Trivia continued teaching him RSL at breakfast, sitting on his lap with her chest to his in what would have been a very risqué position for anyone else. Oddly enough, it didn't feel that way and no one eating at the table saw her as interested in him, not even Pyrrha – and certainly not his actual girlfriend, Yang. They all acted like she was his little sister, and Jaune felt like her older brother, fumbling awkwardly through gestures and letting Trivia correct him by moving his hands about. The hard part was getting used to the idea of both talking and gesturing at the same time, and he wasn't sure if that was because the lip reading on top of the signs helped, or if it was so that his face made the relevant expressions.

If he just used signs then his face would have been flat and toneless, which might have made it harder for her to interpret the sentiment behind the words. Or maybe it was just so that other people could hear, and he wasn't leaving them out the conversation. It helped that he could speak her signs back and have her shake her head or nod if he got them right.

"Mr Arc." Miss Goodwitch approached their table with a raised eyebrow toward a girl sitting in his lap at breakfast but, upon seeing no one else minded, decided it was too early for her to care. "I am sorry for the interruption but Doctor Oobleck and the headmaster would like to speak with you. You are not in trouble but may miss your first lesson of the day."

Trivia pouted and made a few quick signs.

"I don't recognise those," he said.

"Unfortunately, I do," said Glynda, and Trivia froze. "Beacon does not discriminate against differently abled students and I am fully trained in RSL. I suggest you return to your team before I take offence at that comment."

Trivia hopped off his legs and scurried away with a faint blush and was followed by laughter from Yang and Nora. The others were smiling or hiding their laughter. Jaune really wished he knew what she'd said, but it was probably something rude towards Miss Goodwitch and he didn't have the balls to ask her for a translation.

Instead, he apologised to his teammates and promised to catch up with them later. It was a regular enough issue for him to be called away that none of them even batted an eye anymore, but at least they weren't worried either. He'd had plenty of private talks with Doctor Oobleck and they all knew it was related to his Semblance. They probably assumed the headmaster had brought an aura specialist in for him to be looked over by. Maybe he had, but Jaune somehow doubted it. Doctor Oobleck would have told him in advance about that if it were true.

"Do you know what this is for, ma'am?" asked Jaune once they'd left the cafeteria.

"I have not been informed but I do know that General Ironwood has prepped an aircraft with fuel enough to take it over the Emerald Forest, and that Qrow Branwen has arrived once more – so I expect it will be a repeat attempt at your last excursion."

"Ahhh." Jaune made an understanding sound. "They could have just messaged me instead of sending you, ma'am."

"Believe me, Mr Arc. I am well aware."

"..." Jaune winced. "Sorry?"

"It's hardly your fault my colleagues see fit to waste my time." Glynda took them up the elevator and then out to the doors to Ozpin's office. "We're here. Good luck, and well done on taking the step to learning RSL," she added. "I am sure your friend appreciates the effort you're putting forth."

"When did you—?"

"Beacon doesn't often have students with disabilities such as those, primarily because they can be detrimental to the career of a huntsman. That said, sometimes a talented and determined individual can achieve it all the same, and we shall never turn such people down. There are always at least two members of staff who know it. We have three currently – me, Ozpin, and Bartholomew."

It somehow didn't surprise him that Doctor Oobleck would know sign language. Jaune nodded and clumsily signed "thank you" at her, to which the woman smiled and signed something back that he didn't understand but was probably "you're welcome" or "good luck" or something like that. Trivia had been more focused on the basics.

Inside the office, Doctor Oobleck and General Ironwood were arguing, though they stopped abruptly when he entered. Qrow Branwen was there, leaning back against an open window, looking out nostalgically. He ignored Jaune's entry, and everyone else, and it was Ozpin who stood and spoke.

"Mr Arc. Good morning. I hope we did not interrupt your breakfast."

"Not mine, sir, but I think you might have interrupted Miss Goodwitch's."

"I shall have to apologise to her, then. I trust you understand why you're here?"

"I think so. Are we flying out again to try Qrow's dreams, or are we doing it here?"

"Flying out," said General Ironwood. "And we shall be going to the same point as last time, which is what your teacher and I were debating over."

"I still say this is needlessly reckless. And we all know why you want to do it there. You're hoping that if Jaune fails to connect to Qrow's dreams, he will once again enter the dream of a member of the White Fang and provide you useful intelligence."

