The knight gazed at the sky.

Snow.

Snow that came down from the sky above them; as a light coating of it pecked the forest around them. A beautiful day that had no sun, no moon. Only clouds that grayed the sky and bright enough for them to see the rest of the environment around them come to life as the passing breeze brushed through.

A woman sat upon the large rock. In the cold of the blanketing winter, she held something much colder in her hands, and kept it tucked close to her. The brunette does all she can to give the white-furred wolf pup warmth with her cloak. To wrap it up and share a tender care to the dying animal, as blood seeped from its side. A red essence of life that was already at too much loss to the point that it was beyond saving by natural means of medicine and nursing.

He approached the rock she sat on, and his hand gently rested upon the cold surface of the rock as he gazed at one side of her face. An emotion was expressed from her—and it was an emotion that he was no stranger to. To her, any life that was lost without having an attempt at reality first… was tragic. A hammer to the nail that verged on piercing a thick cement slab.

"Still… you cry, knowing that this is how life is."

"Why wouldn't I..?" She sobbed quietly, her near-frozen hands shaking around the near-lifeless body of a baby wolf as she held onto it for her dear life. Her lips quivered as the tears flowed down her face like droplets of rain. A foster mother to a child that she hadn't even seen before or even blood related. Not even her own kind.

"All life… is so precious, and has so much potential that anything could one day… maybe lead the world into being a better place. The end to the racism between the Faunus and Humans, the end of Grimm, the end of hate."

The cloaked brunette knew that what she said… was nothing more than a naïve dream to the blond who accompanied her and the dying pup. A blond who had already explained to her so many times over and over again like a parrot that this was something that was seen everywhere and repeated for generations and generations.

But still,

She refused to believe it.

What made the woman so strong in her time of being a huntress was the refusal to believe that there was no hope in the future and that there will be a hero to save the world. To save Remnant and the people from themselves. A darkness to be illuminated by the light that very person would bring upon the planet.

"It's a childish dream," He said in full awareness that he once wielded that same thought in the past after it failed him countlessly. Someone who knew that dream would never become a reality based on the sole fact that he had lived long enough through every instance and not had seen a single hint of it anywhere, "—but you aren't wrong for having it."

"Your dream… is a beautiful thing to have."

She fell silent, listening to him… and listened as the weak pup's breath grew lighter and paused for longer periods of time. Her face down, her teardrops melting the snow accumulating below her, and her shoulders slouched. The silver-eyed woman sniffed as her thumb caressed the side of the pup's face to brush off the snow that accumulated there. Not daring to let the baby animal to be introduced even more cold, even if it couldn't feel the cold any longer.

"What kind of hero can I be… if all I can do is watch things die, and be unable to save it at all?" She hitched as her voice croaked.

His eyes didn't leave the form of the animals cradled in her arms. A question was put out, and that very question continued to stump him to the present. It was a tragedy all on its own that no one could change or avoid.

"No matter in the face of death at any angle… smile." The knight instructed when his hand fell gently upon her hand that touched the pup, his warm hold meeting hers as he did such thing, "You will never know whenever you will have the last smile in anything, and show no fear in such fate, should it ever come across you."

Slowly, the knight rose his head, revealing the azure irises behind the locks of blond hair as a soft smile came over him. His other hand lifts from his side, the leather of his glove's palm resting on the side of her face as his thumb wiped away whatever trail her tears left on her cheeks, "In your own way, you are the light."

The pup's eyes opened groggily to see the white-cloaked huntress with silver eyes and the blond-haired knight, revealing the golden-amber eyes of the pup as it's breathing stabilized. It was too weak to move or even make a sound, but gazed with a level of exhaustion at the duo.

The knight moved his hand away from her and the pup, as the blood was gone along with the wound it once had. Warmth soon filled the pup, and all the huntress could do now was smile with utter joy. Her tears were no longer held back by sorrow and sadness, but with the relief of happiness that a life was saved. As if it meant the entire world to her.

Careful to continue embracing the baby wolf with her cloak to share her warmth, her other hand lurched forward to take ahold of his retreating hand and pulled him forward gently.

