14

Author's Note: Below.

Alloy

I'm tired. Very tired. It's only been 5 days since I arrived here.

I suppose they must be tired too. Especially Team RWBY and Team JNPR. The last 5 days has been shock after shock. Beacon and Vale under attack. Then learning they are fictional characters in some alien world. Then Magic, the future, an invisible war before learning that it's hopeless. Only for me to make it clear that it's not hopeless. Summer's pointless sacrifice, Paradigm Shifting, the Siege.

And now I'm dumping another shadow war on them. As well as bringing up what Salem did to Raven. Oh, and I'm not so sure that this one is winnable, unlike the other one.

It takes almost a quarter of an hour before I manage to calm myself down to be ready to come back out. Yang... asks me if I'm ready.

I'm not. I have to be. {Tag.} Yang sends me.

I'm in control. "Sorry, social anxiety." I wave it away and push onwards. "So, are we playing for Kings or Queens?"

Ruby says the word that dooms us all. "Kings."

I wait. We wait.

Nothing happens.

We are still here. "Okay. Good. Either they don't know, or they don't care."

Everyone relaxes a bit. "You're exhausting to talk to." Weiss mutters. I snort.

"Any other world shattering truths you want to drop on us?" Qrow jokes, only to chock a bit as he sees my expression.

"The sun will one day go out." Qrow groans. "Not instantly, and if it's anything like Terra's sun it will take a few million, possibly billion, years."

"Nothing we have to worry about then." Winter puts it away. She's numb too, I think. James kept all of this from her, for good reason true, but there will be elements of betrayal on top of the whole 'secret war' thing.

"Fan theories of Dust say that it's either moon rocks from the shattering, or the crystallised magic from pre-shattering Humanity. Either way, Darkness at work. Or it's crystallised Aura, but if that were true then Ozma would have recognised it as Aura has been around since his first life."

"You know I was joking, right?" Qrow mutters and reaches for his hip flask. A moment later he realises it's full of water. "And you made me give up drinking."

"If a show I watched coincidentally resembles another universe, then it's increasingly likely that other works of fiction are out there. Not just from where I'm from, but here too." Someone whimpers. "If I got here, so might they. Or the other way around. Carry a kit with you at all times, just in case. We'll have to fight that later."

"A third..." James looks really tired. Really really tired. Did he sleep? I'll make sure after this.

"It's probably unlikely though. Probably. Otherwise the world would be full of Outsiders. Any of you secretly from another universe or timeline or whatever?" Shakes. "Shame. I was going to start a club." Nora snorts.

"Anything else?" Jaune is trying to push on, I suppose being out of his comfort zone is more normal to him, he's been out of it since coming to Beacon.

I pull out Yang's scroll. "One moment, need to check something." {How do I search up moon phases?} Less than a minute later and I see it. Interesting. I turn the scroll off. "Yang tells me there's a saying here: 'You can't put the moon back together.' Well, bad news. It's already being put back together by gravity. Once we get space flight, we can accelerate that process, as a vanity project."

I think parts of the moon are in orbit of it, which is an incredibly delicate balance if my gut is right. The massive hole from my memories of the Shattering is gone, leaving a kind of flowing effect that I recognise as the normal Remnant moon. Importantly, no matter what 'phase' it is in, that massive hole doesn't appear, which means that gravity is working.

"We'll tell Ozma that we are doing secret projects that we can't trust him with. His guilt will keep him in check." I put forth. "That said, I can't lead you. I know I've been sort of doing that right now, but it has to stop. Ozma lead from the front and with secrets and bull-" Ruby glares at me. "stuff."

{Hehe.} Shuddup Yang.

"If any of us die, then the others will need to be able to keep going, at least until we work out resurrection tech and stuff." Oh, that's a good idea. Soul Stone via Penny-Tech, couple that with clone bodies and we won't have to go afterlife fishing.

"Please tell me that's the last you have?" Tai is complaining now too.

"Uh, fan theory that has a bit of popularity." I turn to Qrow. "Qrow, are you Ruby's biological father?"

"No." Well, that's bust. Not that it matters.

"Kay." I turn to Tai. "Did you complete the Team STRQ set?" I wiggle my- Yang's eyebrows.

Qrow's drink sprays out from his lips and Raven cracks up laughing. "Once! It happened once! How did you even know ab-" Qrow defends himself before looking at Ruby. "You shouldn't- uhg!"

Ruby is blushing hard at the implications. Jaune is looking away embarrassed too. Yang mimics gagging in our head. {Gross.}

{There were just teammates back then.} Not family, though as a team they were like family. Is that how friendship works?

One more, or a more of a clarification. "About the afterlife. I don't know it still exists. It might be dependant on magic, keeping the soul together. Or the Brothers could have deliberately held onto Ozma of the centuries after Salem as a weapon to use against her. Then again, they did bring him back when she was an unknown." I sigh. "We don't know. Though with the current technology that I've seen" I look at James "we could have a form of death resistance already. Penny-tech soul-cores coupled with the Amber machine tech to 'catch' the soul on death, then put in a new body."

Death is curable.

"Well, I'm out of world shattering truths," People relax. "for now." Not too much. "I did the math though." I look at Raven and Tai. "Anyone else have any?" {Tag, by the way.}

{This about me?} I sigh and Yang takes control.

Team STRQ, or TRQ, tell Yang that Raven's unexpected pregnancy is one of the elements that drove them apart. Raven promises to talk to Yang later. Seems they are finally going to have that talk.

After that Raven tells us about the Spring Maiden, and that little inconsistency that was bugging me is ironed out. 30 years old is the cut off date, not 25. My math wasn't quite adding up.

James wants to bring in the Ace Ops. There's hesitation, and Yang lets me front again. "Kings or Queens?" What level of the shadow war does he want to bring them in on?

"Queens, before feeling them out for Kings." I nod. "I'm not sure they are ready for a Kings game."

"I'm for, thought I do have one problem with it. On Terra, we had a war. Several, actually, but this one... Attempted Genocide. And by attempted I mean 'made significant progress'. After it was over, during the trials, the most popular form of defence was 'I was just following orders.'" James sees where this is going.

"'The Right to Refuse Unlawful Orders' doesn't seem to be a part of Remnant's culture." It should be goes unsaid. "Scientific studies were done to see if that particular culture or if there was some genetic predisposition to following commands from authority was present in the people. I don't think you can understand the significance when I say that the tests were left uncompleted. There was a disposition alright, but in everyone, regardless of culture or race or background."

"It won't happen." He vows.

I glare slightly at him. "Giving, or following?"

"Both." He vows again.

I lean back. "It's another bias. Take a doctor and have them deliver results to a bunch of patient, half of them the doctor is wearing a labcoat and other 'doctor' items, the other half in causal dress. People will believe the labcoat wearer more."

I sigh. "For."

Yang takes over and gives her vote. It results in a majority for, though cautiously, and only to Queen level. Ruby wants Penny in too. "With training in cybersecurity." I put forth. "She needs to work on her immune system to fight off control and perception alterations, and to find the difference between storing data on her physical self and what I hope her soul. She is a security vulnerability." I frown. "We all are."

Interrogation resistance. Qrow and Tai wince at that. Winter looks solemn while James tries to wrestle with the fact that children are going to need to be 'trained' to resist torture. That is, tortured and coached to not break under it.

I continue. "I've already been thinking of working with Yang to help her fight off my Semblance, I don't like the power imbalance it creates, but with Semblances like Emerald and Jax out there, we should all learn how to at least resist me. It might help."

Fucking mind control. {Thanks.} Yang sends me.

{I have an evil power, Yang. It's not fair that I could, at any moment, take over. That said, when you pushed me out into control, that was pretty unexpected. Still, I don't think Jax's Semblance has a two way street for people to exploit.} I can use my host's Semblance, and they can use mine.

Jax is domination, pure and simple. "While we are on it, Maria and Dr. Polendina?"

