Author's note: Hmmm…so apparently: Jaune + Future Trunks (Dragon Ball Z) + Raiden (Metal Gear) + Terminator = Future Jaune…Ironically, I was aiming for a less naïve Silver the Hedgehog (not really). Next thing I know someone's gonna say Future Jaune reminds them of Cloud from Final Fantasy…

Like always, thank you for taking the time to read this and my gratuitous appreciation to everyone who follows, favorites, and/or reviews. It's always awesome hearing what yall have to say.

I'll hold my comments and remarks for the closing Author's note. Till then, enjoy!

Chapter V

Unnerving silence proliferated the air between them. Bewilderment and astonishment rendered their voices mute. Meanwhile, Nora was bobbing up and down with her hands behind her back and delight plastered on her face, Pyrrha was taking in the appearance of the newcomer, and Ren was assessing the situation as cool as ever. The younger Jaune noticed the fully armored giant standing in front of him and cerulean blues locked onto one another.

"So uhh, who's your friend?" Jaune awkwardly asked, timidity seeping into his voice.

"WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!" Ruby panicked and dashed behind Yang in a flurry of rose pedals. Yang snapped herself out of her shock to find her sister clinging to her backside with her arms and legs wrapped around her torso.

Yang glanced over her shoulder at Ruby in confusion, "Wha-?"

"When future people meet their past self they create a paradox implosion bubble and cause an explosion that shatters the space-time continuum!" Ruby sputtered out and pointed over Yang's shoulder at the two Jaunes, "THEY'RE GONNA EXPLODE AND DESTROY ALL OF REALITY!"

"WAIT WHAT?!" the younger Jaune cried out and flinched backwards. The future Jaune just stood there observing his past self with a gawking stare. Yang rolled her eyes as she attempted to pry her sister off of her, to which Ruby adamantly refused to do so.
Weiss folded her arms and shook her head reproachfully.

"That's completely ridiculous." Weiss scoffed, "Right Blake?"

Weiss turned to her side to find an earth Dust figurine of Blake created from her semblance and left behind in her place. The heiress's eyes blanked at the sight and her jaw dropped when the Blake-lookalike crumbled to dust. Blake had, in compliance to Ruby's 'logic', fled. Sighing, Yang finally managed to maneuver herself out of Ruby's grasp and move her from clutching her back to dangling from her arm.

"Relax Ruby," she coaxed and lowered her sister down, "we haven't exploded yet."

Upon realizing that no continuum explosion had leveled all dimensions and corners of reality, Ruby drawled out a sigh and dropped from her sister's arm. Around one of the breezeway's pillars peered out Blake before she vanished and she instantly reappeared beside Weiss.
The future Jaune finally dispelled his astonishment and refocused himself with his usual stoic expression.

"At least that theory is proven false." he muttered and continued to take in the sight of Team JNPR. Their team leader finally settled down and shot a questioning look to Ruby.

"Wait, are you saying that this guy is me?" Jaune asked in perplexity and began examining the cybernetic being even further, "Th-that's ridiculous; I'm not that tall…or awesome looking…or a robot…heh…"

Pyrrrha quietly looked up at left half of the giant cyborg's showing face. It took her a moment, but she began to identify the similarities and began shifting her gaze back and forth between him and her leader to confirm her staggering hunch. Nora was ooo-ing at the sight of the massive cyborg's pieces of powered armor equipped all over and his bulky sword and shield. Ren merely regarded him with a kind smile. The cybernetic Jaune merely regarded his past self with an unamused stare. Detecting that his presence hadn't cause a temporal anomaly, his systems projected no harm in revealing who he was since the Temporal Paradox Explosion theory was proven wrong. Prognoses even indicated a more likelihood of his mission succeeding if he did. Jaune dug into his memory banks for a few choice words that could convince his naïve past self who he was without endangering his existence.

"You bought a tulip for Weiss when you planned to ask her out to the Beacon dance." he stated unemotionally.

"You did what?" Weiss demanded with an edge in her voice and locked her daggering eyes onto the surprised blond. JNPR's leader shifted uncomfortably and laughed nervously as all eyes fell on him, Pyrrha's expression changed into a barely visible glare.

