Re-Written 3/7/2018

Okay, this chapter was changed quite a bit. Will say more at the end.

Jaune yawned as he turned on the sink's faucet. He grabbed a nearby washcloth and waited for the water to warm with half closed eyes. Once it reached a temperature he was satisfied with, he took the washcloth and soaked it underneath the faucet. Bringing the now water-laden cloth to his face, he scrubbed vigorously and could feel the last vestiges of sleep leave him.

Squeezing the washcloth dry, or as close to dry as he could make it, he set it back on the hook from which he had grabbed it. Looking up, he frowned at the young face staring back at him. Every day a part of him expected the dream to end and yet it had continued unabated for over two years. At this point, he could probably admit that this was not a dream and that it was real.

He could still remember vividly the moment he had woken up in his old bed in his family home on the Arc estate. It had been surreal. He had taken the better part of an hour just touching his old belongings. When his mother had walked in, he had broken down into tears and hugged her like a drowning man clutching a life preserver. It had taken four of his sisters and his father to pry him off the shocked woman. Thankfully, he had been able to pass the event off as him having just woken up from a nightmare, which was not exactly false.

Following that, for the first week he had just taken the time to re-familiarize himself with both his family and his younger body. The family aspect he had enjoyed immensely, often-spending hours just listening to their voices. The younger body aspect was much less pleasing.

Jaune had forgotten how weak he had been and had quickly drawn up a training routine. His family had been bemused but he had told them that if he truly wanted to be a huntsman then he needed to take his training seriously. His father had been quick to lend a hand once his determination was clear. Truth be told it had been a strangely rewarding experience. He had been able to spend some quality time with a man that had been somewhat of a stranger in his previous life.

"Sometimes reality really is stranger than fiction," he mused aloud while turning away from the mirror.

Exiting the bathroom, he paused and took a moment to take in the sleeping forms of his teammates. He smiled as he took it all in. It had taken some clever meddling in order to assure that he would be the one leading team JNPR. Something he was glad he did.

Nora once again had tossed her covers off and was lying haphazardly on her bed, her mouth wide open as she snored. Meanwhile her childhood friend and partner, Ren, looked like he had just gone to sleep with barely a wrinkle in his sheet. Meanwhile Pyrrha's bed lay empty, her blankets neatly folded at the foot.

Looking at the room's wall clock, he shook his head. He could not help but be impressed at how early the girl got up every morning. He could count on one hand the number of times he'd gotten up before her and even then it would only be a matter of minutes.

He quietly made his way over to the room's lone window and cracked open the blinds. It only took him a few seconds to spot Pyrrha shadow fighting underneath the large oak tree that grew besides their dorm building. As he watched he wondered who or what she was imaging as her opponent. Judging by how she was moving, he could formulate a few guesses.

Jaune turned away from the window and made his way to his dresser. As he shed his pajamas and started getting dressed, he quickly ran through the day's planned events through his head. He had a long day ahead of him.

Yue sighed as he finished grading one of his class's latest homework assignments. Sometimes he wondered why he even bothered to grade them. Most of the work handed in to him was appalling. Even Jaune and Cardin gave him things he could only equate to trash.

Sighing again, he tucked the graded papers into his bag and stood from his desk. Well, if they wanted to flunk his class, so be it. It was not as if they needed someone to handle their finances. They had him after all. However, the rest of his students were a concern. Too many Huntsmen left their finances to others and that often wound up with them living from bounty to bounty. That was no way to live. He would hammer the knowledge of basic financial responsibility into their heads if he had too. Shame it seemed to be so slow in taking.

He looked at the time and figured it was time to head down to the cafeteria to pick up some lunch. According to Jaune, the food there was mediocre but he couldn't see why. It was leagues better than the slop they served in Haven. For one the chicken actually tasted like chicken. As far as he was concerned, that was more than plenty.

The halls were relatively quiet as he made his way through the campus. He only passed a few students, all of whom acknowledged him with a greeting, something that he returned readily.

"Ah, Professor Yue!" one female student, a second-year judging from her uniform, shouted from an alcove. "Do you have a moment? I need some help."

"Of course," he responded with a grin. What type of professor would he be if he didn't make time for his charges? He walked over to the student and asked, "What may I help you with?"

