Jaune was in pain.
That was all that registered in Velvet's mind as she dragged him across the courtyards of Beacon. He was hurt and she was the only one who could help him.
It's the middle of the night with dark clouds looming overhead, rain was pelting against Velvet's face and she knew that it would only hinder her progress. Jaune could get hypothermia at this rate, he was already bleeding out.
'How did this happen?' Wondered Velvet as she continued the long haul.
It had been three weeks since Jaune told Blake the truth in the library, and he was still suffering the consequences. Weiss pretended that she didn't care at all, but everyone could see through her. Some nights, Jaune could still hear sobs across the hall.
Ruby had cried and cried into his arms the next morning, he felt terrible for it emotionally, he broke a young girls heart after all. He soon felt terrible for it physically though, when Yang brought out the gauntlets. He still has the bruises.
But despite all of the pain, he felt hollow at the thought of Blake. She still hasn't said a single word to him since that night, and it hurt more than any of Yang's fists of fury.
Pyrrha was upset by the notion of her friends being hurt, but he could tell that she was secretly happy that she was so much closer to having him. Velvet was the same, but she seemed more secretive about it, as if she knew something that Pyrrha didn't.
Jaune shrugged off the thought as he continued through the locker rooms. '636, 636, 636… it's been months now, how come I still can't find my own damn locker? I swear this place was designed by some puzzle enthusiast.' Jaune soon came accross his locker and opened it up to see that his new Scroll finally came.
"YES! I've been waiting for this thing forever. Alright, let's see…" He opened it up by the sides to see the holographic interface display. As he looked into the corner of the screen, something caught his eye. The message button was flashing. "I have a message? But I only just got this thing." He pressed the button to find one new message.
It was from Velvet.
'Velvet? Why would she be messaging me? She shouldn't even know that I have a Scroll yet.' He pressed the display button and read the message aloud.
"Dear Jaune. Please meet me at the entrance to the Emerald Forest, there's something important that I have to tell you. Velvet."
'This is really weird.' Jaune thought as he let his strategic mind take over. 'Velvet has never sent a message on her Scroll before, she always uses written ones, and she always uses her full name as well, never just 'Velvet'. Something's up.' The message was sent with her Scroll's I.D. though, so Jaune decided to see what she needed.
As he left Beacon grounds Jaune gained a feeling of dread. He didn't know why, but he needed to hurry.
When he finally reached Beacon Cliffs, Jaune looked out over the edge. He considered jumping, but decided it would be best if he just took the stairs to the side. Jumping was only for initiation. The sight that reached him when he reached the bottom infuriated him beyond belief.
Team CRDL with an unconscious Velvet.
When Cardin noticed Jaune standing there, he grew a manic grin and laughed. Jaune didn't see his smile, nor did he hear the laugh. All that he saw was red, and all he heard was white noise as his vision soon faded to black.
Blake was upset, she knew that she was being unfair for acting this way, but she simply couldn't stand to be around him anymore.
He broke her heart.
He hurt the rest of her team as well, sure, but they at least managed to talk to him. She couldn't, she wouldn't. And she didn't know what to do. It had been three weeks since that fateful night… And she hasn't spoken a word to him since.
Despite the sorrow she felt, she knew that by doing so she was hurting Jaune more than anyone. So she decided that today would be the day she would break the silent treatment.
All she needed to do was find the idiot. Under normal circumstances, he would be at the training grounds. This was not the case. So she decided to look for him in his dorm, things between her team had finally gone back to normal, and they could stand each other's presence again. She was grateful to the knight for this, but it still wasn't easy speaking to him.
Blake waited patiently as she knocked on the door, she was getting very nervous. Her nerves washed away when Pyrrha was the one to answer. "Hey Pyrrha, can I speak with Jaune?" She asked politely. Pyrrha responded in turn. "I'm sorry Blake, he isn't here right now, he should be at the training facility."
Blake was starting to get confused. "But I've already checked there, I thought he would be here…" Pyrrha shook her head, beginning to get a little worried. "I haven't seen him for hours, you know how he get's when he's there. He'll rip the muscles in his arms and keep on going."
Blake nodded. "I'm well-aware. The point is that if he isn't there, where could he be?" Pyrrha reached for her Scroll. "I'm not sure, I'll message the others and see if they've seen him… oh hey, it says here that Jaune got his Scroll today, I can just message him." Blake smiled, she'd been there when he lost his Scroll in the first place, she knew how much he wanted a new one.