"Y-you can't prove that…" Jaune denied out of embarrassment.

"It's true." his partner sighed in annoyance.

"Pyrrha!"

"When you think nobody is around you sing Jeff Williams songs in the shower." the future self continued.

"That's true!" Nora added blatantly with a grin.

"Nora!" Jaune snapped before glaring up at the tall cyborg that was supposed to be him, "For your information, Jeff William songs are great; just ask Ruby."

"In the shower though?" Ruby snickered. Jaune sunk his shoulders and narrowed his eyes in disbelief at his best friend. Yang flashed a devious grin on her face, Blake had a condescending smirk on her lips, and Weiss merely rolled her eyes. The future Jaune stared coldly down at his counterpart, internally stunned that he was once this stubbornly oblivious fool. Thankfully, he knew a fond memory that would drive his case home.

"Your sisters use to dress you up as a girl with cosmetics and hair accessories," he pointed out, "and you didn't stop until you were seven years old."

Everyone fell quiet for a moment. Jaune's jaw hung open, his voice lost all sound, and the color of his skin paled out of mortification.

Nora, of course, was the first to respond.

"Hah! You were dressed up like a girl!" the valkyrie girl cackled, pointing at her leader laughing. Ruby and Yang were gripping their stomach while cracking up.

"S-sorry J-Jaune, but th-that's too funny!" Ruby managed to cough out before breaking down in hilarity. Weiss fought to remain composure, but the mental image of a toddler Jaune being dabbed in makeup with his hair done was something very hard not to laugh at. Blake simply covered her mouth to hide her smirk. The flabbergasted blond stood looking up at the massive cybernetic being that had spilled one of dark his hidden secrets. He numbly felt a hand place itself on his shoulder.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of Jaune," Ren supported, "you were young at the time."

"You didn't stop until you were seven!" Nora cried out and doubled over in a fit of hysteria.

Pyrrha mirrored Blake and covered her mouth to hide her devious grin. Like the other girls laughing, she too found Jaune's revealed secret hilarious, but she also found it endearingly adorable. She mentally chalked up another thing that made her swoon for her leader. She tore her gaze away from her embarrassed leader and glanced up at the giant cyborg who had spilled said secret. Her eyes began examining him from bottom up. His limbs were enormous and encased entirely with his armor save for a few joint areas. Battle scars and scuffs dotted all over the gleaming white armor, but her trained eye could see more than two dozen scratches and abrasions dotted everywhere. Her eyes unconsciously shifted towards the piece of charred metal that hung from his neck on a wire. Pyrrha couldn't quite identify what the mangled piece of metal but had a feeling that it must be of significant importance for him to be wearing it on him.
Prying her eyes away from the vaguely familiar keepsake, her eyes gazed up to see the cyborg Jaune's face…and immediately found them staring back at her. Merriment left her mind as curiosity overtook her mind. Despite only one of his eyes showing, she could see confliction and longing entangling in his core.
A distant, sullen look filled with painful relief.
A look that started to bring slight discomfort to her. What was going on in his mind? The mechanized being suddenly realized that his stare was being returned by her.

"Apologies, my Regent." he stated instinctively before comprehending what he said and quickly returning his attention back to Jaune. Pyrrha narrowed her eyes at his phrasing. Regent? She opened her mouth to ask why he had called her that but was cut off by her team leader.

"So…you really are…me." a recovered Jaune stated in captivation. Everyone, minus Ren and Pyrrha, finally pulled themselves together to stop laughing and slowly focused on the situation playing out before them. The young teenager stared up at his cybernetic future counterpart with a hanging jaw, who in return regarded his measly past self with a cold expression. Scratching the back of his head, Jaune gestured towards the armor and cybernetic body.

"How did…I end up like this?" he hesitatingly asked.

"For the safety of my existence, I cannot tell you."

"Oh…right."

A long gurgling rumble interrupted the conversation. All eyes fell onto the source of the continuous noise: Nora. The valkyrie girl placed her hands on her stomach and winced as her stomach very audibly growled in protest. When it finally subsided, Nora's face beamed with her regular cheery expression.