When he was close enough, she wrapped her hand around the back of his head and brought him close to her.

The knight's eyes widened as she brought his head to rest against her chest in a motherly manner, and looked up to find the woman's eyes closed with the most grateful smile plastered across her lips. It was something he didn't voice question for, and fell into the state of confusion before sighing and nodding in acceptance of her strange action.

Her voice fell soft and gentle to his ears. A voice that made the cold winter change to the warm of summer.

"Thank you, thank you so much, Jaune… I will continue to strive to become a hero, no matter what others say about my dreams. There is so much that means the world to me… and you are one of them."

He realized… that if he couldn't become a hero like he once wanted to be in the past, or couldn't save as many lives as he could have in the past… he could leave whatever hope he had left into this lone huntress.

"You are my hero."

|| W ||

Memory has been erased.

The knight stood idly by as the cannon fire of the Atlesian warship met the ground around him, obliterating bricks to dust and dirt to nothing. Round after round, he was met with a high level of oppressive force that would've killed any normal human being a million times over if it wasn't for the fact this knight was that of an ancient presence. As he walked forward, he walked through the explosions that engulfed him—and disregarded it with no interest shown to them to the very least.

"Soldiers, Huntresses, Hunters, take aim! When this volley is done, open fire!"

The knight watched as the lines of men and women of different blood and attire took their stand afar with what they called 'weapons' positioned at the ready to shoot.

"Hunters with ranged semblances, on my mark!"

A woman in an elegant white uniform shouted in command the next, conjuring forth her white-themed Alpha Beowulf. With it, several other inferior beowulves to complete the pack. The explosions around him subsided, and immediately, he was met with small projectiles that collided into his body—- reflecting off or simply going through him without a single thought paid to them. Bullet spray was strategized in place of the cooldown of the Atlesian cannons overhead.

The knight pressed forward in disregard of the gunfire and rose his sword—

"Everyone, scatter! Ranged hunters, engage your attacks!"

"No, remain where you are, I'll handle this! Hunters, continue the attack! You can count on me!"

That voice became something he was once familiar with at one point in time.

A distant voice that may have been heard somewhere in his forgotten past.

With his broadsword coming down upon the miniature army of individuals infront of him, his sword unleashed the destructive blow that tore apart Remnant and warped solid material inward to its gravity. In a streaking flash of light, someone appeared infront of the attack and rose their scythe to press against the blow while those around them released their semblances.

A wave of conjurations and bolts sped through the air like blurring bolts of light, taking up his entire vision. When the white Nevermore fully reached him, it's talon reached for his face before becoming divided into halves, his sword cleaving through it like paper while it dispersed into fading particles of snow-white aura past him. The knight's body turned with his sword arm—- and his sword sliced through the wave of projectiles. A free hand shot forward, and he grabbed a tusk of a snow-white boarbatusk and crushed it, ending it of its existence.

He felt the presence of an individual behind him and turned around to narrow his gaze upon the gray-haired hunter. The notion of him being able to kill the old hunter was made easy, and it prompted him to swing his sword arm and bring the blade close to the veteran hunter's neck.

A loud 'cling'.

The knight's rage-filled irises fell upon the curving blade of the scythe-wielding hunter with crowish hair. It stopped a minimal amount of momentum from his trajectory. It did impact from insignificant to nothing for the knight's attack—- but soon came to a complete halt when two green blades and the head of a hammer stopped his weapon.

Accompanying the caped hunter was an electrified ginger and green-clad teen with a pink stripe in his hair. Every face that was presented before him was signs of human fatigue and effort being mixed together in a final struggle.

As if everything was in vain in this very bout.

"Come to your senses, remember who you are!" The black-haired teen shouted as he gritted his teeth to pull back the sword being opposed.

"There's still time to come back to us before everything is lost! You don't have to lose anything else! You still have us!" The ginger shouted afterward.

Those familiar voices.

They echoed in his head as his mind tried to remember who they were.

But failed.

