This doesn’t make any sense! How could the CCT not get attacked? It’s vital to their plans and I haven’t changed that much… have I changed that much? I mean, yeah, Roman got arrested, and some White Fang got captured, and the Paladin and Tukson and…

Second.

Damn. I guess I have changed a good bit, haven’t I? And after all that talk of not wanting to interfere too much…

Second!

But what set this off? Was it really something I did? Besides the whole Tukson being alive thing, all I did was speed up the timeline on a few things. It all would have happened anyway. Did I misremember? I guess if I was working off of bad information that could have done it, but…

Second Thoughts!

No, no, that can’t be it. This is still so early, there’s no way I remembered it incorrectly. Then… Maybe things were off from the start? Was this not the canon timeline? I guess the whole being Jaune’s semblance thing is a pretty big deviation, isn’t it? There’s no telling if that was the only change that happened even before I manifested.

Hey!

It can’t have… it definitely isn’t my fault. There’s no way. I only hinted at a few things, I didn’t-

Jaune banged his head against the wall. It wasn’t a pleasant experience, and he might end up with a nasty bruise from how hard he did it, but Second Thoughts finally stopped thinking. Team JNPR hadn’t even been awake long enough to go to their first classes for the day and Second had already worked himself up into a frenzy.

“Jaune?! What are you doing?!” Pyrrha worriedly grabbed him, pulling him away from the wall and inspecting his forehead. “Why would you…” The poor girl was too confused by the sudden action to coherently reprimand him.

“Sorry Pyr.” He gingerly prodded at the spot he had hit, wincing at the contact. He may be used to getting bruised and battered after all the training he’s been doing, but that doesn’t make it sting any less when it happens. “Ever since last night Second has been… driving me crazy, I guess. He… predicted something would happen last night, and it didn’t come true.” Despite his worries, he wasn’t sure that the General would appreciate him telling people about a potential attack on the CCT, especially since it hadn’t actually happened. “He was worried once he figured that out, but now he’s really freaking out. Bad enough that I’m getting what I assume is his full stream of consciousness, like he used to complain about getting from me.” Although Second had complained about having to listen to his “teenage boy thoughts”. Hopefully Jaune wouldn’t have to worry about the reverse…

This isn’t the time for that Jaune! This is bad! Very, very bad!

“You’re saying that your future telling semblance, which, until this point, has been perfectly accurate, was incorrect for the first time?” Ren asked.

“I guess so? I mean, General Ironwood was supposed to be taking care of something last night, and I’m not sure that he’d want to give me the details of how that went, especially so soon. I’m not sure how Second even knows.” Ironwood and Winter had said something about the culprit slipping into the crowd after, so it’s possible that Second had seen them, but that didn’t really mean anything. Couldn’t they have been seen after returning from a successful crime? Jaune didn’t know how long it was meant to take, but it had been pretty well into the night when Second suddenly startled.

Because that smug bitch didn’t look like she had just come back from a successful mission! She’s so full of herself it would be all over her face, but instead she was looking around in suspicion like… like she was trying to find someone…

“Last night… is that why you started acting off part way through the dance?” Pyrrha asked, a frown on her face.

“Yeah. I tried to ignore him the best I could, but I can’t exactly cut him off on my own. Not completely, anyway.” He felt a bit guilty about only giving Pyrrha half of his attention, but there wasn’t much that he could actually do about it.

“If Second started freaking out at the dance, then he must have seen someone unexpected! Do I finally get to break someone’s legs?! If General Ironwood is involved, they must be someone on the wrong side of the law!” Nora exclaimed with a wide smile, always one to look at things in a positive light.

“If General Ironwood is after them, then they’re clearly not someone we’re fit to go after ourselves. We’re only first years, Nora.” Ren tried to be the voice of reason.

I’m not sure who to support here. She definitely should have her legs broken, as well as her face, but throwing yourselves at her as you are now…

Second devolved into another storm of muttered worries, and Jaune could only sigh. Classes were going to start soon, and he had to survive the school day before he could worry about anything Second Thoughts brought up.

Or rather, that had been his plan. The chime of the intercom system drew their attention, and then they heard Ozpin’s voice. “Jaune Arc, to my office please.” His face paled as the message ended and his teammates all turned to him.

Are you ready to join me in my panic yet?

----------------------------------------

When Jaune left the elevator and entered Ozpin’s office, he was met by quite the crowd. The headmaster was there, of course, being the one to have called for him and also the owner of the office they were standing in. But alongside him were General Ironwood, Winter, and Professor Oobleck.

Though perhaps “alongside” is the wrong word to use for the situation at hand. There seem to be factions at play here….

General Ironwood and Winter stood side by side, both of them standing ramrod straight off to the left of Ozpin’s desk. Professor Oobleck was opposite of them, off to the right, but he seemed nervous, twitchy… or maybe that was just the caffeine in the coffee he was sipping. The man always seemed to have too much energy. Ozpin was behind his desk of course, sitting in his chair and doing a good job of pretending to be relaxed.

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Jaune walked up to the desk nervously, not knowing what to do with his hands, who to look at, what to say. “So… you asked to see me?” He managed to eke out while his eyes darted between the powerful people in the room.

“Indeed we did Mr. Arc. I suspect you already know why that is?” Ozpin replied.

“Well, not entirely, but it probably has something to do with Second Thoughts, right? And how he…” Jaune swallowed nervously, “...how he was wrong.”

