"I have good news and I have bad news," said Doctor Tsune, looking over some printed out notes. Team JNPR was sat nervously in the chairs in the infirmary, while Headmistress Goodwitch stood by the door, arms crossed and a thunderous expression on her face. "Which would you like first?"

"The bad news," said Nora. "Might as well get it out the way."

"Very well. Your hair colouration is unfortunately permanent. For all intents and purposes, it is as though you've been blonde your whole life."

Jaune let out a sigh. "That's not so—"

"No!" Nora hit the ground on all fours and pounded her fist into it. "No, no, no! Not that! Anything but that!"

"Hey. There's nothing wrong with blonde hair..."

"My image! My style! My stand-out point! Don't you get it? I was the redhead. I was the only one. In a world of black, brown, blonde and white, I alone stood tall as the redhead!"

Pyrrha cleared her throat.

"Oh, don't you start!" Nora growled and pointed at her. "When people say redhead they mean orange or ginger, not blood red hair. You're a freak of nature."

"W—What!?" Pyrrha's jaw dropped. "W—Well you can't all just steal the colour red and say it applies to orange hair, either. It's our colour!"

"Have a soul, Pyrrha!"

"Oh, so now you're clinging to stereotypes around redheads."

"What?" Nora gaped. "But I am a redhead!"

Pyrrha pointed at her golden hair. "Not anymore."

"Nooooo!"

Jaune looked to Ren, who rolled his eyes. They shared a moment to despair. It was only hair. If his was to suddenly turn black one day, he admitted he'd be alarmed and dislike it, but only because he wasn't sure if black hair would suit him. He'd get used to it soon enough. Besides, blonde hair was easy to dye back to orange if she wanted to.

"If Miss Valkyrie wishes it, hair dye will be provided," said Glynda. "I'm sure Mr Arc will be happy to foot the bill given this is his fault."

"With what money?" he whined.

"I'm sure you can dream some up."

Jaune paused. "Do you think that would work?"

"No!" Glynda barked at him. "I meant that as sarcasm. Do not crash the economy in your sleep!" Her hand came up to cup her face. "I can't believe I have to say that. What world is this we live in where one boy's Semblance can alter the human form? What's next? Mr Winchester becoming Miss Winchester? Faunus losing what makes them faunus? An immaculate dream pregnancy!?" The woman hissed into her hand. "I'd have quit before Ozpin could promote me if I knew this was what awaited me!"

Jaune laughed nervously. All those things... well... they might be possible. Not that he thought they'd happen, but... well... He'd gotten Velvet drunk and now changed Nora's hair. Small things, easily fixed things despite Nora's theatrics. Ozpin, or Oswald, was a little more extreme. A little more panicky. It was a good thing the old man was taking having his youth back again as a positive. But if he accidentally dreamed a human supremacist becoming a faunus then – ironic justice aside – he was going to get in trouble.

"That was the bad news," said Ren, cutting through the conversation and bringing it back to focus on Nora. "The doctor said there was good news as well."

Nora looked up hopefully.

"Ah, yes." Tsune flipped over a note on her clipboard. "The good news." She smiled at Jaune. "Congratulations. It's a girl."

Jaune didn't faint.

But he wished he had.

He slid down his chair as a puddle of ooze, while Nora went white as a sheet.

"Before my teammates die of fright," Ren said quickly. "Do you mean that as in Nora has become the girl or Nora is pregnant with a girl?" He paused. "Or that Jaune is pregnant if his Semblance really does ignore all laws of reality."

Jaune whimpered.

"Sorry, I meant that she's biologically become his daughter. No pregnancies, though I'll have to ask him not to create any male pregnancies either. While the lack of an exit for the child is no real problem with surgery, the sudden appearance of a fully functioning womb and placenta within a man's body would surely lead to catastrophic damage as organs are pushed aside and—"

"Ahem." Glynda coughed into her fist. "Focus, Tsune. I trust that Mr Arc will not be impregnating any men. Or himself." Her glare made it clear he'd be the first to die if he did. As if he planned to! "Explain the circumstances around Miss Val... Miss Arc...?"