"I make no attempt to hide it," replied the general. "But the risk is minimal. They are obviously doing their best to stay hidden, so they're not going to shoot on a hovering aircraft and reveal themselves." He turned to Jaune. "Meanwhile, their proximity to Beacon presents a threat to every student here, including you and your friends. Discovering the reasons they're here, and their plans if possible, will help us put a stop to them before they can threaten the students here."

"That is manipulation and nothing less!" accused Oobleck. "Jaune, don't fall—"

"It's fine, sir." Jaune smiled as the man fumed. "I'm aware I'm being manipulated, sir, but General Ironwood has a point in this case. I'd rather they not attack the school, and I'd only feel bad if they bypassed us and killed innocent people in Vale and I could have done something about it."

Ironwood smiled.

Oobleck did not. "Do not take such weight onto your shoulders," he said. "Just because a person can do something does not mean they are responsible for what happens if they do not. We could stop teaching lessons and go fight Grimm. There would be less of them to threaten villages and kill the helpless, but then there would be no next generation. The White Fang is not your responsibility."

"Even so..."

Oobleck sighed.

"The matter is settled," said Ironwood. "Qrow and I shall take him out over the Emerald Forest. Even if the White Fang were to attack, we would be more than enough to hold them off. I shall have Winter with me as well."

"Can we trust he'll be brought back without being arrested?" snarked Oobleck.

"I promise he will return safe and free."

"Then I suppose we have no say in the matter." Oobleck stormed out the office. "Good day."

/-/

Jaune tuned out the hissed argument between Winter and Qrow. The older man was either flirting or pissing her off, or maybe he'd flirted with the intent of pissing her off. Either way, he seemed to be having great fun riling Weiss' older sister up.

And it was probably for his benefit.

He hadn't been blind to how Winter Schnee had fixated on him with almost laser precision. How her eyes had narrowed, her entire body tightened, and how she'd taken one long step toward him before Qrow jumped in and distracted her.

This was Weiss' older sister, and being here on the aircraft speeding out over the Emerald Forest meant she was in the know on what Jaune's Semblance was and did. Which meant she could make an estimated guess to him having invaded her sister's dreams. As a sibling himself, he didn't blame her wanting to crack down on him, but as the target of that, he really didn't want to deal with her. There was no good answer he could give as there wasn't much he could do to stop it happening.

That was why he whispered a silent "thank you" to Qrow for his intervention.

Before long, they were hovering out over the Emerald Forest. He was sure Ironwood and Atlas had done scouting runs since the last mission out here in search of the White Fang, but they obviously hadn't found them. It wasn't a big surprise. The Emerald Forest was vast, and a lot of it didn't have landmarks like the ruins near Beacon. Much of it was just endless forest and lots of Grimm. As long as the White Fang could handle them, they had plenty of places to hide.

Jaune laid down on the cot provided as Qrow did the same nearby. There was still no telling if anaesthetic would make his Semblance work or not, so they laid there for well over an hour before sleep finally took them.

"I'm having a little trouble here," he dimly heard Qrow say.

/-/

Jaune instantly knew he wasn't in Qrow's dream.

It was obvious not only by the feel of it, but by the fact that he was in the Emerald Forest. Qrow had trained at Beacon, so he was obviously familiar with the area, but Jaune doubted he'd be dreaming about. And beyond all that, there was the simple fact that he and Qrow had tried to fall asleep at the same time, but, when Jaune nodded off, he'd heard Qrow' voice.

When he normally fell asleep, he'd enter the dreams of people already asleep, which fit considering he often went to bed late on account of his nighttime spars with Pyrrha. There were always plenty of people already in bed given Beacon had hundreds of students.

That airship literally only had him and Qrow on it, and if Qrow wasn't already asleep when Jaune slumbered then there would be no dream for him to enter. It probably would have worked better if they let Qrow sleep first and then him after. He'd have to bring that up next time. If Ironwood hadn't already considered that and simply done things this way to make sure he had the best chance of ending up in a terrorist's dream.

"Doctor Oobleck was furious. Maybe he knew something I didn't." Jaune sighed. "Even though I knew I was being manipulated, it looks like I didn't realise just how blatant it was going to be. This was never about ending up in Qrow's head."

Ozpin might be annoyed when he found out, and Oobleck certainly would be. Jaune had a feeling Qrow wouldn't be happy to have his time wasted either. This was obviously General Ironwood doing his own thing and deciding he knew best.

Well, I'm already in the dream now so I might as well continue it.

