Wrote this on weekdays so I could spend more of this weekend with my mother. I apologise if it feels any rougher for it.

Cover Art: Curbizzle

Chapter 16

Jaune found the quiet halls of Beacon when everyone else was at dinner to be relaxing. He'd said he hadn't felt hungry to his team, but the vending machine bought junk food in his hand said otherwise. He just didn't feel like spending the afternoon with everyone after their last mission. It wasn't that they were doing anything wrong, spirits were actually pretty high since Winter had been told off and them praised, but he just wanted some time to himself. Time spent without Weiss glowering at him, Blake glaring or Ruby gazing in awe at Knight.

It shouldn't make sense to be jealous of yourself. It just shouldn't.

How could he not be, though? Knight was everything he'd ever wanted to be – heroic, brave, strong, chivalrous, respected, humble. If you took a thesaurus he would have accounted for half the positive adjectives. It wasn't that he was envious of Ruby's infatuation with him, if she even felt that way, but it was watching his first friend and also almost everyone else he knew turn first to Knight for advice. When a fight started, he was the focus. When decisions had to be made, everyone listened to him. It made sense, of course. Knight was more experienced and capable of actually making good calls.

I made a good call, he thought sullenly. Ironwood himself had said so. The good call to hang back like a coward and let Winter get the crap kicked out of her. It didn't feel like an honourable call, but after witnessing what some of the iterations of himself could do, he hadn't wanted to risk his team. Even if it paid out in the end, it easily could have not. What if Magnis had been a bad guy and he killed Winter right there? Maybe Weiss was right to glare at him for what he'd done. Maybe Fate was right to call him a worthless piece of shit masquerading as a huntsman.

"There you are!" A loud voice called out jovially. Jaune turned, his thoughts first thinking his father, then adjusting as he noticed the subtle differences of Magnis. A little younger, a little fitter. "Or there I am," he mused, strolling up to him. "This is all a little difficult, eh? I imagine it's worse for you."

Jaune balked. He looked for his father but couldn't see him anywhere, which meant Magnis had sought him out on his own. Why? The iterations mostly stuck with their anchors. Had Magnis cornered him in an abandoned hallway on purpose? Jaune swallowed a gulp and tried to look calm. "H-Hey," he returned. "Are you lost? I can direct you to-"

"I studied here as well. Or maybe you think I'm so old that I'd have forgotten. I get enough of that crap from my daughter, thank you very much."

"D-Daughter!?"

As in, a child? A baby? And, presumably, a wife as well. Unless it was adopted. He wouldn't judge either way and had always thought adoption was a perfectly acceptable thing, and any child of such should be considered as real as one born of blood. It took Jaune a second to realise he was rambling in his head, and that Magnis had closed the distance. He flinched as a heavy hand came in, then froze as it landed on his shoulder.

The man whipped something out – not a weapon, thankfully. It was a leather wallet that flipped open, and immediately there was a picture stitched onto the left pocket inside. It was of a small girl – probably only ten years or so. She had long, straight yellow hair, bright blue eyes and a huge smile. Atop her head, two small, faunus ears in gold poked up.

"Nicola," Magnis said. "Isn't she adorable!?"

"Um. Yes?" Jaune wasn't sure if he felt that way about someone else's child. She was cute, sure, but almost every parent seemed to value their children as the greatest thing to happen to Remnant. His own mom was a perfect example of that. "Why did-"

"She's older now," Magnis said. "Eighteen and in Beacon. Not as much time for her daddy. Oh no. One day they're hugging you and saying they want to marry you so you can live together forever, and the next it's all ew no, dad, don't show affection. It's uncool." He sniffed. "Ungrateful brat."

"That's-"

"And this is Russet," he said, flicking out another photo. A boy, this time. A baby. He had black hair and little triangular ears with what looked like a shade of purple on the inside. A familiar shade.

Blake-? Holy shit, no wonder she looked like she wanted to cut my dick off.

Jaune's treacherous eyes roamed to a few of the other pictures, curiosity taking over where survival instincts should have warned him away. Many – okay, most – were of his children, but he did catch sight of Pyrrha, Ren and Nora looking older and at tables drinking or such. It didn't take too long to find the one he was really after though, and his mouth went dry at the sight of it.

Jaune Arc in a black suit – he looked good, but that wasn't the main thing. The shocking twist was the woman beside him, her hand in his, dressed in a flowing white wedding gown with flowers in her hair and an embarrassed but undoubtedly beautiful look on her older face. The woman's other hand cupped her undeniably pregnant belly.

