Dreaming the Sons of Salem Chapter 4, a rwby fanfic

Update time! For those of you who follow all my stories, next should be Watching Future Mistakes, but it might take a while since I'm only at 2k for that chapter and I need 8-10k.

This commission is from azuring-galaxy, for Mika, original story by Mika. Enjoy!

"Hey guys," Yang greeted them as she sat down at their table, being the last one there. Not that it was really her fault, she had just gotten unlucky with the line for the food.

"Hey," everyone replied all in unison.

Yang took her usual seat, opposite to Nora and beside Blake, setting down her tray. "Today was hard, huh?" she commented, stabbing her fork into a chuck of beef of her meat-and-mushrooms Vacuan casserole. "All these dreams have been awfully distracting."

"We almost lost today's match because Pyrrha and I were so distracted!" Nora nodded energetically, inhaling her Vacuan onion breadbuns one after the other. "Even though they don't tire us out, it's really hard to focus when all I can think about are those Grimm abominations."

"Yeah, I'm just glad we didn't have to fight today," Weiss nodded, cutting her three-mushrooms omelette with her knife, not looking up from her plate. "In a way, I guess it's good that we've been eliminated. These dreams are really distracting, and fighting while distracted is never a good thing."

"Even though it took us forever to cheer Yang up," Blake quipped with a sly grin, popping a grilled crayfish tail in her mouth. "She really didn't like losing that match."

Yang rolled her eyes and chewed her beef just a bit harder. "No one likes losing." She pointed her meat-stained fork at Weiss, who raised a delicate eyebrow. "Not like Ice Queen over there took it any better."

"I just hope Penny isn't feeling bad about her loss," sighed Pyrrha, recalling how the other girl, the one who had stood by and done nothing all match, had apparently lectured Penny about the importance of winning the matches. Fortunately, the ginger hadn't looked perturbed at all, so that was a relief. She stared down at her Mistralian pastitsio and sighed again. "I just wish I had known those swords were tied to her backpack. I wouldn't have humiliated her otherwise…"

Everyone at the table winced. That was pretty true. The match had been recorded as one of the shortest ones ever, lasting only ten seconds. Penny had immediately attacked with her swords, using their impossible speed to take Pyrrha and Nora by surprise. Unfortunately for her, Pyrrha had reacted poorly to finding herself unable to dodge, and had feigned pushing the swords back with her shield so hard they had flown out of the ring… with the use of her Semblance, of course. People were so used to seeing her as the Invincible Girl that they wouldn't even question it.

That had had the unexpected side effect of throwing Penny right out of the arena, declaring her out of bonds. Nora had taken care of Ciel Soleil pretty quickly after that, sending her right the way Penny had gone.

The two of them would probably become the laughingstock of the tournament, if they weren't already.

"Don't worry, Pyrrha, knowing Penny she's probably just happy she could participate," Ruby reassured her with a smile that was only slightly ruined by the red smears of her pasta's tomato sauce. "Plus you didn't mean to make her feel bad, you just reacted!" She slurped up some more noodles before continuing with a snicker, "I can't believe people bought that move, though. I mean, you bashed her swords out of the arena and no one said anything!"

Pyrrha smiled thinly. "I'm afraid my, er, reputation might be the cause of that. My Semblance is pretty much a guaranteed win against metal-wielding opponents, especially when they don't know what is interfering with their attacks, so people have started to think I'm some kind of… well, they call me the Goddess of Victory back home." She cut and ate the first slice of her pastitsio since she'd sat down, suddenly very self-conscious. "I guess they just chalked it up to me being amazing."

"You are amazing, Pyrrha, you just aren't a wizard," Ren chuckled quietly, eating his own onion breadbuns. It was a rule for him to always eat what Nora ate, for two reasons. One, so she could just take from his plate if she was still hungry, because he didn't need much to eat anyway. And two, so that she could not steal his food if she didn't like her own. "I'm honestly surprised people didn't see through that."

Pyrrha nodded in agreement. "There are a lot of theories about my Semblance. Some say it's supernatural luck, some say it's like a forcefield that protects me, some say that it drains my opponent's fighting skill to increase mine."

"It's sad to know that people actually think the last one might be true," Weiss huffed, shaking her head. "Your Semblance may not be easy to guess, but I thought the world's best Aura experts would be better than that."

Pyrrha shook her head as well. "No, no, they are. You guys aren't the only ones who know about my Semblance, but my agent and most importantly my sponsors don't want it to become public knowledge, so anyone talking about it online is forced to remove those messages or posts and is also sued for damage to my image." Her expression saddened as she cut another slice of pastitsio. "They don't tell me much about these, but once I saw the a report. Some poor twenty-year-old girl was sued for a million Lien and spent two years in jail once she couldn't pay the money. While she was in jail, she convinced my agent to let her send me a letter of apology, where she told me she was sorry and that she learned her lesson. She had lost her job and a lot of her friends, not to mention she had to quit school, simply because she wanted a doctorate in Aura Analysis and she thought that my Semblance would make for a good thesis."

She sighed and placed her utensils down. "And so no one knows about my Semblance. Or rather, no one talks about my Semblance."

Everyone at the table was looking at her with wide eyes. While a million Lien wasn't much by some of their standards -Weiss was super rich, Blake knew her family was rich, and Ruby and Yang knew their dad was pretty well-off too-, such a punishment for simply talking about a Semblance was unbelievable.

"How can they do that without breaking the law?" Blake asked, disconcerted. "They cannot privatize something like this! It's illegal. A Semblance may be something private, but no one can forbid people from speculating or analysing, and especially no one can legally persecute someone for breaking this 'rule'!"

Pyrrha shook her head. "Via loopholes. First of all, did you know the image of someone, especially someone famous, cannot be replicated without permission?" Weiss nodded alongside Blake, but the others shook their heads. "It's a law that was approved in Vale right after the Great War. Since the Academies trained young people to be Hunters, those people tended to… well, try to stand out, sometimes by wearing what at the time were considered to be indecent outfits, and because a lot of Hunters are very physically attractive both thanks to Aura and to their training. This law was made to prevent… How can I say it…" She blushed and looked away from everyone. "To prevent the use of those teenagers' appearances for pornographic purposes."

Weiss and Ruby both blushed as well, immediately checking their own outfits for any excessive amount of skin exposure or tightness around their curves.

Yang, instead, just chuckled. "Sounds fair, though I'm pretty sure that hasn't stopped many people."

"Unfortunately not, but it has greatly reduced their numbers." Pyrrha returned to cutting her food, not meeting anyone's eyes. "However, this ban gradually extended to other things. The weapons and the Semblance, for example. Both are usually unique to every Hunter and thus changing the appearance but keeping those would still enable people to recognize them somewhat, especially if they are famous. Thanks to this, my agent is legally allowed to persecute people analysing my Semblance, also because if my Semblance were to be made public I could lose part of my sponsorships." She shrugged vaguely. "I'm not too sure about that part though, it really isn't my field of expertise."

"Few Hunters are knowledgeable in law, as ironic as that may sound," Blake nodded slightly. "There's just too much injustice in the world to focus on studying the law. That's why Hunters are usually told what to do and not to do on every mission."

"Are we just going to ignore the Goliath in the room?" Ren spoke up neutrally, briefly looking up from his lunch to meet their eyes. "Lord Khor and these dreams he wants to show us. Are they real? Does he have a reason? And why now of all times?"

Everyone's expressions dropped, as did their eyes, and they went back to eating their food as the mood sobered up. Pyrrha stole a glance at the empty seat at the end of their bench, where their leader usually sat, and then sighed.

"What is there to say?" Weiss replied with a frown. "They are dreams. No one can see the future, it's not set in stone." Her hands were trembling slightly, causing the next slice of omelette to fall back on her plate. "Whoever he is, this Khor must be obviously trying to disturb us to make us lose the Festival. And from the looks of it, it's working!" she snapped, stabbing the fallen slice a bit more aggressively than usual.

"Weiss, there was nothing we could've done against Coco and Yatsuhashi," Yang reminded her. While she still wasn't happy about her loss, she wasn't bitter like Weiss. "And this Lord Khor guy doesn't seem to be mean or evil. He's just weird."

"He's weird for us, and we're probably weird for him," Ruby said, idly playing with her pasta. "I don't understand why he chose now of all times for these dreams. Perhaps there is no reason at all."

"She's right. It's so easy for us to assume that an entity like Lord Khor has a reason for doing everything, but perhaps he doesn't," Blake agreed, biting into another crayfish. "Perhaps he just thought about it now, and he didn't want to wait."

"It's having some very real repercussions, though," Pyrrha noted, taking another glance at the empty seat at their table.

"I doubt that's the reason why that girl has taken an interest in our Fearless Leader," Nora waved her off, happily munching on her onion breadbuns. "I mean, we're his friends so it'd be weird to flirt with him, but it's not like he's bad looking. Maybe she just took the opportunity when our teams began to hang out!"

"That doesn't explain how she was supposedly mute and Lord Khor gave her the ability to talk," Weiss replied, secretly happy for Jaune. While she didn't consider him boyfriend material for her, she was happy someone liked him. She didn't know exactly what he'd done to have Neptune talk to her at the dance, but she still owed him. Perhaps, if things with Neo went well, she might offer to pay for their first date. "Her teammates said she couldn't talk, and Neo herself asked Lord Khor why he gave her the ability to talk, so she was obviously really mute. How could someone with a dream-weaving Semblance do that?"

"Perhaps it's not a Semblance, then," Ren hypothesised wisely. "Grimm are an unexplainable mystery of Remnant – who's to say he is not another?"

"Then why did he not show himself sooner?" Weiss countered.

