“Second Thoughts was born in a time and place quite different from our own.” Jinn’s voice continued to narrate. “It was a world of bloody evolution all the same, but…”

Jaune looked out over the fields. The same fields from the not-dreams he had seen in the coma. The ones that went on and on, only stopping where they met the edge of small forests and groves. All centered around a single farm house with a couple barns.

“...unlike Remnant, where the battle rages on and the grimm are a constant threat, his world, in his time, was one of peace. Humanity isn’t perfect, regardless of where or when you are, so that’s not to say that war was not fought, or that some did not struggle, but for Second Thoughts and those around him, those were far off problems. They had been blessed, born into a time of prosperity.”

Jaune didn’t care about the fields though. Jinn’s words went in one ear and out the other as he looked at the boy before him.

He looked about six or seven years old, sitting in the field. Tanned skin, lanky limbs, short brown hair, and big blue eyes. His feet were bare, and his jean shorts and red t-shirt were absolutely filthy, covered in dirt and dust. He ignored Jaune’s presence, even as the huntsman-in-training got closer, reaching out to try and touch him. Jaune wasn’t sure if that was because of how Jinn’s… power worked, or because of how absorbed the boy was in the book he was holding.

The boy suddenly coughed, and Jaune frowned.

It was a nasty cough. A concerning cough. A cough that didn’t stop immediately, but turned into a fit, where the boy’s eyes watered and you could hear the phlegm in his throat. One that would have Jaune’s mom take him to visit a doctor rather than give him some over the counter medicine.

“Second was incredibly lucky, in that regard, because in most other situations, he would not have lived long.”

The boy stood up from his spot in the dirt, his feet sinking into the soft soil before he started to make his way to the farmhouse, eyes still engrossed in the book.

“He was a sickly child. One that could not fully appreciate the joys of the wonderful world he had been born into. Where the other children his age would run and play for hours on end, he would quickly grow exhausted and have to retreat inside. Cut off from exploring the world by his own body.”

As the boy grew closer to the house, the door opened and a shout rang out. “Come in already, it’s time to take your medicine!”

The boy sped up his walking, but his eyes didn’t leave the book as he slowly flipped through the pages.

“And so, the boy decided, if he could not explore his world with his weak body, he would explore other worlds, with his mind and his imagination. He would read, and read, and read.”

Jaune was lost.

How could this… was Jinn really saying that this boy was Second?

That didn’t make any sense.

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This didn’t make any sense.

Ozpin, once he set aside his anger at Qrow’s addition to the question, had been expecting… Well, he had lots of ideas about Second and his nature, but certainly nothing like this.

Was Jinn saying that Second was from outside of Remnant? A world free from the grimm…

Perhaps… all those centuries ago… the God of Light’s wording had been strange, hadn’t it? He’d been told that the Gods would leave his world.

Was Second Thoughts like him? Created by the gods… but in a different world they had created. Somehow cursed like he was, but sent to an unfamiliar world to live out his punishment. Forced to inhabit someone else’s body…

He watched as the boy and the fields vanished in a puff of blue smoke, quickly replaced by a new scene of Jinn’s creation.

Though the layout was different from anything one might find in Beacon, he recognized a classroom all the same. Class didn’t seem to be in session, with so many students milling about the room and chatting. It was all muffled, and he couldn’t make out a word of their conversations.

It was odd, seeing these students. Roughly the age of his own students, only one or two of them looked fit enough to be a huntsman, and there was not a single Faunus in sight.

A civilian school, then? Or, no… if there was no grimm threat, would there be an equivalent to his beloved academies at all?

He thought not. And while it stung some small part of him to know that his way of life wasn’t everywhere… it brought him a greater joy to think of a world where it wasn’t needed.

Eventually he picked Second Thoughts out of the crowd. Sat near the back, his face wasn’t buried in a book this time, but rather a screen. The build was completely different from the scrolls that he was used to, but it was easy to guess that the device’s functionality was all the same.

“Eventually the illness abated, allowing Second to live a relatively normal life. But instead of making up for lost time, he sank deeper into fantasy. Into picturesque worlds created by others. While his peers were out experiencing life to an even greater degree, he entrenched himself into thoughts about potential lives, ones far out of his reach. His interests led him to perform well in school, preventing him from falling completely out of society, but he was never present. Never living in the moment.”

Ozpin could see that well enough. The other students were all talking to their friends, while Second… he was acting like they weren’t even there, his eyes never leaving the screen.

“His every waking moment was spent dreaming up an escape from his reality. One where he had never suffered from his illness. One where he had developed at the same rate as his peers. One where instead of spending hours getting medical treatment every day as a child, he had been properly socialized. One where he had friends.”

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Several other students gave Second interested glances, but he either ignored them, or didn’t perceive them at all.

“Even though he could have it all, if only he stopped trying to escape reality and worked on the one he found himself in.”

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Bart watched as the classroom vanished in another puff of smoke, this time replaced by towering skyscrapers. He tried to take in all the details before him at once, but there was just too much to see. Hundreds of people were on this sidewalk alone. The architecture most resembled that of Mantle in his eyes, but was still foreign enough that it unsettled him. Dozens of different languages were being spoken around him, something that truly baffled him because there hadn’t been another language spoken on Remnant in… well, official numbers with that sort of thing were always tricky, but Valean had become the language of Remnant at least a few centuries ago, and at this point regional dialects were barely hanging on thanks to scrolls and mass media reaching every corner of the world. What he wouldn’t give to study another language that was still alive…

Although… if Second Thoughts had been in a city like this, did he perhaps know another language? Oh the possibilities!

