16

Author's note:

Real life is acting up again. I may not be able to post for the next month or so. I'll try to write and post, but don't expect anything.

Otherwise, have a chapter.

Also, has FF Net been acting up? For the past week I have apparently had Zero activity. Which is fine, just a little odd. I mean, did I get banned or something?

Alloy

White.

With a hint of something else.

It's only there for a brief flicker, a fraction of a second, but I am looking for it. I see it.

That flash of white between people when I use Transference, it's a soulscape.

Very interesting.

But something to think about later. {James? You there?}

{Alloy.} Oh good.

James' internal voice sounds weird, like Yang's. People hear their own voice differently to everyone else because of slight distortion from the body being in the way between their mouth and vocal cords and their ears. That, and I think there are mechanics in place to help deafen yourself when you speak, evolved so people don't send themselves deaf.

{Requesting permission to listen to the following senses: Hearing, sight, body position.} This is his body, so it's best to be respectful. Though it's a bit weird to 'request permission', he is a military man. Hopefully I'm not messing up protocol or something.

{Granted.} Well, okay.

One by one I turn them on. {Can you feel when I use them?}

It's another thing to check, privacy. Honestly, that's probably one of the best things about my Semblance. I don't know if anyone would trust me to ride along if I could be listening at any moment.

I've violated enough peoples privacy.

{I can.}

Hearing last. "-amazing. Alloy's Aura has completely transferred over and is running side by side with the Generals." Pietro is chattering away without much worry, so I guess I'm safe.

I thought as much, even after I burned out, I jumped to Pyrrha, then Ruby then Yang.

Yang sits up in the corner of James' sight while he stays down being scanned. I'm still a bit surprised he was willing to allow this, but I suppose it's temporary. Aura at... Uhg.

59% Aura using the new measurement of my max. How little I really have.

"Alloy?" Yang turns and asks James.

"She is here." He replies.

"Go ahead and sit up." Pietro allows. Ha, doctor's orders, he outranks James right now.

James tilts up, the sensation of being disconnected from touch and some of the deeper, unnamed senses, causing a bit of a dissonance with me. Balance, that's the sense I'm missing.

"If you would give Alloy control over your body, we can see if and how she is capable of interacting with your prosthetics." Ah, so that is why Pietro wasn't surprised when he called James up.

Between my secret nature and James' extensive augs, they would have convinced him that the only reason I am with James right now is to see if a Penny Tech body would work for me.

{Alloy?} James gives me permission.

{Thank you. Activating full perception and control now.}

And boy does that feel weird.

It takes me a few seconds of just sitting there to feel them out, to work out what it is I am feeling at all.

I realise it's the cybernetics.

That's... A lot more than I was expecting. Arm, Leg, shoulder and half his torso. Almost 50 percent of his body is synthetic. In fact, it feels like he was cut in half vertically, excluding head and neck, and replaced his right side with a robot.

The sensations are numbed, dulled. Still there, Remnant seems to have touch sensors installed in their prosthetics to allow some feeling, but it's still distinctly different. Even the older model that James probably has, he doesn't seem to be like the type that constantly upgrades his cybernetics to the newest model. With bugs and design flaws each new unproven model might have, but also... just how much there is.

Every upgrade would be a gamble on his life.

{Alloy?} James pulls me out of my thoughts and feeling.

{Apologies.} I formally apologise. {I am still getting used to the feeling of the augs.} Though, I suppose they aren't called Augmentations, this isn't Deus Ex Human Revolution. {Err, prosthetics. Sorry.}

{They do... take some getting used to.} I suppose he would know far better. {Doctor Polendina wants you to take control and see if you can operate them.}

I- whoa. Okay. That is far different to just sitting there, when I am in control. I slowly raise James' right arm and look at it, flexing the fingers. Open, close, open, close. One by one now...

Honestly, after a few seconds, I quite like it, but I suspect that's because I find robots and androids awesome.

