Part One, The Scientist, is in Chapter Two.

Part Two, The Student, is in Chapter Four.

Part Three, The Teacher, is in Chapter Five.

The Champion

Pyrrha Nikos was in heaven. Perhaps not literally, but close.

The year, for her, had started out rather bland and had only gotten better. Her partner and boyfriend- and be damned if that didn't make her the happiest girl on campus- could be pointed to as the source.

Well, him and his mentor, Doctor Greene.

The man was absolutely mad. Not livid, more insane. The things he'd done. The things he'd taught Jaune to do. The theories he'd go on about for hours, if given half a chance. The last combat class before the Vytal Tournament, he'd been sliding around the ring as though on skates and had been turning aside attacks like they hadn't even hit him. He'd apparently taught that trick to Jaune, because the young man had done it in the first round.

It had looked like he was about to be smashed into the ground by an oversized club, and then he was kicking the foreign student across the arena before moving on to the next.

She hadn't been worried really. When she had seen the club coming down on him, she knew all too well that he'd be able to tank it. She had hit him far harder than that, after all. He didn't even wince and hit back just as hard.

With all that aside, the point was Pyrrha was happy, extraordinarily so. Had been since Jaune had sat down to lunch with her one day. He had made eye contact with Ren. The black and pink haired boy had deduced some form of unspoken order and stood up.

"Come along, Nora," he spoke softly as usual, "there's a combination I'd like to try. You'll shoot Magnhild, and I'll see if I can hit the round, cause it to explode just before it hits the target."

"That sounds Awesome!" The excitable girl stood up and practically dragged her partner away.

"Pyrrha," Jaune said after a few moments, gaining her attention, "Do you like me?"

Her cheeks immediately flushed and she stumbled over her words for a couple of moments while the boy smiled.

Eventually, the Champion managed to say, "Er, Why do you ask?"

"Well," he leaned forward, resting his right cheek against his fist, "the other day, Doctor Greene was working on something and I was distracted, thinking about Weiss, " the boy didn't miss her brief frown, "He saw it and was able to guess what, and even who, it was about. I tell ya, Pyr, Doctor Greene might act socially inept, but he knows a lot for someone that doesn't like to socialize much.

"Anyway, he told me to simply ask her out. I told him that she always says no, but he just nodded and told me to do it anyway. But this time, to watch her. Not ogle, or stare, but to watch her. Specifically he told me to look at her shoulders and hands. I'd be able to tell almost exactly what she was thinking by looking at those.

"So, I did," he sighed and rubbed a hand through his hair, "long story short, I'm pretty sure Weiss hates me. If I even want to be her friend, I've gotta a lot of ground to cover after the way I've been blowing it." He released another heavy sigh, obviously seeing how badly he had messed up and clearly regretting it.

"How does that come back to me?" The girl asked. She hoped it wasn't some stupid rebound thing.

"Well, after that, I started watching how everyone moves and acts when I talk to them," he nodded over at Team RWBY, "Yang thinks of me like a somewhat annoying younger brother. She's always trying to give me a fair chance, but she's afraid that I'll set my sights on Ruby when I finally get the point from Weiss. So, she's conflicted, she wants to be friendly, but she doesn't want to encourage me to go after Ruby, or herself.

"Blake," he almost chuffed a laugh, "She doesn't care. Not really. I'm not an enemy, not a friend, not an annoyance. I breathe, I speak, I go to the same classes, but that's about it. Weiss, we've kinda covered, but she loathes me. Ruby is the opposite, for the most part. She's not interested, but she feels like we can be great friends because we're both socially awkward. And she's right, she's probably my best friend outside of the team. No romantic interest there, on either side of the equation.

"Then we have Nora," he smiled, "She thinks I'm hilarious, is supportive of anyone following their dreams, and is totally together-together with Ren, even if they won't admit it, yet. Ren looks at me as the lone, acceptable, bastion of testosterone in a sea of estrogen. We are brothers in isolation, by choice and vocation. Don't take it too personally, but Ren is the only person I can talk to about stuff… personal stuff.

"Or, he used to be," Jaune grinned again, "We still talk, but now it's just unimportant stuff, and our bond is stronger than ever. We aren't putting any weight on each others' shoulders. Believe it or not, Ren likes some music you'll never even guess. I won't tell, 'cause it embarasses him, but I'll give you a hint. If you think it's something girly, you are completely wrong," he sat up straight now and leaned a little further.

"That brings us to you, Miss Nikos," he was more serious now, "I watched you, too. I don't know if you like me, not really, but I think you might. Your shoulders always perk up when we talk, in a way that they don't when you speak to Nora or Ren. Your hands always have the oddest twitch, like you don't know what to do with them, so you usually hold them together behind your back, a stance to keep them from fidgeting. When you do let them fidget and move, you subconsciously, tug at the edges of your uniform and tend to pick at whatever imperfection you can find. You only ever do that when you talk to me, or a professor. There are some other signs. I asked three people about it, you know," here he sounded annoyed.

