Jaune wished he could be happy Yang had taken the initiative to force this. He wished he could think that she was helping him out by ripping the bandage off, and that he should accept deep inside that she was doing this with his best interests in mind.

That would be a lie.

It was an ugly feeling inside him that had Jaune wanting to shout and cuss at her and even break off their whole relationship. He wasn't ready and Yang knew that. Not to mention she knew about Cinder and how delicate that situation was. This was not the time to be having this kind of conversation.

And yet he couldn't.

Because Yang didn't just have to consider his feelings and his interests; Yang had those of her teammates and her sister as well. Asking her to put him before all three of them would have been the height of selfishness.

"Away from here," he said, moving and forcing Team RWBY to follow him or be left behind. "We can't risk being overheard. Yang knows why."

"Is she... in there...?" Yang asked.

"Yes."

"Who?" asked Weiss. "Who is she?"

"Not something for you to worry about right now."

"Jaune..." Ruby whined.

"No, sis." Yang ruffled Ruby's hair. "He's right on this one. Trust me, nothing you see in there will make sense without context."

Finding an empty room was simple enough. The guest wings of the school were deserted now that the festival was over, and the rooms had been left unlocked for cleaners to come and sort them out. That hadn't happened yet, the faculty waiting until the summer holidays where there would be less disruption. Jaune and Team RWBY stepped into what must once have been a transfer's dorm, the beds dishevelled and the floor dirty. Dusty patches congregated in corners where the students had only half-heartedly cleaned before leaving.

Ruby took a bed and sat on it next to Yang, but Weiss sniffed at the dirty interior and chose to stand, while Blake pulled out a wooden chair from the room's single desk, reversed it, and sat with her legs on either side of the backrest. That left Jaune to sit on the windowsill, back to the open air and a short drop. It was honestly tempting. Not that he had suicide in mind, but he could brace himself with aura and make a sprint for the Emerald Forest. Hide there and kill Grimm for a few hours until he could clear his head.

The coward's way out.

"So," he said. "I need to have a serious talk with you all about my Semblance, which I unlocked several weeks ago. Before that, I need you all to know that every teacher in Beacon has known from pretty much as early as I unlocked it, as does my team. It was on the advice of teachers that I kept it secret."

"As a tactical edge?" Ruby enquired. "But I didn't see you use it in the festival."

"Hush," Yang said. "He'll get to it."

There really was no great way to explain it all, no get out of jail card or convenient excuse. He wasn't in the right frame of mind for it either. As callous as it sounded, he had a lot more important things to worry about right now than delivering the news to them gently. Cinder, Salem, Ironwood, Ozpin. There was just too much going on.

So, he delivered it straight. Flat. Clinical.

Their eyes widened as he did, just dumping out the fact he'd been roaming in their dreams for ages and seeing things they didn't intend for him – or anyone – to see. Jaune kept the details to himself, and told them that, highlighting the "rules" he had come up with to stop him taking advantage of his Semblance, and also explaining that it wasn't just their dreams. Other students, teachers, even criminals like Cinder.

"That's why she tried to kill you..." Blake mumbled, shocked but also satisfied at finding the connection after so long. It must have been eating at her. "You found out about her plans from her dreams."

"Yes. And Cinder decided to end me before I could run and tell the teachers."

He carried on talking about how his Semblance had evolved, how it kept evolving because he was using it so much – an average of eight ours every night, compared to the scant minutes they would use theirs in an average day. De-aging Ozpin was something he didn't mention, that being too serious a secret, but he was sure Nora wouldn't mind if he shared her biological adoption. Ruby choked and even Blake cracked a tiny smile on hearing how Nora had freaked out more over her changing hair colour than the actual adoption.

They were good distractions, the funny stories of silly things that had happened, but those funny stories couldn't blind them forever. While the girls were amused at Nora, and even a little shocked by Ironwood's arm growing back, it didn't take long for them to start piecing together how his personality had changed in recent months, and to suddenly start feeling awkward.

"You dating Yang..." Blake whispered. "Is that something you set up?" Her ears flicked down behind her bow, making it twitch. "Did you do that to us as well?"

