There were many benefits to Oswald's lessons, such as improving team unity (in hatred against him), reducing discipline issues (because even Team RWBY were too tired to cause issues), and of course teaching them the valuable lesson that fitness was a never-ending journey as opposed to a destination you could stop at. That, and the fact that for every Professor Port who would let you sleep in lessons, there was a Professor Oswald who would throw you against a Grimm armed with a stick and a rock and tell you to "get creative".

Did Jaune feel bad for unleashing the monster on Beacon? Sort of. It was hard to feel guilty when his waking moments were spent feeling muscle cramps. Team JNPR had stocked up on creams that made your skin heat up to soothe muscles, and they'd all become amateur masseurs by necessity. Everyone hated Oswald. Everyone.

Except Pyrrha.

Damn her to the worst nightmares imaginable.

Sweet, innocent Pyrrha was so enamoured with Oswald that Jaune would have thought it a crush if not for knowing her better. His partner couldn't get enough of the lessons, nor of being flattened in one-on-one spars with the man. They were some of the most one-sided spars he'd ever seen, and not in Pyrrha's favour for once, which she seemed to love more than life itself.

And, of course, because life wasn't bullshit enough, she was improving as a result of it. Adapting her moves, picking up some new tricks, taking every lesson on board while every other member of the class fought for oxygen on the floor. That'd all be a lot more acceptable if Pyrrha would stop singing his praises and earning the ire of everyone in Team RWBY, along with everyone in hearing distance. It was getting to the point where he wouldn't have been surprised if Cardin and Velvet joined forces to try and corner Pyrrha and rough her up. Not that they'd succeed, but the sentiment was definitely there.

"I just think he's an excellent teacher and has a lot to teach us."

"I just think you're an idiot with an undiscovered masochistic kink," Weiss had replied, shocking Pyrrha to her core. Not only because of the insult, but because Weiss was the one to snap it out rather than Yang or Nora.

Oswald's impact wasn't just felt on the students, either. He had a strange dynamic with other teachers that only made sense to Jaune thanks to his context. The way he was familiar with them, and the way they deferred to him, didn't make sense to anyone else. There were rumours, of course. Rumours of him being some super-huntsmen even older ones respected. Rumours of him being Glynda's secret boyfriend, on account of how she was the only one willing to stand up to him and quite often dragged him to her new office to shout at.

"Shout" being a metaphor for someone else in the minds of many hormonal students.

It appeared to cause a ruckus with General Ironwood as well, though Jaune wasn't privy to any of information behind that one. He just knew Ironwood had been invited to Beacon for some short meetings, and that Oswald had similarly left the school to head up to the battleship more than once.

The biggest benefit of Oswald's ruthless training, however, was far simpler – and more a benefit for everyone else than him. It was that the constant workouts made sure everyone was exhausted at an early hour, and the student body – himself included – were getting more sleep than ever before.

/-/

Kuroyuri as the name of the place Jaune found himself in. He knew it more by context of hearing about it from Ren and Nora than anything else. A village that had for some reason decided it had what it took to become a city and declared itself independent from Mistral. Jaune wasn't sure how they'd managed that without Mistral kicking up a fuss, or how they'd thought themselves capable of it without huntsmen to protect them, but the result had ended up no better than Mountain Glenn. It was like the Grimm didn't want extra cities to survive.

Which would make sense if Ozpin's story of someone behind the Grimm was true...

No. That's ridiculous. Everyone knows Grimm are mindless. It's more likely they were just drawn by all the people here.

Either way, seeing the village-slash-city (and it was much too small to be a city despite their wishes) made it clear he was in Nora or Ren's head. Probably. There was always the chance more people had survived, but the odds of them doing so and making it into Beacon? That was a little too much convenience.

There was a difference today, though.

Kuroyuri was alive. Occupied. Not yet fallen.

His first instinct was that this made it Nora's nightmare. She'd asked him recently to try and find out her parents, so that meant she was thinking about them – which could have prompted her to dream before the attack. Maybe Ren had too, and this was to be a nightmare of watching his parents die.

