Jaune Arc re-watched the videos with a scrutinizing eye. He mostly focused on the videos that featured Cinder and her lackeys, which cut down his watch time.
He noted that Mercury seemed to be the easiest to beat out of her possy. His backstory indicated that his semblance got stolen so all they had to worry about would be his physical strength.
His legs were his main weapon and they were made of metal so Pyrrha could use her semblance on him, easily disabling him.
Emerald seemed to be the most powerful, semblance-wise out of Cinder's possy. Her illusions were very powerful but weren't tactile; they only seemed to be auditory and visual. He could add mental fortitude training into their regime and incorporate battle sense improvement to combat her.
Ren's semblance was also a perfect counter to hers as he could calm both himself and others so they would be able to discern when they were in an illusion.
Without her semblance, Emerald didn't have much in the way of physical strength and could easily be eliminated.
Jaune would make sure Pyrrha never got to experience Emerald's semblance.
Cinder was the biggest problem. He couldn't get an exact mark on her semblance but guessed that it was some sort of heating ability that allowed her to shape the dust in her clothes
Her physical strength while using her sword and bow combined with her half maiden powers did make her powerful. They would just have to get stronger to counteract her knack for both mid and short-range combat.
Her clothes dust might also be circumvented if he triggered all of it before she could even use it. He would have to ask Nora later about the type of dust that could be used in clothing and how it could be triggered. He had a feeling that sort of dust didn't lie on the shelves of your regular dust store.
The maiden powers she wielded seemed to be her most dangerous asset but it was just another type of semblance. Granted it might not burn aura like most semblances, it was just a very powerful one, like 's telekinesis.
A swell of confidence filled his heart overall if the notes he had gathered about the enemy. The videos made them look extremely powerful but that was because they were prepared.
Now he was too.
He began to look for Cinder and her group's records in Haven academy.
It made his blood boil that they had pretended to be students when in fact they were monsters in sheep's clothing. He didn't know what he would do when they came to Beacon but he hoped he could control his emotions when that time came.
It would be vital they never find out about his future knowledge.
While he looked for their records he wondered how they even got into Haven in the first place. Was it through that hacker that gave Cinder the queen virus? Or did they go his route and use fake transcripts?
He blanched at the thought that he might have done something similar to Cinder but quickly swallowed it in.
He was not similar to her at all, he knew that for certain.
Every student at the four main huntsman academies had some of their records available on the net. Granted it wasn't a student's grades or what classes they took but it did show their face, name, and what prep academy if any, they went to.
He looked at Haven Academy's website which was strangely advanced for a country that didn't pride itself on technological innovation. He easily navigated to the student directory and searched for Cinder's name.
A blank page greeted him so he looked up Emerald and Mercury's names. He was delighted to see two results pop up. He clicked on the team and was greeted by the student photos of both. Emerald had a blank expression on her face while Mercury actively snarled in his.
They used their names so that confirmed one other thing about the videos: they weren't afraid to have their identities tarnished.
The student records relayed they were independently trained, no surprise there. But they were part of team CNME.
He clicked on the other two members of the team and got pages for a Cierra Autumn and a Neodora Pliskin. Cierra Autumn was very on the nose for Cinder who was smirking in her student photo. Neo's photo was of a black-haired girl in pigtails with bright green eyes.
Neo was also formidable. She was small, agile, and beat Yang in that train fight. Her semblance was also an illusory one like Emerald's. Although it was much more powerful and mainly tactile.
They had to take her out of any future fights early. But, while she had great agility because of her small stature, he was sure that a well-placed aura punch would weaken her significantly.
He memorized all of their information and stored it in his phone as an extra precaution. Looking at Cinder's smirk and a wave of carnal anger washed over him like a seething fire even though he had never met the woman in real life.
Right as he was about to close the Haven academy website he saw an urgent message pop up at the top of the news section of the website. He saw that it was an ad that detailed the opening of extreme late admissions and extra seats.
It was strange as all of the huntsman academies were well into their curriculum, two months in to be exact. It would be pretty awkward to chuck students right in the middle of the school year. They detailed the reason as a sharp drop of huntsmen across Mistral.
