Chapter 3

Despite himself, he began to doubt.

Cinder was incredibly powerful, and her minions, Emerald and Mercury, were no weaklings. He had grown more powerful, thanks to the discovery of his Semblance and the many iterations he had gone through, but not enough to take on all three at once and hope to win.

In reality, even fighting Cinder alone wasn't a sure thing. It was painful, but he had to admit it.

He put his back against the wall and allowed himself a moment to think.

The situation was even worse. As far as everyone knew, even Ozpin and his committee, Cinder Fall, if that was her real name, was just another student. If he attacked her publicly, the students and faculty would not be on his side. They would be an additional obstacle.

The more he thought about it, the more impossible it seemed. But he had tried hundreds of things before, and they had all ended the same way, in death and destruction.

He had to try, at least. It was his duty. Only he could change the future.

He was tempted to ask Team RWBY for help, but he had done that more than once before. He never got what he wanted, only to make them worry about his mental health.

He didn't want to go through that again. Their distrust, their pity for him.

Going back to inform Ozpin of what had happened to him, everything he knew, wouldn't do any good either.

He had to do it alone. Even if he died trying, he wouldn't die forever. And he wouldn't have to have the bodies of the people he loved most as punishment for his failure. The risk, all things considered, was acceptable.

He looked at his reflection in the window. It didn't look like a human being.

"I can do it" he whispered to herself "I can."

He wanders around the campus in search of his target. It didn't take long for him to find her. As always, she was standing next to Mercury and Emerald. Those two bastards were like her shadow. Jaune stepped closer, ready to draw his sword in an instant. He didn't have his shield with him, but he didn't need to.

They noticed his presence.

The woman looked at him with those cold eyes, so different from the crimson flames she used. As if she had lost her soul a long, long time ago.

"You're Cinder Fall, right?"

"Yes. What do you want?"

"Headmaster Ozpin sent me."

He enjoyed the brief flicker of panic in her eyes. She must be wondering if he'd realized what she was up to when she'd already gotten this far.

"He wants to see you in his office" The others stood up. 

Jaune raised a hand "Alone, not with your teammates."

"Should I tell you what he wanted to talk about?"

"About your transfer papers, I think. I wasn't paying attention."

He had had to improvise, but he hoped it sounded credible. Or at least that the fear of seeing her plan fall apart would prevent her from realizing he was lying.

"Very well "Cinder stood up ", I'll go."

"You entered Beacon this month, right? I can accompany you if you don't know where his office is."

"No need, I don't want to be a bother."

"Of course, it's not a bother," he replied, and added, although just thinking about it made him sick, "No man would be capable of denying anything to such a beautiful woman."

[T/N: GOD! That sounded horrible.]

Cinder laughed.

"I imagine not."

"By the way, my name is Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls of the tongue, girls love it."

It had slipped out before he even realized it. The phrase he had said to Ruby the day he met her made him feel a phantom pain in his heart. It wasn't strange. After all, that man… no, that boy, that was what he had been, had died long ago.

"It's a nice name, fit for a gentleman. But enough with the flirting, Jaune. First of all, I want to get my affairs in order."

"As you wish, my lady," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "I had to try."

"You might still get lucky, if you play your cards right. Come on, let's go."

Jaune made his way to Ozpin's office, with Cinder following close behind. They disappeared into the building.

she was confused and a little scared, thinking about the possible reasons for his call, and alone at that. There was no one else but the two of them in the hallway. It was the perfect moment to attack, to end everything.

"Jaune?" Cinder said, right behind him.

"Mmm," he opened and closed his hand, flexing it. He was very tense. Almost as if this were going to be his first battle.

"How did you find out?"

He drew his sword and turned around in time to stop a burst of fire. He assumed that her reaction had been enough to confirm her suspicions.

As he backed away, he cursed himself. He had lost the element of surprise.

Cinder was calm, or at least she appeared to be. Smoke was rising from her fingertips.

"There's no reason for you to have found out. Today was the first time we've met, and yet…"

"Does it matter?"

Cinder laughed. This time, her laughter was real and filled with pure madness.

"No. I suppose not. I hadn't thought Ozpin would order one of his agents to pose as a student, but it was clearly a mistake."

Was that what she thought? Normally, it was a logical explanation, unlike the truth, that he was a time traveler. It did not fit into anyone's common sense, not even the Maidens, despite the immense power they possessed. At least, as far as he knew. Ozpin could have lied to him in that regard.

"Are you afraid? " Cinder gave him an angelic smile, deeply disturbing, giving away her intentions "Fine. You should be. You're going to die, here and now."

"I'm not that easy to kill."

Cinder released a blast of fire. Jaune rolled under it, got back up, and ran at his enemy. He could only fight up close and her power was better suited for ranged attacks, so it was an obvious choice.

Which didn't mean it was easy.

Cinder did not back down. She covered her arms up to the elbow in fire, and used them as gauntlets against him. Only desperation kept him from fleeing. He had once been burned to death, and feeling the terrible heat of the flames close to his face almost made him feel the pain that had taken him into the darkness of death oh so long ago.

He couldn't think.

He couldn't even breathe properly.

He had slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Grimm, and the total was probably much larger, he had faced the dragon again and again without hesitation, even all the others had fallen…, but now he was terrified.

Maybe because Cinder was the face of the evil that had destroyed his life. Because this woman had done all of this, even though she had feelings and was capable of reasoning, like any human being. She was not an animal, but she acted like one.

He couldn't understand such a person. And he didn't want to.

Cinder caught him off guard, planting one foot on the ground instead of using her hands, causing a wave of fire to overwhelm him.

Jaune flew back a dozen meters and landed on the ground with enough force to knock the wind out of him.

The curtains covering the windows had been set alight, and the fire was spreading rapidly, consuming everything in its path. Its shape distorted by the illumination provided by the flames, it looked like a lost soul that had just crawled out of hell.

He let out a scream.

His Semblance was working on putting out the fire and healing his burns. Smoke was rising from his wounds, surrounding him like mist.

He had lost his sword.

He crawled towards it, trying to endure the pain. He reached out his hand. He almost reached it, but Cinder stepped on him.

He slowly raised his head. His heart almost stopped.

Fire glowed in the woman's raised hand, so hot it was blue.

He was crushed, and it might be a mistake he could never recover from, depending on how events unfolded after his death.

Damn it, was his last conscious thought.

Then everything burned.

[T/N: I'm actually loving this book! I just can't stop reading! WOW! Anyway, why don't you leave a comment, write a review for this new book, and drop some stones. If you don't know I've got a few good books I'm busy with right now so why not check them out, just go to my profile, or search for the books, Invisible-A Harry Potter FanFic, and A Gamer in Game of Thrones. Or if you want to read some advanced chapters then check out the P@treon, or the Ko-fi.]

[Also this book is only 11 chapters long, about 36000 words so yeah only one chapter per week.]

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