When the headmaster's cane neared his throat, the knight withdrew his sword from their weapons and smashed his fist into the ground, unleashing an outward blast around him and sent them flying across the field. Their auras shattered, causing static of their respective colors around them.

"We cannot fail now! Charge!"

A roar consisted of numerous warriors filled the air in the distance from him. The hunters, the soldiers, the fighters. They all ran towards him without hesitation in their expressions and rose their weapons, firing across the field as they did.

An explosion ignited beside him from one of the warship cannons, followed by another series of them.

From behind his mask, the black-blond haired knight's glare grew intense and hardened. His grip around the hilt of his weapon tightened. To no end did he find this any amusing. Around him was nothing but ruins and chaos caused by the hands of Humanity and Faunus alike. Those despair-filled expressions that were written across their faces were all too old for him to see.

To his side, he watched as the fighters he defeated earlier return back to their feet slowly, a mixing blend of their aura hues and white merging together to continue their fight. The white energy on its own was something he knew of—- a presence that only he wielded at the time… and for them to have access to it, it only made him more enraged than he was now.

"Chance."

The woman said, as his eyes widened from behind his mask.

He watched as the bright, golden form of a red-haired woman wielding a round shield and spear descended upon him from above. Rather than stand his place and counter the woman's attack, his body instinctively leapt back and lifted his sword to block a spear blade that neared him. Her emerald eyes focused on him intently and attacked him just as strategically, but her form… she looked nothing more than an apparition.

And soon, her appearance was replaced.

It was replaced by a random woman who dared to attack him with a naginata, followed by two others that ran around her and brought their swords down on him whilst he blocked her weapon.

"If a 'chance' could be given, anyone willing would take it," Her voice echoed in his head again—- and he thrusted himself forward. Easily overwhelming the woman in raw power, his sword slashed horizontally across the air and rendered the three defeated when they flew back from the force and met the ground with their auras shattering.

"That is what you taught me, Jaune…"

The knight grit his teeth and restrained a growl when his eyes fell upon the same woman who appeared as a golden apparition. She stood in the middle of the horizon, in the far distance from him with the rest of those that opposed him.

She stuck out like a sore thumb.

Long ago, the knight forgotten her identity, what or who she was, as it was replaced by fury that was held in reserve for Remnant as a whole. At the same time, it made him afraid.

Afraid of why she continued to appear before him when he had discarded her as a memory.

"You have saved many things that are not only Human within this world," A man's voice echoed now, and he reflexively turned to meet the blade that struck into his when guarding his side. He came face to face with the man who wore the crown upon his head, who wore royal garbs and held a sword once sealed in the rock, possessing the same golden hue around him just as the previous did, "The only person you are failing to save is yourself."

The knight broke contact with the apparition as it faded away, replaced with a soldier who turned his sword into a rifle after distancing himself and took aim upon him. The knight lunged forward and brought his sword up right when the soldier was pulled aside by their comrade, narrowly avoiding a lethal strike.

"You have killed many people for the sake of saving so much more."

Another voice.

Instantly, he rotated his body to swipe aside the deathly red beam that came to him. The beam proceeded to burn through many still-standing constructs. Glaring upon another golden apparition, one that took the form of an Alpha Beowulf whose body was pierced and embedded with multiple spikes of dust crystals into his back with his scales just as bizarre with gray fur. Smoke rose from its fangs, "Why is it you must change, Almighty?!"

Change…

… that word became a term that internally damaged him.

"Afraid?"

At the last moment, his head swerved to the side to avoid the dagger that nearly pierced his throat through the back. The knight rose an arm and brought his elbow back for hard impact against the individual behind him, launching them farther away on contact. They slid across the ground briefly until they could slow down and recover just as quickly, their menacing eyes returning the vile gaze to him. The runes on his body glew just as bright as the golden light that produced from around him.

"We're always afraid. Of many things. Of many facts."

The knight wanted to move and end the lives of everyone around him.

For whatever had caused such rage to be pent up inside him, all it did was destroy him internally and left nothing behind but a burnt path that lead backwards. There was no road forward for him any longer. There was nowhere for him to go, there was nowhere for him to turn to.