"I think it's safe to say that Lord Khor's existence, as shocking as it may be, is not what we should be worried about," Pyrrha cut in politely. "The future he is showing us, however… it's disturbing."

"Disturbing doesn't even come close to what I had in mind," Blake remarked darkly, picking a splinter of crayfish shell out of her teeth. "Especially after what the youngest son did, that Atriox…"

A collective shiver went through them as they remembered the horrid monsters he created, the Decayed and the Vessels.

"Can we please talk about those later?" Nora whined, her chewing slowing down. "You're gonna make me lose my appetite!"

"I thought nothing could make you lose your appetite," Weiss teased with a tiny grin.

"She's right though, I'd rather not talk about them while we eat. We should change the topic." Pyrrha knew everyone else shared her opinion, even if some were too prideful to admit it. "Like, I still can't believe no one is rebelling against this 'Salem' in that dream!"

"It's still just a dream," Blake replied, moving around the food on her plate. "It's… it's not supposed to be realistic. I mean, have you seen how the people were? Faunus equality and correct education? We don't even have it now, how could it possibly happen in a world ruled by Grimm? The only teaching they'd do would be teaching them how to hate each other, how to abuse, murder and take advantage of everyone and everything."

"Well, technically the Grimm wouldn't teach anything," Ren pointed out, pretending not to see Nora stealing one of his breadbuns. "And if you consider the Grimm simple weapons and tools instead of a faction of their own, whoever uses them is not automatically guilty of their own crimes."

"Are you seriously defending those monsters?" Weiss whisper-yelled, staring at him with a mix of anger and incredulity. "They're nothing but murderers and tyrants!"

The boy didn't look fazed by her anger in the slightest. "If we look at it from a subjectively point of view then yes, they are monsters. However, if we take a step away from our own prejudices, perhaps we could-"

"Prejudices?!" Blake hissed furiously, pushing aside her seafood to glare at her fellow brunette. "The best definition of 'Grimm' is, taken word by word from the Valean Etymology Vocabulary, 'monsters of pure darkness that seek to destroy and kill all human life on the planet. They have been the historical bane of humanity since the dawn of time and are currently our world's greatest problem'. It also goes on to explain that their atrocity is so great, that calling someone 'Grimm' is an actual crime that people can sue you for, up to a fine of five thousands Lien, for calumny. I think they are so hated for very solid reasons!"

"The Grimm? Yes they are, and nothing will ever change my mind." Ren thought to Atriox and the helmet he was wearing. Prejudices or not, he still hated how anyone could wear something fashioned after that monster. But he knew that what he felt toward the Knucklelavee, many felt toward Grimm in general, so he tried to contain his loathing. "But those who use Grimm for themselves cannot be blamed for those crimes. Using the sword of a serial killer does not make you a murderer, after all."

"Okay, then let's take a look at the wielders." Yang gave him a cheerful fake smile before scowling, eyes turning red, and slamming a fist on the table. "Monstrous Grimm abominations that kill and destroy for fun, to conquer worlds for their 'mother' to subjugate, and only ever care about themselves and maybe their own soldiers. They would murder innocent men, women and children for their own selfish goals. They have. But hey, let's all be happy with our new tyrants, it's easier that way!" she snapped angrily and pushed away her plate too. "Accepting a tyranny is the coward's way out. Only weak cowards would do that. A real Hunter would never bow to a tyrant."

"And yet, Jaune apparently did. Not only that, but he fought tooth and nail for them," Pyrrha replied, her voice having a steely undertone that could cut even better than the well-sharpened knife in her hand. "He died for them, fully believing he was doing the right thing."

Ruby kept staring at her plate, not really seeing it either. That was the real problem, wasn't it? As much as she didn't like the Grimm or those who allied themselves with them, Jaune had been there for them as well. And say what you want about the clumsy doofus, but he had a heart of gold and would never ally himself with someone he considered evil. Especially he wouldn't save them from this 'Wizard' and wouldn't die for them. So were they really good? Or did they just trick him into believing they were good?

And then Yang had to go and mess everything up.

"Well, no offence, but it's Jaune we're talking about," Yang shrugged. "He's a good guy but he's not exactly someone I'd trust with watching my back in battle. Not unless I have my back to a wall."

An increasingly cold silence fell on the group. While what Yang meant wasn't exactly wrong since Jaune's skill level was indeed far below theirs and thus he wouldn't be able to actually protect their backs in battle, it had been the wrong thing to say.

"Let's go, guys, I think we've overstayed our welcome," Pyrrha stated, composed but clearly angry. She rose, taking her plate with her. Ren and Nora stood up as well, though Nora had a saddened expression on her face. "I'm not hungry any more, anyway."

"Guys, come on, Yang didn't mean that," Ruby tried to fix the problem, but the three didn't change their expressions.

"No, Ruby, I fully meant that," the blonde continued, still angry for Ren's insinuation earlier and now also irritated by what she perceived was an overreaction on their part. "Jaune's a great guy but he's not Hunter material. He's not skilled and his grades are just slightly above average. We've been trained our whole lives and he didn't. We're just on different levels. If he's lucky, he'll end up being hired as a bouncer or something, while we're going to fight Grimm to defend Remnant. He'll probably even get paid better. But he's not skilled, so no, I would not trust him to watch my back. And so no, I don't think he'd oppose a tyranny, not without people like us backing him up."

NPR's eyes narrowed and even Nora gained a cold look on her face. Ren was the one to speak. "You've had the good fortune of having received personal and advanced training from either renowned Hunters or expensive tutors. Not everyone has. Beacon is here for everyone, not just the privileged ones." He nodded to the others and started walking away. "Besides, following your own reasoning, Pyrrha shouldn't trust anyone here to watch her back. Last time I checked, she could still defeat all of RWBY without losing any Aura."

With that parting jab, the three left, probably off to find their leader and drag him to have lunch somewhere else.

Yang heavily sat back down, playing with her food but not really interested in it any longer. "I'm just trying to protect him," she mumbled. Her irritation faded quickly as she realized she'd just driven off three of her best friends. "Ugh, these dreams are messing everything up. First the match, now this, what's next?"

"Don't jinx it," Blake mumbled tiredly. She lifted another crayfish and stared at it. "You weren't wrong, Yang, but you were rude about it. Besides, I think Jaune would be the type to try and fail to stop a tyranny, rather than not try at all."

Ruby looked at Weiss, her last teammate, with a pleading look in her eyes, but she too let her down.

"He's learning quickly, but he's still far behind us," she noted with a sigh. "If he were to fight a tyranny like this 'Salem's, it could only lead to his death." She lowered her eyes to her plate and added in a smaller voice, "and I don't want that."

Ruby sighed too and returned to staring at her food. She glanced up to see the three who had just left the table reach the hall's door just in time for Jaune himself to hurry through and stop dead in his tracks at seeing their expressions. She watched sadly as the boy glanced at them and then left with his team, not even bothering to grab lunch.

Once they were out of sight, Ruby took her plate and her tray and stood up. She wasn't hungry any more.

/-/

"You need more practice, not more techniques, for the time being. You don't have a good enough grasp on the basis yet. If you tried to train on higher levels now, the only thing you'd do would be confuse yourself. There's no point in trying to achieve today something you'll reach eventually. A lot about your fighting style needs work, but you have the motivation for it. You don't need help working out but I can still give you some workout regimes. Oh, and some diets, but Beacon only serves healthy stuff and Aura does miracles so you don't really need them."

Jaune nodded, listening attentively as Mercury explained to him what he needed to work on, which was basically everything, and how he should go about it. There was a tiny little voice in the back of his head that kept telling him that his friends never did anything like this, while Mercury was basically a stranger and yet here he was, but he pushed it aside, knowing it was just tiredness and irritation talking.

"Do you think my weapons are okay?" he asked. Ruby had liked them, but Ruby liked all weapons, and everyone else had much newer or high-tech weapons Crocea Mors could never hope to match. "I mean, they're pretty old, going back to the Great War, but they still work so…"

Mercury shrugged and bit into his slice of quiche pie, savouring the cheesy onion taste for a second before speaking again. "The weapons don't make the Hunter. Sure they can come in handy, but eventually they're just tools. I'll admit yours might need some modernizing, perhaps reinforcing alloys or something, but if you're okay with knowing it might break someday, even those aren't strictly needed."

"But if you want, I can find someone in Vale who has low prices," Cinder said from her place beside Jaune. As the respective leaders, she had insisted for him to sit beside her, and had offered Pyrrha to take the seat on his opposite side, but Neo had beaten the champion to it with a truly innocent imp-like grin. "And I can help you create new designs, if you wish. It would be a pity to improve your weapon without adding some aesthetic touch to it, wouldn't it?"

As much as she hated to admit it, Cinder found herself very intrigued by Jaune. Not in any romantic sense and not as friends either. He was just interesting. Obviously undertrained yet in Beacon, a school she knew boasted about accepting all students as long as they had the passion for it, but that unfortunately only actually accepted skilled students in its ranks. They maintained a public façade of being benign but the truth was that Ozpin wanted his own powerful army, not good-hearted weaklings.

Jaune Arc was untrained, but he had a determination that made her wonder why he hadn't gotten more skilled in the past. His weakness would've made more sense had it been like Cardin Winchester, who despite learning during the lessons lacked the drive to become a Huntsman, but instead Jaune really wanted to succeed. It didn't matter if he did it for a noble or for a stupid reason, in her eyes he should've been more skilled.

She was intrigued by that. What could've held him back from training before Beacon? Perhaps his family disagreed with his dream? That was a possibility, a very strong one at that, but Jaune had mentioned his family before and he never sounded bitter or remorseful, so she didn't think that was the case. As she said, he was interesting.

