Ideas were bounced back and forth for a good while, but eventually those in charge called the meeting to a close. Sitting around and talking about it was good for an initial exchange of ideas, but once they’d milked Second Thoughts of all the answers they could think to ask for, there wasn’t much need to keep so many people around. They’d not been informed of what the plan was going forward, but for the moment at least, the students were told to go back to their dorms and not do anything stupid. Miss Goodwitch had claimed that it was so those more familiar with the subject matter could be more efficient with their discussions, but Jaune was fairly certain that it had more to do with her not being able to deal with Roman’s whining for much longer, with a dash of all the professionals in the room wanting to grill Headmaster Ozpin for information he’d been keeping from them.
In a way, it wasn’t so different from what he was planning with his semblance.
He kept Second physically manifested. Bringing his counterpart back into his head would have afforded the two of them more privacy, but the thought of sharing a headspace at the moment was… not something he felt very happy with.
“You know,” Ren started as soon as their room’s door shut, sealing team JNPR off from the outside world, “when you told us to think of the various timelines as stories, I didn’t think you meant it quite so literally.”
The girls chuckled weakly, but Jaune didn’t remember that. When…? Hmm. When his dad had shown up, maybe? He couldn’t think of any other time they would have been separated. It would figure that Second would take their short time apart to give information to other people.
“Well I had to say something, and with how strange the truth was…” Second explained. “It got the point across, didn’t it?”
“I guess it did,” Pyrrha nodded, “and after all that… I suppose you weren’t wrong to assume we’d be disbelieving of the truth. Even having seen it for myself, I’m still having a hard time with it…”
“Exactly.” Second looked relieved. “I mean, even I didn’t know all of the details involved, so trying to explain my knowledge by saying I was familiar with you from an animated web show wasn’t exactly an appealing prospect.”
“Oh! You have to tell us more about our show!” Nora begged. “How do all these timelines work? Are they different series in the same IP? Or maybe one is a book, one is a show, and the game world is actually a video game! Wait, what about your world? You have to tell us all about it! I’m dying to know!”
Second didn’t look quite so relieved anymore. He laughed awkwardly. “My world? You don’t want to know about all of that…”
“No, Second. I think we do.” Jaune said as sternly as he could manage. “Or should I call you something else? If you lived before being my semblance, then you would have an actual name, wouldn’t you? Or are you going to dodge that question again?”
His team gave him worried looks.
“My name….” Second didn’t seem to pick up on his mood at all, replying with a melancholic tone. “It doesn’t matter anymore, does it? You saw the same thing I did. The person I used to be… they’re dead. I told you before, didn't I? You’re stuck with me, and I’m stuck with you. This is our reality. Becoming your semblance was like… a clean slate for me. A new life, with new friends…”
Jaune laughed. “Friends?”
Pyrrha frowned at him. “Jaune, are you-”
“We’re friends?” Jaune continued, ignoring her. “Are we really? Before, I… I would have said the same, no problem. Our relationship was… it was weird, and you had a bad habit of being a secretive jerk, but I… I thought that we…” Jaune had been struggling to get his thoughts on the matter in order ever since Jinn had shown them those visions. He’d barely paid any attention to the discussions afterwards, having to get snapped out of it by Ruby more than once. “How much of it is real though? You seem to know everything about us, about me, because you watched it all in some- some show! But we don’t know anything about you.”
Nora put a hand on his shoulder. “Now, Jauney, that’s not fair! We know plenty about Second! We know he’s grumpy, and sometimes he makes bad jokes, and-”
“But we don’t actually know anything about him!” Jaune interrupted. “And if he knows so much about us, then how do we know if the stuff we think we know is true? For all we know, everything he’s told us is a lie! He could have been- I don’t know, manipulating us this entire time! He was always going on about not changing things too much to make sure the timeline didn’t change, how do we know that keeping to the timeline he wanted didn’t mean lying to us with every other sentence?”
“Jaune, calm down,” Ren tried. “I know tensions are running high after what occurred today, but we need to keep level heads-”
“We’re characters in a show to him, Ren!” Jaune shouted. “This isn’t real life to him, it’s a story! He let that maniac Cinder wander around the school for- what was it, weeks that she was just walking around with us? He knew she was a psycho and he didn’t warn any of us until his stupid story changed and he sent me into a coma with a panic attack!”
He could see it in their eyes. He was right, they knew he was right. Who did Second think he was, calling them friends?
“Jaune, hold on a minute,” Second started, concern in his eyes as he took a step forward and reached out. “Look, I know that I have-”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“No.” Jaune slapped his hand away. “I…. I’m sick of your excuses. I’m going for a walk.”
Jaune turned around and opened the door.
“But Goodwi-”
He shut it behind him.
Second wasn’t his friend. He wasn’t a manifestation of Jaune’s aura.
He was little more than a stranger who had been forced into Jaune’s head.
----------------------------------------
The RWBY room was awkwardly quiet as they heard the door slam before Jaune stomped off down the hall.