Nora whimpered even louder.

"It would still be Valkyrie," said Tsune. "I said she's biologically related to him, not legally or emotionally. For all intents and purposes her DNA acts as though she's the product of Jaune Arc and an unknown individual not on any of our school records. I presume that means the DNA on her mother's side has remained the same."

"That's a small relief. I dread to imagine how much more complex this would be if she was a child of Mr Arc and another student of Beacon. I'm not sure Miss Xiao-Long would want to be a mother already."

"W—What does this mean...?" asked Nora.

"Honestly?" Tsune tossed her notes behind her. "Not much." The answer made them all blink. "You're biologically related but I doubt that will ever become a problem unless you were planning to have children together. You'll be slightly more prone to any health issues he picks up, but less prone to any your original biological father might have had. You're actually better from a medical perspective since it's better to know what you might inherit than not. Does the Arc family have any known hereditary issues?"

"Um." Jaune laughed awkwardly.

"Mr Arc," said Glynda. "This is a serious matter. Please answer the question."

"Um. Okay. We have... well... I don't know that it's literally a guarantee but everyone says it, and my mom and dad kind of prove it." Even Ozpin had said it. "But we're apparently very fertile. My mom has eight children."

Nora's eyes crossed, and then so did her legs, covering herself.

Glynda sighed. "We encourage all students to practice safe sex."

"I'm a virgin!" Nora cried.

"Not an impediment with Mr Arc's Semblance—"

Glynda struck Tsune across the face with her own clipboard, levitated via the medium of Semblance. "This is hardly the worst problem to have. Simply observe sexual protection as all people your age should and this won't be a problem. You and Mr Arc are not romantically involved, nor have you shown any inclination from what I've seen. This is awkward, but you've come out of this with nothing worse than a need for hair dye and technically a new extended family."

Nora's eyes widened. Jaune's did, too.

Mom was going to kill him.

After she finished squealing.

"I'd advise you to consider how or if you want to tell your family, and whether Miss Valkyrie wants that as well. You can always consider adoption if needs be." Glynda paused, then said, "And by adoption I mean your family adopting her. Not you. I don't think anyone here needs to deal with a seventeen year old adopting someone his own age."

"I... I have a family now...?"

Nora was swaying.

"Technically, yes. And he's sitting right there."

"H—How will parent-teacher conferences work...?"

Glynda's eyes twitched. "They will not. Aside from the fact I won't be acknowledging this, there's not a single person on your team who isn't aware your coursework is awful and your handwriting atrocious. And his is worse, so he's the last person I'd trust to correct it."

/-/

"So..." It was Yang who eventually found the courage to ask. "Why the change?"

"I lost a dare," Nora growled, poking at breakfast and glaring at Jaune. There hadn't been time to go get hair dye with lessons on, and Glynda wasn't prepared to let them skip when they could just say she'd dyed it blonde.

Naturally, Nora was less than thrilled.

"It doesn't look bad at all," said Weiss. "You can pull off blonde and orange equally well. I think you'd even be able to make black hair work." Nora sighed. "I'm sorry...?" offered Weiss. "Was that the wrong thing for me to say?"

"No, it's fine." Nora sulked. "I'm just mourning my beautiful hair."

"It'll wash out, though."

Nora sighed even harder.

Team RWBY didn't get it, but only because they assumed this was temporary. Jaune didn't get it either, but he knew better by this point than to say anything to Nora. His... uh... daughter and teammate. Biologically, anyway. At least she hadn't had her memories changed to insert him in her past. They'd gone over that and found it was just biological. Nora still couldn't remember her mother or father.

Not because she was too young to remember them, but because she'd repressed them.

He'd stayed quiet on that.

Some secrets were best left forgotten.

"What was the dare, then?" asked Yang.

"Uh..." Nora's wide eyes looked around wildly.