I wasn’t wrong, I just… well… circumstances changed!

“Could we skip the song and dance?” Oobleck spoke up. “I can understand why you might think this meeting necessary, but we have already established the fact that Mr. Arc here has tenuous control over his semblance. To accept that any sort of ‘future vision’ might be perfect is to accept that free will does not exist. Frankly, I’m surprised that we managed to make it this far before there was some sort of deviation from what Second Thoughts expected.”

I’m not sure if I should be offended that he didn’t believe in me, or relieved that he didn’t expect too much.

“I agree.” Ironwood said as Winter nodded along beside him. “While having an information advantage over our foes was a welcome reprieve, none of us are unfamiliar with having to work things out ourselves. Really, we should be glad that we reached this point before we became complacent and falsely assumed that Second Thoughts could solve all of our problems.”

You can’t solve your problems on your own though. It all comes crashing down…

“Be that as it may,” Ozpin held a hand up to halt any further interruption, “There are still questions that must be asked. The first of which would be whether or not this was actually the first case of Second Thoughts being incorrect, or if it was simply a matter of miscommunication. Being that the only method of contact we have is through Mr. Arc, it is possible that we have allowed a different wording than what was intended to cloud our judgement.”

“Mr. Arc has already said that Second Thoughts was wrong.” Oobleck said, exasperation clear in his voice.

“I would hear him confirm it then, just to be sure.” Ozpin pressed.

What a prick. Him and his attitude…

“Yes, it was definitely Second’s prediction that was wrong. He was certain that the CCT was going to be attacked during the dance, and you would have been able to tell if that had happened.”

“I see. And do we have any ideas as to why this event did not transpire as predicted? I cannot see what differentiates it from the others, and the only one of those that has yet to be confirmed is the situation with Lionheart.”

Does Ozpin not listen or is he intentionally being obtuse?

“It would be because of the butterfly effect, would it not?” Winter finally spoke up.

“Almost definitely, but I believe that Ozpin is trying to find a more specific answer than that. What specifically might have caused this to change?” Oobleck answered.

“Our running theory was that the string of issues Second Thoughts has been involved with in some way or another were all related. “ said Ironwood. “Granted, this was speculation on our part and not something that Second Thoughts laid out specifically, but it makes the most sense in my eyes. It’s only natural that a string of failures would result in a more cautious approach going forward. Were we off the mark on that one?” the General turned to Jaune.

That’s… they’re correct in their assumption. That much is safe to say I would think. Is it though? I thought it was safe before and look where that got me. They’re probably onto us by now, plotting to have us disappear in some sort of “training accident” or something. Or maybe they’ll deem our elimination more important than their cover and just go for it…

“Second agrees that they’re related.” Jaune relayed, opting to ignore what he hoped was merely paranoia.

“And what of our assumption that the one to break into the CCT is posing as a Haven student? We did get a bit carried away when the possibility crossed our minds…” Winter added.

“Excuse me?! You mean to tell me that you believe a criminal with the capability of corralling both the White Fang and Torchwick has been posing as a student and you didn’t immediately share such a suspicion? Please tell me that they’re wrong.” Oobleck pleaded.

Well? Jaune thought to his headmate.

…Second?

His semblance didn’t answer.

Second, we kind of need an answer here. Weren’t you just freaking out over all of this? How are they meant to help fix it if you don’t talk to me!

“Mr. Arc?” Ozpin prompted, a brow raised in question. “Is everything alright?”

“Second…” Jaune said hesitantly, giving him a moment to break his silence. “Second won’t say anything…”

“Truly? I was under the impression that you couldn’t get him to stop talking.” Oobleck questioned.

“Normally, yeah, I think he likes to feel included in conversations or something, but he’s just… not responding to me.”

Ironwood frowned. “Perhaps this is another case of him clamming up when we want answers. If he won’t respond to that question, then what about different information? The names of those involved? The next possible attack? Even if it doesn’t pan out, it wouldn’t hurt to be prepared for it. Just knowing areas of interest or future targets would help build an idea of what they’re after. With the Vytal festival quickly approaching and the possible, if not probable issues in Haven-”

Ironwood’s words faded into background noise as Second Thoughts finally said something.

…I can’t do it.

Done with your silent treatment, Second?

I’ve already messed it up.

Messed up? Second, just tell them what they want to hear so they can fix things.

I’ve already altered the timeline too much. I had it all mapped out and I screwed it up on inconsequential things. I should have just waited and let things play out.

What? I think stopping the White Fang and Roman Torchwick is kind of a big deal!

“Jaune!” someone shouted, but when he tried to focus on them, he couldn’t. He hadn’t even noticed the change, distracted with Second Thoughts, but something was wrong all of a sudden. His hearing felt muffled, his vision started to blur, his body felt numb, and when he tried to speak he found that he couldn’t. The room seemed brighter though, like something was glowing.

It’ll be all my fault.

His legs gave out from under him, but someone caught him before he could hit the ground. The motion brought his own body into view, revealing that he was the source of the glow.

“It’s draining too rapidly! We need to-” The words became too muffled to hear the rest.

I’m sorry, I don’t want anyone to die.

There was… someone else there. In front of him. Someone he didn’t recognize through the blur and the bright light… were they glowing too?

But I’m not good enough.

The last sensation he felt before it all faded to black, was that of a cold hand grasping his.