Dreams were a foreign concept to Jaune Arc; when he closed his eyes to sleep during the night he would open his them in the next instant to the morning. That was how it has been since as long as he could recall, and his memories stretched back to his time in the womb that he had been formed in.

Once at the request of step-sister, Florence, he had attempted to dream and when he closed his eyes he had found himself stuck within a memory. For hours he watched a memory play out before he finally woke up, when he told his step-sister of his failure to accomplish her request, she laughed and smiled.

He couldn't understand her, and when he voiced his confusion.

"Isn't it funny when a failure fails?" She asked with her own confusion.

Jaune could see her face and hear her voice, but he hadn't activated his Semblance to recall this memory. One of the requests that had been hardwired into him was activated: Don't Ever Be Confused. His mind was cleared and his brain deciphered what was happening, he was in a dream. Another request was activated: Don't Let Your Body Be Under The Effects of Someone's Semblance. And although his Aura surged forth, it was pushed back and it failed to accomplish a request.

Another request met the requirements to be activated: Don't Ever Allow Your Semblance To Fail.

More of his Aura flared forth and tried to push out the invading energy that took root within his soul, but he couldn't accomplish the request. The Penalty was activated after he admitted to himself that he was incapable of escaping, that he had failed.

Like a switch had been flipped, his heart stopped beating and his lung stopped drawing in air. He felt a build up in his brain right before his memories would be deleted.

He had no thoughts regarding his imminent death.

However self-preservation, the primary request activated: Live, and Aura surged through his mind running through every piece of knowledge he had. And from his subconscious he found additional information, he was caught in a test from the academy, a nightmare made from his fears and trauma was supposed to trap his mind.

He hasn't failed, he just hasn't succeeded yet.

It should be impossible, I don't have dreams or nightmares, but I guess my unfamiliarity with it is the reason I don't know how to escape it.

So in order to escape he needed to pass this test, to pass he probably needed to defeat his nightmare and he couldn't do that from the outside. His Semblance understood that and in order for him to accomplish his requests it suppressed lower priority requests and then the world went blank.

A dark hallway formed in front of his eyes, and every few feet along the walls a memory was showing though open doors, a glowing pink web connected every room and memory. Jaune wouldn't think it was possible that he had trauma, but maybe if enough moments where he had failed were linked together someone could form those collective failures into something that resembled it.

As a floating orb he moved towards the first door, he would need to see and understand where his so-called trauma had started.

A dungeon cell with a corpse and a baby, it made sense. This might be traumatic to someone else, he knew that both the guard and maid that found them had nightmares of the day, something they blamed him for.

He moved on to the next memory.

The same dungeon cell but with a small wooden crib in the center. "Stop fucking crying already!" A guard with thick metal gauntlets was shaking a baby. "Don't you understand that no one cares!? You whore mother is dead already so why are you still here?! Just shut up and die already!" The guard screamed and even though he was wearing protection the baby was still consuming his warmth, his Aura, and the baby somehow understood the guard's requests.

The second request couldn't be accomplished since it contradicted the primary one, but his first request was easily accomplished.

Hmm, I think I understand where this is going, it's pretty basic.

Since Jaune thought he had already figured out what his supposed trauma was, he skipped over a few doors to check if he was on the right path.

In the dungeon cell and this time the guard wasn't alone. "Watch." He said as he poked the baby's hand with a finger. "Stand up." He said, and his fellow guards and a few maids watched on as the baby who wasn't even a year old stood up with a white glow supporting his body. "Clap." He said and they watched the baby clap his infantile hands together.

For the next few minutes the guards and maids would take turns poking him and giving him simple commands,

Yeah, I thought so.

Jaune looked away and began moving down the hallway, within each and every door was a scene of his body moving at the request of someone else. And to him none of them mattered, the only scene that he thought was important out of the bunch was when he was two years old and he tried walking without a request having to move his body, of course he fell. That was the moment he decided that he started to pay attention to when his body moved on request.

This trauma was rather lackluster, he had known and never understood the importance of self-autonomy. With each request his Semblance received it would allow him to skip over the normal learning process and learn from simply mimicking what his body had done before.

As he was almost reaching the end of the hallway, he froze. A web was leading into a blank space on the dark wall, pain tried to reach him but he didn't have physical form, white words manifested on the dark wall.

Request: Forget.

He didn't see those words and he continued down the hallway.


He didn't- he didn't- he didn't- he did see those words.

Request: Forget.

Request: Forget.

Request: Forget.

Request: Forget.

The words began staining the wall, and he could see that in between almost every memory was at least two sets of those words. His incorporeal mind was shaking as noticed the large gaps in his memories, he was supposed to forget that he forgot.

Pink webs were spreading over every word, restricting them, and the purple flames ate away at the hallway walls.

