Two nights, two dreams, two dangerous people.

Jaune reported the dream to Oswald, of course, but it only served to confirm a suspicion that Atlas apparently already had as to who was working with Salem. On the subject matter, Oswald only said that "everyone considers themselves a tragic victim in their own minds, Mr Arc. But it is the choices we make in life that define us."

It felt like an easy way to write off what had happened in Atlas, and to this man who now followed Salem. Jaune would be the first to admit turning to evil after losing a science fair was a little ridiculous, but that didn't mean the content in the dream was any less troubling. He spent the evening in the library the following day looking up these alleged war crimes by Atlas and, after working past many patriotic news stations decrying them as "Atlas-hating nonsense" he found them.

By the looks of it, they were very, very real. Massacres, cover-ups, and mass civilian casualties typically blamed on the people hiding behind them – as if faunus at the start of the uprising with no military structure and no real army were meant to do anything but hide in their homes. A lot of Atlas' actions had apparently served to kickstart an uprising into a full-blown rebellion. They'd sown the seeds of their own defeat.

There weren't any recent controversies, thankfully, but that only made Jaune wonder if they were keeping a tighter lid on them. Finding articles on Arthur Watts was easy, most labelling him as a traitor to Atlas who was presumed dead. There was little mention of his research or life before becoming a traitor, but there were a lot of articles about the trial. Behind closed doors, apparently, on account of it involving military secrets. Watts had been found guilty of treason and sentenced to a staggering 425 years in prison.

A stark warning to anyone who might think of revealing Atlas' dirty laundry in the future.

"Would that have been my fate if Ironwood had succeeded in deporting me for entering their dreams? Slapped with unreasonable charges, found guilty by a biased judge, and then locked away forever or forced to serve?"

He'd heard that Atlas could be harsh, but this was ridiculous.

"The faunus massacres?" Blake leaned over to nosily poke at what he was reading. "What are you reading up on those for?"

"Just curious. News like this never made it to Ansel."

"Hm. It was before our time anyway. Mom and dad talked about them, though. Said it sent a shock through every faunus on Remnant."

"I can imagine..."

Blake sneered. "Atlas had the gall to act like they didn't have a choice because the faunus were hiding behind civilians, but you have to keep in mind they weren't a real army back then. A popular uprising won't have barracks or a military base to sleep at. They'll live at their homes with their families. And they called the faunus cowardly, too. Cowardly because they hid in the shadows and conducted guerilla warfare rather than fight Atlas in the open. But who could? Atlas was a superpower. Fighting them in the open would have been suicide. It's like calling a huntress a coward for using a weapon to fight the Grimm. Or calling civilians cowards for calling on huntsmen in the first place and not just fighting the Grimm off themselves."

It was propaganda is what it was; Jaune could see that as well as anyone. The faunus uprising before the rebellion hadn't been popular, and Atlas had thought they could control the narrative no matter what tactics they used.

They had been wrong.

In a sense, it could be argued that Arthur Watts had done the world a service in exposing all this. He'd certainly done the White Fang a service, and probably given peace to a lot of families who lost loved ones to crimes Atlas brushed under the rug. And then the victims of predatory military officers could also free themselves as a result of this. Watts' actions had led to good but... well... that hadn't been his intention. He'd just wanted to get back at them for not taking his science fair project seriously.

"Why do you look so bothered by all this?" Blake asked. "If anything, I should be the one annoyed by it."

"I guess it just makes me depressed to think it might still be happening."

"It probably is. Not so much with faunus but with the other stuff. But corruption exists in any government and organisation." Blake shrugged. "I bet Beacon has its fair share of corruption as well."

Given that Headmaster Ozpin – or Combat Instructor Oswald now – had either ruled or shadow-ruled the academy for goodness knows how long and was still giving orders to Glynda despite her being the headmistress, Jaune knew Blake was right. Beacon was as corrupt as they came, but the corruption here was in defence of Vale and didn't really hurt anyone. Ozpin was running the school well, so a little corruption to keep it running felt more forgivable than the shit Atlas got up to.