"Well I'm starving!" Nora proclaimed and marched forward, "You can tell us all about yourself once we get something to eat!"

As she brushed past the cyborg, she grabbed his arm with both her hands and proceeded to drag him towards the cafeteria. Or at least she would have dragged him had he budged from his spot. Instead, Nora futilely tugged on his arm as he stood there unmoving. A moment passed before the cybernetic Jaune rolled his eyes and slowly turned around and moved, letting Nora guide him to their destination. The remaining seven of them exchanged glances before also making their way after them.

"So uh, what kind of brand of makeup did you use?"

Jaune let out a wimpy groan.

Now in the fully restored dining hall, courtesy on the behalf of Team RWBY, mingled many of the students that had arrived throughout the morning. Returning classmen were bundling around their teammates and known friends while the first year students uneasily tried to navigate around and find some sort of social solace. The aroma of the dining hall's daily special filled the air with the scent of other various foods and the chatter of the upcoming Huntsmen and Huntresses. Despite it all, everything faded into ambiance around a specifically crammed table in the center of the architect. Inquisitive eyes darted onto the specific table and its peculiar occupants, particularly the strangest looking one of the all, but none lingered too long and eagerly went about their own business.

Cerulean blues observed the four girls in front of him and pandered to other pair of females and males on his sides. Settled before everyone were trays containing numerous foods and the daily special that were already partially devoured; everyone but him.

"Whr dnt yh hv eny fuhd?" Nora asked. He tilted his head slightly to see the ill-mannered sight of Nora's mouth stuffed with chicken. A poor sloppy sight, but a sight that brought back memories of the Nora knew. He felt traces of reminiscent sentiment and normalcy fill his head before they were whisked away. Nora finally deducted that he couldn't understand her due to his lack of response and quickly scarfed down the chicken in her mouth.

"Why don't you have any food?" Nora repeated.

"My body no longer requires nutrition," he explained, "it is made of augmented bionic fibers and sensors uplinked to an internal biomechanical networking system. I run solely on energy."

"Laaame!" Nora declared and stabbed her fork into another chicken breast and chowed down.

"So you're made of that stuff entirely?" Weiss asked from across the table.

"Yes, everything but my head," he responded, "my body was damaged beyond repair, even with my aura."
He noted that his past-self began to shift uncomfortably in his seat.

"What happen to your face?" Blake questioned brusquely.

"I lost half of my visor during an…engagement," he told hesitantly. His visible eye behind his eyepiece blinked as the memories of the engagement rushed back into his mind again. Half a second passed before he resumed talking, "While the remainder of my visor still functions, I had to be fitted with specialized face gear to make up for the loss."

"Are you sure you can't tell me how'd I end up with just my head?" Jaune pleaded. A daggering glare made Jaune recoil out fear and rendered him silent. For once, the dense boy finally took the hint.

Meanwhile Yang observed the whole fiasco from her corner seat and took in all the details. Her earlier assumption was correct: the future Jaune was acting like Blake whenever she was in one of her brooding moods except multiplied twenty times over and as cold and snappy as Weiss whenever she…well, just about all the time really. She knew clearly well that he had gone through and seen unspeakable tragedies and as a result had become tight-lipped from experience, but they wouldn't be able to develop any sort of acquaintanceship, let alone friendship, if he continued to only give a less than minimum response about himself rather than his appearance. He needed elaboration. There were plenty of other ways to get a person to open up about themselves even if whatever temporal funky things Ruby and Blake mentioned restricted them. Understanding and time could eventually get him to open up, but her curiosity of this entity from the future ate at her insides. She would have to resort to her favorite method of social interaction if she was to garner a reaction out of him. Something way obscure and blunt that would definitely throw him off guard.

"I've been wondering…" Yang spoke up, drawing all eyes to her except for Nora's, who was too busy eating. The cyborg's head tilted in her direction.
A flirtatious smile flashed across her face.

"Are your sword and codpiece the real deal or are you just compensating for something?"

"Yang…"

"Sis, why?".

"Typical."