"Queen for Maria, until we know her better." James votes and people agree, Yang trusting me enough to not take over again and let me speak for her. "As for Pietro, I do think he is ready for King."

More votes, and Penny's dad is locked at the same level as Penny. Sub Queen until her cyber security is up to spec, then full King.

"The Happy Huntresses?" Winter is almost hesitant to say that, but I suppose someone was going to bring it up. Voted Sub Queen, possible full Queen later. Not King.

I suppose we can always change our minds later.

{Kali and Ghira, to Queen level and also about me. They need to know where the tech is coming from, and how limited it is. I don't have a full civilisations worth of xenotech after all.} I put forward. {Also, seeing as almost everyone else has had their family is included.} Willow and Whitely would be the only ones left out.

That gets a pass, though there is some concern from James about the plan to uplift Menagerie. Yes, the Red Fang will get powerful weapons in the form of whoosh and railgun tech, but that will be counted by their lack of members due to the fact that people will actually get their rights and a decent place to live.

{James, I'm not going to give even more power to Atlas, not just because they don't need it while Menagerie does, but the imbalance will be noted by other Kingdoms and Salem will use it to point them at Atlas.}

That shuts him up. The power balance of Kingdoms is incredibly important to maintaining peace, and any Kingdom I give the tech to will have a major advantage in the coming years. That actually make Menagerie the only option if I am to release it, because of their lower standing. {More than that, another Kingdom, another CCTS and Huntsman Academy, can only help us. The system will gain some much needed redundancy. I don't think I need to highlight how important the CCTS remains working.}

No, I already did that when I told everyone about the timeline that never was. {It is also the moral thing to do. The Right thing to do. I'm a bit pissed at Remnant for even having a problem like slavery and racism when you have literal monsters at the walls. How different would things be if people worked together? Used their differences to strengthen eachother? For an absolute example, how much has been spent on developing night vision tech alone?}

Yang speaks to me silently, a slight chuckle in her voice. {Winning points with Blake doesn't hurt either.} Her glance at Blake shows that is happening. Uhg.

After that we go through some code names for projects (and make it clear to never say the Staff's and Lamp's names. Information can be tortured out of people who just so happen to overhear us.) and break up. It's lunch time, well. It's past lunch and people are hungry.

{Check on Ruby, yeah?} Yang scoffs at my request. Of course she is going to check on her. {This is a lot for anyone, and she's only 15.}

{16. Her birthday was on Halloween.} Yang sighs. {But yeah. Uncle Qrow... I don't think I've ever seen him so tired before.} A pause. {I don't think any of us have ever been this tired before.}

{5 days isn't a lot of time for the world to be shattered, over and over again. People can only take so much.} Me, I'm the best off. The only crisis I have had to deal with is waking up in a work of fiction and my end of depression, which while tiring is still a good thing. That an all my normal nonsense, even if the new environment is aggravating that hard.

But fighting gods? A discovering that the world isn't what you thought it was, that the leaders you look up to are flawed manipulators with no idea what they are doing, that the future was written and it wasn't a happy story. So much more.

No wonder they let me just stand there and talk.

Yang and I visit Ozma after lunch. Well, I visit him, Yang doesn't really want anything to do with him.

"How did it go?" He asks. I don't bother sitting down, we won't be here long. "Ah."

"Yeah, not well. We'll be keeping secrets from you now, sorry." I sigh. "There's a lot of lost trust. I'm not sure it will ever recover."

"I understand." He bows his head. "I've made a lot of m-"

"Please don't do the 'most mistakes' speech. I'm not the one you have to convince anyway." I'm on your side.

{No, you've already made your mind up. He can't be trusted.} Yang bites.

{True, but watch how I tell him.} And now I'm giving lying lessons to Yang, great. "If anyone says they can't tell you, please just drop it and don't pry." {I'm implying that the team tension is so high that they can barely work with him. Which, is true, but not to the bleeding extent I'm pushing.} "I don't want to see you hurt." {Also true, as hurt in this case means broken due to his faith crisis. Though, yes, I don't want to see him hurt. You might all hate him, but I don't. I didn't know Summer.}

"I understand." Ozma is old, and it shows.

{See his guilt doing the work? His mind is imagining all the worst case scenario for me, and as the idea comes from him, he is far more ready to believe it.} "I think some of them are taking a perverse kind of joy out of keeping secrets from you. I'd give you a hug, but I'm not exactly myself. I'm sorry, Oz." {You want to see Ozma suffer for Summer? This is how you do it. Not by beating the shit out of him, death and pain are old friends, but guilt? Turn his mind on itself, all the while making use of him.}

{Do you think of us like this?} There's a hint of pain in there as we walk into the elevator, my eyes never leaving Ozma so Yang can watch.

{Sometimes. I'm sorry. I'm a machine, not a person. I'm trying to get better, but... this is all I know. My anxiety attack is a good sign though, it means I'm starting to care about you as people not as puzzles to be navigated. Even if it causes me to freak out.} Stupid character development. Why can't I just solve the world's problems holed up in a lab hidden underground? Nope, have to overcome my own problems to be able to fight effectively.

People's lives are on the line.

And that is the basis of my attack on myself. Turning 'I must prove myself as valuable, as not a waste of space and resources' against 'I need to be better, including my lowered self worth.'

If I tried, and I have, to point directly at improving my self worth, well. I don't deserve to be happy, so having a negative self worth helps with that, so I can't improve on it. It's self defending.

But people need me now. Not in the 'oh, I'm having life problems.' kind of way, there is the soul of billions on the line. I cannot allow failure.

The doors close.

'Our victory is inescapable!' not because of some fate of 'chosen one' status, but because I will not allow another possibility.

Even as it hurts.

Everyone needs a rest. Not a few hours sleep, but a few days off to process everything.

As much as they voted to hear the second story, the idea that the Brothers are not gods, it's not exactly something you can just go 'oh, alright' unless you are already primed to do that. Like me.

So I don't do anything. I don't try to push Paradigm Shifting further, I don't try and teach my limited understanding of human psychology, and I don't ask to be taken anywhere with Yang.

Yang who is reeling that her pregnancy and birth is what drove Team STRQ apart. Well, helped in it, and she is only partly reeling with all the other shit I've dumped on them.

If this doesn't break the team, which is still a question in the air, especially Raven, then I don't think anything can.

Yang asks for some time, and I retreat entirely.

I wonder where Summer's weapon is. In Raven's story, as they got near their breaking point, Raven opened a portal to Tai and Summer stepped through. Or would have, if not for Salem hitting Raven, breaking her Aura and shutting off her Semblance. Seeing as Tai didn't receive Summer's arm and weapon, it must be somewhere, right?

How do portals work? Are they faster than light?

Did her arm and weapon 'fall' like inside the portal network station that the Staff made? Is there an arm and weapon floating around in no-space that might fall out of a portal Raven opens?

Or is it like how I think falling works. A hole in reality, matter and energy destroyed or vaporised. Bit like a Stargate's unstable vortex.

Impossible to know, not without a lot of advance science on the nature of portals. At least I can test to see if they are faster than light, a message sent across the planet compared with an object being passed through.

How long is a meter again? 5 feet equals three meters, but that's not exact. Metric, which I'm going to have to reinvent here, is a little bit of a pain. I think I know some exact values to Imperial somewhere.

.

Somewhere.

A 30 cm ruler is about a foot, I think, which is 12 inches. So 30/12=2.5 Ah, now I remember. One inch is exactly 2.54 cm. I remember because it's one of the few small exact measurements between them, no trailing or dozens of extra digits.

I can probably recreate Metric from that. Shame I can't learn Imperial, I mean I could, but all the equations in my head are in Metric. As well as other things.

Is the speed of light (in a vacuum) here 299,792,458 meters per second? Guess I'll have to test that too. So much I have to test to make sure things are the same.

Whoosh works, and people look and act like people, so there's that. Also the sun is yellow-orange, which is a good sign. Or the local eyes have evolved to see it like that. Is the colour I'm seeing the same colour as I once saw?

