Chapter 9

Ruby tapped her pen nervously against the table ink side down, creating little spots of blue on the fine veneer surface. It had dawned on her about two minutes ago that the marks she was creating were the marks she'd seen worn in and weathered two years ago on her actual first day. She had subconsciously started to draw a snowflake with the etchings, and now the end of her pen was nearly worn clean off.

Fourteen minutes had passed since the start of class.

And their teacher still hadn't arrived. One more minute, and they'd legally be allowed to leave. She smirked, her tapping not slowing any. The ribbon around her neck had been tied way too tight for her liking. Damn Tai fussing on her after the breakfast incident. Damn Qrow getting the contents of his pencil case all over the front of her skirt. And extra damn Raven for looking so damn fine in that plaid mini-skirt.

"Sorry, sorry!" came a nervous voice as the door to the classroom burst open. "I forgot my coffee in my car, then I spilled it all over the headmaster, and then I forgot my lesson plan in the office."

Ruby stopped stabbing the table, setting her pen down and sitting up straight in her chair. The teacher strode over to the podium at the front of the room, his notebooks hitting the surface with a thud. He seemed... frazzled.

"Right... uh..."

He was tall, lanky, and very awkward in his posture. His narrow face seemed to have a permanent worry etched into it, especially around his yellowed eyes. He wore a brown tweed jacket over a ruffled white dress shirt, and similarly brown pants and a pair of rather well-polished black leather shoes. They looked quite expensive. The man huffed and straightened his jacket, turning a smile to his students. A strikingly familiar smile.

"Good morning, students, my name is Mr. Callows, and I..."

He broke off for a moment to write his name on the chalkboard, and then the course name in large white text.

"... will be your History of Remnant teacher for this semester."

Ruby squinted down at him. The young man seemed to have an air of nerves about him, as if he wasn't used to teaching, or at least teaching this many people. To be fair, this was the first time she'd ever seen this lecture hall filled to capacity.

"First off, I'd like to give you a little personal history." he paused to take a drink from the water bottle that had replaced the spilled coffee. "I was born in Mistral, not far down the road from Haven Academy to two former soldiers from the Faunus Revolutionary War around about twenty-six years ago. I attended Haven for my Huntsman training, where I was bullied and laughed at almost constantly. But hey, look at me know, I have a well paying job and a custom tweed jacket with elbow pads, so who's on top now, Jeremy?"

This prompted a quiet chuckle from his audience, even making Ruby smile.

"After that, I attended Atlas U for my education degree, and took my placement at Anfang Academy of Sciences to obtain a masters in history. I was also beat up a lot in university too, but that was fine since university lockers are all equipped with espresso machines for those early morning classes, if you know what I'm sayin'."

Another round of chuckles. Maybe it was his posture that was throwing her off. The way he stood with his feet together and his knees bent just ever so slightly. The short, well trimmed hair however was taking any ill thoughts she had and wiping them away. No, the person he reminded her of had long hair, that was almost a dark black it was so brown. His wide smile was off-putting, mind you.

"I got offered a job here not long after, and now I work for the illustrious Beacon Academy Science department under the tutelage of the great Headmaster Pine himself! I mean it's only been one year and already he wants to instate my tenure. Now, whether that means I'm doing a good job or he's desperate for full-timers, I don't really care."

The rest of the class, her teammates included were just eating this joker up. Ruby leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. Something was off about this 'Mr. Callows' fellow, and she wasn't about to let her guard down.

"But what I do care about is your enjoyment of my class. And your comfort with the material." His voice took a sudden serious turn. "Now, on the topic of, we'll be discussing some pretty serious subject matter that isn't for everyone. Specifically the poor treatment of the Faunus throughout history."

The room had shifted to a more serious air. Mr. Callows raised an eyebrow at his students.

"If anyone has a problem with the Faunus or the history of, now is the time to leave my class. I won't tolerate that sort of racism in my institution. For the next three hours, this is my turf and you'll go by my rules, and my number one rule is no racism. Is that clear, Mr. Winchester?"

