Nightmares
“Hey Yang,” John said as he picked up his bedroll, “could you maybe warn us better the next time you try to solve a cave-in with another cave-in?” They were almost done getting their stuff together now; they would be back on the road in a few minutes.
“Hey, I told you to get to the side,” Yang said with a shrug, “Besides, you should be thanking us. We were still in the air when we got the distress signal. We had to jump.”
“I found your horses!” Ruby’s voice came from outside the cave, “Looks like they didn’t run too far off.”
“Shortcake’s okay?” Autumn shoved her still-unpacked belongings into a bag then ran out of the cave towards the sound of Ruby’s voice.
“Shortcake?” Yang asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Autumn named her horse.” John put the last item into his bag and stood up.
“Come on,” he said briskly, “Autumn and I lost of lot of time with that cave-in. We need to get to Atlas quickly.” Yang nodded and the two exited the cave to meet up with their partners.
When they exited the cave, they saw Ruby standing by Autumn’s horse—Shortcake, apparently—and Autumn standing by John’s. Ruby waved her sister over and said, “C’mon, Yang, hop on!”
“Wait, what?” John wasn’t quite sure where Ruby was going with this.
“It was my idea,” Autumn explained, “we don’t have a quick way for all four of us to travel. I was thinking we could double up on the horses, that way we don’t have to go slow enough to stay with whoever’s walking.”
That made sense, mostly. “Fine,” John said with a nod, “but the extra weight on both of the horses means we’ll only be able to ride for 2 hours at most. After that we’ll have to let the horses rest. At that point, we may as well just set up camp. We’ll already be close enough to Atlas at that point.”
John mounted his horse and reached his hand out to help Autumn up. As they started riding Autumn wrapped her arms around John’s waist to keep herself balanced. Jaune did not know how to react, but he managed to keep a stoic face for the remainder of the ride.
The ride passed uneventfully. Once they finished setting up camp, they all ended up sitting around the campfire. Autumn was asking Ruby and Yang questions faster than they could be answered.
“So what’s flying in a dust plane like? I always wanted to ride in one. Well, I mean, I kinda remember riding in one in the past but it’s hazy. I told John that we should have taken one to get to Atlas faster, but he said that it would be safer on horseback.”
“Wait, hold up.” Yang held up a hand to interrupt Autumn’s rambling. “Why did John say you couldn’t take a Dust Plane to Atlas?” Yang threw a sideways glance towards John, a slight smirk on her face.
Autumn sat up straighter and said in her best imitation of John, “Because I am the Fall Maiden so any form of public transportation would be dangerous and would run the risk of putting myself and innocent civilians in danger.”
Ruby and Yang looked at John and then to each other and giggled.
“What’s so funny about that?” Autumn asked with a confused look on her face.
“The Agency has private Dust Planes that are flown by Agency members. You could’ve flown safely. The real reason John didn’t want you two to take a Dust Plane is…”
“Yang, don’t.” John interjected, but Ruby picked up right where her sister left off.
“…because he gets airsick really easily. That’s how we met him, John threw up and some of it got on Yang’s shoes.” After Ruby’s revelation, Autumn stared incredulously at John for a moment, then burst into a fit of giggles.
“Really?” She looked at John for a moment as if seeing him in a whole new light, then turned back to Ruby, “Is there anything else has John neglected to tell me?”
The man in question sighed and stood up, “Well if you’re just going to humiliate me, I’m going to go ahead and get some sleep. Ruby, you take first watch and have Autumn second. I’ll go after and Yang will have the last watch. Now if you will excuse me.” John made his way over to his bedroll and the sounds of the girls talking lulled him to a slumber.
When John woke up, it was not to the shaking of Autumn to get him ready for his watch but on his own. This wasn’t the first time a nightmare had woken him up, and he’d be shocked if it was the last.
He slightly turned his head to gauge just how long he had been asleep. He saw an outline of Autumn’s figure sitting in the warm glow of the fire. There was his answer. John turned away from the fire and laid there until Autumn rose from her seat and ‘woke’ him up for his watch. He sat up to let her know he was awake, then told her to go ahead and get some sleep.
“G’night John, remember Yang has the last watch.” Autumn called out as John took a seat by the fire with his back facing the sleeping sisters. He nodded in acknowledgement, then sat still as Autumn drifted to sleep.
Only after he could tell that she was fast asleep did Jaune murmur, “Sweet Dreams.”
As soon as Yang awoke, she knew it was much later than it should have been. Checking her scroll confirmed that John had not woken her up when he was supposed to for her watch shift. She got out of her bedroll and made her way to where John was sitting by the fire.
“Autumn warned us that you might do this.” Yang gave John no warning, just plopping herself down next to him. “She isn’t blind you know, she noticed that you aren’t sleeping much. She told us that you’re always getting up early for training.”
“I wish I could sleep longer,” Jaune sighed, “but I always get the same dream and wake up at the same spot. Well, nightmare’s probably a better word.”
“Jaune, what happens in these nightmares? Maybe telling someone about it will help.”
