AN:
All of you probably have a lot of questions so here are my answers to some of them:
Q: Why did you come back?
A: I tried my hand at writing original stories but I couldn't get past world-building. It was a soul-draining endeavor that quickly killed my interest in writing anything original. I also recently got back into RWBY after watching Vol 9 which was a really good volume. Suffice it to say, RT cooked for Vol 9 and I hope they do the same for Vol 10. I still wanted to write so I got back into writing RWBY fanfic.
Q: What's going on with Odd Man Out?
A: I'm unhappy with the original state of Odd Man Out. It was poorly written and bloated. You can cut off a good 60-70 percent of the word count of the original story and be left with only the good parts. So that's why I'm remastering it before adding new chapters. Expect chapters to be much shorter than they were.
Furthermore, you might be wondering what happened to all of the original chapters. I deleted them as I didn't want them to interfere with the reading experience. There will be significant changes in the new chapters which would not make sense in tandem with the older chapters. The under remaster in the title will be taken off when I remaster all of the chapters and start brand new chapters.
I also changed the rating of Odd Man Out to M because I felt I was restricted by the T rating. Expect gore and more mature themes to be explored in the story.
Q: What's with your other story, When the Moon Shines Again?
A: My new story, When the Moon Shines Again, is also a time travel fic starting near the end of Vol 9 and with Ruby as the protagonist. It was directly inspired by my rekindled interest in Ruby after watching Vol 9. Compared to Odd Man Out, it's much more light-hearted and comedy-focused, check it out.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk, enjoy the story.
Jaune Arc sighed as he typed up his history report. He really shouldn't have waited for the last minute, nor should he have denied Pyrrha's help. He had been working on it for hours and his head throbbed horribly.
He stopped writing and leaned back in his chair, thinking back to all that had transpired in the last few weeks.
He had made real progress in his training with Pyrrha. He now had a physique that fit the course for most students in Beacon. He was able to kill most low-level Grimm and had even won a few sparring matches. He had also saved Cardin in Forever Fall Forest which somehow made the bully respect him. He hadn't bothered befriending the racist but it didn't hurt that his harassment had stopped.
He was also a better team leader, now able to create team strategies on the fly and take calculated risks. He had help from his fellow team leader Ruby whom he set his mind against in the training ring and on the chess board.
Blake Belladonna sat close by at another holo-comp, the resident brooder of team RWBY. She met his gaze and went back to reading what was probably one of her smut fanfics.
He and Blake weren't friends but they weren't acquaintances either. They never talked outside of classes but they did both share an interest: reading.
One day, both of them sat down at the same library table, and ever since they sat together. They didn't speak much but, when they did, Jaune usually initiated the conversation which was geared toward their reading.
But, once in a blue moon, Blake would strike up a conversation. She talked about philosophy and politics, like Fanus rights, which would go over his head. He had a feeling that she used him as a soundboard but he was happy to oblige, she listened to him so it was only right he listened to her.
The throbbing in his head subsided so he tried to finish his report. His fingers hovered over the hard light keys. Nothing popped into his head. Maybe he could use a longer break.
Without realizing it, he was scrolling through various video-sharing sites.
He came upon a site that was slow and clunky. It didn't look like any other site on the web. It seemed like a holdover from a century ago. The front page was a garbled mess of coding elements, images, broken text, and links that didn't go anywhere.
He combed through the other pages of the website and found a working link. It led him to the page of a show called RWBY. That was strange. Was it a coincidence that this website had something that shared the same name as his sister team? There was no description and the supposed cover art for the show was blank.
There were three seasons and the episodes were short. It wouldn't hurt to watch some of them. He connected his headphones to the holo-comp and booted up the first episode.
Jaune sat back, mouth agape, as the post-credits scene for RWBY Volume 3 Episode 12 "End of the Beginning" ended.
His eyes were bloodshot and his throat was dry. The lines from the show echoed in his head and the Grimm-looking woman's visage floated in his eyes. The website booted back to the RWBY page. He checked the time on the holo-comp screen.
It was well past midnight.
That couldn't be right. He rubbed his eyes. The time was still well past midnight. He looked around. There was no one else in the library and moonlight shone through the windows.
He took a picture of the website URL, not trusting himself to remember through the fog in his brain. He jumped out of his seat and packed his things. The scrape of his char echoed through the silent air.
"Shhh," the librarian admonished him from the front of the room.
He mouthed an apology to the librarian and walked out of the library. He took out his scroll. He had missed calls from Pyrrha and texts from his team asking him where he was. They were supposed to have a training session today. He also had a text from Ruby about him bailing on their gaming session. He would have to make it up to all of them
Not looking where he was going, he ran into someone's back.
