Chapter 5

Jaune was very scared.

For the first time, not because of Pyrrha, but for her. He was afraid of the silence. He had expected her to react with disbelief, to insist that it was a joke, that it wasn't funny. He had expected anger, sadness, grief. But not for her to stay so still and so quiet, listening to his story, shaking her head every now and then to show that she was listening or maybe for some other reason.

'Say something, I beg' He pleaded in his head.

It was the first time he was so scared. He needed her, if she didn't support him now, he wasn't sure he could keep trying. He was well aware of what would happen if he gave up, though.

"Jaune. Is this true?" She asked without inflection.

There it was, the disbelief. The doubts. And the fear in her eyes. Not for him, but because of what he had told her, but the what if, what if it turned out to be true.

His heart sank. 'I'm lost,' he thought.

"Of course it's true. Do you really believe I'm capable of making up such a thing, of worrying you and hurting you just to have a laugh?" he said furiously, despite himself. But it didn't last long, he deflated like a punctured balloon. "Forget it. Forget it and go back to your normal life. I knew from the beginning that this was going to happen. After all, I've seen it, and not just once, many times. I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up. I shouldn't have hoped that this time would be different."

"Jaune, please try to understand me. I want to believe you, but it's hard. We live in a world where many things are possible, magnificent and incredible things, but time travel, that's not even a theoretical possibility."

"Do you want me to prove it to you?" He asks, after a very long pause.

"please."

"Shortly after the tournament begins, Ozpin will approach you and tell you about the Maidens and their power. He will ask you to take the place of the former Maiden of Autumn, because you are the only suitable candidate, and they are running out of time."

"I Understood."

"Hey, Pyrrha," Jaune said, leaning back and lifting his head to look at her without changing position. He felt the girl's chest against his back, but it was as if it was happening to someone else, he felt neither ashamed nor happy about it. "I know you don't believe me. That you won't until that happens, but can you do me a favor?"

"Anything for you," she replied. She blushed slightly.

"Keep an eye on that woman. Cinder. I'm not asking you to go after her all day like some kind of private investigator, just that if you come across her, keep an eye on her."

"It's ok, I'll do it."

"Thank you."

They stood for a long time, staring at nothing in particular, in silence, together. The time would come when they would be separated, all of them, and the blood of the people who mattered most to him would flow, once again. But now for the moment, he could allow himself to forget and enjoy the moment. Drink in this peace.

Pyrrha was the first to pull away. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't disappointed.

"Will you come with me?"

"No," he replied, without taking his eyes off the academy grounds. "I'll stay a little longer."

"You're not planning on doing anything stupid, are you?"

Jaune laughed dryly. A little bitterly.

Two of his deaths had been like that, by his own hand, but he had no desire to repeat it. It wouldn't change anything, after all.

"Don't worry. I just need more time to gather my thoughts and to… to…" he tried hard to find the right words, but failed. He sighed heavily.

"I think I understand you. Well, I hope you get what you want. Or what you need."

"I hope so too."

He heard her footsteps fading into the distance.

He closed his eyes.

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"Ruby," Jaune said. "Can we talk in private?"

The girl was with the other members of her team, engaged in a board game. It seemed familiar, but the name, the rules, and the fond memories he might have associated with it eluded him.

Things were just getting interesting when he arrived. Ruby was standing with one hand on the table, having slammed it.

She turned to look at him. A few others, too.

He, however, did not see himself capable of it. They did not remember it, but he had behaved like a child, wallowing in his despair and melancholy, and he had hurt them. That it was no longer past, technically, did not make his mistake any less real.

"Now?"

"If you do not mind."

"No offense, but your face is awful," she said. She had completely forgotten about the cards, the game, and was leaning forward on her tiptoes, moving left and right, as if trying to get a better view of his face. "What happened? Please say something. You're really worrying me."

"He probably just ate something bad," Weiss said "and now he feels like throwing up. Don't think about it too much."

He tried to ignore her scathing comment.

He deserved to be treated like this, he knew, after chasing her for so long, not taking no for an answer. He had changed so much, but she didn't know it, she couldn't. Because she, like the others, was still the same.

"I'll tell you everything, but not here, okay? It'll just be a moment."

"Okay. Guide me."

Ruby was serious, but it was a different seriousness than the cold rage that had overcome her after losing everything, more than once. A seriousness that spoke of bloodlust and lost innocence.

It was a gratifying reminder that there were people who cared about him. Sometimes it was very hard to forget that, despite everything.

"What did you want to talk about?"

"Do you remember the day we met? That night you told Blake why you wanted to become a hunter. You said you were in this world to make things better. I remember it, I remember it well."

"That's right, but what does that have to do with anything?"

"I'm lost and alone. I've tried, Ruby, I really have. I don't think anyone could say I haven't tried, but I'm not like you. I'm a very weak person, deep down."

"Don't talk about yourself like that," Ruby said. "It hurts to hear you say that."

"In fact, I'm not like any of the students at Beacon" he continued, as if he hadn't heard her.

"What do you mean by that?"