That kind of thinking would drive me even more crazy. Something else then.

Mountain Glenn. As fun as it would be to get a full history of the moves between Salem and Ozma, only the most recent ones really matter. I'm sure Mountain Glenn was the result of numerous small and large moves, but it's a turning point.

One where Ozma got scared. Or cautious. Whatever. He got wary enough to send a Silver Eyed Warrior at Salem, hoping to buy a generation's worth of time. A few fan theories I've read state that Summer's actions somehow spurred Salem to action, that she is a catalyst for the most recent rash of events. That Summer, somehow, sacred Salem enough for her to panic.

It's not the case. Summer was sent to delay Salem, and it failed. More than that, it told Salem that Ozma was vulnerable, that he was panicking after Mountain Glenn, that now was the time to strike. To build off her success and push onwards.

Salem isn't panicking, these moves aren't because Summer found some secret weakness in her or scared her with the idea of being imprisoned. Salem has faced Silverlight before, and threats of imprisonment. After all, thousands of years is a long time. But she is moving more aggressively now, recruiting and training Cinder, Watts and Hazel. Not sure about Tyrian, he would follow her anywhere.

Around ten years ago Mountain Glenn fell. Summer died. Salem realises and recruits Watts (either before or after he fakes his death), Cinder (now 'free'). Hazel somewhen then or later too.

Then she continues making small moves, Raven didn't report in to Ozma, like Salem planned after breaking her. Moves that Ozma notices and he realises that Summer and Raven failed.

No wonder he let Ruby in early, the war is now.

Then Cinder hits Vale, big. Uses the terror of Mountain Glenn, it's tunnels to not only throw shade on Ozma, but also to bring up the memory of the disaster to everyone. I remember the plan going off early, but how early?

I don't think Cinder intended for the Breach to happen during the Fall of Beacon. Unless...

Unless she did. The closer to the Vytal Festival the Breach happens, the greater the reaction and the more forces James would have to bring in. So, what if it happened just before, or during?

Less immediate concerns with no Knights of Paladins, so more people of Vale alive.

And then a massive army arrives from Atlas to save them.

And then the Knights go rouge.

Atlas destroys Vale.

James is broken even more by the guilt of his army not just turning, but actually destroying Vale. The CCTS goes out, and the last image anyone sees is Atlas taking advantage of a Red Fang/Grimm attack to invade another Kingdom.

The Great War part two.

Ha. Well done Cinder. You would have framed an entire Kingdom with a 'pre-emptive strike'.

James would then be stripped of everything and blamed by Atlas, and Ozma would have lost another piece entirely. Even if he wasn't, if he managed to prove that it was a virus, the now deeply unstable James Ironwood would be ripe for manipulation.

Who would have succeeded him if he was removed? We will need to check for loyalties and exploitable weaknesses. If it is someone James knows, they would be affected by his deteriorating mental state. Especially if he tries to bring them in on Salem, he would seem crazy or his friend would feel be betrayed, either opening up weaknesses.

If he didn't know them, then they would have been extensively studied, or even picked by Watts/Salem personally via bribes, hacking or a carefully planted mole in the Atlas Military that seems perfect for the job.

Either way, all paths lead to Salem's victory. One Kingdom collapsed entirely, Atlas on the knife's edge, and Mistral mysteriously losing Huntsmen thanks to Lionheart. Not to mention the fear of Atlas due to the images of the Invasion of Vale and the lack of communication would drive paranoia and fear sky high. Any trace communication via runners or other systems would be met with suspicion, and a few False Flag attacks anywhere would work that higher.

There might not even be a war, or maybe there would be as Atlas comes under attack from the united Vacuo and Mistral. Any path forward are to Salem's advantage.

Vacuo is interestingly enough, the most secure Kingdom because it's near anarchy. Everyone there is already pointed at eachother a bit, the only real source of order is Shade. Which, might just suffer a similar fate. Send Cinder at that one next.

I haven't been giving Salem enough credit. Cinder might have almost brought down Vale, but she set the board and sent her, and then waited to take advantage of the situation.

And...

And Ozma was right. I haven't given myself enough credit. I was a major wrench in Cinder's/Salem's plan, not just the fighting back and unifying people, but my martyrdom towards unity between Atlas and Vale, on top of my creating and blaming Red Fang. A separate group, distinct from any Kingdom, to blame for everything.

A common enemy.

I think I even know Salem's next move. The United States made it on Earth after 9/11. Increased scrutiny and restrictions of freedoms, alteration of laws to take away people's rights, and all the while pressure being put on people to be suspicious of eachother. Not along racial or religious lines, but Faunus/non-faunus ones. Well, I suppose that is racial.

And yet, I've already been taking steps to counter that. Because the attack wasn't made by the White Fang, but the new extremist Red Fang.

I am going to Menagerie to help uplift the people there, work with the White Fang to make everyone's lives better. To cut out the Red Fang's powerbase by actually doing what should have already been done.

There wouldn't be terrorists fighting under the name of equality if people were actually equal, Ozma. Though, with how I've painted them, the Red Fang is now a Faunus Supremacist group.

.

Have I pushed Adam down that path?

Could he still be saved? As much as I think of him as a Faunus supremacist, how much of that is clouded by my viewing of the show?

How much of all my perceptions are warped by the show?

Ruby laughs so freely here, even with all the recent stuff I've dumped on her. It's the contrast between Volume 8 Ruby and this Ruby. Blake is shy, as much as she is trying to be open, I did have to tell her to take off her ribbon. I know too much about her for her to be comfortable. Weiss, I don't think she could stand up to her sister right now if she needed to, not like Volume 8. And Yang.

Yang is the broken Yang that the time skip barely showed. Not the Team Mom (though she shouldn't have to be) afterwards, having fully worked through her problems and coming from them stronger.

Ren and Nora, are they only dating because I told them they did? Have they decided to put aside the ideas of being their own people in the face of such overwhelming odds?

I keep looking at Jaune and seeing who he was in Volume 7 and 8, the man confident and pushing through, hints of Pyrrha's loss in his actions. Unsure as they realise that they don't know what they're doing, but moving ahead regardless.

Even if he has to kill Penny to do it.

At least Pyrrha's the same. Though, she is only the same as I remember her because she died. Because my mental image of her hasn't changed past the Fall. Then again, I do keep seeing her broken under Ozma's request. Tired, pushing Jaune away, sitting alone thinking about Amber. She's better now, not just physically (better than dead) but emotionally. Holding Jaune's hand and smiling. Looking at me with sorrow rather than herself.

Not her destiny, not anymore.

Even with the most recent battery of world shattering events, she is still standing. Oh, she's tired like the rest, constant world shattering revelations will numb anyone, but I don't think she'll give up. She's a fighter, and now she has something to fight for. Her team, her friends, and I think her boyfriend.

Are they dating too? I don't know, it seems like it. I've been assuming they have.

I just hope they can be happy. While there is still time to be happy.

The war is on, and I don't know how much time any of them will have to be happy.

Yang is... She needs some time. So, she has passed control over to me.

I think everyone needs some time, though Yang is the only one who can make use of sulking in her head.

"So, what do you want to do?" Ruby asks me. She still looks up to me.

It's a really strange feeling. I feel like I'm faking or something. Imposter syndrome, I think it's called. Still, it's a valid question.

What do I want to do?

I don't know.

"Work." I say, and Blake sighs.

"I don't think we can take much more of whatever it is you call work." Heh, I suppose not.

"Fine. What kinds of videogames does this place have?" I don't like Ruby's sudden evil grin.

I get my ass kicked. Hard. Ruby must be cheating using her Semblance or something.

And Blake must be cheating too.

Oh, Weiss too.

Yang takes time from her brooding to give me tips. Very unhelpful tips at very helpful moments. By tips I mean her making sharp intakes of breath and saying things like {I wouldn't do that.} {Are you sure?} {Risky, very risky.}

Fine. Let's play something I do know how to play.

Which isn't much.

Anything.

