Ozpin stood quietly in the patient's room, observing the nurse tending to the unconscious guest. The room was rather silent, besides the steady beeping of the stranger's heart monitor.

After the nurse had finished writing her records on her scroll tablet, she walked over to Ozpin to tell her report.

"So, how is our unexpected window crasher?" He asked her.

"Well, he seems stabilized for now. This man is either the world's most resilient person, or the world's luckiest. By the time we got to him, he barely had any reserve of aura within him. It's amazing how he hasn't suffered any major damages besides a few scratches around his body. He'll most likely be fine, just needs some rest. It's just surprising, since most normal people usually don't survive with such low aura levels, especially the ones who've already unlocked their aura." She explained.

"Another topic to bring up when we get to questioning him later, if he wakes up." Ozpin nodded, before asking: "Have you been able to identify who he is? Checked through his belongings for any hint of information about him?"

"We ran a fingerprint scan and a DNA blood test, but I'm not sure whether the results are accurate."

"What do you mean?"

With a few hand gestures on her tablet, she brought up the result screen from the last DNA test. "Our records show that his fingerprints are an exact match with one of the students attending our academy. One 'Ross Rose.' Blood test results gave the same conclusion."

"That's not physically possible, though. That very same student is currently waiting outside of the patient's room at this very moment." Ozpin pointed out.

"Which is why I'm so confused." The nurse knitted her brows. "Comparing the facial features of both the patient and Ross Rose himself, I found that the patient looks remarkably similar to Ross Rose, albeit just a few years older. Perhaps there's a chance that he's a relative of the student? An elder sibling, or maybe his biological father?" She suggested.

"No, that's not possible either." Ozpin shook his head, before explaining, "I personally know Ross's uncle, and there has definitely never been mention of an older brother. As for the theory of this man being Ross's biological father, well, even though he looks like a fully grown adult, he doesn't appear to be that old. The man looks to be in his early to mid-twenties. Ross Rose is currently fifteen years old. I'm sure you can do the math."

"Welp, it's not like I can provide any concrete answers. The only other clues about him were his belongings, and even those didn't really provide much of a hint. Although..." Walking towards a table holding the stranger's items, the nurse picked up a small journal they had found that was in the stranger's pants. "We did find some sort of journal among his possessions."

"A journal? Was there anything written in it?" Ozpin asked, curious.

"It acts more like a picture book, really. On the first page seems to be a group photo of him and his close friends, along with a picture of the renown Pyrrha Nikos taped to the corner." The nurse handed the journal over to Ozpin, which he wasted no time studying.

What he saw on the first page made him double take for a moment. A picture of seven familiar faces all smiling towards the camera, and an old, withered photograph of Pyrrha Nikos taped in the corner, just as the nurse described. Underneath the photograph was a sentence written in bold words.

NEVER FORGET THE HAPPIER TIMES

Curious. Very curious indeed.

"If you keep turning the pages, you'll see that he has more pictures of various people taped, along with some sort of list of descriptions for each of them." The nurse explained. "Many of them seem to be photographs of known criminals, like Roman Torchwick. Is there a chance that he could be related to some sort of underground crime syndicate that performs contract killings?"

Ozpin flipped to the next few pages to see various different pictures of different people.

A woman with fiery orange eyes, and long hair that was as dark as burnt ashes.

Cinder Fall
-Megalomaniac.
-Manipulative bitch.
-Murderer.

Kill at all cost. Highest Priority.

A young girl with green hair and red piercing eyes.

Emerald Sustrai
-Greedy extortionist.
-Messes with people psychologically with illusion semblance.
-Murderer.

Slit her throat.

A young man of silver spiky hair, and a cocky grin.

Mercury Black
-Slave Driver.
-Rapist.
-Murderer.

Cut arms off. Then kill him.

A man with red hair, and a Grimm-like mask that hid his face.

Adam Taurus
-Hypocritical leader of White Fang.
-Cruel and ruthless to all humans, and any Faunus who defies him.
-Murdered her.

MAKE HIM SUFFER.

And a familiar criminal dressed in a white overcoat, smoking a cigar.

Bowlerhat-Wearing Douchebag
-Stupid hat.
-Stupid grin.
-Called me short.

Eh, I actually sort of liked him. Might switch to my side?

As Ozpin kept turning more pages, he continued to see more people in a similar layout. A picture, a name, a list of crimes and actions, and perhaps the most disturbing part of them all, whether they should be killed or not.

As disturbing as this kill list was though, his curiosity was still being held by the photograph on the first page.

The seven people on the picture… They all bared a remarkably similar appearance with a certain group of students that attended this school.

Was it possible that… Maybe…?

Hm...

"What else were in his possessions?" Ozpin asked, closing the journal and handing it back to the nurse.

"Well, he only had three other things with him besides that journal." The nurse led Ozpin back to the table. "A badge that signifies he's a licensed Huntsman, but when we tried to search his serial number in the database, there's been no record of his existence. It's probably a counterfeit."

Ozpin held the badge up in the light to closely examine it.