"She'd rather not say," Ren interjected smoothly, covering for them both. "Suffice to say it was embarrassing. Let's just say Nora bowed out once she realised what it was, and this was the forfeit."

"Ahhh. One of those dares." Yang snorted. "It wasn't to kiss Jaune, was it?"

"Ew! No!" Nora stuck her tongue out. "Though I'd definitely forfeit rather than do that." She realised a moment later she was talking to a woman dating said person. "Uh. No offence meant. Well, some offence. You have crummy taste in men."

"I'm right here!" Jaune cried.

"Tell my idiot team leader I'm not talking to him."

Yang grinned, turned and said, "She's not talking to you, idiot."

"I know. I heard her."

Yang turned back. "He said he heard you."

"Okay, stop that." Ruby pulled her sister back. "Let's just let Nora be. We all have combat class to survive this afternoon as it is." A round of groans overcame them, and even Jaune and Nora were able to let go their issues and join in. "Yeah, and I saw a fourth year crying this morning after class, so you know it's going to be a bad one!"

Blake looked worried. "Emotionally crying or crying from physical pain?"

"BOTH!"

"How soon do you think food poisoning can set in?" asked Blake, looking at her meal.

"Do you think Oswald would care?" Ren replied. "He'd just make you fight with it and say it's training for if you get sick in the field. The Grimm won't wait for you to recover, or something like that."

Blake sighed and shelved her plan.

"I don't know why you're all being so dramatic," said Pyrrha. "Oswald is a great teacher and I happen to think it's nice to have someone who's prepared to push us."

Jaune didn't respond to that. He was too busy staring into his meal and trying to make it clear to every other student in the cafeteria – who were all glaring bloody murder at their table – that he wasn't involved with her. Pyrrha Nikos? Never heard of her. No, no, his partner was someone else. Totally someone else.

"I can't believe I wanted to be on a team with you," mumbled Weiss.

"You dodged a bullet there," said Ruby.

/-/

Cinder liked it when things went to plan.

Which was why she wasn't in the finest of moods of late.

Because things really weren't going to plan. In fact, they weren't just not going to plan, but were going so far against the plan that she might as well have planned out the opposite. She'd gotten the maiden's powers, but that was something she'd rightfully earned before even coming to Beacon. Amber had just expired as they always knew she would.

Beyond that...?

Things were a mess.

"Neo has up and vanished," said Emerald. "We've looked everywhere, including the places she and Roman stayed at, and she's just gone. Her belongings have been removed as well. There's nothing left of her."

"And Roman?"

"He's still at Mountain Glenn, but he says he had no hand in this. I'm inclined to believe him, ma'am. He wouldn't have had an opportunity to tell her to run, and he'd have wanted to go with her."

Cinder believed it. Roman was a coward at heart and wouldn't want to be left alone with her as he was now. Neo hadn't gone to him either. That much was obvious. If Neo cared half as much about Roman as she seemed to, she'd avoid him and not put a target on his back. No, the girl was still somewhere in Vale, close enough to keep an eye on things and make sure Cinder didn't outright kill Roman, but distant enough to remain hidden.

Which, with her Semblance, could mean anything, up to and including Neo being a chair in a corner of a room. Damn it. That Semblance had been so useful, too. The girl was like a second Emerald, but trained to a much higher degree, twice as bloodthirsty, and blessedly quiet. Cinder wouldn't have minded all her minions be mute.

As if that wasn't bad enough, she'd been exposed, was being hunted, and her new disfigurations courtesy of an idiot and his Semblance were making it difficult to stay hidden. Now, to top things off, Ozpin had retired and Oswald had joined the staff. A man who was so clearly Ozpin but younger that Cinder didn't know how the world at large hadn't cottoned on.

Can this day get any worse?

"Um. Ma'am." Mercury gulped. "There's a call... uh... I think a Grimm is calling you."

Salem's breath hitched. "What?"

Mercury handed her scroll over.

