𝐈𝐧 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐃𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬 (English)

Chapter 94

Jaune had never been good with split-second decisions.

That was a flaw for a team leader who might have to make them, but he'd always been blessed to have a team so much stronger than he that they could pick up the slack of his poor leadership. Pyrrha could make up for any mistakes he made, and she often did. His failures were constantly masked by her successes.

Even after unlocking his Semblance, he'd relied on Oobleck and Ozpin to give him a lot of direction. His attempts to help Ruby had been so clumsy that they'd almost alienated her, and it took Yang sorting it out for him. What few unambiguously good things he'd done – Velvet, Trivia, Cinder – had all been through sheer luck. In the latter's case, it was less of a plan and more of a hail Mary that paid off.

There was no such luxury here.

Salem or the cat.

The cat wanted control over Salem's body so he – it? – could act freely in Remnant. It wanted her mind dead or, if that wasn't possible, locked away where it couldn't take control back. That kind of ability wasn't one he'd known he had but working with someone who had the same powers as he, it could probably be accomplished. The cat was convinced it could be and he knew this power better than Jaune did.

Salem wanted... well, she didn't want anything but for him to not do what the cat did. Ideally, she'd love the cat out her head but Jaune didn't think he could do that. Their powers were matched, literally, and he probably couldn't force the cat to do anything. Salem would still have to contend with the cat on her own end, but she'd been doing so unconsciously for thousands of years so it would probably be fine for her.

So, what would be fine for him...?

Jaune hesitated.

"He'll betray you," Salem said. "It's in his nature. Look at my fate as an example of the capricious nature of the gods, now consider he is a creature made directly by them! By his own words, the gods don't think in the long-term. That means he can't either."

"Is the long term truly your greatest danger?" asked the cat. "You both fell unconscious before one another. The Grimm – under her control – assail your ally, and your other friends lay nearby in vulnerable states. She would convince you that you can't trust the me of twenty years from now, but you can't trust her for the next twenty minutes! Deal with the immediate problem. If I become one later, deal with me then."

It was a good point. As much as he feared the consequences of an alien creature holding control over Salem's mind, it was exchanging the death of his friends for an uncertain future. That was a good trade by most metrics. Salem wanted to kill everyone. How much worse could the cat be? Even if it turned into some baby-eating monster, that was still better, in terms of tragedy, than having Salem in control.

His silence had the woman balking.

"You can't be considering this?" she snapped. "Ozpin would never allow it! Speak to him. He knows of the danger of trusting anything the gods say or do. He was innocent of any crime and yet they dragged his soul from eternal rest and cursed him to kill his wife! Where is the fairness in that?"

"I am made by the gods but I am not a god," the cat pointed out. "I'd also be sealed within her body as my vessel. I would only be capable of what she is capable of, so all this talk of how cruel the gods are hardly matters. I don't even disagree with it. Have I not said their shortsightedness in cursing me with curiosity is cruel? If this is a competition to see who can insult them the most then we will be tied."

"He's a monster!"

The cat chortled. "That's an ironic statement coming from you, my dear."

It really was. They were both monsters. Jaune considered for a moment whether it'd be possible to remove the both of them. Trap them both in a labyrinth of a dream from which they'd never awaken. Doubtful. The cat had his power, so it'd just burn the maze down. Not to mention the cat's body was still in its world. It'd wake up on its own and escape that way.