1: Cover Me

"Show me what you've learned, pretty boy." Arslan crossed her arms and smirked. A cold wind blew through the arena.

Jaune swept his arm out, unfolding Crocea Mor's shield. He pointed his sword at her. "Anytime, Arse."

"Jaune!" Ruby lowered Crescent Rose and glared at him. "Be nice!"

"...lan," he added reluctantly.

Ruby shook her head with a sigh. The buzzer sounded, and she leapt into the air. Nadir aimed his rifle at her, but she ignored him, confident in her team's abilities. Sure enough, she'd barely started crossing the field before Nora screamed a battle cry; the flash of pink hair that flew by told her Nadir had already fallen victim to Magnhild.

She checked her speed as the first real challenge appeared in the form of Bolin. Veering off, she spotted Reese crouched low on her hoverboard and switched targets.

Reese's eyes widened. The skater girl twisted, jerking her feet into the air to use the board as a shield. Ruby grit her teeth; the velocity of their impact sent Reese sailing out of the arena. Digging Crescent Rose into the ground, Ruby slid to a stop.

Ren had already engaged Bolin; the two men were trading rapid blows. Ignoring their battle, Ruby focused on the real enemy they faced: Arslan.

The leader of Team ABRN rolled her eyes at her own teammates and threw her dagger into a tree. "You guys still suck," she barked at them, pulling herself away.

Ruby landed where Arslan had stood just moments too late, blasting a crater into the ground. She blocked Arslan's kick on her return swing with Crescent Rose; the force of the hit jarred her to her bones and sent her skidding backwards.

"Nora!" Jaune rushed towards Ren, shouting commands at the others. "Cover the left side! Ren!" It was the only warning he gave before he threw himself into the fray. Ren spun out of the way at the last minute, and a surprised Bolin was stunned by a face full of Crocea Mors when Jaune bashed him. "Get to Nora. Don't let Arslan touch you!" Jaune delivered another shield strike to Bolin's head to incapacitate him.

"Humph." Arslan threw her dagger again and launched into the air.

Jaune looked up in time to see her fly away. "Ruby, hold her down!" he yelled, scrambling to his feet.

Ruby was already moving; Arslan's mocking laughter trailed after her. She whirled, trying to interrupt the momentum of Arslan's swing, but the other woman spun in tandem, deflecting Crescent Rose's strikes with her armored boots. Her monstrous strength sent Ruby careening to the ground.

"Not much of a leader, are you?" she yelled at Jaune as she swung low. "Broadcasting your weak link like that!"

Jaune only smiled. Watching Arslan near Ren, he raised his hand, eyes glowing blue.

Arslan hit the forcefield that sprung into existence before her face-first. She recovered quickly, pushing off of it and flipping over the top of the barrier. She clenched her hand into a fist and hurtled directly towards Ren.

Ren twisted around, crossing his arms in a guard. Then he smirked as Arslan made contact - and his body turned translucent.

"Wha-?" Instead of smashing into Ren, Arslan met a pair of wide green eyes and a manic smile.

"Yea-h-h!" Nora swung her hammer straight through Ren's phased body. She knocked Arslan back into Jaune's forcefield, which shattered on impact.

"What was that?" Jaune said, shrugging his shoulders as he approached Arslan's crumpled form. "I couldn't hear what you were saying about my leadership skills over your beat down."

Arslan lifted her head. "Tch," she spat, rolling forward. As she rose to her feet, she drove her fist into Nora's stomach, who went flying. Ren was on her in the next moment, aiming for Arslan's head with several quick punches.

She blocked him easily; soon Ren's flurry of strikes turned into defensive blocks. A few of her stronger hits tore the fabric away from his sleeves, and he winced and tried to disengage.

"What, no more tricks?" Arslan sneered, pulling her arm back for a final, shattering blow.