Intrigued, he looked up the huntsman decline.
He found several news articles detailing how huntsmen were dropping like flies across the country. Most if not all of the sources pointed to unusual increases in powerful Grimm.
He found this suspicious, however. Grimm rates all over the world were decreasing with every passing year, yet Mistrals were increasing? From what he could gather no source explicitly stated where they got their Grimm statistics.
Could Cinder be behind this? But why would she want more hunters in the place where she could be found out? And why kill off hunters in the country you wouldn't destroy?
The questions puzzled him and he could smell something strange about the entire thing. He filed all of it away for late.
After he had gotten everything about his main enemies he started to research the CCT. The virus was the biggest contributor to the fall. If it was neutralized then Cinder's plan would be majorly disrupted.
He found technical babble about the CCT which he could barely understand. The non-tech articles were not much help either as they either praised the CCT as a technological miracle or they were about how to use the CCT.
Nothing much about its defensive capabilities against viruses.
He slogged through the dull snow of web page after web page until, in a very secluded of the net, he found an article titled, "Disadvantages of the CCT internal defense"
He read it and learned that the author had issues with the internal systems of the CCT. They exclaimed that the CCT had great defenses against external attacks but if someone uploaded something from within the CCT it would most likely be compromised.
This sounded exactly like what Cinder did.
The author imposed that all countries should invest in creating internal CCT defenses. Specifically, they should create strong detection and isolating algorithms.
He liked all of these ideas and saved the article in his scroll. He didn't know how he was going to get Ozpin to consider buffing up the CCT without coming off as suspicious but he would come up with something.
Right before he clicked off the article he went back up and to see who the author was. His eyes bulged out to see that the author was none other than his sister-in-law Terra Cotta-Arc.
He shook off his bewilderment. It was a strange coincidence but he wasn't going to let this go to waste.
He finished up all of his notes and closed the holo comp. He packed up his things and stood up from his seat.
He gave Blake a goodbye and walked out of the library. He headed towards the dorm room but on his way there he stepped into an empty classroom without missing a step.
The room was the same as the other classrooms of the school except the lights were shut off. It was dark and eerie although the moonlight streaming in through the windows provided all the light he needed.
He walked quietly to the trashcan of the room and took out his notes. He saved them on his scroll before ripping them up into tiny little motes of paper.
He threw them into the trash can and the pieces fluttered into the like yellow moths, unreadable.
As he watched the pieces of paper he felt a prickling of paranoia in the back of his head.
He quickly swiveled his head around like an owl but nothing was behind him. The prickling feeling didn't go away. He crept to the door of the classroom and leaned his ear against it but didn't hear anything.
With a slow twist of the doorknob, he opened the door. Outside and he came face to face with an empty hall. It was pretty late but there should have been at least one student or two walking through the halls.
The hall was quiet and cold, almost as if he had passed into the land of the dead. Out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly saw a sliver of black among the marble and green of the hall.
He quickly looked at where it was but nothing was there. Maybe he had just imagined Cinder's hair turning the corner. He went back inside before his paranoia got the better of him.
He took out his scroll and flicked through his contacts until he found the number he was looking for. He clicked call and the scroll let out a few beeps before a video feed popped up.
The face of his sister-in-law Terra Cotta-Arc looked up at him with her mocha-colored face and red-rimmed glasses. In the background, he saw his sister Saffron reading to a baby.
"Hey Jaune, what's up?" asked Terra.
"Hey Terr, I wanted to talk to you about something. I recently got this history project and I chose the CCT as my main focus and I found this really good article about the shortcomings of the internal defenses of the CCT. It just so happens to be made by you," he responded.
"Ahhh that article. Thanks for liking it but I wrote that years ago when I just started my job at the CCT. Did you need anything?"
"I just wanted to use it for my project and I was wondering if you could write some more? Not a lot more, just two or three."
"Why do you need more articles?"
"Well, I just wanted to make my project more compelling, and having well-written pieces from an expert would help."
"Jaune, you sure know how to flatter a girl. I've learned so much over the years and I've wanted to write something new but never had the excuse. Well until now."
"So you'll do it?"
