Jaune was dreaming.
Or at least, he assumed so, because what else could this be?
Huge skyscrapers surrounded him, the glass and metal that made up their exteriors reflecting light from the setting sun. The road he was on seemed to stretch on forever, filled to the brim with cars. The sidewalk he found himself standing on was just as filled, people everywhere for as far as he could see. All of them in a hurry, all of them willing to push and shove him out of the way until he stood up against the building behind him. Car horns and shouting, the smell of food wafting out of nearby shops, so much of it seemed familiar, even if he didn’t recognize the city he was in.
Yet at the same time, so much of it was unfamiliar. He didn’t recognize these buildings, and the architecture was foreign. The cars slowly passing by weren’t of any make or model he knew of. Nothing was terribly odd about the people… except that not a single Faunus was present. It was possible that any Faunus present just had traits that weren’t obvious from his viewpoint, but that seemed unlikely. The smell of food was mingling with something he didn’t recognize at all, enticing and awful at the same time.
But what really set his hair on end was the moon. Framed perfectly by the buildings stretching out into the distance, the moon was visible even though night had yet to fall. That much could be considered normal. But the moon was full. Whole. A single circle in the sky instead of the many shattered pieces that it should be.
This is… strange. He thought out to Second.
There was no response.
Was that normal? He couldn’t recall. Most of the dreams he had slipped from his memory as soon as he woke up, and he wasn’t the type to keep a dream journal or anything like that. It was possible that Second had never been part of his dreams, that he had this conversation with himself every night. Dreams rarely made sense, and if he was asleep he wouldn’t expect his semblance to be able to hear him. Maybe he could though? The thought of Second being forced to endure every thought he had during his dreams was a bit scary. Best not to think about that and just try to enjoy a totally normal dream.
Except, he was lucid dreaming, wasn’t he? That was odd as well. Or he thought it was, anyway. Being aware of the fact that you were dreaming, able to change the dream, was something people actively tried to do. Or so he had heard.
And if he was able to control the dream, why stay here? Beyond the moon being whole and the foreign location, it wasn’t that interesting. Just a normal day in the city, with none of the intriguing or exciting hallmarks associated with dreams. What to dream of though… maybe winning the Vytal festival? Winning a fake version of it might help his nerves in regards to the real one that was fast approaching. Jaune focused his thoughts, trying to wipe away the cityscape and replace it with what he desired. His eyes closed while he concentrated, and when they opened again, the bustling city was gone.
But it wasn’t what he was going for, either.
A field stretched out before him. Far in the distance, the edge of a forest could be seen, but everything between was tilled soil and small crops sprouting out of the ground. He wasn’t sure what was growing, having not grown up on a farm, but there were probably millions of green leaves before him. The sun shone high in the sky, obscured by mild cloud cover. Turning around revealed a dirt road, framed on either side by deep drainage ditches filled with wild flowers. Off in the distance was an old farmhouse and a couple of barns with a single car parked outside.
“So. Not able to control what I dream, though I could change the setting…”
A lone figure walked out the front door of the farmhouse and towards the car.
“What a weird dream…” With nothing better to do, he gingerly stepped over the loose soil to the edge of the field where the ground was more solid before making his way towards the farm.
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“Jaune!” Nora shouted.
Team JNPR, minus their leader, burst into the infirmary. Or rather, Nora burst in, with Pyrrha right behind her, and Ren walking in a moment later with concern on his face both for Jaune and his team’s lack of decorum. With only one patient currently present, their target was obvious, even if he was obscured by the doctor checking his vitals. Before they could make it to the blond, however, they were stopped by Professor Oobleck.
“Hold on just a moment! I understand that you are concerned, but your team leader is currently being looked over and I can give you answers without you crowding around him.”
Nora looked ready to ignore him and jump towards Jaune anyway, but Pyrrha held her in place. “What happened? I thought he was in a meeting with the headmaster!” the redhead demanded.
“That’s… what we’re trying to figure out. I’m afraid that we’ve been left little to go off of.” Oobleck nervously took a sip from his thermos. “Jaune was indeed in a meeting with Ozpin, along with myself and a few others. We were discussing his semblance when he suddenly spaced out… not in the usual way he does,” Bart clarified, with all of them having seen Jaune’s eyes go out of focus when he was talking with Second Thoughts, “but in a more concerning fashion. He looked like he was about to faint. Luckily, we noticed and I was able to catch him before he hit his head on the ground, but it would appear it wasn’t just a fainting spell.” He turned back to get a look at the boy before continuing. “Just before he fell, he lit up like a fireworks display. In all my years, I’ve never seen someone’s aura flare to that degree… It was like everything he had in him was being expelled from his body at once. Luckily it stopped when he had roughly ten percent remaining, but he still hasn’t woken up and we’re not quite sure of when he will.”
“What makes you think he won’t just sleep it off? His aura should be recovering if he’s unconscious.” Ren pointed out.
Stolen story; please report.
“Should be recovering, yes.” Oobleck agreed. “But for some reason, his aura is not being allowed to stray from its current level. Every time it recharges even a single percent, he starts to glow again, and it’s gone as quick as it came. It never drops below that level, so the current hypothesis is that Second Thoughts, either intentionally or subconsciously, is keeping him there for some reason.”
“And you’ll have no way of knowing until he wakes up…” Pyrrha concluded, concern and distress obvious in her expression.
