Welcome to my new project, Memories of a Future. I wish to thank you for taking the time to read this and hope we all have a fantastic journey together!

Looking for a cover for the story ASAP, if you are interested in drawing one please contact me, I would greatly appreciate it!

Memories of a Future

Chapter 1: The Future Stays In The Past.

Jaune Arc opened his eyes slowly and unsurely. He struggled to see amidst the black smoke; The result of Salem's castle collapsing. He laid there, right in the middle of the aftermath.

Had they won, was it over?

There were no cheers of victory, no one waking him up with happy tears in their eyes and telling him that they had finally done it, that all of this meant something, that so much fighting, so much suffering, finally paid off.

The dust and smoke infiltrated his lungs, he pushed it down and brought a hand up to wipe whatever the hell it was that was stuck to his eye, it turned to be only more dust.

He tried to push himself up but couldn't, and it wasn't just the fatigue, even though it would have been enough, he was faced with another setback to add to it.

His throat? Dry. His head? Spinning. His shoulder? Dislocated. His Aura? Depleted. And to add to it all, his left leg broken.

But he was alive, just like always, he made it, somehow.

His thoughts drifted to his friends, they might need him, they might require his semblance.

Even if he had no Aura, he would still try to use it if they needed it.

He was one of the five that fought against Salem herself, with him was Qrow, Ruby, Winter, and Ozpin.

His thoughts started to flood back, they had cornered her in one of the towers of the castle.

The thought of his friends needing healing and him not providing solely because of a broken leg repulsed him, he had made it through much worse.

He forced himself up and started walking, practically on one foot. A few steps and he came across Corcea Mors, he picked them up.

His eyes caught onto a familiar shade of green clothing. "Ozpin?" He called him so, as he was finally fully merged with Oscar a few months back.

He didn't recognize his own voice as he spoke, it was weak, scrawny, scratchy and broken.

"Ozpin-" He coughed. "Can you hear me?"

The only reply was the sound of his own footsteps.

He staggered and fell to one knee beside Ozpin, his eyes were lifeless.

He couldn't believe it, Ozpin? Ozpin had fallen? That could only spell doom.

No, don't think like that. Ozpin was definitely their strongest, but he was far from the last trick they had up their sleeve, they still had Ruby, she was the Fall Maiden now, and Winter was appropriately the Winter Maiden.

Jaune reached to check for a pulse, he found none. "You finally have your peace," Jaune said, hoping that Ozpin could somehow hear him.

The huntsman forced himself up once more, his sword was too heavy and he could not carry it high enough to stop it from clashing with the ground on every step.

He spotted someone else on the ground through the smoke, the man was wearing a white blazer.

Jaune made his way to him. "Qrow, can you hear me?" He asked, devoid of hope, he remembered what happened to Qrow during the battle.

And the sight proved to match with his memory, Qrow, one of the legendary Huntsmen, had a huge gap in his chest, courtesy of Salem.

"I'm so sorry," Jaune muttered with what remained of his voice as he walked past, there was no hope for Qrow's survival.

"Boy." A weak voice cried out, Jaune's head tilted and spotted the person who spoke.

General Winter Schnee, the greatest hero in Atlas's history, the one who single-handedly kept the kingdom alive after Ironwood's demise, the one who put up the greatest fight against Salem's forces.

Her hand set over her stomach, drenched in blood as she lay on the ground.

"Winter!" He said as loud as his voice would permit and staggered to her as fast as he could despite his injury.

He set down his sword and hovered a hand over her wound, he tried to surge Aura through, but he had none to spare, not even a nickel's worth.

"It's fine, stop." She said.

He didn't.

She pushed his hands away. "I said stop, there's no use."

"No, you can't say that, I-"

"Listen to me well, Jaune," She interrupted. "I need you to find my sister, do anything you can to make sure she's alive."

"But you, what about you? Just hold on and we'll both find her!" He said, his voice slowly starting to come back.

"Please," She said. "I will beg of you if I have to, make sure my sister is safe, Weiss is all I have."

He was adamant on ignoring it, on saving the one that was in front of him first. But then he looked at her eyes.

She wanted nothing other than Weiss's safety, it was clear.

"Alright, I'll find her, I promise." He said.

Winter gave a faint smile, on that moment, it was as if all the world's pressure was lifted off her shoulder. "Thank you," she muttered before looking down on her wound. "It's so cold." She said.

"I- I don't know if I have anything on me, I can try to-" he paused as he heard her palm hit the floor, he looked up at her eyes.

They were closed, and life had finally left her body.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." He said. "But I'll make up on my promise, I swear." He added as he forced himself up once more.

Each step felt like a ride through hell and back, but it would be worth it, it would definitely be worth it when he finds his teammates and the members of Team RWBY. Hell, even the people he did not know too well, like team SSSN and FNKI and CFVY.

He would find all of them, they'd be okay, he wanted - had- to think that way, he needed a reason to keep going instead of collapsing and letting the pain win.

And as naive and improbable as that hope may sound, it was all he had, all he could come up with.

Hope is still hope even if it's false hope.

He grunted as he stepped too hard on his broken leg, the ground was disproportionate and there was rubble everywhere, it would have been hard enough without the injury.

Salem's body was nowhere to be found. Was that a good or bad omen? He couldn't figure it out, was she dead or not? It meant both possibilities were on the cards.

There was a chance she disintegrated as all Grimm do, but there was no way to make sure that she did.

He needed to push on, to leave the tower and go to the main hall of the castle, that's where everybody would be waiting for him.

They must have been, right?

They must have been...

He leaned against a wall as he made his way to the stairs leading out of the tower, to think he would dread the mere thought of stairs so much...