"I falsified my grades. I'm studying here because I lied, I cheated. There could be someone who deserved it more, who would have wanted it more, in my place."

"Are you being serious?"

"Why would I joke about that? You can ask Pyrrha if you want, she's the only one who knows. Apart from you, now. And Cardin."

"So that's what it was about," she said. He saw her looking through her memories, putting the pieces together.

She was much smarter than most people thought.

"Yes. He found out what I had done and he was blackmailing me, right up until that day in the forest. But I didn't come here to talk about that. I have a big task on my shoulders, and I'm not qualified for it, I know that very well."

"If I've learned anything here," Ruby said very softly, "it's that people are stronger when they're in a group. If you're not strong enough to do it on your own, then share it, spread the burden across our shoulders. Don't look at me like that. I'm your friend, Jaune. I can handle it, and I'd be happy to. That's what friends are for, right?"

Jaune shook his head.

"I can't explain the circumstances, but it's not as simple as you think. If it were, I would have gotten rid of that... 'burden' already."

"I don't know what you want from me," Ruby admitted. "You come here to ask for my help, but you keep me away from you, you refuse to tell me what's wrong. I can't do anything for you, not like this, so why did you come?"

Jaune looked out the window.

He felt like he was on the verge of tears, for some strange reason.

"I wanted you to give me strength."

"For what?"

"To be what I need to be. A hero. Ruby, tell me one thing. Do you really think we can stand up to the unfathomable darkness that plagues this world? Do you really think we can make a difference, even if we have to pay for the miracle with our lives, or die in vain? Tell me."

"It is better to light a candle than be blanketed in darkness."

He turned around, startled.

"What?"

"It was my mother's favorite phrase" she explained. There was melancholy in her tone. In her eyes, memories of better times. Before her loss of innocence. "Her motto, almost. Dad told me that it was the phrase she put under her photo in her graduation album" As she told him that little anecdote, there was nostalgia in her tone for something she had not experienced "And I think she is absolutely right, whoever wrote it. It doesn't matter if there is no hope. If it is impossible to improve things. We have to fight, Jaune. That is why we, the hunters, exist."

He gathered air into his lungs, expelling it in one gasp.

"That's what heroes do, huh? But that's nothing more than an ideal, and has little to do with reality."

"It is true that you are different from the others," she replied with a sad smile. "You don't get it, but the role of students is precisely that, to become an ideal. To breathe into the hearts of those who suffer the hope of seeing a better future. And it may have little to do with reality, as you said, at the moment, but we can make it a reality. It is our duty to do so."

Jaune was speechless.

She came closer and touched his arm. Her hand moved up to his cheek, running over it. She caressed him gently, brushing his hair out of his eyes, which was a mess as usual.

He had the feeling that she wanted to say something, he could see it in her eyes, but she also remained silent.

He wondered what she was thinking.

"Ruby…"

"Hmmm?"

"You are a true heroine. Just what this world needs," he said, and in his tone there was a bit of the person he had lost all those years ago. Himself.

"Thanks," she replied with a small smile, lowering her hand to her side. "Does that mean you've changed your mind and are going to tell me what's going on, or am I going to have to leave unsatisfied?"

He wondered what she would do if he kissed her now, if he claimed her lips. What kind of expression she would show him? If she would respond, if she would reject him, and if, in that case, they could be friends again. Her lips looked very appetizing up close. But he didn't dare.

[T/N: The F*ck! I guess they had a romance in one of his lives?!]

It wouldn't be fair, either to him or to her.

"Jaune Arc never leaves a lady unsatisfied," he said. Forcefully, but he managed it nonetheless. A small victory.

Ruby turned bright red. That was also a victory, albeit of a different kind.

"It's about the Vytal Festival," he said, turning serious. "It will progress normally at first, but there will be a massacre."

"And how do you know that?"

"It's a long story. The short version is that I witnessed it with my own eyes, when I was there, in the future."

"The faculty has to know. Why haven't you told anyone yet?"

Jaune took a step back in surprise. Not even Pyrrha had simply believed him.

"Ozpin and his group know it," he said after a moment.

"I can't believe that. If they knew, they would have canceled the festival instead of putting us all in danger."

"Well, they don't know the details," he admitted. "But they do know who the enemy is and the reason for the attack. They were prepared, or rather, they think they are prepared. The preparations did not help us at all."

"Then we can't just sit there, Jaune. Tell them everything you know."

He had expected that telling Ruby would end like this, so he wasn't as irritated as he would have been. He managed to keep his composure.

"It won't do any good."

"Jaune!"

He closed his eyes slowly.

"Okay, you win. You win."

"We'll stop by the library for a moment, tell the team not to sit around waiting for me, and then we'll be leaving. Don't back out now."

"Okay," he repeated.

Ruby was a troublesome child. She always knew how to convince him to do this or that, whatever she wanted.

Despite himself, as he followed her, he realized she was smiling.

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"I know about the Maidens of the Seasons," Jaune confessed, sitting in Ozpin's office next to Ruby, who was fidgeting in her seat as if she might bolt at any moment. As if she wanted to bring out Crescent Rose and fight. Because that was exactly how she felt. "About Amber, about Salem, and about Cinder Fall, the woman who decides to steal her power."