He seemed to stop and think about it. "Well, honestly I think I should wait a little more before taking any decision. I can't undo it once I redesign it so I think it's better if I wait until I'm sure."

"That's surprisingly wise," Emerald commented, not looking up from her turkey sausages in chilly sauce. She cut another slice and popped it in her mouth, seemingly not caring about the burn of the sauce. "Most students here are only interested in getting better at fighting and getting better weapons as they go, making full use of the student discount. You're the first I see who doesn't already have a top-notch weapon and is in no hurry to upgrade it."

Jaune chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his head with one hand. "Yeah… a lot of people here seem very focused on aesthetics, no offence to anyone. And they're not afraid to use money. Ren and Nora are the only ones I've seen actually care about how much they spend."

Ren, sitting on the opposite side of the table, nodded, quietly eating his dinner. Beside him Nora, mouth still full of chewed meatballs, grinned enthusiastically. "It's better than way," she confirmed cheerfully. "We don't need so many things anyway, and it helps us learn how to watch our spending for when we'll graduate and the school won't be here to feed us any more."

"That's true, I can see a lot of the students having financial troubles in their first years of being Hunters," Emerald agreed, looking genuinely surprised by the redhead's observation. "Of course, most of them come from rich families so they will be easily supported, but left to their own, I can count on two hands the students who'd manage – among all years."

"That's the unfortunate truth behind the Academies," Cinder sighed, shaking her head. "They may look like they are fair to everyone, but eventually the rich and influential get a privileged treatment anyway. Which is realistic since that's how the world works, but which really sucks for the students who don't have the benefit of a wealthy family." She glanced at the table two rows down, where Team RWBY was dining alone. "I can't see Weiss ever doing housechores or watching her spending, to be honest."

"No one could," Mercury mumbled, taking another bite of his pie. "She doesn't really look like someone who'd survive without friends or houseservants."

"Mercury, be nice!" Emerald chastised him. She instinctively reached out to elbow him in the side, but he was sitting on the other end of the bench from her, which meant she'd have to reach over both Ren and Nora to do it.

"I'm sure Weiss would learn how very quickly," Jaune waved him off. "Though I can't say she'd be happy about it."

"Who ever is?" Neo snorted, stabbing her cutlet a few times before ripping a piece off. "Being an adult sucks. Work all day just to pay for basically being alive, then sleep and repeat, with only a few hours of free time every day. It's just unfair. Not like we need to do that many hours anyway!"

"Actually, we do," Pyrrha countered politely. "Perhaps not everyone needs to work eight hours, but it maximises the efficiency. True, I can't say I'd be happy with spending almost fifty hours every week working, especially if I don't like my job, but if people stopped working our society would fall and we would fall with it. We are too dependant on our society to survive without it. And while it is true that our society is progressively getting worse, with corruption and nepotism being almost common in some places, and nonsensical laws being passed all the time, but it's the only one we have, and with the Grimm at our doorstep we cannot change it."

"Speaking of changing society… didn't the society you saw in your dream reach some kind of utopia?" Jaune asked, glancing around to gauge their reactions. As he expected, most of them stiffened at the mention of the Grimm-ruled society. "I mean, sure, Grimm abominations and all, but the people were happy, right?"

Ren sighed and shook his head. "It's impossible to determine if it's a happiness born of actual joy or if it's a happiness born of ignorance, of not knowing the horrors of the past and the present and simply living in a glass house built by Salem to prevent a rebellion. I wish it were the former, but we cannot rule out the latter."

"You could always ask Khor," Jaune offered.

"I don't think Lord Khor would give us a clear answer," Cinder replied with a frown, remembering the entity's mannerism and behaviour. "It's probably something he wants us to figure out ourselves instead of asking for the truth to a higher being. Besides, if we were to do that, we'd be completely accepting his words as true… which is exactly what Ren said might be going on in that dream. A glass house where they only know what Salem wants them to know. If we want true answers, we have to get them ourselves."

"So… do you think you're going to get another dream tonight?" Jaune asked nonchalantly, eating one of his nuggets. "That'd be cool."

"Definitely cooler than a Hunter trainee eating chicken nuggets," Mercury commented with a grin. Cinder gave him a warning glance, but Jaune smiled.

"They're really good, try one!" Jaune offered his plate to the grey-haired boy, knowing that picking one up with hands or fork would be bad table manners. Trying to woo Weiss had at least gotten some good side effects. "But be careful. They're pretty strong."

"Strong?" Mercury stabbed one with his fork and popped it in his mouth, chewing thoughtfully. Then his eyes went comically wide and he swallowed immediately, trying to get it down as quickly as possible. As soon as the food was no more in his mouth, he started to cough like there was no tomorrow.

He reached out for his glass, but Jaune pushed a piece of bread toward him instead. "Eat this, it'll get the spiciness away more quickly."

Thankfuly, Mercury tore a chunk of bread with his teeth and began chewing, relaxing once the chilly taste lessened to a bearable level. He swallowed and ripped off another chunk, glaring at Jaune. "How the hell do you eat those?!"

"Valean chicken rolled in breadcrumbs and then cooked in oil spiced up with Vacuan death pepper, they're one of the traditional foods of central Vacuo and my family liked travelling during the holidays," Jaune explained with a smile, eating another nugget without even wincing. "The death pepper is not edible since it's too chilly, it'd probably set you on fire, but cooking stuff in its oil gives them a good spiciness without making them impossible to eat… if you are used to chilly foods, anyway."

Mercury coughed again and put down the bread in favour of his pie. "Stupid Vacuan foods…"

Emerald smirked at his pain before glancing at Jaune's plate. She liked spicy foods, but she had a limit to how much burn she wanted. Maybe she'd try those the next time they had dinner together and if she didn't like them, she'd just dump them on Jaune's plate.

"So, do you think you're gonna have another dream tonight?" Jaune asked as if Mercury hadn't just almost died.

Pyrrha was the one to answer. "I believe we will for a while. Not even Lord Khor knows for how long we'll have to do this… Which doesn't reassure me as much as I'd like."

Jaune reached over Neo and patted her shoulder, with the bicoloured girl pouting underneath. "Don't worry, it'll be fine!"

/-/

Ruby was not surprised to find herself in the Beacon-like dreamscape once again. While it hadn't happened too many times already, it was clear that it was going to continue until Lord Khor decided to stop. So unless he had summoned them there to tell them it was over, she was fairly confident in her assumption they were there to see more of that future.

Speaking of that future, her face fell when she remembered the disaster at lunch. She still felt that Yang's temper had gotten the best of her and had ruined everything, but after trying to talk her team through it all day had worn her out. They were all adamant that Jaune was a great guy, really nice and all, but he was too weak to protect himself, much less others. And while they said that it wasn't a fault since all civilians were like that, she knew it would still hurt him greatly to hear.

She remembered the mini pep-talk she'd given him weeks prior, when he was feeling down and he thought he wasn't good enough. She didn't like to see her friends so down but Weiss, Blake and Yang all gave her indisputable, solid facts to support their opinions!

She hated that she didn't have anything to reply with, just because they were focusing on one aspect of Jaune's abilities and personality to prevent her from using his other skills as proof he wasn't weak. They were overblowing one single argument!

It was true that Jaune wasn't as skilled as they were, but that was normal, obvious even. She and Yang received direct training from their Dad and Qrow, both teachers at Signal. The two were usually impartial teachers but they still taught them at home too, which gave them an unfair advantage. Weiss, enough said, her family could pay the best tutors in Atlas, if not the whole world, to teach her, plus she had a sister who was a high-ranking Atlas military officer and thus could both teach her and have her taught by people she knew. And Blake had been in the White Fang, which meant she had combat experience, and had been taught by their leader, a man Blake often described as invincible.

It wasn't hard to see Ren's point. Maybe they were prodigies, maybe they trained harder than most, but they still reached that level of skill only because they had had the opportunity to do so. Whenever Jaune talked about his dream to become a Hunter and spoke about his past, he always sounded really frustrated, which probably meant he hadn't gotten those chances.

Maybe Weiss's initial opinion of him had been right, and he was just a guy who just up and decided to become a Hunter when he was seventeen and never trained, but Jaune had faced Grimm without fear (first encounter with gigantic Death Stalker notwithstanding and besides, even Yang had been discouraged by its sheer size, so it was only natural) and had never given up, which kind of ruled out the possibility of him being a Hunter on a whim.

Ruby really wanted to think that Jaune would become a great Hunter. Sure, maybe he'll never quite reach their own skill level, but that didn't matter. She felt that nowadays Hunters focused a bit too much on the sheer power rather than on the intentions.

Her dad would always be willing to help people train, it was one of the reasons why he became a teacher in the first place, but for example her uncle Qrow… well, to say he was cynical would've been an understatement. He absolutely loathed those, in his words, 'fools with a sword and a dream', because he thought they were arrogant and naive for believing they had what it took to survive. As much as she loved him, she was aware that he'd then gone against his own philosophy to help her train, because otherwise she would've been just another of those so-called fools.

Yang had probably taken more after her uncle than her father. It also didn't help that after Summer died, she'd basically been left to raise Ruby for quite some time. That sense of abandonment was what had led her to take more after Qrow, who had also saved her and Ruby when she foolishly wen to look for Raven. So while she didn't approve nor agree, Ruby could understand why Yang was so hard on Jaune when it came to his combat skills.

Weiss wasn't very surprising. She was hard on everyone when it came to just about anything. She had been lightening up a lot, but it was still a long way to go and she supposed Jaune's flirting in the first months hadn't helped. Plus with all her expensive education, she probably thought everyone should have a great training to enter a combat Academy.