One small step was all it took for him to lose balance and trip over, he couldn't be blamed, his body felt like it was used as a chewing doll for Grimm.

He groaned as his body finally stopped rolling, coming to the end of the stairs.

"I have to-" He tripped as he tried to stand up again. "I have to... find them."

He pushed on, not caring for the pain, not caring for the heartache, not caring for anything but finding someone, anyone.

His heart filled with despair and anger at the sight. So many people, so many people dead, their bodies lay lifeless on the floor, forming a graveyard of huntsmen, some of them he knew, others he didn't, and some were close enough to be considered friends. They were all his comrades, fighting the last battle together with him, protecting each other for the sake of Remnant.

They were humanity's last heroes.

They deserved better than this, better than to die in this hellhole, better than being used as steps for him as he looked for his friends with despair, they deserved to be recognized, to be praised, to be reunited with their families and to tell them that everything will be alright.

They were the ones who did not run, the ones who fought through it all, through the unending Grimm, through both the physical and emotional scars the world had thrown at them. They were the last, biggest, brightest, and the most brilliant beacon of hope humanity had ever witnessed, the ones who abandoned all their sorrow to save others. They were true huntsmen, they were fighters.

Hundreds of brave souls, the last of the huntsmen, the last push against Salem. And they all laid there, blood covering them, scars rendering them indistinguishable, their weapons broken and their lives lost.

He saw faces that he recognized, Velvet from team CFVY, dead alongside her friend, fox.

Cardin from team CRDL, the man who started off as a racist ruffian had ended up a hero, saving countless villages by himself, helping stop who knows how many Grimm attacks on Vale, and on one occasion, almost dying to save a family of Faunus trapped in the basement of their house and surrounded by Grimm.

He had jumped in, no care in the world for his own safety or well-being, moving through dozens of Apathy Grimm with only his sheer willpower keeping him alive, just to save a family that he would have once called out as animals.

He had even ended up being engaged to a Faunus girl.

There were others that he recognized as well amongst the hundreds that laid dead, he only did not remember their names. He saw a member of team NDGO, another from team FNKI. And some others that he had met on the camps that were set up to prepare for the attack on Salem's domain.

"Please, please be okay." He murmured as he kept looking for his friends, please don't be dead, please.

A faint sob from his left drew his attention, he immediately made his way there, above the bodies, mentally apologizing every time he had to step on someone.

He came upon Sun, recently one of his closest friends, a good guy with a huge heart, there was nothing he cared more about than his friends.

And he was dead, his eyes were open, but he was dead, those eyes did not have the same aura around them, they didn't have the excitement, the candid honesty, the happiness, and every other good quality they used to have.

But he wasn't alone.

Jaune now knew where the sob had come from, it was the person that sat on Sun's lap and hugged him as if it was the only thing they ever wanted to do.

It was one girl with smooth black hair, her weapon lay next to her, broken.

But not as broken as she was. She hadn't even realized Jaune was there, too busy crying her eyes out on Sun's chest.

"P-p-please, don't go, Sun, please don't leave me, I- you can't."

Jaune slowly knelt down in front of Blake, what was he supposed to say? He understood her feeling all too well, of losing someone you love, it's as if you suddenly lost everything that makes life worth living.

His thoughts drifted to Pyrrha for a moment.

"Blake..."

No response, just the same indecipherable gibberish she said with occasionally one sentence that he managed to make out, she was still in denial, thinking that there was no way that her Sun was taken away from her.

"Blake... I..." There was nothing to say, nothing he could say to make it feel better, he knew it, he felt it and experienced it before, with how hurt her heart was, everything he says will be taken in a wrong way, he'd only make it worse.

But he had to say something, it was selfish, so very selfish, yet he had to, not to make her feel better, but to make himself feel better, to make sure she would live, he'd need to tear her apart from her lover's body for just long enough to make sure she'd live.

"Blake... please." He reluctantly set a hand on her shoulder.

She finally gave a reaction, slowly tilting her head in disbelief.

"...J-Jaune?"

"I'm- I, are you..." He stopped speaking, he had no right to ask, stupid, stupid, stupid! Don't make her think about it, just make sure she's okay!

She broke down even harder than before, though it was different this time. His eyes widened as she quickly pulled him closer, hugging him tightly and sobbing harder than before.

"I- I'm so glad you're okay." She said, still not quite believing it herself.

He wrapped his arms around her in return, closing his eyes and feeling the warm embrace of a friend, a feeling they had both undoubtedly needed, and only now did he realize it.

"M- me too, I'm glad you're okay." He said as he gently pushed away, he set his hands on her shoulders. "But I still need to make sure, please, just bear with me for a moment."

She shook her head immediately, looking on Sun. "No, Jaune, please... please see if you can..." She didn't complete the sentence, she knew she was asking for far too much, she just couldn't believe he was gone.

Her Sun, her idiot and the one who literally joined her on her journey around all of Remnant, just to make sure she was safe, just in case she needed him.

"Blake... I-" He looked at Sun, blood covered his chest, a stab wound on his neck and a huge claw mark on the side of his head.

"No, I- I understand..." She said. She had to understand, there was no option that would be better than that in their situation.

Blake grew as a person over the months she had spent in the war, realizing that there was only so much you can expect of someone or something. First, she thought she'd be able to bring equality to the Faunus, after a while, she realized that equality in its purest form, the one she inspired herself to achieve, was nigh impossible.

There was always something wrong, there was never anything perfect, you could only ask for so much, crying and blaming someone needlessly would never help.

And it wasn't Jaune's fault, he probably had almost no Aura left, to waste it on trying to bring someone back from the dead was nothing short of derisive.

