First off, I want to apologize for the skip in schedule. By the time I had planned to release anything, it was already well into the next month. Hopefully everything is still worth it. There's some more movement toward why Jaune had to travel back in time. And more to build his reasoning, because I still feel like it's the most important part. To me, the character needs their motivation not just the "why" of traveling back. Here, I wanted to establish a better excuse on his semblance and what it does. We'll see more on the motivations as the chapters come through.

CHAPTER 4 - All Leading Up To This IV

Their second year at Beacon academy came with real, teacher-led missions to kickstart their studies. It was simple missions to clear Grimm hordes. With their experience at that point, it was essentially just ways to get reps in for training that wasn't some hologram or each other in the mat room. It was exactly what they needed.

Minus Professor Port's incessant rambling about himself during the missions, Team RANJ (minted Ranger) and Team RWBY were able to get results that seemed to spell report card worthy grades in the classes.

Jaune was plenty happy to experience the monotony of the missions in the semester that came about. Because his mind had only become consumed with one thing: would he propose to his fellow team leader after only dating for less than a year of dating? The question had to be answered with several other questions.

Did he love her?

Could he see a future for decades onward with her at his side?

Would their kid be blonde haired?

Was she worth it?

All the answers were overwhelmingly yes. Tentatively for one however, but basically all yes. Yet, he knew that it had to be perfect. She had always been overshadowed for the first years of her life he had found through watching her interactions with others. Her sister, so boisterous and such a prominent figure in her life had led the way until her mid-teens. Now in her late-teens she had outgrown and easily overshadowed her sister with her famous silver eyes.

Only Jaune could see the subconscious scars that still effected her confidence. Decisions that weren't time-limited would always be double-checked through him before action. Anytime significant events occurred, a single second of hesitation existed, paired with another second to spare a glance at her sister, looking for confirmation. At this point, all but Jaune had blinded themselves with trust that they didn't even notice.

He did, he loved her too much not to notice her imperfections.

And so he knew the day that he would propose, not any specific date, but a moment. The moment he knew that his girlfriend and soon-to-be fiancé was unquestionable independent of everything and anyone. Once he was confident that she believed in herself, and couldn't possibly assume that he was her fall-back plan he would act. Was Jaune acting hypocritically, from viewing her as his cornerstone? Of course, she was the fall-back plan, the reason he lived for the world.

Yet that was how he knew she was the only one for him. He wouldn't exist in the world without her.

The culmination of her independence came hard hitting by the second semester. A bonafide, government funded, military backed, school assisted mission required both their teams present. A underground dust dealer had been making moves that looked like they were becoming a small state. And their arms, manpower, and operations were rivaling some of the small territories of Remnant.

With the assistance of their new robot friend Penny and her new generation technology they had tracked the group to a secluded town that had curiously been bought out by a shell company. The standoff lasted hours, and eventually, once numbers dwindled, the head came out. A man only known by the name Roman. His mute companion, Neo, by his side.

He didn't seem to have any special semblance, just an uncanny skill in dealing with hunters. A natural tactician that was able to entrust Neo to keep Team RANJ at bay with their soldiers while he took on Team RWBY on his own. Separation had occurred often enough that Jaune didn't fret, he knew the other team could handle themselves just as much as his own. Neo was enough for JNPR to handle anyway, he was confident in his peers.

That was what he thought when he looked away.

When he looked back and Yang was in a pool of her own blood, her left arm a stub and her right leg gone, he thought drastically differently.

"Abigail with me, Nora and Ren finish this up!" It was all the direction they would need, after all they had trained enough to execute synonymously. The partners rushed toward their fellow team, Jaune falling to Yang's body and shooing away his wife.

"Jaune, s-she...I just look-" She wasn't speaking clearly at all, but the functioning team including Penny needed her oversight. And from the little his father had told him about his hunter days, was that keeping a hunter engaged after something traumatic (that is, not allowing for the shock to set in or for them to settle) actually got them over the proverbial stress hump.

"Hey, listen," Jaune cupped his hands on the sides of her face, "Your team is the priority right now. You know how Professor Peach taught us; fight the enemy away first, then deal with the casualties. I'm going to do my best to deal with this, but Abigail and I are the only manpower we can spare. Keep Yang alive by keeping Roman away, please. I love you."

His wife's lips had tasted like salt, which wasn't surprising.

While she had went to deal with Roman, Jaune had searched Yang's pouches for the tourniquet that all students were required to bring. He sinched the one he found quickly and tightly around her leg. Before he went to grab his own he stopped himself, a better idea coming to mind.

"Penny! Tourniquet, now!" His answer came in the form of the life saving item flying his way and into his possession.

Her arm secured, he attempted to use anything he could find in his pockets that could stall the bleeding. There were too many cuts, slashes that a simple sinch of a tourniquet could fix. He turned to glance at Team RWBY, hoping that they had been able to handle themselves against the crime boss. Instead, he found that the downing of a teammate had caused an instant effect on Roman: his death.

"Red definitely is not your color Yang." He had said, hoping his joking would ease the fellow prankster and distract her from the battle.

"That's what I have my sister for Vomit Boy, she gets one primary color and I get another." Her blood had begun to stain her blonde hair. "Say, now that I think of it, what do you think of the color blue?"

Her laugh after had spewed blood over both of their clothes. And his composure faltered when her eyes fluttered shut. "Yang!"

Nothing. No reply, not even a breath.

"Not funny Yang, there's a place and a time!" He began the compressions, slamming his hands. He attempted to breath life into her, but didn't work.

"Shit!"

He let himself fall on top of her, tears streaming freely down his face. Because sometimes, when the cards had all been dealt and all efforts had been given, that a man could cry.

Jaune only looked up when a bright light hit his eyes, a collage of yellows. A tinge of blue swirling around interestingly enough. He followed the source, only able to from the way the tides of the glow radiated from his hands.

It was him. Jaune was doing something to Yang.

The question was: what exactly?

He didn't dare move his hands up, even as his breath became ragged and his energy quite literally flowed out from him. His eyes dropped, but he wouldn't close them. Not until he knew whatever was happening was finished with Yang.

The results came to fruition slowly, the roar of battle was static while Jaune focused for a breath that wasn't his own. A few minutes of listening, focusing on the one thing he prayed to God about.

There. Faint, but enough, he could feel the rise of Yang's chest and feel the breaths against his cheek after a moment. She would be fine.

That's all I have for this month, thank you for reading this far once again. I wanted to use this chapter as a chance to continue to break away from the cannon of RWBY. Obviously still keeping the characters in check and in-character, but changing it to fit the new rules of this story. As well as keeping with the new cannon being built. It is important to me to keep everything to where it makes sense. If something happens, and a character does something, it would be entirely believable that they would do that. Or in respect to the world that has built, they would react. Not because I want them to, or because it helps the story, but because I put them in a situation and I write how I think it would play out.

Thank you all again for stopping by, feel free to say anything for reviewing. Anything helps.