Blake was a bit more surprising, and the most disappointing, if she had to be honest. She had been a member of the White Fang, and organization made by, in her words, oppressed Faunus misled into believing that violence was the answer to their problems. By her own words, they weren't fighters, but normal people. Ruby was disappointed to see that despite fighting for and alongside people with less skill than Jaune, she still didn't consider Jaune Hunter material. She supposed it was because she'd seen how easily untrained people got hurt, but it was still disappointing.

She sighed. There was nothing she could do now.

And now that they were back in that dream, they would be forced to interact with NPR again, and she was pretty sure that wouldn't go well.

"Here we go again," she heard Weiss mutter as the four of them, plus the usual other eight, appeared in the Beacon hall, or at least the dream's version of it.

"Do you think Lord Khor will show up for this, or do you think it's just gonna start up on its own?" Mercury asked out loud, looking around.

"Even though it is not necessary, I have decided to show myself this time as well." As usual the voice of the godlike being appeared before his body did, but soon the dragon-like humanoid was standing in the hall with them. "Now, I believe there are a few things we need to address."

"Yes, for exa-"

Khor cut Weiss off. "First, you still haven't asked Jaune Arc about his friend Nokris, have you?" Their silence was telling enough. "Just as I thought. Now, do you have any questions?"

"Ahem," Weiss cleared her throat, slightly irritated for having been interrupted so rudely. "I believe we do." She glanced at NPR, who stared back at her with quizzical frowns on their faces. "In this future you're showing us, what exactly was Jaune's involvement?"

Lord Khor turned to her and she found herself staring up at him, damn her short stature. "Hell if I know," he said simply, shocking everyone.

"Wait, how can you not know?!" Mercury exclaimed. "Aren't you a god or something?!"

"Or something. It's honestly really hard to define me," he waved the boy off. "And well, I did already mention how I do not know everything about this future. I am showing it to you, but this does not mean I have infinite knowledge about it, now does it? It's ridiculous to even entertain that idea. Now, any more questions?"

"Yes, I'd have one," Ren spoke up, stepping forward. Khor turned to him with an amused smile on his face. "Are the people in that world truly happy? Or is it just an illusion created by Salem?"

"People choose to be happy. If they are happy with not knowing then it is true happiness, if they are happy only because they're told that they have to, then it's not," the supernatural entity replied with a shrug. "And as I said, I don't know everything about that future, so I really cannot answer that. I can tell you this – they are certain they are happy. Now, if this means they are, then yes. If this just means, to you, that Salem coerced and tricked them into living an illusion, then no. Take your own conclusions."

Cinder nodded, having expected a similar answer.

Salem frowned slightly at the offensive remark, but let it go. It wasn't something she'd be ashamed of doing, so she supposed she deserved it.

"Lord Khor, you said you don't know everything about that future… how much do you know about our present?" Ruby spoke up, stepping up as well and getting a couple of odd looks from the others.

"Quite a lot. One might even say I know all about your world, but that would be an exaggeration," he chuckled slightly, shaking his head at what he perceived was a silly thought. "Why? What do you wish to ask me?"

"Will Jaune become a great Hunter?" she asked, determination ringing in her voice. Her friends gave her even odder looks, recalling the discussion they'd had during lunch, and NPR frowned slightly, not sure whose side she was on.

Lord Khor scratched his chin. "Define 'great Hunter', if you would. There are many ways to be great. He has the potential to become one, that's for sure, but almost everyone does. He has the heart and passion, but again that's not exactly unique."

Ruby frowned. "Does he become a known Hunter who's saved a lot of people?"

The entity shrugged and stopped scratching his chin. "He could. As I told you before, the future is up to you, not me. There are futures where he becomes one, and futures where he doesn't. Sometimes it's thanks to you, sometimes it's your fault if his dream is realized or crushed. Sometimes it's not." He snorted in amusement. "Trust me, there are all kinds of futures out there. For him, for you, for everyone. It's impossible to determinate which one will happen, because even if I were to tell you, you might act differently because of that knowledge, and change the future. I'm sorry for speaking so much and answering so little."

Ruby nodded, slightly saddened, but then she smiled. "This still means that Jaune can become a great Hunter!" she exclaimed, looking at her teammates. "He just has to train!"

Yang rolled her eyes. "No kidding, that's kind of how people get stronger, sis."

"Well, now that we've addressed this, I believe it may be time to start," stated Lord Khor, rubbing his hands with an unsettling grin on his face.

His form started to fade away like it usually did, and no one tried to stop him. While they couldn't say they'd gotten used to him and his personality, it wasn't something new any more. Once he was fully gone, around them the Beacon hall disappeared, and the illusion of the future appeared once again as they braced themselves for whatever was about to be shown.

It was late, she should have been asleep a long time ago but due to her duties, she had to miss a class and now she had to go over all that she missed from it. "Agh, I already know all this!" Thara exclaimed, looking down at the hologram that floated on her desk. She moved her hand across it, showing a chart. A recording began to play, one she tried to skip but was unable to. Damn locks.

Several people snorted. Students trying to skip over homework or study was a tale as old as time, but it seemed like Thara's teachers knew how to counter that. Of course, students could still just not listen, but that was inevitable.

"...here we have a regular human standing about 6 feet…" the recording said, a half naked holo image of a man standing was shown. "...Here we have a Space Marine or known as in the Imperium Tongue as the Adeptus Astartes, standing at 7.5 feet…" The next holo image to appear was a much larger and more muscular man, standing next to the other man. Various scars adorned his body as she could see the access ports that were surgically implanted into his body.

"What is that?" Nora asked, pointing at the access ports.

"Probably something related to that armour of theirs," Weiss hypothesised. "Unless they are part machine, of course."

"Ugh…" she hated the fact that she had to go over something she already knew. It was drilled into her head the difference between a human, A space Marine and Primaris Marine.

"Now we have here a Primaris Astartes or known to us as Primaris Marines…" Another holoimage of a man showed, though he was much taller and bit more muscular than the Space Marine. "Primaris marines stand around 8 feet tall with the exception of Lord Ares who stands around 10 to 11 feet." An image of her Uncle popped up, showing the vast difference in height and strength. "Primaris Marines are both stronger and bigger than their Space Marine cousins, soon to replace the Standard Space Marine soon..." she turned off the hologram, it was gonna get into the history and creation of the Space Marines then The Primaris Marines.

"Now that would've been boring," Ruby sighed in relief. "Though I'm surprised she could turn it off, but not skip it."

"She probably just shut it down like a computer or something," Mercury commented. "There are lots of ways to circumvent limitations."

"Already know this crap, I'll just copy the others notes later for this class." she thought to herself as she stretched. She didn't need to know any of that, she already saw how they were created. Atriox ensured that.

Everyone shivered at the mention of the youngest brother. "Is it just me who can't see that guy teaching anyone anything?" Yang tried to lighten the atmosphere, but no one laughed.

"I can see him teaching people how to torture and kill," Blake growled under her breath. Ren heard her, and he was tempted to agree.

Atriox.

Everyone shivered again.

His name alone sent a shiver down her back as she got ready for bed. She didn't like talking about him or even being near him. She shouldn't feel like that about family...but him? She just couldn't help it. He terrified her.

She laid down, getting comfortable as she drifted off to sleep.

She couldn't move. She felt like a statue as the sounds of battle raged around her. Thara saw familiar faces as her vision began to become clear. Her vivid green eyes scanned the entirety of the battlesite before she caught sight of her uncle Nokris, kneeling on the ground as he clutched his side. His armor, vastly different from the one he currently wore, was damaged and riddled with scorch Marks. The power armor was white, with gold trim, the original colors of the Sons of Salem chapter before her Grandfather's death. The helmet on his head was just a standard Primaris Marine helmet, nothing like his unique one that he wore. She saw people running towards him, she yelled out but no sound came. She thought they were gonna attack him only to see them get in a defensive position around him, firing randomly into whatever was attacking them as some tried to help the wounded super warrior.

"Wait, what is this?!" Weiss exclaimed, shocked by the sudden change of scenery. "Are we somewhere else? What just happened?!"

"Did we seriously started dreaming of a girl dreaming about this battle?" Neo commented, feeling quite confused in addition to startled. She glanced around. "This battle is old… they aren't in their Grimm armour or anything, it's just a normal battle. What is happening? Is she remembering something? Or it is her Semblance?"

"Both are quite possible, although we cannot rule out that she might have been brought there by an entity, just like Lord Khor did with us," Salem explained, frowning at the illusion. For some reason, she couldn't see what they were fighting, which only served to unnerve her more. "Perhaps we will find out if we wait."

"Yeah, not really keen on seeing any more battles here," Nora said, raising a hand, to which Ruby, Yang, Blake and Pyrrha all raised their hands too. "You guys want to see this?"

Cinder shrugged, her hands firmly by her side. "It will probably bring us valuable information," she replied, trying to convey a sense of panic she wasn't really feeling. "And perhaps find out more about this future of ours."

"She's right, as much as I hate to see this, it could prove to be an incredible source of information," Weiss agreed with the amber-eyed woman. "So, even though I really wish that weren't the case, I think we should try to pay attention. We can't stop it even if we tried anyway."