"No! No, no, no. I didn't do anything like that. I won't lie and say I don't let what I see influence me. I realised how much of a creep I was being to Weiss because of her dreams—" The girl in question didn't flinch. "—and I also befriended Trivia because of what I saw in hers. But most people's dreams aren't useful for anything like that. A lot of them are just random nightmares like serial killers and monsters."

"Tell me a dream I had," Blake hissed.

"That's private—"

"I give permission! Tell me!"

"You were being chased through an abattoir by some masked killer." He spared her the one with Yang and Adam in cages, picking out a safer one. "At first, it was us being chased, but then it reversed and you were the serial killer, but you stopped out of guilt. And then everyone started killing you. Your teammates, your mother, your friends." Jaune noticed her dismay and shook his head. "But that's the point, Blake. It was a random nightmare. I've lost count of how many people have ones almost exactly the same. Helplessness is a very common fear."

Yang noticed Blake's panic and let out a sigh. "Fine. Hit me," she said. "Might as well share one of mine to calm everyone down."

"Yang was a small child waiting at a park but no one was coming to pick her up. I sat next to her and kept her company while she worried about her family forgetting her." Again, he said it frankly, trying to make it sound clinical. Yang looked embarrassed but not overly shaken. "A nightmare about being forgotten or abandoned. I see those a lot as well. The only difference was something appeared, a red cart with a sheet over it. Yang wanted to see what was under it but I felt a horrible feeling from it and stopped her. Made her ignore it."

Yang winced. Ruby did, too. Oddly enough, so did Weiss and Blake.

"They... They know about that one," Yang said. "I shared that a while back. Hah. Makes sense that would appear in a nightmare. I'm guessing it would have been Ruby dead and torn to pieces. Bastard nightmare."

"That's how they are. They don't always make sense or relate to anything. More often than not, they're just current fears. People afraid of exams, of bombing the Vytal Festival, of the person they like turning them down." The more he explained, the calmer Blake seemed to get. Jaune had a feeling he'd be cornered by her later, and that he'd have to tell her all the things he'd really seen in her head. "But I've not been in any of your dreams for a while now. The teachers have me working with your uncle to try and find Cinder by getting in her dreams."

"Have you..." Ruby hesitated. "Have you changed anything about us...? Without us knowing?"

"No. Trust me, the effects of my Semblance changing people are noticeable. I gave someone a hangover by drinking alcohol in a dream, replaced Ironwood's arm by dreaming of helping him, changed Nora's DNA and hair colour, and gave someone a tan after a dream of sunbathing on a beach. You would notice if I'd changed anything, and the teachers would have pulled you aside for tests and to explain it to you."

"That... That's a relief." Ruby breathed out quickly. "But this is... this is crazy. You've been in our heads. You've seen things—"

"Things you have no right seeing," Blake added sharply. "What of you, Weiss? You've been quiet."

The white-haired heiress shrugged one shoulder. "I already knew."

That caught everyone by surprise. Yang looked annoyed that he'd told Weiss before her, but Jaune quickly put a stop to that. "Was it Winter who told you? She knows via Ironwood, but she was told not to tell anyone."

"Told by Beacon's headmaster. Winter never answered to him. I was told to keep it secret but Winter suggested I distance myself from you, and convince my team to do the same for their own safety."

Blake scoffed. "You didn't try very hard at that."

"I didn't. Arc had shown remarkable growth as a person, which I attributed to him seeing what I thought of him in a dream. Knowing how nightmares are, I could only assume that was a horrible experience. I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, though I obviously kept an eye on you all to make sure he didn't try anything. Had he, I'd have dealt with him myself."

He'd never realised. Weiss did a good job of acting like nothing had changed. That, or he'd just gotten used to being ignored by her. Jaune wasn't sure if he should feel grateful that she gave him a chance or upset she hadn't confronted him. He chose the former.

"Thank you." He bowed his head. Weiss returned it. "I've done my best not to abuse my Semblance but I've only just started to get any sense of control over who end up dreaming of. Before, it was completely random and it was draining my aura and making me sick." Their eyes widened, remembering that period. "Once, it even gave me a cardiac arrest."

"You had a heart attack!?" Ruby cried. "Over a Semblance!?"

