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October 21st, 2002 AA 9:47 AM
Radian, Gallia, Vale, North Sanus
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Doc burst back into his lab, charging in before diving into the various filing cabinets and computers left around. Jaune, Ruby and Yang followed. Jaune's face was deeply concerned, while Ruby was excited and Yang was confused.
"No no no, why is everything-Did you organize everything?" Doc demanded Jaune. Jaune shook his head.
"No Doc, of course not! Um... Ruby did it. She's the engineer."
"Well thanks, now I can't find anything!" Doc huffed. Ruby winced.
"Um, sorry Doctor Brown..."
"I appreciate that a fellow scientist," Doc found a rubber ducky, squeezed it for the squeak, then tossed it over his shoulder, "Needs a space reflective of their inner mind to work best," He held up a pair of racy panties, and raised an eyebrow. Jaune and Yang blushed.
"Um, mine?" Yang managed. Doc tossed it to her, then raised his eyebrow at Jaune. He coughed.
"Ah... I think the memories are catching up with me, Doc... Sorry."
Ruby blushed bright red.
"You two-In the lab-!"
"Oh, it's no worse than what Clara and I have done," Doc chuckled, digging through another cabinet and tossing back a revolver, a Beowulf plushy, and a pair of walkie talkies, "You'd be amazed how liberated a 19th century woman can be-"
"Doc, please," Jaune groaned, as Yang and Ruby paled.
"Anyway!" Doc said quickly, finally pulling a pack of chalk from the cabinet. He rushed over to the old fashioned blackboard Ruby had covered in diagrams, before flipping it over to the unused side, "To break it down simply: When I originally invented the time machine, I thought the two most likely forms that time travel could take were: A, self contained loop time travel."
He drew a loop on the blackboard, and marked off two points on either side of the circle.
"That is, you went back in time and you were ALWAYS meant to go back in time so you were ALWAYS back there in the past, meaning no paradox resulted!" Doc crossed that out, then shifted over and drew one line, before drawing two branches, "Or, B: Multiverse theory. Every time you jump back in time, you create a parallel universe where you were there, different from the original reality where you weren't."
"But instead," Ruby chirped, "You found out that it's more like Professor Niven's theory of Dynamic Time travel! Where you CAN change things in the past, and the timeline changes accordingly!"
Doc turned and nodded with a broad smile.
"Yes! Very good, young lady!"
Ruby beamed. Yang looked even more lost. Jaune, used to Doc's patter, just smiled a bit in nostalgia despite his concern.
Doc turned back to the blackboard and scribbled a wavy line through both theories.
"Though it turns out even Doctor Niven's theories were inadequate to explain the complexities of temporal displacement! In a way, all three theories can be true depending on the precise temporal alignment factors!"
"So, wait," Jaune blinked, "What, you mean I was always supposed to go back in time and change things?"
"Possibly! There's still so much we don't know about time travel," Doc said with a nod. He pulled out the future newspaper and held it out. "For instance! The original 2030 we went to has remained in a state of temporal flux since we visited! And the newspaper reflects this! Look! It changed again!"
Indeed, the "APOCALYPSE: NOW?" headline changed to a completely blank roll of newspaper. Jaune frowned as he examined the print out.
"Why is it blank now?"
"Most likely it means that nothing was printed on this piece of paper, suggesting many possibilities," Doc stated, rushing about the lab almost frantically, "The printer for this newspaper was destroyed, or damaged, or ran out of ink! The building it was in may have collapsed-There are multiple reasons! But the flux is still active, meaning that whatever event led to that occurring is still a possibility!"
The newspaper shifted again, to one about... Jaune blinked.
"Huh? That's us!"
Yang and Ruby crowded around. A picture of Jaune, Ruby, and Yang standing in front of the gates of Vacuo appeared. The headline read: "TEAMS RWBY AND JNOR ARRIVE: IMMINENT DOOM FOR US ALL?"
"Wait, imminent Doom?" Yang demanded. "Time travel? I... What the hell is going on?!"
She glared at Jaune.