"Yep. I'll send them to you later ."
"Thanks, Terr, you're the best. But also make your articles anonymous."
"Don't worry I was already planning on doing that. Bye Jaune."
She cut off the call and his scroll screen turned black. On its black reflection, he saw his smirking face looking back at him.
Another part of the plan was completed. Things were falling into place and he was one step closer to preventing the fall
A small smile broke his face and a feeling of newfound elation seemed to burst out of him at the realization.
He walked outside of the classroom and went back to his dorm. It was late so he promptly went to bed and had a restful sleep.
Hot light invaded his eyelids and he woke to sunlight rolling over his face. He got up with a small yawn and looked over at his other teammates. They were all sound asleep; he had awoken the earliest again.
He sighed at the time on his scroll watch but he didn't feel that tired sensation that usually came with waking up early. A week ago he would have felt groggy and tired at waking up early on the weekend but now he felt refreshed.
He wouldn't waste the extra waking hours he got and so he refreshed himself, took his gym bag, and headed out the door silently.
At the cafeteria, he grabbed breakfast with Yang and Blake before joining them for a training session.
Yang thanked him for patching things up with Blake by going extra hard on him while they fought.
He also did some light sparring with Blake and learned a thing or two about being agile.
After their, conditioning he still had some time to kill until his and Ruby's weapon date so he decided to head out and finally buy that scroll to store all of his future info on.
He walked outside of the dorm building in casual wear. It was bright and sunny although chilly. Winter was approaching and it would be a shock when it did.
In a few days, the Dock Fight would happen, two months after that the Breach and Mountain Glenn would occur, and finally, near the end of the school year, the Fall would happen.
Hopefully, those events never come to truly pass.
He walked over to the aircraft docks and got on one that was heading for Vale. His motion sickness didn't rear its ugly head so the ride was peaceful. The clouds gently waved by him as Beacon became a speck in the distance.
The frontier towns came into view and soon the gleaming metal towers of Vale's filled the horizon.
The aircraft landed on a dock right in the city and he exited. He started to walk to the nearest tech shop.
The city was bustling as it usually did. The large and heavy crowds flowed by him. The glimmering sunlight on the steel mesmerized him. It was like a throbbing heart and he was just one tiny blood cell moving along.
He reminisced about the Arc manor and the quiet frontier town it was situated in. Beacon was similarly in a quiet spot but coming to the city always shocked him at how much alive a palace could be.
Walking along he spotted one particular store across the street and he stopped in his tracks. The small store was labeled "Tukson Books: Every Book Under the Sun."
A few people leered at his sudden stop in the middle of the busy street. He quickly rushed towards the other side of the street.
He realized that he could come off as suspicious if he looked like he had just seen a dead person so he slowed down his gait and took several calming deep breaths.
He reached the door to the bookstore, and he had managed to wrangle his heart. He looked into a window and saw Tuckson happily chatting with some customers.
Tukson was the white fang defector that Cinder had sent her cronies to kill in near the beginning of volume 2. Saving him wouldn't contribute to stopping the fall or even hindering Cinder but Jaune was not about to let a man who saw the error of his ways die.
He entered the bookstore and the smell of wood and worn leather wafted up to meet him. He didn't stick by the entrance for long and went deeper into the bookshelves. He found the comic section which no one was currently in.
He looked back at the entrance and saw that more customers had entered the store and were conversing with Tukson. He looked over the comics and quickly found one that Ruby would get in the future.
Before he went over to the main desk he took out his trusty notepad and pen which he now always carried around. He quickly wrote down the following words:
Dear Tukson
I know of your plans to defect from the White Fang and leave Vale. Do not worry, I am also planning to defect and leave the city.
I am giving you this warning to tell you to leave as quickly as you can. Our fellow brothers and sisters who have planned on leaving are being assassinated.
Please heed my warning and leave. By the time this note reaches you I and many others have already left. You should as well.
He put the final period and looked over the note. It could be better but as of now, it was the best he had. Right at the bottom of the note, he put the White Fang logo from when it was a peaceful organization.
He folded the note and put it between some lien. He put his hood up and walked over to Tukson. He quickly showed him the comic and handed the lien.