"Yes. Though... that one was different. Cinder had killed someone I knew and I pushed myself to try and get in her head for vengeance. I set an alarm to wake me up every ten minutes and entered random dreams every ten minutes for hours on hours trying to find her." He hadn't known it was Cinder at that point, so it had been fishing. "Doctor Oobleck says I taxed it when my body wasn't used to it, drained my aura fully – and unlike your Semblances that you can choose not to use when you're low on aura, mine activates automatically when I sleep. I went to sleep with no aura..."

"And it tried to drain aura you didn't have, pushing your body to the point of organ failure," Weiss finished. "That's quite concerning. Your Semblance always activates? There's no way to stop it?" He shook his head. "That's a huge weakness. If you were ever low aura from a hunt or a fight, you'd be at great risk going to sleep."

"I know. I've been working on it with Doctor Oobleck."

"And you're okay with this?" Blake demanded, looking at Weiss and Yang to make it clear he was not her primary concern. "He's been traipsing around in our minds seeing things he isn't meant to see. And you're both... you're happy about that?"

"I'm not happy about it." Yang crossed her arms. "But what's done is done. And there's bigger things to worry about."

"Obviously, I am less than thrilled as well," said Weiss. "But there's little he could see that isn't known anyway. What would he see? That I dislike my father? I doubt he's seen anything worse than that." Her pale blue eyes zeroed in on Blake's nervous form. "But I imagine you have a lot more to hide."

Blake's eyes narrowed. "What does that mean?"

"Nothing. You've been honest with us about your past. I just mean that you have more you regret than most. We all know that."

"I've not seen anything really bad from you," Jaune told her. "Not in the way of White Fang things if that's what you mean. I saw what Adam looked like, and I've been in Adam's dreams—"

"YOU WHAT!?"

"Oh, right. Adam is here. Close." If Blake had been alarmed before, she was on full-blown national emergency mode now. "Calm down. It's... well, it's being dealt with. And I didn't see anything weird in his dreams either. I mostly used them as a way to find what the White Fang were up to so I could report it to the teachers." Jaune couldn't help but tease. "As opposed to going out with my team to blow up an entire district."

Weiss and Ruby blushed. Yang laughed. "Laaame. Our way was more fun."

It was mostly Blake, Weiss and Yang doing all the talking – and that was concerning. Ruby had been possibly the least bothered at first, but Jaune could see the wheels turning in her head. A quiet Ruby was not a happy Ruby, and the way she kept looking at him and Yang, and then Blake – before her eyes widened...

It didn't bode well.

Ruby's eyes met his.

That dream we shared was real, her face seemed to say.

Jaune winced.

Confirming what she was no doubt thinking.

Ruby bolted. The door opened and slammed shut before anyone could react, and Blake coughed out a mouthful of rose petals. Weiss peeled a few off her face where they had blown and splatted on her pale skin.

"What was that all about?" asked Yang.

"I... I don't know..."

Her eyes zeroed in on him. "You do know."

"I know," he admitted. "But it's not my place to tell you Ruby's problems."

Yang was a smart girl. She often didn't act it, preferring to fight, but no one in Beacon who shared a class with her would call her stupid. When she cared to do work, she regularly scored in the top ten. When it came to Ruby, she was even smarter, smart enough to put together the pieces, especially since she'd been in those dreams herself.

"Wait, that shared dream!" she hissed, eyes going wide. "That was real!?" Jaune couldn't deny it, so he didn't try. "Ruby really feels that way...?"

"It's not my place to say."

Blake wasn't stupid either. "Wait, is this why you've forced me to help you with Ruby?" she asked. "I thought you said you didn't use what you saw in dreams against people."

"Against them. Trying to help them is another matter."

Yang swore and dashed to the door. The others made to follow, but she turned and waved them back. "You need to finish up here," she told them. "Jaune has to tell you about Cinder—"

"What!?"

"—and Salem, the one who controls the Grimm!"

"WHAT!?"

"Yeah." Yang opened the door and slid out. "I'll chase Ruby down. You talk."

The door slammed shut, leaving Jaune with two women who really weren't in the best of moods, especially not after seeing Ruby make a run for it on the verge of tears. There was probably a good way to handle this, but Jaune was out of ideas."

"So, yeah. I'm a dad to a teenage supervillain now."

The two stared at him.

/-/

Cinder could tell everyone was awkward around her.