So why was it that—

"Therefore; your ambition to save people isn't wrong."

Those words were put into suspense and question.

It made him stop and glare at nothing but the ground and his bloodied hands. The blood-soaked sword already had blood dried up or swung off it, the marks on it only made it more of a fact that it was used to take lives. A double-edged weapon that was meant to take lives and his own when swung the wrong way.

Blinded from the unreasoned rage; maybe it was only realization that… the only reason why such rage existed was because of himself.

In return; it made him lose everything.

Everything around him now… was simply a dead space.

His instincts screamed at him for him to raise his sword to defend himself from an oncoming attack.

But he refused.

So when he lifted his head, he saw the outstretched hand that reached out for him with one final golden apparition that was bound to leave him soon enough.

And that apparition was—

Her arms linked around his head as she embraced him tightly. To feel the soft, warm hands of hers pull against the back of his head and the other to wrap lightly across his nape. All he saw was the white fabric that floated in the wind and surrounded the both of them in this one-sided embrace. For once, his body settled with standing still and doing nothing rather than taking lives of those he came to wield anger against.

His eyes closed, and the last he saw was the white change to red.

He wondered…

|| H ||

In a world complete of white,

His mask cracked apart, and the dissolving bits of it fell from his face. It dissolved away into nothing as it descended to the ground.

Every part of him remained, and his azure eyes opened to see the field of white flowers completely taking up the entire ground around them. He felt this warm embrace that was wrapped around him. He couldn't reject it—- there was no screaming instinct for him to push it away or find a means of ending it. It gave life more than it would accept death.

The head that was pressing warmly against the side of his shuffled slightly, as he heard light sobs from right next to him. His mouth went ajar slightly before morphing into a thin line.

"Are you… crying?"

He asked.

"Why wouldn't I..?"

To hear her cry meant the world to him.

There wasn't a reason behind it, there wasn't a reason for him to feel that way.

But there was.

"You're hurt. You're bleeding from inside your heart, you're screaming on the inside, crying. I know this feeling." She said, her voice trembling and weak, "It's like a needle that pierces the heart… bleeding slowly, and all you can do is just let it. No matter how painful it is or how much it's killing you inside, telling you to live through it, or suffer and die alone."

His blooded arms rose from his sides.

The sword coated in it fell to the ground, joining the unstained flowers around them.

As he fell to his knees slowly, her feet touched the ground, and together, they embraced one another in the field of white as he returned the emotion.

"I don't know everything about you, or maybe even anywhere near of knowing you just a little bit…"

Her fingers wrapped into more of his hair, causing his head to become pulled further into her embrace, "Everything about you- your eyes, voice, actions… you're screaming so loud that no one could hear you. You walked somewhere no one could hope to imagine reaching you in. But I want to save you. Even if it has to replace my dream of being a huntress."

A silent pause.

His softest of chuckles filled in for the silence as his embrace around her increased, basking in her soothing warmth, "It's a childish dream…"

But it was a dream that was selfishly desired.

Because if it took a selfless desire to save more lives than a selfish one, he wanted a selfless desire.

Though, the pain that hurt him so much just couldn't bear it any longer. The threshold of having this agonizing sensation added onto with so much more guilt and shame was long passed. What led to the earlier event of his rampage, and now, his losing of self.

A farewell to the him that's now.

Just for this moment, he wanted to be selfish.

"… but you aren't wrong for having it."

The field of white flowers around them waved against the imaginary wind, as their petals change from white to red in a smooth transition around them, spreading like calm fire.

He was aware that she was bound to get hurt somewhere in the journey.

The last thing he wanted was something like that to happen. By all means he would do anything that was necessary to prevent it from ever happening. But given what had happened now… all he did was hurt her even more because of his own blindness.

"If only… I could've saved you."

A soft grin plastered across his lips. His hand left from her back, and her body pulled away from his a small space for him to look down and see her face. With the hand he pulled away earlier, he let his palm rest against her cheek and wiped away a tear that was on her face.

She gazed at him with a frown, leaning her head against his palm with a hand resting over his.