Before she could ponder more, the entire area became clear. A massive battle was being raged in an area she couldn't recognize at first. She watched as Ares walked forward, firing a bolster pistol at the unseen enemy as he limped forward. But what surprised her was that he wasn't his towering height but around the same as other Primaris marines! Not only that but his face! It didn't have many scars and his skin wasn't the deathly white like it actually is! It was normal human skin, albeit a tannish color but nothing like Queen Mother Salem! What was going on? Millions of questions ran through her head but that stopped when she saw more of Ares…

Weapons. Various hunter weapons were embedded all over armor, sinking deep as blood trickled from the various places the weapons were lodged in. His armor was falling apart as he fell to his knee, never stopping his intense barrage of bolt fire. Only stopping to reload. More people came to his side as others ran past him, firing at an enemy she couldn't even see! It was far too blurry for her! But she saw the soldiers fighting alongside, wearing a uniform she instantly recognized.

"Wait a second, why is Ares so small?" Yang asked before correcting herself when the others gave her weird looks. "I mean, look at him, sure he's big and tall for a normal human but he's not the giant monster of a man we saw earlier!"

Salem nodded slowly. "It did say he used to be the smallest and frailest at first," she pointed out, recalling his past descriptions. "Perhaps we will find out."

"Sucks to be her," snickered Nora. Once again everyone turned to give her deadpans. "She wanted to skip on the history of the Marines, and now she's stuck dreaming about it anyway!"

"That is kinda funny," Mercury admitted reluctantly. "In a slightly sadistic sort of way, but funny."

"Old war uniforms! These are old war Remnant guards! Like in the history books!" She thought as one soldier pulled out a sword, throwing it on the ground as he sprayed a sort of silicone like spray on Ares' wound.

"All ships begin teleporting your lords now! Save as many guards as you can!" She heard a voice yell. Her eyes widening as she immediately knew who that voiced belonged to. She looked at the direction where Nokris was, seeing someone standing above him. What was left of a cape flowed in the wind as his shield was raised defensively and his sword tightly held in the other, ready to strike whatever was attacking him. His armor too was damaged albeit more than the others. She ran. Ran as fast she could to him.

"Who's that?" Emerald asked, trying to see if she could recognize the guy, but it was too hazy and fuzzy, like looking through semi-opaque glass. "I can't see him well, it's like this dream purposefully blurs his image to prevent me from seeing him, because all the other soldiers are perfectly clear to me."

"It's probably exactly that," replied Salem, frowning slightly as she looked around. "Apparently this battle takes place before the insignia of these 'Sons of Salem' became the Grimm, when they looked like knights still."

"That explains the lack of Grimm," noted Cinder, nodding in agreement. "Without the Grimm generals, they wouldn't be able to control Grimm into serving the army."

She ignored the battle. Ignored the fact that she ran through people like a ghost. But she couldn't Ignore the fact that whatever they were fighting started to form, monsters. That was the only description she could give them. They were space marines, precursors to the Primaris Marines but they were wrong. They looked mutated or something. Some had large claws for arms, dark red skin with what looked bone protruding out. Some looked to have their armor fused to their very flesh, demon-like faces on their Pauldrons and various other demon-like faces on their armor. Some of the faces looked alive and even moved! She ran past one, he had tentacles where his left arm should be, various eye balls scattered all over his armor, each blinking one a time. She swore one looked at her for a brief moment. But what sickened her more was what some had strapped to their armor. Body parts. Rotting heads from Guardsmen of the Imperium hung from their waists. Some had torsos strapped to their pauldrons with hooked chains or had entire bodies impaled on spikes on their armor.

Weiss, Pyrrha, Blake and Yang all ran to a corner and threw up, while the others recoiled in fright and horror. "What are those things?!" Nora screeched, startled by their horrid appearance. "Other Decayed?!"

"These look different. They're not dead, they're monsters but they're not reanimated corpses," Mercury noted, his assassin training immediately kicking in. "Perhaps they've been subjected to some sort of experiment…"

"Or more likely a radiation, or a widespread poison in the air or the water supply, that mutated them so radically," Cinder corrected, flinching when one of the monsters ran through her as if it was made of smoke. "But what happened for something like this to have been created?"

Salem shook her head. That was either the result of magic, or of science beyond what she thought was possible. No existing material or chemical reaction in the entire world could twist and corrupt human beings so much without killing them.

Among the monstrous marines were regular guardsmen, their armor was filthy and tattered. Looking more like barbarians than soldiers. They too looked monstrous. Some had their faces carved with symbols, their armor was covered in fresh blood. She didn't want to look at them. Some had the skin on their face flayed off, showing the muscle and bone underneath! They were screaming and yelling! As if they were enjoying this. Enjoying the mass slaughter of the attacking Remnant guard. She saw A remnant guard have his arm cut off by the chain sword of one of these blood guardsmen, only for the chainsword to get embedded onto his head as it tore through his helmet and onto his flesh. Others were torn apart by the Space Marines, she watched as one grabbed a wounded guardsmen and tore him in two with a laugh. These weren't human. These were just monsters. Monsters that brutally slaughtered the Remnant Guard but still, they were having trouble fighting them off.

Ren, Nora, Ruby and Emerald all ran off to throw up as well. Only Mercury, Neo, Cinder and Salem remained, and even though they were more than used to violence and blood, even they recoiled slightly at the sight of the massacre.

"Is it normal for girls her age to have these dreams?" Neo questioned, only half joking.

"Perhaps she was indeed brought there by some other entity like Lord Khor," Salem mused, frowning. "It's difficult to dream of something so far in the past, without having some kind of magic to do it."

She nearly threw up at the sight but she had to run. Run to him. She watched as he bisected one of these monster marines with his sword. She watched as Grimm attacked the monstrous Space Marines, a beowolf lunged at one only for a Marine to grab it by the throat mid lung and slam it into the ground. A beringel rushed another, only to be locked in a stalemate as the mutated marine managed to grab its hands to stop it from grabbing him, pushing it back. Though the guardsmen were not having such luck, Beowolves tore apart their numbers. She ran past all this, not wanting to look at the battle. Not at these monsters. Not at this...evil!

"The guardsmen or the Grimm?" Yang tried to joke, but she had vomit smeared on her mouth and a bitter taste on her tongue, which kind of drained by enthusiasm behind that joke.

"What do you think?" Cinder replied, rolling her eyes at her pathetic attempt at making them laugh.

"...you are the new Overlord…" she barely heard him say to Nokris. Their conversation became more clear as she neared him.

"...the children are safe….ensure they become marines as well….Overlord Nokris….

"No! Jaune you are!" Nokris yelled back. Thara ran up to them, confirming herself it was him. Her grandfather, Jaune Arc! His armor was more damaged than she had seen. It was falling apart, revealing the circuitry and body suit they wore underneath. His helmet was so damaged it revealed a part of his face; ocean blue eyes focused on the monsters as locks of blond hair were visible as well. Jaune cut down another monster as he spoke.

"Jaune?!"

The shout was so loud it echoed in the open battlefield and for a second the dream-illusion rippled and unfocused, as if disturbed by the sound.

Everyone had a different reaction to the news of who exactly that man was, but even then they were all also very similar.

They were scared for him, because he was bleeding, because he was surrounded, because he had just passed his title off to Nokris, which probably meant he didn't think he was going to make it out of there. And they were also shocked, because he showcased a level of skill that was simply incredible. Even the ones who never stopped believing in him had a hard time accepting that. However, that notion only worsened their worry, because if even with all his skill he had gotten fatally injured, then what was he fighting against?

Salem and her group had mixed feelings about it.

Mercury surprised himself, to be honest, because he'd always thought the guy was a loser, but the conversation they had during dinner had slightly changed his view of the teen. Not by much, but the assassin had still found it pleasant to be able to teach what he knew, especially to such an eager student. Emerald was a more empathic person than he was, so she did feel sorry for all those soldiers, but in a way she was less attached to the knight. She was actually more worried about Ares, who apparently had married her in that world, or someone with her surname at least.

Neo was the least affected, but she did frown. While she didn't care if he lived or died, she'd met the guy and chatted with him. He wasn't a friend, but he wasn't her enemy either. Seeing him injured and fighting for his life after speaking to him that very evening was slightly unsettling. Cinder was feeling conflicted too, because while she didn't care about the boy, he was still incredibly important to the future and to her mistress… and he was interesting. She was going to solve the mystery behind Jaune Arc's past and she knew that to do so she'd have to get to know the guy. Plus looking at Salem she could tell she was worried for him, and she always followed her mistress's example.

Salem was trying to hide her feelings, because she knew they would bring nothing but bitterness if she were to let them out. Beside, she didn't even know the guy, she'd just been told about him. She just wished she could see her interactions with him before he died, to see what her future self felt towards him and if she really thought of him as a son, or if she was just using him… which was highly probable, in her opinion.

"Nokris! You must ensure none of these damn monsters ever make it out of the Remnant sector! Destroy their ship! I'll make sure the ones here die…" he proclaimed. Thara looked at the extent of his wounds. She saw various places where something had cut through his armor. Burns all over. But then she saw it, a spear or some kind was embedded into his chest. It was red and gold in appearance and it appeared to have almost ran him through! Grievous wounds laced the entirety of the front of his body! But despite his injuries he still fought.

"THAT'S MY SPEAR!"

"PYRRHA?!"

Chaos once again exploded among the students as they noticed the weapon stuck in Jaune's body. Pyrrha had her hands on her mouth, trying to fight back the bile that was rising in her throat, and tears were already filling her eyes. Her teammates were shocked speechless, staring at the spear as if they couldn't believe their eyes – which they actually couldn't, because the notion of Pyrrha trying to kill Jaune was simply ridiculous.

…almost as ridiculous as a friendly Grimm…

…which existed in that world.

Team RWBY was in turmoil. It should've been stupid to even just think that Pyrrha would harm him willingly, much less try to kill him, yet for some reason it should've also been stupid to even think that Jaune would ever ally himself with the Grimm, and yet there he was.

Had they fought against each other because of that?!