And if so, what would happen if he intervened? He'd fixed Ironwood's arm in wanting to fix his pain, and he'd made Ozpin young again. If he saved Ren's parents in a dream, would they come back to life...? How would that even work? It didn't feel right to say they'd just teleport next to Ren when he woke up, but if his parents' bodies had been buried or eaten...

He wasn't sure which was less horrific to think of!

Nora wasn't any better. She'd asked him to force the dream to her childhood to try and see her parents at the point of her becoming an orphan, but if he forcefully turned her into a toddler in the dream and it followed through in the waking world? Jaune shuddered. He'd seen movies like that, where people had to raise their de-aged friends, but he got the feeling it'd be a lot less comedic in real life.

On the other hand...

"That'd be an interesting way to deal with Cinder, wouldn't it...?"

He chuckled at the thought of Cinder as a tiny baby furiously crying at him, even if it probably wouldn't work. Not the act of turning her into a baby – that might very well happen – but the idea of it solving any problems. Ozpin and Ironwood had retained their memories, minds, and personalities just fine, so all it'd do was delay Cinder being an evil monster until she grew up a second time.

Still, he didn't think Nora would appreciate it.

It was lucky, then, that he found a small orange-haired child without interference. Nora must have had this on her mind ever since asking him, wondering when this dream would happen, and that had subconsciously shaped her nightmares away from the fall of Kuroyuri and toward the beginning of her orphaned status.

That saves me having to run the risk of de-ageing her. I should still do my best to keep my aura away from her just in case I lock her into this form like I did Ozpin.

Nora looked to be around three to six. He wasn't great at guessing the ages of young children despite having two younger sisters. The fact she couldn't consciously remember a lot of this suggested she was younger, but then she could be older and suppressed them. His studies in psychology and lesson with Oobleck had taught him that memory was a fallible thing. It was why direct testimony in court cases could be contested so much.

Memories could change for any number of reasons, sometimes as simple as nostalgia. Looking back, he still felt that Weiss had been kind and perfect and beautiful in their first meeting, despite that he knew she'd been a bitch. Even she admitted it. He could also remember the first words Pyrrha said to him but not what he learned that morning in Port's lessons. Short-term, long-term, there were so many ways in which memories could be subtly twisted and altered.

"Hello there." Jaune approached the childlike Nora, who was wrapped up in a thick jumper that reached down to her knees. She was wearing obnoxiously pink child's shoes that he had a feeling she'd hate normally. "Are you looking for your—?"

Nora threw herself at him. "Daddy!"

Uck—

Jaune didn't so much catch her as fail to fall over due to her, but it was enough for Nora to plunge her face into his stomach and wrap her arms around his waist. His hands came down to her shoulders without thinking, leaving him in the awkward quandary of whether he should push her away or not.

How was she mistaking him for—?

Of course – the memories!

Nora didn't remember what her parents looked like, which made perfect sense given how young she was. But her subconscious knew this was a dream about her mom and dad, and it knew he was important. Maybe because he was intruding or maybe because, as her friend, he evoked a subconscious emotional response from her. Simply put, he appeared, Nora felt happy, dream conflated and mistook that for emotional attachment, her father could have looked like anyone – and boom, instant parent.

I'm getting good at identifying this stuff.

Now to "get good" at suddenly being a parent. Or to untangle this.

"Ah. Um. I think you've made a mistake. But I can help you find your mommy and daddy."

Big blue eyes looked up at him. "Find mommy?"

"And daddy," he said, but even then he wasn't sure if her absence of it was a mistake or not. What if there hadn't been a father at the time? Nora might have had a single parent who abandoned her.

Or who was killed by Grimm. He didn't want to jump to conclusions.

"Silly daddy," said Nora, giggling into him. "Found daddy."

"Ungh..."

He really, really, really wanted Nora to be happy in this dream, but he also knew there was a good chance she'd remember this on waking up. But she had asked him not to make it lucid and to try and help her see her parents. He really didn't want to force her into anything, either. That seemed like the way he'd end up changing things in the waking world. Using aura, changing the dream, forcing his vision. Anything he intentionally altered was what stuck. Did that mean he should play along? He wasn't sure, but what he definitely shouldn't do was force Nora to not recognise him.

