Chapter Text
Jaune relaxed against the bulkhead of the Bullhead airship, smiling a bit as he sat on the bench. Arslan was on one side of him, while Emerald was on the other. Yang and Ruby were across the passenger compartment, Ruby still pouting a bit. May lingered near them with Pyrrha, sitting on the bench. Weiss and Blake were squabbling again nearby, while their various kids all watched with varying levels of exasperation or amusement. Winter stood nearby Penny and Glynda ahead, closer to the cockpit.
"It was nice going to church again, I guess," Yang commented.
Emerald shrugged.
"I've only been there to uh... Rob them. Or for free food," she admitted.
"I found it fascinating!" Penny chirped, "How about you, Friend Ruby?"
"It was kind of boring, though the singing part was fun!" Ruby enthused.
Arslan nodded.
"Pastor Trenton does tend to ramble," she admitted, "But he does have great insights."
"It's been a long time since I had a Sunday off," Glynda said, clearing her throat a bit. Winter nodded.
"S-Same," she said.
"I do not believe in the same way," Pyrrha admitted, "But I did like the sense of fellowship."
Weiss broke off her argument with Blake and sighed. She stalked over, standing in front of Jaune. Blake was only a step behind, still scowling at her.
"Church back in Atlas was just an excuse for my father to look good," Weiss sniffed, "So... This wasn't all bad."
"If you could stop making business connections for five minutes," Blake snorted.
"You couldn't shut up about Faunus and religion!" Weiss shot back.
"We did have to pull you away twice, Blake," Yang grinned, "Guess we shouldn't have let the cat out of the bag, huh?"
"Ugh," Ruby and Blake groaned. Penny laughed.
"Ahahaha! Because she is a Cat Faunus! Hilarious!"
Everyone stared at Penny for a bit. Jaune sighed.
"Yeah, that is kind of funny," he said, though he looked carefully at Blake. She flushed and shook her head.
"It... I'm fine, really," she assured them, "I know I have a tendency to be... Uh..."
"Thin-skinned?" Weiss snorted.
"Look who's talking!" Blake growled.
"Wow, it's like we didn't even go back in time," Theodore observed. Winter scowled.
"Theodore!"
"Am I wrong?" He posed to his sort-of siblings. All the other kids nodded or avoided looking at their parents.
"He really isn't," Leander said.
"You guys just seem to fight for fun," Leandra stated. "I thought that's how you made friends. Boy, was my face red after I argued with half my class."
"Same," Nicholas moaned.
Jaune laughed. A few others did, too. His eyes rested on May, who had not stopped looking pensive and nervous since they set out.
"Hey, May? You okay?" Jaune asked kindly.
Pyrrha hesitated before she squeezed the shorter girl's shoulder. May took a deep breath.
"I-I'm fine," she mumbled, "I'm just... Uh... I mean, the service was nice! My parents... Adopted parents, I guess... Practiced the Pandu religion um, I did go to a few Tablebreaker churches... Mainly for the free food."
"It's about your parents, huh?" Emerald asked, though not unkindly. May flushed and nodded. She snorted and leaned back.
"Hey, at least you still have some."
"Speak for yourself," Weiss muttered.
"You have nothing to worry about, May," Glynda said in a gentler tone than usual. "Arjun and Saia went to Beacon with me. I know their characters. They are wonderful people."
"They do love my family, me, and their son very much," Jaune further encouraged her, getting up to stand across from her with a warm smile. "My dad told me how devastated they were to lose you. I know they'll love you."
May winced.
"I... I did name my son after the man who kidnapped me," she mumbled. August walked over to his mother and shook his head.
"Grandpa Arjun understood. The guy wasn't a monster. I mean, yeah, he took you away, but he did try to raise you and loved you," August said kindly. "You have a great relationship with them in my time!"
"This is going to be pretty awkward for all of us," Yang sighed, "But hey. Least your parents are good people, right?"
"R-Right," May mumbled. Ruby beamed and bumped her happily.
"And hey! You're a princess now! Isn't that neat?"
May looked far more frightened than she had before. Ruby winced as the sniper girl began to mutter under her breath.
"Um, whoops?"
"It's all right," Glynda said kindly, "You will all meet your parents, and we'll sort this all out in a calm, rational manner."
