Don't own anything belonging to other people. I'm only saying it once, as that should be enough.

It had been a grueling mission, but teams RWBY and JNPR were finally on their way back to Beacon.

It had been a couple of weeks since the Breach, and after a week or so of rest for those involved, everybody had been given missions to reassure the populace. Due to an overabundance of missions, even first year students were sent on some of the higher tiered ones.

The two teams had just spent 3 days in a rather remote settlement that had requested help. It wasn't a difficult mission, normally easily accomplished by even a single mid-level first year team, but the location meant that the two best teams in the year were sent instead, as they'd have to fly near an area of Sanus known colloquially as the Deathlands.

The Deathlands were a large area of forests and lakes with a disproportionately huge number of high level Grimm. Nobody went into the Deathlands by choice, as it was essentially a death sentence. Many high level, experienced huntsmen had been lost to it throughout the ages, so that now it was avoided as much as possible. However, as it covered a relatively large area of land, it could sometimes be inevitable that one would have to travel near it to get anywhere. There had been many proposals by Ozpin to send large teams into at least the edges of the Deathlands in order to clear them as much as possible, mitigating the potential threat they posed not just to nearby settlements but Vale itself, however they had all been rejected by the Council.

Jaune Arc sat looking out the window of the bullhead the teams were travelling in, gazing at the lush, untamed wilderness stretching below him, happy to be heading home where he could relax a bit, despite his motion sickness trying to ruin things. Pyrrha was sitting beside him, gently humming to herself as she examined Milo with a small smile. Nora was beside her, uncharacteristically asleep, snoring on Ren's shoulder while he read a book.

Across from Jaune sat his fellow team leader, Ruby, swinging her legs a bit as she watched Pyrrha work. Weiss was seated beside her partner, filing her nails. Blake was next on the seat, also reading a book, while Yang was listening to music on her scroll.

Jaune was just starting to doze lightly when the bullhead rocked, making him jerk up. "What was that?"

"Probably just some turbulence." Weiss commented idly. She was still slightly icy to Jaune, but she'd gotten a lot better since he stopped asking her out so much.

As if to directly contradict the heiress the bullhead rocked again and the pilot's voice came through from the intercom. "Students, seems we have a flock of Nevermore trying to bring us down. No large ones at this time, but they are causing trouble. If you would be so kind as to take care of them?"

Yang grinned, pulling her earbuds out of her ears. "Alright! Something to do! I was getting bored."

Everybody but Jaune got their long ranged weapons ready. Nora was prepping Magnhild with a grin when he looked at her. "Nora, you hold back for now. If they're close to the bullhead your explosives will do more harm than good."

Nora pouted. "Aww… Fine…"

Jaune reached up for the railing above as the doors opened. Almost immediately, small Nevermore swarmed, trying to get in, and everybody started firing, making the Grimm drop like flies. Yang was laughing as she fired her shotgun gauntlets, while Ruby fired Crescent Rose with precision and elemental ammo, trying to take out groups of enemies at a time. Standing close to Ruby, Weiss was using Myrtenaster to send out elemental attacks, primary electric ones, frying the Nevermore. Pyrrha was also taking careful shots, wanting to make every one count as Ren launched a barrage of bullets to hit as many as possible.

This lasted many long minutes but the cloud of Grimm seemed endless, just as dense as at the beginning. Jaune looked out the window of the other side of the bullhead only for his eyebrows to scrunch together. There were almost no Grimm out there, despite it not being defended. He supposed that could be just the Grimm focusing on the opportunity to kill the humans, but his gut told him there was something wrong. Then he realized the bullhead was tilted slightly to the side, indicating it was turning, and he felt a thrill of horror as understanding struck. He rushed to the intercom and slammed the button. "Why are we turning!?" he shouted.

The pilot's voice came back, surprised. "We're trying to keep away from the bulk of the nevermore, but they're following us. Why?"

"They're herding us! They want us to move this way! Where are we!?" Jaune yelled back.

"We're… over the Deathlands…" The pilot finished in horrified comprehension. He had been so focused on the flock that he hadn't paid attention to where they were.

Jaune felt like a lead weight had settled in his stomach. "Screw the Nevermore! Get use away as quickly as possible before-"

"Jaune!" Nora called, pointing out the window.

Jaune turned and saw shapes launching themselves out of the woods beneath them. He turned towards the others and yelled "Brace yourselves!" before grabbing hold of the handrail again as the bullhead was rocked. He was gratified to see the others had listened, managing to keep steady.

"Looks like we've got Griffons and larger Nevermores!" Ren called back.

"Screw it! Nora, blow them away!" Jaune said, making the hammer wielder laugh gleefully and move forward, Magnhild primed and ready. She started firing at the larger Grimm, making sure to aim for the ones furthest from the aircraft and letting the others deal with the closest ones. Jaune turned back to the intercom, which was still on. "Like I was saying, get us the hell out of here as quickly as you can! If you have to go through the damn swarm, do it! We need to get away from this area or we'll be overwhelmed really fast!"

"Affirmative, hold on to something!" The pilot called out as bullhead leveled out and quickly made its way forward, ramming through the smaller Grimm. The students quickly took over trying to keep the larger Grimm away.