Sun was dead, it was what happened, it was unfair, she would weep, she would cry and she would regret, but not now, now there was someone with her, someone that depended on her.

"I-I'm okay, " She said, giving one last look to Sun, giving him a kiss and closing his eyes with her hand. "He made sure I'd be okay."

Jaune still eyed her carefully, looking for anything that might be considered a dangerous injury, it was ridiculous, given how she had just confirmed she was fine.

Yet he had his reasons to be this paranoid, he couldn't let the one person he found alive go, after all.

"Jaune," She said as he checked the back of her head, she didn't protest, better to let him make sure. "Is she...?"

"Salem?" He said as he noticed a bleeding wound on her waist, he almost panicked at that, thinking she was lying to him to make him feel better, but then he realized it would not make sense. "I don't know..."

Being in the position he was in induced some emotions and thoughts, panicking was one of them.

He set his hands on the wound, making sure to get solid contact, there was no point in wasting any aura with how little he had.

"I- I didn't even notice that..." Blake said, somewhat shocked.

With all the adrenaline and everything else that's happened, he could see why she hadn't noticed, stuff like that does this to people, after all. And the wound turned out to be shallow in the end.

He had generated some of his aura back, thankfully, and he used just enough to help Blake recover from her wound.

In his state, though it was still a lot of aura to spare, though, and he quickly found his own completely depleted again, he had never run out of it when healing someone. The feeling was extremely unpleasant, his hands started shaking and he had to lean a hand on the wall to not fall down. His breathing had also gotten quite heavy.

"Are you okay?!" She said as loudly as her dry throat would let her.

"I'm fine, it's just the exhaustion. I'll be okay."

Her eyes widened as he tried to get up, only for a crack to be heard from his leg and resulting in him falling down again. "Jaune!" She quickly extended her hand to break his fall, then helped him sit down and lean his back to the wall. "Your leg, your leg is broken!"

"It's fine, I can keep going." He replied as he tried to stagger up once more, not quite sure if it was the truth or not himself, he had at least had a bare amount of Aura before, stopping his bone from completely giving out, now, though? He had nothing.

"No, you can't." She pushed him back. "Just stay still, you need to regenerate your Aura."

"But we need to find them. Find anyone, what if they needed my semblance?" He argued.

"You can't even use it anymore!" She shot back immediately. "Just listen to me, please. Rest."

Jaune bit his lip out of frustration. There must have been someone in the castle, in pain or even dying, and the only way to ease their burden or save them was through his semblance.

And if he couldn't do something about it... "Then what good am I?!" He snapped. "What good am I if I can't save someone? If I can't do the only thing I've sworn to do as a huntsman? If I can't fulfill my oath?!"

His eyes softened after saying so, only now realizing that he shouted at a woman only trying to keep him alive, trying to do the one thing he had wanted to do with everyone else.

And he then realized just how much of a hypocrite he was being.

"I'm sorry..." He said before she had a chance to talk.

She quietly sat beside him, also leaning on the wall. "It's fine." Her words comforted him more than she could have known. "We'll go look, together, just... give it a few minutes, at least until you have enough Aura to walk."

It was far from an optimal plan, actually coming closer to being deficient than anything else. You couldn't expect from someone to do what Jaune was doing while he was so badly injured.

Still, it wasn't like they were in the middle of a city, there were no hospitals, no doctors, nothing. And even so, all the major cities had already fallen months ago, there was nowhere to go for healthcare, people had to depend on their skills alone, and try to avoid injury no matter what.

Jaune had already saved countless lives, just a few more, just one last time and he would have done all he could. That's what he most likely believed.

"There were so many." She spoke.

Jaune already knew what she had been talking about. She and all of the huntsmen that laid on the ground had been the ones to hold off the unending armies of Grimm while his small and selected group was to deal with Salem. It wasn't an efficient strategy, but it was all they could do.

They could not spare for any other huntsmen to fight Salem, each one missing from the ranks was a Grimm that had made it to Salem's aid.

That's why the specific group to fight Salem was handpicked.

Ozpin was a part of the group for obvious reasons, Ruby for her Silver eyes that had been their strongest weapon against Salem and the fact she was a Maiden.

Qrow had been one for two different reasons, the first being the fact that they needed to keep his semblance as far away from their main defensive line as possible, it would have more effect amidst a large group of people, the second being his pure skill that had more than helped in the fight against Salem.

Winter, being unable to properly command the lines of the huntsmen since they were not trained soldiers, had insisted on joining them, and they could not disagree, she was a Maiden and they needed the power to hold Salem back. It had pained her to be separated from Weiss, but she believed it was the best course of action.

And she was right, she had been the most agile, completely dodging Salem's spells with ease, she had turned out to be a crucial part of their fight.

He, however, was chosen thanks to his semblance.

Had a huntsman of the hundreds fighting the Grimm fallen, the ranks could somewhat be filled, not completely, but it was at least doable, however, if one of the people fighting Salem fell, the whole plan would crumble and fall with them.

That's why they needed him, to make sure none of them died.

And to his credit, he had succeeded in doing just that many times during the fight, healing many fatal injuries his teammates received during the struggle.

That fact played a large part of his vast aura reserve being emptied.

"They came out of nowhere, it was terrifying, I'd have never imagined I would see so many Grimm in one place.

Jaune stayed silent for a moment, he had remembered glancing out of the window of Salem's tower in the middle of their fight with her, his eyes widened when he did, there were hundreds, no, thousands of Grimm swarming into the castle.

It must have been a nightmare, trapped in the castle and fighting that many Grimm. All while your only chance of surviving depended on five people defeating the Grimm queen.