"Seriously, I have been so damn confused since this started, I've had to keep myself from punching something!"
"Please don't, there's a lot of sensitive equipment in here," Jaune sighed. Something banged, and the teenagers jumped. Doc sat up from behind a desk, his hair smoking.
"Oh, that's not it. Don't mind me!" Doc said, waving his hand. "Is it the Vacuo one?"
"Yeah?" Jaune said.
"That's fairly common," Doc said with a nod, "Apparently in one reality, Pyrrha dies at Vytal, and you all go on a globe trotting adventure after Cinder Fall!"
"Who's this twink boy?" Yang asked with a snort, pointing at a dusky young man with cane standing nervously in the picture.
"Latest host for Ozpin," Doc said.
"Huh?!" Jaune, Ruby and Yang all gasped.
"Long story, spoilers, don't worry about it!" Doc stated. "You explain things to your girlfriend, Jaune!"
Doc rushed off to another cabinet full of tools. Jaune sighed and turned to the expectant Yang.
"Okay, so... Just before I started at Beacon, I became Doc's assistant. He promised me beer and lien to help him with his science experiments and clean up the place. And he, uh... Well, he invented a time machine, and... Things got a little complicated..."
"He kissed his own mom!" Ruby added. Jaune groaned.
"RUBY! Do you HAVE to keep bringing that up?!"
"Ruby knew?!" Yang demanded. Jaune coughed.
"I mean, she and Penny kind of figured it out-"
"Great Scott!" Doc gasped. "You mean to tell me the Atlasian Military's most advanced gynoid knows all about the time machine?!"
"I mean, I didn't tell her everything!" Jaune insisted, "And she promised she'd keep it a secret! Besides, don't you know her dad?"
"Yes, but those college beer parties were a long time ago," Doc sighed. He pulled out a spark plug and added it to the collection of pieces and parts he'd been assembling.
"So... You kissed your mom?" Yang asked dryly. Jaune shook his head.
"Basically I interrupted the moment when my parents would actually fall in love and uh... Had to get creative to ensure they hooked up. It did work out in the end-"
"And then he created a nightmarish alternate reality where some guy named Rais became the richest and most powerful man in Vale," Ruby chirped up, "Who killed his dad and married his mom and made us his maids-"
"His what?!" Yang demanded.
"You told her about that, too?!" Doc demanded, now using a soldering iron on some components. Jaune sighed.
"I kind of had to! To make sure she knew how dangerous time travel was!"
"And then they ended up in 1900 and had to push the Gelorean time machine up to 88 mph with a train, sending the train over an incomplete bridge and into Westwood Ravine!" Ruby concluded.
Yang gaped in disbelief at Jaune, who was rubbing the back of his head nervously.
"Wait... You were Slynt Westwood?! The guy who went into that ravine?!"
"Er... Yeah, and the actor took the name apparently," Jaune shrugged, "I couldn't exactly use my real name, could I?"
"And today," Ruby concluded, bouncing up and down on her heels, "Jaune took the Gelorean back to the Vytal attack to save Pyrrha! Though um..." She eyed Yang's arm, "He also did some other things."
"What other things?" Yang demanded.
Jaune sighed.
- - -
June 1st, 2002, 03:12 PM
Beacon Academy, Vale, Central Sanus
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The smart thing to do would have been to just wait by Beacon's tower with the Gelorean under optical camo. To not interfere any more than he had to.
Jaune had tried. Breaker Above, he had tried.
But he couldn't just stand by while all those innocent people suffered. So... He'd donned his old Slynt Westwood park and hat, put on a bandanna, taken his Dust shotgun and revolver, and set the Gelorean to wait for him in stealth mode.
He'd started simply and as discretely as he could: Taking out Grimm around the base of the Tower. He'd trained to shoot with a shotgun pretty well, given he was a farm boy. He also had plenty of rounds, and good aim.
Unfortunately, he'd had to deal with some White Fang soldiers who opened fire on them. He returned fire easily, but he'd had to run and take some cover in a study room. He was ducking underneath a window, reloading... When he heard it.
