A new dawn in Remmant: Volume 4

Remembrance

In Ruby's dream, a blurred, echoing voice was heard.

Pyrrha: Do you believe in destiny?

As Pyrrha spoke, small white circles, again blurred, moved slightly around a center screen that remained black.

Cinder: Yes.

Another voice in the blurred vision was heared. Full of rage and hatred.

Maira: Don't you dare! If you do it, you wish would have never met me!

Pyrrha: Jaune?

Ruby's voice was heard shouting Pyrrha's name, just as she had when her latent power activated at Pyrrha's death. With a gasp, Ruby opened her eyes. She was lying in a red sleeping bag on a clearing in some woods. Nora; Azura and Ren were also in sleeping bags around a long burned-out campfire. Magnhild rested beside Nora. Ruby sat up and looked around. Birds could be heard tweeting and all seemed peaceful. Ruby, however, put her hand to the side of her head and sighed as though she was in pain.

All four members of Team RNJR walked with Azura down a sunny road. Ruby was in front, looking at a map.

Ruby: So the next town is... uh-huh... uh-huh... We're lost.

Jaune: We're not lost. The next town is Shion. My family used to visit it all the time.

Ruby: Oh yeah. Don't you have, like, four sisters?

Jaune: Uh, seven.

Ruby giggled.

Azura: *smiles* Must be hard to be the only boy in the family.

Nora: You know, that actually explains a lot.

Jaune: Wait, what do you mean?

Ruby: So, what did you guys do there?

Jaune: Oh, all sorts of stuff! Over here is a great hiking trail, and over here is where we went camping all the time. I got my own tent because I was special. Also, so my sisters would stop braiding my hair.

Ruby: Didn't like the look?

Jaune: Yeah, they just kept doing pigtails, but personally, I think I'm more of a "warrior's wolftail" kind of guy.

Ruby: That's just a ponytail.

Jaune: I stand by what I said.

Nora and Azura stopped short. Nora raised her hands to her lips as her eyes widened and Azura just starred with widened eyes. Soon after, Ren stopped, visibly tense.

Nora: Uh, guys?

Ruby: Huh?

Jaune: What?

Jaune and Ruby looked up from the map. Their eyes widened and jaws dropped. In front of them was a desolated village. The sky was gray and two columns of smoke rised in the air. A gazebo had a broken tower and lampposts were askew from the ground. At least one dead body could be seen on the side of the road approaching the town.

The map was dropped and all four rushed forward. They briskly moved into the town, looking around. Ren tossed his backpack on the ground and moved ahead while the other four gathered in the middle of a road.

Ruby: There could be survivors!

Ren: Over here!

The other four rushed to where Ren was leading them. On the ground, sitting propped against a broken building wall was a young man in armor. He breathed heavily and held his hand against a bleeding wound in his abdomen. Ren dropped by his side and put his hand on his shoulder.