The cybernetic knight only blinked in response. Out of all the possible questions his mind and internal systems predicted that they would ask and all the vague responses he planned to give, an innuendo question, let alone a sexual one, was the least expected. What threw him off was its topic. The robotic blond suddenly became consciously aware of his massive sword attached to his back compartment and the metal codpiece that extended down between his cybernetic legs. His sword was justifiably huge and had fulfilled its purpose countless of times. His protective codpiece also completed its purpose equally. Still, he could see what Yang was getting at. If his memory of Yang served correctly, it would be best if he addressed her query rather than ignore it unless he wanted her shrewd sense of humor to brew and cause annoyance later on down the line.

"My sword is made of a modified alloy that allows it to channel whatever form of Dust I charge it with in its cross guard," he explained dismissively, "as for my codpiece: it was both a practical function and served as a ceremonial decorative of the Praetorians."

Everyone was too busy glaring at Yang snickering to catch the little tidbit of information at the end. Her sister's attention, meanwhile, piqued at the mention of his weapon and thus ignored the last bit of his sentence.

"Charge with dust?" Ruby reiterated with interest.

"Your weapons can channel Dust; mine can fuse with its energy for a short period of time."

"That's so cool." Ruby fangirled.

"Atlas technology must've come a long way." Weiss noted impressively.

"The head of the division was innovative." he remarked.

"What're their names?" Ruby asked. Had it been anyone else, they would've thought her as looney and crazy, but he completely understood what the little reaper was asking. Even in the future, Ruby always had a near obsession with weapons.

"Graucus Aegis."

Ruby immediately began aweing. Meanwhile, Pyrrha finally seized the lull in the conversation to ask her question. It wasn't one of her major questions she wanted to ask, but it was a suitable ice-breaker to keep the conversation going.

"If you don't mind me asking," the red-head spoke up from her corner of the table, "how are you able to move with all of that armor and weaponry?"

His gaze focused on Pyrrha a second longer than he intended before someone else interjected in.

"Yeah how can you even move at all?" Weiss added on, "Is everything made out of a lightweight material?"

"No, my armor and bionic framework weigh 2600 pounds, not including Graucus Aegis."

Everyone's jaw dropped and Nora began choking on her food. A firm pat from Ren on her back helped Nora dislodge her stuffed airway with a hacking cough. Jaune's mind suddenly became more aware of the hulking giant that was himself sitting on the table bench beside him. A memory resurfaced and a question formed in her head, snapping Yang out of her stupor.

"How the heck can you move so quietly then?" she asked, referring back to the time when he managed to evade her in the Library.

"Shock absorbents, acutely calibrated servos, suppressive mesh layers, and the noise-reducing build of my feet. My body was designed to also act as a stealth unit."

"How are you even sitting down?!" Nora shouted while leaning back and pointed at his seat.
The rest of Team JNPR craned their heads back and stared at the sitting torso of the cybernetic knight.
The realization that his immense weight hadn't crushed their seat dawned upon them.

"Very carefully." he replied.

A lull in the conversation befell them. Ruby's eyes fell onto the future Jaune, whom had resumed his aloof expression and sat unmoving in his somehow not broken seat, and glanced at the Jaune that she knew, who scooted slightly away from his counterpart. The whole time travelling concept felt unbelievably surreal. On the bright side though, she now had two best friends!

Two socially inept knights.

Two Jaune Arcs.

Two.

"Uh, Jaune?" Ruby addressed. Both of the Jaunes casted their gazes at her, confirming the dilemma she foresaw.

"Now that there are two of you, what do we call you to distinguish you two apart?" Ruby asked.

"Easy!" Yang exclaimed and pointed at the normal Jaune, "We just call him Vomit Boy!"

"I refuse to answer to that!" Jaune argued diligently.

"Oh my bad…Pretty Vomit Boy." Yang shot back.

Jaune pitched forward and slammed his head on the table. A groan of pain and regret escaped his mouth along an incoherent cry of humiliation.
The cybernetic Jaune stared down at his past self; he was not impressed in the slightest.

"It would be easier if I were given the nickname." he stated while gladly pulling his gaze away from Jaune.