He shouldn't have looked. He really shouldn't. Now, he couldn't help but think how incredibly good Blake looked in that photo, and he just knew that was going to come back the next time he saw her. It also felt as though he'd intruded on the life of someone else, on something he shouldn't have witnessed. Jaune averted his eyes quickly and said, "He looks very cute."

"Doesn't he just? He's three now and-" Magnis stopped himself and swore under his breath. "Shit, sorry. I do this. Ren keeps telling me and Nora threatened- ahah." He stood up and scratched the back of his head. "You can tell me if I'm going on too much. Our team has a three photo rule."

"Rule…?"

"Whenever we get together for a mission or drinks or to hang out, I'm only allowed to show them three photos."

He could only imagine what the man had done to cause that rule to have to come into effect. Will I be like that? Jaune wondered. Probably not. This was another one of those iterations, and doubtless brought from a world far more exciting than his own. Yet another unreachable ideal.

"Why were you looking for me?" he asked.

"Oh right. Sorry, I got distracted." Another laugh, another scratch of his head. It was the same nervous tick he had, but where he looked dorky doing it Magnis looked disarming. "I wanted to talk to you but got caught up with General Ironwood and Ozpin's stuff. They're being more than a little cagey with me."

Jaune's interest was piqued despite his best efforts. All of them wanted to know more about how the war was going, and it felt like their teams were being kept in the dark. "Really?"

"Hm." Magnis nodded. "Ironwood was prepared to talk to Nicholas but didn't want me there. Feels like they're trying to keep us from knowing too much, either because they don't trust us or don't want us to know their plans. By us, I mean the summoned versions of us. You call them `iterations`, I think. Course, I wasn't about to take that sitting down and said so. We butted heads a little. Ironwood seems to think he's in control of everything and everyone. I reminded him that I'm not a child, nor a student here, and he can work with me or against me, but that I don't work for him."

From what Jaune had seen of the man, he wasn't sure that sentiment would have been appreciated. "Should you really be telling me this?"

"I don't see why not. You're me. I'm you."

It was a shock to hear him say that. He had to be the first of the iterations to actually share that sentiment. Fate hated him and constantly insulted him, Hunter had regarded him as yet another glory seeking huntsman and Leviathan and Knight came from completely different worlds. Even if they shared a name and circumstances, they weren't actually alike. Knight's very physiology worked in a different way to his. Leviathan had been a monstrous sea serpent taller than most buildings.

He could have argued that they shared similarities, that their faces and histories were coincidentally the same, but to call them the same person-? It just wasn't possible. The Gods, or Jinn, may have said they summoned different versions of him, but as far as he could tell they'd summoned completely different people that just happened to share his face.

"We're not the same." Jaune said. "Not even close."

"Aren't we? I grew up the son of Nicholas and Juniper Arc, with seven sisters who alternated between teasing me and dressing me up as a girl."

"Our families might be the same and our histories, but who we are isn't." Jaune opened his arms, inviting the man to look at him. In turn, he looked at Magnis. Strong, confident, successful, married. There really was nothing to link them together. "Your life was totally different to mine. All yours lives are. Fate has lived through a repeat time and time again, Knight is from an RPG world and can grow infinitely stronger, Leviathan was from a world where aura and Semblances never even existed."

Different worlds. Completely different rules.

"Even if you took the same person, the exact same person, and put them in those worlds, they'd grow up completely different. At the end of it, you wouldn't be able to say they were the same at all. I could never reach Knight's strength. No one on Remnant could. No one can ever learn as many things as Fate has, even if they live for a hundred years. It just isn't possible to say we're the same."

Magnis crossed his arms. The smile he wore had disappeared in the midst of Jaune's explanation, and now he had an expression that reminded him all too much of his father. Stern, uncompromising, disappointed. Jaune didn't need to see that from an older version of himself for fuck's sake.

"You've been thinking about that a lot, haven't you?"

"Should I not be!?" Jaune laughed. "It's not every day you get to see future versions of yourself. All these people, all apparently me, all bett- different," he finished. Magnis' frown deepened. "It's confusing. It's maddening. I keep looking and asking if I should be trying to push myself in any one direction, if I should learn to use a bow or switch to wielding my sword two-handed like Knight or pick up bombs and guns like Ashari uses."

It was even worse when he started to think beyond fighting. All these Jaunes had different lives and different experiences, and that was starting to make him wonder if he should look the same way. Blake kept cropping up in all their stories. He'd not once thought about her that way – should he? If even he had to admit she looked beautiful in a wedding dress, then shouldn't he put aside his feelings for Weiss and try for someone else? But if he did, if he accepted that, then would it truly be love or just him settling for Blake because his future selves said so.