Because then she might not recognise him once they woke up.

Maybe his best bet was to ignore this, then.

"Come on, kiddo." Jaune placed a hand on the small of her back and gently turned her around and off him. "Let's go find your pa—mother. My memory is a little fuzzy. Do you remember where she went?"

"Momma said to wait here for her to come back."

Nora spoke overly well for someone her age. No stuttering, no confusion, no breaks. It was more like an adult in the body and voice of a child then an actual child, which made some amount of sense. Nora was dreaming of herself as a child, but she still considered herself mentally capable enough to speak like an adult.

Was this a real memory though, or was she imagining it? Had her mother really told her to wait and then never come back? Jaune felt anger boil inside him but quickly quelled it for her sake. It was possible her mom had been unable to come back, or that she'd been hurt and bled out, or that Nora wandered away from where she was told to wait. He still didn't like the idea of someone leaving a child on their own, but maybe there had been extenuating circumstances.

Maybe...

Nora's hand touched his and slid into his palm before he could stop her. She beamed up at him, eyes crinkling and bright but uneven teeth showing. She needed – or had at some point needed – braces. He could somehow imagine her constantly picking at them and needing Ren to keep hold of her hands in Sanctum to make her stop.

As to the hand... he squeezed gently back. It felt wrong, but he was savvy enough with dreams by now to see the obvious nightmare spiral if he rejected her. Instantly, this would fall into a catastrophic nightmare of her father (or the man she thought to be her father) hating and abandoning her, and then she'd wake up in tears because of him. Besides, it wasn't like Nora would feel aghast at holding his hand. She'd probably tease him if he asked but go through with it because she was always touchy-feely and loved skinship.

Standing around waiting for her mom obviously wasn't going to work if it hadn't for her in real life, so Jaune strolled through the village with her instead. It was a painfully slow walk due to the length of her legs, with each step having to be measured to not yank her off her feet. Parenting skills, he supposed. It wasn't so bad to pick them up in a dream before he had to put them into practice himself one day.

The people around them were blank-faced and shadowy figures except, Jaune couldn't help but notice, for a small boy with black hair and pink eyes that Nora didn't actually acknowledge, but who was walking with another shadow figure in perfect clarity. Nora obviously didn't remember the faces of most of the people in Kuroyuri, but she'd never forget Ren. He wasn't a part of this dream, however, so he walked on by as just another person.

They did a lap of the village and meandered through its insides for over an hour before Nora tugged on his hand. "Feet hurt," she whined. "Can we stop?"

"Let's not stop just yet," he said. Nora's mother – shadow figure or otherwise – had to be here somewhere. "Here, I'll carry you." He stooped in preparation for a piggy-back, only to have Nora wrap her arms around his neck and shift her body so her side was to his chest.

It took him a moment to figure out what she wanted, but he sighed and hooked an arm under her butt and against her legs and stood. She was weightless to him since this was a dream, but he probably could have carried a small child like this anyway, propped on one arm. Nora yawned and pressed her face into his neck, her nose brushing against his collarbone.

"Don't fall asleep."

"I'm tired."

Could she fall asleep in a dream? What happened then? Replace this dream with another or become increasingly meta with a dream within a dream. He wasn't excited to find out, so made sure to bounce as he walked, jostling Nora with every step so that she grumbled but couldn't drift off.

"Daddyyy," she whined.

"We're looking for your mother and I need you to point her out to me. Keep your eyes open."

Nora grumbled out a, "You have eyes..." in a quiet voice he probably wasn't meant to hear. Such a cheeky brat she was. If Nora remembered this, he was going to have fun teasing her. He'd hold this over her head for weeks to come. The best part was he could even share the embarrassing stories with his team now they knew about his Semblance.

Blackmail had never been so sweet.

Such thoughts faded after what felt like an hour but could have been longer spent searching for a woman who didn't exist. Nora's mother could have been one of the many shadow people, and Nora simply didn't recognise her anymore, or she could have been absent from the dream entirely. Gone or dead before Nora could even remember her. This had been so long ago, and she'd been through so much since, that it was no great surprise she remembered more of Ren's face than a woman she hadn't seen since she was a toddler.