On the screen, Salem's face glared at her. Cinder's mind immediately crashed. How was Salem operating a scroll? How was she calling? The background suggested she was still in her tower, which ought to have been in the freaking Grimmlands. She assumed those thoughts remained inside, but when Salem rolled her eyes and answered, she realised she'd said them out loud.

"Watts was able to turn my tower into something he calls a CCT. I said I needed to talk to you but getting you back here or getting a Seer into Vale would have been equally difficult, then Tyrian asked why we didn't just call you. Obviously, that was impossible and Watts made a show of calling him a fool, up until Tyrian just pointed out if he's half as good a hacker and engineer as he says he is, he should be able to fix that problem." Salem sighed. "And Watts just HAD to prove Tyrian wrong, so now we have signal. And the internet."

Somehow, Cinder found herself more worried about the latter.

"I would have your report, Cinder."

"Ah. My report. Yes." Cinder glanced around, looking for spies, an enemy, a fire, or a cat stuck in a tree. Anything she could use as an excuse for why this couldn't be given right here and now. "Things are going."

"Going where?"

"They're going," she repeated, evasively. "The White Fang are in position, ready to launch an attack on Vale that will deliver Grimm into the heart of the city."

"Good. And are YOU in position to capitalise?"

"I am in a position."

"What position is that?"

"...I—ah!" Cinder fumbled her scroll, dropping it, then sought to catch it with her foot but accidentally launched it into the wall and smashed it into a million pieces. "No!" she gasped. "My scroll!"

Four seconds later, Emerald's scroll began to buzz.

They hadn't even met Emerald.

It answered itself rather than Emerald answering it. Damn it, Watts. Nervously, Emerald handed it back over.

"You seem to have dropped your scroll, Cinder." Salem's face was flat. "Luckily, Arthur was able to hack your data and forward a call through to your minion. Now, I do believe we were talking about how things are going in Vale. Does Ozpin suspect our involvement?"

"I believe he might."

"You believe, hm? I see. I see. And does he know of you?"

"He may, ma'am."

"May. Hmm. Yes. I suppose he may, given your face and name are plastered over the city as a wanted criminal." Salem did not shout, but that didn't mean she wasn't angry. The calm voice was infinitely more worrying. "And what's this, I see, but Ozpin having regained his prime – and potentially his magic as well. This is quite the turn of events, Cinder. I'd like to know how you brought this about."

"It isn't my fault!" she said. "It's Jaune's! It's all Jaune's fault!"

"Who, or what, is a Jaune...? It sounds like a vegetable."

Oh, to hell with it. Cinder wasn't prepared to stand around being the target of Salem's ire if she had something to deflect her with, and there was no point trying to pretend she hadn't been chased out of Beacon when Watts was there with internet access. That bastard would find any excuse he could to show Salem how Cinder had failed, all to make himself sound better.

And all he did was make a CCT in the middle of nowhere out of nothing more than what's available in an ancient tower, then connect and hack into the CCT mainframe to make the tower a part of the network. I could do that. Probably. Maybe. How hard could it be?

Salem stayed quiet as Cinder explained the boy's Semblance and the ridiculous things it could do. How Cinder had initially seen it as a valuable information-gathering Semblance and sought to get closer to him, but how it had evolved in the blink of an eye into one that could leave lasting marks on the people whose dreams he invaded. Now, seemingly, it was getting stronger and stronger still.

"He needs to be dealt with," she spat. "Killed before it can grow any more powerful—"

"No."

The answer stunned her. "What...?"

"I said no. Is that so difficult to understand? The worst has already happened. Ozpin has his magic back. The situation is already so dire that without something to swing the scales back, my conquest might as well be pushed back ten thousand years."

Salem scowled. "And I highly doubt he's going to be stupid enough to split his power among four people again. I'm still not sure what inspired that idiocy in the first place, but I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. If you kill the boy now, it won't undo anything that has happened and we'll still be in an awful situation. No. The only way we can bring this back if is we can get some benefit out of his Semblance ourselves. You told me he cannot control it."

