Disclaimer: All of RWBY belongs to Monty Oum and Roosterteeth.
"Here." The disheveled guy, Qrow I believed to be his name, grunted thrusting something into my chest before continuing off, carrying an unconscious Ruby in his arms. "Sorry kid."
"Wait!" I cried out after him. "What do you mean? What's happening? Is Ruby ok? Where's Pyrrha?" I had so many questions running through my head that I couldn't make any sense of the situation unfolding before me, I mean the whole academy had been turned into a living hell. The man never answered a single question he merely continued on his way, obviously preoccupied with seeking help for Ruby.
"Was that Ruby, Jaune?" Nora, limped up to me. She must have seen our exchange and have seen the unconscious girl he was carrying. "Wait what are you holding?"
This brought my attention to what the drunk had thrust into my chest, it took me a moment to register what the item was. A golden head piece with two metal chains looped round the sides with 2 green gems attached, I believe they were emeralds. It looked awfully familiar to me as well but I couldn't recall why.
"No." Nora gasped. I turned my attention away from the item, and back to the other red head on my team, and saw that her eyes were welling up with tears and that she was now kneeling on the floor. "It can't be..."
"What can't it be, Nora?" I asked confused taking a step towards the distressed woman. Why was she so upset?
"Jaune." I felt a gentle palm lay on my shoulder stopping me in my tracts and I twisted my head to see who it belongs too. I saw the familiar face of my other team mate and Nora's original partner and my closest male friend, Ren.
"Where's Pyrrha?" I asked him, desperately hoping beyond hope that he'd seen her on his way back from being treated in the medic tent, that they'd set up for those who had stayed to fight the grimm invasion. Though from the growing sense of dread in the pit of my stomach I had the feeling I wasn't going to get the answer I desired.
He didn't answer me with words, he merely titled his head downward towards what I was holding in my hands. That's when it dawned on me. It was Pyrrha's. That was why it was so familiar to me yet seemed so unfamiliar at the same time. I saw it every day wrapped around the beautiful woman's head so of course it would seem weird to me not to see her wearing the head piece.
"No, it can't be..." I dropped the item in shock, it didn't belong in my hands, it shouldn't be off the head of the woman it belonged too. Pyrrha never took this thing off unless she was sleeping and even then she put it straight back on when she awoke. She loved it.
"No." Nora wailed, to which Ren went over and pulled her in for a comforting embrace. "Pyrrha can't be gone."
I slumped to the floor, staring at the metal trinket. It had to be a lie, there must be some way to explain why she wasn't wearing her prized possession. Pyrrha was a warrior, she was the strongest huntress in training at this academy, she was untouchable in battle. There was no way someone could have defeated her.
"It's...I...no." I stammered incoherently. My head was a chaotic mess of thoughts, memories and denial. "I just saw her."
The memory of our last encounter ran through my head. I had been trying to stop Pyrrha from going to battle the master mind behind all the carnage that was ensuing around us, then she'd argued with me before pulling me in for a kiss, my very first kiss. Her lips had felt so soft upon my own, her perfume had surrounded me in a wonderful daze and it had felt as if time had stopped. As if there was only the two of us in the whole universe. It had truly been a perfect moment, one that would stay with me for the rest of my days.
"Jaune." I lifted my head to see who was calling my name to see my fellow team mates looking at me with distressed faces of their own. Nora had tears streaming down her face and that fact alone made the dread in my stomach worsen, it wasn't like the bubbly woman to ever cry let alone look as if she'd been defeated. Ren was stood stoically by her side, face grim and his eyes held the same saddened look as Nora's. "Pyrrha is..."
"NO!" I cried out shaking my head, cutting him off before he could finish. I refused to even consider that possibility for even half a second. I couldn't even stand to hear the words spoken aloud.
"Just look at the state Ruby was in." Nora interjected, a fresh wave of tears cascading down her face. "And just look at the evidence its right in front of you."
Then I remembered the unconscious Ruby that had been carried away by her uncle if she was in that bad shape after the fight then maybe it was true, I mean Ruby was one of those girls that was really hard to beat when she set her mind to a battle. And to date I'd never seen her lose a battle either. Tears began to well and my throat tightened as the impossible idea that I may never see my beautiful red headed partner again started to look as if it might be in actuality a real possibility. "Oh god."
I felt two sets of arms enclose me and then hold on to me. I knew this was their way of trying to comfort me without words. But it wasn't very comforting, in fact it just drove home to me the fact of the matter. Pyrrha was gone!
"It..it's not...fair?" I choked out, the dam of tears finally breaking. "She...was ..."
I trailed off there as the emotions became too hard to handle and I just sobbed uncontrollably into the arms of my team as did they in mine and there we stayed wrapped in our own private world of misery, mourning the lose of our friend.
What was Pyrrha to me?
I'd spent every waking moment with that question running around in my mind trying to find an answer for the last week since that disastrous day. I knew what I'd meant to her.
Pyrrha had obviously loved me for a long time, she'd protected me, she had tried to teach me about my semblance, she had stood silently by while I'd tried and failed to court Weiss encouraging me and keeping quiet about her own feelings. Why had she loved me at all? God I am truly contemptible. How could I have been so blind to her? So oblivious to her affection towards me?
"I loved her..." I whispered under my breath at the realization that I should have come to much sooner hit me. All I'd been able to think about was the warrior redhead. Every conversation we'd shared, every team mission we'd been on, our last moments together. That last moment when she'd shown me how she had truly felt, that last bitter sweet moment that we'd shared together had been haunting me ever since. If only I'd been able to give her an answer to the question she'd left me in that one act. If only I'd shouted after her that I loved her and not to leave me. If only I'd fought harder for her. If only...
I set the flowers I was carrying down in front of the head masters tower the last place where Pyrrha had been seen alive and took a deep breath as I felt something inside my chest break as I realized it was true she was gone and never coming back, feeling the tears threatening to over take me again. I looked up at the bleak sky and hoped that where ever she was now Pyrrha was at peace.
"Goodbye." I whispered up at the sky, feeling the wind against my face as an image of her beautiful face with her vivid green eyes and scarlet red hair popped up clear as crystal to my mind. "Until we meet again."