He went in her place. Tricking her like she would have tricked him, not allowing her to fling him away. It had taken almost everything he had to climb to Ozpin's office, to face the woman talking calmly to the beast in the window. And here he fought. To the point it surprised both of them, enough that the Grimm dragon had to level the playing field quite literally. Crocea Mors lay in pieces, his shield red hot and melting, buried somewhere in the rubble.

Yet despite everything he tried, he could not do more than annoy the woman before him as she toyed with him. But playtime was over, the woman had grown weary of his stubbornness. Glass and dust had combined into a molten sword, wicked and evil like the grin on the beautiful but deadly woman's face. He struggled to get to his knees, some bizarre niggle of a thought left in his pain filled head that if he were to die, he would do so standing. It took him a moment to realize that he was falling over, a moment longer to feel the pain, and the moment after that to come to terms that his right arm was now lying under his left. He screamed, the dragon giving a cry drowning out his horror.

"You brought this on yourself. Had you been worthy of my time I would have appreciated our fight more. Any last words? Anything I should pass on to your teammates for you, perhaps?" Jaune, perhaps in shock or just blood lust turned his eyes upwards towards the woman, his left hand grabbing the first thing it could to swing upwards at the woman with a yell of defiance. For his troubles he gained a second shock to his system to see his left forearm sailing into her face holding his right arm, the only damage she had received thus far from his battle had been being blinded a moment with his blood. That same blood was pouring from the remains of his limbs, stumps now, as he stared, awaiting the blade to come down on his person. He'd die on his knees, at least it wasn't on the ground. He could at least accept that he had tried his best, that Pyrrha and the others would make it out of here okay.

"Bitch." He spat. She had wiped his blood out of her eyes enough to see, leaving a gruesome mask as she rose her blade.

"Pathetic." She replied with a sneer. A solid thump drew their attention to a all too familiar figure landing on the tower, her silver eyes taking in the arm less form of her dying friend and the figure ready to extinguish his life before her. Those same silver eyes who flashed the color away from the world with a cry of a name.

"JAUNE!"

(-o0O0o-)

In Need of a Hand

By

Hibiki

Imagine you could have the rights to RWBY, but for the rest of your life, you would have to clean up every mess or problem created by every Rooster Teeth 'Million Dollars, But..." challenge accepted. Would it be worth it? Not for me.

RWBY is created by Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth.

Chapter One:

With Hands that Can't Feel the Cold.

(-o0O0o-)

Four Days Later, Patch:

Qrow was, in his own round about way, answering the recently awoken niece. It had been a confusing few minutes with her father, asking about Yang and the others before her uncle had come in asking her about things.

"And what's the last thing you remember?"

"I ran up the side of the tower, and when I got to the top, I..." Ruby looked alarmed. "Jaune! Is he...?" Qrow sighed, looking as if he wanted to take a drink from his flask than answer, but answer he did.

"He's... Alive. But he's in bad shape down at the hospital."

"I..." Ruby began to tear up, remembering the gruesome scene she had found. "I... I got to the top... and I saw Jaune..." The tears gained a friend as she angrily growled out "and Cinder... and then everything went white!"

"Anything else?" Ruby's reply, and the following conversation would be regarded as the single most influential moment that would bring about the end of Salem, but that was a story for another place.

(-o0O0o-)

Two Days later, Patch Medical Center:

The chaos of the past days had dwindled, yet the hectic nature remained a constant buzz of noise and murmurs that for the form laying in the bed in the far corner seemed unable to grasp. In fact there was nothing the man sitting there in the bed was able to grasp, the sheet that cradled his broken form plainly proved. Beside him were three people, two young women and one young man, his team; his friends. It was somber, muted and distorted like it had been since Ruby had done whatever she had to save his life. Like life had it's vibrancy sucked away, leaving nothing.

"... Jaune." Oh, were they saying something? His bloodshot cerulean turned to look at equally tear stained aqua, of the girl sitting besides him. Nora looked so small, so uncertain. He hated it. Like he hated so much that had happened in the last week.

"Sorry, what?" He softly asked to her.