“Should we not go after friend Jaune?” Penny questioned. “He seems to be quite upset.”
“Based on what we heard,” Yang didn’t repeat the snippets that had come through the walls, “I don’t think this is really something that we can really help with. Sometimes people have to sort their own problems out”
“Besides, I for one don’t feel like wandering the halls and drawing Professor Goodwitch’s ire now of all times,” Weiss added.
Blake rolled her eyes. “Aren’t we already risking that by having Penny in here?”
Ruby gasped. “Blake! Penny is an honorary member of team RWBY, why wouldn’t she be with us?!”
“I am? Oh, thank you friend Ruby, that means so much to me!”
Ruby struggled for breath as she was wrapped up in a robotic hug.
“N-not a p-problem!” She managed to get out, gasping for air when Penny finally let go. “It’s only right that someone with a show named after them be magnanimous.”
Weiss narrowed her eyes at her partner. “Do you even know what magnanimous means?”
“Of course I do!”
The rest of her team joined the staring.
“It means generous or forgiving! I can read a dictionary just like you, you know!”
Blake blinked. “Huh. That’s… not wrong. Though I suppose you also know that it’s generally used for people of a higher ranking, like a ruler? Don’t tell me that stupid title screen is getting to your head. It was all a bunch of nonsense, anyway.”
“Nonsense?” Penny asked. “I will admit that it was both an unexpected turn of events and also quite confusing when compared with previously held knowledge, but General Ironwood seemed to think it was all true. As far as I was able to tell, that Jinn woman did not lie.”
“Uncle Qrow did seem to be taking it seriously…” Yang hesitantly agreed.
Weiss scoffed. “I don’t care if they were lapping up those lies. My life is not a cartoon. Nothing we saw in those visions made any sense.”
Ruby pouted. “Winter believed it too! Are you calling your sister a liar?”
“No! Winter wouldn’t lie, she just… she’s mistaken! It does happen on occasion, even for a Schnee.”
“Sooo humble,” Blake mocked. “But you’re not wrong. Those visions didn’t make any sense. I mean, Jaune as a member of the White Fang? Really? He didn’t even have a faunus trait! There’s no way Adam would…” She trailed off at that point, and given her reaction to running into the guy on the train, the others didn’t prod at that particular sore spot.
“Technically, there was no indication that that version of Jaune was a member of that version of the White Fang,” Penny clarified. “The organization working with humans for a common goal is not unheard of. Was Roman Torchwick’s capture not related to his working with them in the dust robberies that were plaguing Vale?”
Blake soured. “It still doesn’t make any sense. They can’t just throw you live in a cartoon, magic is real, the grimm are led by an immortal witch, the gods see us as playthings at us all at once and expect us to accept any of them, let alone all of them at once.”
“Did they say we live in a cartoon, though?” Yang countered. “If it was just that I’d be plenty doubtful, but I thought it was more like Second’s cartoons were based off of our real lives through some magic stuff.”
“Like that makes it any better?!” Weiss protested.
“Doesn’t it?” Ruby doubled down. “It’s like a klara…. Kara…”
“Clairvoyance?” Penny suggested.
“Exactly!” Ruby nodded. “It’s like a clairvoyance semblance! Getting info in a way that isn’t normal! Just, instead of the normal limits of a semblance, in this case it’s getting info from an entirely different world!”
Yang sighed. “I guess when you put it that way, we had already accepted that Second was sort of like that, weren’t we? What difference does it make how he got that information? Is seeing it in some cartoon that different from the knowledge just popping into his head?”
“Yes, you buffoon!” Weiss declared. “If our lives were broadcasted on some stupid cartoon then that means countless people would have seen it! If that were true, which it isn’t, then it would be mortifying!”
“What do you mean mortifying?” Ruby glared. “It would be awesome! Everyone would know that we were awesome huntresses, kicking butt and saving the day! We would be cool! You saw how awesome some of those fight scenes were!”
“Perhaps,” Weiss admitted. “But we saw only snippets of this supposed show. What if it wasn’t an action show?”
Blake gasped.
The color drained from Yang’s face. “You don’t mean….”
Penny looked like a lightbulb had just gone off in her head, in a metaphorical sense, that is. “I see! Friend Weiss is implying that depending on the genre, as characters we might be revealed in compromising positions! This is just like friend Blake’s books!”
Blake went red, but didn’t have time to defend herself before Ruby spluttered. “W-wait, what?! I don’t wanna be in some- some lewd show!” She looked at Weiss like she was ready to murder the girl. “Why would you put that in my head?!”
Weiss didn’t look much better at that point, red in the face and shaking. “I’m just pointing out how awful this could be! I’m not saying I want that, but if all we have to work with is those snippets then we don’t know the reality!
“W-well, maybe-” Blake started.
“No!” Yang shut her down immediately. “Bad Blake! There will be no asking Second about that!”
“But I was only going to-”
“No!”
Ruby was no longer a fan of having her own cartoon.