Pyrrha winced. Jaune looked over at the redhead. Arslan also looked concerned. Pyrrha sighed.
"Y-Yeah... Sure," she muttered.
"What about your parents, Miss Goodwitch?" Jaune asked, trying to distract from Pyrrha's reluctance. "Um, I mean, I'll do my best-"
"You needn't worry about it," Glynda said calmly, "They died in a Grimm attack when I graduated Beacon."
Much wincing occurred. Jaune walked up to Glynda and hesitated before he extended an arm to rest on her bicep comfortingly.
"I'm sorry," he said softly. Glynda nodded.
"I've... Had time to process and grieve, but thank you," she said. Winter nodded in sympathy.
"It will... Be difficult. More for some than others," she said carefully, "But I'm... I'm confident we will resolve everything."
"If Mother even bothers to show up," Weiss grumbled.
"She will arrive today; she said so herself," Glynda said calmly.
Winter and Weiss wore identical grimaces at this. Jaune shook his head, and Ruby stood by him.
"Like Winter said, I'm confident we'll resolve everything," he said with a smile. He looked at his many children. "Right?"
"Well," Xia mumbled, rubbing the back of her head, "Uh, I mean, mostly? Though I think Aunt Ruby is still kind of pining for you in my timeline, Dad."
"I am?!" Ruby gasped.
"She is?" Yang growled.
"And you're still single and just wandering around in mine," Julian volunteered. "I like your cats, though! They're friendly!"
"Urk!" Yang gasped.
Blake looked extremely smug. Theodore hummed.
"Really? In my timeline, Auntie Blake was cheating on Uncle Sun and Aunt Yang, and it caused a huge scandal."
"Ack!" Blake cried. Yang glared at the cat Faunus. Weiss smirked at her.
"Weird," Amethyst hummed, "Auntie Weiss keeps visiting our house in skimpier and skimpier clothing. You're super annoyed with it, Mom."
"I would never!" Weiss cried, her cheeks red. Emerald shot her a glare. Arslan sighed.
Well, at least her daughter wasn't stirring things up-.
"Oh? Aunt Pyrrha does the same thing!" Petra observed with a hint of mischief in her eyes, "Like, constantly. Even follows Dad into the bathroom sometimes!"
Arslan sighed in mild annoyance as Pyrrha went bright red.
"Yeah, same here," Ash smirked. The Invincible Girl squeaked.
"All the time, it's kind of getting weird," Theodore threw out, as Pyrrha looked faint.
"GUYS!" Xander cried, red-cheeked and scandalized.
Jaune groaned.
"Okay, enough of that!" He barked.
"Honestly, act your age!" Glynda added.
"We kind of are," Ash pointed out.
"Yeah," Ashley smirked, "And we're not students, so what are you gonna do?"
"I'll ground you," Jaune growled. "All of you."
"For what? We could be telling the truth, ya know!" Julian protested. Jaune's glare intensified. The children all winced.
"Sorry," they muttered in a confused chorus.
Jaune noticed that a lot of warm looks were being directed at him from his future wives. He did his best not to pay them any mind. He was just doing what his dad had done on many occasions. It wasn't anything special.
"That's better," Jaune said with a nod. He looked over at Penny. "When are we gonna get back to Beacon, Penny?"
The gynoid beamed.
"We will arrive in five minutes, twenty-seven seconds! However, we are being redirected to an auxiliary landing pad as there has been a massive incident at the main pads!"
"What kind of incident?" Glynda demanded, as the air of joviality fell away, and everyone got serious. Penny tilted her head.
"Some kind of attack-"
"Take us to the site of the attack immediately!" Winter barked to the pilot. The pilot winced.
"Er, ma'am, we've been told to"
"The directions are overridden by my authority and hers," Glynda stated firmly. "Get us there!"
"Yes ma'am!"
"Do you think our parents are involved?" Weiss asked worriedly.
"Come on Weisscream," Yang snorted, "What are the odds of that?"
They touched down and emerged onto the wrecked airship field. Several firefighting Bullheads were putting out fires with hoses, while a cordon was set up around the area to keep any onlookers away. Glynda almost immediately went to work, waving her riding crop and letting her Semblance begin to repair the damage to the grounds and various aircraft.