"Pyrrha wanted to talk to you alone, okay Jaune? We'll be right back." He nodded slowly. All three of his teammates rarely left his side, even when he had done nothing more than cry at the unfamiliar ceiling as he came to terms with his maiming. He nodded, watching Ren guide Nora away gently. Good ol' Ren. Dependable. His eyes turned to a figure who was as mentally as broken as his body. Pyrrha had not accepted his condition well, nor had she accepted the reason for it. Guilt upon anger filled the Mistralian champion, making her shout harsh words he knew that despite her pain, were only half true. So more guilt filled her, leaving her quiet after crying in the chair for hours. She hadn't said anything since, merely keeping a silent vigil over him, getting anything he asked, which wasn't much.

"Jaune... I... I just want to say I'm sorry. About what I said, why I said them. I was so scared. I didn't mean to say them."

"But it's true." It was his first words to her since the kiss. "I went after someone so much powerful than myself and came back a cripple. I only have myself to blame. I should have ran away. But I wasn't going to let you die up there. I'm... I was your partner. Your team leader. So I made a choice. I might regret what happened to me... I hate it, but I won't ever regret keeping my friends, my team, alive." He rose up, letting the sheet fall away from his torso, their bloodied bandages showing just how much Cinder had taken from him.

"J-Jaune..." Her horror stricken eyes taking in the damage dealt to him. His left was cut from just above his elbow, his right... was gone, from the shoulder down. Just... gone.

"You're alive. Ren is alive, Nora and our friends are alive. This was the price I paid for that to happen. So... so be it. We're here together, that's all that matters." If anything Pyrrha looked more ill at his words, loking down, fingers playing with her sash frantically. "What is it?"

"Jaune... I'm leaving." His silence spoke more volumes than any yelling or words ever could. "I've spoken to Ruby, just after she woke up. She's heading to Mistral, to Haven, after the person who did this to you, to Beacon. I'm going to go with her. I know Anima quite well, and how dangerous it will be, so I..." Her resolve broke at his silence. "It's not too late, I can tell her I'll stay here-"

"Go." Jaune looked to her, his eyes firm and hardy, for the first time since the doctor had laid out what had happened and what would continue to happen for him. "Ruby needs all the help she can get if Cinder is that powerful. It makes sense that you should go too. You're from Mistral, you know what she will need to know." Ren and Nora had returned by that point. "However, take Ren and Nora with you."

"What?" Pyrrha's gasped reply was just half a second faster than the exotic duo.

"Aren't you two are from Anima too? Like I said. Ruby will need all the help she can get. What she is doing is more important than a washed out huntsman like me."

"...Jaune..." Ren's cautionary tone spoke volumes on how he felt at his leader's defeatist attitude. But Jaune had his leader cap on once more. The needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few. Especially the one.

"Go with Ruby, this is my last order as leader of Team JNPR. Save Haven, don't let it fall like Beacon did."

The remaining trio of JNPR looked to each other. The constant buzz of noise and murmurs of the hospital being the only sounds. Jaune knew his team well enough to know their answer.

(-o0O0o-)

A Week later:

The nurse helped another mouthful of... something, he really couldn't taste it, into his mouth. He had been alone for the last three days, with Ruby and the others heading for Mistral just after the first snow fall had reached Patch. The cold... His... 'limbs' ached from it. He winced as another spike of phantom pain struck, feeling all the more pathetic that she had to wipe his face of spilt food from the action. Now alone without his team to try and lift his spirits he had hit an all time low.

The nurse said pleasant, but ultimately dull and unsatisfying, things as she finished feeding him, and he was left to think once more. He was like that hours later when the Doctor, the one who had talked to him at the start of his time here, returned.

"Mr. Arc. I know for a Huntsman such as yourself this setback-" Jaune scoffed at the idea of losing both arms was a setback. "-would have normally only hampered you for however long it took for Atlas to send Vale a set of artificial replacements. However with the CCT down, little can be done. We've sent information to Atlas via a courier to begin work, but without any way of knowing if they received it, it could be months... if ever before proper replacements arrive." If this was suppose to cheer him up, the doctor needed a new shtick. "That said there is an alternative... Vale still has some older styled myoelectrics... before our treaty with Atlas, that could be used. They aren't as... versatile as the modern ones made in Atlas, but they would allow you a modicum of self reliance."

"What's the catch?" Jaune had heard the hesitation in the man's voice.