No, it couldn't be. Ruby's head snapped over to where the teacher was looking. She lost her voice as soon as she saw the student sitting alone up in the back row. He was tall, blond, and as muscular as she thought he might be, given the name. It was almost a carbon copy of Cardin, the resident bully from her time. No, it couldn't be. That would mean she wasn't the only time traveller! She struggled to wrap her head around it.

"Yes, sir." the boy said. His voice had a much more pronounced gruffness to it than Cardin's had.

"Thank you, Gregory. Wouldn't want to be taking this course a third time, now would we?"

"No, sir."

"I hear you just got yourself a new baby brother?"

"That's right, sir."

He smiled. "Well, let's hope by the time he gets to my class you've cleaned up your act."

Gregory? She took another look at the boy. Now that she'd had a chance to look closer, maybe he did have a lot of differences to the bully from her time. She relaxed, only slightly.

"Excellent. Now, since your friend Mr. Winchester up there is the only one who knows my secret, I feel it pertinent to tell you all, based on the aforementioned subject matter."

He took a moment to pull off his sweet tweed coat and place it gently over the back of the chair he'd set at the edge of the stage. He kept his back to the board. She was starting to piece it together. Young man, from Mistral, narrow yellow eyes, penchant for brown coats, a voice that sounded like a deeper version of King Satan from her favourite Saturday morning cartoon series.

"Much like some of your classmates, like Miss Rosso up there, and Mr. Talbot down here in the front row... I too, am a Faunus."

And with the grace of a swan, the long segmented scorpion tail curled out from behind his back.

Ruby froze, her body locking up.

"I feel it is my duty to tell you now that if you don't like this fact, leave my class now. You will be marked as absent and will fail, and be forced to take it during the summer semester with Profe-"

"TYRIAN!" Ruby shouted, bolting upright.

The whole class went silent. Everybody turned to look up at her, including the teacher himself. Her hand was on her hip, clenched in a fist as if trying to grip down on a weapon that wasn't there.

"Y-yes, that's my name. Should I know you, Miss...Rose, is it?"

Yes, he should. That bastard attacked our school and our family! He needs to pay!

Her mind was racing. This... evil man stood before the class as if to taunt her. After the attacks during her real first year, her and her team went on a mission to collect vital intel on the source of the creatures of Grimm. They had tracked a lead all the way across Anima to Haven, passed destroyed city after destroyed city. And at the centre of it all, protecting a certain treacherous headmaster, was this animalistic mercenary known as Tyrian. Brutal, devoid of any humanity, ruthless. Evil.

And this was that monster, putting on this convincing facade of a teacher.

"Who are you..." she whispered down at him.

He gave her a look, gesturing at himself, then the crowd as he looked to some of the other students as if looking for an explanation.

"Were you... not listening... to my lecture?" he asked tilting his head, his tail floating lazily around behind him. "On the first day of class?"

Another quiet chuckled bounced around the room. Tyrian narrowed his already narrow eyes at her and stepped forward on his stage. Her breath caught in her throat.

"Mighty bold of you, Miss Rose. Actually...you look familiar."

He approached, Ruby wanted to run, but her legs were frozen. She couldn't even sit down. Evil.

"You have silver eyes. I went to college with a girl who had silver eyes. Brown hair like yours as well, actually. You have a sister or a cousin or anyone like that who went to Atlas U?"

Ruby shook her head. Raven had been trying to pull her back down by her sleeve for a few moments now, and she'd only just realized, dropping her butt back onto her chair.

"Eh, oh well. She was cool. Had psych with her. Think she joined the army or something. Anyways, doesn't matter. This is a history class, not an ancient history class."

This guy had a knack for crowds. Ruby's face hung numbly on her skull, not able to process any emotion beyond dumbstruck. There was no way. No way! And the worst part was that nobody would believe her.

"Now, I apologize for any interruptions in the future, class. That won't be a problem, will it, Miss Rose?"

EVIL.