"Pretty Vomit-"

"No." he interrupted harshly. Yang shut her eyes and stuck her tongue out at him.

"How about Future Jaune?" Ruby suggested.

"It sounds a little cliché." Blake muttered.

"Oh, how about Jaune-Two?" Jaune added excitedly.

"No," Weiss shot him down, "just…no."

"Jaune Two point oh?"

The two teams suddenly leapt into a conflicted brainstorming.

"The White Knight!"

"Mr. Shiny Cyber Guy!"

"Juan!"

Voices argued back and forth between the four of them while the being in question found his attention focused in another place. Specifically, a few tables down from his spot. His systems picked up readings of multiple heartrates spiking; the kind that were akin to fear. His auditory systems automatically recording the ongoing debate, he glanced over his shoulder and spotted the source of the disproportional readings: a tall male pestering a group of what looked to be new first year students.
It wasn't just any tale male though…

"Okay! I think we can all agree on calling him Arc," Ruby finally settled with her arms spread and index fingers pointing, "Do we have anyone opposed?"

All of them shook their heads. Ruby breathed a sigh of relief before looking towards their cybernetic friend currently looking away.

"Is…that alright with you?" she meekly checked. She would hate to have gone through all of their arguments only for him to reject whatever nickname they came up with.

'Arc' still averted his gaze from him and focused elsewhere. Without a word, they watched as he suddenly stood up from his seat and began walking away. A puzzled look crossed Ruby's face before she studied his path of direction and saw where he was heading to.

"Uh oh…" Ruby murmured.

"Here at Beacon, the student body has unofficially nominated me as the head of the welcoming committee for first-year students." Cardin Winchester lied as he glared down at the several freshmen students. The new huntsmen-in-training, not sure of what to expect upon arriving at Beacon, were taking in Cardin's words with gullible fear. They were so miniscule in comparison to Cardin's height and lacked the knowledge that they pinned Cardin to have for already being a second-year student himself. Cardin displayed a smug grin. Who knew extorting them could be so easy? If only the rest of his teammates could've checked into Beacon early like he did.

Cardin held out an index finger at the wimpy freshmen, "That being said, you all must do exactly what I say or else you will have to take up a flying class…which I happen to be the only teacher of."

"Cardin Winchester." a stringent voice uttered behind him.

Cardin saw the eyes of the freshmen widen and their jaws dropped at the approach of someone behind him. The voice didn't belong to any of the Beacon teachers that he knew of, so he knew that no official reprimanding was coming. He rolled his eyes and gnashed his teeth in annoyance as he spun around to face whomever was addressing him. Initially expecting someone to be of lesser height, Cardin held his gaze low and suddenly found himself staring at a jagged decorative codpiece. Slowly his gaze craned past the being's plated torso and up towards their head that was surprisingly placed on a taller set of shoulders. A cerulean blue eye behind an eyepiece glowered down at him with a grimace. The bully's mouth instinctively slackened at the stranger's bizarre appearance but he quickly regained himself. He wasn't going to let some random guy intimidate him; especially in front of the first-year students.

"Yeah? What do you want freak?" Cardin growled and crossed his arms. He had hoped that his choice of words would have shaken or offended him, but he saw no sign of such.

"How could someone like you act so pathetic like this?"

Jaune watched Cardin unfold his arms and scrunch his hands into trembling fists. He had touched a nerve. As unfortunate as it may have been, this was the only way of getting through to the past persona of Cardin that he knew of: a display of power.

"Excuse me, I didn't quite get that. Care to repeat that again?" Cardin fumed with a lowered expression.

"Picking on first-year students so you can assert your authority? Absolutely pitiful." Jaune mocked, "How long until you learn that bullying others only shows how weak you really are?"

"Huh, and just who do you think you are?" Cardin demanded in a similar tone, the kind of tone he usually shifted to right before he acted with violence. Something he was counting on.

Jaune remained unmoving and answered, "Not a weak, despicable coward like you are now."