And there was no way Blake would accept that. No one would accept such a half-arsed reason for someone loving them. And he loved Weiss. Or he thought he did, but there wasn't a single iteration that had shown any interest in her, and none had any relationship with her beyond friendship. If even they couldn't win her over, what chance did he have? None. None whatsoever.

"It's like looking in a fucking mirror…" Magnis mumbled.

"I'm not-"

"Perhaps some of the others are different, Jaune, I accept to that. Knight is… from what I hear, he's practically inhuman. You and I, though?" He grinned. "I studied here. I led Team JNPR. I was shit in class and was Cardin's punching bag. Same for you?"

"No, I… well, yes but-"

"I even got blackmailed by him. Listened to him like an idiot. Not my best moment, nor was ignoring Pyrrha and the others reaching out to help me. I felt like I got myself into that situation on my own, so I had to get out of it on my own. Accepting help, well…"

"It would have been weakness."

Magnis nodded. "Yes. Weakness. A dumb part of me still thinks like that now, you know. A stronger person would have gotten out of that on their own. You imagine Cardin trying that on someone like Yang?"

Jaune snorted. "She'd have rearranged his face."

"Ha. Yeah." Magnis chuckled. "Yang wouldn't have needed anyone else's help, but I did. We did." He set a hand on Jaune's shoulder and squeezed. "I was never anything special. I never had anything special. I spent my nights being trained by Pyrrha on the rooftops."

The same training-? "But you're strong!"

"I'm also old. That's the big difference between us, Jaune. Age. No special bullshit, no gimmicks, just a crap tonne of blood, sweat and tears. I was trained by Pyrrha and by Blake."

"How…" He shouldn't ask, and yet he had to know. "How did that happen?"

"If you're expecting some tale of our suave conquest and manliness, you'll be disappointed." Magnis said. "Blake and I was no big, explosive thing. We just… talked. Interacted. I got injured, she felt mildly responsible and let me borrow one of her books to read. I had nothing else to do in the infirmary, so I read it, handed it back to her, thanked her and she asked me what I thought of it." He shrugged, smiling in that whimsical way his dad often did when talking of how he met mom. "We got talking about books and I asked to borrow another, and from there we got to know one another. When I expressed issues with my training, I guess she was friend enough that she offered to help."

That was it-? That was all it took!?

Jaune wasn't sure why, but he felt more relieved than disappointed. That it was something so mundane and boring made it seem more plausible. More possible. No fancy flirting on his end, no stars aligning, just a shared interest in some books and a few conversations. It felt real. It felt… doable.

Achievable.

"I think you don't give yourself enough credit either." Magnis said. "Heavens knows I didn't at your age. Back there, you holding your team back from me was the right move. That's not easy to make in the heat of the moment, let alone when someone is screaming at you to follow their orders."

"That wasn't much." Jaune said. "I just-"

"Saved your teammate's lives. Not there, admittedly; I wasn't about to kill you lot. But in another situation, another time, you just saved their lives with your quick thinking. Physical strength can be earned, so can skill, but only if you live long enough to work on them." Magnis prodded Jaune's chest. "Survival is the first and most important thing for any huntsman, so don't discredit what you did back there."

"It wasn't that much, was it? I only told them to hang back…"

"Nora always runs in to smash things with her hammer and Ren would never let her risk her life alone. Pyrrha defaults to melee as well. It's where she's strongest. Without you to hold them back, all three would have rushed in heedless of the consequences. Don't underestimate what you offer. That's the best advice I can give you."

"Why are you giving me advice at all?" Jaune had to ask. It was a legitimate question. Even Barista, the nicest of the iterations, hadn't had much to do with him. He didn't hate the iterations, but it was clear all around that there was no loyalty or friendship between them despite sharing the same name and face. They may as well have been complete strangers. "Fate despises me, Hunter disliked me, Knight ignores me. They all act like I don't or shouldn't exist. What makes you different?"

"Maybe I remember what it was like to be the underdog. I don't know about Knight or Hunter, either, but as for Fate? Well, no matter what he or anyone says we all started like you once upon a time. Maybe it isn't you Fate hates so much. Maybe it's someone else."

"Who?"

"Not for me to say." Magnis gave him a solid slap on the back and said, "Come on. You're coming with me."

Jaune tried to resist but the man was just too strong. "Where? To do what?"

"To train. What else?"

"I don't need-"

"We all need help to get better. You, me, we both flourished when better people took time out their lives to train us. There's no rule to say I can't be the one to do the training."