That didn't make it any easier on him. Jaune's spirts were plunging.

And Nora didn't even seem to notice. "Daddy, where are we staying tonight?"

Children her age didn't tend to consider accommodation. He wondered where Nora had stayed – whether it had been under someone's front step or awning, or if someone had taken pity on a small child and let her into their house.

How long had Nora been homeless for? It might only have been a day or two. Hell, maybe Nora's mom had unintentionally lured the Grimm that destroyed Kuroyuri here, and she'd only been abandoned for a single day before Ren and her fled the Grimm. It was hard to imagine someone this age surviving alone, but children did survive on the streets. He'd seen it in documentaries. Sometimes they were helped by kind strangers or charities. It wasn't inconceivable that Kuroyuri had those.

"We have a room at an inn," he lied.

"Can we go there now?" Nora pressed tightly into him. "I'm cold."

He could warm her with aura, but he didn't dare. Instead, he put her down on the floor, ignoring her whining, and removed his hoodie. Nora understood and raised her hands above her, but even then he had to wrestle the hoodie down over her arms and bright orange hair, and she looked ridiculous in it. Less like a child wearing a hoodie and more like a child being eaten alive by one.

She raised her hands after and he obediently picked her up again, holding her against his shoulder as he gave up on finding her mother and instead carried her toward one of the larger buildings she remembered. He wasn't sure what she'd imagine the insides as but— ah. That'd do it. The moment he stepped inside, Beacon's décor and colours filled the inn. It made sense she'd equate Beacon to a place of rest and safety. Sanctum would have been logical too, but Beacon was more related to him, so with his face in her dream she might subconsciously have been shifted toward thinking of Beacon.

In the same way, the room he took her to was a copy of Team JNPR's dorm, with four beds as well. No Ren or Pyrrha, but it did have Ren and Pyrrha's belongings and furniture. It was a snapshot of the room they were sleeping in at that moment, but childlike Nora didn't notice any of that. Once he sat her on the bed, she quickly yanked up the covers and wrapped herself in them, pulling them up to her nose and saying, "Story."

"Hmmm?"

"Tell me a story, daddy."

"So demanding..."

"You always tell me stories."

That made him pause. Was that an assumption or a memory? If Nora said he did... Maybe her parents hadn't been so unloving after all. A father who always used to tell her stories late at night. He smiled, head dipping so she couldn't see how sad his smile looked. I wish I could have helped you see them again or get closure, but it looks like that is beyond me. If you can't remember them, my Semblance won't help me force you to.

Ozpin remembered his past. If it were truly his past. Nothing had been forgotten, the same as with so many others. Velvet, Cardin, Yang, Coco, Oobleck. He'd never been shown anything they didn't remember clearly, because nightmares were often born of those experiences which stuck with you even ten, twenty or – if Ozpin was to be believed – thousands of years later. Memories that had such an impact on you that they haunted you forevermore.

Jaune dragged a stool over, racking his brain for a story he could tell. His own father hadn't always been there, and his time had to be rationed between eight children. He did try, but those stories were normally to them all at once and filled with constant interruptions. It had actually been Saphron who read him stories late at night, but he'd always known it wasn't because his mother or father hated him. They just had too many children to look after, and Lavender had been a sickly child who could have died at any point. Nicholas had to support them and afford the medical bills, so he was often out acting as a huntsman. Juniper had to raise and look after them and couldn't be in everyone's bedroom at once. So, it fell on the older sisters to help out.

"Once upon a time there was a young man who wanted to be a hero—"

"What was his name?"

Jaune hesitated. "It was Jamie."

"Was he a robot?"

"No."

"Can he be a robot?"

"Fine." Jaune sucked in a breath. "Once upon a time there was a robot named Jamie who wanted to be a hero. But Jamie's father – his creator - wouldn't teach him how to be a robot, saying he should just live a normal life and not fight bad guys, save princesses, and be a hero. Jamie wasn't willing to give up, however, and decided that he would sneak his way into the hero academy..."

"Snnnn...."

Nora's eyes were closed and her breathing even.

"Really?" Jaune asked, rolling his eyes. "I didn't realise my life story was so boring."

