'Why the fuck would she do this? God damn it…'

Jaune Arc, the huntsman in training, sat hunched over on the shattered pavement. Smoke and ash fell around him. Distantly there were terrible screams and moans of pain – fear – agony. Monstrous roars and sirens flooded the boy's ears, yet he blocked it all out with his eyes bound to the pavement.

'Why didn't she listen? Why couldn't I have stopped her? I should have fucking stopped her!'

He repeatedly slammed his fist against the concrete as tears fell down his face. The pain of rubble piercing his skin hardly discouraged him.

Once he finally pulled his head up, he saw his scroll – broken into pieces. For some reason the stupidity of breaking his only source of communication rattled him. The boy quickly began looking around him; he suddenly seemed to realize the warzone he was in.

Frantically he stood and drew his sword, certain that creatures of grimm would be after him. It only made him feel worse to know his sorrow might get him killed now. Jaune didn't recognize any landmarks on this street; he was clueless as to where he was.

'I-I need to find her. I have to get back to Beacon! I asked Weiss to help, but…'

A sudden roar erupted behind him as a beowolf leapt out a nearby alley. Jaune immediately took that as the que to run the opposite direction. He hefted his sword and shield and sprinted down the crumbling sidewalk.

'I-I mean there could be a chance, right? I couldn't name a single huntress at Beacon that could beat her! Not Ren! Not Nora! Probably not even Yang!'

Another beowolf suddenly pounced in front of Jaune, effectively blocking his path. With a yell he charged forward. The creature bounded forward and swiped with its extended claws. Jaune blocked the strike across his shield, staggering the beast, and kept his momentum to swing his sword through the beast's neck. The hunter in training continued forward as the creature dissolved.

'Besides, what was so special about that fiery bitch? She…she…she only beat Ozpin…'

Jaune felt tears building up again. He tried to hold them back as he screamed in anger and ran forward only faster. He leapt over ruined structures, past burning buildings, and hauntingly past grimm that were already enjoying their captured prey.

'Damn it, Pyrrha! I-'

As Jaune sprinted around a corner, he immediately slammed into to something, angrily grunting. After tumbling to the ground, he looked up in a daze at several Atlesian soldiers, all with their rifles pointed at him.

"Calm down, it's just one the students," one of them said, prompting the rest to lower their weapons. The soldier Jaune had ran into offered the boy a hand, helping him to his feet.

"Are you alright?"

Jaune shook his head, panting, "I have to get to Beacon! There's a huntress there and she needs help. There's some woman using fire dust or something that-"

"Hold on there," the soldier interjected with his hand raised, "The campus has been entirely overrun. No one's going in there. We're focusing on helping the civilians outside-"

"Did you not hear me?" Jaune yelled, his blood boiling, "Pyrrha is still at the CCT. She needs help!" Realizing the soldiers wouldn't be of any help, Jaune turned and began back down the street.

"Hey!" The soldier barked, grabbing Jaune by the arm, "Beacon is overrun with hundreds of Grimm! Hundreds! Not to mention there's a fucking giant one circling the tower in the sky. If you go back there, you'll die."

The guarantee of demise stung at Jaune as he thought of Pyrrha in that hell. Tears began to seep down his face again.

The soldier placed his arm over Jaune's shoulder, calmly adding, "Look, she could've gotten out of there. You don't know. You going in there and getting yourself killed won't help, though."

Jaune wiped his eyes, and agreed to stay with the military personnel. His thoughts were still consumed of the red-haired girl as he walked with the soldiers to the established safe zone.

…

"Jaune!"

Broken from his daze, Jaune glanced up. They'd arrived at the safe zone set up in a large plaza. The military had set up makeshift barricades with their vehicles and had massive crowds gathered around, all trying to help the injured and organize further evacuation out of the city. Among the crowds, the hunter saw his energetic teammate, Nora, running up to him with Ren following closely behind. It almost physically hurt him to see such a serious look on the care-free girl's face.

Nora crushed Jaune in a bear hug, saying, "Thank god you're okay! We had no idea what happened after you and Pyrrha went into the CCT! We were worried sick that you were still at Beacon … I …" The girl suddenly became aware of the absence of their last teammate.

Nora pulled away. Jaune could already tell the question in the air by Nora and Ren's expressions.

After a painful silence, Ren finally asked, "Jaune, where's Pyrrha?"

Jaune's gaze met the ground as he shakily replied, "I don't know." He fought another stream of tears. "We went with Ozpin into some underground chamber … then this woman with extremely powerful fire dust appeared … Ozpin made us leave so he could fight her on his own … then we left the CCT and shortly afterwards saw the woman fly to the top of the tower …" Jaune groaned, the memory still painful.

"That woman defeated Ozpin… " Jaune stated, "I was convinced we had no chance of fighting her so we needed to leave and get help, but Pyrrha decided to fight her…"

Another silence fell as the implications of such a one-sided fight lingered.

"I-I tried to stop her. I tried to convince her not to," Jaune cried, "But she … she…"

Overwhelmed, Jaune sat down on the cold pavement as he stammered out, "She just kissed me, locked me into one of the lockers, and sent me off into the city… She went up the CCT to fight the woman who defeated Ozpin…"

Both Nora and Ren were speechless. They couldn't think of any comfort to offer. The pair merely sat next to their team leader. Of course they had no idea of Pyrrha's fate. She was a capable fighter … but was she stronger than someone who bested Ozpin?

