They were in what looked to be a classroom now. Mostly barren, a simple rectangular room with a few posters on the walls, a giant board at the front by the teacher’s desk, and rows of individual desks with the seats attached to them. Not the sort of layout he had grown used to at Beacon, but recognizable all the same. It was just Jaune and the blurry figure. What was it about this person? They’d followed him through every dream besides the first one. Or maybe… had they been in the first one as well? It’s not like he would have noticed a single indistinct figure among the crowd.
“Who are you? What are these places?”
Of course, there was no response. The figure just sat in the classroom with him, maybe waiting for a class to start? They would be waiting a while if nobody else had shown up yet. And that was assuming other people would show up at all. Curious Jaune walked to the door of the classroom, opening it to see out into the hall.
But there was no hall. Beyond the doorway, there was only darkness. A pitch black that looked like it might go on forever. Jaune tentatively put his foot through the doorway, testing to see if there was a floor past that point, even if he couldn’t see one. His foot went deeper than it should have. Not wanting to risk falling through the void for the rest of his time asleep, he pulled his foot back and closed the door.
When he turned back to the figure, they had a notebook in their hands that hadn’t been there before. While the figure and their clothing was too blurry to make out, the notebook was crisp and clear. With nothing better to do, he took a peak at it.
But just because he could see the writing didn’t mean he could understand it. The writing was nonsensical, looking more like a random string of letters and spaces than words, much less coherent sentences.
“You know, if you’re going to follow me into every dream, you could at least talk to me or something.” Jaune told the figure.
But the dreams were of unfamiliar places. And the figure was always present.
“Maybe… you’re not following me, but I’m following you? That would explain some of it, but then I have to wonder how that would work. How would I be inside someone else’s dreams?”
Obviously that couldn’t be his semblance. It was in no way related to what Second Thoughts had shown to be capable of so far. He knew their potential futures, not what they were dreaming of at that exact moment. Somebody else’s semblance, maybe? He hadn’t heard of anyone having a semblance that put you in someone else’s dreams, but maybe it was only recently discovered, or even the first time it was used.
Even then, it would have to be someone within some sort of range. It would be insane for a semblance like that to show him the dream of someone outside Beacon. And who would be having dreams like this? Everything about them seemed… alien, in a way. Foreign beyond what he knew of the other kingdoms. Like he was…
Jaune took another look at the figure. “I’m learning things I couldn’t know with someone else as a proxy. That’s a bit too similar to be a coincidence, isn’t it?”
He still couldn’t make them out. Nothing about the figure in front of him was identifiable, yet at the same time, he thought he had a good idea of who it was.
“Are you… Second Thoughts?”
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“I don’t know about this. It doesn’t seem right to be going off on a mission like this when Jaune still hasn’t woken up yet. What is the rest of team JNPR going to do? It’s not like they can just go out as a three man team… right?” Ruby worried as her team gathered their things and prepared to head out with Professor Oobleck of all people. Sure he was a huntsman, but couldn’t they have gotten someone… interesting?
“Letting your own skills atrophy because you wish to rest on your laurels won’t do him any good, Ms. Rose.” Oobleck reminded her. “Believe me, I feel much the same as you do, but there are times in life where you cannot let your emotions cloud your judgement. It is normal to worry over your friend, healthy even, but do not allow that worry to paralyze you.
As for team JNPR… unfortunately their mission will be postponed until Jaune has made a recovery. They were offered the option of joining another team on their mission, but were understandably more interested in being nearby just in case their leader wakes up soon. Who knows, though? Some of these missions will be a bit lengthy, it’s entirely possible that he wakes up tonight, and they’re able to go on a shorter mission, back before even we return!”
Blake raised a brow at his positive outlook. “Do you really think that’s possible?”
“Possible, yes, of course! Probable… it’s hard to say. But negativity will only draw the grimm, and if he’s managed to stay in the same state for this long then I have every reason to believe that it’s only a matter of time.”
“Stop worrying so much, I’m sure he’ll be fine in no time and back to being a nuisance.” Weiss complained, eager to get on with their mission.
“Oh please, you just want access to Second Thoughts so you can ask whether there’s any truth to what Penny said about the rumor with your sister and Ironwood.” Yang teased.
“I most certainly do not! I don’t know who you think you are, Xiao-Long, but if you think I’m going to let you-”
Yes, this will certainly help to get my mind off things. Bart thought to himself, allowing Ms. Schnee’s tirade go in one ear and out the other. It’s good to see that there’s some balance to the team. Though I wonder…
“Are you perhaps referring to the rumor that the General and Specialist Schnee are… in relations?”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Weiss froze. “Do you know something?!” She looked mortified at the possibility that there might be something to it, but too curious to not want the answer.
“Why, it’s not my place as a member of Beacon staff to be engaging in gossip.” Though Gylnda would certainly be happy with him for directing the rumor mill towards James having a “possible relationship” with Winter instead of the one that usually circulated pertaining to James and herself.
