Jaune felt at least a little bad for the hell he'd put Team RWBY through. Ruby was like a woman possessed – or a young girl possessed – driving her team through early morning exercises into late-evening spars that even Team JNPR got involved in occasionally. They were ruthless events, especially whenever one of Ruby's team would end up against her. Weiss had literally tried to kill her for all the early mornings.

But Ruby was happy and bright and full of laughter, and it was hard not to feel pleased about his involvement in that. It helped that Team RWBY had no idea, so Blake, Yang and Weiss couldn't drag him into a dark classroom and murder him.

He could also pretend to be a sympathetic ear when Yang was complaining to him.

"It's awful! Every morning, as early as six, she has that damned whistle. Blake distracted her while I flushed it down the toilet and she only went and got another!"

"Maybe Ruby just really wants you all to be the best you can-ow!"

Yang withdrew her finger from his ribs. "I'm complaining to you. Your job is simple. Agree with me, call Ruby a monster, make me feel better."

"Ruby is a monster and you're in the right."

"Thank you!"

He hadn't had many big dream wandering moments since Ruby. Most nights he spent in the dreams of people he just didn't know, and many of whom he couldn't find even in the dreams. They were simple things like monsters chasing them, teeth falling out – and one case of a "naked in class" moment which had Jaune hiding his face. At least it had been another guy so Jaune didn't have to worry about accidentally perving on anyone.

His efforts to track Amber's killer had continued as well, but no longer with him forcing his way into people's dreams and forcing her face upon them. He had instead become more of an observer, watching and trying his hardest not to intervene too much and use up his aura. Doctor Oobleck seemed pleased with his progress and said he should keep doing that and only intervene if he really felt he had to. He hadn't needed to intervene with Ruby but he'd wanted to, and Doctor Oobleck decided that was acceptable.

"It's your Semblance at the end of the day," he'd said. "When I tell you when to and when not to use it, I am talking in generalisations and for your health. Ultimately, you must make your decision at the time based on the information you have available, and if you decide it is worthwhile losing some aura to interfere in someone's dream, then I shall stand by your decision."

He'd taken that to heart – and been unafraid to tweak little things here and there.

/-/

Jaune's feet crunched on the pale gravel of a house driveway, stood next to Glynda Goodwitch in a black suit. He was taller, older, and morose. Glynda sighed, and said, "This never gets any easier," before she reached out and knocked on the door.

Confused, Jaune glanced about, noticing the absence of any neighbours and the way this house stood alone in an empty void. Glynda didn't see it, trapped in a dream that would surely become a nightmare soon enough. Jaune took a deep breath. It was one thing to be in the dream of a fellow student, but now he was in the head of a woman much older than him, and who knew about his Semblance. If she remembered this, she'd know he'd been here, so he didn't want to be too blunt with his changes.

The door opened and a man and woman appeared. They looked so normal, so typical, and yet the shadows behind them loomed ominously. "Yes?"

"Mr and Mrs Pike. My name is Glynda Goodwitch, instructor at Beacon Academy." She broke off and took a deep breath. "I'm here about your son. May I come in?"

Jaune's stomach dropped.

"No. No, you may not. What... Where is my son?" asked the mother. "What is going on here?"

Glynda took a quick breath through her nose. "I am afraid that your son has been the victim of a training accident within Beacon. Though our teachers and medical officer did their best to save his life, we were unable to. I apologise for-"

"YOU KILLED HIM!" screamed the father, lunging out the door. He grew several feet in height, and sprouted claws. Glynda, meanwhile, seemed to shrink. "IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN YOU! IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN-"

Jaune waved his hand and expended a little aura, changing the couple into a pair of yipping puppies.

Glynda recoiled, stumbling back, then turned to look at him. "P-Professor Arc, what have you-? How have you-?"

"Professor?" asked Jaune. "That's a new one. I don't think I'm old enough to be a teacher, Miss Goodwitch. I'm seventeen. Remember?"

"You... I..." Glynda paused, frowned, and pinched the bridge of her nose. "You are seventeen. And a student. But how-?" It dawned. "Your Semblance. This... You're in my head!" It came out as an accusation. "Get out!"

