A/N: ...My hand slipped...
I do not own RWBY, Monty Oum and Roosterteeth productions does.
Every legacy must come to an end, whether the era called for it or it was forced to change under the duress of the worlds' people.
And 2 very prominent lines were minutes away from death. Well to be exact, one.
The plan was simple, he would use any and everyone around him to get what he wanted. All under the guise of team CRME and the White Fangs' banner.
He had fooled everyone into thinking he was the idiot everyone so proclaimed, spilled a tiny secret about his transcripts being a lie and confided in who would be his most valuable tool. So under the guise of her training him, he got personal with her, purposefully flaunting his affections towards another party member that was clearly not interested.
It did not matter, it served it's purpose to further cause the Spartan to drop her guard.
And ah the dance where he pretended to hear her out about her longing affections for him. He was an Arc after all, even though he hated living up to family promises, he did promise her when his own guard was down that he would dance with her in a dress if she failed to find a date.
He cavorted around as if he owned the place in that dress, just waiting for the intel from Mercury that told him Cinder had done her job. And from then on, everything started to fall apart;
For the students at Beacon Academy that is.
Slowly everyone fell by his hand; they took him for granted, believed he could do nothing on his own unless the great Pyrrha Nikos was around to help. But he needed no one's help unless it was his respected brothers, his family.
But now things were coming to an end. And he had final met his match.
Much like an abandoned warehouse the stage or the finally battle. Teams RWBY and (J)NPR had infiltrated the facility to stop Roman and Cinder. Mercury and Emerald had since fallen, it was a tragedy for Jaune. Holding a present grudge for Yang did not help him when he was exposed as the double-agent inside of Beacon. Smiling as the goofy idiot that everyone knew with blood covering his black armored torso.
It was the blood of Neptune when he killed him in their assault.
He had come with them as the leader of their team, and now they all looked at him as if he were a madman on the wrong side.
It started with loaded gunfire rounds being fired at him from all directions from his aggressors. He fled the scene as quickly as his blade had pierced the blue-haired mans' heart. He did not feel sorry, It only made Weiss break more. Now it was clear everyone was out for his blood and he was no longer one of them.
He didn't feel the least bit sorry.
Everyone had scattered and from the looks on everyone's faces, Pyrrhas' heart had shattered.
So here they were, neck and neck, bloodied, beaten, and ready to just give it up. A secluded room was their battleground while the other hunters made for Cinder's location. Least to say, Jaune and Pyrrha had a...'heart to heart'.
She flung questions at him left and right while waving her deadly weapon. The strong Mistral champion was falling apart at how she fell in love with a criminal. Angry gunfire and shredded pieces of armor started to litter the ground they duked it out. For a while she gaining the upper hand, while Jaune made to interrogate her and sow the dark seeds in her mind.
"You were so easy to manipulate."
'Four time Mistral champion, felled by a broken heart."
"I wish I could cry for you, but I've run out of sympathy when I was on the streets."
But for a while, the evil knight had a growing affection for her, thinking he could coerce her to turn for his cause. Her talents were going to waste at Beacon, why not turn a threat into a 2nd tool to work from?
So he worked her in his favor. Try to make her want him in a way.
But she was too much a do-gooder to be persuaded. Shame it didn't work out. He would have to end her.
After all, the stage they were in was the final battle, this time there would be no running away to regroup. Cinder wanted them down. This room blocked off by the explosions hitting the compound and rubble falling everywhere would be her grave.
Jaune and Pyrrha's battle was fierce, Pyrrha in a sense of honor, did not use her polarity unless directly needed. Jaune agreed as well. Deep within him, he knew neither would be leaving this room. This was all or nothing for the safety of the world.
But now as the knight sat on his knees, sword fallen to the ground and marked in blood from their encounter, he really really thought about his life from the question his former partner asked him.
"Why did you do all this?"
The blood slowly pooling in his mouth made him spit harshly, down to the broken armor of his back, a large blood stain seeping through the rest of his white hoodie.