"That's what he told me," she corrected. "But he can't control who he ends up in the head of. He can absolutely decide whether he despises the person or not. If he ends up in my dream again, I'm not sure I'll wake up."

Cinder hated admitting weakness. Hated weakness in general. This was an impossible battle, however. No matter how hard she trained, no matter what weapons she had, no matter her Semblance or even the fall maiden's powers, she could not stand up to someone who could wield her own mind against her.

If she could reach him while she was awake, he'd die in a heartbeat.

But if he got in her dreams, he was invincible.

It was a good part of the reason why she only slept during Beacon's school hours now. She'd had to switch her entire lifestyle to a nocturnal one just to survive in a world in which Jaune Arc lived, and now Salem wanted to make use of him, which meant he'd get to continue living despite her wishes.

"Sending you into his dreams or vice versa is obviously a poor idea. You've already ruined any chance of that. Fool girl. If you'd just kept control of yourself, you could have won him to your side. Perhaps even encouraged him to experiment on you to see if he could make you stronger. If you'd convinced him you were a huntress looking to save the world from Grimm, he could have made you into the strongest human alive. Instead, that honour now falls on Ozpin!"

It was easy to say that with the benefit of hindsight. Cinder had been incognito in Beacon and he'd been a potential security risk that repeatedly entered her dreams. How was she meant to know his Semblance would evolve this far? Anyone in her shoes would have done what she did. And with less competence to boot.

"I will be sending Hazel and Tyrian to Vale. They will be operating independently of you and will not interact with you. If they do, it'll be to fight you. To better sell the idea they have nothing to do with you."

"What will be their plan?" she forced out.

"It's best if you don't know, Cinder. We never know who might end up in your head."

Cinder's teeth gritted together.

"Your job will remain the same. Salvage this mess you have created. Bring Beacon down during the Vytal Festival. You assured me you were a woman capable of adapting to any threat or change in plans. It's time to prove it."

The call flickered off.

Cinder did not dare express her frustrations out loud, too afraid that Watts might somehow be recording it through Emerald's scroll, and that it would be relayed to Salem. This chastisement was bad, but it could be so much worse.

"Ma'am," said Emerald. "What do we do?"

"We find Neo. We bring her to heel. We make sure Roman doesn't get cold feet. Ignore Arc," she spat. "We'll work around him. He can't be everywhere and he won't catch us if we stick to sleeping during the day."

"And at the festival?"

"He'll be awake and competing. As long as we have eyes on him, we know we're safe. Neo is our main concern for now." If that girl turned on them, then no amount of pleading would prevent Salem from making her wrath known. "I want her found and brought to heel today!"

/-/

"It will be a temporary thing," said Glynda, to Jaune and his team. "And no, this isn't a punishment. Mr Arc's Semblance is rapidly evolving and in an uncontrollable state. Therefore, having him sleep off-campus for a few nights will not only preserve the safety of those around him, but give him a chance to wrestle it under control."

Pyrrha opened her mouth. "But—"

"He will be returned to you at 8am sharp for breakfast. Miss Nikos, you will be losing him only from 10pm to 8am. How much do you possibly get up to in that time?" Glynda paused. "Don't answer that question."

"Nothing!" Pyrrha gasped, blushing. "We get up to nothing! I just think... This feels wrong. Like he's being taken away from us."

The headmistress sighed. "I assure you that's not our intention. What do you think, Mr Arc?"

He could see both sides, being in the middle and all. The thought of being taken away from Beacon and his team hurt, but he didn't think Ozpin would let Glynda do that anyway. Aside from giving the man his power and youth back, he knew too much, and was too much a target for Cinder. "Where will I be kept?"

"In the Emerald Forest."

"In a... bunker or something...?"