An envelope was pressed into his hands, the girl blushing furiously as she stammered, "M-my friend asked me to give this to you. Thank you! Bye!"

Without another word, the girl ran off.

Yue blinked, his red eyes amused, as he looked at the envelope gripped in his left hand. He chuckled while pocketing the item.

"Some things never change."

As soon as Jaune sat down with his team at the cafeteria table alongside team RWBY, Yang got up from her seat and grabbed him by the collar. "Ok, spill. What's going on between you and Weiss?"

Instantly feeling the eyes of everyone at the table, particularly Pyrrha's which seemed to be burning a hole in the back of his head, he could only gasp, "Huh?"

Yang's face split into a predatory smile. "Oh, like you don't know? I saw you and her go into our room yesterday. You were both in there for quite a long time. Up to something naughty, Jaune?"

"Jaune!" Pyrrha gasped while Ruby and Nora began assailing Weiss with questions. Ren and Blake looked on from the sidelines, their faces showing clearly how little they cared for the situation.

Jaune mentally face palmed. Out of all the people to see them, it had to be Yang. Trust her to come up with something like that. The girl had such a vivid imagination for one so innocent, despite how she acted.

"Is that all?" he sighed while removing Yang's hands from his collar. He cocked an eyebrow. "I think you might be reading one too many romance novels, Yang. Blake, what have we said about letting others read your private stash?"

Blake made an interesting noise from her end of the table while Yang backed off, her face flushing. The rest of the table fixed him in their sights, eager to hear what he had to say.

"You see," Jaune began while catching Weiss's eye, the girl making a small motion with her hand. "Weiss just wanted to ask me about the little dance we performed a few days ago. She was impressed at how well we choreographed it and wanted to see if I was interested in doing a performance with your team. It took us awhile to hash out some ideas. Honestly we were going to ask your opinions' later today."

"Oh." Yang frowned and shook her head, her hands coming to rest on her hips. "But I know I heard groaning from our room. How do you explain that, Jaune?"

"That..." He blushed a little bit and rubbed the back of his head. "Well it seems Weiss and I have two very different ideas on what is considered dance."

The entire table shifted their gazes from him to Weiss.

"Well I never!" Weiss exclaimed as she crossed her arms across her chest. "I'll have you know that I was taught by the finest dancers in Atlas. I know how to dance. I for one am affronted that-"

"See what I mean?" Jaune interrupted, his face pained. "That groaning you heard was most likely me after hearing from her for the tenth time how to perform a proper two-step."

Yang sighed knowingly. "I know your pain, Jaune. It's something we have to deal with every day unfortunately."

"Hey!"

"Yeah? Well I'm her partner and I got to hear it even more than all of you!" Ruby whined as her head hit the cafeteria table. "She doesn't have an off switch! I checked!"

"Hey! Wait, what do you mean you checked? What did you check?"

"Eep!" Ruby threw up her hood and jumped up to hide behind Yang as the heiress stood up menacingly.

"In any case," Jaune said, pitching his voice to draw the table's attention. He really just wanted to get to eating already. "That's why we were in your dorm room yesterday, Yang. If you want I can even show you a video of us practicing some steps."

The young girl looked for a moment as if she wanted to pursue the matter further but then shrugged. "I believe you, Jaune. Can't say I'm not disappointed though. I was sure you and Weiss were getting it o-"

"Yang," Weiss interrupted, as the air around their table got noticeably colder. "You do not wish to finish that sentence. I can assure you of that."

Yang gulped while the rest of the table started edging away.

A few seconds passed in silence.

"Who wants pancakes!?" Nora yelled as she slammed a giant stack of the aforementioned item onto the table.

"Nora, I'm sure we'll all love some," Pyrrha said. She turned and beamed at them all. "Right?"

It didn't take a genius to see the underlying threat. Pyrrha might have a heart of gold but that didn't mean she couldn't get annoyed.

"Sure, I'll love some!" Yang laughed while grinning nervously. She shifted over next to Weiss and threw an arm around the smaller girl. "Right, Weiss?"

"Y-yes! I would love some, Nora."

The situation defused, Jaune blinked his thanks to his partner and promptly sat down. Picking up his knife and fork, he dug into his omelet as the others followed suit. Soon enough they were talking amongst each other, whatever that had happened previously lost to the wind.

Pyrrha, who had settled down next to him, nudged his shoulder.