His victim caught themself on a wall but he wasn't so agile. His foot caught his other foot and he crashed to the floor, aura and pain flaring around his face. His scroll flew out of his hands and skittered away from him.
Slender hands hauled him to his feet. He came face to face with a frowning Blake.
"Jaune? You okay?" Blake asked.
His eyes instinctively shot to her bow. White Fang terrorist. Cat faunus in disguise. Were the videos true?
"Remnant to Jaune. Is there something on my bow?" Blake brushed her bow and adjusted it.
He pulled himself out of his thoughts and coughed. "No, nothing at all. Sorry, I'm just a bit out of it."
"So much so that you tripped on your own feet? You look like you were forced to listen and watch Yang do stand-up."
He chuckled. "It was nothing as bad as that."
He gave her a mock shudder which earned him a small smile from her. He scurried over to his scroll and picked it up. The picture of the URL was on its screen. Thank the brothers Blake hadn't picked it up.
Blake moved next to him. "But seriously Jaune, what were you watching? You looked like a zombie by the time I left."
Trying to formulate a response, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that her bow twitched. He almost broke out into crying laughter at the sight.
The videos told the truth.
A small shimmer of guilt wormed into his heart from having learned something so intimate about her without her consent. The guilt grew stronger as the other moments he had no right to see bubbled to the surface of his mind.
"Remnant to Jaune again. Remnants of Jaune again." Blake waved her hand in front of his face.
He blinked, jumping back. Adam's sword was embedded in her back. Blood poured from the blade and pooled onto the floor. Blake was screaming in horrific pain.
He slapped himself and the illusion over Blake disappeared. Her eyes were wide.
She grasped his arm. "Jaune I don't know what you watched but I think we should get you to the nurse. Your eyes rolled in your head and you looked like you were going to collapse."
"There's no need for that Blake, I'm just really tired." He laughed, trying to pull out of her grasp.
She let go of his arm, eyes narrowed.
He held up his hands. "Seriously, I am. I was watching some old show that I used to watch as a kid. I got nostalgic and didn't notice the time fly by."
Blake's eyes were still narrowed. He smiled like a dork.
Seconds passed then a minute. Blake continued to stare daggers at him. His face was hurting from keeping the smile up.
Blake hummed non-committedly and brushed past him. A giant pressure lifted from his back. He leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. He needed some rest to process all that he'd seen before before he said something crazy.
He ran after Blake and walked in stride with her.
"Are you going back to the dorms? If so, mind if I tag along?" He asked.
She nodded.
They walked in silence. Usually, it was a comfortable silence but now it was strangling. He tried to keep scenes from the show out of his head. They were too much at the moment.
He took subtle glances at her bow. It moved ever so slightly. Someone would only notice it moving if they were standing as close to Blake as he was right now and focusing on her bow.
Without looking at him, Blake asked, "Jaune you've been looking at my bow. What's up?" There was an edge of steel in her voice.
Jaune tried not to gulp. In a fight, he stood no chance against Blake, doubly so if she was enraged from learning he knew about her faunus heritage and troubled past.
"It's a cute bow. Sorry, I never really noticed it before. It looks great on you." He blushed.
She stopped. "You were staring at it because you thought it was cute?
"When you say it like that it does sound stupid. Sorry, I'm really bad at complimenting girls. Or talking to them in general." He chuckled in self-deprecation.
"You weren't staring at it for any other reason?" She crossed her arms and looked at him expectantly.
Playing dumb, he responded, "Was I supposed to stare at it for another reason?"
Blake shook her head. "No, ignore what I said."
She walked past him and he followed her, heat creeping up his neck. Blake was inquisitive. He had to hope that her view of him as a bumbling idiot, which was true, prevailed over her perception of his horrid state or the fact that he was hiding something.
On the flight of stairs to their floor, he contemplated warning her about her impending argument with Weiss that would reveal her heritage and cause her to run away from her team.
What would happen if he did so? He had consumed enough time travel-related media to know that you never messed with the past, not even the smallest things unless you wanted to create paradoxes or worse futures.
But helping Blake and Weiss settle their issues peacefully would help team RWBY's cohesion and morale. It had hurt to see Ruby struggle with her dysfunctional team in the videos. He didn't want the little reaper to go through such a thing in real life.
He also wanted to change the future so the breach and the fall of Beacon didn't happen. Their future already looked bleak, it couldn't hurt if he tried changing them.
They made it to their floor and walked to their rooms which were across from one another. He reached for his dorm door but paused.
He decided.
He spun around and cried out quietly, "Wait!"
Blake had her scroll up to her door but hadn't unlocked it. Eyebrows arched in question, she asked, "What is it Jaune?"