“This problem spiraled in on itself, compounding day after day, presenting Second Thoughts with more and more idealized worlds filled with heroes, adventure, camaraderie… a sense of purpose.”

Second Thoughts was older now. Still a bit lanky, but with some stubble on his face and exhaustion clear in how he held himself.

The doctor could only sigh as a rude passerby shoved the young man out of the way, all of them in a rush to get through the busy sidewalks.

“And day after day, he became more dissatisfied with his reality.”

The young man didn’t say a word, but Bart could see it clear on his face. The same look he’d seen on many young faces. Ones who didn’t like where they were in life, and, as harsh as it might sound to put it in such a way, ones who weren’t working to improve things for themselves.

He counted himself lucky, with his position at Beacon. Working at such a prestigious school meant that this sort of person was… filtered out long before he had to deal with them in his classroom. If you didn’t have some real drive inside of you, you weren’t going to make it to initiation, let alone pass it and be accepted into the academy. People like the Second Thoughts he saw before him… they weren’t huntsman material.

“To his eyes, everyone around him seemed so much better off. Surely, someone who had suffered as he had deserved just the same, if not better than these average people around him, he would often think to himself.”

For a moment, the expression on Second’s face reminded Bart of Mr. Winchester. The air of superiority, the anger at the world when things didn’t go his way. The sense of entitlement in this case was present for different reasons, but the similarities were there.

“Though just as often he would fall into despair, wondering if his illness had made him lesser than everyone else, doomed to constantly be behind his peers.”

With the way that Jinn was explaining it, Bart almost thought it sounded like the so-called stages of grief. As if Second was bouncing between anger and depression, skipping over bargaining and never quite reaching acceptance. But grief over what? Some “better life” that he refused to reach out and take a hold of for himself?

Perhaps Second Thoughts needed some therapy sessions.

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James wasn’t sure what to make of all of this.

For one thing, civilian life had always been a… distant thing to him. He could understand Second’s problems to some degree, but he struggled to empathize with them.

Though, as callous as it might be, he didn’t particularly care about empathizing with the semblance… the boy… man… with Second at the moment.

His mind was more focused on how none of the important details had been revealed yet. This was nice to know and all, a psychological profile was never a bad thing to have on someone in his eyes, but when they’d agreed to ask about Second Thoughts, James, and he assumed everyone else, had cared more about his abilities.

What did growing up sick and becoming bitter have to do with knowing about alternative timelines?

He hadn’t seen any semblances, nor weapons or magic! This was all just so…

Mundane.

Surely there had to be more to it than this. Was he missing something? Had Jinn been cluing them in, but indirectly? Perhaps that was their punishment for their gambit with the question. An answer in technicality, but not in spirit, like they had feared.

Had anything stood out beyond Second Thought’s apparent otherworldly origin?

His eyes drifted to the not-scroll in the man’s hand. He never seemed to put the thing away.

Jinn had been oddly focused on his habit of reading, hadn’t she? Was that the clue?

He tried to lean in, to read what was on the device’s screen, but the world changed with the blue smoke once more.

Now, Second was in what looked to be a home office. He didn’t look much older than in the city, though he had a proper beard now. The room was rather spartan, though the desk itself was a bit of a mess, barely having room for the monitors on top of it.

James supposed that having large computer monitors to look at certainly made things easier than trying to peer at the tiny palm sized screen from before. Had Jinn done that on purpose?

“However, not all was as it seemed,” Jinn continued, “for there is more to creation than meets the eye. While Second Thoughts lost himself for all those years in what his reality would consider fantasy… in truth it was something more.”

James watched as Second pressed the spacebar on his keyboard, and the speakers of the computer came to life.

“Legends. Stories scattered through time. Mankind has grown quite fond of recounting the exploits of heroes and villains…”

A crude drawing of a tower was shown on the screen. One that was alien to him, and yet brought on a sense of familiarity.

“...forgetting so easily that we are remnants, byproducts of a forgotten past.”

Why share this video with them? What was so special about Second’s entertainment?

“Man, born from dust, was strong, wise, and resourceful. But he was born into an unforgiving world. An inevitable darkness, creatures of destruction, the creatures of grimm, set their sights on man and all of his creations.”

That… that couldn’t be right. Grimm? Hadn’t Jinn just shown them several scenes of Second’s supposed past in a world without the monsters?

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Ruby had the biggest grin on her face.

This was amazing!

Sure, the animation was kinda meh, and it was really weird to see a cartoony version of herself on the screen, but still!

Her first fight against Roman! And her interview with Ozpin! And the flight to Beacon! Seeing it all from cinematic shots was really something else! She looked totally awesome! Was everyone seeing this? She hoped so!

Ooooh, she couldn’t wait to brag about how awesome she had looked! And then there had been an ending song! Or was it an opening song for a series?!

And one named after her team at that! Was she the star of the show?!

…wait a minute. Ruby paused, her excitement leaving her.

What… what does that mean?

Does… does Second know their future… because he watched it in a cartoon?