"... You have."

Her eyes softened to further sadness,

"What… what do you mean?"

"You… already saved me. No matter how strange the coincidences were for each time we met, I loved every moment of it. You tried to save me, and I tried saving you. In the end, we both tried to save each other. It may be late already, but… I know by now that… the person who was able to save me from myself was you all along."

Ruby found no words to say, only speechless as to how to respond to such.

He continued,

"Before I go… smile. Can you smile… one last time for me, Ruby?"

Her lips quivered—- the feeling that she didn't want him to go, but knew that his time was almost over. She remembered what her mother had told her about smiling, even if it was absurd to smile at 'any angle that is faced with death'. Even so, the young huntress took it to heart. Something to never let go of, heart and mind.

No matter how painful it was to her heart, the brunette looked up to Jaune…

And smiled.

"I love you, Jaune."

|| I ||

Qrow punched the wall of the vertibird, roaring in anger as he glared in the direction of the ruined academy, "Why did we have to pull back, why did we abandon Ruby?!"

"Qrow, calm down… I'm sure there's a reason for i-"

"The discharge would've killed all of us." Said the green-clad teen, who approached Qrow and Winter calmly. Beside him, his hammer-wielding companion, Nora, "If all of us stayed, all of us would've died from the blast. The energy that's released when his rampaging is over explodes outward to release all the power that gets built up inside of him—- like a walking bomb."

"… And how is it you know this, Mr. Lie Ren?" Inquired the headmaster, who approached them with General Ironwood and Goodwitch by his sides, "You suggested this plan… and you knew it would succeed, so this is where I have to ask now, how did you know this?" His eyes narrowed upon the teen, in which Ren's narrowed magenta gaze placed itself on the headmaster's eyes.

"Because that's how my home fell apart."

Everyone within the vertibird fell silent.

It was only them in that very space.

Everyone else boarded a warship that would take them back to Vale completely, leaving only them in that bullhead to return to the academy grounds when the blast was over and declared safe. With the pilot of the bullhead informing the General that the blast was over, Ironwood commanded for the pilot to return to the grounds.

"We will have to talk after this is all over." Ozpin said, giving the boy one last look before turning to the side-hatch.

"What about Ruby though? Will she be alright?" Qrow quickly placed his hand on Ren's shoulder to get his attention—- Nora forcing his hand off him with a scowl. Reluctantly, the usual drunkard accepted having his hand shoved away from the green-clad boy.

"She'll be fine… if her energy was mixed with who I think it was, then there shouldn't be a way for the same energy she's combined with to be able to harm her on discharge. Rest assured, sir… everything will be alright now."

"Landing in five…!" Shouted the pilot, the side-hatch hissing open to reveal the light of the sunrise, illuminating the night and revealing the seemingly endless placements of white flowers covering every inch of the academy—- providing a visual of life on even the fallen pieces and ruins of what was formerly constructs of the academy property.

The flowers waved when the gentle breeze fell upon them, and Ironwood was the first to step out with awe written across his face, followed by the others that came out with him shortly after. As if the war and fight from earlier was decades ago, long enough for plant life to overtake the entire place those following years. To say it was beautiful was an understatement.

To say it was majestic would've been an understatement.

With no words to describe what they saw now, the only thing that mattered to one of them the most was one thing… or person.

Ruby kneeled on the ground in the center of it all, a blond-haired man resting his head on her lap with his face towards the sky. A man who looked at peace and ease now, but worn of fatigue and roughening from an earlier fight. Her humming of a melody echoing across the peaceful, former warzone, as the flowers danced gently to her voice. The prodigy's fingers gently danced across his forehead, threading through his blond locks of hair smoothly, with her other hand intertwined with his.

Qrow treaded slowly through the flowers and became speechless at the sight like the rest. The more his vision fell upon the form of a red-themed huntress in the middle of the white field, he saw someone else that stood behind his niece in the form of some kind of ghost, who dressed in a white cloak. She stood over behind Ruby, overlooking the child with a soft smile and eyes closed.