"Were the White Fang as bad?"

Blake glanced around to make sure no one was listening in. While his and her team knew of her past, it still wasn't a good idea to say it in front of other people. You never knew when a Cardin might be listening in.

Though even Cardin had become less of a problem lately.

"I'd like to say no, but they were. It was always little stuff, little displays of power and authority as people liked to show off the fact they were in command. Sometimes dust shipments would have a little skimmed off the top, too. But since we were a terrorist movement, we could deal with those issues a little more violently than a government could. That kept a lot of people from trying anything too extreme."

"Did you ever face any?"

"Not against me. But I suppose you could argue the fact my parents are Ghira and Kali helped me get further in the White Fang than most would have, so I got discriminated against positively." Blake snorted. "At least that's how it looked to me. The real reason they let me get so far was to legitimise the movement. The White Fang were acting in opposition to the popular chieftain of the island, but the fact his daughter was a part of it always made it look like he was secretly a supporter. It gave Sienna Khan a lot of leeway."

Because no matter how much her father spoke out against the group, people could look at it and think that if he really hated it as much as he said, he wouldn't have let his daughter join. People probably assumed Ghira was criticising the White Fang as part of some plan to distance Menagerie from them so that Atlas couldn't invade. That Ghira and Sienna were secretly working together.

It was all too confusing for Jaune.

And depressing.

"How is your head?"

"Fine. Tsune just wanted to poke at me and watch me suffer. The bedframe actually stopped the bunk crushing me. I just got clipped by the wooden slats that hold the mattress. It was more like waking up in a coffin than being crushed. Less than fun but I've had worse."

Blake eyed him strangely, her bow twitching in a way he didn't think she noticed. They were more expressive than she, indicating she was thinking deeply about something even as she kept a placid expression.

"Yang and Ruby are talking about you."

Jaune paused. "Should you be telling me that?"

"I wouldn't be telling you if it was just gossip or them talking about how good you are at making out with Yang—"

"Does that ever come up?"

"No."

"Ouch. Go on."

Blake smiled, rolling her eyes. "So, they've been talking about how strange it is they both dreamed of you being with them in Signal. Something about you popping up in their dreams. Weird, hm?"

Jaune was sweating bullets. "Very weird. Have you dreamed of me?"

"No. I haven't."

Incorrect, but then it sounded more like she didn't remember rather than that she was lying. In all fairness, it had been a while since he was in Blake's dream. The one he remembered most was when she was hunting her friends down and killing them, but technically everyone had been in that dream, not just him. Blake wouldn't see his presence there as unusual.

"I personally think it's silly," she continued. "You're Yang's boyfriend so it's not too unbelievable she'd dream about you, and you're Ruby's friend. Also, Ruby has been pissed at you lately so that could explain it."

"Yes. That would explain it all." Jaune pressed in a little. "Did you say that to them?"

"No. Why would I?"

"Oh, I don't know. To save my bacon?"

Blake scoffed. "It's just random talk of dreams, Jaune. It's not like they're planning to murder you."

Not yet, it wasn't.

But it was a sign that people wouldn't remain ignorant forever, especially not if he kept launching himself into their dreams at a moment's notice. Sooner or later, they'd pull a Trivia or a Cinder and realise that one too many Jaune Arcs in their dreams was suspicious, and then confront him over it.

He just hoped they favoured Trivia's response over an arrow in the back.

/-/

"Okay, so." Ren sat beside his bed with a notepad. Nora and Pyrrha had one each as well. "Tell us what has been bothering you today."

Jaune, in his pyjamas, rolled his eyes. "You're not my therapists."

"No, we're your dream journals," said Pyrrha, laughing to herself. "But Ren asked you a question. What's been on your mind? Who are you most likely to hit?"

