RWBY: Rusted Rose

Bonus chapter: Roses Blossom

As exhausted as she was from childbirth, Ruby fought hard to stay awake in bed while cradling her newborn daughter in her arms while her loving husband pressed his face to her cheeks. Both ignored the cheers from their family and relatives, as all they could focus on was the reward for many years of hardships, their cute little firstborn Penny Rose-Arc.

"She's beautiful isn't she? Ruby asked.

"Yeah, just like her mother." Jaune warmly said as he kissed his wife's cheeks. She felt her heart flutter, despite having received much more "affection" then that in the past, she couldn't help but feel thrilled when he expressed even a bit to her. It was a reminder he loved her no matter what. That he never truly hated her for losing their friend that day, a day she would never forget. It was one where she made two discoveries, one horrible and one endearing, but both would undoubtedly change her life forever.

Reunion

"Jaune!" Ruby yelled in with a mix of shock and relief as she eyed the only familiar face in on a strange beach, in a strange new world she found herself trapped in. She wasn't the only one overwhelmed as Jaune's eyes watered seeing a petit teenage girl in red, one who always inspired him to grow stronger with her amazing strength and virtue, was running towards him crying and holding her arms out to him practically begging him for an embrace.

"Ruby!" He yelled back as he sprinted, kicking up sand in a panic as he couldn't resist the urge to hug her tightly. After all they lost on that bridge, all he had to do, he just felt so low and tired that he needed a warm hug, maybe some encouraging speech from her he was accustomed too. But as they got to each other and squeezed as tight as they could in that firm but warm hug, Ruby felt something drip upon her head and looked up slowly in confusion.

To her surprise, Jaune was in a crying fit, his entire face drenched in water as he grit his teeth and formed one of the most pathetic and sad frowns unbecoming of a man or knight like his armor implied, but he didn't care.

"I-I thought I lost anoth…another friend!" He cried. He still remembered seeing her drop into the void with Blake and Neo, losing the relics to that witch Cinder, losing Penny and worse, to his own blade all just a few minutes ago. It was a night that would be etched into his mind forever.

We see a painted image of Ruby and Blake falling into the void between worlds, shock and horror etched onto their faces as Jaune and Weiss watch them from afar, the latter having a hand to her mouth in horror while the former kneels to the edge of the bridge and vainly reaches a hand out to them. Jaune is then shown trembling as his hands have Croquer Mars aimed downward at a mortally wounded Penny, tenderly eyeing him and silently begging him to put her out of her misery. Jaune screams as he plunges the sword into Penny (her body off-screen) and blood splatter around him as he cries tears of remorse.

Then we see a smug Cinder with the relic of knowledge and creation on her hand as she unleashes a fireball on the startled duo that get blown off the bridge and fall into the void as well.

Ruby felt Jaune's trembling as he painfully recalled these moments. She knew she had to say something to him, but felt her own throat clench tightly as she struggled to think what to say. She felt lost and confused without her team right now, she wanted nothing more than to get a bear hug like the one she was giving him before she gasped in realization.

"Yang! She might…." She thought to herself as she remembered her sister taking a blow from Neo and descending into the void first. Honestly the image made her feel like wrenching right now, as her leader and sister she despised the thought of her sister giving up her life to save her.

We see a painted image of Neo using her Umbrella Blade to slash at Yang who dived in front of Ruby's back to save her from a sneak attack aimed at her heart. Yang's yellow aura shatters as she fall's unconscious into the void as Ruby and Blake watch her fall in horror while Neo clenches her teeth in frustration at her failure.

As bitter as she was right now remembering that, she felt a surge of hope for what being here with Jaune right now implied about that. She had to give this crying guy some of that hope if they were to make it out of wherever they were.

"Jaune, Jaune look at me!" She yelled as she broke off the hug firmly and placed both her hands on his wet face cheeks to his surprise.

"I get this is a lot to take in, but listen if we made it, Blake and Yang should be here too! We haven't lost everything yet and I don't intend to do you?" She asked while putting that possibility in his head. Jaune took a moment to ponder this possibility before gently grabbing one of her hands with his.