Ahead, through the Emerald Forest, he could make out a large camp with several containers. It was night in the dream despite being day in real life, which probably suggested the terrorists were sleeping through the day to avoid detection. Even if they slept during daylight hours, their subconscious might have equated the scene to night. Jaune also doubted the White Fang were having a big campfire like this one belching smoke into the sky, because Ironwood would have found them a lot sooner if that was the case.

Expending a little aura, Jaune imagined himself as a faunus. He probably should have pictured himself with golden Labrador ears, but he instead pictured the one faunus he knew and spent the most time with, turning his hair black, poking feline ears out his scalp and developing a little more in the chest area than he originally intended.

"Uhhh..." Jaune looked down at his – or her – body in disbelief. "Okay. We're never telling Blake about this." It was tempting to cop a feel too, which wouldn't even be unfair since this was himself he was touching, but with him looking like Blake that still didn't feel right. "Focus on the mission. Focus on the task at hand." Even his voice had changed to Blake's. With a deep breath, he summoned a White Fang mask and set it over his face. "Blake probably won't even mind if she knew this was about bringing down the White Fang. She'd sell her kidneys for any chance to get into a fight with them."

Her teammates would be more annoyed at him for enabling her.

There were plenty of other masked terrorists in the camp going about their business and sitting around smaller fires. They looked normal, some wearing masks and others not, chatting and sharing food and laughing at jokes. Their faces were hazy even without masks, giving him little to nothing to work on in identifying them. Jaune wondered if that meant the dreamer didn't know their faces (because they wore masks all the time) or if they hadn't cared to get to know them or didn't see them as worth remembering.

It could be either, but Ironwood would be annoyed Jaune couldn't give him faces.

There was one man he did recognise, however. Adam Taurus. Ironwood had mentioned the name last time and Jaune had done a little reading. Not much, just enough to know he was a wanted terrorist. Dangerous in the extreme, with a high body count in Atlas that he was wanted for. Words like "dead or alive" hadn't been explicitly mentioned, but they'd been very much implied.

This is a dream, Jaune thought to himself. He was in Blake's body so Gambol Shroud appearing at his side wasn't unexpected. Oobleck had already shared a theory that he might be able to cause damage in dreams that might translate to real life.

It sounded crazy but there had been real-life cases of people dying from their dreams.

Those cases had been mired in superstition and spiritualism, most of which Oobleck decried as nonsense, but the cases were there. It was Oobleck's opinion, which Jaune favoured, that the dreams had caused cardiac arrest or death as a result of panic or flailing about and harming yourself. A lot of them seemed to happen in older people or those with histories of heart problems.

This was different, though. He would be taking his aura and using it as a weapon, directed by his Semblance, to punch into and kill a person in their dream. Jaune swallowed, suddenly feeling very, very cold. His fingers jumped from the gun and he banished it with a flash of his aura, removing the very idea.

He couldn't do it.

He couldn't just murder someone in their dream.

He must have made a noise because the man turned, looking his – or her – way. He smiled, his lips curving under his mask. "Blake."

It felt wrong, intrusive, but Jaune forced himself to reply. "Adam."

"Can't sleep?" he asked, moving aside on the log and patting the space. Jaune hesitated, and then moved over to sit down. He kept his aura up but it was obvious Adam wasn't going to attack him. "It's a beautiful night out. The pollution from the city doesn't reach this far. It's clear, like back home. I miss Kuo Kuana sometimes."

"Why not go back there, then?"

Adam chuckled. "I think your parents would throw a fit if I did. I'm banished in all but name. Besides, it wouldn't be fair of me to take a holiday when everyone else is risking their lives for the cause. I'd blame myself if something went wrong and I could have been here to stop it."

Blake knew Adam. Or Adam knew Blake.

Jaune licked across his teeth, unsure what to think or do with that knowledge. Not tell Ironwood, that much was for sure. It was a secret he'd picked up without her permission, so it would follow the same rules as all the others – he'd keep it to himself and tell no one.

I'm here for a reason. I might as well do what Ironwood wants me to.

"Why are we here, Adam? Why Beacon?"

"Hmm?" He glances over. "Don't tell me you weren't paying attention."

Jaune, or Blake, blushed. "I was. I just... forgot."

He expected anger but Adam threw back his head and laughed.

"Ah, Blake." He slid a finger under his mask to wipe at one eye. "Never change. Reading your books again? Didn't I tell you not to spend so much time with them? The others think it's favouritism enough you're here without me feeding the rumours."

"What rumours?" he asked, and immediately regretted it because these weren't his secrets to know. "No. Never mind. Don't tell me." Blake wouldn't want him to know. "Just, fill me in. I don't get why we're doing this here of all places."