Then again, it wasn't like they had any choice, there was nothing to go back to anymore. And one must remember that these were no ordinary huntsmen, to survive for so long in the hell that Remnant had been turned into would require you to be obviously talented.

And not in the normal way, being naturally talented was not enough, being special wasn't enough, being a professional huntsman wasn't enough.

Huntsmen were warriors, protectors, people trained with extreme measures.

But it wasn't enough, in this world, you don't survive because of your training, you survive because you spent every second of every day fighting for it, you needed to be trained so harshly that you'd never need training again.

Or at least, that's what Qrow always told them when he trained the absolute living hell out of their very souls.

"Maybe Qrow had a point," Jaune murmured.

Blake looked at him, "on what?"

"That we needed to be trained until perfection, that we had to be as perfect as a human or faunus could possibly get, it was to reach the impossible."

She stayed silent.

"You know... I thought we had all made it." He laughed. "That we had made it to that perfection he was speaking about, that we were ready."

And it was stupid of him to do so, but it seemed that it was Qrow's goal to make them believe that, he realized it now.

You couldn't be perfect, there was always something off, you just had to do your best to fix it, and when you do? Well, something else will come up, and you'll have to fix that as well.

So Qrow made them believe that they were strong enough, that they were ready for the fight. That no wrong could be made.

"But when I stood in front of Salem and I looked at her eyes. Those dead eyes, I finally realized something," his fist tightened. "I was terrified," he still managed to push his fear down at the time of the fight, how could he not when the fate of the world depended on none of them making a mistake?

Blake simply listened, she was never good with words but at least she was a decent listener, and although she couldn't force any words out of her lips, she still understood what he felt all too well.

And as they continued to rest, time naturally passed. A fact that brought Jaune to the point of being anxious. "I've had enough rest, we need to look for survivors."

Blake, knowing full well that it was a miracle to get him to rest in the first place, decided not to push her luck. She hopped off onto her feet and offered him a hand.

"Thanks," He muttered, Blake, though, had other ideas. She quickly set his arm on her shoulder, supporting his weight. Jaune wasn't light by any means, but nor was Blake weak, either. In fact, she was a lot stronger than she seemed to be.

Steady they went, doing their best to avoid stepping on any bodies, it was difficult thanks to the fact that there was less ground than there was ground covered with corpses.

Jaune checked up on the bodies one after the other, but only doing so with ones that at least had a chance of being alive, some bodies were clearly too wounded to have a chance of survival.

But it didn't matter at all, no one was alive, no one! Body after body, companion after companion, friend after friend, every single one was dead!

Ren, Nora, please be safe.

He pushed on with hope dwindling by the second and Blake still insisting to help him support his body.

And as they both neared their limits, Jaune spotted a familiar body. Rage built up inside him almost automatically, that bastard, Tyrian. He was dead, but not only that, the weapon that dealt the killing blow was still stuck to his chest, a familiar weapon that belonged to Ren.

He had to be close.

"Come on!" Jaune said as he pushed himself harder, Blake followed through and they both looked around, trying to find any clue, anything at all.

And then Jaune spotted a familiar shade of Green and Pink in the distance. "There!" He pointed towards the man and woman that laid against the wall on the edge of the hall. It was Ren and Nora! A random corpse covered Ren's chest but there were no visible wounds.

Jaune dropped on his knees as they reached his friends, their eyes were closed. Quickly, Jaune pushed the body that lay over Ren away.

He didn't even have to look for wounds to see it. It was immediately visible, a huge gash in his chest, almost deep enough to see his ribcage, a purple liquid was also visible around the wound, Tyrian's poison.

Jaune's eyes flickered over to Nora in disbelief, a stab wound ran from one end of her waist to the other, going clean through. It was one that would be caused by a bullet.

"No." The blond slowly raised a hand, almost for no reason, a state of denial took over his mind. "No, no no no." Tears formed on the edges of his eyes faster than they had ever done before. "N- don't leave me like this, not like this."

Blake could only watch from behind him, Ren was a person she liked to spend time with, both of them were silent, both shared similar interests. And now he was gone, and so was the energetic and loveable girl that always stuck by his side.

She knew how Jaune felt, she had thought that she accepted the fact that she may lose everyone when they made the plan to attack the domain. But when she saw Sun's lifeless body, she realized that she could never be prepared.

She slowly knelt down beside him and set a hand on his shoulder. This time, she would be the one to snap him out of it. "Jaune," she said, she knew he listened, his eyes switched to her but for only a moment.

It was all so unfair, why were they destined to be in this situation? When each of them would break with only the slightest of hits. They had taken too much of that already, they had lost too much already, what more do they have to lose before it's over?

She never deserved to be forced into a situation where she selfishly had to tell someone to get over their dead friends, nor did Jaune deserve to lose said mentioned friends.

It was selfish and horrible, but she needed to carry him when he fell, even if it is away from his friends, he'd do the same for her. "Move on," She said, unable to muster up enough courage to even say his name. "I didn't know Ren too well, but he would want for us to keep on. And Nora would too."

Jaune sniffled, he set a hand on Ren's chest, for a moment, Blake thought he would try to heal him. "I'll bury you, both of you, I won't leave you here, I promise, I'll come back for you." He said through his cracking voice.

"We will," Blake said, grip lessening away from Jaune's shoulder. "We will come back." She confirmed once more.

Jaune silently staggered up and limped away before Blake could try to help him.

For a moment, Jaune wished that Tyrian was alive just so he can kill him again, slowly, painfully, avenging not only his friends but everyone that suffered under the hands of the psychopath.

...

Weiss Schnee's eyes flickered wide.