"We would have to attach these directly into your nerves in order for them to function and your Aura to flow through the limbs. It is a painful and dangerous procedure with another possible side effect." Jaune rose an eyebrow waiting for the doctor to elaborate. "Ahem... there is also the possibility that these prosthetic and the surgery required would make you inoperable with the Atlas myoelectrics should they arrive."

"How soon could the operation begin should I take this route?" The doctor took a look at his clipboard for a few minutes.

"We could be ready in three days." Jaune sighed. Three days... or an untold number of months... if ever. The danger didn't really scare him, not since staring at death almost two weeks ago.

"I'll do it."

"I understand, Mr. Arc. We'll begin preparations immediately."

(-o0O0o-)

Three Months Later, Patch:

Yang stared dispassionately out her window at the snow, her hair a disarray. She hadn't felt much the need to keep it in more than a ponytail anyway. Not that she could brush her hair with... She looked down at the remains of her arm.

"I'm Home!" She heard her father call out. There were footsteps coming up to her room, and she sighed, knowing she would be seeing guests, even if she didn't want them. Turning her head at the sound of her father knocking on her door frame she found herself looking at two familiar blondes. "Hey Kiddo, I have a friend who wanted to come say hello. He'll be staying with us for a while until the snow clears up in spring." Jaune walked forward, his normal hoodie free of armor, leaving her to giggle a little at the image of a bunny logo upon it.

"Snk... Gnk... P-pumpkin Pete's?"

"That's really the first thing you have to say, Yang?" She stopped laughing as she watched him struggle to bring gloved hands up to hide the logo from view. She had heard he'd been injured... but no one had mentioned how badly. Had she not seen the gleam of silver between his hoodie and the gloves she wouldn't have believed them until then. "Still good to hear you laugh." His smile was weak, but there. "Been needing to hear one."

"Anyway... Jaune will be using your sister's room while he recuperates from his surgery, so no walking around in your panty's Missy." Yang flushed with the insinuation, Jaune did too, though it was a mix of fear and imagination.

"That was one time! I was seven!" Taiyang laughed his way past Jaune, giving the lad a pat on his shoulder.

"Make yourself at home, Jaune."

"T-thank you, sir."

"Call me Tai." Jaune nodded to him and the older blonde left the two of them alone in a pall of awkward silence.

"You hear from Ruby?" The male called out finally, making his way to a chair set up in her room. Yang sighed, knowing she would have company, even if she didn't feel like it.

"No. With the CCT down all we can do is post. You know how regular that is." Postmen were always in high demand in rural areas where the CCT didn't reach, and even more so now in all areas with the demise of Vale's CCT. However dangers lurked with the ever promise of Grimm. Turnover rates were incredibly high with postmen, almost as high as their mortality rate.

Jaune nodded but the silence returned. This time no one offered to break it. It was several minutes before Jaune finally gave a yawn and rose, his arms dangling unnaturally as he did so.

"Well, if you don't mind, I'm going to go take a nap before dinner. I'll talk to you later, Yang."

"Sleep well, Vomit boy." Jaune grumbled at hearing that name. The moment his head went round the corner Yang called out, feeling a need to say something more. "Jaune?" He leaned back, blue eyes peering into the late afternoon gloom of her room. "I'm glad you're here. It's been... lonely without Ruby and the others around."

"I know. I felt the same way." He made to turn around to walk to Ruby's room but paused. "Hey Yang? If you ever need to talk. I'm here, okay?" He walked away without waiting for a reply, leaving her to think about what he said.

(-o0O0o-)

To be Continued...?

AN: this idea struck me hard and refused to let go. Jaune pulling a Pyrrha, but being so much less a match than he was to Cinder in V5 meant she toyed with him. I could see her doing this to Jaune, it fits her psychotic nature. This if I think I can continue it would be a Dragonslayer story, of them helping each other through their mutual crisis. Jaune's prosthetic are based on Violet Evergarden's from the show named after the character. I picture in the era of peace Atlas was willing to provide tools to it's allies to keep their fighting force capable. Yang had earned her place with Ironwood, but Jaune perhaps would but it's not known. This story was a niggle I couldn't get out of my way to write Pain. However I am hoping Pain will return next week. R&R if this is something you'd like to see, I'll see if interest is here and then what I can do to get this in the lineup. The name of this story alone makes me cringe. If anyone can think of a better name, let me know.