A cool breeze shifted leaves and breathed life into the woods, moving as calm and steady as the warriors along the trial. RNJR moved silent and constant through the woods, determined to never stop moving forward.

"Jaune…. hey Jaune! Are you okay?", an overly chipper voice finally registering in his head. Nora had been trying to get his attention for some time now.

"Yeah… I- its… nothing. I'm fine" He had become more somber and distant in the weeks since Beacon. Drifting off in his own head, thinking on what ifs… he could've done better, if he had been faster, if he had been stronger, if he had been the hero. But you cant change the past, no matter how much it hurts. Jaune looked towards his team realizing he had drifted off again, as his eyes scanned from worried face to worried face her half expected to see a soft smile lost in red hair.

"We know you're hurting we all are, but please Jaune, please you have to talk to us." Ruby pleaded with her friend, sadness setting in as their eyes met.

"Yeah! We're a team and if you cant talk to your team, well thats just silly!" Nora started with her usual jubilance but seemed to lose herself in the mutual pain.

"Jaune communication… its part of any good team, listen you can always come to me if you need anything…" Ren seemed the only one able to maintain his composure as he looked Jaune in the eyes.

So there they all stood waiting for Jaune to speak, to blink, to breathe, to give them something at least. After a few horrible seconds he finally broke, "I never asked for this team, I never wanted to be on this team. I know you guys are trying, but I-I'm just not ready… to talk. Let's just keep moving."

"Can you guys think of any way to break Jaune out of this?" Ruby whispered to the others, looking over her shoulders as Jaune stayed a few paces behind staring into the woods.

"OOooo maybe a nice big Ursa will come along!" Nora offered, trying to stay quiet , at least by her standards.

"Nora dont make jokes, but combat might bring him out of this slump, at least temporarily." Ren

Ruby thought on it for a moment, "I guess it would make him focus a little, only problem is… we haven't seen a Grimm since we started traveling. That's… kinda weird right?"

"They could all be at flooding the city." Ren said, wondering why this hadn't registered with him earlier.

"Maybe they're all off grouping up, planning a surprise attack!" Nora said, doing her best imitation of Professor Oobleck.

"Hold on…" Ruby looked around frantically, "I think we lost Jaune!" as panic set in she began semblance dashing around trying to find an indication of where the blonde had wandered to.

Pyrrha found herself enraptured by the joy of in the woods, everything in her way, was hers to kill. The hunger inside her seemed to eat away at her insides, but the pain is what drove her. She cherished every second, every kill, everything she fought against before was now an avenue to euphoria.

She had spent just a few days in the woods searching for some hint at her prize and where he would be, it seemed they had kept moving through everything. Pyrrha would still be able to catch them easily, and then a thought occurred… "Pain", she let the filthy feeling linger. "I'm going to hurt him, in all the possible ways I can imagine." she said to herself, breath catching as she traced her hand across her scar, she loved it now. She would trace it as she planned her tortures, it made her feel… unclean, to have such a flaw so close.

How would she go about this… dismemberment? no too quick, exposure? hmm, no she was too hungry for that. Kill his friends? maybe… Impalement sounds nicer. She could make him fall in love…. that might take longer than the exposure. "I'll just have to get him and see what comes to mind." she said chuckling softly.

Continuing her hunt with a little more vigor as she pictured his soft kind face twisting in pain, she realized she was barely the person she used to be. It felt good to no longer have to be perfect, to take what she wanted, to kill when she felt. Some would call her corrupted, Pyrrha felt it was a rebirth. Washed away the pressures of old replaced with hunger and fear and instinct, pleasure finally coming with the pain. She set off looking along the trial her friends had left, taking note of how they liked to stick together, except there were prints that seemed to fall off pace. "Jaune." she breathed, with hunger on her lips. The closer she got the more hungry she felt, fear and cold overtaken by the hot thrill of anticipation.

As she closed the gap she thought on playing a game, after all, he thought her dead and gone. Why not toy with that, a shimmer here a silhouette in the distance, a giggle, a whisper. Not all torture needed to be physical after all, and the tears could taste ever sweeter if she caused them.

Jaune felt more comfortable staying a few paces behind, he knew how much the others talked about him, he didn't want to be in earshot of what they said. Plus they didn't really need him anyways, everything would probably move quicker if they didn't have to drag around a 4th body. As they walked he looked off into the forest and contemplated just… wandering off. They'd miss him but at least if he was gone he wouldn't let anyone else down.

Jaune's eyes based into the forest, "Just leave and dont look ba-." His heart pounded and his body went cold. He figured his grief had reached a new level, he was convinced he just saw a flash of Pyrrha, she looked different, but then again it didn't matter because it wasn't real. He snapped his head back towards his friends but they were too busy watching Nora pretend to drink coffee to have noticed anything.

He turned back to the woods and could see a pair of brilliant green eyes glowing in the shadows, his throat closed and his hands trembled as he slowly and quietly slipped among the trees reaching towards those painfully soft, familiar eyes. They seemed to be moving back as he moved forward, entranced by hope and locked in by fear he pushed forward farther and farther away from the group.

A faint "JAUUUUNNNEE" echoed throughout the trees breaking his trance as his head wheeled toward the source, but he was too deep, he couldn't find any sign of his friends or anything to give him bearing. He turned back towards the eyes… but they had vanished, panic set in as Jaune turned around to at least see if he could retrace his steps.

"Hello, again."