Near the center of this chaos, Jaune tensed. A familiar tall blonde man with a beard and gigantic sword cheerfully and loudly talked with Headmaster Ozpin, while an equally familiar shorter blonde woman in a green dress, lab coat, stockings, and glasses argued more seriously next to him. Several other people were around them. All of whom turned and looked over at the group emerging from the Bullhead.
"Pyrrha!"
"Mother, Orestes," Pyrrha returned, just before a redheaded woman in a red dress practically tackled her. It did nothing to the much stronger Pyrrha, but the dead-eyed look in her eyes was not faked at all. A dark-haired man with gray streaks in his hair and a black suit walked up, smoking in some exasperation as Pyrrha's mother cried out dramatically.
"MY PRECIOUS BABY! WHERE DID I GO WRONG?!" She wailed.
Pyrrha didn't even bother with a smile, she just looked exhausted. Xander gave her a nervous but encouraging smile.
"There there...?"
"BLAKE!"
"BLAKE!"
Blake cringed nervously as a tall panther Faunus man with dark clothing and a beard hugged her on one side, and an attractive older black cat Faunus woman in black robes hugged her on the other.
"You're pregnant! It's wonderful!" Kali cried happily.
"Where's Jaune Arc?! I'm going to beat him senseless!" Ghira growled. "And then find me, Adam! I'll rip HIM apart!"
"Uh, h-hey, Mom and Dad," she managed.
Weiss looked smug... Before her mother, butler, and little brother approached. Her eyes widened, and she cleared her throat.
"H-Hello Mother, Klein, Whitley," she managed. Winter stood by her, a bit awkwardly. Willow actually smiled.
"It's good to see you well... I can't tell you how... Um... Confused, I am. Though pleasantly." She looked over at Jaune with a blush.
"The spitting image of his father," she sighed.
"Mother?!" Winter and Weiss asked in disbelief. Klein raised an eyebrow as Whitley smirked.
"Congratulations on actually fornicating. I've heard that can be difficult for you two."
"WHITLEY!" Winter, Weiss, Willow, and Klein all shouted. The white haired boy winced.
"Wow, boy Weiss is kind of cute," Ruby observed.
"In a femboy sort of way," Emerald added.
Whitley flushed.
"I AM NOT A FEMBOY!" He protested angrily.
A tall blond man in a brown vest and shorts ran up and hugged Yang and Ruby, while a dark-haired man with a giant sword walked up to Jaune.
"Yang! Ruby! At last, you've fulfilled my dreams!" Taiyang cried.
"What dreams?" Yang demanded.
"Marrying a well-off- I mean, a good guy!" Taiyang insisted. Ruby grimaced.
"Dad! It hasn't happened yet-!'
"It had better," Qrow growled, pointing a sword at Jaune. The blond gulped. Winter pulled away from her mother and knocked Qrow's sword away with her own. Penny took up a defensive stance in front of Jaune.
"Would you mind NOT threatening my future husband?" Winter demanded. Qrow choked.
"YOU TOO!?" He glared at Jaune. "You damn harem protagonists are all alike!"
"Huh?!" Jaune cried. "N-No, I'm not-!"
"HA! Like you ever had a chance!" Winter sniffed.
"Well, I might have!" Qrow protested. "But hey, least you're not a cradle robber like Glynda-HEY!"
Glynda waved her riding crop, and Qrow was flipped upside down onto his face. He groaned.
"Nice to see you too, Glynda," he muttered.
A pair of dark skinned blonds, a man and a woman, approached Arslan. Arslan bowed, as did Petra.
"Mother, Father," she said, "My motherhood is unexpected but-"
"Time travel, we got it," Logos chuckled, as Barsara sighed.
"No dramatic timing."
"Well, that's why you were the actress, dear," Logos smiled. "And you must be our granddaughter?"
"Petra," Petra introduced herself.
The two hugged Arslan and Petra tightly together. Though without as much blubbering and guilting as Blake was getting.
"Hello Jaune," intoned a familiar voice. Jaune winced and turned away to face... His parents. Penny respectfully stepped out of the way as Nick and Isabel stared at him. Godfather Arjun and Godmother Saia stood back a respectful distance, watching him with amused and encouraging looks.
He stared back at his parents and took a deep breath.
"Hello, Mom. Hello, Dad-URK!"
Nick grabbed him in a tight hug.
"Hahahaha! That's my boy!" Nick cheered. "You're the manliest man who ever lived, son! Great job!"