"… Summer..?" His voice shook, approaching them quietly while lost in thought. When he had gotten a step away from Ruby and Jaune, the ghostly figure faded, and he looked down to the two that remained. Kneeling before Ruby, he studied Jaune's peaceful face and couldn't find it in himself to glare, or to try and kill him now just to make sure he was dead. What drove him earlier to try and kill Jaune when he was on his rampage… it vanished, as if it never existed.

The thought remained… as to why it had to be Jaune, of all people though.

Winter joined by his side, kneeling down with him and rested a hand on his shoulder comfortingly, "It's finally over."

"Yeah. Yeah, it is." He said almost silently, his fists letting go into open hands.

With Ozpin and the others standing just several steps away from them, Ozpin frowned, fixing his glasses when he struggled to even remain standing with just his cane after Crocea Mors's energy had left him. With Glynda being able to support him fully, he sighed and narrowed his gaze upon the unconscious blond, "To think… that he was the Lost Soldier. I wouldn't have expected it at all. But now it explains what I saw from when he was in the field the first time… it wasn't a dream at all."

"No one knew who he was," Ren stepped forward to garner Ozpin and Ironwood's attention, "And for the longest time, he didn't want to be known… not until Ruby came along. She found him in his darkest times."

Nora smiled, nodding while watching both Ruby and Jaune, "He's found peace at last."

"It truly has been tragic for him, if all those stories concerning the Lost Soldier was true. For him to live for so long since the very beginning of Humanity's first evolution to the present. To have gone through and survived so many wars without end…" The Atlesian General clenched his fists, shaking his head, "A soldier, at its finest."

"… Agreed." The headmaster concurred upon waving to Goodwitch, who allowed him to stand on his own for now, "Now, to make the next step…"

Ironwood approached the blond and brunette, withdrawing his revolver from his holster and aiming it down upon the blond. The brunette's eyes widened at the towering general—- and Qrow immediately stepped inbetween the barrel of the revolver and the unconscious blond, glaring at him.

"What the hell are you doing, tinman?!" Qrow growled, as Winter could only watch in shock at the interaction between the two.

"Ending what could be a potential end to mankind, Qrow. Either we kill him now, or we keep him captive for eternity within Atlesian security."

"James, what you're doing is a fatal mistake. We won't gain anything from killing Jaune, or holding him captive for as long as he lives for his entire life!" Ozpin aimed the tip of his cane towards Ironwood, and in exchange, the general returned the favor of aiming his revolver at the headmaster, both veterans glaring at one another.

"Move aside. All you've done is hold the Fall maiden here and for all I know, one of our enemies already has the Fall maiden powers now, don't they?!"

Ozpin winced.

"I see I was right in making that assumption! If I leave making decisions up to you as to what to do with the Lost Soldier, all of mankind—- no, Remnant will be in peril all over again with Grimm only making it worse!"

Ruby's jaw dropped, subconsciously holding Jaune close to her as she heard their argument, shaking, "No! Don't… don't do any of that to Jaune!"

"Ruby, you must understand, this is for the sake of everyone on this world as we know it! This is for the better good of the society!"

Ozpin scowled at Ironwood, "We can save Remnant if we keep him alive, James! We now have a power that surpasses any maiden's power, and the relics! This can be the end to suffering! We can use Jaune as a weapon against Salem- and however powerful allies she has at the tip of her fingers!"

There was a tense pause for Qrow, Winter, Ruby, Ren and Nora.

All of their sights slowly transitioned to the headmaster at shock at what he was saying, in which the headmaster ignored for the sake of winning the debate between Headmaster and General.

"As much as everyone is in danger by the mere presence of him—- we can use him! We will be able to safeguard him as we see fit, and use him as a weapon against our greatest foes."

"You want to use Jaune as a weapon?" Qrow's gaze soon fell into a glare at the headmaster, "Oz', what in the hell are you saying?! You can't just use people like that!"

"Jaune is a weapon, a weapon of ancient times, one easily capable of destroying worlds at a time. It will take time for him to get use to it, but with enough effort, we will be able to use him!"