"Weiss fell in too, she may be here with us too." He solemnly said, his heart filled with grief as he silently kicked himself for not sticking close to her as they fell.

Ruby formed a small smile, but fought the urge to cheer from the somewhat good news, as she knew he wasn't happy still. It filled her with curiosity, but also a bit of fear as she shuttered to ask him what was troubling him. Jaune gasped a bit as he saw her face and instantly understood her thoughts. He shook his head.

"No! No! I can't tell her what we lost! What I made us lose! She'd never forgive me!" He yelled in his thoughts. He knew how close she was too Penny, closer to any of them aside from Yang. The android turned human was given life thanks to her idea of using the relic, a gift she clearly treasured and yet lost within the span of an hour. It was cruel as it was unfair, just as he knew how unfair it would be for her to deal with that grief, he had to distract her.

Suddenly as his body shifted a bit he felt the extra weight on his back and his eye's widen as he figured out the perfect excuse.

"Ruby! If we're going to find the girls and get out of here, your gonna need your baby!" he yelled in a bit of a panic as he reached behind his back and showed her something that widened her eyes in disbelief.

"Crescent Rose!" She yelled in joy as she instantly grabbed her weapon and hugged it tightly to her chest to Jaune's relief and joy, forming a small smile for the first time here.

"Yeah, when I fell I made sure it went with me. I know how much it means to you." He said warmly, his tone-flooding Ruby with a strange warm as she cried a bit then proceeded to blush at the kind gesture. She had felt so scared since Yang fell and she didn't know how to calm down since then, but this boy sure did and she couldn't help but want to hug him again and thank him with all her heart.

"T-Thank y-you *hiccup* Jaune." She hiccupped.

Once she did hug him all she could do was blush heavier and stutter, confused by her own odd behavior. Jaune also blushed a bit as he rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, unsure how to process that strange behavior from Ruby before sighing.

"Oh well, at least that distracted her." He thought to himself as he turned towards a large forest by the beach. He stood in awe as he saw only a giant oak tree beyond the forest, if anything or anyone lived here that was likely their best chance at meeting them seeing as how easy it would be for lost people to reconvene.

"Well then, we better start looking for the girls. My best bet they'll be thinking the same as us and head there." He said as he pointed to the giant tree to Ruby who nodded.

"Right, we can regroup then figure out our next move." She said before her stomach started to growl to her and Juane's surprise.

"Hungry?" he asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Duh captain obvious! We haven't eaten in almost 2 days…a lot of crazy stuff kept happening." She said solemnly.

"Crap! She's getting sad I got to find something!" he thought to himself as he frantically darted his head around to find something for them to eat. He wasn't starving, but he didn't know how long the walk to the tree would be so he wanted to be filled and strong. To his happiness, he saw a small tree with some peach like fruit hanging from its branches and ran to it, grabbing two for him and Ruby to share.

"Great, I'm starving so lets ea-OW!" They said in unison as they held their mouths now aching as they felt their teeth bite into metal. Ruby grew angry from the pain and lunged her fruit into the ocean in a fit of rage.

"What the hell did we just bite!" she demanded as Jaune licked his teeth, checking to see none were broken before he looked down annoyed at his fruit, slowly opening it up to see something strange in it.

"A clock?" They said perplexed, touching the clock and even winding it back a bit, curious to see if it worked. Why would a clock be in a piece of fruit? What wacky world were they in now? These were the many question's in their heads that they soon were about to learn they wouldn't have answered as the clock began ticking before giving off a massive ring and glowing rainbow. Soon they saw the sunset turn to night, then day, then night and back again as Ruby gasped seeing a variety of strange creatures run beside them at a fast pace, some even walking backwards.

"Jaune! What's going on here?!" She screamed in panic as Jaune held her shoulder tightly, desperate to not let go from some strange phenomena unfolding before them.

"I don't know! But one thing's for sure it happened when this thing started ringing!" He said as he grasped the clock, still glowing rainbow and ringing.

