Hello, just a quick word before we get into the story.

I love RNJR, it's my favorite team and I honestly wished we got more of them. So why not fill in those like ten months between the end of Volume 3 and 4.

Things will be mostly canon compliant at first, but we'll start to diverge more as we get closer to V4. And I can only include two ship tags, so I'll add that this is a Qrow x Summer fic as well. Sorry for anyone who doesnt like it.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy.

Ruby could barely recognize the city she walked through.

A few short months ago these city streets were full of life, with everyone preparing for the Vytal festival. The happy faces of her team and team JNPR, the smell of popcorn or bad fair foods filling the air, and the sounds of fun and laughter were here not too long ago.

Now, the park where the fairgrounds had sat was covered in tents and other temporary shelters for the people who had lost everything but their lives that day.

Ruby stopped and stared at the people she was supposed to protect. It was still fairly early in the morning, and a light snow fell as the people tried to get on with their lives. Some were leaving to work, maybe at their normal jobs, maybe helping with the rebuilding of Vale. Others were taking care of small children bundled in old coats that were all either too big or too small and many with holes in them. From what was anyone's guess.

It had been two months since the fall, and it seemed like nothing was getting better. From the little news that Ruby's dad would let her watch, it seemed some districts that were lost to the grimm during the attack were recaptured, but at a heavy cost, and even then most of the buildings were heavily damaged.

And it was all Ruby's fault.

Ruby frowned, trying to hold back tears, as she looked at what she was responsible for. If she'd just been a little faster…

"Ruby," Jaune said, putting a hand on her shoulder and pulling her out of her thoughts. He tried to smile at her, but it didn't reach his eyes. "It's okay if you need to stop for now, we can wait." Ren and Nora had stopped just a few feet ahead of them, and were looking back at Ruby.

"I'm fine," Ruby said, returning Jaune's fake smile with one of her own, and lying right to his face about more than one thing. Whatever Ruby had done after Pyrrha… Whatever she had done that night had left her in a coma for weeks, and even now after she'd mostly recovered it was like she had the flu. Everything she did seemed to take more energy than it used to, and she just felt…

Slow.

"Let's just keep going," Ruby said, Jaune nodded in agreement and soon they were on their way again. But Ruby still couldn't help but look at the destruction all around her.

They were going to find whoever did this, somehow. They had a lead, Haven Academy, and now they just had to figure out how to get there.

Glynda sat at her spot in the makeshift command center that was once someone's home.

"There's no reason to do another sweep through the Academy campus at this time," Marcus Green, one of the veteran huntsmen that made up her advisory board as she was assigned as the temporary headmaster of Beacon, said. "We haven't found any survivors in the last four attempts, and we haven't recovered any bodies in the last three. We'd just be risking lives for no reason at this point."

"We can still recover weapons and other sentimental items," One of the other advisors said, "Give people some kind of closure."

"Closure for some isn't worth anyone's death," Green said, "And it will be much easier to recover those items once we repair the perimeter defenses."

"It won't be safe enough to send repair teams out until we deal with the Wyvern on the tower. That thing seems to attract other grimm like a beacon."

"Poor choice of words there Tom, and besides, it'll be far easier to deal with that Wyvern on its own. We don't want a class ten grimm to have backup." Green said, before turning to Goodwitch, "What do you think, Goodwitch?"

Goodwitch rubbed her temple, she'd been nursing a migraine since the fall and she was tired of all the arguing. "There's still three districts in Vale that are compromised," She said, in the same tone she did when telling off a belligerent student. All of the other huntsmen in the room sat up a little straighter as she spoke. "If there's nothing left to recover from Beacon that cannot be recovered in a few months' time, then our focus should be on securing the city, and attempting to contain the grimm on campus."

The others nodded their heads or murmured in agreement with Goodwitch. She was the one in charge of the recovery, so they had little choice. Normally the headmaster of Beacon would be in charge of the defense of Beacon, and Vale as a whole, but seeing as Ozpin was still missing and likely dead. The responsibility fell onto her as the interim headmaster, at least until the council managed to find someone to replace her.

If they ever manage to get around to replacing her. It seemed that actually doing anything useful was out of the council's areas of expertise. But that was a rant for another time.

"We'll continue to focus on recapturing the harbor district," Goodwitch said, hearing a familiar tapping on a nearby window. It seemed Qrow was back in action, and she was more than ready to end the meeting either way. "Once we've done that, it should be far easier to get supplies into the city. Green, I trust you'll be able to handle the planning of the operation."

"I'll have a plan of action ready for you by next morning,"

"Good," Goodwitch said, standing up from her seat. "Then you all know what you need to be doing, and now would be the time to go do what needs to be done."