"I can't control it, Miss Goodwitch. Doctor Oobleck should have told you that. You might be able to force yourself to wake up if you try, but I can't do anything without risking myself going through another cardiac arrest." Jaune shrugged. "Sorry."

"You-" Miss Goodwitch closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. "No," she eventually said. "You should not risk that. It is not safe. I apologise for my temper; this was quite the shock."

"It's fine, Miss Goodwitch. I don't expect anyone to be happy I'm in their head."

"What now?" she asked. "What happens now?"

"Honestly, not much." Jaune knelt to pick up one of the dogs and handed it to her, then picked up the other himself. The teacher looked down at hers with a little suspicion. "They're not people turned into dogs; they're actual dogs now. The people were just figments of your imagination. The dogs are too, but they've overwritten them." He moved into the home. "Shall we?"

"This is someone else's home, Mr Arc."

"Actually, it's yours. You imagined it. The house only exists because of you."

The teacher looked at the house, then the dog, then sighed. "This is something of a trip. Fine." She stepped in, testing the floor like she expected it to give way. Now lucid, she could take the time to look around and spot details. "There's no neighbourhood. No pictures on the walls." They stepped into a room. It was an empty square. "Not even furniture."

"You only imagined the shape of the house, I guess." Jaune stood on the wooden floor. "I don't suppose you can imagine up a sofa?"

"I'm not sure that's how it—"

A sofa appeared, then another, then a rug, an armchair, a hearth with a fire and a small coffee table. A whole slew of furniture popped into existence as Glynda unconsciously imagined what a living room should look like.

"—works..." Glynda looked around as Jaune took a seat. "Or not. I guess that is how it works." She tested another seat herself before sitting. "It feels real."

"Everything here is imaginary," explained Jaune. "That includes your need to breathe, the sensation of the sofa and even the idea you want to be comfortable at all. But Doctor Oobleck tells me a person's belief can change things even in the real world, like placebos and the idea of thinking away the pain. If you convince yourself you need to sit down, you'll feel like you do. I'm sorry for being in your dream, Miss Goodwitch. I really don't have a choice."

The woman shook her head. "It's honestly not as big a problem as I made it sound, Mr Arc. You've hardly witnessed anything private. I was simply shocked. In truth, this event didn't even go like this. Mr—" She hesitated. "—The student in question did die within Beacon, but it was of a drug overdose. Some recreational drug going about the city about seven years ago. I came with the headmaster to deliver the news, and he did all the talking so I didn't have to."

"But the memory still haunts you."

Her sharp eyes caught his. "Do you think to become my therapist now, Mr Arc?"

"Um. No? I guess... Being in people's dreams, or nightmares, it's made me pay more attention to the way people feel. I was pretty selfish before and only paid attention to myself, but now I can't stop seeing that all my friends have their own little problems. It's becoming a habit to try and help them."

"Hmmm. I've seen worse applications of Semblances, even within Beacon." Glynda sat back and began stroking the puppy, who curled up in her lap. She smiled faintly. "I doubt I need your help, though I'll thank you for thinking to offer it. Despite how old I must look to you students, I have only been working in Beacon for nine years, and the only death so far has been this one. While I'm sure I would be quite traumatised having to deliver news of a dead loved one, I've been spared the horrible task so far."

"This nightmare must represent your worry that it'll happen one day."

"That's entirely possible. I've always been one to catastrophise about problems that haven't yet happened. And you students can be so suicidal sometimes," she complained, ranting a little. It seemed she'd decided to let loose having realised the two of them were stuck here. "If it's not testing your Semblances in wild and reckless ways, it's hurling yourself off the cliff into the Emerald Forest in a race to see who can kill the most Grimm. An accident is bound to happen sooner or later."

"I'm sorry...?"

"I'd say you shouldn't worry, but you did almost die a few days back."

"Ah." Jaune grimaced. "My bad. I'm not the cause of this, am I?"

"You are the expert on dreams, Mr Arc. Not I."

It was entirely possible he was at fault. He'd almost died, unintentional or otherwise, and it probably would have been Miss Goodwitch and Doctor Oobleck sent to tell his family if that happened. Maybe the headmaster would go, but he had a feeling Oobleck would want to be present given all the sessions they'd had together.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know that would happen and I promise it won't happen again. I'm trying not to use too much aura and influence nightmares."