Right. Remnant, not Earth. I've been thinking of Earth far more as Earth recently, rather than Terra. Ever since I accepted that I don't want to go back.

The screen flashes K.O. in Ruby's favour. She's taking a lot of pleasure in beating 'Yang', even though I'm not Yang. "Right, enough."

"Hehehe. Sore loser?" She sticks her tongue out as me. Did she ever do that in the OT? I can't remember.

"It's hardly skill to beat up someone who has never played before." Ruby sniggers.

"Weiss said the exact same thing." I sigh.

"Got any First Person Shooters? Oh, and I'll need a mouse and keyboard." As neat as the scroll controller is, really a mobile game that the screen is being sent to the tv screen, touchscreen for an FPS really isn't ideal.

Nor is controller. I'm a keyboard and mouse... person... am I a person?

Of course I am. I think and stuff, even if I'm a nobody. Ha, nobody. Kingdom Hea- another game I'll never see again. I only tried to play the first one, and didn't get past the second world, but watching people trying to make sense of it's insane story is fun. Was fun.

It takes her a moment to come back with the keyboard and mouse. I didn't even notice her leave. "Are you okay?"

I mentally shake myself out of my funk. "Just remembering games I used to play." I look down at Yang's scroll and open the app store, scrolling through... Junk. Junk junk junk. This one looks okay-ish.

{Not that one. Good graphics, but the controls and story are terrible.} Yang chimes in.

{Know any with aliens to shoot? Something with combat more than a snap shooter.} I want to play Halo.

A quick description of Halo's gameplay and Yang and Ruby find something for me.

It's not the same.

At least I'm half decent at this, which raises all sorts of questions about muscle memory seeing as Yang isn't much of a FPS girl and I'm using a completely different control set from her as well as I did on Earth.

I'll think about that later. Right now I'm almost having fun.

Almost.

Bedtime, which Yang takes over again. She doesn't trust me with her hair. Fair enough, I've never had hair as long or impressive as hers.

However, bed means sleep. Which means almost certainly another nightmare. I think Yang is stalling going to sleep, she said she was in bed a while ago.

{Alloy?} Yeah, there we go.

{Yeah Yang?} How can I help?

She's silent for a minute, either trying to find the right words, or hesitating telling me.

{It's going to be okay. I'm right here.} I offer. {And Blake when you wake up. I'm sure Ruby wouldn't mind a midnight hot chocolate. Weiss might even decide to help. You are not alone.}

{I can't imagine Weiss-cream helping.} Yang bites with no teeth. {Thanks.}

We wake.

It was bad.

No more running like the other dreams, this time I fought back. Hard. Harder. Harder than I ever have.

I called up on every trick and skill I could, pushing back the waves of Grimm men with Red Swords. I screamed loud enough to shatter the walls of the room we stood in.

Then She came.

And we chased her. Summer leaving Yang, the distance between us and Summer always growing.

Until I grabbed space itself and forced it to comply. A mix of teleportation, telekinesis, and Command.

Only for Summer to turn around and for her to be The Hound.

So I fought, harder still. I burned away the Grimm from her body with a powerful Starlight Breaker.

Leaving us at her grave, snow falling slowly as Summer hugs her daughter and tells her she's sorry.

I don't have to use any of Yang's senses to know that she has been crying. Is crying.

I whisper 'not your fault' and 'it will be alright', 'she would be so proud of you' and 'listen to Ruby's laughter', anything I can to help Yang.

When she gets up, opens her eyes and gives me permission, Blake tells us that we were the longest asleep. That everyone had nightmares in one form or another. Qrow and Tai are in the dorm with us, thought Weiss is out with her sister.

Sunlight streams through the window, and mugs of coffee sit on the table. Eurg. Good thing I don't have to taste it.

Tai gets up to face Yang, and only now do I realise how weird it might be for them to be in Team RWBY's dorm. Then again, this isn't exactly normal circumstances. {Let me know if you need me.}

{Alloy... Thanks.} I roll my eyes at her. Duh, of course I'll help.

{Insert Catchy uplifting one-liner here.} I give a soft smile. {Of course, Yang.}

"Hey." Tai speaks and I retreat. No need to intrude.

It's after lunch when I'm called out again. Seems Tai wants a Paradigm Shift. Good, that's something nice and easy.

A look at his Semblance, seems he can enhance his strikes with a golden fire. Or any other element if he uses some Dust, but fire is his default. It's actual fire too, not just a visual effect... Something I need to test for Yang.

Anyway, a quick lesson and he goes from fists, knees, elbows and feet (as well as the occasional headbutt) to being fully covered in it. Not all that useful offensively, but there are a few people who would hesitate attacking a guy on fire.

After that it's the same lesson I gave to Yang, learning how to 'attack' at will. Then jets of fire from his hands. If he keeps up his practice, it won't be long before he's flying.

Which is something I try to push onto Yang. After being given control and using her Semblance, and her Aura which apparently feels really weird, I mentally shift the definition of hair to different points across her body. Not that hard, mentally, as there is such a thing as body hair, despite Yang's shaving.

Tai's and Yang's Semblances are quite similar, another bit of data for me to think about. Sure, Yang charges hers via damage where Tai can just output at will, but other than that they have a lot in common.

Enough for me to suggest (after testing her flaming hair) that she could learn to fly like Tai will be able to.

Something Ruby is happy about. Yang is the last to get flight, and if that works then all of Team RWBY will be flying around.

Another suggestion for Tai is that he could 'shoot' fireballs, though that might be pushing the line from Paradigm Shift to Evolution.

I release control and sigh, to myself not Yang.

He picked that up fast. They all did. Sure, it's not an Evolution but instead a slightly unusual method of using it, and that's all fine.

No what's bothering me is that they understand what I'm trying to say. I don't consider myself a very good teacher, and my communication skills are sub-par despite almost all my life working on them, but everyone is picking up on what I'm trying to say fairly quickly. Too quickly.

I wonder if it's a side effect of Aura, somehow enhancing communication like Ninshu from Naruto. Or maybe it's that I'm no longer depressed and can pick and articulate my words far better. The other theory I have is that this is a show. Not really, but when I crossed over, I thought RWBY.

Talking in shows is different from real life. Cleaner. There are almost no misunderstandings, unless it furthers the plot. For 'live' shows or unscripted ones there might be, but this isn't a 'live' show. When I crossed over, did I 'pick' a reality where things are clearer than Earth?

Or is it me, either via Aura or no depression, maybe Amber's and Yang's skills bleeding though?

I don't know, and that's bothering me. Communication is fundamental to teamwork and cooperation, things that we need to do basically anything. So I don't like trusting some invisible and poorly understood mechanic that might fail at any moment for completely unknown reasons.

Maybe it's a move by the Brother of Light, communication is a fundamental of harmony after all. It's much more difficult to work together peacefully if you can't understand the other party.

Just another thing to work on, though not a high priority one.

I have far too much to do, far too much to learn. I just hope it doesn't cut out underneath me.

Another nightmare fought off, and Yang is starting to fight back too. Not much, but she's starting.

Today is a memorial service for the people I killed. Myself included. One of the reasons I'm so... desperate is the wrong word but deeply hoping, I'm deeply hoping the afterlife exists is because of the people my choices would have sent there. As many as I saved, there are so many I didn't.

Yang went to James and pushed me out. He told me to try let go of the guilt. That what I saw was the worse of the night as I leapt from place to place. That my perspective of the night is all distorted by the fact that he used me as effectively as he could.

More than as just a hammer too. With myself under his command, and the fact that I turned around almost every fight I landed in, the Atlas forces were telling people to hold on because The Tenno was coming. That explains why some of them looked up and knew I was arriving.

Why some of them demanded I heal the dead.

Amber Yuki Tenno was an Atlas asset, or a Vale one working closely with Atlas, trusting them. Trusting them enough to follow every order she got. Ozma was right, my actions and death has helped Vale-Atlas relations. A lot.