Curious, he glanced over at her and smiled. "What's up, Pyrr?"

"I was wondering, Jaune. I know we've been sparring for awhile now but I was hoping to get a bit more serious. I think we know each other well enough by now to fight with fewer constraints." The girl blushed beautifully. "That is if you don't mind."

Jaune's smile widened. He was wondering when the girl would get around to the idea. "I would love to, Pyrr. What did you have it mind?"

Cardin entered the classroom and carefully closed the door behind him. He took out a small circular metal disc and affixed it to the door's handle. It beeped several times and then went silent. Satisfied he turned around and looked at the two men who stood by the front of the room, near the teacher's podium. "Alright, we're good."

"Excellent, then we can begin." Yue reached into his pocket and held out an envelope. He opened it and took out the letter nestled within. "I just received word from one of our recruiters. A decent number of potential knights were screened last weekend. All of them passed the tests given."

Yue held out the letter for Cardin to take.

Walking forward, Cardin grabbed the letter and scanned the contents. Many of the names printed were familiar to him; he had provided most of them after all. Still, he was glad that they were still as trustworthy in this life as they had been in the last. Good help was always difficult to find.

He handed the letter to Jaune and said, "I'm glad this is working as well as it has been. With this, we have the makings of a Knight Company. Do you think we could use them to help with the Breach?"

Jaune shook his head as he read the letter. "I wouldn't want to. They will be one of our stronger cards to play and I don't want to see them used so soon. The longer we can keep them a secret, the better. That aside, Cardin, how goes your attempts to find what out what Cinder used in order to take control of Atlas's mechs during the Fall?"

It was going better than he had imagined. He said as much while fishing out a flash drive from his uniform's coat pocket. "Dove was able to help me out greatly here. Turns out he has a knack for computers. Once I told him what I wanted to find he was able to nail it down without too much difficulty. Here's the report."

He tossed the flash drive to Jaune who caught it in one hand.

"I don't understand the exact details behind it but it's basically a virus. As for what it does, it apparently will change the friend or foe recognition software built into every Atlas mech. According to Dove once activated every person the mech sees will be designated as a hostile. I asked Dove if he could remove it but he says that is beyond his abilities."

Jaune looked at the flash drive and then gave it to Yue. "See what your contacts can make of this. Give me a battlefield and I'll work miracles but something like this has always been out of my expertise."

Chuckling, Yue took the flash drive and pocketed it. "I'll see what I can find out. It might even be time to pay Junior another visit. For old times' sake of course."

"Of course that goes without saying" Jaune laughed before quickly sobering. His eyes narrowed. "Now then, the main question of the day. Cardin, how's your team doing performance wise?"

Cardin took a moment to think it over. His teammates had taken quite well to the training he had given them. At their current rate, in a few months time they would be able to give any second-year team a real fight and that included team CFVY. It was very different from how they were previously.

"I'll say they'll be able to at least keep up with team JNPR in field missions," he finally said. "Where they lack in talent they make up with sheer determination. Give them some time and I'll consider them prime candidates for Knights Exemplar."

"Will they be ready for the Breach when it occurs?"

"Yes, they'll be ready." Although he would take steps to increase their training intensity as the days go by. Couldn't be too careful.

After answering a few more questions, Cardin took his leave of both Jaune and Yue. The two needed to go over a few more details but didn't need his input. Any other person might have been put off but after years of fighting alongside one another, they just knew each other that well.

Besides, he had his own tasks to accomplish. As he made his way to Beacon's Forge, he dialed a number on his Scroll. It rang a few times before the person on the other end picked up.

"Cardin?"

"Hey Velv! Listen, I need a favor…"

So previously I had Yue tell Ozpin all about the future and how magical and beautiful it is. Somehow magically the headmaster and all his friends including the distrustful Ironwood believed him and that his words were like Gospel. See the problem? Honestly if someone came up to me and said they were a time traveler I would have them sent to the loony bin.

Hence the changes. This time I'll be having the boys work "behind the scenes" in a way.

Also remember the part where I said where I would skip Season 1 and most of Season 2? Enough said.

Arrangement of Paladin Ranks thus far.

1. Paladin

2. Knight Devout

3. Knight Captain

4. Knight Exemplar

Comments and Criticisms are welcome.

Cheers!