Ruby instantly understood the source of their problem and knew one way to solve it. She took out Crescent Rose in its scythe form.

"Well then let me fix this problem!" She yelled as she smacked the clock out of his hand and slashed it in 2, finally ceasing the time reversal around them to their relief. But as they looked around, they saw something behind Jaune they didn't notice before; it was a pier.

"A pier? That wasn't there when I woke up?" Jaune said confused.

"Yeah, but hey pier's usually have fisherman or carnivals, maybe we can find someone there who can help us?" She said with a hopeful tone.

"Great maybe we can get some cotton candy!" He said a bit sarcastically while grinning, hopeful the false promise could distract Ruby from the stressful situation they were in.

It worked to his joy then irritation as a giddy Ruby felt jittery from this thought and grabbed him with a squeal and petal burst with him to the Pier, almost making him throw up from the sudden speed he wasn't accustomed to experiencing.

"I don't know which is worst, a plane or this girl?" he said to himself as they returned to normal on the pier, Jaune wobbly as he breathed heavily from the shock. He was honestly hoping she'd hear that comment to make her a bit guilty for shocking him like that before he forgot his nausea when seeing Ruby eye something before her that equally shocked her.

Some small trout's and raccoons that were walking while wearing pants, shirts, and fisherman hats while holding fishing poles, some having buckets of what wasn't fish, but dead water snakes of various colors. The most startling thing that unnerved the two human's was that the fish were talking in their language.

"W-What the? How is this…when did fish…how!" Ruby said as she panicked a bit, alerting the fisherman fish who slowly walked up to her.

"Oh another human? Been a while since we saw one of you again." A blue trout with a masculine voice said, making Ruby recoil a bit in fright as Jaune walked up to her, placing his hands on her shoulders, fearful she might run off in her panic.

"Oh uh…sorry! First time here you said you saw another human, did they by any chance have blonde, white or black hair? Maybe as tall as me?" he asked, hopeful these human's were Ruby's teammates, something that caught Ruby's attention as she set her discomfort aside and leaned forward to the fish man, desperate to her confirmation. They both formed disappointed frowns as the fish shook its head in denial.

"Sorry, it was two short one's with brown skin and hair who came here looking for food before carrying on, now if you'll excuse me I need to as well, good day." The fish said before politely leaving, though it speaking and walking only served to further unnerve Ruby and Jaune as they couldn't fathom if the talking fish or the bad news they received was the main issue.

Jaune just slumped his shoulders, his eyes watering a bit as he felt so overwhelmed right now.

"Why can't anything too good actually be true? Why do we have to keep losing everyone?" he asked Ruby, or perhaps himself as she guessed from his limp grip on her shoulders. She turned to him, her silver eyes locking his as she tried to force a smile despite her own worries right now.

"Hey, were going to find them. Were aren't losing anybody today." She said with a hopeful tone.

Jaune could only wince and recoil a bit as he heard those words, Penny's weak smile flashing before his eyes as he saw them in Ruby, his hands soon trembling as he soon glanced down at his sword, the one that killed her friend. Jaune gave off a fearsome yell as he took the sword in the scabbard and hurled both off into the ocean to Ruby's surprise as she petal burst to them and flew back to the dock, landing on his stomach in a hurry and knocking the wind out of him.

"JAUNE! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU!?" She yelled at the top of her lungs for his, to her, idiotic action just now drawing the gaze of the creatures on the pier. Ruby merely groaned and gave them a fearsome death glare making them dart away as they realized her wish for space. Once they all left, Ruby lift her boot off Jaune's stomach to the Arc's relief as he rubbed it, still painful from the head-butt.

He trembled though as he saw her fearsome glare, he knew he had blown his cover a bit and wouldn't be able to hide this with some lame excuse.

"Tell. Me. Now!" She said each word fiercely, she had to know why he was willing to throw away his sword, a family heirloom and one enhanced with Pyrrah his dead lover's metal.

Jaune sighed as he got up. Once gazing at her stern expression, his heart raced as he imagined the terror that would replace it once he told her the truth, but he knew there was no way out of that.