"What difference will it make?" he asked. "Getting better takes time, years in your case. What can I possibly learn in however long we have until this war comes to a head?"

"There's only one way for us to find out."

/-/

Roman didn't know what to make of their latest houseguest. The blonde man strolled into their apartment as if he owned the place, snatched a mug out the cupboard and filled it with coffee. He carried it to the same couch Neo was sat on and, with a remarkable lack of self-preservation, sat down beside the murderous mute. Said girl paused in the eating of her ice-cream to shoot him an incredulous look, but the man only leant his arm on the back of the couch and placed two fingers on the nape of her neck.

Neo, who would normally have stabbed anyone who dared to touch her uninvited, opened her lips in a silent O and then leaned blissfully into him, eyes fluttering as he massaged her neck. If Roman hadn't believed from the crazy blue lady that the guy knew them, he would have from this. The man navigated Neo like he had a god-damned instruction manual.

"So," he began, "How was Cinder?"

"As delightfully haughty and arrogant as she always is. She intends to betray Salem and usurp this war for her own ends."

Roman hadn't even known what a Salem was before this whole thing, and now knowing the truth from Jaune and Jinn, he couldn't believe anyone would be dumb enough to cross her. "She up and told you just like that?"

"No. I doubt she's told anyone but Null. Oh, but perhaps not even him – or maybe she hasn't even realised it herself yet."

"So, it's a guess, then?"

"Not at all. Cinder isn't a difficult woman to read."

For him, maybe, Roman wanted to say. Cinder was a wicked and deadly bitch who spoke in lies and dropped threats of murder like candy. He hated her guts, always had, but a wise man knew when to bite back their feelings and bow their head to stay alive. Headmaster Arc was allegedly a very wise man, and yet he kept dropping bombshell revelations like it was going out of fashion.

"So, if she's going to betray Salem then isn't that a good thing? It means the world doesn't end. Jinn only said that you get the wish. All we get as a reward is knowing if the world ends or not."

"You're not incorrect." he said, continuing to massage Neo as she butted her head against him. His fingers moved up her neck to her scalp, and she melted into his chest blissfully. "This royale is to decide who wins between Ozma and Salem. The reward of a wish is only a bribe to keep the various summoned champions motivated. Those that wouldn't selflessly risk their lives for a world occupied by strangers, that is."

"Normal people then." Roman said. If it were him summoned then he'd have told the gods to fuck right off if they didn't have a prize. The thought of bleeding and dying for nothing did not sit right with him.

"Normal people." Headmaster agreed. "Even the most selfless will doubtless have their little wishes tucked away. Understanding what the various champions want is my main priority."

"Is it that important?"

"Of course. Their wishes help denote their motives, their reasons to continue fighting, and each of those can be exploited." When he spoke like that, Roman could believe he'd been headmaster. "Cinder doesn't realise it. All she cares about is power and value, but she's not paying attention to the issues on her team."

"What kind of issues?"

"Take Grimm for instance. Or Sheep as he prefers to be known. He's by far the most powerful champion they have when it comes to his ability to influence the field of battle. He could launch endless waves of Grimm at their foes while never placing himself in harm's way. He's also very resilient and strong individually."

"I'm sensing a but here."

"But…" Jaune agreed, "He won't bring that power to bear. Not fully. The Grimm he summoned during their little soiree at the docks refused to attack civilians and even interrupted Null before he could kill Miss Rose."

"Red? I thought Grimm said that was an accident."

"Yes," Headmaster chuckled. "An accident. I'm sure that is what he said."

Grimm lied, then. Roman didn't doubt Headmaster there. If Grimm were really into it, as much as Null was, he'd have flooded Vale with Grimm already and been done with it all. He hadn't. Honestly, Roman wouldn't have been too upset if Red had died, but he knew better than to express that around Headmaster Arc.

He'd implied it once already when this all started.

For all his jovial attitude and friendly demeanour, the man was not to be underestimated. How quickly, his eyes could turn to steel. Roman shivered, still remembering his back pinned to a wall, the cane over his neck, the sword at his ribs. There, in that moment, he'd thought he might actually die. Not even Neo had been able to stop him.

"So, you're saying Grimm doesn't have a wish he wants bad enough to get his hands dirty. Is that right?"

"Exactly. The Gods can offer whatever wishes they want but if they're not going to negotiate then it won't matter. To some, like Null, no price is too high for bringing his family back to life." Jaune scoffed. "Cinder saw no harm whatsoever in sharing that little story with me. I wonder if Null would be so relaxed knowing she did. To her, there's no value in truly understanding those she works with. Of empathising with them. As long as they are strong, they are useful. Her first instinct is to force them to work with her, to kill them if they won't."

