Jaune opened his eyes.

It was even worse this time.

That same, sickeningly sterile ceiling bore into him, as if taunting him for his failure.

He sat up, not with the panicked, desperate struggle of before, but with the slow, staggered action of despondence.

His breathing quickened, and quickened, culminating in a choked sob, as he sat desperate to get enough air into his lungs.

"Jaune!"

Weiss came forward, worried, desperate to help.

He didn't look up.

He didn't react to her presence, and only hunched forward, hands buried in his hair, clenching clumps in his fists.

She was gone. And he couldn't save her. It was too late, there was nothing he could do.

He felt arms slide around his shoulders, and he flinched.

Weiss had stopped him. She'd stopped him from going back, from saving her, from-

He froze.

It wasn't her fault. She couldn't see it the same way he did. She hadn't stopped him from going back, she'd stopped him from dying as far as she was concerned. Gods, he wanted to hate her, to hit her, to make her suffer just like he was now. But he couldn't. Not for this.

"Jaune, I need you to calm down, you're going to be fine."

He gave a short, barking laugh in response. But there was no joy in it, no pleasure. Just spite, and anger, though she couldn't tell if it was directed at her, her statement, or himself. She sat down by his side slowly, hands in her lap, in a prim and proper manner. Her perfect poise, even now, was almost funny. Almost.

"Jaune."

He looked up at her, for the first time since waking up. Weiss cringed at how empty his eyes seemed, although she could see the misery that lay just behind them. She looked down to the side, and spoke.

"B-... before we brought you here... you tried to... you were trying to do something that I couldn't let you do. I just... I need to know you're not going to try it again Jaune. I can't let that happen." She looked back up to him, to see his eyes glistening. "Please. Promise me, that you won't do anything stupid."

He dragged his hand down his face, before replying in a rough, emotional voice.

"I wasn't trying to kill myself, Weiss." She flinched at his blunt words. "I was trying to save her."

She recoiled, and tensed the arm wrapped around his shoulders.

"Jaune... " She winced, unsure how to approach this. She steeled herself for the harsh words she needed to say. "Your death wouldn't have brought her back. Nothing you did could, and I'm sorry. But she wouldn't have wanted you to die pointlessly. There was nothing you could have done."

"You're wrong."

She was startled, and frustrated by his blunt response. She'd vainly hoped that he might have seen sense since then. Emotions had a way of clouding judgement, of course, but surely now he could start to see-

"I've never told you what my semblance does, have I?"

Weiss blinked at the non-sequitur, unsure how to process his words.

"It's not something that's easy to understand. Or at least, it is. But you won't want to." Jaune gazed out of the window, surveying the cityscape. "When something happens that I need to change, I get to wake up that same morning, as if it had never happened at all." Weiss brows furrowed in confusion. Not because she didn't understand what he was saying, but just that he was saying it at all. It made no sense. He continued, ignorant of her internal plight. "When you say I can't change things... you're right. I can't. But I could have. But not anymore, not since I started by waking up to a new day." He started speaking more harshly, his tone bitter.

"That's how my semblance works Weiss. I get to go back only on that day, to change things, to fix things, but every time, I hav-" He cut himself off, knowing Weiss would never believe him.

He sighed. It didn't matter if she did.

"I have to die." He clenched his fists, steeling himself, before looking back and meeting her wide eyes with a fierce stare that had her frozen, unable to respond.

"I have to die, and every time I do, I wake up that same morning, in that same bed, and everything is exactly how it was. But every time, I get to change what happens, and every time I get to help, either me or anyone else."

Weiss brow furrowed in worry, and she spoke again, rapidly, as if afraid of what might happen if she didn't get her words out fast enough.

"Jaune, I- That's impossible. That's just not possible!" She looked almost angry now. "Please, you have to realise that there's nothing you could have done! Nothing you can do. I'm sorry, but you have to stop torturing yourself like this!"

She took a breath to calm down. When she'd composed herself more, she continued.

"I know this is hard, but you can't change this. I'm sorry."

She looked to see Jaune staring out the window. She folded her hands into her lap, and waited for a response, which came slowly.

"That day... at the docks. With Blake. You asked me why I was there. And I told you it was because I wanted a comic and got lost."

She frowned, nodding.

"I remember."

Jaune sighed.

"I lied."

Her eyes widened as her frown deepened.

"I was there because it was the only way I could think of to save you. I could have told the teachers, but I had no idea if they knew about Blake, or if she'd just disappear. The first time, Torchwick shot Ruby." His head turned and he met her gaze with a calm anger in his eyes. "She died."

Weiss' own eyes widened in shock.

"I jumped off the roof of Beacon, and then the next time, I tried to keep Ruby away, but then nobody saved Blake. She died, and I had to let myself get shot. Then it was Sun, or Yang. Once... once it was you."

Weiss looked down at her hands, unable to think of a reply to someone telling her she'd died, no matter the circumstance.

She froze as his hands were placed gently on her cheeks, and she met his gaze. On his face was simply a small, broken smile, with tired, sorrowful eyes.

"I've given my life so many times for all of you. And I don't regret it, not even once. It's been worth it every single time. You don't have to believe me, but I've told you the truth." He breathed out wearily. "It doesn't matter now." His hands dropped to his lap, and he turned to stare back out the window, as he finished.

"It's too late anyway.

"She's gone, and it's too late." He turned back to her, eyes watering. "There's nothing I can do. But there was something I could have done. And I didn't." He gave a broken, cracked sigh. "She's gone, Weiss. Sh-" He took another, dragging breath which tore at her heart, her eyes tearing up further as she felt on trail down her cheek.

"She's gone."

Her tears fell more freely, and soon his fell too. They sat there, in heart wrenching silence, unable to say a word, but joined by sorrow. Weiss didn't know whether to hug him, or leave him, and so did neither.

It was only later that she broke the melancholy quiet.

"Jaune."

He looked up at her, to see her grimacing at her scroll. She met his eyes.

"My father is coming to collect me. He's taking me back to Atlas." She frowned. "I don't have a say in the matter. I don't want to leave, but..."

Jaune nodded.

"I understand. For what it's worth... thank you. Not for what you did, but for what you meant to do." He looked out of that window again. "She would have been glad you did it."

He didn't need to say exactly who she was. They both knew. Weiss gave a brittle smile.

"I hope so. And Jaune..." She paused, to collect herself, before speaking with a slight tremor to her voice. "Take... take care of my team. Please?"

"I will." He spoke, without turning back to her. Her face fell, as she left the greatest portion of her life behind to join her Father, and to live in a glass cage.

"Goodbye, Jaune."

She turned, and left him behind.

Alone.