Before the Faunus could start counting the cash he briskly walked out of the store and heard a small shout behind him. He didn't stop however and melted in with the flow of the crowd.
He walked for a bit before he found the tech store. He entered it and came into a room full of glass cases filled to the brim with the latest scrolls. Their blue screens shone like diamonds and cast a teal color over the entire room.
He went up to the only cashier in the small shop and asked for a cheap compact scroll. The cashier pulled out a selection of very blocky and shoddy scrolls. He picked the cheapest one with a good storage capacity.
He bought it with the allowance he still got from his family back home. Even though they didn't speak to him and didn't believe in his dreams to get into Beacon, they at least still acknowledged his existence by sending over some cash.
In its folded-up form, the Scroll looked like a grey block. Like one of those USBs of the past. Perfect for hiding in plain sight. He put a tracker on it that connected to his modern scroll.
He put it away and headed out of the store to the nearest cafe.
It was a local place sparsely populated with customers. He didn't pay much attention to them and quickly went into a secluded corner. He ordered a small coffee and took out the new scroll.
He started to transfer all of his notes and future information to his old scroll.
It took a while but when it finished he deleted all of his old notes and videos from his modern scroll.
He tinkered with the new scroll and added in safeguards that would create total privacy from any outside networks.
Satisfied with how secure it was he put both scrolls away and gulped down the coffee which had turned cold. He paid for the coffee and quickly headed back to Beacon.
At Beacon, he looked at his watch and saw that he had a few minutes until he was supposed to meet with Ruby. He slowed down his jog and walked through the courtyard.
His mind started to wander to the events of the last two days. The future knowledge, how his demeanor had shifted so quickly, his conversation with Ozpin, Blake, and Pyrrha.
He was so deep in thought he didn't notice that he had strayed from the main path.
He stopped when the cobbled path became less and less worn. He looked around and saw that he was now in an unfamiliar part of the courtyard. A little bit away from him a small brick building stood to the side.
He got closer to it and saw moss growing on its walls and its windows were darkened with soot.
He entered the building and jumped at the loud groan of the door. It sounded as if it hadn't been oiled in years.
Every footstep he took was accompanied by loud creaks like the moans of a ghost.
The walls were made of wood and were covered in dust; cobwebs hung in the corners of the roof. The entire place made goosebumps ripple over his skin but some deep feeling made him move on.
He found a dark archway at the end of the hall. He entered it and saw boxes of old weapons and empty dust canisters. There were also boxes filled to the brim with dusty trophies.
The main feature of the room was a glass wall-sized case inlaid in the furthest wall to the back. It was illuminated by a small dust lantern which was the only source of light in the room.
The case was filled with grand and large trophies. They detailed the many huntsman accomplishments of the hunters at Beacon.
His eyes roamed over each one until they stopped on a Vytal championship trophy with a photo in front of it. In the photo, a girl a little bit older than him with brown skin and dark brown hair held the aforementioned trophy with a bright smile on her face.
He stared at the girl for a moment before he realized that she was Amber; the fall maiden currently comatose inside of Beacons's basement.
She must have attended Beacon but something happened between her and Ozpin to make her leave the school and his guidance.
Did she get sick of being controlled, being seen as just some sort of weapon, or did she learn something about Ozpin that she couldn't bear to live? It could be any number of reasons and he could only guess.
He felt a pang of sympathy seeing the cheerful happy girl in the photo and remembered the girl trapped inside of a test tube. Her last true waking moment was seeing an arrow sticking out of her chest.
Now that he thought about it, he could try to free her from her imprisonment. It would ensure that Cinder didn't get the other half of the maiden powers but it would also gain him a considerable ally. The logistics of freeing were mind-boggling, but he logged it as something he could do.
He walked out of the dingy building and blinked a few times at the sudden brightness of the outside world.
His eyes adjusted and he saw Weiss Schnee standing in front of him. Her eyes roamed over the building before stopping at him.
He walked up to her and said, "Hey Weiss. How've you been?"
"Hello, Jaune, I'm doing alright. What is this?" she said pointing to the building.