Her hands shot to the side, looking for the grip of her weapon that gave her comfort, it was a habit of hers by now, if you were without your weapon then you were as good as dead.

Horrifyingly, it was nowhere near her. She managed to force her eyes to concentrate on her surroundings, Myrtenaster was, to her extreme luck, not too far away, just a few steps to her right.

She continued to scrutinize the area, the walls of the castle had crumbled down, likely caused by the explosion she heard right before something managed to hit the back of her head and knock her unconscious. She moved her hand to feel where she had been struck, to her relief, there was no blood.

Still, that doesn't mean there was no internal bleeding. Her aura had been running low at the time as it is and since she was surprised with the attack, she hadn't managed to concentrate that aura to protect her.

Knowing better than to panic, however, Weiss continued to look around her, making sure there were no enemies in sight whilst concurrently trying to cause as little sound as possible.

There was no Grimm insight, thank the gods.

Had the party of huntsmen she fought with managed to clear this section of the castle? It was very much possible, and in the situation they were put in? It was very likely that they would consider Weiss to have fallen in battle and left her behind.

She wouldn't hold a grudge if that was to be the case, she'd have done the same, everyone would have done the same, you either save those you are sure you can save or you save yourself. There was no point wasting lives anymore, they needed every capable fighter.

Once more, Weiss looked around, there was an abnormal amount of smoke, perhaps it was the Grimm? They do disintegrate when they are slain, so this could very well be the remains of their bodies.

A sudden surge of pain caused the young woman to wince, she looked at the source. A huge boulder lay above her right leg. She could see blood slipping out from underneath.

Leaving her leg in that state for too long was dangerous, there was a chance that the weight over it prevented blood to circulate properly, that could eventually lead to her losing full control of her leg.

And so, after another quick look around to confirm no enemies, she kicked the boulder away with her free leg. It didn't budge at first so she kicked it again, no result was visible.

She kept repeating the process, although it looked to be useless. Eventually, it budged but only barely.

Thankfully, her body's nature was very slim and so she managed to slip her leg out from underneath. Upon closer inspection, the bleeding wasn't profound.

She quickly tore out a part of her own skirt, just enough for her to wrap it around her leg where the wound was.

She then pushed herself off the ground, she lost balance almost immediately as a result, maybe she should take it slow?

No, that wasn't an option. She couldn't afford to be left behind.

She paced herself, determined to reach her weapon before an unprecedented situation falls on her in such a vulnerable state.

She could almost physically feel the relief run down her body as she took hold of the weapon.

With it in hand, her confidence shot up. She quickly studied the area around her once more, she had caused some sound and it wasn't impossible for her to have missed something the first time.

As she stepped through the rubble, something cracked under her feet. She looked down.

A rare yelp of horror left her lips, even her calm mind had its limits, those limits were breached when she found that she had stepped on a skull.

It took a lot of effort to not fall over and after a careful look, she came upon a terrifying realization.

The smoke, her vision, and her overall state have all hindered her from noticing that amidst all the rubble, there were the remains of humans. Bones, to be precise, they were all burned to a crisp, as if the flesh was simply torn away.

A year ago, Weiss would fall into a state of shock by the sight, but now? Now she would pull herself back together before she even fell apart.

Upon closer inspection, she found countless weapons -most of them broken. They were all coated by the annoyingly thick amount of dust, ridding them of any color, and thus making it harder to spot them.

It wasn't that the Huntsmen finished off the Grimm, it was the opposite, her troop had lost.

No, no, it wasn't possible, they wouldn't look like this if Grimm killed them, this was much more sinister.

She had a bad feeling about staying in this place, her eyes looked for the nearest exit and she quickly raced towards it. It brought her to stairs, a lot of them. There was a track of blood covering them, as well.

Whoever it was that bled so much, they must have been mortally wounded.

But they weren't dead, Weiss thought as she heard heavy breathing coming from above.

She came across a huge metal door, or at least the remains of one, as there was a huge hole in the middle, enough for a person to fit through.

The former heiress cautiously stepped through, the breathing she had been hearing was still audible, but less so than before, as if whoever it belonged to gave up on the struggle.

She looked around, the room had huge windows covering almost every spec of the walls. Besides that? Well, the room was basically empty.

Excluding that when the Huntress looked across, there was but one decoration at the very end, a huge throne adorned with many Purple and Black jewels and gems.

But that wasn't what caught her attention, no, that was far from it.

Sitting on the throne was the scourge of life and the reason behind unparalleled suffering. The Grimm queen, Salem.

Weiss's hands tightened around her rapier. Salem gazed at her, she met the gaze head-on.

"My... it seems there is a survivor," The witch said with a raspy voice, still as chilling as ever, though.

Weiss remained silent and slowly took a step closer, there were no traps that she could spot and none of Salem's pawns, she knew so because there was nowhere in the room to hide.

"Are you the one they call Schnee?" Salem spoke with nonchalance clear in her tone. "You are the resourceful one, correct?"

"Do not mouth my family's name, you are not worthy to speak of it, and how do you know who I am?"

The devilish woman laughed, "Tyrian had told me all about you when I sent him to kill your mother and father, and by chance, were you the one who failed to protect them? Or was it your sister?"

Weiss's grip tightened further, causing her fingers to turn Whiter than they already were. She quickly forced herself to calm down, though. Ozpin had told them about Salem's abilities, knowing things about you that she wasn't supposed to know was one of them, it was some sort of magic.

Weiss finally got close enough to be able to clearly see the woman, but also far enough to remain safe. She now knew why the woman's voice was... off.

There was a huge scrap of metal lunged into her chest.

The immortal woman seemed to be mortally wounded.