I groan as they announce the statue. Yang's face doesn't budge a bit, but she has a little laugh at me. Gah, Pyrrha got a statue for something a lot less, mind you that was in her hometown. And technically the statue is to represent everyone who died during the attacks.

It's still going to be a likeness of Amber kneeling and healing a child.

Worse still is the poll and announcement of the Atlas'-now-Vale's Battleship's new name. At least they didn't call it something Tenno. I still have use for that name. Still, I don't think I mind the name. It's not mine after all.

You could do worse than The Amberheart.

I take a mental breath.

{What do you mean, we aren't going to Menagerie?} There is a lot riding on that, even with the inevitability of the Red Fang getting their hands on whoosh, and the probability of terrorist action by them thanks to Salem.

Yang pulls out her scroll. {Alloy, you should be dead.} The Aura monitoring app sits at 0.0% still. {We are taking you to Penny's dad. He's the best Aura expert in the world, I mean he made Penny. If anyone can help, he can.}

{I'm stable, right?} I'm not hurting you, right?

{Yeah, right now, but we don't know how that might change.} She frowns. {Everything will be fine, Adam took months to get support before he made a move.}

{Yeah, in the OT. We aren't in the OT anymore, we can't rely on that data.}

{Blake says it will still take a lot of time. The Red Fang isn't all that popular right now.} I suppose. Though every day will count.

{Fine. Not like I have much of a choice anyway. At least Ruby and Pyrrha will see Penny again. Then again, that might take a while to sort out.} I turn my mind to the task. {Jaune might be able to Amp Dr Polendina to help with his Aura bur- ah.} I cut myself off as I realise what Yang is talking about.

{Get it?} Yang asks.

{Yeah. He's got hands on experience with my condition, on top of his study of Aura.} The browned and burned out patches across his body, it's him overusing his Aura to make Penny. Probably not to the degree I am at, apparently my condition is just that bad.

Because I didn't know that continuing to use Aura in that condition was doing permanent damage to me.

{Fine. Fine. I might be able to commission a new body from him, after he's done with Penny, anyway.} I frown a bit. {Not that I want to be Dust based, which the tech is almost certainly dependant on.} No space flight for me then, or until I can get a Dustless one.

{Honestly, we thought that was what you were thinking before. You really can't hear anything when you're turned off.} Why is that a surprise?

{Do you not trust me?} I ask, a little hurt. Hurt, me? By someone not trusting me? How far I have fallen.

{I'm... not sure. I mean, when you talked to Ozpin...} Oh. {You sounded really manipulative. And Pyrrha talked about what you said when you were dead to Cinder. And... Lie and Inspire. Sometimes I feel like you look at us like pieces on a board.}

Like Ozma.

{Yang.} I sigh. {You're right.} Explain. {I do look at you like things and not people, but not as pieces. I see you both as characters in a show and because that's just how I see people, all people. I've had to in order to survive.} Pain colours my tone. {I'm trying to get better. I have been since before I came here. But... old habits are hard to break, especially as they are the only way I know how to talk to people.}

{You can't just say what you want to say? Damm the consequences?} Of course Yang's solution is to run head first into it and fight her way out.

{What do I want?}

Yang goes silent. My tone says it all.

I don't know. I don't even know how to want, not without all the calculations and analysis. Some things I do want, but are they only like that because I have refused to study them?

{I tried to use the Silver Eyes during the Siege.} I confess. {A test, really, to see if a transplant is all that is needed to give people Silverlight. But... I couldn't. People were behind me, Grimm in front, the time to focus and use them... I couldn't test it because I don't have to soul. I couldn't call up the need to protect. I calculated and solved, not felt and needed.}

{You're right, Yang. I do see people as objects. The little care I have for all of you is scraps compared to what you must feel, but it's all I have. Moss growing on the edges of the hole where a soul should be, a machine sitting in it's place.}

Silence hangs for seconds before Yang speaks. {That's why you commanded Ren to use his Semblance on me.} The change in topic throws me a bit, I'm not tracking what she is saying. My 'look' tells her that. {You don't see how bad something like that is.}

{I guess I don't. I can barely remember being alive.} Even this is so much lesser than what I should be feeling, I think.

My depression might be gone, but all the habits and synthetic thought patterns are still here. People just don't suddenly get better when you remove the thing causing damage. Whether it be breaking up with an abusive partner, leaving an abusive home, or something as simple as no longer drinking poison, the damage remains. It takes time to recover, heal and properly move past it.

Yang speaks up again. {Nora's right. You need some friends.} Nora again, the deceptively perceptive Nora.

Yang almost speaks again before I cut her off. {If you are going to declare yourself to be my friend, I think Weiss already did that.} A half grin forms on her face, I'm glad to see that I got that right at least. {Get some new material.}

{Pretty sure Ruby called first.} Even if I hurt her by freaking out. {You saying you don't want to be friends with me? Alloy, I'm hurt, who wouldn't want to spend time with all this?} Oh right, there are still hints of party-girl Yang.

{I'm sure your poses are very impressive and convincing, but they have no affect on me, I can't se-} Yang flicks on my sight. Ahg, shared Semblance. {Oh, so now you're checking yourself out? Narcissist.}

We stand in front of a mirror, seems Yang was doing her hair and stuff before bed. She flexes her arms and sticks out her chest a bit. Short shorts and half tight sleeveless crop top. I think that what it's called. {Come on, you can't tell me I don't look good.}

My mind rests on the thin pink band above her right elbow. The cut. {With that haystack on your head?} Risky move to insult the hair. {Besides, I can't even see your ass at this angle.}

Oh god. Why did I say that? Fear and anxiety suddenly hammer me, thousands of burning needles rise up across my back in a wave, my skin is suddenly too tight and wrong wrong wrong.

{So that's what you like.} Yang teases but I'm not listening, not really. The sides of my neck are contracting, the skin on it acting as a grip. Every breath expands my torso, driving the needles deeper and stretching the skin. I don't even have a body, how am I feeling all of this? {Alloy? It wasn't that bad.}

Did she pun? I can't tell. I can't... {Anxiety attack.} I send across and block vision. Stupid. Stupid stupid. Why did I say that?

{About my ass?} Yang asks and the gaps between needles becomes itchy. {Hey, no big deal. Everyone has their preferences.}

Not me. Sexuality suppressed due to insufficient resources to build a profile. Too busy trying to understand 'friendship' to even consider romantic or sexual ideas. So I blocked them and burned them, like everything else.

Oh hell, I said I thought I was married to Ren. He's like, 17-18. Not the mentally mature and young looking 21 ish year old that my desperate and broken mind conjured up to fit the data, scraping the edges of what I might find appro- what do I find appropri- What was I thinking? I'm too-

I'm hyperventilating. Without lungs.

I think Yang is- the real Yang Xiao Long. Not some character in a show – we went through this, we are IN RWBY. Not help can't think too hot.

Executing emergency shutdown.

.

.

.

.

.

{Alloy?} {Are you okay?} {Talk to me, please?} {I'm getting help.} {Alloy? Yuki? Tenno? Come on.} {Everything is going to be okay, alright?} {Alloy say something.} {If you don't, I'm forcing control over to you.} {5... 4... 3... 2..}

Everything Yang said comes back to me as I boot up again. System booting. {Please wait.}

.

.

.

Okay.

I'm okay. It was just a few words.

Except as I remember them the anxiety picks back up again, if lesser. Only for the fact that I am worrying Yang, and whoever else on the outside, to start to cause another breakdown.

Implementing forceful control.

I grip my emotions with my will and force them to still. They struggle, but I hold them. A sliver of my will goes into damage control.

{I just need some time. Can you leave me alone while I sort myself out?} A fresh wave of searing irritation and too tight skin washes over me, travelling down my shoulders to my elbows, as I ask for something.

{Are you sure?} Rings around my eyes feel hot and my hair suddenly itches my skull.

{I'm sure.} Please leave me alone. Please.

Random high intensity needles of itches spike up randomly across my body, not a body, my body. Ghost all in my head.