"N-no, sir. I'm sorry." She said, shrinking down a little. This was not okay. She was not okay. A lot of corporate espionage would need to be done. She was not going to let him get away with it again. Not for the sake of her friends. Nora'd spent three months in the ICU because of this man. Ren, six. She shivered.

"Okay, now where was I..." he paused in mock confusion, before snapping to attention. "Right! I'm a faunus, so if anyone has a problem with that, please leave the classroom."

His tail hooked itself over his head as a real scorpion might, holding steady and flexed. Nobody in the room dared move, probably because of the rather intimidating proposition that the tail presented. Ruby was not okay with sharing a planet, let a lone a classroom with this villain. But he wasn't doing anything evil at the moment, and that made her uneasy. Just how quickly could that change?

"Fascinating!" came a shout from just over her shoulder, startling her. She spun to see Bart standing up, his hands firmly planted on the table. "You possess an invertebrate tail, yet you yourself are a vertebrate!"

He left his seat and damn near teleported down to the stage, taking up a place next to the scorpion-man, who actually stepped back half a step. That never happened before.

"Y-yeah, that's right." He stuttered for a moment, straightening up. Bart's uniform made him look like he'd been hit by about four buses on his way to class, and that was clearly irritating the unusually straight-ironed Tyrian. "Did you have questions about it?"

"Many! First of, are you poisonous?"

Tyrian chuckled.

"No, I am not." The class seemed to relax as one. They were all thinking it. "I am venomous. Poison is a material that is either consumed through digestion or absorbed through the skin."

Everyone tensed up as one. Ruby wanted her axe, and she wanted it now. How could any sane person willingly admit that?!

"Whereas venom is injected into the blood stream either by teeth or needle-like appendages, like my tail for instance. And no, I have no intention of doing anything like that to anyone in this room."

Ruby looked over at Qrow.

He better fucking not.

She shivered, remembering. Thanks to a bulletproof liver, he'd survived their encounter. Ruby just didn't want there to be an encounter.

"But how is it that you possess a shelled tail and a body of flesh?"

"It just happens. It, like every other mammal, is a continuation of my spine. There's a point where the collagen becomes a chitin-like material that you see here as my tail..." he flexed the tail, bringing it down to Bart's face. No one in their right mind would be okay with a seven-foot-long venomous spike of death being shoved in their face, but Bart wasn't exactly of right mind. "Have a look. It's safe."

"How is it you control your ability?"

"It's a muscle reaction." he said, as if having his tail examined by a caffeine-stoned student orbit him was perfectly normal. "Like the same way you don't go around just punching people in the face, you have to use thought and muscle reactions to do that. And generally, you have to be angry."

Note to self, do not anger him.

"And how is it that you are not poisoned by your own supply then?"

"My, you're full of questions, aren't you?"

"My apologies, professor, I find the whole concept of animalistic traits fused with human DNA truly fascinating!"

"It's true, prof," came the interjection from Bart's own faunus roommate. "He does nothing but ask questions."

Tyrian smiled. "Oh, he does, does he? Well, Mr. Oobleck, if you return to your seat, we can get in depth into the history of the Faunus if you're so interested."

"But of course!" he dashed back to his seat, creating a blur of green and messy hair.

Tyrian paused for a moment, waiting for the room to settle again.

"Anyone else want to make a scene? We still have seventy minutes left, and I'm liking this year more than the last one by a lot so far. No one?"

Ruby never took her eyes off him in case he decided to do something drastic.

"Okay, I think we'll get started. Right, lesson one... how to teach a class after forgetting your lesson plan."

Everyone chuckled again.

/.../

"Mere, you alright?"

"No, I'm not fucking alright, Qrow!"

She yelled, slamming her hand into a locker and leaving a foot-wide dent. Even Raven looked a little afraid of her. Ruby scoffed. It wasn't her she should be afraid of, but rather the monster they had just shared a room with for an hour and a half.

"Calm down, Summer. Was there something wrong with that class?"

The teacher!

"No, it's just..." she grunted and hit the locker again with an angry glare. They couldn't understand. "UGH, fuck!"

