The Great Temporal Step-Sibling War!
By Sift Green and AndrewJTalon
Disclaimer: This is a fan based work of Prose. RWBY is the property of Rooster Teeth and ViZ. Please support the official Release.
Julian Arc-Rose waited and waited... Until he found the perfect moment to confront the past version of his mother: When she was in the dorm common room kitchenette making cookies.
It was, quite frankly, surreal to see her like this. Younger than him even! Wow.
However, if he and his siblings were going to still exist, he had to make sure he did this right.
He had to use stealth. Subtlety. Grace.
"HI MOM!"
"GYAH!"
Okay, teleporting right behind her while putting cookies into the oven wasn't the best idea.
But hell, he'd always been good at improvising.
Ruby Rose had been enjoying an early morning bit of baking. Her plan had been to make a nice big batch of cookies as snacks at the party tonight. She was absolutely going, thank you very much! She was a student, so she was going! So what if she couldn't drink? Neither could anyone else!
She had just pulled the cookie sheet (only weirdos called it a 'cooking sheet') from the oven, to look over her wonderful creations. With a contented smile, she sniffed the chocolate chip delectables and beamed broadly.
"HI MOM!" An unfamiliar voice chirped behind her.
"GYAH!"
She swung around as the cookies all fell to the floor. She gaped down in horror. The stranger gaped in horror to and fell to his knees at the carnage he had wrought.
"NO! NO! WHAT HAVE I DONE? NOT THE COOKIES!"
Ruby clutched at her chest, her heart beating like a drum in a dryer. Still, she hadn't completely taken loss of her senses. She studied the boy carefully, even as she caught her breath.
He was pretty tall-At least a head taller than her, though very slender. He had tanned skin, and a pointed jaw and nose that were strangely familiar. His eyes were silver, and his hair black but with a fringe of yellow blond hair around the tips. He wore a long red and black jacket over black Huntsman armor on his chest. His pants were black, as were his tall military grade boots. On his back was a… Sniper-Scythe?
He looked up at her with those silver eyes, overly dramatic tears at the corners.
"I'm sorry Mom! I was stupid! Please, forgive me!" He cried. He held up the broken cookies with a sniffle. "Oh the humanity…!"
Normally when one of her teammates ruined a batch of her cookies, she was the distraught one. To be on the other side of this situation was… Well, unique. So Ruby immediately went to her first impulse: Comfort this stranger.
"Ummm... It's okay?" Ruby said, reaching out to pat him on the shoulder and head. "Why are you calling me Mom? Who are you, anyway?"
The boy looked up with a bright smile. It was warm and inviting and strangely familiar. Any tension she had felt before just dried up.
"Oh! It's like that really old comic, X-Ray and Vav, issue 198, when-"
Ruby's jaw dropped.
The hair… The eyes… The sniper-scythe… It… How…?!
"Their future kids come back in time to help them?!" She gasped. The boy nodded eagerly as he beheld the light of comprehension in her silver eyes.
"YES! Exactly!" He cried. He got up and hugged her tightly. "I'm your son! Julian!"
"J-Julian?!"
"Like July! Summer! After Grandma!" Julian went on.
Ruby froze.
Oh, wow… That is a really nice name… I'd probably name my kid that-WAIT! FOCUS!
"I… Uh… But… How-?"
"Oh! Oh right, they had to prove it in that issue," the boy groaned. "Um, okay. You snuck a drink of whiskey from Grunkle Qrow when you were nine and threw up immediately. You never drank again."
Ruby's jaw dropped and her eyes widened.
"H-How-?! You-?!"
That's what he went with?! She thought frantically.
"Um, also, your nickname was Crater Face!" Julian pressed. "Zwei's Semblance is Spacial Compression! And you tuck Crescent Rose in every night when nobody's looking! He likes 'Goodnight Moon!' So do I!"
"H-How did you-?" Ruby managed as she felt a strange mixture of terror and elation. She'd wanted to be a hero, after all. Go on adventures. Her son from the future…!?
"My best friend Moses has a time travel Semblance," Julian explained quickly, "My little sister Pyrrha overcharged it with her Semblance so instead of going back a few hours? We went back in time a few years… Like uh… Twenty. So… Um… I mean…" He shrugged. "We might be causing a paradox, but uh… It's a long story. I-I just wanted to get all that out of the way so we could get to the important stuff!"
"Well… I mean…" Ruby nodded, "I-I suppose that's a good point. Why bother wasting time with a bunch of lies if like, things are really dire?"
She looked at her son in concern.
"Right?"
"It is," Julian said with a firm nod. Ruby bit her lower lip. She would come back to that, but the most important question of all appeared in her mind.
"So, uh... If you're my son-"
"Yup!"
"Then… who's your dad?" Ruby asked cautiously.
Julian grinned broadly.
"Jaune Arc, of course!"
Ruby blushed brightly.
"W-W-W-W-Wait?! Jaune!? I-I-I marry him?!"
Her bestest best friend in the world?! Her first friend?! Wonderful dorky Jaune?!
… It didn't sound so far-fetched, actually. Sure, it wasn't like she was interested in romance but… Oh, just hanging out with Jaune at the dance and laughing had been fun! And-And she had been very curious about how he thought she looked! It had seemed so important…
Did this mean she… She actually beat Weiss at something?! And Pyrrha?!
That… That couldn't be. She'd drunk so much milk and-and he'd never noticed…!
"What? This is the day of your first date!" Julian insisted. "Well sort of! At the party! You've gotta make sure you go on it, or I won't exist! Or my nine siblings!"