It looked like they were going to make it out when the tail of the bullhead was rammed, causing the craft to spin. Weiss lost her grip and nearly went flying out but Ruby quickly grabbed her arm, keeping her from flying away even as they continued to spin. "Hold on Weiss, I've got you!" Ruby held her partner as tight as she could, but she wasn't as physically strong as the others and she was losing her grip on the rail as well. She whimpered in pain and panic, trying desperately to get her friend back in, but she couldn't take much more. Before long she lost her grip on the rail and went flying out with a shriek. Much like she had for Weiss, however, someone had grabbed Ruby's arm and was keeping her from flying away even as she in turn did the same for Weiss. She turned her head to see Jaune holding her, straining.

"I've got you!" He called, gritting his teeth. He had barely managed to make it to catch Ruby, almost as much due to luck as anything else. Now he was trying to pull them back in even as the bullhead tried to stabilize, and nobody could help, as they were all trying to keep from flying out as well, though Yang was looking terrified as she watched her sister hanging tenuously.

"Don't let go!" Weiss screamed, tears of fear on her face. Normally she wouldn't be so afraid, nor would the others, considering they'd been dropped into the Emerald Forest during initiation and got through that fine, but this was the Deathlands. Anybody who dropped down there was practically guaranteed to die, no matter what condition they were in when they landed. So right now she was terrified.

Hearing the fear in Weiss' voice, along with the whimpers of Ruby as she was stretched, along with her own fear, gave Jaune strength he couldn't have found before. With a yell of effort he pulled, managing to slowly pull the girls back in, muscles straining desperately. Before long he managed to get Ruby in, and with her help Weiss was soon inside as well.

Weiss gave a small sob of relief and looked up at Jaune with a grateful smile. He gave a small, soft smile in return… just as he was grabbed by a Griffon. It seemed to happen in slow motion to everyone. Jaune's eyes widened as he felt its talons settle on his shoulders, and before he could cry out, he was being borne away from the bullhead, back into the Deathlands.

"JAUNE!" Everybody screamed as they heard him yelling in panic. Ruby drew Crescent Rose without a thought and sighted on the Griffon, firing as quickly as she could now that the bullhead had stabilized, speeding them away from the Deathlands. She was joined by Pyrrha, who was desperately firing at the more and more distant Grimm. Finally, one of Ruby's shots hit the Griffon in the side of the head, blowing it clean off as the round exploded due to the fire dust in it. They could vaguely hear Jaune yell as he fell from the Grimm's slack talons down to the ground below.

Ren launched himself at the intercom. "You need to turn around now!" He quite uncharacteristically shouted.

"Are you nuts, kid? We're barely staying in the air as it is! We go back, we're dead!" The pilot responded.

"One of our number just fell deep into the Deathlands! If we don't get him back now, we probably never will!" Ren yelled angrily.

"Kid, you don't get it, if I go back, this bird drops and we all die in that hell. I'm sorry about your friend, but it's one or all! I know my duty." The pilot said grimly.

Ren slammed his fist against the wall and turned back to the others even as the door outside closed, the Grimm for the most part giving up pursuit, the remainder being dealt with by the bullhead's small caliber weapons.

Yang was holding a sobbing Ruby while Weiss sat nearby, looking shellshocked. Pyrrha was even worse. She had tears going down her face and her hands were fisted at her sides, trembling. Ren knew she was barely holding herself back from rushing the cockpit and forcing the pilot to turn around by force. Blake was sitting where she had been reading before, her head in her hands. And Nora was hugging herself, whimpering. He quickly made his way to her and wrapped his arms around her form, feeling her lean into his touch almost desperately. Ren himself could feel tears prickling the corners of his eyes.

The rest of the trip back to Beacon was spent in silence.

Jaune groaned as he opened his eyes. He lay on the cool ground, trying to figure out what happened. Last thing he remembered was… His eyes snapped open and he bolted upright, looking around. He was being carried by a Griffon when it had its head blown off and he dropped into the, he gulped, Deathlands. He got up and looked around frantically, terrified something was going to pounce at him immediately.

He knew that there was probably no help coming any time soon. If the pilot was smart he was going to keep flying back to Beacon rather than turn back to him. And it was doubtful anybody would be sent to search for him. If he wanted to survive, he had to get out himself.

He pulled out his scroll, hoping it would still work so he could at least let somebody know he was still alive, but his heart plummeted. It was cracked in two, completely useless.

"Dammit, that means I don't even get any music…" He said to himself, annoyed. Then he almost slapped himself. Listening to music when he should be paying attention to his surroundings sounded like the dumbest thing he could do.

He sighed, made sure Crocea Mors was still on his waist and in good condition, before looking up. He considered the position of the sun before choosing a direction and slowly, carefully, making his way. Hopefully he wasn't too far from the edge of the Deathlands.

How long could it take for him to get out, anyway?

Hello and welcome to my new story. This one will get updated less often than my Harry Potter story, to say nothing of my DxD story, but it will eventually get an update. The chapters will probably be relatively short, but we'll see.

I realize the beginning has some similarities to said Harry Potter story, but it's different long term. This is going to be about Jaune trying to survive an environment even more hostile than Remnant usually is and, later on, how the effect of his experiences changes things. It was an interesting idea, so I figured I'd give it a try.

I was thinking of letting Jaune find something from another fairytail in the Deathlands he could use later, but haven't decided. Let me know what you think in a review.

Also, don't know what the pairing will be. Pyrrha will most likely be involved, but if it's just her or a harem, I don't know.

Don't think there's much else to say at this point. Hope you enjoyed, and please read and review.