Ignore that

It's the middle of the night on Patch island. Naturally, everyone in Xiao-Long household was feast asleep. Well...they should have been. A singular upstairs bedroom window shone through the night. Inside, a young girl in red pyjamas sat wide awake in her bed, asking an important question to the strange man that appeared in front of her bed.

"So you're like, my future husband?" An eight year old Ruby asked, scratching her head in obvious confusion.

The man, a tall regal figure with golden blond hair and a singular visible sapphire eye, the other being hidden behind a sort of eye patch. He wore a black hoodie under white armour with golden trims along with faded jeans, some sort of red sash on top of his belt and thick boots. A sword hung loosely off his hip in a gold and white sheath. He gave the girl a nervous chuckle as he nodded.

"Yeah, kinda, it's a bit more complicated... Ok a lot more complicated than that but that's essentially who I am."

Ruby's eyes flitted around her room, "A-and all the other stuff, about the world ending. All the people I care about d-dying?"

The man, John (though he openly admitted that the name was fake), had his expression turn solemn, "Yeah, all true, I should know, I was there."

He said it in a way that made Ruby feel bad for him. Usually when someone said 'I was there' they sound very proud of themselves. John didn't, he just sounded sad, "I'm sorry." The girl muttered.

John's smile came back, though it lacked the warmth of before, "Don't be, it's not your fault. Besides , we're here to stop all that from happening in the first place."

That's the other thing, we. Apparently, there's another Ruby out there, a really skilled, older Ruby with magic powers. That last part messed the girl up more than anything else. Magic, not a semblance, magic. Sure, John played it off as something unimpressive ("it's not even close to what the maidens can do") but Ruby saw some of his magic and ended up impressed either way.

"And you need my help to save the world?" She asked, having not forgotten the man's previous request.

John's hands came up in a placating gesture, "I'm not Ozpin, I won't try and force you to run away from home 'for the greater good'," he said the phrase the same way Yang said 'classical music', "the thing is, I can't go anywhere outside a mile radius of you, so if you just want to train on Patch with me, that's fine. But realistically, if you want to really get stronger, you can roll with us. It won't be easy but there's no easy way to beat Salem."

There's that name again, Salem, the Queen of all Grimm. Just the idea sent a shiver down the girl's spine, especially after she heard everything Salem had done. Killing Yang, Uncle Qrow, her dad and countless others, huntsmen and huntresses in bulk.

How could someone be so strong?

How did her future self fight someone that strong and live?

Ruby clutched her bed cover tightly, "D-Do you think we can actually beat her and save the world?" She asked, unsure of herself.

John thought about it for a moment, "I'm not sure. But it's possible," he added the last sentence after he saw her face fall, "It's definitely possible, just really hard, you'll also need to train your a-uh-butt off. Rose and I will help with that, obviously." Her face lit up slightly… before it fell once more.

"W-wait, how do I know if you're telling the truth?" It sounded stupid, even to her, she's been digesting this man's tale of the future but she didn't even know if he was making it all up or not.

John nodded with understanding and did a strange hand motion. The air to his right sparkled briefly before a glowing white line trailed downward in the same area, as if an invisible knife took to cutting through space itself.

The rip in space then widened till it was a glowing white disc about the same size as a dinner plate. John proceeded to stick his hand into the glowing disc, Ruby gasped when she realized the appendage didn't exit through the other side.

John pushed his arm in further, apparently searching for something. He was elbow deep in the strange portal thing before he let out a soft "Ah" and retracted his arm with an object in tow. He held the object forward for Ruby to see.

It was a framed photo of a couple, Ruby guessed they were getting married due to the way they were dressed. Ruby recognized the man on the left as John, even though he had both his eyes in the picture, he wore a suit on his body and a smile on his face. The woman next to him somehow managed to look even more pleased with the situation if the way her face split was anything to go by. Of course it's her features that drew the girl's attention most.

Black hair with red tips, small stature but most importantly, bright silver eyes. She wore a white frilly dress with a veil and everything. Ruby stared at the picture for longer than was really needed to understand what it showed.

"That's me?" she asked, pointing to the woman in the picture to make sure John knew exactly who she was talking about.

The man chuckled, "It is, I actually carry that picture around with me everywhere I go. You -the future you, anyway- think it's the silliest thing ever but we never really had a house we could put it down in so…" he trailed off, probably realizing that he was just rambling at that point.

Ruby looked back to the picture. She noted the way John's smile looked then and compared it to the one he wore a the moment. It wasn't the same thing, picture John looked almost disarmingly cheerful while real John looked the same way her dad looked when he was lost in thought, before suddenly noticing that one of his daughters was in front of him and changing his mood accordingly.

John spoke, breaking the girl from her thoughts, "I get how showing you a wedding photo isn't enough to convince you, but I really don't have anything else I can show you to make you believe me. Unless Rose comes here directly to do something that'll sway you. Of course, it would take a while but I don't think my past self is that hard to convince. I always had a thing for saving the world."

"What's your real name?"

John looked taken aback by the sudden question but he quickly composed himself, "It's Jaune, since your so interested, Jaune Arc."