After another pitiful silence, in attempt, to change the topic, Jaune muttered, "So how's everyone else?"

Still shaken, Nora took a moment to reply, "Okay I guess. Most of the teams have shown up. Although, Ruby and Weiss are still unaccounted for. They were heading into Beacon looking for you guys."

"What?" Jaune immediately felt even worse, "No no no no no. I called Weiss asking her to help save Pyrrha. Dear god I-"

"Wait, look!" Ren interjected.

Jaune glanced over to one of the entrances to the safe zone from another street where he saw Weiss, and an older hunter carrying Ruby walk in. Jaune immediately felt a surge of relief that they were okay. However, such relief was crushed as he realized the absence of the invincible girl.

Jaune frantically stood and ran to the members of team RWBY, despite his own teammates encouraging him to wait a second.

"Weiss!" Jaune called out. The ice queen looked over at the approaching huntsman, clearly appearing uneasy. As he approached, Weiss replied, "H-hello, Jaune … I'm glad to see you're alright."

"Yeah, same to guys…" Jaune noticed Ruby's condition in the older huntsman's arms. "Is Ruby okay?"

The huntsman nodded, "Yeah, she's just unconscious. She fought an amazing fight back there."

"Good. Good …" Jaune trailed off as he moved to the next significant question, "D-do you know where Pyrrha is?"

The following silence was perhaps the worst feeling of dread Jaune had ever experienced. Jaune felt his gut twist around violently as he observed the expressions on Weiss and the hunter.

Weiss shakily began, "W-when Qrow went up the tower after Ruby-"

"No I'll tell him," Qrow interrupted. Weiss nodded her head, accepting the idea as she shifted uncomfortably.

Jaune's thoughts immediately began rushing to the darkest possible corner. He desperately plead in his thought, 'Please…please dear god…fucking please…'

Sighing, Qrow bluntly said, "Pyrrha is-"

…

Jaune sat motionless.

How long had it been by now? Days? Weeks? It hardly mattered. According to the young huntsman, nothing mattered anymore. He sat alone in his childhood room. The time following the fall of Beacon was an utter blur. All Jaune actively cared to recall was how he'd returned home to his family, feeling defeated, being an absolute failure.

He'd been sunken in thoughts as he sat at his desk, scattered with childhood sketches of monsters and warriors and his many figurines of mighty huntsmen.

'…Why the fuck would she do this. God damn it…'

His face had become red and irritated from wiping his eyes so frequently.

'…Why didn't she listen…Why couldn't I have stopped her…I-I should have…'

Jaune blinked, somewhat clearing his distorted vision.

'No…' he thought bitterly, 'She couldn't have died for nothing…She's dead because I couldn't stop her. Now that she's gone…something has to happen! I- I…'

Jaune bawled into his hands yet again muttering, "I can't do shit! I couldn't do shit with the bravest, most amazing fighter of all of Remnant, and I certainly can't do shit without her! I- I fucking failed! I-"

"Everybody needs a little push from time to time."

Startled, Jaune's eyes immediately darted around the room. "H-hello?" he called out. The room was empty. He would've sworn he'd heard…

"Your team really misses their leader you know."

Recognizing the voice now. Jaune sighed and buried his face into his hands again. Pyrrha's echoes were still attempting to offer the young huntsman strength. "Pyrrha," he muttered, "I…"

Suddenly Jaune's laptop rang with a notification. He looked over to the device sitting on his bed. After a minor debate, he decided to check it out. The huntsman relocated across the room and looked onto the screen. It was a message from … Ruby.

'I haven't talked to her since … Well, I haven't talked to anyone…' Jaune meekly thought.

He opened up the message, reading, 'Hey, meet me on patch in three days. Gather all of the supplies you can. I have a lead. I'll send more details in a bit.'

Jaune sat staring at the message for a long time. Eventually, he finally switched over to staring at his sword and shield he'd hung back up on the wall.

'Well…' Jaune thought, 'I can't do shit, but …' Jaune wiped his eyes one last time. 'Pyrrha thought I could do something, so I owe it to her to at least try something…anything…'

The huntsman stood up and removed his weapon from its place on the wall.

'…Everything…'

Jaune gazed over to a large, gray backpack in the corner of the room.

"I guess I better get packing."

This was a small project I conceived and starting after completing chapter 13 of my other story, Building a Bumblebee. Since the spring, I've been occupied with many other projects, so this was never completed. However, I felt a surge of motivation with all the hype building for Volume 4, so I finally finished this mini project before the concept becomes less relevant.

I've also enjoyed the writing break from Building a Bumblebee. I've worked a lot on other original projects and have been growing as a creator. I know there's still many waiting for chapter 14. I can't give a definite time as even though its about 30% done, I've began college classes and free time is minimal. Just know that I still plan on working on the story and I still super value all of your support!

I'm Fl00rMaster on deviantArt which I update far more frequently if you're interested in traditional art.

Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed, and hope Volume 4 will be great!