"I could have told you that."

"Well, either way, understanding their motivations lets us better work around them. Grimm, for instance, won't be an ally if we are ever placing innocents in danger, but he can become an immediate one if we suggest the opposite. Null will work with anyone who increases his chances of gaining his wish and will seek to remove anyone who is competition. Ashari…"

Headmaster drummed his fingers on the table. Roman had met the eldest-looking Jaune known as Ashari, and the man reminded him of a trained soldier. He was much too confident for someone hemmed in on all sides by potential enemies, and that spoke of either arrogance or belief. Given the recording of his fight with Knight they'd received from Xiong, Roman suspected the latter.

"Ashari is more complicated. There is something with Emerald there. Cinder noticed as much and has been using the girl to manipulate him. Personally, I think that's going to be a quick way to turn him against us. Cinder is playing with fire as usual."

"Do you know his wish?"

"Not yet. Until I do, I won't know if his wish is important enough for him to stain his hands or not. He was clearly willing to fight his former friends at the docks, and even if he went easy on them he still aligned himself against them. I think he has something he wants, a wish he longs for, but I get the feeling there's a limit to how far he'd go to get it. Lines he'll refuse to cross. That's going to become an issue with Cinder at some point. And with Emerald."

"And the others?"

"Knight appears to be focused on his duty and cares little for the wish – he's fortunate to be on Ozma's side. I expect he would have immediately ended his own life if he was summoned to Salem's. Hunter, I don't know. Leviathan was like Null, desperate to win and with power enough to sink all of Vale. His death was an unfortunate necessity. Barista was harmless and really didn't need to become a target as he apparently did."

"I notice you're missing one out."

"Several. There is that masked figure Null fought. He went for the kill, but I have no idea who he is or what. And then there is Fate." Headmaster Arc frowned. "I don't know what to think of him, but I don't trust the records I downloaded. I refuse to believe that someone who has lived through a thousand lifetimes – literal torture – would not take any chance available to escape it. This wish is his one opportunity."

"I saw those reports myself." Roman said. "I think his point of having no freaking chance makes perfect sense. What is he meant to do against people like Knight, Grimm or Ashari? He'd be killed."

"What is death to a man who has died a thousand times already? Do you really think Fate fears death after what he's been through?"

Arc raised a valid point. Fate even knew it wouldn't be permanent here, that he would be sent back to his world with no recollection of all this. Put like that, Roman wasn't sure even he would have been afraid of dying, except for the angle of intense pain.

People feared dying because it represented an end. It didn't here, though. Death meant nothing more than leaving this shitty war in a world that wasn't your own. It was, at worst, an inconvenience. But in risking your life you had a chance, small as it was, to be granted whatever wish you wanted.

Put like that, even I'd try and fight. I'd have fuck-all chance against these people, but I'd give it a go. Why not? It's not like me dying would stick, and there's always a chance to pull off a miracle.

"He's got the most to gain." Roman realised. "And yet he says he doesn't want to fight. Either he's so broken his manner of thinking doesn't make sense… or he's lying out his asshole."

"One or the other." Arc agreed. "Sadly, his life is horrible enough that I could well imagine his mind being broken beyond repair, so I cannot confirm either. I think it's time we gathered a little more data."

"Again?" Roman groaned. "The last one was a fucking mess and a half. Did you see what Leviathan became?"

"Of course. But it is in moments of strife that you can get the true measure of a man." Headmaster Arc placed his hand atop Neo's head. The girl had fallen asleep on him. "Contact Xiong and tell him it's time for us to make a move. I think it's about time he fulfilled his obligations to the good guys and fed them a little more information. Such was their deal after all."

"What kind of information?"

"I think Cinder hasn't been very careful with her movements. And with General Ironwood and Atlas searching so hard, it wouldn't be too unbelievable that someone saw them coming and going at that little home of theirs, would it?"

Roman whistled. "If she finds out we did this, we're dead men."

"Then, Roman, she won't find out."

"All this talk of motives and wishes has me wondering what yours would be…"

The man only smiled mysteriously and continued stroking Neo's hair as she slumbered. "One day," he promised. "One day, I'll tell you. Suffice to say, my wish is important enough to play a rather dangerous game to attain."

Motivations, shenanigans and some reveals. Professor and Xiong are in cahoots. Two Jaunes in leadership positions, neither qualified for them and both having struggled during them, both working together behind the scenes now. Maybe a fraudulent professor and a crime lord saw something in common with one another. Only time will tell.

Next Chapter: 12th March

P a treon . com (slash) Coeur