"Beacon actually has some safehouses out there. Don't look so surprised," she said, smirking faintly. "They're there for resupply and a safe place to stay in the event of students getting lost or being too far away from the school. They are fortified and you will have someone there to protect you." The elevator dinged. "Here he comes now."

"Yo!" Qrow Branwen raised his hip flask at them. "Long time no see, kid." The drunk, who didn't quite look that far yet, sauntered over and hooked an arm around Jaune's shoulder. "I hear your Semblance has started getting even weirder."

Jaune sighed. "Yes..."

"Ha. I know how that feels. You and I, pal, have the dubious honour of being some of the few people on Remnant with an uncontrollable Semblance. And believe me, I've had mine cause some downright Saturday morning cartoon levels of bullshit." He looked to the rest of Team JNPR. "Qrow Branwen. I think we've met before, but this is more official. Less-than-proud owner of a Semblance that causes myself and others around me to experience bad luck."

His team stared at the man. "Bad luck...?" asked Ren.

"Oh yes. Uncontrollable, always on, and inconsistent as anything. You might have money fall out your wallet, or you might trip on a staircase and hurtle down it to your death." He took a swing of booze. "And it's a coin toss on whether it happens to me or those around me."

"Despite his worrying Semblance, Qrow is without a doubt the most accomplished and skilled huntsman in all of Vale." Glynda paused, then grimaced. "Aside from Oswald."

Qrow laughed. "Yeah, but he's a special case. I held the crown first." He winked at Jaune. "So don't sweat too much about your Semblance. It won't stop you being as kickass as me, and at least yours is only on when you sleep."

That helped. It didn't just make Jaune smile, but it seemed to calm down his teammates as well.

"As you can see," said Glynda, "we do not give up on someone just because their Semblance is problematic. We won't be giving up on Mr Arc, either. This is solely to give him a chance to practice control and to not influence any students. It may even be a chance to just have a night's rest without entering a dream. Perhaps he will even enter his own and have an opportunity for some much-needed introspection."

Put like that, it didn't sound so bad.

"Mr Branwen won't be sleeping, then?" asked Pyrrha.

"And risk ending up pregnant?" Qrow laughed at their embarrassed faces. "Yeah, I'll pass on that, thanks. I survived being on a team with one blue-eyed blonde bastard who got everyone around him pregnant, and I'll be damned if I let my guard down around another."

"I'd like it on record I have zero pregnancies to my name," Jaune said.

"But you do have a daughter."

"Ren, no!" Nora cried. "He's not my dad!"

"Biologically—"

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Where's my hair dye?"

Glynda sighed. "I asked Qrow to bring it."

Qrow snorted and reached into his pocket, coming out with a cardboard box of some store-bought dye in bright orange. He tossed it to Nora, who caught and cradled it to her chest like a small, wounded bird. "Yesss..." she purred. "Soon, I'll be a redhead again."

"I still think you can't call yourself that," said Pyrrha.

"Enough!" Glynda scowled at them. "I have a meeting with Oswald to deal with over his King Taijitu stunt this morning, and no time for you. Qrow will take Mr Arc away at ten. Be ready. The rest of you, get out."

Pyrrha couldn't resist. "Ma'am, Mr Oswald's lesson was highly education. I'd never considered the idea of attacking a King Taijitu from the inside before—"

"Students will not be fed to Grimm in my school!" Glynda roared, making Pyrrha jump. "OUT!"

They wisely fled.

Qrow stayed behind but waited for them to be gone. "Did he really...?"

"Qrow."

"Yes?"

"Fuck off."

"Yes, ma'am."

He saluted and turned into a bird, flying out the window. Once he was gone, Glynda let her head fall into her hands, then reached under the desk and opened a small cupboard. There, a thermos stood, bubbling away. She needed the caffeine to deal with everyone's bullshit. Pouring a huge mug, she took a sip, then grimaced and downed it all before pouring another. Only then did it hit her.

"Oh Gods. I'm becoming Ozpin."

Some say it's the job, others the office, but I blame the chair. It changes a person. But maybe it's the caffeine.