After typing up a message, Pyrrha pressed the 'send' button, but nothing happened. "Scroll unable to receive messages at this current time? What...?" A terrifying thought dawned on them at that moment. They called for their teams immediately.
When Jaune's vision finally returned to him, Jaune saw that CRDL was nowhere in sight, Velvet was lying where he last saw her, and Jaune himself was covered in cuts and bruises. There was already a small pool of blood below him.
He attempted to stand but soon found that trying that was a terrible idea, hissing in pain Jaune looked down to see both of his legs bending at an odd angle. 'Must've broken my legs, I'm sure they'll heal.'
Jaune realized that his legs mightn't be the only things broken, so he gave himself a once over. His arms seemed fine, but his chest was burning with a pain very similar to that of his legs. 'Broken rib or two as well, huh?'
They were the only serious injuries that he had, but they would definitely incapacitate him, there was no way he was making it up those stairs. He then remembered the Scroll that he just got, he could call for help. As he searched himself for the device, he came up empty handed. He then noticed a small glint in the distance. Straining his eyes to see what it may be, Jaune paled in horror.
His Scroll was lying on the grass, shattered. "NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
His screams met deaf ears as he soon found darkness enveloping him again, he could do nothing but embrace it.
Velvet awoke in a daze.
The first thing she noticed was the sharp pain in the back of her head, the next was the amount of blood that covered the clearing, and the third was what seemed to be the source of the blood.
"Jaune!" She screamed getting to her feet quickly and rushing to his side. "Jaune, are you alright? Come on Jaune, get up!" Velvet found her pleas were futile when Jaune didn't get up, he didn't even stir.
Velvet decided that screaming at the unconscious person wouldn't help anyone, so she took in her surroundings. 'This looks like the Emerald Forest… it is! Beacon Cliff is right in front of us.' Surveying the clearing, Velvet noticed Crocea Mors lying on the ground in the distance. 'He must've gotten into a fight. Damn, why'd I leave my carrying case back in my dorm?'
Her eyes finally rested on Jaune, he would've looked cute lying there like that had he not been on the verge of death. The first thing she noticed was his legs, they didn't look too comfortable. Velvet didn't have any medical training, so she couldn't do much to help him, but an idea soon struck her.
'My Scroll!' She thought as she reached into her pocket… 'Isn't here. Damnit!' As Velvet took in her surroundings and all that she had to use, she realized that it was going to be a long night. Unclasping Jaune's leather straps that kept his armour plating together, Velvet lifted him off the ground and placed him over her shoulder.
'No use in waiting around, I'll just have to take him to the medical facility myself.' She began her trek just as the sun started to set over the horizon.
Despite the fact that there are stairs, climbing Beacon Cliffs is no small feat, and doing so with another person's weight over your shoulders didn't help too much. Velvet had only made it half way up and she was already starting to feel exhausted, she noticed a small, blue, armour plated boot lying on one of the steps. 'Doesn't that belong to that Sky person…? Wait, was Cardin behind this?! I don't remember seeing them before I blacked out, they must've gotten me from behind.'
Ignoring the wayward boot, Velvet continued her climb up towards Beacon, the final rays of the suns light were diminishing quickly and darkness would befall Remnant in no time.
She needed to hurry.
The two teams met up instantly. Weiss had been studying in the Library with Ruby, while Yang was training alone. Ren and Nora were the last to come by as they were enjoying a date. Each time someone arrived, they had the same question. 'Where's Jaune?'
Each time, silence was the only reply.
When the teams had managed to come together, they noticed another person missing. "Didn't anyone call Velvet?" Asked Ruby, confused that no one would bring her here. "I did." Replied Blake, with fear as to why she wouldn't come.
Pyrrha was the first to speak. "Alright everybody, it seems that both Jaune, and Velvet have gone missing, we're going to have to split up and search every corner of Beacon for them." Everyone agreed with the idea, but Weiss had a question. "What if we can't find them?" Pyrrha would have replied but Blake beat her to it.
"Then we leave Beacon grounds and search Downtown Vale, or the Emerald Forest, or even Forever Fall damnit! We aren't stopping until we find them." Everyone was shocked by Blake's determination. Her team was beginning to jump to conclusions. "Blake… do you still…?" Yang didn't even know how to ask the question, but she didn't need to, Blake still understood.
"No." She replied, flatly. "But I still haven't said a word to him since that night, and I'm sick of running from him. I've got to apologize, the sooner the better." Everyone understood.
"Let us make haste." Ren said, his eyes revealing a flicker of determination.