"NINE?!" Ruby gasped, before she began hyperventilating.
NINE?! NINE?! Wait, plus Julian means TEN! TEN?!
"Ohhh... Maybe I shouldn't have said that," Julian groaned. "But seriously Mom, please? Go on a date with Dad!"
"B-B-B-But-I, I'm too young! I-I'm not as pretty-I'm not as-Anything-!" Ruby tried, stuttering while red. Julian shook his head furiously and tightened his hug.
"Mom... Trust me. He... He loves you! Or-Or he fell in love with you! You were his best friend! I know, I know... He will love you."
He quickly pulled out a Scroll, a model she'd never seen before. He opened it up, and brought up some photos. Ruby's jaw dropped.
It was… It was her. Older and… And curvy! Still short, but hey! She had boobs! She was hugging on a much older, much taller , much… Beardier Jaune! She flushed as she saw how tightly his blue shirt stretched over his muscles.
Oh wow… Oh wow… I…
She spied his arm. Her keen eyes widened at the artificial metal that formed his right hand.
Already she traced over it with an engineer's gaze. She leaned in with wide eyes.
That… That's my handiwork… It's my designs…!
Then she realized she should probably focus on the kids. Her eyes went even wider.
Ten of them. Julian was up front, being the oldest, but the others were clustered around them. They all hugged on one another, grinning for the camera. Some holding bunny ears behind their siblings' heads playfully. The look on Jaune and her face was so… So warm. So happy.
Just like those pictures of Mom with Dad, Yang, and me, she thought. She couldn't help a dreamy expression on her own face.
With Jaune… All of this… Is it possible?
"Mom," Julian went on quietly, and she looked up with a start. He smiled. "You told me that you always felt like an oddball growing up. You also told me that Dad was the one who helped you feel not weird in the world."
"... Really?" Ruby asked softly. Julian nodded happily.
"Yeah! And uh... I mean... I hate to rush you, but I'm kind of on the clock here."
Yang probably taught him to pun like that , Ruby thought, before the impact of his words hit her.
"Eh? Why?" Ruby asked.
Julian sighed.
"I think that it might be... Get Back to the Present rules. See, when we showed up... There were like, a dozen other people claiming to be Jaune Arc's firstborn! All from different moms!"
"Oh geez," Ruby gasped, "Like multiverse theory?"
"I don't know," Julian shrugged, "But I do know if you don't date Dad... Then I-I cease to exist. And my siblings do too."
There it was. That fact. It just... It looked like it had landed so hard on his heart. He bowed his head.
"My whole family... I-I don't..."
The prospect of losing all that... Of never being born... It hit Ruby like a brick wall. Yet her son stayed calm and focused, even though somehow, she could tell he was terrified.
The fear was there... But he wouldn't let it control him.
"You and Dad... You have always been there for me," he said, "You... You two are so amazing. When I'm with you, I've-I've never felt scared, or worried. Because you were there. I..."
He stared intently at the picture, unable to meet her eyes. She could imagine what he was thinking: Will it fade away? Will I fade away too?
An instinct rose in Ruby's mind. A feeling rose in her chest. It told her this boy was hers. She would not let him down, she would not lose him. Nor would she lose her father.
They were a family. She would never, ever give that up without a fight.
Just like you did, Mom…
She reached out and took his hand. He started. Her eyes narrowed in determination as she spoke calmly, but firmly.
"I won't lose you, Julian," she said softly, "You won't lose me... Y-You won't lose us. I-I promise."
Julian smiled brightly. He pulled her into a hug, and she returned it. It felt… Right. Natural, in a way she hoped would become her normal. Well, someday. Maybe not right now.
"So," Ruby said, pulling back, "We just need to get to Jaune first!"
"Right!" Julian said cheerfully.
Ruby pulled open her Scroll.
"I'll just call him and... And..."
She frowned.
"Eh?! Why won't it work?!"
"Huh?" Julian asked.
Ruby scowled.
"The network is down?! How is it down?!"
Elsewhere, Theodore Arc-Schnee, son of Jaune Arc and Winter Schnee, finished the last touches to his plan to isolate the Beacon network.
"And... There," he said with a nod, "Now to find Mother!"
"It might be one of the others," Julian said, "My Scroll's network access is down, too."
"Well!" Ruby said cheerfully, "We'll just have to find Jaune ourselves!"
"Yeah," Julian said with a nod, "But uh... What about the other kids? Pyrrha's son is pretty, uh... I mean-The stories you told me about Auntie Pyrrha mean he's really tough! They're probably all after their moms or Dad!"
Ruby's Silver Eyes glowed, even as she smiled. It happened sometimes when she really focused her Aura power. She pulled out Crescent Rose, and shifted it into scythe mode. She spun it around with a flourish, and grinned.
"Don't you worry about that, Julian. Mama's got this!"
Julian looked simultaneously relieved, scared, and excited. It was so much like Jaune it hardened her resolve even more.
Sure, she didn't know much about romance. So dealing with that with Jaune would be tricky.
But she'd have plenty of time to practice that with Jaune… After she beat up every other girl after him!
"So! Exactly who and what are we dealing with?" Ruby prompted. "I'm gonna need to know everything!"
"I mean, they came from different timelines, so I'm not sure," Julian admitted, "But I have a surefire way to deal with Pyrrha's kid!"
"Well then," Ruby Rose felt a fiercely competitive grin emerge on her face, " That's a start!"
For the first time in her young life, a fire ignited in Ruby Rose over a boy… If put into words, it would say:
BITCHES! HE'S MINE!