"Professor Goodwitch said I should figure it out for myself. Professor Oobleck suggested that it was a wonderful thing to be young, but didn't say anything else. Doctor Greene," it always came back to Syler, always, "Doctor Greene actually gave me a straight answer. He said either you like me, or I embarrass you. I'm kind of hoping I don't embarrass you."

"No!" Pyrrha said, almost too loudly, getting an odd look form some of the other students nearby, "No, you don't embarrass me. Never," she smiled a little weakly, her cheeks dusting with color, "I-I do like you. You treat me like a person, Jaune. Not an idol, or a celebrity, or… or a four time champion of some dumb tournament. And you are a good person," her face became more red as she almost whispered the next part, "and you've become really hot…" she cleared her throat, "So, yes, I like you, Mister Arc." Her green eyes met his blue, a challenge in a way.

I admitted it. I like you, they said, Now, what are you going to do about it?

Jaune nodded, and said, "I can't really date you right now, Pyr," he said, watching her shoulders droop, "I'm still moping about Weiss. I genuinely liked her," he ran a hand through his hair, "Too bad I never bothered to learn anything about her, really. So, yeah, still mopey. I'd be a bad date right now," he stood up from the table, then moved around to her side, "But, next weekend, I plan on going to Vale. A couple of movies are coming out that I want to see, I know of a really good sandwich shop that serves these awesome little cakes, and I'd like to go with someone," he grinned a little tiredly, "Would you be willing?"

Pyrrha gave a rather emphatic yes.

The rest, as they say, is history. One date had led to two, which had led to three, which had led to the boy asking her to the dance. Intimacy was somewhat awkward. Neither were ready for more than some lingering hugs and a few smooches, but were expecting the other to initiate more.

Then, rather spontaneously, Jaune had kissed her in reward for her victory, in front of the entire Combat Class, to multiple wolf whistles.

The day after he had asked her, "Are… am I your Boyfriend, now?"

Pyrrha gave it real thought. She wanted to jump up and say yes. But was he? Had they been on enough dates? Was there a quota to meet? Or did they just decide on it at random?

So, she asked him, "Do you want to be?"

Like Pyrrha, Jaune took a moment to think it over.

"Yeah," he cleared his throat, "Yes, I want to be your boyfriend."

She smiled beautifully, then asked, with only a little pink on her cheeks, "Will you… kiss me, everytime I win?"

The blonde young man nodded emphatically, "Absolutely, every time."

"Then you are most definitely my boyfriend," she leaned in and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

Pyrrha had been walking on air ever since. When the tournament began, the four members of Team JNPR took the arena in a landslide.

And neither Ren or Nora were coasting by on the strength of their teammates. It was they who trained with Pyrrha, day in and day out, often both of them at once against her. They had never won, just like Jaune, but the practice was worth its weight in gold.

The first, and last, team to make the mistake of assuming that the two of them were the weak links to the team, found themselves in the infirmary, not even remembering when the match ended, but with a deep seated fear of orange, black, and pink.

The semifinals she fought beside Jaune against a pair from Atlas. They lasted a full minute against the Invincible Girl and her partner, long enough for the Beacon students to line up one, good shot each. Jaune had worried that he'd hit his opponent too hard, the boy having crumpled over his fist like a wet blanket. The other teen was fine, but severely bruised.

Pyrrha's own opponent had… annoyed her. He had looked her from head to toe with a leer, then at Jaune. He chuffed, unimpressed.

"You should have come to Atlas instead of Vale. It's where they grow real men," he waggled his eyebrows at her, "Maybe after this I can get your-"

He was interrupted, not by Pyrrha knocking him into next week, but by his partner skidding to the ground at his feet. Bruised and unconscious, but fine otherwise.

"You're taking your time, Pyr," the blonde said, sheathing his sword as he walked over, "this guy that tough?"

The lithe young man looked at the beefy, towering teen that was only slightly smaller than Jaune's opponent had been.

"Oh, nothing like that," the girl said, noticing how the other teen scowled fiercely, "He just seemed to have a lot to say about the men born in Atlas versus those from Vale."

"Oh, I have noticed some differences, but both are rather squishy compared to the guys from Vale's Border Towns. Just look at me," he held his arms out to his sides, showing nothing of the physique hidden beneath his baggy clothing, "Not a lot of people can handle all of this."

Pyrrha giggled. It looked ridiculous. Jaune would probably never be overly muscled and he might gain a few more inches over the coming years, but he was never going to be the tallest person around.

She, and most of Beacon, knew that, despite his appearance, he had only one equal in the ring, and she was it.

"You piece of-" the teen was interrupted when the champion planted a deceptively hard punch in his gut, causing him to heave and gag for a moment before he simply fell over unconscious.