Everyone but Goodwitch quickly shuffled out of the room. Glynda only got a moment of peace before Qrow, in his corvid form, came through the open window. "How are things on Patch?" Goodwitch said, Qrow transformed back to normal and walked over to see if there was anything in the kitchen fridge.

"Been pretty quiet, no grimm attacks at least." He said, before pulling out some moldy cheese. "When was the last time you cleaned this thing out?"

"You know that's not what I meant, Qrow. How are Taiyang and the girls?"

"Tai's trying to keep everything together for the girl's sake, but you can tell he's on the edge himself." Qrow said, walking over and sitting down in one of the chairs. "Having to entertain the rest of Nikos' team is keeping him busy though. So he hasn't had too much time to fall apart."

"I wasn't aware JNPR was on Patch," Goodwitch said, most of the first and second year teams had already been sent to other academies for the new year. Though with the heavy casualties they suffered, and with many students simply quitting, there were many teams missing a member or members. If they weren't all wiped out. "They seemed to be close to RWBY, so spending time together would probably be good for the healing process."

"I guess that's right," Qrow said, taking his flask out of his shirt, "Ruby's doing better with them around."

"Speaking of Ruby," Goodwitch said, "We need to talk about what our next steps are going to be in tracking down her and Pyrrha's attackers."

"Haven't been able to contact Leo?"

"Not with any methods secure enough for that topic."

"Worried the mole could be listening in?"
"Assuming we're even dealing with a spy," Goodwitch sat down, and Qrow took a swig. "The more likely explanation for them sneaking through was them simply bribing someone at Haven." Bribery in Mistral was as common and as natural as breathing. It would be the simplest explanation.

"You know how Leo is with hiring his staff," Qrow said, "Anyone high enough to have gotten them in is going to have been pretty high up the chain of command. Someone Leo would've been keeping a close eye on. No way he wouldn't notice."

"You suspect Leonardo could be a turncoat?"

"Nah, but it's gotta be someone high up," Qrow said, "Someone high enough up the chain of command that we can't warn Leo without tipping them off."

"So we'll have to send a message in person if we don't want to risk it being intercepted," Goodwitch said, sitting back down and rubbing her temples again. They'd been out of contact for months at this point, and it would take a week at least for Qrow to make the trip, but it was better than him being completely in the dark. "I assume you'll be leaving for Mistral immediately then."

"I'm heading to Mistral, but it's gonna take longer than usual."

"How much longer?"

"However long it takes Ruby to get to Mistral."

"Pardon?"

"Yeah," Qrow said, standing back up. "I'm gonna be tailing Ruby while she takes the rest of JNPR to Haven."

And the migraines just kept getting worse. "Why in all of Remnant would you do that?"

"Salem knows about Ruby now, or at least that there's a silver eyed warrior around." Qrow put his foot on the window sill. Ready to jump out at a moment's notice. "So I'm putting out some bate and seeing if any of her followers will spring it."

"You're really using Ruby as bait? What would Summer think?"

"She'd try to pluck every last one of my feathers if she were here, but she isn't." Qrow said, putting his flask back into his pocket. "And when Tai calls you, tell him you haven't seen me or Ruby." Qrow jumped out of the window, transforming and flying out East.

Glynda's scroll began to ring the moment he left, and she didn't need to check to know who it was. She sighed, deciding to not answer.

And cool Qrow like a turkey the next time they met.

Not even a full day after they left, Ruby and her new team ran into their first major problem.

"I got it! J-N-R-R, Junior!," Nora said, practically jumping out of her seat in excitement as she announced her idea for their new team name.

"Junior isn't a color, Nora." Ren said, sitting next to Nora on their bed for the night. Ruby's team, whatever it was going to end up being called, had made their way to a small village not too far from Vale. They'd only managed to arrive just after sunset, and a good bit later than any of their normal dinner times. "Regardless, Ruby is leading us to Mistral. Her name should be first."

"But how can Jaune be our fearless leader if he isn't our leader?" Nora said, less energetic than before, but come it. This is Nora we're talking about.

"He's still our leader, he's just not leading this mission. We did that one exercise in Professor Goodwitch's class where we swapped leaders with SSSN. This was no different than that."

"I hated when we did that!"

"I thought you liked Sun?"

"I do, but he's just not our Jaune-Jaune," Nora said, and Ren would have to agree. Even if they were similar in appearance, they were far different in character. With a leadership style that was far more hands off than Jaune's. Though Pyrrha had made a point of blowing through the competition to get back to Jaune as soon as possible. "But if Ruby's leading us, what team name should we have then?"

