First

Ruby's first kill was accidental. Jaune's was not.

Ruby's first kill was a bandit attacking the town they'd just arrived at. They'd split up to deal with the others, Ren and Nora going after one group, while Jaune and Ruby went after another. Ruby did not waste time, she let loose her Semblance, Scythe raised high and when it hooked around the bandits body, she fired. The momentum cut through him like butter, dead in an instant.

She had not thought that these attackers may not have Aura protecting them. She had grown so used to enemies and opponents who had that barrier around them, she was so caught up in her desire to protect she had momentarily disregarded everything else.

Needless to say that she'd been a complete wreck for weeks afterwards. She'd bath multiple times a day in whatever clean water source they could find when they back on the road, Nora keeping watch as the young girl scrubbed vigorously at the imagined bloodstains. She barely spoke, and when she broke down in tears Jaune was always there with n embrace and shoulder cry on. Holding tightly, comforting her when she weakly struggled to escape but knowing when to let go and give her space as well. Ren did his best to help, subtle bursts of his Semblance whenever the girl had a nightmare so that she could calm and sleep easier.

It affected everyone, but one day she started to improve. They'd worried it would take longer, that they may have to turn back and force Ruby to seek professional help. Being away from her family and team had been stressing her out enough already without this on top. Her supposed special power and her importance in this secret war only compounded everything together. One day she just started getting better.

Ruby's Semblance was speed after all, she didn't do anything slowly and moving past this was included. It didn't happen overnight, Ren still had to employ his semblance, especially when in Grimm infested areas, Nora still watched over her while she bathed, still struggling with the blood she thought she could see. Jaune, he backed off a bit more, as days went by she needed fewer comforting words but she still sought out his embrace at least once a day. They all slept closer together now, Ruby in between him and Ren for ease of Semblance employment but she always wanted to be closer to Jaune at night. Ruby was an affectionate young girl, and her mind had placed him at the forefront of her recover.

Eventually, the scars that incident left behind faded enough that she no longer had nightmares, no longer saw the blood. She was quirky and chipper, just like she always was.

When Jaune made his first kill, he felt nothing. No pity or shame, nor did he feel happy or relieved. He hadn't expected it to feel good per say but he'd thought there would be something. The women headless at his feet, she'd been his goal for so long now. Ruby stood behind him silently, he suspected she thought he was just coming to grips with it, but she would be wrong.

He'd been prepared for this since the day she made her first kill, but for even longer he knew that this women would be his first and only. He'd considered sparing her, he really had, for the sake of his own soul but in the end he'd taken her life anyway. Ever since the day they found out she was still alive, he'd been prepared.

No, Ruby might not realise it but this encounter was never going to go any differently. It may have looked like things would go a different way, but it wasn't going to. He was always going to be leaving this building with her head in hand, the fact she tried to kill him when his back was turned only made it look like it was self-defence. He'd only turned his back to tell Ruby to leave, to go find any survivors or prisoners. He hadn't wanted her to see him kill in cold-blood.

Her first kill had affected her deeply, she was just a tad more cynical, a tad less optimistic and he didn't want to be his actions now to push her further away from being the person he loved. He would never tell her of his feelings, of course, with so much more to do before tracking down this Salem woman, he didn't want to burden her with his feelings. It was just them two now, Ren and Nora critically injured and recovering in a hospital three towns over, he couldn't afford to distract her with something as inconsequential as his feelings.

Still, he'd done what he'd set out to do that day. An entire year it had taken but he'd finally avenged his partner. She wouldn't have wanted him to do it, to coat his hands like that, but what she wanted didn't matter. She was dead after all, she couldn't want anything. All he knew was that his precious partner, a friend her cherished even if he never did have any romantic feelings for, was killed by the woman and his feet.

It was revenge, pure and simple, a burning hatred for this woman that none but Ren and Nora knew about and the only reason they knew, was because they felt it too. He had meant it when he'd thought that this encounter couldn't have ended any differently was because even if it wasn't him here, if it were Ren or Nora, the results would've been the same.

Cinder Fall would've died.

JNPR had been a team, yes, but they'd become a family. They were closer to each other than any other at Beacon, though it may not have seemed it. They shared their pasts but left out many details. They were close but some secrets are never to be told. Pyrrha's family was often away, she trained so hard and became so strong to combat that crushing loneliness she felt only to realise too late that by being so strong she had further alienated herself. Ren and Nora were Orphans, Nora abandoned and left to fend for herself homeless on the streets. Ren had witnessed his Mother and Father die during a Grimm attack and that was when he'd unlocked his Aura and Semblance. In the process meeting Nora and giving her the first weapon she'd ever had. He'd shared his stories too.

JNPR trained together, lived together and they'd said they would die together if needs be. It was why it hurt so much that Pyrrha had fought alone that night, because even injured, even weak and useless, they would have stood tall at her side. Really though, deep down, they knew that of all of them Pyrrha was the one most likely to sacrifice herself alone to protect the ones that took away her loneliness.

So, as compensation, they would take away everything of Cinders. They would raze every tie she had in the world, every person who had helped her, every person she worked with, they would take them all on. No matter how kind, how caring or loving team JNPR was, you did not take something of theirs without permission. Taking a members life? Then not even hell itself would protect you or anyone else in their way.

It's funny really, he would find himself thinking, how far people would go for the ones that save them from themselves.

I was thinking last night, and came up with this. It's not all that good, mostly because I didn't but much thought in to refining the original idea but I like it nonetheless.

For the record, my bets are on a member of team JNPR taking down Cinder. (Though my money bet is on Jaune).

Kind regards,

Yourfellowwriter.