"Calm down, it's too blurry to tell if it really is yours," Cinder reassured the girl, but it was clear she was talking to everyone. "And it's impossible to know if it was wielded by you, or if someone else took it and used it."

"Perhaps someone killed you and then went after Jaune," Neo offered her hypothesis, though she honestly didn't believe it. Jaune had turned to the Grimm, so his friends had probably turned on him. Except that Ruby girl who would end up banging him, at least.

"She's right, we have no proof you did it," Salem agreed as well, nodding to Cinder to tell her she'd done well. The woman smiled back, happy with the silent praise. "I think we should just keep watching and see if this dream can clear our doubts."

"Dammit Jaune, all of us were supposed to see Remnant's future!" Nokris yelled, throwing off his helmet. Revealing long black hair and a young handsome face with red and gold eyes that looked up Jaune with sorrow. Tears rolling down his face. Nokris began to suddenly disappear and he realized what was happening. He reached out for Jaune, yelling his name as he disappeared entirely. Jaune sighed as he looked around, his brothers disappearing along with some surviving Remnant guards while others were left behind to fight. He threw off his helmet, allowing her to get a good look at him. He looked tired but had a calm look on his face that was soon replaced with one that expressed acceptance. "TO ALL REMNANT GUARDSMEN! FIGHT! FIGHT SO THAT THESE MONSTERS NEVER TAKE OUR HOMES! SO THAT YOUR CHILDREN WILL WAKE UP TO A WORLD OF PEACE THAT THESE MONSTERS ARE TRYING TO TAKE! WE WILL DIE HERE BUT WE'RE TAKING THEM WITH US!" He yelled, raising his sword that soon sparked to life with energy. Crocea Mors. To finally see it was astonishing. It had long been modified to be large enough to not only be wielded by him after becoming Primaris Marine but to handle the energy of a power sword.

"That's Crocea Mors now?" Ruby wondered out loud, inspecting the weapon. However, as it was being waved around by Jaune and already blurred by the dream-in-the-dream, she couldn't make out the details. "It looks cool…"

"Are you just ignoring the fact that Jaune is about to die?!" Weiss exclaimed, more like screeched, making her flinch. Of course she hadn't forgotten it and of course she wasn't ignoring it. She was just trying to focus on what she could to distract herself for what was about to come.

"Is there any chance he'll make it out of there alive?" Blake asked, looking around to see if anyone had the answer, but all she saw were uncertain frowns and helpless shrugs.

Thara watched as her grandfather fought alongside the remaining guardsmen, slaying the monstrous marines as they tried to surround him. One by one, the guardsman fell but they died fighting as some of the monstrous marines fell by their hands. A group jumped onto one, detonating their explosives to kill that single marine.

Jaune soon found himself surrounded, the marines attacking him. Bolters fired as he tried to defend himself, his armor being blown off. An explosion knocked him to the ground, smoking coming off his armor as blood trinkled down his face, slowly rising from the ground.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha exclaimed, looking in terror as her best friend was thrown to the ground, surrounded by monstrous enemies.

Salem's faction had already figured it out. Thara was dreaming about this because this was Jaune's last stand, where he would meet his demise.

Salem, however, was the only one to have noticed the fact that Nokris was… different. He wasn't Grimm-like and eternal in appearance like her, but instead youthful and human. What had changed, then? How had they turned into… her?

The pool of Darkness was one of pure destruction, so that couldn't be it, right? She'd never dropped anyone in it, believing it pointless, and never had anyone to drop in it since the Grimm took care of them long before they could reach her castle, so she couldn't be certain… but what if that really was the answer?

"I'm sorry Nokris...I'm sorry mother. But you are all needed for the future of our people. My brothers, you are needed to uphold our mother's dream. To ensure our people have a prosperous future." One monster ran up to him as he stood, only for it to be cut down but a bolter shot from one from the group struck his back but he didn't falter. Thara wanted to help but she couldn't move. Something wasn't allowing her to.

"Cowards! One against dozens, and they even have to shoot him in the back!" Yang growled, fighting back anger and tears at the same time. A small, ignored part of her, however, was surprised and kind of proud that her friend had managed to last that long, and how well he had been fairing against those monsters.

"This is a war, they don't play fair," Mercury replied with a pinch of disdain in his voice, but no one called him out for that. Perhaps they just thought it brought back bad memories, and they weren't exactly wrong, but to be honest everything brought back bad memories.

"I'll make sure none of you survive here! Every single one of you will die here with me!"

"Imperial dog! This planet will be a sacrifice to our god!" A monster retorted, its voice distorted and sounding not even human. "Thank that immortal for bringing us here!" One laughed as Jaune grit his teeth. That damn Wizard led them here. Damn him!

Everyone but Salem and her gang exchanged glances. That was the second time this 'Wizard' was mentioned, and now they said he was also immortal. Magic and immortality were both impossible on their own, but combined? They confused the hell out of the students.

Cinder's team were all silently staring at Salem, sure that she'd explode soon.

To tell the truth she did look beyond furious and murderous at the moment, but she managed to reign in her emotions – barely – and settled for just glaring at the monsters surrounding the boy – the same boy that in the future she apparently would come to care for as a mother.

She didn't know why Ozpin would do something like that, having always preferred to his subtle and inefficient countermeasures, but his hatred for her (fully mutual) must've boiled over tipping point for him to so blatantly attack.

"I'm no dog of the Imperium!" Jaune yelled, as the monsters charged at him. He fought, despite his grievous wounds, fought with all his might. "I am Jaune Arc! Overlord of the Sons of Salem!" He kicked one back, before spinning on one motion and slicing the heads off a few. "Defender of Remnant and its people!" He raised his shield to block a chainaxe.

"Damn though, look at him go, I must've taught him very well," Mercury whistled, slightly impressed with the knight's resolve and skill.

"You must've taught him well?" Emerald scoffed as if the very notion were to be stupid. "Please, he probably learned it all by himself, or thanks to Cinder. The only thing you could teach him is how to be annoying."

Mercury just cackled at her annoyance, knowing fully well that between the two, Emerald didn't stand a chance against him. Petty homeless thief against assassin trained by one of the world's deadliest assassins? The only chance she had was to use her Semblance, and then run very fast.

Suddenly, A power sword pierced his back, running through him. Jaune coughed blood as he staggered forward but still stood, slaying the wielder of the sword by splitting its head in two.

"I am...my mother's shield. An older brother. A father..." The monsters surrounded him as he fell to a knee, one of them raising a bolter pistol to Jaune's head. "A son of Salem and a holder of her dream…" Jaune immediately brought up his shield, smashing in the face of the former marine. "And all of you will die here!" He looked up towards the sky and without hesitation, yelled out his final orders.

"All ships fire on my position now! Let it rain fire!" He yelled, a thunderous sound was heard as Thara looked up, fire began to rain down from the sky towards them. The enemy force was panicked as the barrage was unrelenting. Thara looked over to her grandfather, only to see him vanish as explosions and fire engulfed the spot where he stood. She closed her eyes, only to open them again as there was only silence.

A sombre silence spread among the watchers as the students lowered their heads, tears in their eyes.

"It's just a dream," Weiss said to Ruby, but probably to herself as well. She tried to wipe her tears without being seen, but new ones kept showing up. "He's sleeping back at Beacon."

"Weiss is right, think of this as just a dream," Ren nodded, agreeing with her reasoning. "I believe we've all seen friends die in our nightmares. This is no different. It cannot hurt you if you hold onto the knowledge that all of this is just a dream, an illusion weaved by our minds -or in this case Lord Khor's powers- that is in no way related to our reality."

"He is right, they both are," Salem spoke up, turning to look at them after a few seconds. There were no tears in her eyes, but there was a tension in her frame that hadn't been there before. "While I don't doubt that Lord Khor has some ulterior motive to show us this, it's still just a dream, nothing more."

She looked around again, this time in the land of darkness. She could easily recognize it. Though she was in the outskirts, she thought..but it looked different. She saw the pools of Grimm but then saw stairs. A skeleton near the first step. Something told her to climb and she did. Eventually reaching the top, she saw the stair descended down to a large altar line area. Near the center was the biggest pool of Grimm she'd ever seen. Unknown to her, this the place where Salem was reborn. She looked down, seeing Salem along with the bodies of her surviving uncles. Grimm and Remnant guard all around them as She ran down, running up to them.

"What are those things?" Blake asked, trying to distract herself from seeing her friend die.

"I'm not sure myself," Salem lied, shrugging lightly. "But Thara seems to recognize them."

Thara noticed that they were stripped of their armor save for the lower part of the black body suit covering their lower body. Their wounds were more grievous than she thought. Thara saw the various surgical scars that covered their bodies from the various procedures needed to become a Primaris marine. Interface ports were also seen like from the hologram, surgically grafted to their bodies to ensure their armors ran optimally. She's seen them before when her uncles wore regular robes and such but it was still an uneasy sight. Nokris never allowed her to actually be there for the surgeries but she could tell they looked painful to put in. Salem's cries and the cursing of someone drew her attention away from them to her.

Salem's eyes widened. Was she crying? Did she really care?

"Damn you Ozma. Damn you! You've taken too much from me! I won't let you take more!" She cried out, her hair was dishevelled as she walked towards her sons. Thara could easily tell they were all near death. "I won't let you take my sons…" she snapped her fingers and the Remnant guard began to lift the large bodies of her sons.

The Queen of the Grimm shook her head in disbelief, staring at the ground. After millennia, what had made her change her mind? Who had managed? She vowed to never have family again, as it would only lead to eternal pain once they inevitably preceded her to the grave. Had this Jaune Arc done it?