She did her best to not let them notice that she knew, or how miserable it made her feel. She'd just woken up from a coma and time had passed. A part of her understood why they might have difficulties accepting her back as if nothing had changed. Things had changed. They'd moved on, had their lives, gotten used to her not being there.

But it still hurt.

Her dad's absence wasn't helping either but she knew he'd be back. It was annoying that the three of them got to sleep in the same room as him while she was stuck in separate quarters. He was her father and she'd just woken up. Why couldn't he stay with her? The only reason Cinder didn't make a fuss was that she didn't want to embarrass herself.

Ren and Nora kept distracting her with more games. They were trying their best and she appreciated it. Pyrrha was much worse, standing leaning on a wall and watching like she was some bouncer. Cinder didn't like it.

"What's dad doing with Yang and her team?" she asked.

There was a noticeable hesitation before Ren answered. "Probably explaining your situation to them. He doesn't want to overwhelm you with too many people at once."

It's not like she'd fall apart if he did, but it did feel nice to know he was thinking of her. Cinder hummed, unwilling to admit to any perceived weakness, and focused back on the game. If she tried hard enough, she could block Pyrrha's weirdness out. Pretend she wasn't there. Pyrrha would get over herself in time. Hopefully, anyway. Cinder wanted things to go back to how they'd been before.

Before...

A few memories came to mind – birthday parties her dad had thrown for her, her adoption. They felt strange in her head, as if she was watching television rather than experiencing them. Cinder tossed her worries aside. She remembered they were some of the happiest moments of her life, and that was all that mattered. While it would have been nice to be able to remember things in more detail, it was understandable that she wouldn't be able to. Whatever had put her in a coma had obviously left her scrambled.

"What's wrong?" Nora asked.

"Nothing."

"Doesn't look like nothing."

Cinder frowned. Nora had always been pushy. Always. "I just don't like feeling locked up," she said, offering a half-truth. "It feels like I'm a prisoner."

Pyrrha tensed for some reason that Cinder couldn't place. Ren was quick to assure her she was not, explaining that her father just wanted to take things slowly with her. Cinder got it, she really did, but it was still a pain.

"There's also bad people out there who could hurt you or your dad," Ren continued. "That's why we're keeping to Beacon for the time being."

Cinder's attention was piqued. "Like that girl with the green hair?"

"Yes. Like her."

Cinder still didn't know what that girl's issue had been, or why she'd woken up then and there in time to save her father. It didn't matter. Hopefully, the girl was in prison now. Something about her tickled Cinder's mind, a sense of familiarity, but it could have been anything. Maybe she'd met her once or seen her around.

"I can fight..."

"You can't." Pyrrha interrupted.

"I can too," Cinder argued back, feeling her temper flare. "I fought that green-haired girl to save dad. I know how to fight!"

Something about that had the three of them on edge, Cinder could tell. Why, though? There was nothing unusual about her knowing how to fight. She'd learned it at...

...at...

Where had she learned to fight...?

"I know you picked things up from us!" Nora rushed to say, "but that doesn't mean you should! We're safe here."

"Did I learn from you...?"

"Yes." Ren said calmly. "We used to all train together. Don't you remember?"

"No." Cinder frowned. "But I can't remember falling into a coma either..."

"Your mind might have suppressed it. I've heard that's common."

"Isn't that for traumatic memories?" Cinder didn't like the sound of that. "How did I fall into a coma anyway? Was... Was it bad? Did I fall and hit my head? Did something go wrong when we trained? Did I get sick?"

"Whoah, whoah, slow down." Nora laughed. "I... uh... I really think this is something for your dad to tell you—"

"Someone tried to kill you."

"Pyrrha!" Nora cried.

"What?" Pyrrha stepped away from the wall, fixing Nora and Ren with a look. "Cinder deserves to know. It was a bad person who wanted to hurt your father, to make him do things for her. She – that person – threatened a hostage to force Jaune to comply, even if she probably intended to kill him after."

Cinder felt a chill run through her. "Was... Was I the hostage...?"

"Yes." Ren interjected firmly. "You were the hostage. But it's fine now. We're all working with Beacon to stop this person, and we have lots of allies here. Most of the bad people have been dealt with by now and only the one in charge is left. Though I don't know her name—"

"Salem..."