"Just one!" Ruby yelled, sweeping her scythe out in a deadly arc. Arslan cursed and sprung out of the way, but this time Ruby kept up with her. When Arslan threw her dagger to pull herself out of range, Ruby swung Crescent Rose towards the rope, parting it cleanly. The momentum of Arslan's own aborted swing flung her to the ground. She rolled to a stop, and Ruby put out an extra burst of speed to follow her, trailing rose petals.

"You think this will hold me?" Arslan spat as Ruby planted her scythe over the other woman's neck, trapping her. Arslan leaned back and scissored her legs in a circle, knocking both Ruby and the scythe away. She tried to flip to her feet, only to be slammed back down by another of Jaune's forcefields, which crushed her into the ground.

"Give up yet?" Jaune asked, sauntering over and planting one foot on top of his barrier. He leaned forward and grinned at Arslan, who stopped struggling.

"You guys are assholes," Arslan ground out. Rolling her eyes, she raised her voice. "I yield to the assholes with the overpowered Semblances. Happy now?"

"They're not overpowered," Jaune answered, dissolving the forcefield and offering Arslan a hand. "Semblances are meant to be used."

"Your monster monkey fists are what're overpowered," Ruby added under her breath, checking Crescent Rose for damage. She looked up as Jaune gave her a pat on the back.

"Good job, Ruby," he said warmly. Then he looked over his shoulder. "Ren! Is Nora okay?"

"I'm fine! Totally fine!" Nora burst out of the pile of rubble created by her crash landing and waved at them with a sunny smile. "Whew, that girl can pack a punch!"

"She hits even harder than you," Ren noted, fingering his tattered sleeves with dismay. "Did you have to do that?" he added, glaring at Arslan. "This was a gift from my grandmother."

Arslan dusted herself off. "Don't blame me. You're the one dumb enough to wear a family heirloom into battle."

"Hey! I don't see a problem here," Jaune interrupted. He shooed a quietly fuming Ren off in Nora's direction. "We're proud of showing the world where we came from. Crocea Mors is ancient too, but we still beat you."

"Pfaugh!" Arslan looked annoyed. "You beat me with your teammates, not your sword, pretty boy. Speaking of which - where are those useless idiots of mine?"

"We're not useless." Bolin, the least-battered member of Team ABRN, approached them, carrying Reese over his shoulder.

"Oh!" Ruby said, dismayed. "Did I hurt her?"

"Not exactly…" Bolin trailed off as Reese kicked her legs out with a wild yell.

"Let me go! I'm gonna kill her! You broke my board again, Ruby!" Bolin winced as the smaller girl smacked him on the back with a piece of her hoverboard. "This is the third time!"

Oops… I guess I miscalculated my speed when I hit her. Wincing, Ruby took a careful step away from them and avoided Jaune's sudden scrutiny. "I… can help you fix it later?"

Reese finally managed to kick herself off of Bolin's shoulder. "You better! Do you know how much this thing costs?" She held up her smashed board, glaring. "With the price of Dust crystals going through the roof, I can barely afford to maintain it!"

"I can make it better than before," Ruby mumbled, somewhat mollifying the skater.

Arslan looked between them. "And where's the last member of the Stooges Three?"

"We found him." Nora and Ren approached with a limping Nadir slung between their shoulders.

"We're supposed to graduate this year." Arslan's tone grew frosty; she stood directly before her teammate and crossed her arms. "The way you're going, you'll fail. Give up on becoming a Huntsman, Nadir. You're a fourth year and you can't even last two seconds in a spar."

Nadir dropped his head, blinking in shame, and Ruby winced.

"Hey," Jaune said, stepping forward. "Lay off him. He tried his best. He's your teammate, you should be giving him support and pointers, not cutting him down!"

Arslan spun, redirecting her glare towards Jaune. "No. That's the problem with you Vale softies. You baby your team too much. If you want to be strong, the only person you can depend on to get you there is yourself." Her glare faded into a wry smirk. "Look at where your kind of thinking got Beacon."