"D-DAD!" Jaune choked. "IT'S NOT LIKE THAT!"
"Then what is it like?!" Isabel demanded with a glare. She then glared at Glynda, who blushed. "You're a damn teacher and you-you just formed a gigantic harem for him?!"
"N-no, I didn't!" Glynda insisted. Dorothy sighed.
"It's all right, Grandma! It ' s- It hasn't happened yet-!"
"Grandma?! I am not that old!" Isabel protested. "I mean, yes, I am a grandmother, but he's still a toddler! And I suppose all these other girls are pregnant! I'M NOT THAT OLD!"
Dorothy rolled her eyes.
"No, I mean, you're our actual grandma! Thanks to time travel!"
Isabel started. She looked around at the other future children, eyes widening in growing shock.
Julian and Xia waved. Leandra and Leander beamed. Theodore shot a smug grin, while Nicholas waved awkwardly. Ash and Ashley beamed as well, synchronized perfectly. August sighed and shrugged. Petra looked away from her mother's parents and nodded grimly. Amethyst, standing with Emerald, offered a nervous wave. Xander coughed and then shrugged.
"Hi, Granny Isabel and Grandpa Nick!" They all announced.
Nick blinked a few times. Isabel gaped in utter disbelief. Glynda facepalmed.
"Wha... WHAT?!" Isabel cried. "That's ridiculous! Magic, immortals, time travel-next you're gonna tell me that Arjun and Saia's long-lost daughter is here too!"
"Ummmm..."
May stepped out of the Bullhead. Arjun and Saia both stared intently at her. August stepped next to her, and waved awkwardly at his mother's parents.
Arjun moved like a gust of wind, practically teleporting in front of May. His eyes glowed as he looked her over, his hands resting on her shoulders. Saia was only a few steps behind, grabbing onto May's other arm.
"... Maia?" Arjun whispered.
"Is... Is it you?" Saia asked, her eyes filling with tears.
May managed a slow nod, her own eyes wet.
"Y-Yes... It's me... M-Mother... Father...?"
Arjun smiled, hugged his long lost daughter... Then fell into a dead faint, still holding her in his arms. Saia hugged May so tightly the sniper choked a bit as both of her birth parents collapsed against her.
"MAIAAAAA!" Saia wailed, crying hard. August smiled encouragingly at his frightened mother.
"It's okay, it's okay," he said.
Nick blinked a few times. Jaune looked up at his father, wondering what his response would be.
The mighty paladin blinked a few more times... Before he threw his head back and laughed.
"YES! BEST DAY EVER! COME TO MY ARMS, GRANDKIDS! I WILL SPOIL YOU ALL WITH LOUD ELECTRONIC TOYS AND CANDY!"
"WOOHOO!" Julian cheered.
Isabel, at a complete loss for words, just buried her face in her hands and moaned.
Ozpin sighed as he settled into the chair at the head of the Poucet Lecture Hall's conference room. The room was on the first floor of the Lecture Hall, which was a newer addition to Beacon. Built only five years ago when the school's budget experienced an unexpected windfall after a former alumni, a Poucet Thumbling, left half of his fortune to the school in his will. The old Lord Lear Lecture Hall had been showing its age, so it didn't take the school long to decide what to do with the extra money.
The Headmaster had chosen to hold this meeting here not just because it was large enough to comfortably seat everyone involved within earshot of one another, but also because there were several smaller and more private meeting rooms directly across the hallway he expected the families to use once he had concluded the primary meeting.
He had started the day with a simple yet straightforward plan for this meeting: He would bring all the parents in and sit down with them and explain the situation to them before calling in their children and their time-displaced grandchildren. It would have been a nice and relatively smooth introduction that would have given him a chance to head off any potential negative reactions...
...Mostly he wanted to be sure Isabel wouldn't try to kill Glynda.
Raven threw a wrench in that plan. Fortunately, the completely uncontrolled introductions at the airfield, while messy, hadn't turned violent. They had also been just as confusing as they were dramatic, and it had taken far too long to get everyone corralled into the conference room and into their seats.
Everyone was grouped up with their families; a straightforward arrangement that nobody objected to, even though some probably wished they could. There was a subtle and uneasy tension amongst the Schnees, like thin ice over a turbulent river. Pyrrha looked like she wished someone was between her and her blubbering mother. The Belladonnas had Blake firmly in the middle as if they were boxing her in so she couldn't run off; Blake in turn looked like she was fighting her own urges to attempt just that.