"Ruby, we did lose somebody today." He sadly said, making Ruby's lip quiver and her eyes widen at the announcement. She soon felt a sense of dread within her, almost too frozen to move her jaw and ask who they lost.

Jaune bit his lower lip as he struggled to find the strength and continue but had to press on, rip it quick like a band aide.

"After you and Blake fell, Cinder stabbed Penny." He bitterly said, earning a gasp of terror from Ruby.

"She wasn't going to make it and…she knew Cinder would steal her maiden powers unless…" he said, choking on air as each word brought that nightmare back to his mind.

"Unless what Jaune?" she asked fearfully, her spirit almost begging her not too and ignore this horrible story, but she had to know.

"She wanted to give them to Winter so I…I…" he choked saying.

"You did what J-Jaune?" she asked, eyes forming tears as she slowly realized what he was going to say before he screamed it.

"I KILLED HER WITH MY SWORD!" He yelled tearfully.

Ruby stood frozen before him, her hands over her chest as her eyes had bags, pulsing as her iris narrowed at the announcement. She felt lightheaded as her legs grew wobbly and her vision darkened, leaning forward as she lost all her strength and fell onto his chest as he grabbed her in haste.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I get she meant the world to you I just-" he said before feeling his chest dampen. He looked down to see Ruby clasping his shirt tightly, tears flooding her red face as she formed an angry glare at him that shocked him to the core.

"H-How could you?" She said with a broken tone, he didn't even get time to beg for forgiveness like he planned before she shoved him to the ground and Petal Burst into the woods, leaving him behind or at least he thought she did as he soon felt something hard and metallic as he struggled to stand.

He looked down in fright to see his sword but also Crescent Rose.

"Her scythe? But…it's her dork weapon!" he said to himself. He knew she loved that Scythe and wouldn't trade it for any weapon in the world. He then saw the trail of rose petals before him, as well as a few wet spots he surmised were tears of grief as well.

Jaune soon felt a wave of anger arise within him and punched himself in the face. Of course she was going to get upset and leave him, he didn't deserve her companionship after what he did. What she needed was something she could trust to get her through this and he had it in his other hand right now.

"She needs this, she needs help! I got to make this right!" he said firmly as he grasped both weapons and ran after her. She may not want to see him right now, not that he blamed her since he was her best friend's killer (a thought that wrenched his gut) but she needed her blade if she was going to make it in this strange world.

Blossom

Ruby ran for what felt like hours to her, even if only minutes really, as she tried with all her might to get further away from Jaune as she could. She soon stopped as she felt the air in burning lungs ebb away. She placed her hand on what she thought was a tree trunk and gasped for air, before being startled by a loud grumble.

"Hey! Stop breathing so much on me kid!" the trunk actually said, revealing itself to be a talking anamorphic tree that uprooted its branches like legs before walking away annoyed to her shock.

She soon sat down on a log, her hands trembling as her eyes widen in shock at all that had just happened to her recently.

"Why? Why did this have to happen? Why did he have to take her from me?" she sobbed as she buried her face in her legs and entered a crying fit. After a few minutes of sobbing, she soon heard some metal being hammered and looked up slowly, almost hesitant to for fear she would see something crazy again.

It was a small tent a few yards off to her right, with a bright light from what she assumed to be a lamp illuminating it from afar. She felt a strange pull to it as she slowly walked towards it. As she entered the tent, she saw an array of swords, hammers, and spears hanging from ropes and on the tent walls. In the middle was another strange inhabitant of this world that seemed unnatural to the human girl as she eyed a tall 8 foot robot woman with a root for a spine hammering some metal soon turn her head slightly to face her while still working diligently.

"I've been expecting a guest for some time." She said.

"You…knew I was coming?" Ruby asked confused.

"No…just a feeling. Just as I feel you seem to be carrying an awfully heavy burden on your shoulders right now." They said almost empathetically.

Ruby merely wiped some residual tears from her face and glared intensely at the robot. She didn't feel like discussing her pain with anyone right now let alone a stranger.