"Oh, I think it's some sort of storage shed. You could explore it if you want. I have a weapon meet with Ruby so I gotta go, bye!"
He started to walk down the path towards Beacon's main building.
"Ummm, Jaune is that all?" Weiss asked confused.
He turned around and saw that she had a frown on her face.
"What do you mean 'that's all' ?" He asked, also perplexed.
"Aren't you going to, you know- she paused as he just tilted his head in confusion-You know what never mind Jaune, have a good day."
Her face morphed into a small pleasant smile and she practically skipped down the opposite path.
That was something he thought.
He quickly shook his head and continued walking.
Inside of the main building, he quickly went to the forge room and saw a certain red reaper standing outside of it.
He walked over to her and she looked up at him with a bright smile. In her hands, she held a sketchbook and a weathered duffle bag.
Before she could even open her mouth he took out the comic he had bought and handed it to her. She gave a cute squeal before swiftly taking the comic.
"By the brothers, thanks Jaune! How'd you even know that I wanted to get this?" she asked, clutching the comic to her chest.
"I just happened to find it and thought you would like it,," he responded with a sly smile.
She gave a quick nod before putting the comic away. They both entered the forge walking side by side.
The forge room was one of Beacon's most advanced facilities. Cutting edge light dust printers and machinery filled the room. Their electric hums contrasted the heavy thumping coming from the center of the room.
In the center of the room was a giant old forge made of stone with hot molten liquid flowing in it. This was where the majority of the rooms' blistering heat emanated from.
The room was thankfully windowed so no students fell dead from suffocation but the air was still heavy.
Ruby led him to the back to what must have been a reserved table as his sword and shield lay on it. They glimmered in the sunlight.
He went up to them and ran his fingers on their smooth metal surfaces. They were scuffed from his training yesterday but they would look brand new after he upgraded them.
She walked up next to him and laid her sketchbook on the table. She flipped through it before she turned it over and showed him many different versions of his sword and shield all intricately drawn.
She pointed to a version of both his shield and sword with light blue coloring around their edges.
She said, "I was thinking of upgrading your weapon by adding a light dust projection system to it. The sword would gain some extra cutting room and power while the shield would be able to shield a greater area."
She flipped to another page and showed her ideas in action. The shield in light dust form threw off a cartoonish Boarbatusk from ramming into it. The sword had a light blue edge around it and was shown stabbing through a cartoon Nevermores wing.
"All of that sounded really cool. I also have some ideas of my own," he said.
He took out a crumpled-up piece of paper from his pocket and laid it on the table.
He unfolded the paper and tried to crease out the edges to no avail. He gave up and just showed her the paper.
On the paper, a crude drawing of his sword and shield were shown with purple coloring surrounding them. A drawing of his shield showed the arc emblem glowing purple with waves radiating out of it that pushed a Beowolf away.
"I was thinking of adding a gravity dust system into my shield's emblem and into the flat part of the sword. It would act as some sort of repulsion system and maybe even a landing strategy in a pinch. I was also planning on having the sword and shield combine into one big great sword. For armor, I was thinking of just creating some light knee and shin guards."
Her eyes grew wide at his pitch and she excitedly wrote some new notes next to her original ones.
"Alright then, let's begin Jaune," she said, putting the weathered duffle bag onto the table. It made a heavy thud when she plopped it down.
"Uhh what do you want me to do," he asked her.
She took out welding goggles and gloves from the bag which she handed to him.
"Just follow my lead and I'll teach you along the way. I'm not going to be doing everything for you after all."
She took out some tools and they both got to work.
After hours of being run around the forge room like by Ruby the slave driver, Jaune leaned against the bench with a groan. On the bench, the now upgraded Corcea Mors lay with his new extra armor pieces.
The work had not been very physically draining but did require a lot of precision. His hands and head hurt from making sure that everything fitted well together. Ruby exaggerated when she said she wasn't going to do everything for him.
She practically made him do most of everything by himself. Although his hands felt like they had been ground beneath the feet of a Goliath, he had learned a lot from her crash course in advanced weapons engineering.
He felt the heat of the room melting in through his clothes. He was sweaty to the bone and his outfit would need a wash.