If she was exhausted half way up the steps then by the time she had made it to the top, Velvet would have been half dead. She was too tired to carry the blonde goofball over her shoulders, so she opted to drag him instead, there was too much blood on her new outfit anyway, and she was sure the shoulder pads weren't too comfortable for him.
The distance between Beacon Cliffs and Beacon grounds isn't really that far, you could walk it in about five minutes, one if you're Ruby.
Twenty if you're slowly dragging someone.
Based on how soaked her clothes were, and the trail that she had left, Velvet figured that Jaune had lost at least a quarter of the blood in his body, but she was so close now, she could almost taste the medical IV they'd put in him.
All that she needed to do was get him through the front gates. As she continued to drag him, dark clouds began to loom overhead, and she could feel a small drizzle on her ears already. She began to pick up the pace, but her thoughts soon wondered to how this could have happened. Jaune had been growing so much stronger over the months, he mustn't have been in a right state of mind to lose to Cardin this badly.
Velvet shrugged off the thought as she realized that rain wouldn't help Jaunes condition too much, she needed to hurry.
The makeshift search party had already searched Beacon high and low and decided to leave the grounds. Ruby, Weiss, Ren and Nora all left for Downtown Vale, it was the closest populated area to Beacon, they had a long night ahead of them.
Yang, Pyrrha and Blake went in the opposite direction, going to the Emerald Forest, the closest unpopulated area to Beacon. When they reached Beacon cliffs, they failed to spot the bunny eared traveler along the way. And the trail of blood that she left was washed away by the rain.
As the three of them started down the stairs, they quickly noticed the blue boot lying on one of the steps. No one could tell who it belonged to, but they knew that it was a bad sign, so they picked up their pace.
When they reached the bottom of the steps, they all paled in horror. There was blood everywhere, it covered the trees, the grass… and the white chest plate lying on the ground. Pyrrha broke down in tears, and the other two soon followed.
The first time Velvet saw the gates to Beacon, they seemed to loom over her head, making her feel small compared to all the humans that picked on her. She could take any of them, but she just didn't want to be associated with the White Fang and give Faunus an even worse name. Human's would use any excuse they could think off if it helped them get their way.
She'd been accused of being in that group before.
But now that Velvet looked at the giant gates that loomed overhead, the only feeling she felt was relief. 'I made it,' She thought. 'I made it in time.' Velvet continued to pull Jaune along with her as she made her way to the eastern edge of the school, where the medical bay sat.
Velvet had never felt so relieved in her life, she had just saved Jaune Arc. She saved her savior, and she couldn't have felt more proud. Velvet was certain that she had just boosted other people's view of the Faunus by doing this, if they saw the so-called 'Animals' helping other people, they might just stop being so discriminatory.
She knew it was only wishful thinking, but the thought was nice.
As the Medical Bay came into Velvet's line of sight, she found that her arms felt like lead. She couldn't move them, and she couldn't pull Jaune any further. With one last tug, she fell to the floor and soon found her vision fade to black.
After the three girls had recovered from their crying, they messaged the rest of their friends the bad news. They didn't receive a reply. As much as it hurt to do so, Blake began to investigate the area, so she could piece together what may have happened.
She saw his new Scroll broken on the ground and Crocea Mors was still lying next to it in its sheath. Blake noticed that the fight that happened here wasn't… right. There was no way any Grimm could've done this, but that didn't explain where his body could've gone.
As she bent down lower to the ground, she could see the grass bent in odd places, there were footprints, but they didn't belong to any monsters, only humans.
She noticed a large patch of grass next to his chest plate as well, there was also a blood stain larger than the others there, the foliage above them blocked out most of the rain so the blood hadn't washed away yet. 'It looks like he was lying there for a while… what happened here?'
She then noticed a few small drops of blood a distance from the puddle, and a few more away from those. They formed a line. 'A trail!'
"Guy's! I don't think that Jaune is dead!"
The very second she said those words, Pyrrha's Scroll went off with a message. Drying her eyes, she brought it up and took a look at it. "Beacon Medical Center?"
When Jaune came to again, the first thing he noticed was that he was no longer outside. Observing his surroundings, Jaune looked up to the roof and a single thought plagued his mind. 'Unfamiliar ceiling… I must be at the hospital or something.' He then attempted to sit up but found that his chest wouldn't let him, nor would his legs.
'What happened?' As Jaune racked his memories for an answer he soon remembered what he saw before blacking out. "VELVET!" He all but screamed. A minute passed before a woman ran into his room. "Are you alright?!" She asked. "Where's Velvet?!" He screamed to no one in particular. The nurse seemed to relax at his question.