"I'm fine…I have to be." She said coldly. The blacksmith merely turned her head back to the cauldron and resumed hammering a hot sword.

"Well then, feel free to browse my wares if theirs something you might want to alleviate the burden." She said.

Ruby, despite the urge to leave, felt a strange pull to her side as if instincts were yelling at her to listen to the smith and browse. She felt perhaps her dorkiness for weapons was winning over as she glanced to the left and gasped as she saw something impossible before her.

It was Penny's emerald sword, one that Cinder had shattered into fiery dust on the bridge that day. She thought it was lost forever like Penny.

"How…how do you have this?! It shouldn't be possible!" She asked the blacksmith almost frightfully, who simply kept hammering the sword.

"We find many things to be impossible. Regaining what was lost, forgiving a friend that hurt you, or perhaps most of all, moving on from one's past." She said sternly as Ruby eyed the blade intently. She slowly moved her hands towards it, seeing the image of Penny's warm smile before her as she drew closer to it, her eyes shining green for a moment before hearing a man's cry.

"RUBY!" she heard as she gasped and blinked, suddenly finding herself siting back at the log before seeing Jaune in the distance dashing towards her.

She quickly averted her eyes too him, still feeling a burning sensation just by looking at him right now, and tried to find the tent again. She could probably hide there for a bit while she cooled off. To her utter confusion, she saw no trace of it despite having just been there a moment ago.

"Where did it go? It was just there?" She said as she began to breath heavily; she felt so heavy in her spot right now from all this crazy stuff happening she couldn't even find the strength to sit up.

Jaune saw her confusion and briefly paused his run, examining her thoroughly with his own eyes. Her hands were shaking, she was drenched in sweat, and her eyes were almost bloodshot. He could tell she wasn't doing so well, not that he could blame her since what he said to her.

"Ru-" was all he could say before a yell interrupted him to his surprise.

"Just leave me alone!" she yelled at him with a fierce death glare.

With guilt infecting him, he slowly lost his own strength to stand and sat beside her. He felt a worse sting when she winced and averted her gaze from him dejected by his mere presence.

He also felt a bit offended his first friend would treat him like that, only holding back an urge to yell angrily at her due to knowing she was just grieving. Hell he was too, but he just wanted to share the pain with someone now regardless if they wanted his presence.

"Ruby…I'm not leaving you." He said sternly, earning a scoff from the crimson reaper.

"Yeah right, everyone leaves me at some point. Mom did, Yang did, and…you made sure Penny did." She said, spitting those words out like venom that burned him. He clenched his teeth as his hands trembled, fighting with all his might the desire to punch her for that, her being a girl and the tears of grief flooding her eyes being the only deterrent.

Jaune merely took a deep breath in an effort to contain himself before looking at her.

"I'm sorry I-" he said before they heard a squeal from an animal in the distance, startling them into sitting up, Ruby instinctively reaching behind her back for her Scythe, only to gasp as she felt nothing but her backside.

"Where is it? Where is it!? Don't tell me I lost it too!?" she screamed to Jaune's worry. He had it with him on his back and walked up to her, ready to give it back to her before a pink animal dashed passed them and broke them apart.

It was to their astonishment a pig with a pair of angel-like wings.

"Pigs fly now?!" Ruby hollered as the animal was soon joined by over a dozen more that flew past them and joined the lead pig in the sky. Ruby could smell how foul they were as each past, the stench only serving her a bitter reminder this wasn't a crazy nightmare, it was a crazy reality just like the loss of Penny, the loss of her team, and the loss of her scythe. She began to pant heavily as she grew even more overwhelmed, her vision blurry as she struggled to find the strength to stand before a heavy red object was placed in her arms and a hand fell on her shoulder.

"Ruby here!" Jaune yelled with concern as he gave her Crescent Rose. Ruby froze in that moment as she felt her scythe and his touch. It filled her with shock followed by a strange warmth as she recalled how nice each felt before, whenever she wielded it in battle, when he had offered his hand to her at Beacon when she was at her lowest. Even with all this craziness happening, Ruby couldn't help but blush and crack a small smile before eying him with tears.

