if there were questions, but there were none. Everyone knew how this would end. "Remnant Invicta."

Next Chapter: 8th August

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