“It always starts the same way,” Jaune held his hands together in front of him and stared into the fire. “The day after your Singles Match we—Pyrrha and I—walked around the school grounds. We ended up just sitting in front of the cafeteria. In the dream, Pyrrha asks me the same question she did that day: ‘Do you believe in destiny?’” He cradled his head in his hands, “Damnit, Yang, I should’ve realized! I should’ve known something was wrong… we could’ve avoided all this!” Jaune looked at Yang frantically.
“Jaune.” Yang placed her artificial hand on his shoulder. “Just continue with this nightmare of yours.”
“After Pyrrha asks that question, everything goes quiet. I can’t hear what I say, but I know that I said the exact same thing I told Pyrrha that day. I know because the moment she uses her semblance to shove me into the wall and runs away, the scene changes to inside the Vault. I can see Pyrrha standing at the end of what feels like an endless hallway. I run down, passing duplicate pods, all of which containing Amber, the last Fall Maiden. But then,” Jaune let out a choked sob, “I never get to her in time. When I reach Pyrrha, she’s gone, and Autumn’s there.” Jaune sat in silence for a few seconds. “That’s when I wake up. I think Autumn’s about to say something but I always wake up before I hear it. I guess subconsciously I don’t want to hear what she has to say.”
Yang opened her mouth to say something but John kept talking.
“I should have told her something differently then, or stayed with her during the Battle of Beacon. Then none of us would be in this situation! Pyrrha would still be here!”
“You have to stop blaming yourself for everything bad that happens.” Yang stood up and placed herself in front of Jaune. “Maybe things would’ve been different, maybe they wouldn’t. For all you know, they could’ve been worse. But you’re here and you have to deal with the way things are now. Anyway,” she added, “that doesn’t really explain why you didn’t wake me up for my watch.”
Jaune turned his head towards the sleeping figure of Autumn. “Whenever she’s sleeping, all I can see is Pyrrha. It feels like none of this happened. I just get lost in thought, I guess.”
“Seriously, Jaune, as awful as it sounds, you have to accept what happened. Pyrrha chose to go through with that Aura Transfer, just like you chose to train with Uncle Qrow to become her Shadow.” Yang paused, still staring down at Jaune. “Who am I kidding?” Yang returned to her seat beside Jaune with a thump. “Blake didn’t listen when I told her, so why should you?” Yang idly started rubbing her artificial arm.
Jaune noticed this and asked, “Hey Yang, since I told you about my nightmare, you mind telling me about your little upgrade there?”
“It was a mistake,” she answered. Now it was Yang’s turn to cradle her head in her hands. “You know how bad it was during the battle. The White Fang were everywhere. I was just trying to find anyone and well… I found Blake, just as she was being stabbed. I got angry and ran in to punch the guy responsible, then suddenly my arm was just gone. I think that was when I passed out from the pain. I just know that when I woke up I was sitting in a hospital room, and Blake was next to me.” Yang took a moment to compose herself, then slowly raised her head. “When she realized I was conscious, she wouldn’t stop apologizing. Even after I told her that it was my fault, that I should have been smarter in engaging.” Yang turned to face Jaune. “She hardly listened. She said it was all because she’d been a coward.” Yang curled up her legs and wrapped her arms around them, “Blake’s changed, Jaune. Not like Pyrrha did. I wish I could blame it on something like an Aura transfer. She’s said she’s stopped running, but it’s more than that. It’s like she’s hunting down the White Fang. I’m scared for her.” Yang’s artificial hand clenched into a fist.
“Yang, I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Yang shook her head and stretched back out, “at least I got this cool arm out of it. Ruby’s super jealous, she wants one so bad but there is no way I’m letting her lose any limbs, not when I have something to say about it.” Jaune could tell Yang was trying to act like she had before the battle.
After that, conversation shifted to other members of the Agency. After a while Jaune asked another question.
“I heard you all stayed awake for quite some time after I went to sleep. What exactly did you talk about? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“You, mostly. You haven’t really told Autumn much about yourself.”
“You didn’t give too much away did you? You know we have no idea of knowing exactly what would happen to her if she were to remember everything, right?”
“Don’t worry. We kept all those details basic and vague. It was much harder when she changed the subject on us.”
Jaune looked at Yang with a quizzical look on his face.
“She asked about ‘the girl that John can’t seem to forget’.” Yang took a pause before continuing. “We didn’t tell her much, just the basic stuff. We told her that was really a topic to talk about with you.”
The two of them sat in silence for what felt like hours before Yang spoke again.
“Autumn really cares about you. Don’t you think you should at least try to give her a chance?”
“Yang, you know it’s not that easy. Losing her hurt far more that I thought was possible and I don’t know when I will be able to move on. If I’m able to move on at all.”
If Jaune had been more focused on his surroundings instead of searching through his bag for more Fire Dust to stoke the flames, he might have heard a small gasp come from the direction of Autumn’s sleeping form.
By midday the next day the group had made their way into Atlas. Yang and Ruby hopped off of Shortcake and said their goodbyes to John and Autumn.
“We have to finish up our mission real quick, it’s just a small pickup from a local shop. We’ll meet you at the Schnee Dust Tower.” Ruby handed the reins back over to Autumn. “I’m not missing the chance to see Weiss for the first time in weeks. Come on Yang.”