Just as he promised, Jaune stepped forward and kissed her in reward for her victory. He didn't care that everyone was watching them. He wasn't being lewd and grinding against her, nor she him. It was just a brief, chaste kiss on the lips. Enough for anyone watching to know they were happily together.

It still had the two of them blushing bright, bright red.

So, she was in heaven. Later that very evening, she and jaune were laying side by side, watching the stars from the roof.

"Pyrrha," he said, a certain solemnity to his words that made sure she paid attention.

"Yes, Jaune?" She asked, almost nervous.

"I know it might be asking much," he began, "But I would like to take the semifinal and final fights in the tournament. I would like to prove, to everyone, that I'm not the same as I was when I got here. That it's a change for the better."

The girl held back a sigh of relief. She wasn't entirely sure what she expected from him, but this was something she could easily deal with.

"Jaune, I am the four time Mistral Champion. I am still recognized, obviously, across most borders. They will be expecting me to fight."

"Yes, but-"

"But," she interrupted him, "I think I pulled my shoulder today. Would you be willing to take my place?" Her smile lit up the night from the young man's perspective. He kissed her again.

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When the random opponent slot machine placed Jaune against a student from Haven, Pyrrha thought nothing of it.

He drew his sword, focused his aura and then froze before he stepped forward cautiously. He looked left, right, then directly at his opponent. He jumped forward at the boy, his sword swinging through the air and-

Hitting nothing. Most wouldn't or couldn't, see it, but Pyrrha could. The spectators would probably think the grey haired boy had just dodged, but Jaune's swing was too high. It would have missed no matter what.

Mercury moved around the blonde, but Jaune moved with him, keeping him to his front. Finally, the grey haired teen launched a kick. Jaune brought up his shield, but too low. The foot connected with his face and he fell back, dropping the shield and clutching his face.

Pyrrha almost yelled the boy's name when Mercury closed in again. The blonde swung wildly, but the other teen just jumped over him and kicked him in the back, sending him rolling across the ring.

Visibly taking a deep breath, Jaune stood back up, but something was different now. Everyone watched him say something and how it wiped the smug smirk off of the other teen's face. Then Jaune's eyes glowed white and he made a 'come hither' motion with his free hand.

Mercury glared and shot off two blasts with his ankle mounted shotguns. Her partner bat them aside with his sword, never taking his eyes off Mercury.

The grey haired teen seemed shocked and moved closer, shooting more blasts. Jaune just kept knocking them away, with very little effort.

He didn't realize that he was too close until the blonde grabbed him by the leg. Again they paused to say something to one another, then Mercury was slammed down three times before being thrown away.

Mercury grabbed his leg at the knee and howled in pain. Jaune said something again, a scowl on his face, and the other teen froze, then scowled back, standing up with no issue. Pyrrha herself frowned, realizing that the young man had tried to play her boyfriend.

Still, the blonde moved over to his shield and picked it up and started smiling again. More words were exchanged and Jaune's eyes did not glow, they shined.

It was over in an instant.

One moment they were standing, the next only Jaune was standing, on Mercury, blade at his throat.

Mercury took a second then tapped the arena floor. The match was called in Jaune's favor.

They young man waved to the crowd, grinning, looking specifically at Pyrrha.

He froze for a moment again, and looked back at his opponent with a frown. Then looked into the stands, like his eyes were following a line. The blonde hurriedly left the arena and made his way to Pyrrha.

"Pyrrha," he said low and serious, "something is going on. We need to talk to Headmaster Ozpin."

"What is it, Jaune? What's wrong?" The redhead asked.

"I'm not entirely sure, but I know that Mercury, at the very least, was cheating, with the help of his teammate."

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"But you won, Mister Arc," Ozpin said calmly, "Even if we do put them on record for it, we can't kick them out anymore than their legal disqualification would. And even to pursue it would become your word against theirs."

"Yeah, I know," Jaune said, "But that wasn't all. If that was it, well, I won. It doesn't matter that they cheated if I won. I move on, they are out. But…" he trailed off with a frown, "But that is where it gets weird, Headmaster. I don't think they wanted to win."

"What do you mean, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked, confused.

"Yes, please do explain," the man took a sip of his coffee, staring directly at the student, meeting eyes.

"At the end, just after I'd been declared winner, there was another Illusion. In the illusion, Mercury leapt at me, clearly after the match had been announced. If I had attacked back, I would have been the one hitting an opponent after a match was called. I'd have been disqualified," the blonde said.

"To say the least, Mister Arc," Ozpin told him, "You would have been immediately detained and charges of assault would have been pressed," the two teens paled, but the headmaster continued unimpeded, "But how did you know it was fake?"