"Well, I've been worried about Cinder for obvious reasons, and Trivia for if she's in danger—" The three of them scribbled things down as he talked. Or Ren and Pyrrha did. Jaune was fairly sure Now was doodling, because she kept scribbling away long after he'd finished and wasn't paying much attention. "—but I'm also worried about this former boss of Cinder's who is here and who could be dangerous, but also might be more interested in killing Cinder than me."

"Hmhmmm. And how does that make you feel?"

"Confused. Tense. Unsure."

"Hmmm. I see." Ren was too good at this. "Anything else?"

"Blake told me that Ruby and Yang are talking about dreams and me." Ren and Pyrrha stopped writing. Nora kept doodling. "I'm not sure they're really onto me so much as just talking about how weird a coincidence it is—"

"But it's a sign they're noticing," Ren said. "Which means you're worried you might end up in their dreams tonight and give them even more ammunition."

"Yes."

"You could always try and stay undetected," Pyrrha suggested. "You keep showing yourself to the people you're dreaming of. Why not try and stay hidden?"

It was worth a shot. He didn't always expose himself; often the dream was what exposed him, dragging him in and giving him a role like it had making him Watts' assistant or Yang's childhood friend. A person's subconscious seemed to know when he was there, and quickly made that normal to the person having the dream. But he nodded anyway and promised to give it a good shot in tonight's dream.

"So," he said. "Conclusions."

Ren turned his notepad around. "Ruby or Yang."

Pyrrha did hers. "Ruby, Yang, Cinder or Trivia."

Knowing he might as well not but too polite to ignore her, Jauen turned to Nora. "And you?"

Nora turned her notepad around.

There were stick figures with long hair and big circles on their chests, and another stick figure on a bed with his eyes sticking out like a wacky cartoon character popping their eyes out at the sight of a pretty woman. "Ta-dah!"

Jaune sighed. "Dare I ask?"

"My latest idea! If Jaune keeps ending up in the dreams of the people he goes to bed thinking about, my question is thus! Could Pyrrha cheat the system by flashing him before bed so all he can think about is her boobies!"

Ren palmed his face.

Jaune blushed.

Pyrrha struck Nora in the face with a pillow.

It probably would have worked as an idea, though. He was hormonal enough that seeing that from Pyrrha or from Nora would have had him going to bed feeling very stiff and very much aware of his female teammates. From there, it would almost be certain that he'd dream his way into the minds of one of them.

Viable or not, Jaune stayed quiet as Pyrrha beat Nora to death with a pillow.

/-/

He was in a house.

And the first thing he did, before even bothering to wonder who he was in the dream of, was to will himself incorporeal and fade into the wall. To hide. The subconscious might know he was here, but the dreamer didn't.

And it was about time he stayed hidde—

"Jaunnnne! Jauuuune! Where are you!?"

What the hell? Already? He'd barely even gotten here and the dreamer knew? More than that, it was a familiar voice. Seconds later, Nora came bounding down the hallway in her pyjamas. She was smiling like a maniac.

"Jaune, you pervert! Come out!"

Ugh.

He was dreaming of Nora.

"Hey..." he grumbled, fading out from the wall. Nora rounded on him with a huge grin.

"Hey you," she teased. "So, were you thinking of what I'd look like without my top on? Naughty-naughty!"

"I wasn't!" he said. At least he thought he hadn't been, but Nora's stupid idea must have put her in the forefront of his mind. "You're not naked, are you? I was just surprised by how stupid your suggestion was, so I dreamed of you—"

"Stupid? It worked, didn't it? It made you dream of me."

"Well... yes..."

"Then it wasn't stupid. It did what we wanted."

There was logic there, annoying as it was to admit it. Nora had tried to game his Semblance to dream of her, and here they were in her dream. By ant metric, she'd succeeded, which meant her idea had been a good one.

"Hah. Fine. You win."