{Alright. Just, let me know if you need anything.} Thank you, shut up. I can't deal with...

Breathe. Just breathe.

I just need to wait it out.

Adam is in our faces, mask glowing and savage grin on. His Red blade flickers up-

no

-and stops.

shatter

It shatters and he goes flying back. I stand beside Yang as she raises her fists, a ring of Red fire above her right elbow.

But her arm does not fall off.

Behind us, Blake lays stabbed and bleeding. "Heal her. I've got him."

I turn and kneel. Explosions happen behind me, and despite my back being turned I can see Yang firing her shotgun blasts at Adam and the Grimm.

"Res." Blake gasps as the blood fades, as the wound closes, and as she is made whole. I stand and pull her up, her weapon coming to grip.

We turn and stand beside Yang.

Adam rushes forward.

He's fast. Too fast. Too strong.

But he is alone.

A hand from Blake and I rests on each of Yang's shoulders, her punch rockets forward to hit him.

It shatters his blade again, and throws him back. Back into the Grimm.

"Turn." I intone and wave my left hand at them, and the Grimm look to the side and down. At Adam.

We wake up to the sounds of Adam swearing revenge as his minions rip into him.

Day... 6, I think.

Yang stood unsteady, but facing the challenge. She's getting better. Far more than the OT.

{You weren't a horse.} Uhg.

{Alicorn.} I weakly protest. {And I'm not always one. It's kind of rare actually, especially how consistently I have been one the past few days.} I give Yang a smile. {You're getting a lot better.}

{Had some help.} Hmm, I would have thought she would brag and play it off. Guess not.

{Yeah, Blake's been lending a hand too. She doesn't need a special Semblance to fight with you.} Yang snorts.

{Really can't take a compliment, can you?}

{Nope. To do so would imply that I'm worthy of them. But it's true, Yang. Blake, Weiss, Ruby, Taiyang, the somehow still sober and yet still grumpy Qrow, they're all here for you.} Though a lot less grumpy, even if he has been pushing his Paradigm Shift hard.

{You?} Yang teases.

{Hmm, I suppose I might be too, if you ask politely.} I tease back, flickers of anxiety being ruthlessly suppressed. So long as it doesn't get much worse, I should be good.

{Ehhh, na.}

{Aww. You haven't even seen me turn into a giant snake.} I frown. {Then again, that only happened once. I might not be able to.} I shake. {As much as that dream indicated I got that long term ability, I have never actually used it beyond the dream I got it. I mean, how often does turning into a snake help?}

{Would let you avoid the Grimm.} There's a hint of something negative in- Oh. Shit.

That's why Qrow and Raven don't like their bird forms, why any animal form Semblances are frowned upon. Grimm don't target animals, not specifically. If you have a Semblance (or magic) to turn into an animal, then you can go about your life without the constant pressure of Grimm.

Worse, for a Huntsman to be able to, there would be a little bit of an implication that they could abandon you at any time. Which would be seen as a betrayal. Not just by Huntsmen, but anyone. If Miss Steel the blacksmith can turn into a dog, they might do so when the village comes under attack.

They might pick themselves over other people.

People fear the Grimm, but Remnant also stands against them. They are the common enemy.

So even to have the option of stepping out of that unifying conflict puts someone at odds with everyone else.

After all, if they don't like it, they have the choice to just turn into an animal and go live a simple life.

Not like everyone else.

I need to talk to Ozma, before we leave. Well, before he leaves, the Amberheart has been delayed for it's return and repairs in Atlas, but Ozma hasn't. People kinda don't want him around, for some reason. Oh, as well as the group of people in the know, they don't want him around either.

Still, I have to. And I even managed to get permission to hug him, which is very important.

The others are too close, too emotionally charged, to care about Ozma's mental health. He's just lost trust and friendship from a lot of people. Glynda might work with him, and is on his side, but she's still heavily rattled by his secrets and actions.

"Alloy." This will probably be the last time he will be in 'his' office. Glynda is taking over once he leaves, and with how he is going to play against Salem, it is expected that he will be constantly on the move.

"Ozma." I give him a smile, something I don't think he has gotten either from anyone these past few days.

I'm not concerned about his mental health in the suicide or even betrayal aspect, but simply knowing that someone still cares for him will help him. A lot.

What I haven't told Yang explicitly, though I think she knows it, is that I do care about him. As odd as it is. Then again, he's woken up in a world completely different from his own before, in a stranger's body, with a great and almost impossible seeming mission. Maybe it isn't so hard to see that I care for him, he has been through what I have going through.

Funny how similar and yet different we are. "I didn't give Salem, and you, enough credit." I start with my apology. "Looking at things again, it's become clear how much of a threat she is, and that you must have been fighting back just as hard for" I look around, gesturing to 'everything' "things to even exist."

"The Breach." He nods and I return. A sigh escapes his lips. "I believe Miss Fall was instructed or explained how such an event could have been played to their advantage."

I sit down. "If it happened during the attack, then how much of James' forces would have been brought in to rescue Vale?"

Ozma's eyes widen. Ah, it seems he didn't consider the implications. "I-"

A wry chuckle escapes my lips. Well, Yang's lips. No wonder people can tell who is fronting, we act completely differently even without the deliberate posture changes. "Didn't think of that, did you?"

He takes off his glasses and considers the implications. Look how old he is. "Atlas coming to Vales rescue, only to be framed for an attack. I thought more long term than that, that James was to be here during the Festival. Not after."

To make the attack worse, to destroy Vale entirely. Well, that would happen, just a couple of days later. Only it wouldn't have been Grimm and Red Fang, it would have been 'Atlas'. Or worse, Atlas wouldn't destroy Vale, leaving a half crippled but enraged Kingdom as well as a major loss of forces for Atlas as they get hit trying to save Vale. "You're just a knight." I try to comfort him. "Again, like I said, it's impressive you've managed to hold out this long."

Time for my next question. "How new is the CCTS? That is, global instant communication?"

He frowns a little. "About 50 years. Why?"

I shake my-Yang's head. "No, I mean, has there been instant global communication before?"

"Ah. No, not since before the Brothers left. Even then, it was not as... widespread as it is now." The internet is new. "That is one of the... Mountain Glenn."

I see the gears turning in his head. "Terra has had it for a while, though not as long as you it seems. Terrorist attacks and accidents are broadcasted almost as they happen, and as such everyone gets front row seats to the events." I sigh. "Worse yet, is the media. Tragedy sells. Fear sells. Anger sells. With sensationalised news, people develop a very skewed perspective of things."

"Terrorism. The Red Fang. Public broadcasts." Ozma starts to realise.

"Yeah. On Terra, most people are more afraid of flying than driving because the news covers aircraft disasters. Even though the ratio is closer to a million to one. Sure, there's that there are less people flying, but even considering that, the odds of a plane death to a car death are so different from what people expect." I slouch a bit at the stupidity of people. "It's called availability bias. What information do people have access to. In our case-"

Ozma cuts me off. "A constant stream of terrorist attacks, even scattered across the world, will lead people to believe that nowhere is safe."

{Shit.} Yang speaks.

{Yeah. Also, swear.} She snorts.

"Is that what you would do?" Ozma asks. Oh shit, I'm being compared to Salem.

"Well that's a complicated question." I ponder for a bit. "If we put away my xeno-tech. If we put away my preferred methods of self termination, if I really wanted to generate a lot of fear and use the Grimm... It's too cheap not to. Then again, I wouldn't just use that. A hundred attacks, including on the media, will lead to mass confusion and infighting as no-one would have any idea what is true anymore. As a general effect anyway, each attack would have it's own response."

Ozma rubs the bridge of his nose. "I am glad you are on our side."

Did I just scare an immortal? I laugh. "You sure? Salem might tempt me with cookies or something."

He glances up at me. "Is there anything she could tempt you with?"