Pyrrha Nikos had won, but in an end result herself was not the picture of a star athlete. Her arm brace broken into a small bracelet around her left arm. Missing scattered pieces of her leg armor cracked horribly and the only cloth parts of her attire were in disarray. Her crown she so proudly wore upon her head had been long cracked in half by Jaune in a fierce head butt that sent her reeling. They were of no threat to each other now that it was clear one was on the verge of death. Pyrrha tried to crawl towards his slumped over from, and gathered herself on her own knees before him. Jaune could admit he found his match in battle after all. If he was not under his guise of a doofus, he would have truly asked her for a full-on match, just between him and her.
"I...wanted something better." As much was said before he forced back down the violet wretch of coughing, only making his wound worse, or a quicker death. "To make my world a reality." His reply weaker than before.
"And I wanted you to be a part of it." Admitting to her he did have some affection for her. His last moments looking at her face though bloody and marred, was one of peace after his words were said. She showed no sign of anger, or hate. But of peace.
Jaune Arc, knew at some point he had fallen for the red clad warrior, but it was better to keep work and love life separate. But there was no love from how he first came to be. So why not tell her now, and give her peace of mind before his mission was complete and fall from this world. He truly did want her to join him for the end of the kingdoms to be united by one.
The sounds of high alarms went off all around them, the structure they were was shaking violently. Pyrrha looked around for the cause while the blond in front of her smiled softly. "So they've done it, they've killed her." While this might have been elation to Pyrrha, Janue knew what was coming.
"If they've done it, why are their alarms blaring everywhere...what, have they done.." Realizations lowly dawned in her green eyes looking to Jaune in horror.
"It was a failsafe. Should she fall, this place goes up in flames. Everyone not out in about...5 minutes will burn." Keeping his tone low and sardonic, he chanced a look at her face, only slight shock apparent but still the peaceful look. he knew this look causing panic in his eyes. It was the same look he himself was wearing.
'She's given up.'
Slowly, blue eyes led down her form spotting the occurrence of her battle she tried to hide. Beneath her, blood was pooling at an alarming rate, seeing the trail come from the sides of her back, staining her armor. How he didn't notice before too caught up in his reverie of the events transpiring was beyond him.
He had felled the great Pyrrha Nikos as well.
A gentle hand reached out to bring his shoulder closer moving him forward. He realized then she had pulled him into an embrace, cradling the back of his head.
"We are...about to meet our end, aren't we?" The whisper spoken in his ear sounded like music, smiling as he let himself be engulfed by her. The area around them crumbled, lights shattered and an even more violent explosion rocked the both. But Pyrrha had a strong grip on the man she once loved. She finally had a second to laugh to herself.
"Once upon a time, I dreamed of dying on the battlefield, at a much later age than 18 defending the people from Grimm. But now I find myself, ourselves, in a lovers' embrace." To truly admit she loved him brought a great relief to her, letting happy tears shed in the hour of their deaths.
They both started to feel themselves loose their warmth, even with the fires from upper floors spreading around them. They were alight as if in hell itself. Jaune could barely feel them, but had a revelation once that he would go up in flames.
But with his vision fading, he swore to himself, in the distance he saw just a partway of rubble cleared. Figures moving and trying to work away the rock. Shoutings of Pyrrha's name reaching his ears. A rescue party eh? They too were trig to recover who would be their last teammate to escape the building. But the more rubble they moved, more seemed to obstruct them. He grinned at their effort, a valiant one.
He wandered back to what Pyrrha had said before, and now looking at them trying to break at least her out. One of them made eye contact with him for a second.
The Spartan looked back herself, her face just the vision of sadness, and fulfillment. Those that could see, saw the very prominent bloodstained hole in her back leading down to the floor in a mess. Only having mere seconds to react to the scene of two battle-worn warriors finally retiring, did the rest of the small entryway collapse in front of. Frantic yelling and cursed to try to make their gateway back to them.
It was a wonder she survived this long. He made his move and let the limp hand come across his lovers' back, to hold her more securely to him. He let his eyes drift now, closing them eternally with a final breath.
"Stay and die, now that's an idea I can get behind."
His reply faded into the roaring sounds of the fire, but she heard him, just before the ceiling collapsed in on themselves.