With the help of the Grimm, each one was thrown into the massive pool. Disappearing into the black liquid. Salem slit her hand open, letting blood drop into the pool as she chanted some words. Thara watched the wound close up and something else go into the pool. Salem ordered everyone to back up as she looked down. The bubbles slowly stopped as she clenched her fist tight as the liquid went still. "Live my sons...live...please…." She quietly said as Thara neared the liquid.

"What is she doing?" Nora whispered confused, trying to get a better look. "Did she just-"

"She didn't drown them," Cinder replied snappily before taking a deep breath to calm herself. She recognize those pools, but not the biggest one. She had an idea of what was about to happen. "Otherwise she wouldn't have asked them to live. Something else must be happening."

Suddenly a hand shot out of the liquid and grabbed hold of the edge of the pool, the figure pulled itself out, gasping for breath as he pulled someone with him. Thara saw it was Nokris to surface first, his skin as deathly white as she remembered. He coughed and gagged as the person he helped bring up with him did the same. Karn. Then the others started to surface as Salem smiled. The Remnant guard and Grimm came to their sides as they helped pull them from the pool. Thara saw a larger hand grab hold of the pool and she knew who that was, Ares. He had grown to the titanic size she knew him for.

"That's how they became Grimm…" Weiss murmured as everyone in the dream was shocked silent. Even Salem couldn't believe her eyes, couldn't believe it actually worked. Did the Pool of Darkness and the Pool of Light merge into one single pool of eternal life and destruction?

"So what are those pools?" Blake whispered just as quietly, staring at the black liquid. "They turn people into… Grimm?"

"So it would seem," mumbled Neo, narrowing her eyes at Salem, who stared back evenly.

"So this is how it happened." She thought to herself as she watched Salem walk up to Nokris and kneeled down to him as he coughed up more of the black substance.

"I'm relieved to see you all healed."

"Mother...I don't see Jaune." He asked her. Salem looked down.

"He's gone…" was all that she said.

The students all flinched at the reminder.

"We will ensure his death is avenged, mother. We will uphold our promise to you, but first we must end this war." Nokris stated, his eyes now the same as Salem's. Salem nodded, before going to her other sons.

Thara blinked as she saw the nine sons of Salem leading various armies across Remnant. They were brief flashes of moments she didn't understand.

"So this was before they conquered Remnant?" Weiss wondered.

"Possibly. We cannot be sure as the Imperium has already been mentioned," Ren rationalized, thinking deeply. "We do not have a reliable date to mark the passing of time, and we don't know if this Grimm Salem conquered Remnant before or after the Imperium arrived. Or at least, we don't remember if it was mentioned."

"It's possible for the Imperium to have arrived before s-she unified Remnant," Salem replied, cursing herself for stuttering slightly, but to be honest she wasn't used to refer to herself in third person. "It would take a long time, after all, especially due to the resistance the people would undoubtedly show initially."

"And for good reason," Blake mumbled.

She watched as the brothers carried Jaune's body into a small mausoleum made from dark purple Crystals. "The actual Mausoleum wasn't built yet." Thara watched as another vision appeared before her accompanied by a female voice.

"You must come to understand them all. You are afraid of one, for the horrors he inflicts. See why he inflicts and understand why he walks this path." the voice told her, she herself couldn't speak or else she would demand to know who they were."

"So this is something like what Lord Khor did to us, huh?" Pyrrha commented, frowning slightly. While she was sure she could handle whatever illusionary future Khor decided to show her, she wasn't as sure about Thara. They both went to Beacon but in a world apparently in peace with itself, people not involved in the interstellar wars tended not to really know about the horrors of the world. Thara would probably be scarred for life by that experience.

"It is possible." Cinder shrugged slightly. The notion wasn't nearly as far-fetched as one might've thought. After all, if Lord Khor was capable of doing it and willing to do it, there was no reason for any other entity with similar powers to do the same to other people. The only strange thing was that they were dreaming about a dream. It was confusing to say the least. It made her wonder… what if they too were just a dream of a future or past shown to some other people by a greater entity?

This time another flash, a boy crying. He was crying but no sound came. She looked around, it was a dirty dimly lit room. Like a cell. She looked at the boy, he was so pale that he looked like a ghost. "How long has he been in here?" She thought. She got closer to him startled by the fact that his entire left arm was gone! She saw staples where the socket was, surgery staples. Meaning his arm was amputated! When she got a closer look at him, she realized he looked no older than 8 years old!

"Oh my god what happened to that child!" Yang exclaimed, horrified. She instinctively grabbed her left arm as if she'd been the one to lose it. "And he's in a cell!"

"What kind of monster would do that?!" Weiss screeched, enraged.

Salem chose to stay silent. She might not particularly like torturing children, but it was something she'd had her underlings do before and it never really bothered her. She accepted the notion that she was evil – in fact, she embraced it. But she was a necessary evil, and her actions were fully justified. Perhaps she would have to suffer in the pits of damnation for the rest of eternity, but at least she'd have other immortals there, and she wouldn't be forced in an eternal cycle of battling on that broken and godforsaken planet.

His hair was a mess, his cheeks were stained with tears and every exposed parts of his skin she could see were riddled with surgical scars. The boy looked up at the dimming light of his cell, what she saw horrified her more. A large wound running along his neck, fresh stitches along it to keep the wound close. surgery! She saw such anger in his eyes as he opened his mouth, as if to speak but no noise came.

"What-"

"They surgically removed his vocal chords from his larynx so that he could not speak," Neo guessed, scowling. Being mute wasn't fun, that was clear to her. Even though she'd managed to become a successful criminal without her voice, it had all been thanks to Torchwick. Without him, she wouldn't have known where to start. He'd been her voice while she was his sword. But to see a child deprived of a voice he did have, made her blood boil in a way nothing else could.

"Why would they do that?!" Yang exclaimed, horrified.

"I don't know, why would they remove his arm?" she replied emotionless.

Yang flinched and, perhaps remembering how Neo herself used to be mute, decided to stop talking.

"Did...did they take his voice?" The question lingered in her head as the vision slowly faded to show the boy, who was filled with such Anger and Hatred, being replaced by a visage of a helmeted Atriox, the world ender. One of her uncles and the one she feared the most. "I-is this-" her thought interrupted as a woman's voice began to speak;

"Atriox. The youngest and last to become Salem's son. A boy who had a unique semblance that he didn't understand but was feared by many For it. Sold by his parents to a scientist known as Merlot, who used the young Atriox in various experiments." images popped up of the young boy who she now knew was Atriox under surgeries, forced to use his semblance on other test subjects and the eventual amputation of his healthy arm.

"Tired of the boy's cries, Merlot ripped out his voice box so as to have peace. Saved by Nokris, Salem gave the child what he had been denied for so long...a family."

Though horrified by what they were seeing, the students hardened their hearts a little bit when they heard who the child would become.

True he hadn't deserved that, but his crimes far outweighed those of the other Sons of Salem. Even Ares couldn't come close, and he had been the one to burn an entire city to the ground.

Salem frowned. She had cared about them. She had cared about him. But why? What had driven her to taking the chance of losing her family again? What had driven her to risk her heart to love once again, knowing that her children would be destined to die before she did? Why take children not even related to her by blood? Well, that last question might've had something to do with her unappealing Grimm appearance.

Ren was scowling at the screen. He wouldn't go as far as saying that the young Atriox deserved it, but perhaps his hatred for the Nuckelavee was stronger than he remembered, because he silently seethed how the present -or future, whatever- Atriox fully deserved those punishments for all the evil he had inflicted on the world.

The vision changed to a time during the Old War; she saw Atriox, donned in the Grimm colored power armor with his notorious Helmet fashioned into that of an Imp. He sat upon his mount, a large horse-like Grimm known as a Nightmare. She knew of these Grimm, she knew Atriox rode an Alpha of the species that was much larger and more aggressive that he named Pestilence. He looked as if he were a Nuckelavee or Death personified...

Atriox sat upon his mount above dozens of wounded Atlas soldiers, they were surrendering and begging the armored giant to be spared. Thousands of small rat Grimm surrounded them.

"He does look the part," Mercury admitted grimly, already guessing where that was going. He'd seen enough horror movie to know what came after, and even though he was used to death, he still didn't like drawn-out tortures. It wasn't his style. An assassin was supposed to kill quickly and efficiently, not drag it on forever.

"I'd say," Ren gritted out through clenched teeth, staring daggers at the monster in front of him.

"But, due to the horrors inflicted onto him as a youth, he felt no compassion to anyone that wasn't his family or for those that would dare raise arms against Queen Salem and their people."

"As if he would've had mercy in the first place," scoffed Weiss. Seeing Salem and her faction stare at her, she huffed imperiously. "Those were Atlasian soldiers. We've already seen how none of the Sons of Salem spared the Atlasian soldiers during the war."

"Actually, that was just Karn, called the Butcher of Atlas for that very reason," Ruby argued weakly. "We did see Nokris give those rebels a chance to surrender…"

"That was Malach, ninth born of Salem and thus the youngest right after Atriox," Cinder recalled quickly, remembering the man and his massive mount. "We haven't seen Nokris in battle yet."

Atriox lifted his left arm, revealing a four fingered Grimm shadow arm that had replaced his amputated limb. Pieces of his power armor were infused into the Grimm appendage. Clutched in his hand was a massive scythe that he used to cut down the one soldier who was begging for mercy for him and his comrades. It was also a signal for the surrounding rat Grimm to pounce on the survivors, an ocean of Grimm rats began to feast upon the dozens of human survivors, their horrified screams not phasing the armored giant as he had his mount walk past the various struggling forms.