Ruby clenched her fists. "That's not fair!" she shouted. "You were there, you saw -"

"I saw your academy fall because you were counting on your Headmaster to save you. That same Headmaster who went missing during your time of greatest need."

"Ozpin's not dead - !" Ruby's words choked off as Jaune yanked her back by her cape.

"That was a cheap shot, Arslan," he said, eyes narrowing. "You know what day it is."

Arslan shrugged, unapologetic. "Cheap shots are the only kind the Grimm know how to take. Huntsmen can't be weak. If Nadir can't cut it, I'm doing him a favor by telling him now. Before a Grimm decides to teach him that lesson permanently."

"Hey!" Nora trembled with anger, not noticing how Nadir's face turned grey when her grip on his arm tightened. "We're not weak, you harpy! You wanna go again right now, huh?"

Ren sighed and carefully pried Nora's fingers off of Nadir. "Today's a bad day to provoke her. We should just leave."

"Yeah," Jaune said. He paused and gave Arslan a hard look. "I don't care what you think of me. Heck, it's probably true. But if you call my team soft again, we will have a rematch. And we won't hold back like we did just now, Arse."

Ruby chose not to scold him this time.

Arslan's eye twitched, but she stopped when Bolin grabbed her shoulder.

"Boss. Let it go," he said. "We need to get Nadir to the clinic."

Shaking him off, Arslan sniffed. She reached out and grabbed Nadir, pulling him out of Ren's grasp and slinging him over her shoulder with one arm. "Team ABRN. Scramble." Before they left, she looked back and gave Jaune a mocking wink. "See you around, pretty boy."

"We're just gonna let her go like tha-mpfh!" Nora's yell cut off as Ren covered her mouth.

Jaune's aggressive posture dropped as soon as the other team was out of sight; he sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "Well… I guess it's another win for Team RNJR?"

Ruby, reining her temper in more quickly than Nora did, sheathed Crescent Rose. "Personally, I think she's still mad at you for turning her down."

"Really?" Ren said, grunting a little as Nora struggled. "I thought she was trying to flirt with him."

Nora finally escaped from Ren's clutches and huffed. "Well, our little Jaune can't help being one of the most eligible bachelors around, can he?" She hopped over and grabbed Jaune's cheeks, pinching them with an adoring coo. "Just look at that face!"

Said face, besides being stretched wide by Nora's tight grip, was also turning the same shade as Ruby's cloak. "Let me go!" he squealed.

Nora released her pincher hold on his cheeks and slapped them with her palms instead. "Don't you even consider it, Jaune! That witch doesn't deserve you! She doesn't even deserve her own team!"

Jaune's embarrassment faded. "I know," he said, herding them out of the arena.

Ruby whistled. "Whoa! You're actually agreeing with Nora about something?"

Pinking, Jaune stammered, looking less like a fearless team leader and more like the awkward boy Ruby had come to know at Beacon. "Actually, I don't think she's all that bad! Arslan's pretty powerful and she's on our side. It's just that…" He trailed off, and an air of quiet melancholy overtook him.

Ruby studied him from the corner of her eye; the funks Jaune would periodically fall into were exactly what made him so attractive - and unavailable - to the other female students. That, and his tendency to engage in sacrificial heroics. In Haven's ruthless society, an attitude like his was almost inconceivable. It was fortunate that Jaune's immense aura capacity and Semblance made his unique approach survivable.

Only a few people knew that Jaune's most distinctive traits were just the surface of the troubled legacy Pyrrha had left behind. Ruby counted herself lucky to be one of them.

"It's too soon," Ruby finished for him, and their post-battle euphoria dissipated like spent Dust.

Jaune's throat bobbed, and he stopped in the hallway leading to their dorms. "It's been three years today," he finally managed to say. Ren and Nora crowded around him, shielding his grief from the curious eyes of the other students. Ruby said nothing, but it was written on everyone's faces - three years since Pyrrha's death.