"It's the best location from which to strike at Beacon."

Jaune's eyes closed. Ironwood was right, then. That made this a little easier. "Why, though? They're a school, Adam. Grimm don't discriminate."

"Grimm might not but huntsmen do. You know that." Adam poked at the fire. "Over 90% of huntsmen who graduate from a major city are kept in that city after and focus on defending the local area. They take orders from the city and go where they're told because that's where the money is. Worse, some of them take contracts from the SDC to defend their mining camps. They see the cruelty on dull display and do nothing. They see the unfairness and the state of the faunus and they turn a blind eye. They discriminate, Blake. Of course they do. They even fight us."

"You – we – are terrorists, Adam. It's kind of their job to fight us."

He snorted. "Is it? I thought their job was to kill the Grimm. Strange that they instead ignore villages being attacked by Grimm to guard shipments of SDC product, or to guard the Schnee manor, or to act as personal security for them. Strange that they have the time to be sent out to fight and kill us when dangerous criminals run rampant in their own city. Isn't it?"

It was strange.

He hadn't ever considered it because this wasn't something he'd bothered to get involved in, and Jaune couldn't say he knew how graduates acted or what jobs they took. He'd come to Beacon with barely any understanding of what being a huntsman was like.

But Qrow was said to be one of the strongest huntsmen in Vale, and here he was following orders from Ozpin and Ironwood rather than fight the Grimm. He'd been out trying to find Amber's killers, which Jaune did appreciate – but it still proved Adam's point. The huntsmen weren't focusing on the Grimm as was their official stance, and they were being used in private business and against the White Fang.

"We're the ones provoking them. If we tried things other than violence—"

"This again?" Adam turned to him. "Blake, we spent years peacefully protesting and it didn't work. They threw rocks at us, expelled us from Atlas and threatened us for disrupting the peace with our protests. We tried the non-violent approach. We tried all of them. Your father was roundly mocked and slandered on every TV interview, and when he finally did get on and give good points that picked their arguments apart, they simply refused to ever let him on again. Our voices didn't do anything when their voices are backed by billions of lien willing to be spent on beating us down."

"Still—"

"Still what, Blake? What would you have me do? Talk? They won't listen. Protest? They didn't care. Debate? They refused to engage. What's left when every diplomatic and peaceful attempt you've ever made ends in failure? What is left?"

Violence.

"I know you don't like this, Blake." His hand touched Jaune's, took and squeezed it. Jaune tried hard not to pull away. "I'm not a huge fan, either. I saw huntsmen as heroes just like you once, and attacking a school of them isn't something I'm thrilled about."

"Then why?"

"Because if not the school, then what else? Amity Collosseum? Tens of thousands of defenceless civilians trapped on a floating death trap. Is that any better? It'd be a massacre. At least the students will have a good chance fighting back the Grimm – and most of them should be at the festival anyway. We'll be attacking an empty school. It'll be a message."

Amity. The Vytal Festival. They had a timeframe! Jaune almost wanted to jump for joy. The way Adam said it made it clear the plan was to come while the tournament was on, otherwise the students wouldn't be away like he said.

"What about the Grimm?" asked Jaune.

"The collection is going well. We'll continue rounding them up and capturing them. They'll make for a good distraction come the moment."

"We're going to unleash them in Beacon?"

"On the outskirts. That's the plan, anyway."

They were catching Grimm to unleash on Beacon. That was... That was a plan, all right. It was a bit of a weird one, though. Every student in Beacon – every single one – was more than capable of killing Grimm. Hell, it was literally their initiation to be tossed into the Emerald Forest to deal with them. This was like unleashing a horde of doughnuts on a team of competitive eaters.

"What about our own forces? Won't the Grimm just turn around and attack us? This seems like a really bad idea."

"I know." Adam sighed. "I'm not a fan of it either, but I'm assured the Grimm will be incentivised to attack Beacon – whatever that means. I'm not sure what to think of it myself, but I can't deny she has some way to influence them. Not control, but close enough. Enough to make them ignore us and go straight for Beacon."

"She...?" Jaune leaned in. "Who?"

"I shouldn't say." Adam glanced aside. "It's safer if you don't know, Blake. I don't trust them – not with your safety."

Jaune took a guess. "Because they're human?"

It was a shot in the dark but Adam would reply either yes or no and confirm it for him.