Her knuckles were bleeding again, and her wrist had started to hurt again. The break from the other morning had only just healed.

"I'm so angry."

"We can see that." Tai tried to be comforting. "Can you tell us why? So we can help?"

There was nothing they could do. Even twenty years in the future nothing could be done. There was no stopping the inevitable. She shook her head.

"No. No, I'm done. Fuck this."

She stormed off.

"Summer!" Raven called after.

"NOPE."

She rushed through the hallways, stomping her way through the crowds in the interim between classes. One student actually fell over, but she didn't stop for them. She had a location in mind, and no one was stopping her today.

By the time she'd reached his office, she'd knocked over two more people and and entire vending machine, much to the joy of a group of obvious stoners who immediately swarmed it and cleaned it out. She mashed her fist against the large door.

"OZPIN!" she screamed, hammering the door. "Open the fucking door!"

After a moment, he did. Looking confused. Ruby pushed into the office, starting on him immediately.

"Oh, don't you give me that fucking incredulous look, you bastard, you tell me right fucking now why that psychopath is working here?!"

He seemed stunned. She continued.

"Don't you dare give me the 'I can see all timelines at once' bullshit and still hire him to teach children! That is the most unprofessional and dangerous thing I've ever seen!"

"Have you considered lowering your voice-"

"No! Fuck you! That man, no, that thing nearly killed everyone I loved! Nora, Ren! Uncle Qrow! Jaune! All of my friends were almost wiped out by that one psychopath and you have the audacity to hire him as a teacher? How dare you?!"

He sat down behind his desk, leaving her standing there with her chest heaving and tears streaming down her face. He sipped his coffee slowly. Ruby squinted at him like he was an idiot. Well, in her opinion he was.

"I never lied to you, Miss Rose."

"Bullshit!"

"I can indeed see every timeline at the same time, and I understand how you might feel about this situation. But it is never going to be as simple as you think it should be."

"Then SIMPLIFY IT!"

He slapped the desk with his cane, cracking the thick walnut top in two. Ruby jumped back, recoiling into herself.

"Behave."

"Y-yes, sir."

"I hired that man based on his experience and his teaching skills, because he will become a staple of this institution for the next eleven years, Miss Rose."

"But-"

"I already know of his dark future. That is not something we can change, unfortunately."

"But what about..."

"His future is cursed, child. That is an unavoidable occurrence. Would you prefer instead I let him go, watch him move quietly away to Anima, only for him to become corrupted there instead considerably sooner? He's a substantially better fighter than anyone else who works here, and more capable of defending this school and it's students than even I."

Ruby shivered.

"She goes for the strong ones first. And they are the first to be turned on us. Her virus works faster on those who are stronger. It feeds on power. Like a leech."

"Who?"

"You know who I'm referring to, Miss Rose. Don't play dumb."

She nodded. She didn't want to think about it.

"And with Mr. Callows in my employ, I can protect him longer than you know, Miss Rose. He is safe here. And you are safer because of it."

"But he's going to get corrupted. What then?"

"You would suggest I just start killing everyone who gets corrupted by her, Ruby? That's a substantial list of people. Would you like me to start with someone important to you first? Dear Raven, perhaps?"

She jumped. "What?"

"You heard what I said. Are you going to put her in danger like that? Or are you going to accept the fact that this is the path of least resistance?"

"How many other bad people are you hiding from me here? Lionheart? Hazel? Who else?"

He looked up at her through the tops of his glasses. The whole room seemed to simmer under his glare, making her regret just about every sound that had come out of her mouth ever. He turned his head to the side, and called out through the open side door.

"Sweetheart, come in here."

Ruby watched the doorway. After a beat, a small child came skipping through it.

"Yes, Uncle Oscar?"

This small child had short, fluffy black hair done up in tiny pigtails out the back of her head. The little red and black dress was, and there was no other word for it, adorable. When she got to where Oz was sitting, he very easily hoisted her up onto his knee.

"Do you know who this is, Ruby?"