She watched them huddle, and tried not to feel like an outsider - Pyrrha was her friend, too - but she wasn't party to the unique pain shared by the surviving the members of Team JNPR. The sharp stab of loss when she thought about Team RWBY came pretty close, though.

Ruby cleared her throat. "Sparring today was probably a bad idea," she said, making her way towards the privacy of her own dorm room. "We've all got a lot on our minds right now."

Jaune looked up, noticing Ruby drifting off. "Get back here," he groused, pulling her into their group hug. "Don't do that. You're part of our team now."

"Yeah!" Nora said, sniffing as she clutched Ruby in a bone-crushing embrace. "It's not like we think of you as her replacement. Well, I mean, you sorta are, but that's different! Oh… this is coming out all wrong. Ren! Fix it!"

"What Nora meant to say is that you're a valuable member of our team. RNJR wouldn't be the same without you." Ren's voice choked off as Nora squealed and glomped him.

Watching their antics, Ruby felt some of her moodiness fading. "Yeah, I guess 'JuNioR' does kind of stink as a team name." Extracting herself from the others, she gave them a thankful smile. "Not that I don't appreciate the sentiment, but I really do need to take a break right now. Arslan hit my baby pretty hard, I'm not sure if she damaged Crescent Rose."

Nora's cheeks puffed up in a pout. "You and that weapon of yours! It's no wonder you can't get a boyfriend. Or a girlfriend! You're already in a monogamous relationship with an oversized sickle!"

"Crescent Rose is a high-caliber sniper-scythe, thank you very much," Ruby said haughtily. She patted her weapon. "There there, sweetie. Auntie Nora didn't mean to hurt your feelings."

"Fine, fine, I can see you two need some time alone to celebrate your victory." Nora smirked. "Come on, Ren. After a battle like that, I need food! Or at least a stiff drink to get over Arslan's ugly face."

"Nora, you're not old enough to drink yet…"

"Stop focusing on the details!" Nora yelled as she dragged her hapless companion away.

Ruby laughed at them and tried to edge towards her room.

"Wait a sec, Ruby. I need to talk to you."

Freezing, Ruby resisted the urge to disappear in a cloud of rose petals. Carefully smoothing her expression, she turned around and smiled at Jaune. "What's up? Was there a problem with my performance today?"

"What? No! No, you were good!" Jaune sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "You're always good, Ruby, you know that. You train harder than anyone else."

"Then what…"

Jaune shushed her and glanced around. "Not here," he said, gesturing at her room.

She ushered him inside and shut the door behind them. "Jaune! You know people are going to talk if they catch wind of you hanging out in my dorm room, alone."

For once, Jaune's embarrassment didn't get the best of him. "Ruby," he said with a knowing look. "Stop using it."

Ruby jerked and forced herself to stop moving. It was too late, he'd seen the movement. Jaune's stern look morphed into one of anger. She dropped her head and sighed in defeat. A cloud of rose petals exploded around her and faded. "Fine. I'm not right now, okay?"

Jaune's frown remained firmly entrenched on his face. "I meant stop using it for the rest of today. And tomorrow. And anytime we're not sparring, actually."

Ruby glared at him, sulking. "You're the one who said our Semblances were meant to be used."

"Not like this!"

She recoiled from Jaune's unexpected shout, eyes widening.

He sighed and rubbed his head, trying to calm down. "Look, I know you're trying hard. I get it. But can't you see what keeping your Semblance active is doing to you?"

Recovering from her surprise, Ruby scowled at him. "For your information, I know what it's doing to me. It's making me the best Huntress-in-Training Haven Academy's ever seen." Jaune's face was tightening in anger again, so she pressed her assault. "I've doubled the amount of time I can spend training! I'm slowing my rate of aura depletion! I can use my Semblance for longer than ever before! I'm getting better -"

She was shocked into silence when Jaune grabbed her shoulders. "Ruby. I know it hurts. Stop trying so hard. Please, not today."