A scene opened up before him, and he remembered.

"Jaune, aren't they beautiful?" XXXX, his wife, asked as she gazed at the stars sparkling in the night sky.

"Are they? I can't say, but then again I've never understood what beauty was." He said as he walked closer. "Can you show me?" He asked and held out a hand.

"Of course!" Her hand reached his and EXXX used her Semblance.

The first thing Jaune felt sorrow, once again he was causing her pain, and then wonder filled his mind. In the night sky where he had previously seen small sparkling lights, he now saw radiant gems. "Wow."

"Aren't they great?" XXXa asked with a smile even though he was hurting her.

Jaune looked down at his wife, where he once saw a face, he now saw what beauty truly was. And l*v* pounded in his chest where his heart used to be.

XlXX blushed and she averted her eyes. "Jaune, tXXXX yXX. At first I didn't know who you were and I had only heard all those rumors about you, but now I could see that it was silly of me to be scared of you."

Jaune paused as his mind reviewed his previous actions, he released his grip on her hand to avoid having emotions tamper with his memories, but she held on firmly.

"It's okay, we can do this together." She said as his emotions overwhelmed him and flooded back into her. "Jaune… you're not a monster, a freak or a toy, you're human even when you're not feeling emotions, that doesn't mean you are any less of a person. Your mother loved you and so do I."

Hot tears, for the first time since he was in his mother's womb, he felt warmth running down his face. "ElXX, I lo-"

Jaune fell back, the urge to vomit flooded his mind as his dream form shifted away from his body and he returned being a mass of his consciousness. He tried backing away from his forgotten memory, and he landed in another.

XXeX was drenched in blood, her limp body was held up by the arm that had pierced her gut and exited out her back. Her pale and dainty hand reached out and she touched her murderer's face. "D-don't… ever… forget… you're… a… human…" She coughed up blood and she smiled. "I… I'll… alw..ays… lo..ve… you… Ja-ghk!" She choked on blood and fell silent. The soft thumping sensation he felt on his arm stopped.

Intense emotions were rampaging in his mind, but they went away as a request was activated: Don't Let Your Body Be Under The Effects of Someone's Semblance. He dropped the corpse of the girl who had been his wife, and then he turned around and looked at Request: Forget!

Request: Forget! Request: Forget! Request: Forget!

The glowing white words ejected him from his forgotten memory.

No, no, she was assassinated, and I killed her assassin.

His contradicting memories of that night didn't mesh together, he stumbled down the hallway on legs as he held his head in his hands. Vertigo was making the path spin and twist.

It doesn't matter! So why can't I stop thinking of it!?

He couldn't breathe. His throat was constricting and his eyes were itching, he began dry heaving as something was choking him.

Request: Forget!

The words formed on the floor.

Yes, I shouldn't have remembered that in the first place, it's all pointless.

He desperately reached out to touch the words, and then he felt his head split apart. His skull cracked from a force deep inside as it began breaking out. He felt the blood vessels in his eyes pop and in the darkness he felt a hot fire explode out of his head.

The pain burned through his nerves only for an instant before ice crawled up his veins and encased his flesh in the freezing cold.

Request: Forget!

His father had given Jaune his own room on his second birthday.

His father had given Jaune the music box his mother loved on his third birthday.

His father had given Jaune the wind up toy soldier he loved on his fourth birthday.

His father had given Jaune a personal combat lesson to him from his fifth birthday and would do so every year from then on.

Turn the wind up key and bring his mother's music box to life. His mother loved the box.

Turn the wind up key and watch his father's toy soldier swing his sword. His father loved the toy.

Turn the wind up key and their child's body would move by itself. His mother and father would love the child.


He blinked, he had just thought about how his trauma seemed rather lackluster and how he couldn't understand people who didn't like his Semblance. And then he reached the end of the hallway.

He was staring at the unmoving metal knight, memories of confusion and concern surfaced in his mind.

Pain ran up his eyes, they felt like they were about to pop.

Don't forget! Don't forget! Don't forget! Don't forget!

Quick flashes of fading memories ran through his mind, sorrow filled his mind before it fell away with the odd thoughts of not forgetting, he stared down at his hands. A large wind up key made of ice was in his grasp.

He briefly recalled trying to find out why Jaune had dreamed he was made of metal, but even when he knew why he couldn't think of a solution. So he decided to experience his nightmare from his own perspective.

It was odd, his thoughts seemed clearer now. And he wondered why he had entered his own dream, well obviously to end his nightmare, but he couldn't recall from when he reached the end of the hallway to when he found this metal knight. And it was still a concerning matter since Jaune wasn't moving, even when XXX had been a bird made of ice and glass XXX could still move, but for some reason he was still.

Is this the key?