Weiss, Ruby and Nora ran to the corner from earlier and threw up what little they had left in their stomachs.

"Damn…" Mercury might've expected it, but that didn't mean he was ready for it. Neo was more or less in the same boat, plus she really didn't like those tiny Grimm rats.

Salem narrowed her eyes. Why did she scold Ares for his actions, if she allowed Atriox to exterminate through such agonizing methods?

She shook her head. What was she doing?! It wasn't a matter of being fair to her 'sons'!

"While his brothers may offer mercy, Atriox does not. Believing complete destruction is needed to preserve their way of life. He saw future rebels. He could feel their anger and hatred. Such emotions he knew well. He knew they could be a driving force for a rebellion. Another war. One that he could prevent with their deaths."

"So, in a way, he's similar to Ares," Ren noted with a scowl, silently adding Ares to his dislike list.

"In a way, though Ares believes in fighting everyone to the death, while Atriox doesn't seem to particularly care if the death is done by fighting or by execution of the defeated," Emerald replied, feeling slightly sick herself.

Thara closed her eyes as the vision of The wounded soldiers being devoured vanished.

Many people sighed in relief as the horrid images faded away.

"He learned that to protect his family and his mother's kingdom, he would need to ensure no compassion was shown and that there is such a thing as necessary evil."

She saw a vision of Atriox destroying a planet with his battle fleet, a holographic Nokris yelling at him for it. "The Imperium...would have killed us all...if the Xenos lived…" only a handful of voices spoke from a single Vessel. A far cry from the hundreds she's heard before.

"So he still doesn't have that many Vessels and Decayed yet," Ren mumbled, eyes narrowing. While he wanted to kill the Knuckelavee, not the similarly-inspired Son of Salem, he still took notice of how Atriox would gather his army over time, rather than all at once.

Although he still didn't think he'd be easy to defeat or kill even without his army.

"They were surrendering Atriox! There was-"

"I WILL….NOT ALLOW...COMPASSION TO...THREATEN OUR...FAMILY...AND PEOPLE...brother…." The voices yelled in anger as Atriox stared at his brother.

"So basically, he kills people because he believes that in doing so, they will never be able to hurt his family?" Weiss guessed, using her handkerchief to rub the stains of vomit from her mouth, still tasting its foul smell.

"The end goal justifies the methods used to reach it," Cinder nodded slowly. "While I do not completely agree with this saying, I believe it does sum up Atriox's reasoning pretty well."

"Life or death. Atriox came to understand there was no in between. Only the two." The voice spoke to Thara as darkness surrounded her. "Right or wrong. Those things did not matter. Only the protection and survival of the Remnant Sector."

"Learn from the past, find the answers to understand and secure the future...before it's too late." The voice said, sounding as if it surrounded her.

"What do you mean? Who's there?" She finally spoke. "Seek the place the knight fell…and I will show you more..."

"Does she mean Jaune?" Ruby exclaimed, raising her head from where she'd been puking her dinner on the floor. "Does she want Thara to find the battlefield from the beginning?"

"I think so…" Blake murmured. "But I have a bad feeling about it…"

"Wait!?" She yelled, jolting awake as she breathed heavily. Her door suddenly burst open as three Remnant Guard ran into her room, their weapons scanning the room. When all seemed clear they lowered their weapons.

"Your highness, are you alright?" One asked as he approached her. Thara nodded as she calmed her breathing.

"Wait, your highness?" Yang repeated, incredulous.

The others had pretty much the same reaction. Weiss, Pyrrha, Ren, Cinder and Emerald had been shocked speechless, staring at the guard who had spoken with wide eyes. Nora did a weird little victory dance for her leader. Blake, Emerald, Mercury and Salem were all trying to form words, but failing, while Neo was just blinking, not understanding the need for the title.

Ruby, instead, managed to speak after her sister. "Well, if Thara is a descendant of Jaune's, and he was the firstborn, I guess she's currently the heir to the throne or something, or at least some sort of princess."

"My lord, the room is clear and the princess is alright." One said to the communicator within his helmet. "Of course my lord." The Remnant guard grabbed something from within a pouch, a small holographic communicator. Within seconds the upper body of a small figure appeared, a sons of Salem Primaris Marine. Tenne, one of Queen Salem's royal guards.

"Your highness, are you sure you are well? I heard you scream from outside." He said to her, Thara looked at her down below, There was Tenne speaking into the communicator. Unlike the other Primaris Marines, Royal guards wore large shoulder capes on the right side of their armor. Their armor painted purple with gold trim, Salem's ancient Royal Crest on their right pauldron. A large spear-like weapon held tightly in his right hand. She sighed as Tenne looked up at her.

"I can't believe that the sleep-in-class, semi-rebellious, don't-wanna-study girl was a princess all along," Yang mumbled, shaking her head. "What's next, Vomit Boy being the heir to the throne of some kingdom no one knows of?"

"I highly doubt that," Pyrrha said. "He told me that while his family does have a big income of money, they aren't rich or influential, much less in any position of power."

"I'm fine, just...a dream is all." Yes, a dream…

"Alright then your Highness, its still late. Get some rest, the meeting of Governors is tomorrow and all the heirs have been told to go by your Grandmother's orders." Tenne told her as the communicator shut off and the Remnant guard left her room.

She sighed, she had completely forgotten about it. It happened once a year but this year was gonna be different, all the heirs to the first ten were to be there as well from the "illustrious" Ember Fall heiress of Nokris and Cinder's lineage, to her teacher Raye Sustrai the heiress of Ares and Emerald's lineage, and to even the tomboyish laid back Steele Black the heiress to Malach's lineage after he adopted the family after Mercury Black's passing.

"Wait a second, so Cinder married Nokris, Emerald married the mountain-man Ares, and I just kicked the bucket so that my children could be adopted by Malach?!" Mercury yelled, more than a little pissed and outraged.

Emerald burst out laughing at his chagrin, and that was the trigger that made Neo and the students start to laugh as well. Salem didn't find it funny, but she graciously allowed it.

Mercury glared at them all. "Fuck you. And Emerald, I wouldn't laugh if I were you, Ares is a ten feet tall monster of a man. In bed, he's gonna break you in two faster than he does the bed."

Emerald shrieked in anger and tried to tackle him, but Cinder held her back, knowing fully well how a brawl between the two would end. "Calm down, Emerald. Mercury is just trying to mend his bruised ego." Cinder's smirk cheered the mint-haired girl up a little bit before she turned to the assassin. "And Mercury, you might've just died of old age. Malach and the other Sons of Salem seem to be immortal, and it's likely for him to have been your friend while you were alive, so it makes sense why he would take in your family."

All of the heirs were to be there for this meeting and she didn't know why. She was going in her mother's stead, since she was the next Heiress to take the mantle as head of her house and should something ever happen to Salem, the next Queen of the Remnant Sector. The very thought terrified her…

"So she is the heir to the throne?!" Weiss basically screeched. "Her?! Why not Nokris?!"

"Because the Sons of Salem are already the Generals," Salem replied, inwardly rolling her eyes at the students' surprise and shock. "They need someone to take care of the more mundane things, and to organize the kingdom. Or well, Sector, I suppose."

"That sounds boring…" noted Ruby, earning nods of agreement from just about everyone.

"It… is. It really is," sighed Blake, shaking her head. She knew her parents were always busy, and they only ruled Menagerie. To rule an entire space system… well, that was much worse.

"Seek the place the knight fell….and I will show you more…" the words kept repeating in her head as Thara dozed off. Her thoughts on her Grandfather. "I've seen that spear before…." She thought as she finally slept.

Pyrrha whimpered as the dream faded around them.

"Pyrrha, we told you, it probably wasn't you," Ren tried to reassure her, but she just looked away. "Why don't you ask for Jaune's opinion when we get back? I'm sure he will tell you the same."

"But what if-"

"Pyrrha, there's no way you'd actually try to hurt, much less kill, our leader," Nora butted in, grabbing her forearm. "You'd never do that, not even accidentally. You're too good for that and we are a team, a family. I'm sure you are innocent. Even if that does turn out to be your spear, I'm sure it wasn't you who used it."

Pyrrha nodded weakly.

"Well, if you're done talking, what do you say about waking up now?" By now, Lord Khor's familiar voice didn't even startle them any more as the Beacon hall reappeared. The man was standing a few feet away, apparently busy cleaning the purple scales on his arms and hands. "I'm sure you all want to discuss this with your friend, don't you?"

"Will we remember to ask him about Nokris?" Nora asked the entity.

He just shrugged. "That's up to you, not me. I wish you good luck on that, seeing as you haven't managed for the past few times. Dreams can be sometimes very slippery, and thoughts had during those dreams just as much. You might forget to ask once again, or you-"

"Yeah, yeah, we get it, you don't want to answer that," Mercury cut him off, earning himself a glare from Cinder and Salem, both of which would've been enough on their own, but that combined made him shrink and cower, much to Emerald's amusement.

"You're not wrong," Khor shrugged again, accepting the critique. "So, without further ado, good morning."

And once again, the dream faded into nothing, and the eight Dreamers woke up in their respective beds, although for the first time in centuries, Salem decided to allow herself to sleep in, having a lot to think about.

Pyrrha was the first to get up, and immediately rushed to Jaune's bed, checking if he was there. Finding him still asleep, she placed a hand on his chest and listened to his beating heart, trying to reassure herself that the future had been wrong…

…and that she would not try to kill her best friend.

AN PS: I have no idea if the spear is Pyrrha's so don't ask me. I'm supposing it is considering both the colours, the simple fact it was mentioned over the rest (Chekov's gun and all) and Thara's reaction to it, but I am not the author of the story so I have NO idea if it really is.