As the young huntress knelt there in fear, she felt… more fearful than she did when Jaune first appeared in his berserk form. Hugging the blond so tight, it was like a little girl hugging onto a prized possession as tightly as possible just to make sure it wouldn't drop or break.

Soon enough, she felt a hand fall upon her shoulder, and turned her head to see the source of it. She saw Ren and Nora, who looked down to her with a frown and nodded…

"Stop it, you two! This isn't the time to be aiming your weapons at eachother! We have to think this through more, and come to an agreement." Goodwitch telekinetically forced both their weapons away from one another and had them aim to the ground instead, "For now, we will have to make shelter at Vale and ensure that everyone in Vale is alright and salvage what we can. Ruby, please help in taking Jaune with Ren and Nora into the bullhead with us."

…

"… Ruby?"

Everyone turned their heads to where she formerly was, only to find an empty spot. The red-themed huntress was missing from there… along with Ren and Nora.

Jaune, as well.

|| T ||

They ventured into the snow-filled forest, as Ren opened a map with Nora looking just over his shoulder.

"Oh, we should go this way! This place look like a pancake—- it's gotta be a forest full of magical pancakes!"

A content, happy sigh from the green-clad teen, "Nora… I'm pretty sure there's no such thing as pancake forests."

Ruby joined them shortly after leaving the village's inn, walking onto the road and smiled at the duo.

It's been weeks since the tragic events of Vale and Beacon. Weeks since Ruby fled and gone missing after abandoning the headmaster and the others that were there. It was most likely thanks to the destruction of the Cross Continental Tower that it was going to be hard tracking her and her friends down… but the lingering feeling of missing her former team never went away.

But Ruby remained resolved onto this path.

The young huntress slung her travel pack over her back more comfortably.

"You guys ready to go?"

"Pft, well yeah, we've been ready, silly head." Nora jested again while sticking her tongue out, "Adventure never sleeps!"

Ren simply chuckled, nodding wordlessly to the brunette.

'They've travelled a long way for what they sought for.'

Ren and Nora stopped, blinking momentarily and gestured for Ruby to look behind her. Right as she did, she was introduced to the sight of a familiar blond who greeted them with a grin and a travel pack on his back as well, a sword strapped to his side.

He wore a black hoodie with long sleeves, fingerless gloves, and simple faded jeans that accompanied his boots. Tied around one of his belt loops, a red ribbon that had been tied there, easy to see. Ruby smiled in response to seeing it, as she had a similar ribbon, having tied it to one of the loops that connected her cape together.

'A spark of fire, to ignite what you call 'hope'.'

"Ready to go, Jaune?" The brunette smiled to him, and he smiled back.

"Yeah. Let's go, Ruby."

The four soon took off to the road to walk to their next destination…

… to find forgotten memories.

'What humanity has now that would be possible to saving themselves… it lies in the actions of a young huntress that has left them in sake for one man...'

A caped man with crowish hair sat idly on the edge of a cliff, watching the four walking on. With his thumb and index finger rubbing lightly against his necklace cross, he sighed, and hopped off the edge. Soon enough, he vanished, and all that was left behind was a crow to fly off into the air, soaring freely above the four…

The hooded woman looked up to see the crow from within the village before setting her eyes on Ruby's friends shortly after. Placing her book aside, she pulled over her cloak to conceal her saber as she trailed after them from afar…

|| E ||

'So how does it feel, having your only hope of having someone save all of humanity as you've hoped abandon you, Ozpin?'

The back of a white-haired woman in dark robes looked out into the dark formations of rock and Grimm-infested lands.

'In your search for the Lost Soldier you've desperately searched for all along as a redundancy to the four maidens' powers… all hope has been deprived of you. Though… after all this time…'

Her body turns, as her pale skin and black-veined cheeks reveal, the black-sclera and crimson irises brightening as she spoke.

'… I have finally found you, Jaune.'

There was a little edit made for the hooded woman, where rapier was changed to saber after a little mistake. Brief thanks to the guys in the Reviews that mentioned the rapier and who it possibly belonged to.

-fanfiction Penguin, aborting thread.