"R-R-A-N, Rain?"

"Where's the 'I'?"

"R-L-A-N, Roseland?"

"Ruby was already on team RWBY, she can't be on two teams with her name in the name."

"R-R-A-V, Raven?"

"Isn't that Yang's deadbeat mom's name? And I don't like using my last name for the team name."

"...R-N-J-R, Ranger?"

"Hmm, that's the only one that doesn't smoosh the Rs together, but what color is Ranger?"

"All team name's don't have to be colors," Ren said, "They can also just remind you of colors."

"What color does Ranger remind you of? Because I can't think of any."

"Well…" Ren said, internally questioning Beacon's team naming policy, before the door to the room that they were staying in opened and both of their leaders stepped through. Both holding a few bags.

"We're back," Ruby said, sitting her bag down on the table. "They didn't have a lot of stuff, but we got most of what we needed." They'd been able to purchase most of what they needed for their trip in Patch or Vale, but with most of the stores still being closed there were some things that they missed until now.

"I also got some donuts if anyone wants something besides Atlesian rations." Jaune said, putting the box down next to Ruby's bag. Ren didn't normally care for overly sugary and unhealthy foods like donuts, but even he had a hard time standing the nutritious but rancid tasting rations Atlas has distributed to Vale. Nora tried to get up from her spot to dig into the donuts, but if she had any sugar now she isn't sleeping well tonight, and this was probably going to be the last comfortable place they slept in for weeks at least.

"Did you get all the supplies you needed, Jaune?" Jaune said, sitting down on the other bed in the room, which was going to be Ruby's for the night. Jaune insisted that he sleep on the floor while Ren and Nora just decided to share a bed. If his previous track record was any indication, Jaune probably would've insisted on him and Ren getting a separate room from the girls if one were available.

"Yep," He said, picking up Ruby and Yang's habit of popping their Ps, and putting down a bag next to the bed. "Hopefully these will fit well." Jaune slipped a new pair of boots out of the bag.

"You didn't try them on at the store?" Nora said.

"I didn't want anyone to make fun of me if I mixed up my right from my left," Jaune joked, or at least Ren hoped he was joking.

"The shop guy said that we needed to be quick since he was about to close," Ruby said, as she sat down next to Jaune. "So we had to get all our stuff super quick." Jaune slipped on one boot, standing up and taking a few off kilter steps.

"It isn't as comfortable as my sneakers," Jaune said, taking a few more steps, "But they'll probably do better on the road. My pants won't get wet in low water I guess."

"If we end up traveling through Anima's swamps and bogs, your pants getting wet will be the least of your worries." Ren said.

"I know Anima has a lot of really nasty grimm," Ruby said, as Jaune sat back down next to her. "We didn't really study a lot of them though, just the grimm you find in Vale." Jaune got his boot off.

"I doubt they believed we'd be spending very long outside of Vale," Ren said, "And if we were going on a mission to Anima, they would probably have us study the local grimm beforehand."

"That makes sense," Jaune said, "But we'll probably be relying on you and Nora to guide us around Anima once we get there."

"We'll need to figure out a means of transportation before then," Ren said, "The normal routes from Eastern Vale to Anima may be halted like those from the capital."

"We can always swim over if we need to," Nora joked.

"I could try running on water," Ruby said, "I don't think I could carry you all over though."

"After the last time you carried me with your semblance," Jaune said, as the rest of the team had flashbacks to that incident. That poor janitor. "I think I'd rather ride over on a bullhead with a drunk pilot. I'd be able to keep more of my insides on the inside." Ruby and Nora giggling a little at Jaune's expense.

"We'll just have to figure out how we'll get over to Anima when we get to the east coast," Jaune said, standing up and pulling his sleeping bag out. "For now, let's just sleep." And so they would, everyone getting into their pajamas. With Jaune deciding to just sleep in his undershirt and boxers. He just needed to get his armor off first.

And with his armor coming off, Ruby got a look at what was under it, and on his hoodie, this whole time.

"DO YOU HAVE A CUTE LITTLE BUNNY RABBIT ON YOUR HOODIE!?" Ruby screamed before doubling over in laughter.

Jaune just shook his head, it was going to be a long trip, but at least after everything that happened, Ruby was still Ruby.

Thanks for reading!

What kind of stuff do you think RNJR is going to run into on their trip?

Honestly, I don't have too much planned out yet and there's obviously very little to go off of canon during this timeframe. I'll figure something out, but if you have any ideas for things that you'd like to see in this fic, I'd love to hear it. Or just any constructive criticism in general. I'm pretty new to writing.