Same size. Same weight. Looks exactly like every other Vale licensed badge for Huntsmen and Huntresses. Serial number is UARC770.

He put the badge aside for now and moved on with the next item. It was some sort of box, with a red and black color scheme.

"Originally, we thought it was some sort of storage case with supplies inside. After attempting to open it though, it's revealed that pressing the middle switch activates some sort of camera function instead. It must have been what he used to take all those photographs in his journal. There's no other camera out there like that, so it's probably something he personally created himself."

As she said that, Ozpin carefully picked up the item, and pressed the button in the middle to test it. A lens whirred itself out from inside the button and a camera flash popped up from the corner.

"Why would someone need to disguise a camera to look like a storage case?" Ozpin pondered to himself, "It seems like a rather inefficient camouflage, considering how easy it was to discover the camera features. If it was at least able to store items inside, it could fool some of the more inefficient investigators."

"Perhaps that's not its original intention, then? Maybe there's more to it than just a camera?" The nurse offered.

Ozpin continued to examine the camera for a bit before finding nothing of interest, eventually setting it down and moving on to the next and final item on the table.

It appeared to be a handle for some disassembled gun. The barrel and slide were completely missing.

"We tried to look for any broken pieces of a pistol in the cafeteria room, but we still haven't found anything. Either it's still lost in the wreckage of the mess he made, or this man was just carrying around a disassembled pistol for some reason." The nurse held the item in her hands for a moment, before passing it on to Ozpin.

The moment Ozpin touched the item though, a wave of déjà vu passed through him. It was strange, what he was feeling, but it was almost like he should know what this gun does. It was almost like he'd seen this particular disassembled part of the gun before.

Almost autonomously, he flicked the safety switch off.

Nothing happened.

The sudden wave of déjà vu disappeared, and Ozpin was back to staring at the item in confusion.

Strange.

"Don't bother." The nurse said, "We've tried test firing the gun to see if it works without the other parts, just in case that's how he uses it as a weapon. It doesn't do anything though. It's just a broken gun part."

"I see." Ozpin frowned, rather disappointed. "Is there nothing else that he has that can tell us who he is?"

"Nope. The only way we can get answers is from the mouth of the man himself. But until he wakes up, we can only guess." The nurse fiddled around her scroll tablet for a moment before finishing up, "Now, unless there's anything else you need, I'll be off to take care of my other patients."

"Of course. Thank you, nurse."

They both politely nodded to each other, before the nurse left the room.

Nurse Hatlen came out of the patient's room and addressed me, "Ross, you can come in now for questioning," before walking down the hallway.

I looked at Yang. She looked at me. We both looked at Weiss and Blake. They both looked back at us. Then they all looked at me.

Silence ensued.

It'd only been a few hours since the lunch period. After the strange encounter with the guy who looked like me, Beacon's staff carried him back to the Medical rooms, and were starting to clean up the giant mess the dude caused. We were all told that the lunch period would be ended early and to go prepare for our next classes.

Well, except for team RWBY. We were all called in to wait by the hallway next to the stranger's door. Ozpin apparently wanted to talk to me, but wanted the rest of my team along just in case he had any extra questions that I couldn't answer alone.

So now, here we were.

I sighed, "Welp, I can already tell that this is going to be a roller coaster of a day." I moved to stand up and prepare myself for… whatever was going to happen next. "Wish me luck guys."

I grabbed the door handle and, looking back for just a brief moment to see Yang giving me a thumbs up and Blake giving a weak smile with Weiss just shrugging, I walked into the room.

First thing I saw was the guy that looked like me, unconscious on the patient's bed.

This was still incredibly weird.

Ozpin was beside the bed, examining him like a hawk. When he heard me opening the door, he turned his head towards me and said, "Ah, Ross. Thank you for being patient."

"So, uh…" I awkwardly started, "Are we going to talk about… him?" I motioned to the comatose lookalike.

"Indeed." Ozpin affirmed, "Do you happen to know who this man is?"

I walked over to the other side of the bed across from Ozpin, and got a closer look at the guy.

Wow, it felt weird to watch myself sleep.

Huh, didn't think I'd ever have to internally think that sentence in my life.

I gotta admit though, it was like looking in some sort of… futuristic mirror. Besides his hair being a bit longer compared to mine, his face was so similar, it was uncanny.

Was he, like, some sort of long lost brother or something?

"Yeah, no, I have absolutely no idea who he is." I answered. "Do you know who he is, though?"

"Sadly, it appears that I lack an answer for this mystery, too. Any attempt to search for his identity either leads to a dead end or points back to you, Ross. The only clue we have about who he is was a journal he had in his possessions."

"A journal? Well, did he write anything in it?" I asked.

"Not… necessarily." Ozpin hesitated for a moment, before deciding to pick up the small journal from a table and handing it to me. "Look at the first page. Is there anything significant about it that stands out to you?"

"Well, I don't exactly know if I'm able to answer that. It's not like I know what he would have-" I opened the journal to the first page, "what da faaaaaaaack?"