"Adam!"
Jaune looked up. He saw Blake staring at a tall, redheaded Faunus man in black. He was carrying a blood red katana, and sneering.
"Mi amor... I found you at last."
"I-I won't run!" Blake gasped, pale in fright even as she went for Gambol Shroud.
"You will," Adam sneered. He moved, fencing with Blake furiously. He knocked her weapon out of her hand, and smacked her in the face with the flat end of the blade. He then kicked her.
"UGH!"
Jaune gritted his teeth. He couldn't interfere... He couldn't...!
"YOU!"
He saw Yang leaping for Adam, her Aura ablaze. He saw her extending her fist-The one that Adam would cut off.
I can't interfere-!
Jaune rose and fired his shotgun at Adam. The White Fang leader took the first hit, then swung. He unleashed a Moonslice at Yang, point blank.
"DUCK!" Jaune screamed. Yang dropped down, a few hairs cut loose from the top of her head. She got back up, and barely blocked Adam's next sword blow. The force of it still sent her flying into the nearby wall.
Jaune laid down a withering hail of cover fire, Adam deflected every shot, charging him.
"You'll regret this, human," Adam snarled. He swung and unleashed another Moonslice. Jaune dropped to his knees and let loose with his revolvers. Two rounds hit Adam and staggered him as the Moonslice flew over Jaune's head. The blast knocked his hat off, but Jaune got right back up and switched to his sword. He swung furiously, fencing with Adam as best he could...
The White Fang leader was better, as he parried and knocked Crocea Mors right out of his hand. Jaune stared at the red tip of the katana. Adam snarled.
"Time to put you down-!"
Shotgun blasts at point blank from Yang's Ember Celica struck Adam in his side. He swung his blade again, and Yang leaped up over the Moonslice he unleashed to fire more rounds. Jaune charged and shoulder checked Adam, allowing Yang to get a punch in on the Faunus' chin.
"AUGH!" He cried, flying backwards through the nearby wall. Yang and Jaune were left standing there, panting for breath. Yang looked over at him, and stared.
"Jaune? How the hell did you get down here?!"
Jaune paled. His bandanna had slipped off. He shook his head.
"N-Nevermind that! He's down but he's not out," Jaune said. "The Sith Family has a Bullhead. They're friends of mine. You gotta get Ruby and anyone else you can to Landing Pad B! We'll all get to Radian that way!"
"I can't just leave-!" Yang protested, but Jaune shook his head.
"You have to. Please, Yang. For me? I'll be there in an hour, but you have to trust me. Please?"
Yang stared at him. She then slowly nodded.
"I... All right," she said, "I owe you one for saving me."
Jaune shrugged, and smiled a bit.
"Friends don't carry debts," he said simply. "Now, get Blake and-"
The black cat Faunus had vanished. Jaune grimaced, as Yang looked around.
"Blake? BLAKE!"
In the original timeline, Blake had run off after dropping Yang at the Bullhead landing platform. He could only hope she had followed the script this time. If not...
Can't think about that now!
"No time!" Jaune insisted. "Get going! I've gotta go back up Pyrrha!"
Yang slowly nodded.
"All right... But don't you go dying on me, Vomit Boy." She pulled him into a kiss. "Mwah..."
"Ah...?" Jaune managed. Yang blushed, and shrugged.
"What? You manned up and good. I think that deserves a kiss, right VB?"
"Same to you, Firecracker," Jaune shot back with a smile.
Yang ran off. Jaune whipped out his Scroll, and brought up the Rocket Locker Control Network. Yup, there he was: About to land on the outskirts of the campus. He adjusted the course... And then sent a short text to his other self's scroll.
"Hopefully, I'll know what I'm doing," Jaune muttered. The message was sent and the Rocket Locker changed course: Not too far from where he had landed, but just close enough he could have believably been in this area. He let out a sigh.
"I think it's time to get to the Gelorean again," he muttered. He hated having to wait... But if he kept interfering, who knew what might happen?
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