But that wasn't just a scrap of metal, Weiss thought. The red lines, the unusually sharp edge, the shape. It was Cresent Rose's blade.

It was Ruby's blade.

"Ruby, where is Ruby?" Weiss demanded.

The woman replied with disinterest, "dead, most likely."

Weiss, for a moment, forgot about her own safety, she walked to the woman and even took it as far as to grab her by the hair and then pull her face closer, mere inches away from her own.

"Where. Is. Ruby?!"

"Calm yourself, lady. That is not a way a Schnee should act," The woman gave her a ridiculing smile that made her blood boil.

Weiss raised her weapon up high, she wasn't only threatening the woman, she fully intended to back up her threat if she does anything but answering the question.

"I will ask one more time, bitch. Where is my teammate?!" The words, especially the insult, would not seem fitting on the usually elegant young woman, but now? She was in no mood for jests.

"I've already told you. She's dead, are you brain dead, little girl?"

Weiss's sword drove into Salem's chest before she could start laughing. There was no cry of pain and no surprise, just as one would expect from a monster such as her.

Weiss pulled her sword away, "Next time, it's your head."

"If it eases your mind, I will admit that it wasn't I who killed her."

Weiss's sword dove down.

Salem, now knowing that this girl was fully willing to back up her threats, quickly moved her head to the side, that effort alone hurt her, but it was better than wasting the few seconds she had left alive.

"Speak, speak now before I end you!" Weiss half-yelled.

"Have you wondered why the castle broke down, little heiress?" Salem said. She did not wait for the girl to reply before continuing, "The gods, they returned to watch the last fight between their creations, it is safe to assume that they were unhappy. As they saw too much savagery from you Huntsmen. In my eyes, though, it was simply will to live."

"You lie, the gods abandoned this world."

"I am many things, and most of them horrible, but I am no liar," Salem spoke, she then smiled. "I was about done with your petty fighters, the older three had fallen, the blond one as well, all that was left was that Silver-eyed idiot. She was right under my grasp."

Weiss grit her teeth and raised her weapon once more.

"That was when the walls crumbled, I saw them, the two that call themselves the gods of the world. And that's when you had your petty final chance."

"Spit it out, what happened to Ruby?!" Weiss yelled.

"The gods offered her to strip me away from my immorality, but of course, there were consequences. She would have to die right after. They did not think that humans deserved this world anymore."

Weiss remained silent, giving the other woman a chance to continue.

"Of course, they left out that part, and the part where they blow the walls of the castle after she was dead, no matter the result of her struggle," Salem smiled as if she was remembering a fond memory, "the look on her face as she realized so was priceless, and perfect, there was panicked despair, as she was already fading away into nothingness and knew she would be unable to do anything to stop it. I think she was crying."

"Shut up," Weiss said, eyes wider than usual, "shut up, shut up, shut up!" She yelled as she drove her rapier down Salem's shoulder, it resulted in the goddess spitting out droplets of blood.

Ozpin was okay, he had to be. And so was Qrow, he always found a way to stay alive. Her sister was also fine, she would not allow herself to die, she promised it, she would never break her promise.

And so was Jaune, he had to be fine, he always was, no matter what you threw at him he'd come out alive, he did so because he had to save others.

And so was Ruby, Ruby would not die in such a way, she did not deserve to die in such a way!

Weiss's eyes filled with tears, a sight that very few people had ever seen before. She could not accept it, she could not accept that they were gone, that they left her alone.

"G- give me one reason to not kill you right now," she heaved out the words. Despite her state, they still had the same weight they had before, she would not hesitate to kill this witch.

And if she were to not lie to herself, she would kill her no matter what she says, she just wanted to hear her beg for her life, to make her feel like she lost when she drives her blade deep into her heart.

"I have no reason to live anymore. I would like to kill you, but I feel that leaving you here to suffer would be best, it is a shame that I do not get to see it, though."

"You are a scourge, you surpass what I consider to be a monster, you are worse than all the filth on Remnant. How does it feel to know that you die while you are considered as such?" Weiss said, trying to force a smile to irritate the queen.

"It feels unfathomably pleasant, your words brought me to a state of glee, almost," the woman said. The worst part was that there was no lie clear in her tone.

Weiss raised her hand even higher, she would make this strike one fuelled with the hatred of not only her but all her allies... no, all the people of Remnant.

"Weiss?!"

The White-haired woman's hand stopped as if it was petrified. She looked back, the voice was familiar, very familiar, she was in disbelief when she saw her.

One Blake Belladonna.

One friend.

"B- Blake?" She said, her eyes wandered all over Blake's body. As if she was trying to make sure she was real.

"My, another survivor? The gods must have done a worse job than I thought."

Blake's eyes wandered to the voice of Salem. She quickly took hold of her already broken weapon.

But she somewhat relaxed when she saw the state the witch was in, there was no getting up from that throne, she was impaled to it, by the looks of it.

Her eyes wandered back to Weiss, who was already right in front of her.

She could do nothing but pull her into her arms. Weiss's tears dripped down her shoulder but she did not care. "You're safe, you're alive, I'm so glad you're okay."

Weiss did her best to stop sobbing, it was hard though. "I thought you were gone," She said, "I thought you all left me, that you all died. I- I was so scared."

Blake's arms tightened around her, it took a physical effort to not simply melt into her arms, the simple touch of her friend brought her unimaginable relief.

After a moment that seemed to last for an eternity, they both let go. Blake's eyes shot up, realizing that she had forgotten that Jaune was waiting on the other side of the door as she checked for danger.

"Jaune!" She yelled, almost happily, for how could she not? "Come in, Jaune, it's safe!"