She shook her head. The child was kinda familiar, but not really. Looked a little like what she assumed Blake looked like at four or five, just without the kitty ears.

"Do you mind, sweetie?" he asked, tugging lightly on her hair elastics. When the child agreed, Ozpin pulled them all the way off. The black hair fell around the girl's head like two curtains of onyx, concealing the child's left eye.

It all came flooding back. Ruby tripped as she jumped back, landing on her back.

"Tell me, which one of your friends was killed during the attacks?"

She paused to think. For a brief moment, it flashed through her vision before fading away. Like she was wrong about what she thought. But then just as quickly as that idea passed through her head, it was gone. She shook her head, grasping at the sides of her skull.

"N-no one? But... h...what about..."

"Your dear friend Pyrrha, how was she when you left?"

No. It wasn't true!

"J-just fine..."

He smiled. An evil, devilish smile.

"Good. And your uncle. In your time. How alive is he?"

"Completely?"

"Then I've done all I can for now."

"You altered the timeline. You changed it..."

"I only did what was necessary. Bad things will still inevitablely happen, but this is a tragedy I'm preventing, Miss Rose." He gestured to the girl sat up on his knee. "She was abandoned when her village burned down when she was just an infant. I saved this poor bundle of tears myself. I told myself I wouldn't intervene because of what she was to become, but I couldn't just leave her. Would you have? Knowing what I know? Knowing that twenty-five years later she'd kill you and burn your school to the ground?"

It wasn't possible. Ruby wanted to throw up again.

"I'm going to make sure she doesn't participate in that lifestyle, or get corrupted by her. You start them as children, and she can't take them. If only I could have done that with Mr. Callows as well. Okay, thank you Cindy, you can go back to playing now."

The little girl smiled and jumped down from his knee and skipped away, trying her very hardest to whistle as she did. How was it humanly possible for that adorable little child to be the terrorist mastermind behind the attacks on Beacon? She convulsed, trying to hold her breakfast and her sorrow in. They sat for a moment in silence.

"Have a look at this." he opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a little vial. "Do you know what this is?"

The vial hit the desk. Ruby sat up and looked at it. It contained a convulsing black liquid, suspended in motion by a glowing grey light. It was like a tiny, black lava lamp that was both revolting and intriguing all at once. The closer she got, the more the fluid moved. It was almost enchanting.

"N-no..."

"This is the virus. Or, a small part of it. It's what corrupts people. What changes them."

"This is a Grimm?!" She almost didn't believe it. He nodded.

"Yes. A parasite. This small amount of Grimm could infect and turn the whole school over to her will. I see that it has a particular attraction to you, Miss Rose."

The liquid seemed to be trying to push itself through the glass of the vial and towards her. She flinched.

"What's holding it in?"

"Seventeen thousand tonnes of concentrated gravity dust, Enough to rip a small hole in space-time, or contain a potentially lethal virus."

"And you keep it in your desk?!"

"The contents of the vault are too valuable to have this down there with it."

"Right. The relic."

"Hush now. Do you know why it's so attracted to you? And not to me?"

She shook her head.

"Because it thinks you are the most powerful one here. The one most corruptible. If Mr. Callows was in this room, I believe it would gain the strength to break free and turn him against us."

The little vial fell over on it's own. Ruby yelped and jumped back.

"I can protect everyone from this. For as long as I can. I'm afraid that is all I can do. Postpone the inevitable. Is that clear?"

"Y-"

"Be honest. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, sir."

He smiled.

"Good. And if you ever come in my office like that again, I'm putting you on babysitting duty."

"Yes, sir. I'm sorry."

"Now go to class. Or I will mark you as absent."

"Yes, sir."

She turned and solemnly made her way back out the door and into the now-empty hallway. She sniffled, wiping her nose on the back of her sleeve. What bullshit. She trudged away from the office, dragging her boots along the long hallway towards the lecture halls. She stopped halfway down, leaning against one of the large ceiling-high windows.

"...Pyrrha died?"