A snarl emanated from Cardin as he reeled one of his fists back and shot it forward. Jaune didn't even have to prepare for the bully's lumbering attack and merely reached out and caught the punch with his hand. Clawed fingers grasped around the bully's fist that impacted against his metal palm. To Cardin, it felt like he had painfully punched an indestructible block that almost shattered his bones and now clutched his fist in an immobile clutch. Before he could retract his fist or counter with his opposite hand, the grip encasing his fist tightening into a bone crunching death grip. A yelp of complete pain escaped his throat as his clamped fist was twisted outwardly. The succumbing agony and the twisting of his entire arm forced the seven-foot son of Winchester to his knees in anguish. Cardin's face contorted with torment as he looked up to see the unfazed expression of his captor.

Jaune looked down upon the helpless Cardin. The freshmen had quickly fled and nobody was moving to stop him. It was just him, the bully sunken to the ground, and the on looking eyes of everyone around him. Some students watched out of intrigued fear, others watched in hopes that he would teach Cardin a permanent lesson.
Despite having the bully on his knees and at his mercy, Jaune's mind raced back to memories from long ago to a time after Beacon.
A battle.
A decision.
A sacrifice.
Staring down at the past-version of his fellow Huntsman made it almost improbable for there to be a comparison. Yet here he was, struggling with his fist contorted and caught in his grasp. A mental sigh resonated within his mind; this was the only way he would be able to pierce Cardin's bully persona. A swath of pity and remorse flowed through him as he thought back to the Cardin that he once knew.

"Your sacrifice at Menagerie was not in vain." Jaune mumbled solemnly. Cardin's face twisted into pained confusion before Jaune flung his arm to the side and released his grip. Cardin collapsed into a heap on the ground gripping his crunched hand. Jaune gave one last look at him on the ground before pivoting back and walking away. His hearing picked up the muddled curses coming from Cardin's mouth and his scanners indicated that he was not moving to retaliate.
He said what he had wanted to say: a 'thank you' that he never got to tell the Cardin he knew. While this specific Cardin wasn't like the one he knew, it still felt right for him to say what he wanted to say to the essential Cardin. The statistics showed no immediate consequences of his action but the interaction had inexplicably caused another onset of memories to flood his mind. A bittersweet advantage of having a computer-enhanced mind: his memories were as fresh and unfiltered as the moment he experienced them.

The members of Team RWBY and JNPR bore worried and apprehensive expressions as he started to pass by them. No one could hear what he had said to Cardin, but watching him viciously subdue Cardin and toss him aside only sprung questions and disappointment from Nora. Eyes stared at him as he impassively walked by. His footfalls did not stop when they aligned with his empty seat and continued to move in the direction of the exit.

"Jaune, are you ok?" Ruby finally asked. She watched him pause in place and grow stiff. The fact that he refused to turn around and face them worried her even more.

Unbeknownst to them, Jaune was cycling through his memory and sifting through their conversation about his nickname. Some of their suggestions were rather peculiar and amusing. He flashed to the last bit of the debate and acknowledged the nickname they had unanimously agreed upon and chosen for him. It wasn't something he would've called himself, but his mind held too many heavy thoughts and memories for him to come up with a better one. The new data on the space-time continuum because of his interactions; revised and altered methods on how to accomplish his mission; the vivid memories of his past. All of it. He needed to sort it out.

"I'm fine," was his response that they heard before he left, "and call me Arc."

"Okay…" Ruby muttered quietly. She desperately wanted to reach out to him and say something that would make him stay. Something that would help him open up. Something. Anything. Yet with her mind trying to figure out something to say, the right words failed to come to her.

The eight students watched him go until he had passed through the exit threshold and left the building. Blake knew what he was experiencing to some degree. Ruby was solemnly mulling over social awkwardness. Weiss and Nora both kept quiet out of concern that they would say something unsuited for the atmosphere. Pyrrha slowly shifted her gaze to Jaune sitting beside her, who had suddenly found his plate of food the most interesting thing to stare at. Ren remained silently sitting but with bother etched on the corners of his face. Yang shot her eyes over to the other blond sitting at the table.

"Wow…I didn't know you could be so…detached." Yang commented sullenly.

"Yeah," Jaune muttered before glancing over at the empty seat beside him where he had sat minutes ago, "me either."