"I see." Ozpin noted my reaction.

Forget my day being a huge rollercoaster ride, I've officially crossed over the freaking Twilight Zone!

It was a group picture of me and literally all of my friends! There was Yang, but she had short hair for some reason, and some sort of weird metal arm thing on! A-and Blake had cat ears and a black bandanna!

Weiss actually looked like a genuine princess from a royal castle, except with a white eyepatch covering her left eye!

Nora's hair got longer, Ren's hair got shorter-

Jaune has a beard!

I was actually taller than Yang!

The only person that didn't look any different at all was Pyrrha, but she was on a different picture that was taped on top of the group picture.

How in the world did this…

"Is it… maybe possible that this guy was…" I speculated in an unsure tone.

"Possible that he was what? Do you have an idea of who he is?"

"Well… okay so this is probably going to sound incredibly unbelievable, but just hear me out. What if this guy..." I paused for dramatic tension.

…

"Was me, from another dimension."

Ozpin stared at me like I had grown a talking tongue on my forehead. "Another dimension?" He asked doubtfully.

"I don't know! I'm still freaking out over the photo in his journal! My brain is just following movie logic at this point! It's not like I have answers to any of this!" I shouted.

I felt a headache coming on.

With him looking exactly like me, sounding exactly like me, wearing red clothing like me, and then there's the group photo in his journal, all of this just felt so… AUGH.

"Just who the hell is this guy?"

"I feel like you people have been doing nothing but just standing around and repeating that question over and over again while I was out." I cheekily replied to myself.

…

I DIDN'T SAY THAT WAITWHAT-

As I watched my younger self get startled and make random noises while giving bewildered looks at me, the only thing that crossed my mind was:

This is really weird.

It's not everyday you go back in time and watch your own self sputter and freak out in front of you. It was like looking at some sort of… philosophical mirror. Like I'm watching my true inner self come to life as a physical entity right before my very eyes.

In a way, this was also hilarious.

"I ju- What?!" He finally calmed down enough to finish his noise-making ritual of awkward confusion.

"Yo." I calmly greeted.

"Uh…" He stammered, looking back and forth in confusion.

Right, I used to be socially awkward back then, wasn't I? I know how to fix this.

"Dude, you are really short for your age." I randomly pointed out.

Which was true. I'm sort of amazed how much I've grown since my first Beacon year. I was like, what, five foot seven back then? Thank Oum for milk.

"I'M NOT SHORT, GO TO HELL." Younger me predictably reacted.

Man, this was so weird.

Alright, time to evaluate the setting and situation, and reassess the mission.

Setting: I am currently in the past. Surprising results, but not exactly complaining. I'm talking to a young, five-foot-seven version of myself in what looks like the familiar room of the medical facility in Beacon. Considering that this place wasn't reduced to rubble yet, I can safely come to the conclusion that I made it back before the events of the Vytal Tournament. It was going exactly as planned. Also surprising, but not complaining. If I was talking to my younger self while in Beacon, this would mean the time period was around my first year in Beacon. Problem is, I wasn't sure what semester.

Situation: I'm lying in a bed and connected to an IV tube and a heart monitoring machine. I arrived in a rather loud fashion, crashing through the cafeteria windows. That meant my sudden appearance here had caused quite a stir within the student body. Not exactly as planned, but I could work with this.

Mission: Make contact with Ozpin and the other Guardians of the Maidens. Work together to search for all forty-two of my targets. Prevent the events of the future from happening by killing and/or subduing every single one of them. Failure is not an option.

Side Objective: Don't let anyone die this time around.

My path down this road was clear.

"Ahem." An old friend cleared his throat to gain my attention.

I couldn't help but stare at Ozpin for a bit. Even though I knew I was going to see a lot of people alive again, it really didn't hit home with me until I was actually face to face with the Headmaster himself.

"Woah… I can't believe I'm actually seeing you in person again. It's really been a long time, Professor Ozpin." I gave a warm smile.

"Hm. It appears that you already know who I am. That means I don't need to introduce myself." He walked over and sat in a chair next to me, meeting me at my eye level. "Unfortunately, this elderly man can't seem to remember who you are. Would you be so kind as to tell me what your name is again?"

"And also explain why you look so much like me, and why you have a picture of all of my friends from some alternate dimension!" The other Ross butted in.

"Don't worry. I realize that you're going to be really confused, and you'll be asking a lot of questions. I fully intend to answer every single one of them. But for it to all make sense, I'm going to have to explain a few things." I said.

I took a deep breath, and blew it all out.

Time to change history. Literally.

"This is going to sound incredibly unbelievable, but please just hear me out." I proceeded to drop the bomb. "My name is Ross Rose. I'm from nine years in the future. I've come back in time to warn you about a catastrophic war that'll cause the extinction of mankind."

Ozpin widened his eyes.

Young me dropped his jaw.

*Dramatically loud silence*

…

…

…

"Huh. Time travel. That's sort of like alternate dimensions, in a way. I was pretty close."