"And you're a huntsman?"

John -or Jaune, the names were really similar- raised an eyebrow, "Yes… I've already told you this."

Ruby shifted in her bed under his questioning gaze. Nevertheless, she forged on, "Are you good, like, really really good?"

John raised a hand to stroke his hairless chin in contemplation. He eventually came through with a shrug, "We didn't exactly rank ourselves so I'm not sure. I guess I'm pretty good, I haven't lost a fight to another huntsman- except you- in a year or so. Does that count for something?"

Ruby sat and thought, and thought,and thought. After what had to be several minutes, she spoke again.

"Okay, I believe you."

John sputtered, completely caught off guard, "Ruby, you shouldn't be so trusting," he scolded, "what if I'm the bad guy? I could be trying to kidnap you."

"Then wouldn't you have already done it?" John tilted his head in query, "You just said yourself that you're a huntsman. You could have just scooped me up and jumped out the window. Uncle Qrow does it all the time."

"But you would have woken up and screamed." John countered.

"Then you could have gassed me or used that rag thing in the movies. Besides, what's the point of a long and winding fake tale of time travel and magic? Especially involving photoshopped wedding photos and portal thingies. It seems like too much hard work to me."

John fixed her with a stare,"...You know you're very articulate for an eight year old."

The girl blinked in confusion, "What's an atikoolade?" she asked.

The man shook his head, "That's not important." Then his tone took a serious edge, "So, now that you believe me, are you willing to help? It won't be easy or very fun, and you won't get to see your family for a while but hey, that's the price of heroism." the serious tone was replaced with cynicism near the end while his expression started to turn bitter.

None of this dissuaded the girl though, she crawled out of bed, " Alright, let's go save the world."

###

The Arc household was quiet, this is a rarity since it houses 10 people, eight of them being minors. Naturally, with 10 people under one roof there is rarely a time when everyone is asleep, so one should not be too surprised to find the only son of Arc family to be wide awake in his room. It should, however, raise some eyebrows as to why the boy is awake at this time.

"You're saying I become really strong and cool and I get to save the world?" he asked, his eyes wide with wonder.

He was sitting cross legged on the floor of his family's basement in a baby blue onesie, having a conversation with a woman with black to red hair and silver eyes, she wore a red and black corset and dress along with a red cloak and black boots.

The woman, Rose -or Ruby but she preferred Rose- tilted her head and narrowed her eyes into slits of silver, "I said a lot of things, including how dangerous it is, how you won't see your family for a while and a host of other things that should really dissuade someone from doing something like this."

Jaune pondered this for a moment, then he nodded, "Yeah, but my dad says nothing great is ever easy to get. So I'm with you all the way." the sentence was punctuated with the bravest face Jaune could muster. This was his chance, he can finally train and become the like the huntsmen in the stories his parents used to tell him. How could he pass up this kind of opportunity? It's not like this happens every day.

Rose paused for a moment before nodding, "Okay, pack your things, we leave now." she said, standing up.

Jaune followed her lead as they crept out of the basement and up the stairs. Rose's steps were near silent while his were quite the opposite. With her back turned, the boy noticed a strange metallic red and black rectangular box sticking out from the side of her cloak.

'That must be her weapon' the boy thought, though he didn't know what a box was going to do in a fight, he figured he shouldn't doubt the huntress's prowess.

Rose must have been really good at moving around in the dark because she navigated her way through to Jaune's room even better than he could, and it's his room.

Once inside, Jaune quickly changed into a simple orange t-shirt with shorts and sneakers. He packed his Pumpkin Pete backpack with extra clothes and snacks he had hidden in his drawer (Ha! Take that, Jade).

Rose cracked open the window to the outside and stepped on the roof, she closed the window behind her once Jaune climbed through.

"So how do we get down?" he asked, eyeing the drop nervously.

Rose smiled sweetly at him but under the light of the shattered moon, the boy noticed a cheeky glitter in those silver orbs, "Oh y'know, we jump, obviously."

The boy paled, "H-ha ha, funny, so h-"

Rose pushed him off.

It was a very heroic scream that escaped the blond's mouth as he sailed through open air. The flailing of his arms was also done in a very heroic manner. So as the ground grew ever closer, the heroic shutting of his eyes and bracing for impact was naturally expected.

An impact that never came.

Jaune's first thought was that his math was wrong and he was still falling. After a few seconds though, he decided to peek through one eye.

The ground was right there, but it wasn't getting any closer. The grass was rustling violently as if the wind suddenly picked up for some reason.

'In fact, it is pretty windy for some reason,' the boy mentally said, thoroughly calmed due to his new found levitation ability.

Before he could contemplate further, the wind stopped, he fell on the grass face first.

Picking himself up, the boy turned and gaped at the sight of Rose drifting downwards slowly with the aid of some kind of cyclone around her legs and feet. She touched down as the mini tornado faded away, she then stepped forward and ruffled Jaune's hair, breaking him from his stupor.

"C'mon, we need to get as far from here as possible if we want to escape your family's inevitable search."

Jaune nodded. It's time for life to truly begin, his family will understand.

Probably.