"I can take care of myself, you know -" she said with less vehemence, but he only spun her around and marched her across the room. She let him; Jaune was her best friend. They knew each other inside out, and she knew just how much his heart still hurt over losing Pyrrha. He'd discovered the depths of his feelings too late. In his grief, he latched onto her like one of his missing sisters. In truth, she'd done the same to him - she needed his support as an older sibling just as much, especially after Yang all but gave up on that job.

They stopped in front of the full-length mirror mounted on her wall; Jaune released her to pull away the fabric she'd draped over most of it. "Look! Your hair grew again. Nora said you got it cut yesterday!"

Shoot, I knew I missed something. "I - I'm a fast grower -" Ruby hedged.

"You're eighteen years old!" As if to prove his point, Jaune stood behind her. She wasn't quite as short as before; almost as tall as Yang, she realized with a start; that was at least another centimeter or two since the beginning of the year. He was right; her hair was longer; lazy to have missed that. Maybe keeping the mirror covered wasn't such a good idea, even if it did make it easier to ignore the changes in her body.

"I've heard of growth spurts, but if you keep this up you're going to look older than us by the time we graduate." He trailed off. "I don't understand why. Why are you doing this to yourself?"

"I'm trying to grow up!" Ruby met his eyes in the mirror. "The world doesn't need another child who can't do anything. I need to catch up! I need to be able to -"

Jaune cut her off with a snort. "This isn't catching up, Ruby. This is you running."

Ruby dropped her gaze. "You know why," she mumbled. "Today's when everything went wrong." The anniversary of Pyrrha's death. Of Penny's death. Of Ozpin going missing and the Grimm running rampant over Beacon. The third anniversary of the destruction of Team RWBY.

She closed her eyes. Maybe it did make her a horrible person, but it was the last one that got to her the most, more than any other loss. Weiss was trapped in Atlas, chafing under her father's iron thumb. Blake was still running, missing without a single word even after three years. And Yang, her own sister, remained a pale shadow wasting away in Patch, watching and waiting for Blake to come back.

She didn't realize Jaune was hugging her until she managed to bring her sobs under control. He didn't seem to mind that she was ugly-crying all over his suit of armor, though he did offer her a large wad of tissues when he let her go. "I'm sorry," she said, half-referring to his mucus-stained pauldron. "And… thanks," she added with a touch more embarrassment, blowing her nose.

Jaune said nothing and gave her enough space to recover her dignity; he'd always been good at reading people. It was probably why he was the best choice to lead Team RNJR.

It was a silly team name - at Haven, they'd given her that honor, and the remains of team JNPR. Ruby had seceded to Jaune immediately; they were both still smarting from the events at Beacon. The difference was that Jaune was more driven than ever to keep his remaining team together, while Ruby struggled helplessly with her complete and utter failure to do the same. The team name never changed, but it was an open secret that Jaune was the one who really sailed their ship.

Cleaning the last of the mess from her face, she noticed Jaune studying the prosthetic arm spread out across her desk.

"You've been working on it again?" he asked, poking it. He jumped back when a panel on the forearm flipped open, snapping out into a small shield.

"Yeah! Your weapon's the one that gave me the idea to put the shield in," Ruby said, her excitement growing. Weapons development - now that was a language she could speak. "I was thinking of giving The Duke a Dust funnel, but it'd have to be in powder format, and I thought that might be too volatile since Yang would be punching -"

Jaune's pitying look stilled the words in her throat. She swallowed, touching a panel on the limb and retracting the shield.

"Did she even try the last one on?"

"No…" A sudden spike of anger curled in Ruby's breast. Weiss got into a lot of trouble smuggling her the blueprints for the state-of-the-art prosthetic; Ruby tried not to think too hard of the fact that they'd probably belonged to Penny. Building the initial arm had been time-consuming and expensive. When Yang returned the package to her unopened the first year, Ruby was crushed. The second year, she was worried. This year - well, this year she was mad. "But she'd better take it this time, or I'm going back to Patch and welding it on her myself!"