It had worked, though. Nora was at ease. Jaune sat back on the seat, releasing a deep breath of pent-up frustration. He'd failed in what she asked of him, but he had a feeling she'd understand. The memories simply weren't there. They—

...

There were hands linked together on his chest, attached to arms coming over his shoulders, as if someone was holding him from behind. Jaune's heart skipped a beat. He felt something cold and unimaginably wrong behind him.

"I love it when you read her stories," a feminine, but horribly raspy voice whispered. "Our daughter. Our dear sweet Nora."

The mother. Jaune turned.

"Are you sure, darling?" she asked. "Some things are tucked away for a reason."

The words meant something, he was sure, but he was already spinning to see her – so he could relay her appearance to Nora when he woke up. Such was the plan, anyway. It, like the words in his mouth, died a death when he saw her.

All that came out was a whimper.

"Am I not beautiful?" the woman asked, blood and brain matter leaking from the side of her face that had been caved inward, literally crushed. It pulsed, spurting blood across Jaune's face. Her eye dangled out, half-pulped, and when she smiled not only did blood pour out, but shattered teeth. "What do you think, darling? Should I wake our baby up, my face over hers, drip-drip-dripping onto her face...?"

Only one blue eye worked, bloodshot as it was, and it crinkled at him as he shuddered. The woman tilted her head, exposing her cracked skull and her brain matter, which was spilling out it and down her face.

"Some things are tucked away for a reason." she repeated. "Best left forgotten."

/-/

Jaune rocketed up in his bed, hand on his chest, heart pounding. He felt clammy and sick, with a horrible taste in his mouth. That thing... The remains of that woman. Nora's mother. He leaned over and clutched his mouth, half-expecting to throw up. It didn't come, thankfully, but he still climbed out of bed and washed his mouth out in the en-suite.

It was only there that a much more haunting thought struck. He hurried back outside and stared at Nora, asleep in her bed. She was her normal size, five foot and a bit. He didn't know her exact height, but she was at least twice the height she had been as a child. Jaune let out a long breath and clutched at his heart. Crisis averted. The only question now was whether he'd averted it by not using his aura or if it was something else. The only way to know was to experiment, but he obviously didn't want to take risks with people's lives.

This was the best result, though. Nora was curled up in her peach pyjamas with her head poking out the top, her face peaceful and her medium-length blonde hair falling down over it, tickling her nose. Jaune took the relief for what it was and snuck back to his bed without waking any of them up. They needed their sleep after what Ozpin had put everyone through, and he wasn't about to ruin that by waking them up...

Wait...

Pyrrha, asleep. Red hair. Ren, asleep. Black hair. Nora, asleep. Golden yellow hair.

It took an embarrassing amount of time to click in his sleepy mind.

But it did click.

"FUCK!" he roared.

Pyrrha, Ren and Nora jolted in their beds, Ren grabbing a knife and flashing it in the air, Pyrrha trying to vault to her feet and getting tangled in her own blankets, and Nora flailing off her bed with a yelp, slamming to the floor.

"Fuck!" Jaune yelled again. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!"

"What!? What is it?" Nora cried. "Are we under attack? Did Team RWBY cause the collapse of the school? Are we dying!?"

Jaune pointed at her. "Fuck!"

"Uh..." Nora laughed. "No? I love you as a teammate and a parent but—" Nora's hands flew to her mouth.

"Parent?" asked Pyrrha.

"Blonde?" asked Ren, noticing the important part. "Uh. Nora. Did you dye your hair...?"

"What? No. It's the same orange it always... is..."

Nora had picked at one of her bangs and held it out in front of her eyes. It was dark, but not dark enough that she didn't notice something wrong and vault out of bed and toward the bathroom.

A moment later, she screamed.

Ren and Pyrrha looked to him for an answer.

"The hair is the least of our worries," he said, face in his hands. "Blonde hair can be easily dyed. I think Nora and I need to take a DNA test." He faced them head on. "Because I may or may not be a father."

Nora fainted.

Pyrrha sighed.

"Only you, Jaune," said Ren, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Only you."

Well, you wanted a family, Nora. Congrats...?