Glynda's eyebrows rose, and her eyes darted to the dogs.

"W—Well, normally. This didn't take much aura, and I thought I might see private stuff if I didn't interfere and reveal myself. I didn't want you to wake up knowing one of your students had been rummaging around in your dreams all night."

"Hm. I'd rather wake up to that than a cadaver, but very well. I shall accept your apology on the assumption you do not do anything so reckless again. And I shall keep tonight's little transgression between the two of us. As you said, you revealed yourself early enough. I cannot fault you for what you can't control. Have you been in the heads of any other members of staff?"

"I've been in Doctor Oobleck's and I think I might have been in Ozpin's? But it was way too confusing to be sure. No one else's as far as I can tell. Or if I was, I never met them in the dream and didn't figure it out. In most dreams I'm just somewhere inside it. Yours had me right next to you." He paused. "Probably filling in for Ozpin's spot."

"That seems like it—" The roof cracked open, white light shining through. Miss Goodwitch surged to her feet. "What is happening!?"

Jaune was calm. "You're waking up. Naturally, I think. There's no need to worry."

The dream ended in a flash of white.

/-/

Miss Goodwitch had cornered him the next day to confirm he actually had been in her dream, and she looked relieved to hear he was. He'd been confused at first, but soon realised that if he hadn't been in her dream but she'd dreamed of him, then it would have been much weirder. Teachers in their thirties probably shouldn't be dreaming of their younger students.

She hadn't punished him or accused him of ill however, so life continued. Ruby kept training her team, her team kept complaining to his team, and his team kept going about their usual business. Nora kept trying to win Ren over, and Pyrrha kept trying to hold herself back in spars against Yang.

Jaune never commented on it. The fact she was trying at all was a good sign.

/-/

Velvet wasn't a young child this time, but she was a little younger – only about a year or two. Jaune placed the dream as it being her first year, which was obvious given Velvet's nightmare was about her initiation.

It was identical to theirs, even down to the chess pieces as relics and the first eye-contact rule.

The teachers must have gotten lazy.

"So, um. You're my partner..." Unlike Glynda, Velvet didn't wake up to lucid dreaming once she'd seen him. Instead, she acted like Jaune Arc being in her initiation group was perfectly normal. "I'm Velvet. Velvet Scarlatina. H-Hi."

Velvet was wearing Coco's beret, which was a little odd. It sat atop her head and her ears must have been wrapped up inside it because he couldn't see them. From a distance, he wouldn't have even realised who it was. Weirdly, the beret suited her, though he missed seeing her ears.

"I guess I am. Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue. The ladies love it."

Velvet laughed nervously. "I-I bet they do..."

It wasn't quite the reaction he expected and went to show just how unbothered by him Ruby had been that she could question it. They'd become good friends from that, while Velvet accepted it as if he'd get angry if she didn't.

"So..." said Jaune, walking alongside her. "Looking forward to Beacon?"

"I... I guess so..."

"Cool. Me too. Become a huntsman, be on a team, get up to awesome adventures." He watched her out the corner of his eye. Velvet's shoulders were hunching further and further up. "Is everything okay? You seem kinda tense."

"I'm fine!" she yelped. "Let's go find our relics!"

"Uh-huh. Okay."

They trekked through the Emerald Forest without much in the way of trouble. A few Grimm appeared, and Jaune expected them to be insanely strong since this was a nightmare, but they'd been chumps. And not just to him, able to alter dreams, but to Velvet in the dream. She had no problem fighting her way through them, and she seemed to be gaining confidence the more she fought, now not quite so afraid and even able to laugh and joke a little.

"Yeah, my mom lives in Vale but my dad moved to Atlas after the split," she said, much more casual as she walked beside him. "But they both stayed on fairly good terms, or at least they did around me. I'm kinda lucky because my dad managed to get my weapon commissioned and paid for by General Ironwood himself!"

"Really? How come?"

"It's because they're interested in my Semblance. I can show you it sometime since we're partners now."

"Sounds good to—" Jaune's eyes caught a dark patch of forest ahead. Odd, and suspicious, given it was the middle of the morning. Velvet didn't seem to notice it. "Hang on a second, I think I see something ahead. You good to let me scout?"