"T-Thanks Jaune, you really are my knight in shining armor." She sniffled, making Jaune smile a bit himself as he felt proud to have finally calmed her down a bit before they sat back down

A few minutes of silence passed, neither knowing what they could say or should say after all the hurtful and confusing moments that happened. As Jaune tried to open his mouth to say something, even if just a cheesy joke to break the tension, he was caught off guard by Ruby leaning her head onto his shoulders with her eyes closed.

"I'm sorry." She weakly said as he glanced at her with concern.

"You did what she wanted, what had to do. It wasn't right to blame you…I'm sorry." She bitterly said, not even opening her eyes, she simply wanted to rest off this pain.

He didn't respond, he couldn't respond. He knew talking to her about this more or giving her false assurance things were going to get better would only hurt her. He knew she had given them those many times, but after all the horrible things that went wrong in Atlas, a few by their own hands, he knew it wasn't the right time.

All he did was simply put his arm around her, locking her in a sad embrace to let time do its healing.

1 year later

Ruby and Jaune lay on a bed of their clothes behind the same log they sat before. Both naked, drenched in sweat and exhausted. Jaune clasped Ruby's hand with his as he Aura boosted her once she complained a bit about her waist hurting once she was deflowered. Nonetheless, despite the pain of her waist disappearing as her body glowed his gold aura, neither felt the warmth of that aura or anything. Despite their first moment of passion actually being wonderful to them, both couldn't help but stare at the log in front of them and remember that bitter conversation a year ago.

Jaune's lip quivered as he shuddered to bring it up, but his partners blank stare onto the log, a realization she was feeling the same as him, made him worry about their relationship despite the romantic embrace.

"Do you still blame me?" he asked her quietly, causing her eyes to widen. She didn't respond, taking a minute to ponder her thoughts. That minute felt like an eternity to Jaune though. It wasn't the cool wind on his naked body that stung his skin like blades; it was her hesitance.

His heart skipped a bit as he saw her open her mouth to answer, almost tempted to close it with his mouth again to avoid the answer.

"I was going to ask you the same question." She sadly said earning a slight gasp from him.

"I was leader, it was my plan to lead. I wasn't good enough and you had too…" was all she could say before her body shook and she hugged him, desperate not to have him leave her.

Jaune clasped her hand with his as he drew her into a warm hug.

"I never did. It was my fault, if only I was stronger, had more aura, then maybe I could have saved her. It was never your fault Ruby." He firmly said, this having been his belief this whole time they were trapped in this strange world. They had no trace of their friends this year, no sense of direction as they relied on fortune cookie nonsense from the beings that called themselves the After En's, like that blue and purple cat they drove off earlier. All he knew right now that was certain was that he loved her, and that he didn't want her to put herself down like that anymore.

She tapped his nose playfully, startling him with a small smile as she narrowed her eyes warmly.

"Well, I guess we can be guilty together, how about that?" she asked him. That was right, they were both guilty souls to each other, but that made them perfect for one another in their eyes. All he did was grab her face tenderly and lock his lips with hers softly as they closed those eyes.

After a few moments passed they briefly separating to breath, Jaune then let out a small whisper.

"Marry me." He asked quietly, his heart pounding like a drum as she nodded.

"Yes, please." She whispered before they resumed their kiss.

As they fell onto each other and embraced once more, it was then Jaune knew for certain no matter how many years it would take, even if they never saw their friends again, even if they never got home, he was going to make her happy, that the two lovers in this strange world would battle any test of time and loss so long as they had each other.

I was inspired to write this flashback episode because of comments I read in reviews about wanting more detailed flashbacks. This is a short series, but I felt they had a point on how Ruby's horrified reaction's to Jaune's mercy kill could lead to their romance like Yang and Blake's strained friendship led to a closer relationship. Mile's said if V10 is green lite he'd want Jaune and Ruby to reconcile from their v9 fight so it gave me this idea. Hope you all enjoyed it.