"This may seem out of the blue, and is probably not my place to say, but I've noticed that you and Wiess argue a lot. I think sooner rather than later you'll reach an argument that will make both of you reach your breaking point. As someone who's been entangled in the arguments of 7 sisters, just remember Weiss's point of view and her upbringing. Also, remember to be open-minded. She's your teammate but she's also your friend."
Blake's bow rose slightly. "...Okay, I'll keep that in mind. Goodnight Jaune." She unlocked her dorm door and stepped into her dorm, shutting the door behind her without looking back.
He sighed. Hopefully, he had done the right thing without coming off as suspicious.
He touched his scroll to his dorm door.
Scenes from the videos flooded his mind. His knees buckled and he crashed through the door into his dorm room.
Penny cleaved in two, her eyes taking in their last image. The blood of students and civilians painted on the walls as red-eyed robots and Grimm eviscerated them. Pyrrha on her knees, blood squirting from an arrow in her chest.
A gorgeous smiling woman with black hair. An obsidian bow taught tight in her hands.
Cinder.
Red filled his vision and he growled. When she came to Vale he would rip that smile from her smug face. He would cut her face to ribbons and chop her hair into shreds. He would drive his sword through her chest and pull her close to him as she let out her last breaths. He would make her regret ever setting foot in Beacon.
"-une. Jaune! Jaune can you hear me?" Pyrrha voice pierced through the storm of hatred.
Toned arms easily picked him up and gently laid him on a bed.
When had he come into the dorm?
He moved into a sitting position and opened his eyes. Pyrrha stood in front of him in her cherry-red sleeping chemise, a worried frown marring her features. Nora and Ren stood behind Phyrra with similar expressions.
Pyrrha. His sweet, timid, but fiercely loyal partner liked him. No, if evident of her sacrifice, she loved him. But his future counterpart had been too much of a dense idiot to notice her feelings until the moment she went off to play hero and die on his behalf.
Thinking about Pyrrha brought up images of Cinder. The white-hot anger returned in force.
That bitch. Her terrorist attack during the Vytal festival, all those civilians and students dead, splitting the world into sides, and the collapse of a huntsmen academy. All for what? Weather-controlling powers? More power than the tremendous amount of power she already had?
It was sickening to realize that there were people like her in the world. People who would burn everything down and climb a mountain of corpses for a bit more power. He clenched his fist so hard his nails scraped against aura.
He would make Cinder pay.
"Looks like our fearless leader is about to go feral!" Nora proclaimed with a giggle.
"What?" Jaune snarled.
Nora frowned and her eyes teared up like a hurt puppy. Ren's expression became stormy and he placed a protective arm over Nora. Pyrrha flinched away from Jaune, eyes wide.
His anger blew out at the sight of his partner's fear. "I'm sorry Nora. That was rude and uncalled for."
Nora's teary eyes vanished, replaced with a smile.
She saluted, hard. "No worries dear leader. You seem out of it. What happened?"
Pyrrha nodded. "Nora's right. You look like you came out of a grave and a moment ago you looked like you wanted to rip my head off. Is everything alright? Where were you? Did I do something? I've, I mean we've been worried sick."
She blushed. Nora rolled her eyes.
"It wasn't any of your guys' fault. I was doing Oobleck's report and I lost track of time. I look like I died because I was staring at a screen for hours on end, trying to finish the report. I'm sorry if I caused any of you to worry and I'm sorry we missed out on our training." He smiled, trying to hide the pain in his eyes.
Pyrrha sighed in relief and the rest of his team accepted his response.
Pyrrha smiled brightly. "No need to apologize Jaune, we have all the time in the world to train. But you look like you'll collapse if you don't get some sleep. Why not we all head to bed?"
Nora and Ren hummed in response and climbed into their beds.
Jaune nodded. "That sounds like a plan. I'll take a shower then sleep. You should head to bed Pyr."
His partner nodded and slipped onto her bed, pulling herself under her many covers. "I'll wait for you."
He shook his head. "You don't have to do that. You look like you need sleep as well."
Pyrrha let out an adorable yawn and blushed. "It looks like I do. Port's lecture must have taken a lot out of me."
"It's alright. Thanks for thinking about staying up for me." He smiled.
She snuggled under her many covers and closed her eyes.
Jaune exited the shower in his bunny onesie feeling like a new man.
Nora snored quietly, Ren was perfectly still, and Pyrrha tossed and turned, mumbling.
He moved onto his bed and took out his scroll. He searched for the website with the RWBY videos. He sighed in relief when he found the website and the videos.
Good, he hadn't hallucinated them.
He looked over the slumbering forms of his friends and pulled his blanket over his head.
Tomorrow, things were going to change.