Night had fallen over Vale and by extension Beacon. Reflected light from the shattered moon above bathed the landscape and the sleek Atlesian air fleet with its glimmer. The famous Huntsmen academy was no exception to this either. Near emptiness filled the illuminated campus corridors as the night pressed on. Near emptiness. Speculation told of Glynda stalking through the night in search of students out way past curfew. This night, however, had the mercy of Beacon's own headmaster sweeping through the night in replacement for Glynda. His footsteps and the tap of his cane as he walked echoed in the cool silence. He briefly raised his mug to take a quick sip of his brew before continuing his stroll.

'This day has certainly been interesting.' Ozpin mused as he walked in his intentional path.

Truth be told, the headmaster actually had another purpose for taking up the night shift aside from giving his dear assistant a break, of course. From time to time, he would glance outside of his office and find their mysterious ally lumbering throughout the campus. The way he lingered everywhere made it seem like he was a ghostly specter haunting the grounds. Hopefully the boy was still brooding in the last place he saw him.

Entering the courtyard, Ozpin's eyes caught sight of the eerie glow of the moonlight reflecting off his pale white armor.
He only managed to take a few paces towards him before he froze at the sight of Jaune's acknowledging gaze flashing right at him.

"You knew." Arc muttered.

"I beg your pardon?"

"You knew I would run into my past self."

Ozpin resumed his steps, "I had my assumptions, but I never really set you up for such a fateful encounter."

"That's always been your method," Arc chided and averted his stare at the professor's approach, "passively letting things pander out naturally happen."

"Would you rather I seize power and use force to impose my will upon everyone for the sake of safety?" Ozpin countered and stood beside him.

"Compared to the alternative that I lived through, I'd say it would have been a practical decision."

"Practical, but not right."

"No," Jaune quietly conceded, "not right at all."

"Besides, now you discovered that your presence and actions won't rip apart the space-time continuum, you can safely share more about the future, right?"

Jaune's answer was silence followed by words.

"Yes, I am more than willing," Jaune said and reverted his head back towards Ozpin, "summon General Ironwood, Glynda and Qrow. I will reveal what needs to be said and answer all questions you may have."

Ozpin nodded in agreement but raised his eyebrows at the mention of his best field agent.

"Qrow? But he's-"

"He's not compromised," Jaune interrupted, "he's merely waiting for you to contact him."

Ozpin regarded him before taking another sip from his mug. Who was he to question the foreknowledge of one of his students from the future?

"Very well then, though it may take a day or so for him to arrive."

"I shall patiently wait then." Jaune remarked before turning away and walking off, "I'll be around."

Ozpin watched Jaune head off into the night. This wasn't the young clumsy Arc that he knew; this was a hard fought veteran with immense experience from the future. Something Ozpin saw that warranted his respect. Respect for who he was and respect for his desire to not open up if he so deemed to. In retrospect though, that last cause seems redundant now that he promised to tell him everything that happen to him. All that was yet to come. All that the future held in store for them.

It would be interesting nonetheless.

Author's note: rtx...Rtx...RTx...RTX! I unfortunately have yet to go but I did watch the livestreams and follow the social media postings (respect to the guy cosplaying as the number one Arms Dealer cutting prices!).

Volume 4 starts on October 22nd! (I now have a deadline! :D)
I am excited.

The reason why this chapter took awhile because of college conferences, my day job, and trying to put coherent quality in this chapter. Also this was basically an exposition chapter; such things are tedious, but they are very critical to story-building.

In regards to the interaction between Arc (yes, I am calling him that now) and Cardin, I tried to make it believable. I really did. I couldn't think of any other way of getting through Cardin's bully persona other than a display of brute strength by having Arc catch his punch and twist his arm until he is subdued to kneel (a throwback to the Meta doing the same thing to the muscular Resistance leader before beating him to death in "Red vs Blue"). Also references to "Juan" Arc and Cardin's flying class from the RWBY Manga!
Heh, this would have been a very short story if the Temporal Paradox Explosion theory was true...how's that for a tragic story?

Annnd...yea. That's all I have for now. Thanks for readings and see yall next time.