On the other end of the spectrum, the Altans were all clearly content to be in each other's presence, while Ruby and Yang seemed to be relieved that their father and uncle were being supportive.
Jaune seemed to be caught between optimism and dread, which was understandable between his father's joviality and his mother's broiling exasperation with everything. It didn't help that he was getting glares from Ghira, Taiyang, Qrow, Athena's butler, and Klein.
"Alright then," Ozpin began as he looked the assembled grandparents in the eyes, "Since I now have your attention, I'd like to introduce all of you to Moses Nebogipfel. In the hopes of removing all reasonable doubts he's going to display his Semblance in action." The Headmaster looked to his son, "Are you ready?"
"Yeah, I'm ready," Moses affirmed softly, before he flickered like a video skipping a few frames. The young man was now holding a set of black and white fighting gloves with dust slots in the palms and armor around the knuckles. He walked over to Isabel, then presented his prize to the Arc matriarch.
"These are your combat gloves, Mrs. Arc? Battement they're called, I believe?"
Isabel frowned thoughtfully.
"They look that way," she admitted slowly.
"Can you tell any differences between this pair and the one you currently have?"
Isabel took the gloves in her left hand and compared them to the gloves she pulled from her pockets with her right. Isabel knew her Battement. She knew them like she knew her own face in the mirror. She scrutinized the gloves with eyes far keener than any normal human, with fingers far more sensitive, both taking in almost microscopic imperfections unique to the gloves she wore almost every day.
"They're… identical," She admitted, with a small amount of wonder. She took a sniff with a nose far more sensitive than a bloodhound Faunus could hope to have and took in her own scent that was present in a strength that could only come from years of use. She shook her head.
"Even the best duplication Semblances would have a hard time creating something this exact. Nick, do you see anything wrong with them?"
Nick took the second set of his wife's gloves, and gave them a careful look over. While not as familiar with her weapons as she was, Nick knew the feel of her hand in his, and Battement was frequently part of that.
"They're just like the originals," Nick admitted, grinning in astonishment, "Incredible!"
"That's cause they are the originals," Moses explained, "I'm going to be grabbing them from Mrs. Arc and taking it back in time in three... two... one."
A second Moses flickered into existence and put his hand on the Battement Isabel was holding, and with a second flicker, the second Moses and the gloves were gone. Isabel took her gloves back from Nick with a look of contemplation on her face.
"I hope that's sufficient proof of time travel for this conversation," Ozpin began, before being interrupted by the youngest Schnee.
"No it's not!" Whitley objected with a scowl, standing up. "It could still be a duplication Semblance with Mr. and Mrs. Arc in on this scheme to tie my sisters-"
Moses flickered out of existence again, only to flicker back holding a second Whitley by the collar of his expensive shirt.
"Bwah?!"
The first Whitley fell silent as the two identical boys stared at each other in shock. Then a second Moses flickered into existence next to the first Whitley, who proceeded to grab the Schnee boy by the collar of his shirt before they both flickered away.
Whitley silently left Moses' side and returned to his seat beside his mother with a cowed expression on his face. Willow grabbed her son tightly, and the boy was too shocked to protest.
Nick was grinning like a loon, as was Ruby. Ozpin hid a small smile at their enthusiasm.
"Anyone else need a demonstration?" Moses asked dryly. After nobody volunteered, Moses looked to Ozpin and shrugged, "Back to you I guess."
"Right," Ozpin adjusted his glasses. "So, with the existence of time travel established, let's start from the top so we're all on the same page: Several years from now Moses will be experimenting with his Semblance trying to find the hard limits of his abilities. Assisting him are some of his good friends, the children of Jaune Arc. At some point in the experimentation, Jaune Arc's eldest volunteers to help Moses see if he can bring other people with him on his time jumps. Now Jaune Arc's second oldest has a Semblance that lets them supercharge other people's auras at a distance, and they decided to supercharge Moses while he was attempting to do a time jump with Jaune's eldest. As a result, Moses jumped back in time significantly farther than he intended, and now he can't jump far enough forward to return to his own time."