They all froze at her words.

That name had come easily, automatically, slipping out her mouth despite that Cinder couldn't place where she'd learned it, when she had, or even who it was the name referred to. All she knew was that she felt an uncomfortable amount of fear for this person.

"Their name is Salem," she said, feeling a little more confident. "I... I can't remember them but they were bad. Evil." Cinder frowned. "I think I was terrified of them."

There was an awkward exchange of looks between the three of them.

"Right." Ren swallowed. "I guess we'd best mention that to your father. Might be a memory coming back."

"But hey..." Nora nudged against her side. "Don't try too hard to remember them, okay? Bad memories are put away for a reason. And you should focus on making good ones with us. That'll make you happier."

Happier...

That didn't sound so bad.

"Then..." Cinder fought down the urge to know more and tried to distract herself instead. "Then can you tell me about other people dad has met and gotten to know in Beacon? Are there friends of his I'll have to meet? I've missed so much."

"I'll tell you all about it," Nora promised.

"I'll go check on Jaune," Pyrrha offered. "Make sure Team RWBY haven't dragged him off somewhere."

Cinder waited for her to leave before looking to Ren and Nora.

"Does Pyrrha... Does Pyrrha not like me anymore...?"

Ren winced.

Nora swooned. "Oh, Cinder. No. It's not like that! Pyrrha is... Pyrrha is going through some things right now. Let me tell you about your dad's friends. There's Velvet, Coco, and that crazy mute who keeps hanging off him." Nora giggled. "You might have competition in her, or a new sister."

That had Cinder's eyes narrowing. "No. I refuse."

"Ahhhh! So cute!"

/-/

Pyrrha found Jaune slumped against a wall. She gave him a once-over but there were no signs of bruises or aura depletion, suggesting the talks hadn't turned violent. He looked more emotionally drained. Pyrrha didn't blame him.

"How did it go?"

"Middle of the road. Could have been worse. Could have been a lot worse. Ruby and Yang are dealing with something, Weiss knew and was kind of okay. Blake, not so much. There's too much in her past she's ashamed of, and she's scared of how much I know. I think she'll abduct me later and interrogate me."

Pyrrha frowned. "Not if I have my say."

"It's fine. Better we get it out the way. Last time Blake fermented over her worries, she vanished for days and then the docks happened. I'd rather she confront me than run away out of fear of what I may or may not know."

Pyrrha nodded. While she had also been embarrassed and ashamed to have her secrets exposed, she just didn't have as many to be ashamed of as Blake did. There were plenty of moments in her past she was embarrassed about, but few she would regret on the level of being a terrorist. And Pyrrha had to assume Blake's actions in the White Fang had led to suffering. There was no such thing as victimless terrorism.

"There's a problem with Cinder," she told him. Jaune cursed under his breath. "Some memories keep coming back to her. Nothing bad yet, but she recognised and named a Salem. I'm assuming you're familiar with said person."

"Yes. I am. And that's not good. How much did she remember?"

"Only that she disliked and was afraid of them. She also remembered she knows how to fight. I know you and the teachers don't want her becoming a huntress, but she knows she has the skill. Ren made an excuse that she trained with us before her coma. You might want to stick to that."

"I will. It's a good excuse. And probably better she thinks that than she keeps wondering how she knows how to fight at all."

"It could be a problem, though," she warned. "If Cinder keeps finding all these gaps in her memories, her subconscious ones might start to fill them. What if the old Cinder comes back? The real one?"

"Then we deal with her."

It would be safer to deal with her now, Pyrrha wanted to say. Safer to throw her in prison. It was a cruel thought, especially since Cinder wouldn't know what she did to deserve it and might even think her father had abandoned her. It was cruel, and yet Cinder had been just as cruel.

Didn't that make it fair to repay her in kind?

Pyrrha felt so.

"I'll keep an eye on her," Jaune said. "everyone will be, including Doctor Oobleck and the other teachers. Don't worry. It's not just me looking out for her. And I'll be able to enter her dreams and reinforce the memories we want to. If I make her dream about more times of her being a child with us, she'll think she's regaining those memories. Things will be fine."

Pyrrha hummed.

But she was not convinced.