Bart hid his smirk behind his thermos as Weiss started to panic.
Yes, a wonderful distraction for a few days.
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The more he thought about it, the more it made sense to him. Since he had discovered his semblance, he had been learning all sorts of odd things. Or at least, odd things that Second Thoughts decided to share with him. But how did Second Thoughts know these things? Did he just come into existence as Jaune’s semblance knowing all of these things? That seemed like a lot of information to take in all at once for someone who seemed so human. Jaune wasn’t sure how anyone would stay sane if they came into existence with who knows how many timelines crammed into their head all at once.
Maybe this was how it worked though? He saw different future possibilities in his dreams. It would explain why he was so cagey about sharing things. If he hadn’t dreamt of a scenario yet, he wouldn’t know about it. Maybe framing it the way he had been so far was an ego thing? “Yeah, I’m super impressive! I know all sorts of stuff, I uh… I just can’t tell you yet!” It was a bit childish, but it would be an explanation that fit the pieces he’d seen so far.
But if his hunch was correct… then what were tonight’s dreams? Everything was so different from what he knew…
Maybe this is what Second meant by alternate timelines? He had sort of assumed it’d be stuff like “In this timeline, my forged transcripts got rejected by Beacon” or something along those lines. But for the moon to be whole, for there to be no grimm in sight…
Maybe… maybe it was still an alternate timeline, but the change happened further back. Wayyyy further back. A timeline where the moon never shattered, a timeline where grimm never existed, a timeline where humanity was actually safe.
Wouldn’t that be something?
Of course, it didn’t exactly help with Second’s future telling abilities. A timeline so far deviated from the one they were currently living in wasn’t great for helping plan for the future, was it? Was this what it was like every night? Dream after dream after dream that had no bearing on reality, or at least the one they knew? That might explain why Second’s advice seemed so sporadic at times. Nothing for weeks, and then suddenly a few things pop up at once.
Maybe if he changed the dream enough times, he could see something useful with his own eyes! It would be amazing to see a version of himself that wasn’t so… him. Second had once said something about most versions of him turning out to be pretty reliable, hadn’t he? Surely if he went through enough of Second’s dreams he could find one of those!
Jaune closed his eyes, and changed the dream.
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“So what’s your plan?” Emerald asked.
“My plan? Walk inside, blind them with my charm and good looks, ask the name of the injured guy and leave.” Mercury answered, a cocky smile on his face.
Emerald waited for him to continue, the duo walking down the halls towards the infirmary.
He didn’t.
“That’s it?! You call that a plan?!”
“What? I like to keep things simple.”
At first Emerald had feared that being sent along with him had been a punishment from Cinder, but it looked like he was genuinely too inept to do this sort of work. She should have known…
“Or, if you’d like to not be on Cinder’s bad side for either failing or exposing ourselves to these morons, you could go in with an actual plan?”
“Fine, fine.” Mercury rolled his eyes. “What do you want me to do, fake an injury or something as an excuse to be there?”
“Who said you’d have to fake it?” Emerald smiled sweetly at him.
“What do you mean by- wait- don’t!”
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NPR were watching over their leader in shifts, when they were able to anyway. At the moment it was Ren’s turn.
Personally, he didn’t see the merit in keeping a constant guard over him, but when both of his conscious teammates had asked him to do so, he didn’t really have a choice in the matter. So here he was, sitting at Jaune’s bedside, reading a book to pass the time. The school… nurse? Doctor? He wasn’t really sure of her qualifications, but either way she was sitting at a computer in a connected office, typing away and presumably looking into what they could do for Jaune.
That’s when they got their first visitor of his shift. Or rather, visitors?
A darker skinned girl with green hair alongside a paler boy with silvery hair and some nasty bruising on his face that looked fresh.
“Oh dear, what’s the story here?” The nurse asked the pair.
The boy glared at his partner, opening his mouth, but not quite fast enough.
“Training accident!”
He glared at her harder, but didn’t correct her.
“And it went through your aura?” The nurse asked in disbelief.
“I… wasn’t paying attention.” he managed to get out through gritted teeth. That definitely wasn’t the full story. “I’m just here to have you check for a concussion or something. Maybe get an ice pack, I can already feel it swelling…”
“Give me just a moment to go grab one for you then.” She told the boy before walking back into her office.
With nothing to do but wait, the bruised boy turned to Ren. “So what are you two in here for?”
It probably wasn’t a good idea to tell two strangers much about the situation, but he didn’t want to be rude. “Semblance mishap.”
“Oh? An actual mishap? Or a mishap?” he glared at his partner again while doing finger quotes, who only rolled her eyes.
Perhaps it would be best not to pry into that can of worms.
“An actual mishap. Jaune hasn’t had his semblance unlocked for very long.” As he spoke, he could have sworn the girl… well, he wasn’t sure what she did. For just one moment, something about her seemed… off. But when the boy continued as if nothing had happened, he dismissed it as a trick of the light.
“Good luck to him then, some are more of a pain than others.”
“Indeed they are.”