He suddenly felt his feet give up and his bottom met the floor. He only let out a quiet meh and leaned back against his new spot.
Next to him, Ruby's legs fidgeted as she looked over the upgrades for the 100th time.
"Are you done yet?" He asked with a yawn.
"Almost," she muttered under her breath.
He sighed before pulling himself up.
On the workbench, the pristine and well-oiled forms of Crocea Mors sat connected to numerous diagnostic machines. Ruby was deep in thought, her forehead covered in a sheen of sweat similar to his own.
She pressed a button on one of the machines and it gave out a light beep. Her face morphed from its focused line to a small smile.
She turned to him and said, "It should work now, let's test it out!"
She took the sword and shield before he could grab them leaving him to put away the machines and loose tools.
He put on the newly made knee and calf guards and made his way over to the training room that was conveniently placed right next to the forge room.
They went over to a testing room with a dummy inside of it. He spotted a girl with a beret, Coco was her name if he recalled correctly, firing off a minigun that looked comically large in her hands.
He was thankful for the barrier's sound muffling properties.
Ruby handed him his weapon and he nodded to her. He reverted the shield into its sheath form and put his sword into it. He got into one of the many stances drilled into him by Pyrrha.
He pressed the ball of the sword pommel up. It clicked upwards into the sword and mechanical noises whirred from inside. Lines of metal plates appeared in the sword and started to shift.
The sword shifted until it was much longer and bulkier than its original form.
He took some swings with the weapon which he had to two-hand. It was disorientating going from one-handed to using both hands but he got in some deep cuts on the dummy.
He took more practice swings and got into a steady rhythm. If he incorporated this into his team's training sessions he was sure he would be able to master it.
He stopped swinging and pressed a white button on the hilt of the sword.
The sword made a static white noise before glowing cyan lines arranged as a circuit appeared on the flat end of his word. The white noise stopped and a light projection beamed out of the sword's edges.
He swung at the dummy and easily chopped off one of its arms. He pressed the button twice and the blue glow became burning white.
He held the sword near the dummy and saw its metal torso fizzle and crack. He quickly turned it off before the entire dummy turned into sludge.
He pressed a black button right below the white one and a purple glow surrounded the edges of the sword. The sword grew ten times heavier and it fell downwards. He turned it off before it made a dent in the floor.
He shifted the weapon so he had his shield back. He took out his shield and held it in front of him.
He faced Ruby who held a target ball in her hand. She threw it to the far right of his shield. He pressed a white button on the handle of his shield and a light force field shot off its edges blocking the ball.
The ball rolled back to her and he pressed a black button right above the white one. His shield emblem cast a purple glow on Ruby's face before a purple wave emitted from it throwing the ball back.
She caught it gracefully and walked over to him. He compacted his weapon and put it to his side. It was several times heavier but he already felt himself gaining balance.
"It worked even better than I thought it would!" she excitedly said.
"Thanks, Ruby, it's perfect. I wouldn't have been able to do it without you," he responded smiling at her.
She smiled back before her eyes widened. She pulled out a small rectangular box from her back and handed it to him.
He opened it to see a grey pistol with a small atlas logo on it. He took it out and turned it over, there was no fancy gimmick or mechashift capabilities on it. It was just a regular gun that he guessed Atlas personnel carried around.
"Ruby, what's this?" he said inspecting the gun.
"Well, I wanted to modify a gun for a project but never got around to it. I still had the base model and I was gonna get rid of it today but you don't have a ranged weapon. So take it! It isn't powerful but it can come in handy," she said.
He nodded before he tried to twirl the gun in his hand and failed miserably. It fell to the floor with a clatter.
"I can teach you the basics right now, so you at least know how to use it in a pinch," she said, picking up the gun from the floor and handing it to him.
"That would be helpful."
For the next hour or so he was taught how to use the gun mildly well. He wasn't going to have the precision of an ocelot but he wouldn't fumble with it when he needed to use it
It could also serve as a trump card. No one expected him to use a ranged weapon. He would practice with it by himself and he wouldn't tell his teammates about it.
She finished teaching him and they both headed out of the forge room.