I stop and look up, genuinely thinking about the question. "My first response is no, considering her ultimate goal, and considering her years of practice in manipulation. That alone is why I'm going to suggest everyone learn to ignore her flat out." I look back down at him. "I'm operating under the assumption that her skills in wordcraft operate as mind-control, that if someone is under her influence for long enough, she can convince them to do anything. Hazel."

I sigh. "That said, as much as I want to say 'no', I have to assume that she is skilled enough to find my Breaking Words." A curious look, right. "I'm of the belief that there are Breaking Words, words that will break someone. Nothing special, nothing magical or Semblance based, but just words. Like, say, 'You can't, because you still love her.'." He shivers and pales. The right words in the right place can make all the difference in the world. "They can be used however the person wants, dependant on skill. Raise up, destroy, turn enemies to friends, send someone insane. At least they are different for each person."

"I understand." Yeah. Don't leave me alone with her. I walk my fingers across the desk and then have them do a little hop across an invisible gap.

Ozma pales even harder. "I understand."

If I have to use Plan T, do not trust me anymore. The little finger person falls over dead. Ozma closes his eyes.

Kill me.

Do not trust me. Kill me.

{Alloy?} Seems I wasn't as discreet as I wanted to be.

{You don't want to know. Trust me, Yang.} Yang nods. Thank you.

"Anyway, that's a move I would make. Cheap, easy, give Adam 'what he wants'. That coupled with Whoosh." I roll Yang's eyes and she sniggers in her head. "and weapons will make the Red Fang very dangerous. But, it will also make Menagerie safe. And only Menagerie, at first. We can't afford to alter the balance of power between the existing Kingdoms."

Ozma nods. "I do understand that, at least." Bit of self deprecating humor there. "It is why, despite the risks, I've allowed..." He sighs. "I've agreed to the Menagerie plan." Loss of control.

"Yeah. On the bright side, we won't have to worry about Dust running out."

"It has been starting to bother me, especially with Atlas' rise and consumption rates." Dust running out. Something I don't think anyone here wants to think about. Like Oil back on Earth. Though I suppose that Ozma will have first hand experience on watching it deplete.

Speaking of which. "About Dust... Do you know where it comes from?"

Ozma shakes. "Salem indicated that she knew, but never told me. At the time, we had other things to think about." Running a growing empire and religious movement.

"I have a couple of theories, if you could open up a map." Asking him to turn on a device is a bit risky, but I hope that we should be good.

He nods and the desk turns on. A world map is projected above it. I make a few gestures and indicate to him to kill the networking. There we go.

"Alright, so, first can you highlight all the current and past known Dust deposits?"

"One moment." Networking turns back on, the data is downloaded, and then turned off again. Good, let that paranoia sink in.

Icons pop up.

Hmm. Ozma explains the key. "The brighter the colour the more Dust was found. Though, these are only the known records. Let me..."

More and more icon pop up, less accurate but better than nothing. That they tell me a story is something else. I'm almost sure that theory is right then. Ozma notices my expression. "Something wrong?"

I sigh. "Save that and turn off the Dust data." He does so. "Now, I want you to map all the known pre-shatter settlements and population centres."

He raises an eyebrow and gets to work, only for his eyes to widen more and more as he puts them down.

{Dust is made from people. Magical people.} Yang picks up.

"Narrator Salem said that Dust and Humanity shared a deeper relationship that any of them knew about." I start speaking, but the maps speak for themselves. Ozma flickers on the Dust map, revealing the overlays. "Not only that, but it reacts to people's Semblances. RT confirmed that there was a link between magic and Semblance, though they didn't specify what. My guess is in the name, though you were probably the one to name it. A Semblance of Magic."

Ozma nods idly in confirmation of the name. "Why does it get used up then?"

"Destruction." Ozma goes 'ah'. "The magic, though persistent, was infused with Destruction, altering the balance in it. Just a guess, you would be a better magical theorist that I, for now." I smirk. "The differences in Dust deposits between the maps can be attributed to populations moving between your death and the shattering, as well as natural terrain movement. Plate Tectonics, water currents, possible natural disasters during the early phases before they got buried. You said that no fossils have been found when mining for Dust?"

"Not as you explained them." He confirms. I've done some looking up, and they have been found in very deep Dust prospecting, though most have been 'confirmed' as hoaxes and is relegated to an incredibly niche market.

"Because they aren't deep enough. Dust has a maximum depth where it can be found. And... We also have a good idea as to where to find future deposits." Because not all the populations spots that Ozma added have been found. He nods and begins adding more. "The larger the population center, the more people there. The more Dust there was."

Ah. Another realisation hits me. "Which is why Vacuo had such a large deposit when it was founded. Seems that Oasis had a city on it before."

"I never got the chance to visit it." Ozma remarks. "A shame, they apparently had the most wonderful spices." He smirks. "To get the taste of Vacuo spice out." Hah, here we are talking about incredibly ancient cities and civilisations.

"I don't like sand." It's rough and coarse and irritating, and it gets everywhere. Nobody would get that reference. "That said, were there any other population centres in Vacuo?"

A few get added, though Ozma doesn't know many. "That is all I can remember of Vacuo for now. I will try to recall more later."

"This information is dangerous." I point out. "Not just short term, but very long term. As much as I want to claim I can uplift Remnant away from Dust, that would be a lie. I can start the process, but I don't have an entire civilisation's worth of tech in my head. If this is found out, Remnant will mine it dry, have a population and safety boom, only to then be out of Dust."

I take a breath and intone the consequences. "Total civilisation collapse."

{When you said you didn't have any more world shattering truths yet, we thought you were joking.} Yang groans.

{Nope.} I cheerfully exclaim before dropping serious. {There is always more to learn, and civilisation, people, they are more fragile than they want to believe.}

{Ozpin is right. I'm glad your on our side.} I crack up laughing, pointing to Yang's head to explain to Ozma as I do. She sounds like he did, almost glad and bit cautious. At least she does once I filter out the hostility towards Ozma and agreeing with him.

"I'm scary, huh?" I look at the map. "Not much on the Deep Grimmlands."

The dragon shaped, well, Brother of Darkness shaped continent. "The Grimm were active during my time, you know." Ah. "Not much in the way of permanent settlements." He frowns. "There were some however."

A few nodes gets added. That's a lot of Dust for one person, and all centralised around... ah. "That's Evernight castle, isn't it?"

"Indeed. And the throne of the Brother of Darkness. The settlements were those who pledged themselves to him, for one thing or another." A bit of a distasteful tone in his voice. No wonder Salem went to Light first, they were mainstream Light worshippers.

And no wonder Darkness wanted them on his side. The population of his followers is vastly outnumbered by everyone else. Haven... seems to have had a much larger population, though it's Dust reserves have been mined out long before our modern era.

Solitas has a few. I wonder how life there... Ah, Magic. Warmth from magic would melt ice for water, and then you can have farms. Not good ones, the axial tilt of the planet would make sunlight the most precious resource, but maybe they solved that with magic too. After all, without Salem, the Grimm there would be significantly less of a threat.

What was it Qrow said during the Solitas episode on World of Remnant? They suddenly evolved. In other words, were designed, but it indicates that they weren't adapted/designed for the cold before hand. Which means the Brother of Darkness didn't create many Solitas exclusive Grimm.

Strange to see how an arctic wasteland is habitable, even preferable. Civilisations grow and prosper depending on the conditions afforded to them, positive ones like water and farmland, and negative ones like frequent natural disasters and heightened disease rates.

Seeing a civilisation, or evidence of one, in a place like Solitas looks weird to me. Oh sure, Earth has arctic peoples, but nothing like the major permanent settlements these Dust deposits are indicating. Grimm and Magic, two more elements for a civilisation to consider.

I look to Menagerie on the map. Seems there are some Dust deposits there too, un-mined even. Unless Ozma doesn't remember them being mined out. He can't be everywhere at once, even with his long lived life. Interestingly enough, they seem to... ah.

"Oz, has Salem made any plays in the past on Menagerie?" Grimm, specifically designed for Menagerie perhaps?

