Things seemed to be going well for Jaune. He was making steady progress with his combat training, Cardin had avoided him since their little sparring “incident”, and today they were going on a field trip of sorts.
Or at least, things had been going well.
Dude, there’s gotta be some way to stop this. A pill or something?
Jaune wiped his mouth, standing back up as he walked towards his friends.
“You alright there, vomit boy?” Yang asked, a teasing smile on her face. The playful way she said it did little to hide the fact that she was keeping a healthy distance between them.
“I’m fine now, I just wish we didn’t have to take the bullhead here…”
Their conversation was interrupted by Goodwitch as she explained their reason for traveling to Forever Fall and everyone took their supplies. Teams RWBY and JNPR went off in the same direction to tap some trees, light conversation keeping them entertained. Jar after jar was filled with the purple sap.
Try to keep an eye out Jaune, there are grimm out here, and I’m not sure whether Cardin will try something or not.
Jaune glanced around, not seeing either. “Do you really think it’ll be a problem? I know that Goodwitch mentioned grimm but we haven’t seen any yet, and I think Cardin still feels your little trick whenever he looks at me…”
It’s pretty much a guarantee that there are grimm out here, the only question is whether or not it’ll be you and your friends that have to deal with it. As far as Cardin goes… honestly he might have given up already, but it never hurts to keep an eye out. I guess I’m just expecting it to happen because it’s what should be happening… hard to shake the feeling, even if I know things have changed already.
“Is something wrong, Jaune?” Pyrrha asked, pausing in her sap collection.
“I don’t think so, just Second warning me about potential threats with us being out here is all.”
“I doubt there’s much to worry about out here, with this many of us in one area we’ll likely spot any grimm before they can sneak up on us.”
“Still doesn’t hurt to have him keeping me on my toes. Can’t get complacent when there are grimm involved.”
“That’s true…” Pyrrha trailed off, a contemplative look on her face. “Does Second Thoughts ever warn you about things that are further out into the future? I know the branching timelines were brought up before, but surely there are some events that are common enough that they should be expected even with the different possibilities.”
Jaune thought for a moment. “Off the top of my head I can’t remember him doing that, no. He’s been more cooperative lately, but he seems fond of springing things on me as they happen… Why is that, Second?”
Well, it’s a few things really… but my major driving factor has been an effort to avoid changing you too much. In almost every timeline I’m aware of, you turn out to be a reliable sort of guy, and I’ve been a bit worried that constantly giving you the answers in advance would… hinder your development. My thought process was that if you only learn of the problems as they come up, you’d be forced to think on your feet, like you would even if I wasn't your semblance. Though I guess that’s sort of some flawed logic, isn’t it…
“I guess I can kind of see where you’re coming from… but we’re stuck together now, so I don’t really see any point in pretending that you’re not here to help me. Unless you’re planning to ditch me or something?” Jaune laughed, not paying attention to Pyrrha’s confused face as she heard only half of the conversation.
Haha, noooo, definitely not. You’re stuck with me now. But since it was brought up, I suppose I could offer you one piece of future advice for now. When team RWBY goes to the port to welcome students from the other academies, team JNPR should go with them. Would be a good idea to have you guys meet Penny and Sun earlier than scheduled…
“Penny and Sun? Who-”
“Jaune?” Pyrrha interrupted, “Would you care to share with the class what on remnant you’re talking about? Getting only your half of this is getting old really quick when you and I are the only two physically here.”
The blond startled. “Oh! Right, sorry about that. I guess I’m getting kind of used to talking with him and I forgot to translate… subtitle? Interpreting? Ah whatever, you get my point.”
“Weren’t the two of you supposedly working on that? I seem to recall something about you communicating through just your thoughts to avoid this sort of thing. Or was that idea scrapped already?”
“No, it’s just… a work in progress. Every conversation I’ve had over the course of my life that wasn’t in a written format was spoken. It’s hard to adjust to this, it’s… foreign and new.”
“But isn’t it common for people to ‘talk’ to themselves in their heads?”
“It is, and I still find myself doing that sometimes, but talking to him is different from talking to myself. I’m not really sure how to describe it but there’s something that creates a distinction between them…”
“Interesting…” Pyrrha couldn’t expect herself to understand if even Jaune, the person with the semblance in question, didn’t understand it, but it was food for thought. “So what did he say then? You said some names, didn’t you?”
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“Yeah, Benny and Sum.” Penny and Sun, Second Thoughts corrected. “Penny and Sun. Second says that when team RWBY go to the port we should go with them because it means meeting those two early.”
“So they’re people that we would eventually meet regardless then?”
“That’s what it sounds like, yeah.”
You should also up your training between now and then, so you’re prepared to fight the White Fang, Roman… is Neo at that one? I can’t quite recall-
Jaune dropped his jar, spilling his collected sap onto the ground and interrupting Second Thoughts.
“What?! What do you mean fight the White Fang?! Who are Roman and Neo?!” Jaune’s outburst was loud enough to catch the attention of the rest of the group and the task of sap collection was quickly abandoned.