"Doctor Greene," Jaune said, "When we do our thing with the eyes," he gestured to his face broadly, "We can see Semblances. Some are harder to find than others, that's why it fooled me at the start, but once I knew what to look for, I was able to avoid it."

"That is… astounding," Ozpin said, "Still there is nothing we can do now. You won, they failed, case closed."

"I'm not sure it is," Jaune said as they rode the elevator down.

"Why not?" Pyrrha asked, looking at her boyfriend's thinking face. It looked good on him.

"If the reasoning was to get me disqualified, why wait until the end? Why not start stronger? Why didn't they just disguise his first hit, make me think he was taunting me, while in reality he was hitting me with everything he had? It just doesn't make sense. The plan is too convoluted. It can't be for something this simple."

The redheaded champion looked to his face and saw deep, serious thought. She thought about it herself. She stopped trying to look at it from a spectator's point of view and switched to tactical.

"What if…" she began, "What if winning, or losing wasn't the point?" Jaune looked at her, waiting for her to go on, "You said they tried to make you attack Mercury, well after the match had been called. If that had happened, practically the whole world would have seen you attacking another student for no other apparent purpose than to see him in pain. The backlash from that against Beacon would do some serious harm to our reputation. Is Haven trying to discredit Beacon?"

The blonde smiled at her and pulled her into an embrace.

"You are a genius, Pyr!" Jaune kissed her, "We need to talk to team RWBY, tell them to be careful."

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The warning came too late to do any good. They did indeed warn their sister team, but at roughly just that moment explosions started going off in the city and Grimm descended from the sky like a black rain on the colosseum.

The two teams began to run towards the stadium when their building was rocked by another explosion. Jaune's eyes widened.

"South side. Doctor Greene is there," he started moving in that direction, then ordered his team, "Nora, Ren, go with RWBY. Evacuate and protect the civilians. Pyrrha, with me. Take out only the Grimm directly preventing us from our mission until we have achieved it. We don't have to kill them all. Just enough to live."

His team split as he ordered and Pyrrha had her sword and shield at the ready.

The south side of the building was rubble. Completely collapsed. Jaune stared at it for a few moments, not sure how to react.

Pyrrha watched as his shoulders tensed and his face twisted into an ugly frown. His grip on the hilt of his sword became white knuckled in rage.

Trying to calm him, she placed a hand on his shoulder.

"We save them," he said, looking at her, "I want revenge," the young man growled, then shook his head, "But this is more important. People need our help. This is what we are trained to do."

"Very good, Mister Arc," the voice of Syler Greene was completely unexpected and entirely welcome, "But I am not dead," the teens looked behind them to see the Scientist standing there, a spoon in one hand and a yogurt cup in the other, "I, however, am quite displeased by this development. I had over eight months of data in the computer in my room, and it is now gone. So, you two run along and save the day. I am going to finish this fine strawberry yogurt, find the one responsible for this and vivisect them." He paused when the air shook and thundered followed by the passing of a massive Grimm Dragon, "Well, that is fascinating. I will leave that to you, Mister Arc, Miss Nikos."

Jaune brushed the very beginnings of mournful tears out of his eyes and nodded with a bright smile at seeing his friend and mentor still alive.

With Pyrrha following closely, the two made their way to the top of a nearby building.

Syler ate another spoonful of his sweet treat and watched as the top of Beacon Tower exploded. He started walking in that direction, almost casually.

"Not so fast, doc," came the voice of one Mercury Black, "The headmaster is in a meeti-" the grey haired teen was interrupted by Syler drawing his large revolver and firing at the wall nearby three time. He actually fired so fast that it almost seemed simultaneous.

The high caliber bullets tore through the brick and mortar, hitting Emerald Sustrai in the head, chest and stomach. As she slumped over, dead before she could realize he had attacked, the illusion of Mercury faded. The Scientist walked on, only pausing to dispose of his yogurt cup and reload his weapon.

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Atop the ruins of the tower, Cinder almost gleefully watched the life fade from Ozpin's eyes. His last breath hissed out and his eyes closed. He looked so calm and serene that he could almost be sleeping.

And Cinder knew he wasn't fully dead. Some part of him lived on, just like a part of Amber lived in her.

She pulled the glass blade out of his chest and turned to watch as the White Fang, Grimm, and robots tore through the city. This was her greatest victory yet.

The Grimm Dragon shined with yellow light then fell to the ground in two clear pieces. Her jaw dropped open, her eyes wide with disbelief.

"How-!?"

"Allow me to introduce myself."

The voice had her twirling around, blades at the ready.

"My name is Syler Greene, and I am a Scientist."

The young man was smiling. His glasses shined, his red hair danced in green fire, and his lab coat fluttered in the wind. He held a chain whip in his right hand and a large revolver in his left.

"I would like to ask some invasive and insensitive questions about your anatomy."

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AN: Clearly there has been more timeline fuckery, but I consider it creative license to do so.