"You mean the girl that we found with you? Miss Scarlatina? She's fine, she only collapsed from exhaustion. When she woke up, she had much the same reaction as you." Jaune slowly calmed down at her words, but immediately perked up from the next thing she said.
"When we questioned her, she said that she carried you all the way from the Emerald Forest, right into Beacon grounds. You two must be very close." Jaune was positively flabbergasted; he couldn't believe that she would do such a thing. He knew that she was strong, but to carry him all the way up those stairs and into campus? Amazing.
"Can I see her?" He questioned slowly, afraid of the answer. He was right to be so. "Are you insane?! You're not going anywhere until your aura has you healed up! The doctors have done everything they can to help, but the recovery could take weeks! You're not going anywhere until then."
Jaune sagged in defeat. He knew she would say something like that. "I'll go and inform the doctor that you're awake, Miss Scarlatina and your other friends may come and see you in the mean time." Her statement confused Jaune greatly.
"Wait, what do you-" He was interrupted when the nurse opened the door and all of the friends in his group came running in. "JAUNE!" they all screamed as they lunged and hugged him at the same time.
He could've sworn he broke another rib there.
"Guy's… can't breathe… ribs." He struggled to get those words out before everyone released him, and instead hugged him one by one. Weiss was the first to speak.
"Do you have any idea how long we've been searching for you?" She asked, already knowing the answer. "You guy's were looking for me? Really?" Jaune was honestly surprised, he didn't think they would still care about him after what he caused.
He nearly had a heart attack when Blake was the one who answered his question. "Of course we were looking for you Jaune, you're still very important to us…" She looked down remorsefully. "Even if we don't always show it."
Jaune had no idea what to say. "Blake, you're…?" She looked up to him with tears visible at the edges of her eyes. "I'm sorry for the way I've been acting Jaune, I should've handled that better, I-" "You have nothing to apologize for." He said softly, interrupting her.
"I shouldn't have asked that of you, I should've just manned up and told everyone myself. I'm sorry for what I caused you," He looked between his friends in sorrow, then closed his eyes. "all of you."
When no one said anything, Jaune opened his eyes to see all of his friends looking at him in anger. When Yang started walking up to him and applied pressure to his broken rib. He realized that he might've said something stupid. "Are you seriously apologizing for being a nice guy?" She asked, completely fed up with his self-depreciation and low confidence.
"W-what are you talking about, Y-Yang?" He asked, hissing in pain. Her eyes were already red. "The reason we all fell for you is because you're such a nice guy, you can't just apologize for being who you are. We should apologize for acting the way we did!" Realization dawned on Jaune as Yang finally stopped torturing him.
"But I could've-" "I swear if you say 'handled that better', me and my lovely here are gonna have a word with you." Jaune was surprised when someone interrupted him, he was astonished when he saw that it was Ruby, holding Crescent Rose unsheathed.
"R-Ruby…?" He asked. Starting to wonder if this was a dream or not. "Jaune, you did what you thought was right. There's no reason for you to say sorry for that, ok?" No one was expecting her to say something like that. Jaune could only smile and nod in return.
"Jaune…" Ren started, only pausing for effect. "I spoke with Professor Goodwitch, and she said that, because of the circumstances and the fact that you only just got one, we should give you this." He finished while holding a small box towards Jaune, a smile gracing his lips.
Jaune looked confused as he grabbed the box out of his hands and opened it up. The biggest grin of his life came upon him when he saw what was inside. "Finally…" Everybody else looked into the box and laughed at Jaunes reaction.
He got another new Scroll.
As the day soon came to a close, everyone left for their own rooms, although Pyrrha lagged behind a bit. When the door closed to his room, Jaune noticed that he wasn't alone yet. Velvet was still there.
"H-hey Velvet, are you alright? You barely said a word back there…" As Jaune waited for her reply, she slowly walked up to him. The silence was uncomfortable, so Jaune decided to break it again. "Uhh, I owe you big time for what you did back there, you really saved me." His awkward smile never left his face as Velvet continued to move closer, until she was looking down on him.
'I worked hard for this!' She thought. 'And as great as it is to see him alive and well, there's something else I want from him…' Jaune was getting very nervous from how close she was. "Listen, if there's anything you need, don't hesitate to ask." Velvet took him up on that offer immediately.
Leaning her head down closer to his, Velvet pressed their lips together in a kiss. As much as Jaune wanted to pull back, he couldn't, a single thought played in his mind as he started kissing back.
'I guess she earned this…'