She wondered who else might have suffered the same fate had he not rescued that little girl. Come to think of it, why had she reacted so adversely to the sudden change of hairstyle? She tried not to throw up as a half-image of the villain who had attacked the school melded with the half-image of one of the senior TAs who used to sub for Glynda's class. The one they all liked.

"He messed with it all..."

She punched the wall as hard as she could. Once again, her wrist exploded in a haze of fire and pain. Tears rushed to her face against all her wishes, as the again-broken bones seared like someone was roasting them on a firepit. She yelled, falling backwards to the floor. The sound of heavy footfalls came around the corner, getting progressively louder. She lay back and clutched her wrist, her head falling on the soft upper thigh of Taiyang as he had slid on his knees to catch her.

"Summer, what the hell's goin' on?" he asked, the nerves in his voice ever present. "What did you do?!"

She clutched her wrist limply as the pain started to subside. She shook her head, letting her hair fall into it to hide her sullen face.

"It's all ruined..."

"What is?" Qrow asked. "Your wrist? It'll heal, don't even worry about that."

"Is this about Mr. Callows?" Raven kneeled next to her.

"Rae, don't be ridiculous, look." he neck-gestured to the door they were next to. "This is the headmaster's office."

"Oh shit, did you get expelled or something?"

Ruby wanted to cry. Well, more than she already was. She wanted to curl up and sob her lungs out until she stopped breathing, but that was unbecoming of a leader. Unbecoming of the name of Summer Rose.

"No..." she tried. "It's just all fucky now."

"What is?"

"It's not important."

"Apparently important enough to break your wrist before Combat Training on the first day of class, Mere."

She sighed with a depressed smile, and leaned her head back into Tai's leg. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me. I'm sure it's not so bad."

Yeah, because I'm a time-travelling turbo-slut is something she could just say out loud.

"Do you believe in destiny, Raven?"

"That's a dumb question. Of course not. No such thing, you make life however you want it to be."

Shut up, you goddamn home-wrecker.

"But what if it was a thing? And what of you could find out how to change it?"

"I dunno, I feel like I change my destiny every morning when I decide to wear back or lace, dude. It's not hard."

"That's not what... you know what, nevermind. It's nothing I could ever explain to any of you."

"...and this is why you ran off in this savage rage, Mere?"

She sighed. "Yeah... I'm sorry, guys."

"What happened in there, Summer?" Tai's honest sky-blue gaze nearly broke her. "I just want to know so I can help."

As was the norm now, Ruby had something prepared. "I get to miss a funeral."

"Excuse me?"

"A friend of mine. Was supposed to die on a mission a little while ago. But she survived. She survived a goddamn arrow in the heart."

"Fucking how?" Raven clearly didn't believe her.

"Destiny, Rae. Like I said. It was changed. For her. She gets to come home to her boyfriend and her family, and everything's alright. Even the goddamn bad guy gets a pass."

"How the fuck does attempted murder get a pass?" She was asking all the right questions. "And if you say 'destiny', I'm gonna break your other wrist. Why are you pissed that your friend is alive?"

"I don't know, Rae, I'm sorry. I had a bad reaction to some news." She sniffled. "I'm a bad person."

The woman's hand came out to rather uncharacteristically brush the hair delicately out of her eyes. "No you're not. You're just emotive. Sensitive. I forgive you for Initiation, alright?"

Ruby smirked and sniffed back some tears. "Thanks, Rae. I'm sorry for running off. I won't do it again."

And then Raven smiled down at her. Oh no, was she becoming friends with Raven? Wouldn't that mess up the- ah, screw it, this is fine.

"Hey, if it makes you feel any better, combat class is up next. If you want, you can beat up that Winchester boy. You seemed to have a sneer on him the whole time he was talking. Would that help?"

She snickered. "Yeah, maybe."

Raven and Tai helped her to her feet as she cradled her broken wrist, which had begun the painful process of healing itself.

"C'mon," Raven said, holding her upright by her waist. Ruby tried not to blush. And failed. "Destiny awaits."