Nora pumped her fist. "Yes! I'm the best!"

"But where is this place?" Jaune asked. "Is it somewhere you and Ren ended up after your village fell?"

"Hm?" Nora for once looked around. The walls were unfamiliar to her as well as to him, nice but not overly fancy. There weren't any picture frames, but it was a large place – bigger than the Arc family home and, Jaune imagined, bigger than anywhere Nora had grown up. Sure enough, she looked around, confused. "Uhhh. This definitely isn't the orphanage Ren and I ended up at. Did you mess up?"

"You're the one who filled my head with thoughts of boobs," he hissed.

"Ahah! So you admit you were thinking about them!"

"Not now." Jaune hit her arm. "Something is going on and—"

A door slammed open and a shape blurred in. Nora jumped, pressing into him before she realised it wasn't a Grimm or terrible nightmare creature. It was a child – a child with black hair and black, feline ears.

"Blake...?" Jaune asked the twelve or thirteen-year-old girl.

"Blake?" Nora hissed quietly. "Why her?"

He had no idea, but Blake had already seen them, yet again showing that staying hidden wasn't easy when the dream was aware of their intrusion. And it was their intrusion, because it was becoming increasingly clear he'd dragged Nora into Blake's dream. Jaune grabbed her wrist and held a finger to his lips, urging her not necessarily to stay quiet, but to watch what she said.

Blake stomped up to them and planted her hands on her hips.

"Mom! Dad!" she declared. "I am joining the White Fang!"

"Dad!?" cried Nora. "Mom!? Us?"

"Yeah." Blake eyed her strangely. "Who else would I be talking to?" The small teen took a deep breath. "I've made up my mind. You've both abandoned the cause and keep letting humans walk all over us! It's not fair. You have the power to do something – and I can't not do something when people are suffering."

Jaune was a little more used to the dreamer's subconscious assigning bizarre roles than Nora evidently was. He'd filled the role of Ruby's father in one dream, of Yang's childhood friend in another, and of Velvet's babysitter. It was just how it worked. To Nora, it was obviously a new experience, and she was quite clearly struggling. Jaune answered for her.

"Your mother and I—" He pushed on past Nora's indignant squawk, "—would like to talk to you more about this decision, Blake. It's not one to be made lightly."

Blake, stubborn as a child as she was an adult, stuck her chin out. "What's there to talk about? I've already made up my mind."

"Then you won't mind discussing it, young lady. We don't want you to make a decision you might end up regretting. Let's talk over dinner. Why don't you go make the table while your mother and I prepare some food."

Blake grumbled but had obviously expected a big fight. Having it be both less and more than she expected (less screaming but more talking), she left to do as he asked, giving Jaune and Nora a chance to catch their breaths.

"What the heck!?" Nora hissed, grabbing him. "I'm not old enough to be a mom! I'm not mature enough to be a mom!"

"Relax. This happens all the time."

"Does it? Wait, why am I a passenger this time?"

"It's the fault of your great idea earlier," he pointed out, throwing her words back at her. "And don't worry so much. The subconscious in a person's dream usually comes up with a reason for why I'm there. It's just an automatic defence so the dreamer doesn't instantly freak out at two people being here who shouldn't be."

Nora wouldn't have it. "Easy for you to say. You rewrote my genetic code to make me technically your daughter! What if we end up technically-ing ourselves into being Blake's parents? I'm not ready to be a parent. Not to her of all people! Blake is, like, maximum difficulty setting on parenthood! Give me Ruby instead!"

Jaune snorted. Nora wasn't entirely wrong with what she said there. "I don't think we'll accidentally ourselves as her parents. As long as we don't change anything. The best thing we can do is try and act out how we imagine her parents really acted when this happened to her."

"And how is that!? I've never met her parents!"

"Just act like any parents would..." Jaune trailed off, facing Nora's raised eyebrows and disbelieving look. He cringed. "Oh, right. No parents."

