𝐈𝐧 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐃𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬 (English)

Chapter 90

Cinder didn't protest being disarmed. Not that she had much on her anyway. Watts' angle was that she'd forgotten about her Semblance and its ability to conjure weaponry, since he'd replaced her memories with ones of a civilian life. By all accounts, she shouldn't know what she could was capable of, and that'd act as a negative placebo that prevented her using her Semblance.

Watts took them off the ship and away from the Grimm-infested waters, off the pier but not toward the forest. He had parked his Bullhead behind a storage warehouse, out of sight from the direction of Beacon where they'd come from.

"If you think we're getting on that with you, you've another thing coming," said Weiss.

"I'm well aware our level of trust is not yet that high."

"Mostly because you're continuing to be vague on what it is you want from us."

"From Jaune's Semblance," Blake added.

Watts chuckled. He kept his gun on them and Jaune wasn't sure why. The man had to know it'd do him no good. Was it a nervous tick? Some effort to feel in control? If any of them could pilot a Bullhead, they might have subdued him and taken it already, but they couldn't. Piloting licenses weren't something they handed out to first-year students.

"What I don't want is him in my dreams toying around with my mind and body. I like to think I've earned some small amount of faith."

"For this?"

"Not only this. I kept Salem from finding you after your date with your lady friend. I steered her the wrong way. Bought you time to escape."

Had he? There was no way to confirm that as fact and yet it had been awfully convenient Salem hadn't chased after them. Watts pointing her in the wrong direction would explain it, and it was no different to what he'd done here.

"Why?"

"Self-preservation, mostly. Salem would have kept you in her tower. You'd be a coin toss between her dreams and mine, and would no doubt feel rather vengeful over your abduction. She might not care about that, but I certainly do."

It was sensible if nothing else.

"But even beyond that, why would I want her to any more powerful than she already is? You're aware of her end-goal, no? To destroy all life on Remnant. While I agree that culling the world's population bar me would greatly improve the average intellect around here, it's still not something I really fancy."

"Then why join her at all?"

"To serve my own ends, of course. Why else? No one ever said I'd have to stay along for the ride. People use each other all the time. We're not all idiots like Hazel and Tyrian. I stayed because it suited my interests to, but I always intended to abandon her eventually. Once she'd outlived her use. To that end, her fixation on you was especially problematic. Not only would a power-up for her make me leaving all the harder, but her obsession with you has had her outliving my use far sooner than expected."

Jaune cocked his head. "Should I apologise for that?"

"No. No. There's no need. Your Semblance represents interesting data, but I'm a scientist. I prefer to observe from a distance."

"Then let's get to the point," Weiss snapped. "What are your demands?"

"There are a select number of people in Atlas who need to die."

The team recoiled. "We're not assassins!" Ruby yelped.

"You don't need to be. Arc only needs to get into their dreams. I don't care if it's immediate or not. Give them cancer for all I care."