Shot Through the Heart… or Chest Rather

Chapter 1: Hanging on the Edge

Pyrrha scanned the sky for her goofy crush, easily spotting him as he tumbled through the sky in what very well could have been the exact opposite of graceful. Suddenly, a panicked thought entered her mind.

"What if he can't figure out a way to land? What if he dies? What do I do?" In a sudden act of desperation she converted her rifle to its spear form and hurled it at Jaune, aiming for the hood of his jacket. She calculated his landing trajectory then silently prayed to whatever gods ruled over Remnant that he would be okay before she rushed off.

Meanwhile

Jaune, after one of his shouts of terror, heard a curious whistling sound and oriented his body to get a better look at… whatever it was. Suddenly, a streak of crimson plunged right into his chest, a loud "thunk" resounding as it punctured his chest armor. The momentum altered his course, resulting in him getting impaled on a tree. For several minutes, Jaune's mind was too overwhelmed with pain to think; his arms were desperately trying to get the red-gold shaft in his chest to budge, but it wouldn't move. After a few minutes, his mind calmed down enough to let him think rationally, or as rationally as someone with half of their oxygen supply cut off, as he soon realized the… whatever it was-had impaled him through his rib cage and into his right lung and out his back. The pain of breathing was only matched by the pain his top right rib, a part of the body that was never meant to be load bearing in such a way. He tried to yell for help, but he couldn't find the breath or the energy to do so. Remembering that you're not supposed to remove objects that have impaled you due to the increased risk of blood loss, he shifted his arms to hold his body up the best he could, assisting his broken rib. He got into as comfortable a position as possible, his eyes squinting and his mouth grimaced from pain. All he could focus on right now was staying alive.

Pyrrha's breath hitched as she caught sight of her desired partner, her mind stopping as she took in the scene. There was Jaune Arc, suspended about five meters in the air via her spear through his chest. Once her mind caught up with reality, it went into overdrive trying to figure out a solution to the current predicament. He had apparently passed out; the red trail creeping below him indicating it was probably due to blood loss. She suddenly started panicking when she realized he could very well have gone into shock.

Thinking quickly, she unslung her shield, Akoúo̱, and used her magnetic semblance to levitate it into the air, right below Jaune's feet. She then used her semblance to "grab" Miló and very carefully get it out of the tree, meanwhile making sure it didn't adjust too much within Jaune to preserve as much blood as possible. When he started lean over as the spear was being moved, she took hold of his chest armor to ensure he remained stable. Sweat started to build up on her brow and the strain of using her semblance in such an intensive way started to take hold, but she couldn't afford to give up of Jaune. She winced as the last of the Miló left the tree, revealing that it was halfway inside of Jaune. Slowly, she drifted him down so that he was leaning sideways into the tree, some of his blood getting into his blond hair and cloths. Once she was satisfied he wouldn't fall over, she ran over to him and sat him down, making sure not to move her spear, lest she aggravate the wound and cause more bleeding.

She quickly checked Jaune's vitals, finding that his pulse was dangerously low and his breathing was very labored. She searched through a pouch on her hip for medical supplies, and was relieved to find some gauze, disinfectant, and painkillers. She was about to begin treating Jaune when a growling noise emanated from behind her. She quickly spun around to meet the gaze of an Ursa.

Pyrrha quickly readied Akoúo̱, just in time to receive a massive swipe from the large Grimm. She rolled under a second one and slashed at the Ursa's back with the point of her shield. The beast roared with rage before quickly spinning around for another swipe, but the girl was already on its other side. Pyrrha quickly remembered that Jaune had a sword and ran over to him and unsheathed the blade, then instinctively blocked the Ursa's next strike. Seeing an opening, she plunged the blade into the Grimm's throat, ending it. Pyrrha then fell to her knees, utterly exhausted, but she quickly shook it off, remembering someone was teetering between life and death.

Taking up the gauze, she covered a section in disinfectant, then carefully pulled Miló from Jaune's chest. She tossed the blood soaked spear to the side as she took off Jaune's armor and hoody. Blood was still freely flowing from both wounds as she started wrapping the gauze around his chest. When she was sure the tightness was just right she backed up to observe for anything else that would need treating. It was then that Jaune started coughing, sizable amounts of blood flying out of his mouth as he did so.

Jaune's vision slowly faded in, but when he was refocused, he was preoccupied by the red headed angel standing over him, despite the massive pain in his chest. He coughed several times, more pain erupting as he did so, but that was good, he supposed, that meant he was still alive.

"Water," he weakly mumbled out, barely louder than a whisper. The girl quickly started looking through a pouch on her side before pulling out a bottle. She crouched down and unscrewed the lid then tilted the opening over his mouth. She let him drink about half the bottle before closing it. She saw him wince and move a hand over his chest so she handed him a couple of painkillers. He swallowed the pills then, after a deep breath, attempted to stand. Pyrrha was there the moment he faltered to let him down gently.

"Hey, hey, you need to let your aura heal you before we move on." Jaune gave a downcast look and shook his head."C-Can't, not active." He coughed out more blood. Pyrrha gave responded with a confused look, scrunching her brow.

"You're aura isn't activated?" Jaune weakly shook his head. Pyrrha then took a deep breath and adopted a determined smirk. "Well I guess now or never." She kneeled down to Jaune's face and placed a hand on the left side of his cheek. She then uttered the sacred words of activation. "For it is in passing that we achieve immortality, through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee." A great pulse of white energy started to emanate from Jaune, and the blood flow from his back and chest started to slow until it stopped completely. "W-Wow, you have a lot of aura."

"Well, I guess at least I have that going for me." Jaune chuckled weekly before wincing in pain. Pyrrha then offered him a hand, which he gladly took, and, rather shakily, got on his feet.

"Be careful, okay? You aura can seal wounds and should increase you blood production, but it can't reset bone or re-inflate lungs." She then took his left arm and slung it over her shoulder. "Let's get out of here together, partner." Despite almost killing her love interest, Pyrrha had a good feeling. With the Mistrali Champion holding up the inexperienced Knight, they slowly, but surely, got on their way to the relics.