A low murmuring flowed through the room as the grandparents regarded the time-displaced children. The idea that their grandchildren had traveled through time was already a shock that needed time to adjust to; the idea that their grandchildren were stuck here was another shock on top of that. The prevailing tune of the muttering was sympathetic, so Ozpin decided to let it run its course.
The Headmaster then continued once the worst of the murmuring had died down, "That brings us to yesterday morning, when Moses arrived with Jaune Arc's eldest in tow. Apparently the events that started Jaune Arc's romantic relationship with his wife was going to happen at a party yesterday evening, and it was a party that could have gone many different ways. Since Moses' time jump took him and Jaune's eldest to a point in time before Jaune was in a relationship with his wife a temporal uncertainty occurred, and the resulting paradox meant Moses arrived here with every possible version of Jaune Arc's eldest child that could have resulted from the party going one way or another." Ozpin vaguely gestured to all the displaced children in the room.
The old wizard carefully scrutinized everyone's reactions to that bit of news. Up until this moment the Grandparents might have been operating under the assumption that all of the children came from the same future; the news that each child came from a future where Jaune only married their daughter would change things.
Oz could see relief on Isabel's face at the news her son wasn't a shameless playboy. Similar relief appeared on the faces of other parents at the realization that their daughters hadn't fallen prey to some suave Don Juan stringing them along. Yet that reaction wasn't universal. Taiyang was looking back and forth between his daughters with the dread of a parent realizing their children were at odds, with a similar look crossing the face of Willow. Athena looked ready to flop dramatically again-Which she did, hugging Pyrrha and wailing softly. Pyrrha for her part was stoic, save for a worrying twitch of her eyebrow and corner of her mouth.
Still, Ozpin was hopeful that the grandparents' attitudes were a step forward towards ensuring the continued existence of Jaune's children.
"With only a few hours before Jaune Arc got together with a woman that might not be their mother Jaune's children panicked," The old wizard continued. "Fearing that time travel was working on Get Back To The Present rules, all of them were convinced they would cease to exist if they didn't do something fast. So most of them went to get their mothers for help. The end result was a large fight in the Star-Maiden's Memorial Courtyard, which thankfully didn't collapse the space-time continuum."
"Well, since the kids are all still here we're obviously not using Get Back To The Present rules," Barsara observed before looking over to Mrs. Nikos. "What do you think, Athena? Clock Crooks? The Argus Experiment? Yesterday's Tomorrow? Maple Lake?"
"What?" Athena tilted her head in absolute confusion away from her twitching daughter.
"Time travel rules," Barsara elaborated. "We have twelve different time travel movies between the two of us. We can figure out how this works."
"That's absurd!" Whitley managed, having calmed himself down and his rational mind asserting itself, "Time travel wouldn't work like in some old movie!"
"Do we have anything better to go off of, Boy Weiss?" Qrow deadpanned.
"Hey!"
"Oh geez," Athena frowned then looked far stiffer and more formal, a transformation that made Pyrrha grit her teeth, "It's quite possible that with a more thorough understanding of the Heisenberg compensators and reversing the neutron flow, we could-"
"Moses' mother, Doctor Weena Nebogipfel, is the best theoretical physicist currently alive," Ozpin reasserted himself in the conversation with some mild annoyance at the interruption. "She is going to arrive relatively soon and will be conducting experiments with the aim of figuring out what time travel rules Moses' Semblance operates with. Until then speculation is just that: speculation. Regardless of what the rules end up being, your grandchildren are stuck in this time period until we find a way to safely supercharge Moses' Semblance again, and we've called you here in the hopes that you can lend a hand until they can go home."
There were varying levels of hesitation, but most of the parents began to nod or murmur their assent.
Shifting in his seat to stand, cane at the ready, Ozpin decided to wrap things up.
"Now, I believe your children and grandchildren can fill you in on the more personal details you'll want to know. The meeting rooms across the hall can give you all the privacy you'll need to get to know each other better. Glynda can get in contact with me once you've finished and I'll come back to answer any questions that might arise. Unless one of you has a burning question for me that can't wait until you've spoken with your grandchildren?"
None of the grandparents spoke up, and a few of them shook their heads. Good.
"I'll leave you all to get acquainted then," Ozpin tapped his staff against the floor ominously as he left the room.
"In the meantime, I have a birdcage I want to triple check the locks on..."