"I wouldn't trust her even if she were a faunus. The way she talks, the way she acts... You've called me cruel, Blake, but there's something far worse in her. Something that is eating her up inside." Adam took Jaune's other shoulder, still holding his hand, and drew him around. "I don't want her anywhere near you."

And Adam touched his lips to hers.

Or his.

Jaune's eyes widened, his body freezing as a wanted terrorist – a killer – gently, even sweetly, kissed him. It wasn't chaste, either. The man's tongue ran across his lips and Jaune, shocked, didn't stop him from slipping inside.

The worst part was that Adam was a good kisser.

Probably better than Yang.

Luckily, the shock was enough to jolt him out the dream.

/-/

Jaunt bolted upright wiping his sleeve over his mouth, but aside from the feeling and memory of Adam's lips, there was nothing there. He soon found himself surrounded by Ironwood, Winter and Qrow – the latter of whom looked annoyed.

"I was in Adam's dream again," he said.

Ironwood's eyes lit up. "Tell me everything!"

Jaune recounted the details as best he could but left Blake out of it, telling Ironwood that he'd turned himself into a faunus version of how he currently was, and that he'd convinced Adam he was one of his underlings.

Qrow and Ironwood soon got into their own heated debate, with Qrow accusing Ironwood of taking them out here specifically for that reason – which was probably the case. Their argument grew louder and louder, but it also carried the unintentional consequence of freeing up Winter to pull Jaune to his feet and into the narrow corridor outside the bridge.

"We need to talk, Arc," she said.

Jaune sighed. "I was expecting this."

"Your Semblance. My sister." Her eyes narrowed. "Your name came up in our letters to one another and I can't help but equate what my sister refers to as a sudden change in you to you having unlocked and utilised your Semblance on her without her consent."

"Without mine either," he said, refusing to back down. "I didn't want to see Weiss' nightmares."

"And yet you did. You invaded my sister's privacy and saw things she would rather keep to herself." Her hands clenched but she didn't strike him. He supposed she was too professional for that. Instead, she hissed out, "You will tell me what you saw."

Welp.

Jaune took a deep breath.

"I will not."

Winter's eyes flashed dangerously. "You will!"

"I will not," he repeated, trying to sound calm under her arctic gaze. He could see where Weiss had gotten it from, though Weiss had to develop it a little further yet to make it this chilling. "I'm afraid I decided early on that I would never share anything I saw in a person's dreams. I've broken that promise here and there when it comes to someone breaking the law, and I'll break it if I find the one who murdered Amber, but that isn't Weiss – so I'm not going to betray her and tell you anything I saw."

"I am her sister!"

"That does not give you blanket permission to invade her privacy, ma'am." He watched her recoil as he threw her words back at her. "I've done that. I admit it. I invaded Weiss' mind and took a look at things she'd never have wanted me to see. But I didn't get a choice on that. I do have a choice here as to what I do with those secrets, and I choose to take them to my grave."

Winter hesitated. "I don't disparage you that," she whispered, "but surely Weiss would trust me to know."

"With all due respect, ma'am. If she trusted you to know then she would have told you." His words hit harder this time, and Winter looked away, biting her lip. "I'm not saying Weiss doesn't trust or love you, but it's not easy to tell things to family. And I still won't betray Weiss by sharing anything I saw with you." He shrugged. "Sorry."

"..." Winter looked back at him. For a moment, he saw doubt. Weakness. "Was it me?" she asked, at last. "Tell me that, at least. Did she have nightmares about me, or something I did – or anything that I failed to do to, or for, her?"

"No." Jaune answered. "You were never in Weiss' nightmares. That's probably a good thing."

To say Winter looked relieved was an understatement. The woman looked positively shaken, but in a good way. The truth was, if she had been in Weiss' nightmares, or the cause, then he would have lied and said the same thing he had now, because then it wouldn't have been her right to know the truth. It was lucky for her that she hadn't been the cause, and that he didn't have to lie to her.

"Is that all?"

"That is all," she said. "I will not thank you for what you've done but... but I will thank you for keeping her secrets. Please continue to do so."

"I'll do the same if I end up in your dreams as well."

Winter grimaced, clearly having not considered that possibility, but eventually nodded and let him go, leaning back against the wall to think as Jaune headed back into the bridge to see Ironwood and Qrow furiously spitting and shouting at one another. Sighing, Jaune approached the pilot and tapped the man's shoulder.

"Maybe we should head back to Beacon? I don't think they're going to be done with this anytime soon."

Jaune wished he could say the flight back happened in silence. He really did.