Right before they headed back to their dorms he stopped her and said, "Rubes thanks for the help, I don't know how to make it up to you."
She turned around with a bright smile before saying, "Oh come on Jaune you already gave me that comic, and you're my best guy friend. Of course, you don't owe me anything."
"Well at least take this."
He took out a bag of cookies he had bought from a vending machine and handed it to her.
She looked up to him, her eyes filled with barely hidden glee.
She ripped open the bag and plopped a cookie into her mouth. She closed her eyes and let out a deep moan.
He gave an awkward cough and she opened her eyes in fright. She looked up at him like she had forgotten he had been there.
Her face grew as red as her cloak and she gave him a quick thanks under her breath.
She turned like a top and sped away in a flutter of rose petals in the other direction of the dorms, still clutching the bag of cookies.
He let out a quiet laugh before he went back to his dorm.
On his way to the dorm, he felt the beep of a message come through on his scroll. He took it out and saw that Terra had sent him two newly written articles on the blunders of the CCT.
He turned into the nearest common room which was thankfully empty. He sat down on a couch and began to type up an email.
Using an anonymous network shield, he composed an email pretending to be a concerned colleague who was afraid to call out the faults of the CCT.
He attached the articles to the email detailing how he was spreading the news to other CCT engineers so maybe something could be done to increase the defenses of the CCT
He also mentioned how he didn't want to cause public panic and attract Grimm to the cities so he implored people not to spread the news to the public.
He knew that some lips would let loose some information but hoped that enough workers would take his advice to heart and keep the news among themselves.
From the videos shown Cinder must not have had a person working inside of the CCT or else they would have just planted the virus themselves; if this worked he was fairly certain that Cinder and her posse wouldn't their virus had failed until they tried to use it.
He finished the email and checked it over. Confident that he would convince at least a few people he found a public networking website and found the contact workers of a multitude of CCT engineers.
He individually emailed as many people as he could, starting in Vale and sending out emails to workers in other countries. He sent the last email and deleted any trace of him online.
He closed his scroll and headed out of the room just as a team walked in. They ignored him in favor of talking loudly and laughing among one another. He quietly slipped past them and made the final stretch to his dorm room.
At the dorm room, he cracked the door open and saw all of his teammates relaxing inside.
He took a deep breath and put on his most composed mask. He tried to clear his head of the images of the dreadful future but that only seemed to make them even clearer.
He closed his eyes and decided to just act as naturally as possible. His friends would see through an act.
He opened up the door and walked in. He was greeted by his teammates before they all went back to their things.
Pyrrha looked up from a book and looked at Crocea Mors at his side.
She asked with a raised eye, "Jaune, why do you have your weapon with you? Were you training with it?"
"No, not training but something else," he said, fiddling with his sword.
He paused as both Ren and Nora looked up at him intrigued.
"Speaking of training, why don't we get some in right now? I know it's still the weekend but if we want to stay as one of the best teams at Beacon we have to train as much as we can," he said with mirth.
Nora shot up from her bed and landed in front of him.
She gave a salute before shouting, "Don't worry, fearless leader we, don't mind!"
Behind her Ren and Pyrrha also nodded.
Nora quickly bounded out of the room singing loudly. His other two teammates passed by him and out the door. He spun around and followed them into the training room they had used before.
They trained for quite a while using the same free for all method as before. In the middle of the training session, he showed off his new upgrades, surprising his companions.
His versatility greatly increased and he was able to work around his teammates. Although his teammates were quick on their feet and he didn't have full mastery over the upgrades he still did substantial damage.
He learned how to somewhat effectively use his new wide array of weapon modes to both defend and dish out damage.
After the training session, they all cooled down in the training room.
Pyrrha asked if he had any help upgrading his weapon and when he mentioned Ruby he saw a frown of jealousy flash over her face.
Not wanting to upset her, he promised to take her with him when he went to maintain his weapon.
Her frown receded and she went back to her usual self.
They returned to their dorms and he quickly took a shower.
He went to the library and enjoyed some light conversation with Blake. He read a book like any other Beacon student and pushed the whole future videos to the back of his mind.