"She's grieving," Jaune told her. "You can't speed up that process by building her a new arm."

"At least I can try, can't I?" Ruby snapped. Carefully covering the arm with a sheet, she let out a slow breath. "None of this would be happening if I just could've held my team together."

"It wasn't your fault -" Jaune said staunchly.

"No. I've been asking myself this for three years," she told him. "What could I have done differently? I should have stayed with them. I thought I could do everything by myself, and instead -" She trailed off, sinking onto her bed. "No matter how fast I run, the answer keeps catching up to me."

Jaune sat next to her, frowning. "Well, if your demons keep chasing you… then maybe it's time we go meet them head-on."

Ruby looked up. "What do you mean?"

"You're wondering about what happened at Beacon, right? Maybe we should go and find out." He clasped his hands together and looked at them. "I have questions too, you know. I want… I need to see Pyrrha's -" He cut himself off. "I mean, maybe we're both strong enough to find some answers now."

"You're talking about going back to Vale," Ruby breathed. "It's a warzone there, Jaune. I heard Glynda's holding a settlement full of survivors together in the town, but the dragon's still on the tower and the Grimm just keep coming." Even as she spelled out all of the reasons Jaune's idea was bad, she couldn't help the spark of excitement that his words lit within her. "... are you sure we're ready?"

Jaune's face hardened. "Maybe we've waited too long. What have we been training for in the last three years, if not to find answers?" Relaxing, he smiled at her. "Besides, someone has to keep you company. You may look as old as the rest of us, but you're still our junior mentally."

Scowling, Ruby struck his arm. "You say that like you don't know anything about Nora," she protested. Then she stilled. "You said us. You do mean Ren and Nora too?"

"We're a team," Jaune answered. "We stick together, thick and thin. All of us need closure."

Ruby turned over his offer in her head. She'd seen Penny and Pyrrha die; Yang was crippled, Weiss was trapped and Blake was gone. The Grimm were more active than ever, Dust shortages were hitting the four kingdoms even harder than the White Fang, and there were rumors of war brewing among the Councils. And the woman responsible for it all - Cinder - had disappeared, vanished just as thoroughly as Ozpin. She thought of Arslan's mocking criticism of Vale, and wondered if it held a grain of truth. If we're really on our own, then what are we waiting for?

"It's not just about us," Jaune said aloud, echoing her thoughts. "The world needs answers. If no one's going to look for them, then - isn't that our job now? As Huntsmen?"

Ruby tried to hide her smile unsuccessfully. "We haven't graduated yet, you know."

Jaune returned her smile, but his was more tired than hers. Ruby reminded herself again that he'd loved Pyrrha; in a way, he was the one who'd suffered the most. "We all graduated three years ago."

Ruby took his hand. "So... Beacon, then?"

"Beacon," he answered, his fingers tightening around hers. "Together, this time."

Notes:

Semblances (mostly non-canon):

Jaune's Semblance is the creation of forcefields without Dust. His stamina and ability to soak more damage than others is because of his huge aura, not his Semblance. When Jaune uses his Semblance, his eyes glow blue.

Ren's Semblance is phasing, the ability to become partially incorporeal and pass through objects. He can extend this skill to anything he touches, like his clothes - or other people. He can also manipulate aura more skillfully than others, but this isn't his Semblance - and it still tires him out.

Nora's Semblance and abilities are exactly the same as her canon ones.

Ruby's Semblance is speed which evolved to minor time manipulation (on herself only); her non-canon practice of maintaining it constantly is an attempt to "raise" her aura pool as well as manage her aura expenditure more efficiently. In case it wasn't clear, yes, it also has the side effect of aging her too rapidly.

The prosthetic arm Ruby designed is named after John Wayne ("The Duke").