“Correct. We’ll keep him here, keep him safe, but Jaune’s semblance is a marvel on a normal day. We don’t know what we’re working with here, and any rash actions may only harm him.”
“There has to be something we can do!” Nora pleaded, though she kept her tone relaxed and light hearted, like she was only complaining of boredom. It wasn’t enough to fool any of them.
“As soon as we figure out what we can do for him, it will be done, rest assured. But semblances, even one as strange as Jaune’s, are a part of us. It may not make sense to us now, but perhaps he will come out of this scare better than he was before.”
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When he reached the farmhouse, the figure he had seen before was still there, leaning against the car. But unlike the busy crowds in the city, the figure was… indistinct. Blurry, almost. He could feel a headache coming on when he tried to look at them for too long.
“Uh… excuse me? Could you tell me where I am?” He called out, not sure of what sort of answer to expect, but it didn’t matter because he went ignored. The figure stayed still, staring out into the fields, not acknowledging his presence at all.
“Right then.” He sighed. “Did someone drug me or something? I don’t remember any dreams being like…this. Maybe I should try another.”
Jaune closed his eyes, focusing once more on changing the dream before suddenly, he was sitting.
He was in a car this time. Sat in the passenger seat, with what seemed like the same figure from the farm driving. They were still blurry, so it was hard to be certain of that, but they… felt the same, in some strange way. He knew they were the same person, but he didn’t know how he knew that.
The only noise was that of the car going down the empty road. They seemed to be on the outskirts of a settlement around the size of his hometown. “I wonder how they’re all doing without me…” He hadn’t exactly told his family that he planned to get forged transcripts and run off to Beacon. He should probably tell them that he isn’t dead or something…
But the homesickness took a backseat as he noticed a large difference between wherever this was and his own home. The edge of the settlement gave way to endless fields of crops. Not a wall in sight, no guards, no defenses against the creatures of grimm. Now that he thought about it, hadn’t the farm from before been the same way?
The driver suddenly took a hand off the wheel, tapping at a… scroll? It didn’t look anything like the one he carried around, but he wasn’t sure what else it could be. Music began playing out of it. Something upbeat, maybe a pop song, but he couldn’t understand the words.
He blinked, and the world changed again.
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“An incident like this does not cause the world to stop turning, Bart. We have other duties that we must attend to.” Gylnda tried to be gentle about it.
“I understand that, I do, it’s just…” Oobleck tried to gather his thoughts. “I’m not saying that I refuse to leave Beacon, I would just appreciate having an assignment that is more local. I’m not the only one capable of supervising a mission into Mountain Glenn.”
“You’re not the only one capable of looking after Mr. Arc, either. I realize that you’ve become… invested in him, but your skills would do more good guiding a team in Mountain Glenn than they would waiting for him to wake up.” A reassuring hand on his shoulder, and a gentle smile.
“I suppose I have become invested in him. Perhaps too invested…”
“Now Bart, don’t-”
“No, Glynda.” Oobleck cut her off. “You’re right. I’m the man for the job in regards to Mountain Glenn. Some time away from all the excitement will probably do me some good. Has the attending team been decided yet?”
Goodwitch looked like she wanted to talk more about his dedication to his students, but with a sigh she answered his question. “Not quite. There was talk of sending team RWBY for it, but James has been giving pushback on that. As if he has any say on the matter…” she grumbled. “I don’t know who he thinks he is, coming in and acting like he can tell us how to run our school. And Ozpin actually gives him the time of day! Regardless… I expect in the end Ms. Rose and her team will be the ones sent.”
“I see. It should make for an interesting expedition, if nothing else. I suppose I should start packing my things then. You never know what awaits in a place like that.”
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Mercury strolled into their dorm with a confident smirk on his face.
“Did you hear the latest gossip?”
“Are you talking about the rumor that your inflated ego is just you compensating for something?” Emerald asked, not looking up from her scroll.
“Wow, you’re a comedy genius. When did you come up with that one?” He rolled his eyes.
“Oh, about two days ago. I figure it’s probably making the rounds and it’ll get to you soon.”
“Wait, you really-”
“Children.” Cinder interrupted. Their bickering stopped immediately. “From the look on your face when you walked in, I trust that you have some actual news?”
“Of course I do. Someone has to get results.” He not so subtly jabbed at the mint haired girl. “Apparently there was a bit of a situation in Ozpin’s office, and a student got rushed to the infirmary.”
“Oh?” A dangerous smirk found itself on her lips. “I take it this is the ‘Jaune Arc’ that was called there earlier?” She had been keeping careful tabs on anyone who got an audience with the headmaster, though she had not yet had the time to look into this one.
Mercury leaned against the wall as he continued. “They’ve got the infirmary under watch at the moment, so I wasn’t able to confirm that yet, but it seems like a safe assumption to me.”
The smirk dropped. “We do not deal in assumptions, Mercury. I want the facts. If we don’t know the truth of the situation that will mean precious time wasted chasing after a false lead. Go. Confirm it.” When Emerald let her satisfaction with his failure show on her face, Cinder added on “You too. Ensure that he gets it right this time.”
“Y-yes ma’am!” The girl all but jumped off of her bed and ran out the door, eager to please. When Mercury shut the door behind them, Cinder found herself alone.
“Jaune Arc… could you be the one I’m looking for?”