Blake would have her argument with her friends in a few days. He looked up at her and knew she would be a different person when he next saw her. His plan to change the future would also come ahead as well.
For now, all he could do now was wait.
Five days went by when he heard Blake's argument with team RWBY through the walls of the room.
He stopped his teammates when they tried to make a move towards the other team's door.
He convinced them not to interfere by saying how some problems had to be fixed within a team.
He felt a pang of guilt that he couldn't help his friends with their disagreement but he knew letting them hash it out would make them stronger in the end.
He just hoped that Blake listened to his advice and did not run off to face the White Fang by herself at the docks.
He tried to act normal as team RWBY loudly argued but after a few minutes, he heard their door open and slam shut. A pair of usually muffled footsteps stomped by his dorm room.
Looks like Blake had left. He hoped that they would have resolved the matter inside of Beacon, but now all he could do was hope that she didn't stay out in Vale for too long.
Two days later he had a deep feeling of unease. Blake had not returned and her team was still out in Vale trying to look for her. He was severely worried as a large part of his plan would fall through if she attacked the docks by herself.
He was restless throughout the day but still tried to go through the usual motions. But his actions were one of a robot running low on fuel.
His stress was so evident that Pyrrha noticed and started to ask him questions.
He evaded them as best as he could but knew that he would eventually break under the pressure and let something slip.
At the end of the day, he decided to go to the library. His heart almost leaped out of his chest when he noticed a head of black hair and cat ears.
He briskly walked over to the person and his heart jumped in delight to see it was Blake.
She looked up to him, her eyes rimmed red but brighter than anytime that he had seen her. She also had bags under her eyes but that was the only thing that marked her otherwise tempered face.
Her ears swayed about gently, freely.
She wore her huntress combat outfit which stood out among the uniforms or casual wear of all the other students.
"Hey Blake, how're you doing?" He asked quietly.
She paused for a moment before a small smile etched her lips.
She spoke with a slightly hoarse voice, "Oh I'm doing fine, just argued with my team… Your advice worked, by the way, I listened to them and I didn't run away that far."
"I'm glad to hear it," he said, taking a seat right next to her.
He turned to her and looked at her now exposed cat ears.
"You know your bow was cute but this is way cuter."
Her cheeks briefly became a smoky pink before she rolled her eyes and smirked.
"If you keep trying to flirt with me I might just put the bow back on," she said sarcastically.
He let out a small chuckle and her smirk changed into a smile.
He straightened up and said, "So, do you want to tell me what happened?"
She told him about her argument with team Ruby and how she ran away to the docks. She went to a cafe and bunked with a friend for a little bit. She didn't mention anything about having a meeting with Sun nor did she mention staking out the docks for the white fang dust operation.
She left out the part where she told her teammates she was once a part of the White Fang but did allude to it.
She finished and asked him, "Jaune, how was your advice so good? It was like you knew what was going to happen."
He bristled a bit and she narrowed her eyes.
Now was the perfect opportunity to show her the videos.
His heart beat in his chest loudly as he said, "I'll show you how."
He pulled up the videos website on the holo comp and turned to the Faunus girl who leaned closer to him.
"Um what am I supposed to be seeing here? You're still on the browser page Jaune."
He looked back but saw that he was on the website.
He felt a trickle of fear in the back of his head vanish as one thing was confirmed to him.
It looked like only he could access and see the videos. He didn't know why but it was very convenient.
But how was he supposed to show her if she couldn't even see it in the first place? At the exact moment, he thought that he felt her arm brush against his own.
"Oh I see it now, it's just loaded," she said, turning to him.
"I wanted to show you this," he said.
He took out his headphones from his pocket. He connected it to the comp and handed one end to her.
They both put in their respective ends and he started up the videos.
In the corner of his vision, he saw her eyes widen in shock as her whole world turned inside out.
AN:
Hope you enjoyed it. Please leave a review as it motivates me to write.
Well, another chapter of extremely action-packed things such as upgrading weapons and writing emails.
I've created the timeline of the main events but it most likely diverges from canon as my memory of early RWBY is shoddy. There are also some changes I've made to the universe as well you might see in future chapters.