"Huh? I can come with—"

"No. It's fine. Just let me check it out."

Jaune loped ahead before Velvet could get a word in, navigating his way into the dark. It was an unnatural gloom, and it reminded him of the ominous sense of wrongness he'd felt in Yang's first dream when she saw the red trailer in the park. It was a horror-movie kind of vibe, and more likely caused by Velvet's fear than any real phenomenon.

It didn't take him long to find the source of it.

Coco Adel was dead and pinned to a tree by spines shot from some Grimm creature, her guts hanging out and- Enough. Jaune turned away and took a deep breath. It wasn't Coco and there was no point getting worked up about it. He jogged back the way he'd come, and found Velvet sat on a rock.

"Yeah, there's a bit of a mess that way, but I think I saw the ruins where the relics are kept off in that direction." He pointed to the left. "I didn't see many people there so we should be early."

"That's lucky!"

Yeah, sure, luck. More like Velvet's dream hadn't populated this forest with living people. They were the only ones in existence right now. He kept an eye out for more "dark patches" of the forest, and navigated Velvet out the way of them each and every time. Her nightmare wanted to jump scare her, or maybe guilt her over the idea that Coco would die because Velvet hadn't partnered up with her. As if Coco Adel was so weak as to get herself killed because of that. The only person who would have really died in initiation without their partner was him, and that was because he let himself be catapulted into the forest without aura or a parachute.

Eventually, they made it out into a clearing through sheer force of him skirting every jump scare and making sure Velvet didn't see them. The ruins were identical to how he remembered them, and the chessboard with its pieces sat in the middle. Velvet skipped up and picked up a knight piece, just like Nora had, and she turned to him with a huge smile.

It faded as voices came out the treeline.

People at last, but people dreamed up by Velvet. He expected Coco, Fox or Yatsuhashi, and was left surprised when Team CRDL walked out the trees. Okay, Velvet's nightmare was really blending the lines of age and year groups here. Jaune walked back to her, fully expecting some racist-based moment to happen. He went so far as to place a hand atop her head, pressing her beret down, just to stop some "sudden gust of wind" revealing her. Velvet looked up at him but didn't protest.

"Hey there," said Cardin, smiling cruelly. "Couldn't help but notice you with the animal—"

"What animal?"

Cardin looked confused and pointed.

At a human-looking Velvet.

"Uh..."

Even in Velvet's nightmare, he floundered.

Jaune found it oddly funny.

It wasn't the real Cardin of course, but a figment of Velvet's imagination. Still, it was funny to see Velvet's brain tie itself into knots trying to justify how it could hit her with racial slurs when she wasn't showing any faunus features.

In the end, it chose the most ridiculous way of doing so.

Velvet's ears burst through the fabric of her beret and unfurled on either side of his hand.

Having punched holes through her hat.

Jaune stared at it. "Now that doesn't even make sense!"

"Ahah!" yelled Cardin. "I knew it! She's a filthy—"

Jaune's other fist caught his jaw and bowled him over before he could finish. Not the real Cardin, so no need to feel bad. Or hold back. Velvet gasped and jumped under his hand, but he kept her from running away with a little pressure.

"Velvet, I don't care that you're a faunus. I don't think anyone does. Except maybe them," he added, jerking a thumb backwards. "You need to stop worrying about what people think. Just focus on the people close to you and—"

His motivational speech was ruined by a gargantuan hand coming down out the sky.

What the hell is happening tonight!?

"MOVE!"

Jaune dragged her aside, the both of them throwing themselves away as the hand, feminine, he noticed, came crashing down with a huge boom and an explosion of dirt and grass. It crushed the ruins, and Team CRDL, and a slim arm carried up into the sky like some freaking GOD had just slapped the team of racists into putty.

"VELVET!" boomed the god, in a somewhat familiar voice. "Velvet, you've sleepwalked into my bed again and your ear is in my mouth. Velvet, damn it!"

"Eh-?" Velvet reached up to peel one of ears down, and sure enough the tip of it was damp. "What-?"

The world exploded into white light as she woke up.

Jaune, too, sitting up in his bed with a bemused expression.

"What the hell, Velvet..."