"Technically, I have a parent now. He's called Jaune Arc and he's an idiot."

"That's fair. Look, just act in a supportive but stern way. We don't have to change her mind or win this argument. In fact, it's probably better if we don't – because they obviously didn't in real life. We just need to try and talk her around, fail, and then get upset with her. About the worst that happens is we feel awkward for seeing this experience in Blake's past."

"If you think that's the worst that can happen then you're hopelessly naïve," Nora grumbled. "All this because you couldn't take your mind off my boobs."

Jaune didn't grace that with a response. He hadn't been thinking of her boobs, damn it. He'd been thinking about how crazy an idea it was for her to come up with Pyrrha showing him hers. That was, like, tangentially boob-related at worst. Boob-adjacent. Speaking of, but not really, Jaune reached into the dream and flexed his aura.

"Dress us as Ghira and Blake Belladonna," he said, out loud.

Nora gasped as lights sparkled around her and transformed her pyjamas into some long, black and white robe-skirt combo. It looked very strange on her, and mostly because her bright orange hair (blonde at the roots, now) really didn't fit well with a pure black and white ensemble. It made her look like she was attending a funeral. Jaune, meanwhile, got to feel a little awkward at his bare chest – which evidently was not as impressive as the real man's.

"Okay," Nora complained. "Why am I wearing a skirt so conservative I might trip on it while you're walking around with your chest out?"

"I don't make the rules of fashion, Nora. I just follow them."

"Badly. Is Sun secretly Blake's long-lost brother?"

"No comment." In case his aura somehow made that one a reality. "Maybe this is some ceremonial piece. I think her dad is a big official in Menagerie, so it might be a uniform to show off my chest in a dominance display. And I'm not sure why but it feels racist to say that, but it kind of does."

"Yeah." Nora tugged at her clothes. "Ugh. I'm never wearing clothes like this. I feel like I'm wrapped up in too many layers – and you too few." Nora tried to spin, and almost tripped on her skirt. "Argh!"

"Take small steps."

"Jaune. Husband. Shut up."

"Hah... yes dear..." It might have been name calling but it was also a good idea to get into the zone so they could act better with Blake. Jaune offered his arm, and Nora glared at it. "We have to act the part."

"Are you sure this isn't you having some sexy dream about me?"

"Nora, if I was having a wet dream about someone it would involve less clothing – and I hope it wouldn't include Blake as a child screaming at me about how she wants to become a terrorist. That's a mood kill."

"Hmm. Yeah. Ugh. Fine. Let's do this. Act like a parent. Act like a parent." Nora chanted it to herself and took several deep breaths. "I can do that. I've seen how parents act. I just have to act like someone on TV would on one of those scenes, like where the daughter comes out the closet and the parents have a big reaction!"

"That's not—" Jaune trailed off. "Actually, sure. Go with that. Blake coming out the closet about being a terrorist probably deserves angry shouting more than the other kind. Just remember to act like she's your daughter. If we act well, Blake might not even remember it was us two tomorrow morning. If we bomb this, she'll have questions."

Nora nodded. "Got it. Operation stealthily-adopt-cat is a go."

"That's not the operation."

"Operation Cuckoo's Nest?"

"No. It's us acting as Kali and Ghira Belladonna. Normal parents to a normal girl who has told us she wants to become a racially motivated terrorist."

"Okay. Got it. I can do this."

Jaune used the dream and some aura to summon up some food and carried out, while Nora prepped herself ahead, whispering to herself on what she would say. The moment the door opened, they saw Blake waiting by the table, looking like she was afraid of where this would go. That made sense, but Jaune figured her parents would have tried to talk things out in a relaxed and patient manner—

"BLAKE BELLADONNA!" Nora screamed. "NO CHILD OF MINE WILL BECOME SOME HUMAN-HATING TERRORIST! I WILL SPANK THE DEVIL OUT OF YOU!"

Damn it, Nora.