𝐈𝐧 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐃𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬 (English)

Chapter 38

The crowd was silent.

Jaune Arc sat with his fingernails gripping the metal railing, staring down in horror as Pyrrha – his own partner – stood, shocked, in front of the beaten body of her Vytal tournament opponent. A body that was not moving, and which had been bent and broken.

Ruby's body.

All as one, the crowd began to boss and hiss and scream. The cameras zoomed in on the face of a young girl, only fifteen, as salty tears ran down her cheeks. The agony must have been indescribably. Jaune had always known Pyrrha was good – too good, compared to most at Beacon – but he'd never expected this. He'd never seen her lose control like this.

And, he realised...

He'd never seen the fight begin, or happen, nor had he seen himself come to this place.

"A dream," he mumbled, sinking back into a red, plastic seat as relief washed over him. "Of course this is a dream. What am I thinking?"

Panic had overtaken him for a moment, but logic brought back calm. He looked around, taking in the tens of thousands of faceless people hurling abuse at the arena down in the centre. They were in some kind of big stadium. Amity—? He'd seen pictures of the flying island in promotional material for the upcoming Vytal Festival.

Was Pyrrha dreaming about that?

"Shit. Pyrrha."

Jaune stood back up in time to see the other three members of Team RWBY rush their fallen leader. Blake and Weiss knelt by her while Yang got up in Pyrrha's face, shoving her back when she tried to come and check on Ruby.

"Haven't you done enough!?" Yang demanded, loud enough to somehow be heard over the booing. "You knew Ruby couldn't beat you. Why did you go all out like that!? I thought we were friends, Nikos!"

"W—We are!"

"Is this over Jaune? If you have a problem, you have it with me!"

"It's not about Jaune!" Pyrrha cried. Sobbed, even. "I... I made a mistake. I got swept up— I'm so sorry!"

"Sorry isn't going to help Ruby!" howled Weiss. "Medic! Medic, help! She's losing blood!"

"Boo!"

"Hiss!"

"A child! Only a child!"

The audience's volume rose and paramedics surged the arena like ants, crawling over Ruby and the mass of her team's body in an entirely unrealistic way. Pyrrha shook her head, took a step back, then fled, ducking her head as cans and litter rained down in her, thrown by a furious audience.

Cursing, Jaune vaulted the railing and gave chase.

He could have never kept up with Pyrrha in real life if she wanted to escape him, but this wasn't real life. Jaune stepped and covered ten metres at a time, and obstacles warped out his way. It wasn't all his action, either. For once, a dream seemed content to let him catch up. Almost like it accepted him as part of the dream. Maybe it did. He was Pyrrha's partner, so his presence in a dream of hers wasn't at all unusual. Like Ren appearing in one of Nora's.

Is Pyrrha worried about hurting Ruby in the festival...?

It wasn't something he'd considered, but then how many people could he hurt? He was still on the weaker end of students even if he was no longer the weakest. Pyrrha was the best by a long shot and could absolutely cause a lot of damage to everyone under her.

She wouldn't, of course. Pyrrha was so good at controlling her strength that Miss Goodwitch happily let her spar versus whole teams, but nightmares preyed on little fears and statistical improbabilities, so it was no great surprise it picked up on that. They did all use totally functional and deadly weapons in spars and competition, so it was entirely possible that a misplaced shot or lapse in concentration could land someone in the hospital.