He looks at the map, Menagerie. "Not to my knowledge, at least not anything specific. She has released several specific species of Grimm there, but she does the same for everywhere there is a permanent settlement." I frown. Something... doesn't add up. "What's wrong?"

"I'm not sure. The desertification of the Menagerie might be a relatively new thing." Out of the corner of Yang's eye I see him frown.

"It was far greener in the past, if that is what you are wondering. But that was before the Shattering." I smirk slightly at him using my terminology about the Brothers leaving.

"And then it wasn't?" I ask.

"It took several hits from chunks of the moon." He explains. "A lot of places did, though Menagerie suffered the most from it."

I relax and nod. "Ah. That would do it." Australia's unique (read, fucking insane) ecosystem is the result of it's isolation from the rest of the world. "A sufficient and widespread natural disaster, or not so natural, would disrupt the isolated ecosystem. Widespread fires, geological changes from the impacts, near total ecosystem collapse as the several animal species are disrupted resulting in food web decay, and with it plant life decay."

At least until evolution can catch back up. Things don't evolve that quickly, but the "And the edges?" Where the modern green is.

"Life that is suited for coastal environments would survive, admittedly in a pressured way. There would be increased strain on the sealife around it. A certain amount, though unknown, would collapse, resulting in a much reduced diversity of life, but not total. Notice that the modern greenery is where the land has the higher area in contact with the ocean."

The less land bordering the ocean, the less greenery and life there is. Where as the long trailing landmasses with ocean on either side have the most. I frown again. "The dust clouds, regular dust that is, from a heavy bombardment of lunar rocks would disrupt the ecosystem as well. Block out the sun, possibly poison the soil with lunar contaminates, suffocate or poison animal life. Not to mention that that level of disruption around the planet would result in abnormal weather events such as large storms and changing wind currents, depending on how bad the dust clouds are. While that would be a global level set of factors, Menagerie is isolated and relatively exposed to the resulting ocean storms. And, other continents would have life grow in from lesser affected regions, where as Menagerie has little 'other places' for a surviving population to draw from."

Ozma gives a chuckle. "Fascinating how you can extrapolate all of that from a few dots on a map."

I grin and give a silent chuckle too. "Science, Ozma. It's the study of how the world works." I sigh. "With how dangerous the wildlife, Grimm, and the environment of Menagerie, it's no wonder there hasn't been much Dust prospecting. Still, we know where abouts to look now."

"I'm almost tempted to ask why Menagerie's wildlife is so... extreme." He frowns a bit and I look up at him. "I was under the impression you were going to avoid Dust."

"I am. But I need some to kickstart things. Not much, I hope, so I'll defer to buying it from the SDC, but if a lot is needed then we'll have to discover a deposit." I sigh. "Buying it from the SDC is preferable though, to motivate people away from Dust entirely. If we can get a culture of real science-"

{Hey!} Yang protests in jest. I hang for a moment as Yang does, and Ozma is smiling at my joke too.

"-then maybe you savages can learn to walk on your own without the Dust crutch." I grin. "Maybe you'll be able to walk on your moon, like we have with ours."

Now I'm bragging about Earth's accomplishments. Not mine, long before my time, but it's fun to see their reactions. Well, 'see' Yang's reaction. How does that even work? What is up with my Semblance? I don't know.

"And put it back together, I suppose." Ozma comments dryly.

Ah, he wasn't part of the last meeting, right. "Gravity is already doing that. Though, I suspect some of the larger chunks are in orbit of the moon in a very strange orbital system. Might be calculated actually." Would the Brothers do that? Make the moon deliberately a balanced orbital system? "But yes, if you want." I look out the window, or would do if the metal shutters weren't closed. "I'm actually enjoying looking at the strange sky. Once I stop being freaked out by it anyway."

That moon is too big. Like, too big. Not as big as it is in the show, I suspect that's artistic licence, but still larger than Luna. Oh, I'm sad now. Think about something else. "The other theory was that Dust was magically charged moon rocks from the Shattering." I frown and look back to the map. "Which never sat right with me, not with how it interacts with Semblances. Unfortunately, with what we have learned here, we now know that there wouldn't be much in the way of ocean Dust deposits, exceptional circumstances withstanding."

Ozma nods. "There have been a few attempts at finding underwater Dust, to little result."

I stand up and Ozma does the same. "Buy us as much time as you can, Ozma. It's no longer on her side." Only for him to frown slightly as I walk around the desk to his side. "Got special permission and all that." {Turn off your senses maybe Yang?}

I give him a hug.

Ozma stiffens a moment, before he returns it.

It hangs for a few seconds before we let go. "I'm sorry for the whole friendship ruining thing." I mutter. "And this might be the last time we see eachother." I snort. "Not that we know eachother that well." I take a breath and stare directly into his eyes. "I just want you to know that someone cares for you."

And there is steel in him again. Just a little, just the faintest amount of hope and will, but after his abuse from his friends and the guilt he has inflicted on himself as the wounds are torn fresh, that little bit will make all the difference.

But that's not why I'm doing it.

I'm an idiot for caring. I blame my lack of depression. "I don't deserve that." He mutters tiredly.

An old man with a lot of mistakes indeed. I cross my arms and look at him as I would imagine a teacher would when a student gets an obvious answer wrong. There's probably a word for that. "I'm pretty sure Kindness and Love have nothing to do with deserving."

It's a hollow laugh that comes from him. "Thank you."

I walk to the elevator, before pausing and turning around. "No atonement of bemoanment from you, got it? That can come later. So put your chin up and look ahead down the final stretch, the end is in sight. We are in the endgame now."

I turn and walk in, closing the elevator doors. Yang and I descend.

{How can you do that?} She's hostile towards me. {He killed Mom.}

{He sent Summer to her death, though I would say Salem killed her. But yes. Thing is Yang, I didn't know Summer.} Yang takes back control of her body and clenches her fist. {I'm sorry, but it's true. All I see is you, Qrow, Raven and Ruby hurting, and while I don't like that, I also see Ozma hurting.}

She is silent. I continue. {He didn't raise a hand to defend himself when you, Qrow and Tai lashed out at him. He suffers from sending her too.}

{He shouldn't have sent her.} Yang is holding back tears now.

{An impossible choice. He made a call. That's what being in command is, Yang. Like how I set children to die during the siege, or how James had to pick what targets I would go to help at the cost of others. 'The worst thing about having the power to chose is living with the consequences.' As much as I like to call it a bias or something, people don't like having that power. Not in the big things, the really important things. It's one of the reasons why people pick leaders, generals, politicians. Because those people have to make the hard calls.} Calls that no one wants to be put in a position to make.

{But they have to be made, because doing nothing is worse.}

Yang doesn't agree with me, but she can see the point I'm making. I don't want Summer dead either, Yang, but we are at war.

People die in war.

Author's Note:

Ugh. I don't like this chapter, for all the same reasons as last chapter. Only worse. The middle of it is all off, and the beginning of it is not nearly as good as before.

But it has to be written. Well, no, it doesn't, but I do need to convey the emotional and character development of Alloy and Yang, including the shrinking and growing gap between them.

As much as Alloy is a realist, Yang, and all of Team RWBY, would rather take the morally good but risky option, like with James' plan to raise Atlas and abandon Mantle.

At least this is over. Next chapter is the battleship to Atlas ride, however long that goes for.

Oh, do you think the Amberheart is a good name for the renamed/gifted battleship? Don't answer that, you can't change it.

Anyway, I could spend a few more hours going over this and refining it, but I'm choosing to upload as is. Both because I want to get onto the better stuff, and because I don't want to get stuck on a single block.

I'll just blame it's poorer quality on the fact that it's first person, so Alloy is tired/emotional. She's not exactly all there, after all.

One more thing, I've made noise before about how I don't want to write songs or anything because Cockbite would suddenly own them. I don't actually think that they would take them, and if they did I would feel a bit special. No, I am protesting it because it's wrong. Cockbite doesn't deserve any respect.

#FreeRWBY