Weiss's eyes hovered to the door, almost not believing that it wasn't only Blake, but also Jaune, that managed to survive.

But to her luck, Jaune came through the hole. He could barely stand, but she did not care. He was alive, not well, but alive.

At first, his senses as a Huntsman forced him to hover a hand over his sword as he saw a strange figure next to Blake, but he soon relaxed when he realized that it was her.

He couldn't speak, he found no words to do such. He simply limped towards them, looking as if he was trying to figure out if this was real or not.

It was.

He hesitantly lifted a hand up, his eyes were wide and his mouth opened, "Weiss, I- I-"

He was interrupted as the woman jumped up to meet his superior height and then wrapped her arms around his shoulder. He returned it almost immediately.

"You're alive," he spoke.

Weiss let go, tears running down her cheeks. "You, both of you," she spoke through her sobs, "You're both assholes, complete assholes!" She suddenly yelled but then took a hold of both of them, each with a hand and pulled them close, forcing them both into a hug. "Don't ever leave me like this again." She said, now calmer.

They remained in that state for moments, minutes. But it felt like hours.

"Such a lovely reunion, unfortunately, though, I do not plan to live out my remaining few minutes watching you pathetically fondle each other."

Weiss let go of the two, she decided that it would be best to rid the world of this monstrous knave, she had already lived long enough. "Allow me to shorten that lifespan, then," she said as she pulled her rapier out.

She would end this before Jaune and Blake even realized how much pain they wanted to inflict on this devilish woman.

"Fool, you kill me now and you lose your victory," The queen said, Weiss did not look like she would slow down. "Would you not like the chance to get your friends back?"

That brought hesitation to the young girl's eyes, and even though she knew it was a lie, she couldn't help but speak. "What do you mean?"

"You are not satisfied with the way things have turned out, I presume?" The queen spoke.

Jaune moved close before Weiss could reply, he took a hold of the queen's throat.

And then he squeezed.

"Everything that comes out of your mouth is a lie," He said.

"Careful," She spoke, barely managing to with his grip around her, "You are wasting your last chance for real victory."

Weiss's hand found its way atop Jaune's, he looked at her, her eyes told him everything, she wanted him to stop.

And so he reluctantly did so.

"Speak," Weiss said.

"I will keep this short as I already am running out of time," she laughed when she thought about it, it was almost ironic. "But you three will have all the time you ever needed."

"Spit it out," Blake said.

"Time travel, I could send you back in time."

Weiss's blood almost started to boil. "You expect us to fall for that?" She said.

"Girl, I have nothing to gain in this life, it is best that I cancel it altogether."

"Cancel? What do you mean by that?" Jaune mouthed, hands rolling into a fist.

"I will not send you back in time that simply. I will also erase this very existence, as if I tore away a chapter from a book, it would be your duty to rewrite it."

"You are many things, but not a liar, correct? Well, that sounds like a lie," Weiss stated.

"Think about it, child. I have nothing to gain from this life, I could leave you to suffer, true, but I would gain no pleasure as I would not be here to see it," she smiled, it was a smile of evil, but it also looked like it had no tricks behind it, "I am not sending you back in time for you to fix this, I am sending you back in hopes that you will fail to do so, and change my destiny."

"And how could you be so sure that we'd do that?" Blake chipped in.

"I am not, but I am also sure that I am going to die here, I have nothing to lose, only you do." She explained, "You will panic, you will think that the fate of the world is your responsibility, you will make countless mistakes, it is human nature, and it will lead me to a different destiny, one where I could hopefully survive."

"You are sick to the core, aren't you?" Jaune spoke.

Salem laughed, "It surprises me that you took so long to realize that fact."

"You're lying, you must be," Weiss said, "If that was truly your plan, you would have offered it to me when I was still alone instead of letting me kill you, I have less of a chance to succeed if I was alone."

"Foolish girl, I will only say this once more, I am no liar."

"Then explain, why did you only offer this when we came in?" Blake queried.

"I could not do it with her alone, I also need the boy."

"Me?" Jaune said.

"Do you see another boy here? Fool."

"Why do you need him?" Weiss spoke.

"His semblance. To make this work, we will need aura, he is the only one that can directly force his own aura into another's body."

"How do you intend to do this?" Weiss asked. The details Salem gave were, well, they were details, that was the problem, it seemed too detailed for it to be a lie.

"You have the Schnee family's semblance, you can make glyphs and runes, I will infuse said runes with my power and use magic that would allow you to move back in time, I would not be able to do so without your runes."

"And the aura, what is it for?" Blake asked.

"Such a spell would need aura, not a gigantic amount as one would expect, but in your state? It still would feel like a lot."

"I have aura, and it isn't depleted, I was knocked out only midway into the fight," Weiss stated, wanting to trick the queen if there was a lie in her words. The fact was, if she agreed with what Weiss had just said, it would mean that she was either unsure of the requirements of the spell or just lying.

"It is not enough," Salem said immediately, "Your aura is nothing compared to his vast storage, having less than a quarter of his aura is like having all of yours."

"His aura is barely active, he needs to rest," Blake stated.

"Do I look like I can wait for him to rest, fool? I will die within minutes."

"I'll do it, but only if you two agree," Jaune said, both of their heads shot to him, surprised.

"You can't be serious, you trust her?" Blake asked, taken aback.

"No, not at all, but as she said, she had nothing to lose. She does, however, have all to gain if we mess up after we go back in time."

"Smart boy," Salem said, she smiled right after. "But keep in mind, there is a chance that you die from losing all your aura."

Jaune's eyes narrowed for a moment. "Not if you try to conserve as much aura as you can."