Ozpin stood still as a statue.

The silence was broken only by the clicking of Ruby's boots against her chair, by the birds outside, just beyond the window, singing.

It was a tense silence. 

Ozpin lowered his hands to the table and leaned back in his office chair, not taking his eyes off him. His fathomless eyes did not betray the emotions he hid within.

"Who are you really, Mister Jaune Arc, to know such things?"

"A wandering traveler."

"I admit that I have had fun doing things like this on several occasions, playing my role of a wise but somewhat eccentric old man well. But I am not in the mood for riddles right now, so I would like to get down to business."

"That's exactly what I am. But I'll get to the point, as you ask. I know that because you told me. You confided that secret to me."

"Mr. Arc, I'm getting old, but not senile. So if I had done something like that, I would remember it."

"I don't understand anything you're saying" Ruby intervened "Jaune, what does this have to do with the attack?"

"The attack?"Ozpin asked.

"They will attack the Vytal festival, but in a very subtle way, sabotaging it from within so that the Grimm will come, attracted by the accumulation of negative emotions. They will serve as a distraction and to ensure that Beacon's falls."

"You speak as if you came from the future," the ancient wizard said.

"I have. And not just once, but many times. Headmaster, you've lived a long time, as you said before. You know that I've changed too much from one day to the next, and that I haven't just been acting until now. Deep down, you know that. You have to admit it."

"That's what it seems to me. But, like any man, I make mistakes. And when men in my position make rush decisions..."

"The damage is even greater" Jaune interrupted him " Many people depend on me. So I can't just accept your words like that. Please Understand."

Ozpin frowned.

He wouldn't admit it, but he liked seeing the irritation on his face, seeing that he could break through his mask of impassivity. If only for a moment.

"We've had this conversation many times. Sometimes with Ruby present, like now, sometimes the rest of her team is here too. Sometimes both teams, hers and mine. Sometimes I'm alone."

"How is it possible that you go back in time? Is this your Semblance?"

"No," he replied, nodding toward Ruby. "She's the key. Her and her silver eyes."

"Explain yourself."

"Every single loop ends the same way. We are utterly defeated, crushed by Cinder and her dragon, by the Grimm, and she can't stand it. She screams, and somehow unleashes a strange light that envelops everything. After that, I find myself back in my bed, days before the Vystal festival starts. As if nothing had happened. As if it were a dream."

"How many times have you been through this?" he asked, with something in his voice that bordered on fear.

"I lost count a long time ago. But years, I'm sure. Whole years."

Jaune looked at the ground between his feet. He felt exhausted. A lot of effort that would probably end up for nothing again.

"Mister Arc, look at me," Ozpin asked him, but he refused. "Look at me, please."

Slowly, he raises his head and looks into the abyss inside of his Headmaster's eyes.

"I believe you. And I'm so sorry. You're one of my students, and I failed you. You shouldn't have had to go through that."

"Many things should not be. And yet, they are."

"We agree on that," he said, with a crooked smile "Yes, young Arc. You are absolutely right."

"Jaune, Headmaster Ozpin," Ruby said. "Forgive me, but I think I deserve an explanation."

"Of course" Ozpin stood up from his chair, putting his arms behind his back "Follow me."

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"Is there nothing we can do for her?" Ruby asked, unable to take her eyes off Amber, who lay in the tube, in a coma. She was destined to wake up just in time to see who killed her, to pass on her powers.

"For a long time, we have searched for an answer," Ozpin said, "and we have tried everything to make her open her eyes. But I fear that it is impossible until the person who has the other half of her power, of her soul, dies, and the fragment returns to its rightful owner."

Ruby was biting her lip.

It hurt her, of course, because she was a girl who couldn't stand to see anyone hurt. It was one of her strengths and also one of her greatest weaknesses. It had cost her in the past and it would cost her in the future.

"Have you told anyone else?" Ozpin asked.

"Yes. To Pyrrha, your candidate. Everything. Including what you just explained to Ruby, and a few other things."

"We need to prepare for the coming storm," Ozpin said grimly. "Tell me everything you remember."

Jaune was preparing himself, but not in the same way as that man.

He was preparing for everything to come crashing down again, for blood and death, and a baptism of fire. Because nothing had changed, after all. A perfect memory was not among his few qualities, but he was sure that the set of circumstances that had led to this encounter with Ozpin had already occurred once.

He wished with all his heart that things would be different this time, that he would never have to go through this again. But he couldn't.

Ruby's monologue had given him the hope to take the leap of faith, to try again, but he hadn't gotten any further. He hadn't expected the outcome to change, despite his efforts. For him, destiny was an insurmountable barrier, a gigantic wall.

Because they didn't know enough and they weren't strong enough to break it.

Not even Ozpin and the unimaginable, monstrous power he possessed.

"Yes, sir," he said, like the good soldier that he was.

Here we go again, he thought.

[T/N: Hell YEAH BROTHER! This is a longer chapter that has some forward momentum! 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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