For it is in Passing

Jaune flattened himself against another pillar, retrieving another glass vial from the pouch at his waist. When he judged her close enough, he threw it. There was another gout of flame in reply. Perfect. It should only take a few more now.

Jaune let out a few ragged breaths, clutching his side. He had staunched the bleeding, but the cut still pained him. A stray piece of shrapnel from earlier in the fight had grazed him when he didn't hide fast enough. He didn't make that mistake again.

Jaune was at first happy over the fact that Cinder couldn't speak. It meant he wouldn't have to listen to her smug satisfaction as she taunted him about Pyrrha. Now he was finding he regretted the fact that she was silent, it made timing his shots a bit more difficult. He was managing, even if he was pretty sure that his hair was uneven now after dodging flames for the last hour.

This pattern repeated itself two more times until he got to the last vial. Jaune was surprised really, he was certain she would have figured out something was up by now. 'I guess absolute power makes you stupid' he thought.

When the last vial was finally thrown, he stepped out into the open as planned. Smiling triumphantly as Cinder lay gasping on her knees.

Jaune strode over as quickly as his injuries, taking a seat against the wall of a ruin that was a simple home a few hours ago. He took a moment to check his wounds again, and gave a sharp hiss at the swelling in his side. All the cuts and bruises were adding up. He could feel the barest dregs of his aura as it struggled to heal his accumulated damage. Even his reserves had to run out eventually. He watched Cinder struggle for breath, her eyes wide in panic for a few minutes, before he finally elected to speak.

"Everyone always underestimates me, you know. I'm the loser, the weakling, the comic relief guy. The one everyone always comes to save. Do I still seem weak to you?"

"I doubt you care, since you killed her, but Pyrrha was the first person to believe in me. When everyone else saw this loser stuck in a tree, she saw something in me, kept telling me I would be a great leader. She was wrong. I was a terrible leader. A good leader would have seen how much she was hurting. A good leader would have convinced her that she didn't have to run off to certain death. A good leader would have seen how much she cared for him, and reciprocated instead of being a complete coward about it."

"One day, I hope to apologize for all the crap I put her through in person. I don't think it'll be enough, but I think this is a start," the blonde stated with a smirk as Cinder gazed at him, fear in her eyes.

"I'm telling you all this because I want you to understand, if only a little, the magnitude of what you've done. You took the most incredible person I have ever known from me, from the world. The woman I loved. And as far as I am concerned, this is better than you deserve."

Jaune reached out, pushed gently, and the unresisting Cinder was now flat on her back, Jaune's hand cradled under her head, "Surprised?" the blonde asks gently, "Well, my mom always said no one is worth your morals. So, I will at least be a gentleman about this."

Once she was fully lowered to the ground, he removed his hands, placing them in his lap.

"Now before you go, I suppose you're wondering how this has happened. Well, like I said, people underestimate me. What does fire need to burn? Oxygen. Granted, there is oxygen all around us, sure, but the thing is, the fire you were throwing about is powered by your aura. That means you need oxygen to keep spamming fireballs. Cut off the oxygen, cut off the firepower. So much for being a force of nature, huh?"

Jaune reached into his pouch, retrieving the final vial, the one he had saved just for this moment. He held it out to her, with a shaking hand so she could get a very good look, "Metal shavings," he said at last, "Every time you destroyed one of these vials, tiny bits of liquified metal were entering your lungs. Eventually, they all added up."

"If I'd had Pyrrha's semblance, this would have been much easier. But I don't so I had to get creative. It's a shame Ozpin's soul migrated into some civilian kid."

Cinder's eyes widened further at that, now even more terrified in her last moments.

"Yeah, a shame really. I owe that bastard a kick in the balls. I mean sure it was your arrow that killed Pyrrha, but it was Ozpin and his fucking ideals that sent my partner up there."

"Do you believe in Destiny? Pyrrha did, or at least, Ozpin got her to with this whole Maiden nonsense. It doesn't matter, really. This is the end for you."

It was true, even now, the light was dimming in her eyes. He reached out, gently wiping a tear from her eye.

"I'm not like you, I'm not a monster. I won't let you die scared and alone. Shh, it'll all be over soon."

She could see the exhaustion in his own eyes as well. He seemed to be struggling to stay awake, just to watch her die. She saw the depth of the cut in his side. Once his aura ran out, he was going to bleed to death right here. He was going to die right along with her.

"I see you figured it out," the blonde said with a tired chuckle, "My aura's almost gone. When I said you weren't dying alone? I meant it. At least I'll get to see Pyrrha again."

Cinder didn't understand his compassion. It made no sense! She had killed his team mate! Taken the woman he loved! And she was getting colder. She could feel it, the cold seeping into her chest. 'Or maybe that's fear', Cinder wondered, as she began to lose feeling in her limbs, 'Is this what the Fall Maiden felt? What Nikos felt?'

She was beginning to feel a strange lightness, like she was floating on the air. It was liberating, and all at once terrifying. But still Jaune Arc's stare seemed to wash over her very being. She couldn't understand it, the warmth, the compassion. The hope. It was like he wanted to die!

It only made her more afraid. Did he know what awaited her next? The thought was illogical and absurd, but she couldn't help it. Nothing else made sense! He must know something! Perhaps he was hoping she would be consigned to a deep black pit of fire for all eternity?

Suddenly, she began to feel it: warmth. Where before, there was a seeping cold, now all she felt was fire, and warmth, light at the edge of her vision. Something moving just out of her sight. And she was now more terrified than ever, 'Oum, there really is fire! I don't-! I'm scared,' she thought for the first time since she was a little girl, 'I don't want to die…'

Just before the weightlessness made her float away completely, she took a single pain free breath. She understood.

Cinder Fall blinked her amber colored eyes one last time, before finally leaving the world of Remnant forever.

And then they were green.

Jaune smiled, relief coloring his tone as he laughed, "I can't believe that worked."

Between one breath and the next, Jaune stopped suppressing his aura. The immediate area began to glow with a soft, warm light as his aura went to work. Within moments, his injuries were healed as if they were never there.

Pyrrha smiled at him, whole and healthy, where Cinder had been, "Neither can I. I guess Amber was right, killing Cinder restored the Fall Maiden power to me, making mine the dominant soul in the body."

Jaune laughed again as he pulled his partner close, "Yeah, good thing there was a tiny bit of your aura mixed with mine from when you unlocked my soul, so yours had somewhere to go when your body died and you could wait it out."

Pyrrha giggled, so overjoyed to be fully alive again, to feel.

She did miss her armor though. Cinder was nowhere near as gifted as she was, and these clothes were very constricting, "I'm just glad whatever magic chooses the Maidens was able to rebuild my body."

"Thank Oum for mystical bullshit fail safes!" Jaune laughed as he stood, taking Pyrrha's hand in his own.

"There is just one problem, Juane. One thing we desperately need to correct as soon as possible."

The blonde gave a nervous chuckle, "Yeah, I know you need a new weapon, and armor. I have some money saved, and I will do everything I can to help, but..."

She silenced him with a kiss.

He eagerly returned it.

"That's not what I meant," she stated, once they came back up for air.

"It's not?"

"No. I have spent over a year sharing a body with you. I have been inside your body, sharing your soul."

Jaune couldn't help but blush at the lascivious gleam in her eyes.

"I've been inside you for over a year. Turnabout is fair play, right?"

END