"I assure you, boy, I will do everything in my power to have you dead, I will not risk all three of you making it in one piece, especially you with that semblance of yours," she then smiled dreadfully, "I assure you, however, that these two would make it."

This woman really does mean what she says, Weiss thought, and she was sure Blake and Jaune thought the same.

Jaune, though, did not look like he was shaken by the queen's words. "I'll do it if they're up for it."

Weiss looked at Blake and then at Jaune. "I will not have you risk your life like tha-"

"Do not decide for me, Weiss, please." He said, giving her an honest smile. "I've made my choice, you choose for your own sake, think about how many people we can save. And if I don't make it, you can save my younger self."

"I- I don't know..." The former heiress said. Her words followed by a cough of blood from Salem, indicating that they had very little time left.

"I'm in," Blake said, "our friends deserve a better end than this, I want to make sure they never live through this hell, to give them the life they deserve."

"Such gentle words from a woman who seemed to always leave her friends behind," Salem said.

Blake looked at her, full of anger. But she managed to quickly calm herself down, this was Salem, she had magic that allowed her to know things about you, she would simply have to deal with that fact. "Never again," Blake managed to say.

"Fine!" Weiss shouted out of nowhere, "I will have you know, though, that if anything happens to you, I will not forgive you!" Her words were directed towards Jaune who simply smiled in defeat.

"It is settled, then," Salem spoke. "Give me your hands, I will give you a mark, you need it for this ritual to work," She paused, gave each of them a quick glare and then smiled, "and it will never fade away, so it will also be a warning for my past self, she would know you're dangerous as soon as she sees it."

Jaune stepped up first, no visible hesitation from him, "I'm ready, do it."

"This will hurt, a lot," Salem said. Before he could even reply, a Black sigil of some sort of Grimm started appearing on his hand, it hurt, it hurt as if it was behind burned into his skin, he barely managed to resist the urge to scream as his hand shook uncontrollably.

Thankfully, it was over quickly, he managed to step away and examine his hand, the skin around the sigil turned red, it really did seem as if this was burned into his skin.

He relaxed, however, when the skin returned to normal, the mark also started getting clearer and quickly seemed like if it was just a normal tattoo.

His line of thoughts was snapped when he heard Weiss suddenly yelp in pain. She also had the mark on her hand by the time he looked up.

And after that, Blake also received the mark.

"Now what? How far will you send us back?" Weiss said. She would most likely send them back to as recently as possible, giving them as little time as they could get.

"The beginning. I do not have much power, I cannot do more."

Weiss then nodded, so she would send them back to the beginning of their Beacon school year? That was roughly a year and a half before the war broke out, it was enough time.

Another cough and everyone focused their attention on Salem again. For a second, her eyes closed and she stopped breathing. But she thankfully snapped her eyes open after a few seconds. "I do not have much time left."

"Are you two sure about this?" Jaune said. They both nodded quickly. "Then we're going to give everyone the ending they deserve."

"Make a time manipulation glyph, girl," Salem said, seemingly heaving the words out.

Weiss complied and summoned a glyph under herself, Blake, and Jaune. Jaune then extended a hand, she took it and could feel the aura push its way into her body. It was baffling, really, how much aura Jaune had even when most of it was depleted.

The glyphs soon turned Purple as Salem spoke a few arcane words, they then turned Black.

Weiss panicked to the point of almost canceling the glyphs altogether when she heard Jaune suddenly scream in pain, she looked at him, he was looking into her eyes, she knew what he was trying to say. He didn't want her to stop.

And she wouldn't.

Everything suddenly froze and then started up again, it was slow yet extremely fast, an impossible mixture of two opposites. Everything was White but it was also Black, it brought her both confusion and understanding and for but a moment, she thought that she could see the very laws of the world.

And then everything turned Black.

...

Weiss's eyes flickered wide once more. She found herself laying in a lot of sand. There was one and only one question on her mind. "Did it work?" She said, her stomach felt upside down and she had a throbbing headache.

She looked beside her, both Blake and Jaune lay close. She quickly forced herself up, she needed to check on both but on Jaune first, he was in more danger.

She quickly turned him so he would be laying on his back, his eyes were shut but to her extreme comfort, his chest rose up and down, showing that he was indeed breathing. That fact alone filled her with gaiety.

"What on earth...?" Blake said as she pushed herself to a seating position, only when she saw Weiss did her eyes truly focus on her surroundings. "D- did we make it?"

Weiss looked around them, trying to find any indication to where they were, she was surprised when Jaune's hand suddenly moved up and took a hold of her cheeks.

"You're real," He said, smiling. "Thank the gods, I thought you were a ghost or I was just dead," he added.

Weiss's hand took a hold of his, "I think you're alive," She said with a smile.

"I hope so," Jaune said, pushing himself into a seating position, "Blake, where is she?" He said.

"I'm here, and I'm fine, we all are," She replied.

Only now did Weiss realized how dizzy she actually was, she should not have gotten up so fast, she found herself falling on her behind. But she paid it no mind, instead, she opted to continue looking for a clue to where they were.

Her eyes found a sign that wasn't too far away. It was made of wood and it was also considerably big.

She managed to make out the words and read them out loud.

"Welcome to Vacuo."

I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of this new story, I'll try to update as frequently as possible, weekly updates would probably be a thing if this gets enough support. But I will say that most chapters will not be as huge as this one, this one was exactly 10K words but most will be capped at 7K.

Romance is not likely to become a key element in this story but it will be present, just not the main focus. I will say this now, neither of the three characters is the main focus. And no one is safe in this story, no one at all.

Much Love! Stay Hopeful! ZilverHope Out!