“Who’s fighting the White Fang?” Blake was the first to rush over.
“Roman as in Torchwick?” Ruby was a close second.
“I knew I could count on our fearless leader to set us on the warpath!” Nora seemed to be the only one with a smile on her face.
This. This right here is why the talking needs to stop. Or at least no exclamations of shock…
Jaune could only sigh, resigning himself for being the intermediary in the interrogation that was about to happen. Right. We’ll work on it a bit more seriously from now on.
----------------------------------------
Ozpin could only dread the meeting that was about to occur. The first years had been on an outing to Forever fall when he had gotten a message from Glynda. Now he sat nursing a cup of coffee, Bart and Qrow waiting in his office with him, the three of them having a vague idea that this was likely related to Second Thoughts, but unaware of why exactly Glynda would demand that they be here so urgently. That sort of thing did not bode well.
“Do I really need to be here for whatever schoolyard drama is about to come up that elevator?” Qrow whined, sipping at his flask.
“I’m sure Glynda would love to hunt you down if you gave her a reason to, Qrow.” Bart adjusted his glasses.
“Point taken.” Nothing further could be said, because it was at that point that the elevator doors opened, revealing a very cramped situation for his students and the backbone of this school. Teams RWBY and JNPR walked out with Glynda leading them.
“Start explaining, Mr. Arc.” Oh dear. That was the voice that she used when something serious came up. He was going to need a lot more than just one cup of coffee…
The boy cleared his throat nervously, his eyes not focusing on any of them as he quite obviously was fed lines from his semblance.
“I would like to start this off with a few reminders for certain people in this room. First of all, Weiss may be a Schnee, but it is not fair to judge her for actions that she herself has not committed. Secondly, prejudice against faunus is to be frowned upon, even if you have had… unpleasant experiences with them in the past. Thirdly- what?” His audience stared as the boy debated with his semblance. “Thirdly… Blake is not to be left alone until the events explained today are over because she has a fanatical obsession with the White Fang?” He seemed especially confused about that condition. Strange. Was he not aware of the girl’s past? With how much the two teams interact, surely he should have been clued in by now, even without that semblance of his… though framing it as a ‘fanatical obsession’ was certainly worrying. Had the girl not truly left her past behind, or was she so guilt ridden that she felt compelled to stop any wrongdoings by her old comrades?
The confused looks from the rest of the students, barring Blake herself and her look of indignation, pointed towards the entirety of the group being unaware of the truth to any level. Perhaps the lesson plans needed to be updated if they couldn’t notice how her bow moved on its own…
“Moving on from that, making decisions for the future with lives on the line is stressful, so I will simply be giving you the information available to me and leaving you” he gestured towards the professionals in the room, “to actually come up with a plan of action, whatever that may be.”
Glynda and Bart nodded with approval, but Ozpin simply watched on. He was not about to trust information coming from Second Thoughts, but if the things mentioned were verifiable via secondary sources…
“I am unaware of any specific date for this occurrence. What I can tell you as far as timing goes, is that barring my interference, Weiss would have dragged her team out on one of their days off to scope out the potential Vytal festival competition arriving from the other schools. They would encounter one Sun Wukong and one Penny Polendina. Due to circumstances that I will not be sharing here in the interest of privacy, Blake ends up separating from her team and spending time with Sun instead. I cannot tell you if it is that night specifically, or just a night that follows after that, but Blake and Sun stumble upon Torchwick and the White Fang at the docks handling large amounts of dust. I will spare you the details, but in the end the criminals are repelled from the area by Sun, team RWBY, and Penny…. At the cost of a very large amount of property damage.”
While a few of the students had gained hopeful looks on their faces at the tale of their supposed future bravery, the mention of property damage had them wincing as they should be.
Ozpin set his coffee down for a moment. “I see. And is there anything else that you would like to share with us, Mr. Arc?”
It seemed that the semblance was done for now, as the boy shrank back under the gaze of the headmaster, no longer distracted with having to repeat so many words. “Ah, no sir! Honestly I’m surprised we got that much out of Second."
It was at this point that Glynda took over. “I cannot, and will not, punish you for actions that you have not actually committed… but let me be clear, here and now. If any of you ‘just so happen’ to find yourselves at the scene of the crime, you will wish that the punishment would stop at detention for the rest of your time at Beacon. Am I understood?”
The teenagers all nervously nodded, knowing better than to test the woman.
“Then you are dismissed. We will handle things from here.”
They quickly packed themselves into the elevator, leaving the staff, plus Qrow, alone in the room.
“So Roman Torchwick and the White Fang, eh? Can’t say I saw that one coming.” Qrow took another swig.
“Nobody in their right mind would have foreseen such a thing.” Bart nervously adjusted his glasses. “For either party to agree to such an arrangement… I can only imagine that there is a bigger fish lurking in the depths of this pond, silently making changes beneath our noses. A much larger fish, if they can manage something like this…”
“It’s always one thing after another, isn’t it? We had best get to planning. I won’t let this get in the way of the Vytal Festival.” Ozpin stood to prepare some more coffee. They were in for a long night.