He looked down at his hands and stared at a large wind up made of ice, it was cold. Unnaturally cold, for some reason his fingers felt numb, compared to the rest of his body, his hands felt cold. Hot blood pumped through his veins, and warmth pounded in his chest. "Ah, it's warm." He almost dropped the key in shock as finally for the first time since he was in his mother's womb, he felt warmth running through his body.

He wanted to vomit as his breathing sped up, and Xhe began to have a panic attack.

Emotions ran throughout XXXXX's mind and then cracks began to cover hXX skin.

Jaune Arc shattered and from the shards Weiss Schnee was formed.

She promptly began dry heaving as her nerves twisted inside body and her brain stuttered between thought patterns. She severed the bright pink strand that had connected her mind to Jaune's. She glanced down at the wind up key made of ice, her mind informing her that this was made of the same stuff as the webs even if it didn't look like them.

All she had to do was insert this into the slot in Jaune's chest, a gaping hole was where his heart should be, and wind it a few times to wake him up.

No.

Weiss dropped the key.

I won't do that.

She had seen with her own eyes what had been happening to him since he was a baby, and she knew that he wasn't a monster, a freak or a toy, he was human. And there was only one thing he wanted.

Weiss wrapped her own dream web around herself, and she focused on the form she had taken in her own nightmare. Her flesh froze into ice and glass, and her heart pumped heat through her body, melting her form. As her mind was almost engulfed in another nightmare, she recalled more lost and confusing memories. In the end of the fairy tale read to her, Little White would melt away the Mirror Snowflakes with a hug, love and compassion were warmer than any fire would ever be.

Her heart pumped warmth through her body and she was quickly melting, so Weiss stepped forth and hugged the metal knight. Her body, already made of ice, froze over and a chill ran through the depths of something far behind her physical body.

"It's okay, we can do this together." Weiss whispered as her brain began slowing down, her thoughts slowly freezing over. Her heart thumped in her chest over and over. She could feel her body repeatedly melting and freezing over and over again.

With the last of her strength, she began humming.

Her fading hums echoed within the walls of the ice room.

As her vision started to freeze over, she saw the darkness surrounding the ice sphere beginning to pulse a bright red.

"It's… okay… Jaune." She muttered before-


A hum, someone was humming a familiar tune, and something was thumping softly.

Warmth. Jaune Arc was enveloped in warmth, no that wasn't true, warmth was pounding in his chest where his heart used to be.

Slowly his eyes opened, for some reason that he couldn't comprehend, he was crying hot tears. He blinked as he realized what he was staring at.

Radiant gems were sparkling in the night sky.


Weiss was suddenly a small lost bird trying to find her body, and then she found a person that she knew her relative position from, Jaune. She definitely didn't want to invade his privacy, but when she took a peek, a frigid blast of cold air froze her bird form in midair, and when her wings stopped fluttering, her body started to fall.

The fall was long and confusing, she had quick flashes of scenes and then she felt cold.

Weiss choked and began violently coughing, her body sprang up as she felt her heart freeze.

Something's wrong.

She had a perfect memory and that wasn't just an empty boast, after her operation where she forgot her past, she was diagnosed with HSAM or highly superior autobiographical memory. She could recall everything since she woke up in her recovery room with perfect clarity.

There are gaps in my memory.

If the archive of her memories was a hallway filled with doors, then she could see blank spaces between those doors.

I've forgotten something. Something… cold.

It was odd, as she examined her memories she found a handful of unsorted moments that didn't belong anywhere. Somehow she had used Magic and she somehow knew Jaune Arc had an abnormality, but she couldn't place those memories.

Maybe it was just a dream?

And so Weiss shook her head and when she was done, she finally noticed that she was no longer in the ballroom. She was outside in the middle of the night, she was surrounded by towering trees and she was still dressed in her kitten onesie. As she began frantically looking around, she noticed that she was alone and that her sword was resting near her body.

Maybe this is just a dream?

"Hello? Hello? I hope everyone can hear me." Glynda Goodwitch's cheery voice echoed through the forest. "Congratulations everyone! From the six hundred and forty students who went to sleep, you lot of one hundred and sixty are all that remain! Unfortunately only sixteen of you will pass this next test, so listen up because I'll only explain the rules once."

Weiss nervously stood up and picked up her sword, her faint cold memories didn't matter right now, she needed to focus.


Thanks for reading! I'm always open to feedback so please leave a review, or reply in my forum, about what you liked or hated about this chapter or the whole story. If anyone wants to be a Beta Reader then PM me and we'll talk details.

I truly think this story needs a rewrite, the details would remain the same but the earlier chapters are just too messy to remain that way. Unfortunately I'm too busy trying to continue the current plot so that'll have to wait until we reach a natural resting point in this story. If anyone has suggestions for the Edit then let me know.

Oh and Essiter1987, thank you.