Another dream, another bizarre memory. Jaune check his scroll, saw it was only five in the morning, and curled back up. At least her dream hadn't been emotionally taxing, just confusing as anything. And Velvet was a sleepwalker, huh? That was kinda cute, especially if she kept wandering over to Coco's bed. Heh. If he didn't know it would have her suspicious as to how he knew, he'd tease her about that. It wasn't like she'd let Coco forget the one time she called him "dad" after her nightmare.

It looked like it was another night of weird dreams. That wasn't so bad. It was nice to not be exposed to deep trauma and agony.

/-/

It was another forest.

Dark, this time, with the shattered moon in the sky and the stars sparkling down on a cloudless night. He was on a dirt path cut between a line of trees, a route created by thousands of travellers over the years. There wasn't a sound in the air, not of an animal or of anything.

"Jaune..." whispered a voice.

"Who-?" Jaune turned, but no one was there. Had the dreamer seen him already? "Um. Hey. Fancy meeting you in this forest, uh..."

He didn't know who it was and they didn't jump out at him.

"Jaune, help me! Hurry, please! I need you to help me!"

His throat clogged. "A-Amber...?"

"Hurry!"

He didn't wait. Jaune sprinted forward, pushing himself to the limit and expending his aura to move even faster. He recognised this place now. It was the same forest he and Amber had walked through before her death, and before he changed her final moments to more peaceful ones.

For it to be here now meant one of two things – either he was having a nightmare about this, or he was in the dreams of the person who killed her. He'd take the risk of it being the former if there was even the slightest chance of the latter. Jaune roared as he saw something ahead, a scene backlit. Amber on her knees, her arms stretched out right and left held by two people, and a third, standing in front of her with a hand held out.

"AMBEEEER!" he roared, tearing a sword made of pure white light out of nowhere. A sword made of aura, made of imagination. It wasn't real, but he could feel his aura burning in it, and he was in no state to think clearly.

The people looked up at him. Their faces were hidden, shrouded in black, but he could tell they were shocked. The woman in the centre especially. Her hand was flung out toward him, sending a wave of fire his way that blanketed his vision. At the edges of the sky, white lines cracked.

Waking up?

No, not now – not yet.

Amber's killer was right there!

Jaune hit the fire and reared back. He grunted as he let his sword fly. He'd seen Pyrrha throw her shield and javelin but she'd never bother with her sword. It just wasn't made to fly straight. Neither was his, but this world wasn't real. Jaune let his sword fly and concentrated on the idea of it hitting the person who killed Amber. His aura flooded the nightmare and made it a reality, causing the white, burning sword to twist and alter its path in the air, and curl impossibly around the fire in pursuit of the fleeing killer.

He saw it strike their back just as the dream ended.

/-/

Cinder Fall awoke with a desperate cry, arching up off the bed as her hands flew to her spine. The scream startled her team to wakefulness as well, and Emerald rushed over to care for her. Cinder slapped the girl away, not in the mood to deal with her nonsense. Standing, she staggered to the bathroom, ripping her sleeping top off as she went. Mercury whistled, and she plotted some agony for him as she turned to expose her back to the mirror.

There was an ugly scar on her back, a horrific line of raised and bubbling flesh like someone had taken a white-hot iron poker and laid it against her flesh. Emerald came in, cheek smarting, and gasped when she saw it.

"What—? How—?"

"Arc," hissed Cinder, grabbing a cloth, dousing it in cold water and then throwing it in Emerald's face. The girl got the memo and came over to gently dab, making Cinder hiss at the contact. "His blasted Semblance. How he did this, I don't know. What happens in a dream shouldn't be able to transfer into real life."

Semblances didn't always make sense however, and they could evolve through use. If he was using his every night, exerting it, then he might unintentionally be getting more training with his Semblance than anyone else in Beacon. And he'd almost seen her. Cinder was sure he hadn't, but she would have to test it. If he recognised her, he would have to die.

"Keep an eye on him," she told her team. "Watch him. See how he acts. If you suspect he knows for even an instant, then come to me. We shall ensure a little accident happens to him. But, for now, I don't think he knows."

And this pain was a small price to pay for the power she now had.

Cinder planted her hands on the sink and gritted her teeth as Emerald cleaned her wound.

She never noticed Neo's eyes flicker and change colour, or her eyebrows draw down viciously.