Something tells me that James didn't ask for this.

I look up. Seems everyone is a little worried. Internally I smirk and whisper something to James for approval. "Wow Qrow, now wonder you hate James so much. His dick is bigger than yours!"

If he was drinking anything, it would be all over the floor. Qrow exhales suddenly, as if his body just betrayed him. Considering that James has lost that bit of 'equipment', that's a pretty steep insult, though my smirk on his face gives it away that I don't mean it.

I hope.

Yang cracks up at least, and the tension in the room drops once it's clear that I'm still me. "Ohh, so that's why you call him Irondick! He's jealous." Yang gets out.

Qrow wipes his face while Jaune begins to smile.

Then Qrow reaches for his hip flask. That is too good an opportunity, so I ask.

I stand up, just as the flask is reaching his lips, and I speak. "What's this setting? Moral support..."

Immediately the robotic arm under my control begins wanking the air.

The floor does become wet as Qrow starts hacking and coughing, his drink going down the wrong hole.

I gaze directly at him and again hit him. "Recalibrating size."

The long, powerful motions of the large invisible dick the arm is jerking off immediately drop to a tiny pinch of two fingers that are basically vibrating.

Any semblance of illusion that I am James is gone, though Qrow is...

I stop, and give control back over to James. {Now let's see if my assassination attempt worked...}

Qrow is having a lot of trouble breathing.

More tests and it seems I'm okay, stable. Not great, but I'm still 'alive' and my condition isn't worsening. Also, Pietro has a lot more data to go over to help with Penny, which I'm glad for. I've technically never met her, but I miss her.

Ruby's eager looks whenever we are here show she does too.

After the tests, I get ready to Transference out, only for James to stop me. Right, he and Qrow wanted to talk to me, in private, on the Amberheart. Forgot about that, but it's been a long and boring few days.

Yang looks as if she is going to protest. "Going to miss me?" I snark, though it's really to ask if she is going to be alright.

"Nah, you're awful. You haven't even been paying rent." I'll be fine.

I take a worried gasp. "Rent?" Despite the fake reaction, that does halt me a bit.

Money. When was the last time I worried about money, food, rent, all the life stuff that...

Earth.

Right.

James sits down in his smaller, private, office. Qrow is already sitting and has his feet up on the table, much to James' irritation. It's a few minutes before Winter, who is also coming, arrives.

I think I know what James wants to talk about.

When she finally arrives and sits down, James pushes me in front. Seems Qrow is going first. "Plan T."

Shit.

That's not at all what I was expecting. I hang my head. "Jump to Salem, buy as much time as possible."

"Not going to happen." Qrow counters.

"Last resort." I shoot back. Ozma told him, I suppose. Or told James.

James shifts his hand to indicate he is speaking. "And if Salem overpowers you and gains access to Terran weapons?"

I shift back. "Won't happen."

"How can you be sure?" Winter presses.

It's an ambush. "Because the moment before I jump, or after, I will overwrite those parts of myself. Did Ozma tell you the conditions I set in case I have to use it?"

Qrow's head turns slightly to the side. He did. Can't trust me, have to kill me.

James moves his hand. "Can you do that?"

"Yes." My word is bitter, hollow. Regretful. I can. I can overwrite myself. And I can kill myself. "If it buys even a second..."

"And what about everyone else?" Qrow's feet are no longer on the table, he put them down when Winter arrived I realise. "What about your plans, your help?"

"Are you accusing me of abandoning them?" I react angry. Hostile.

"I'm accusing you of abandoning yourself, and of hurting them. Of hurting us." Nice stab, Qrow.

"It's called a last resort for a reason, Qrow." I roll James' eyes.

"One you were quick to come up with." Winter, coming to Qrow's side. What terrible mutation have I inflicted on this world. "Too quick."

"It's an option. I'm not going to ignore it just because it'll hurt." Them, not me. I'll be dead.

"Ruby would stop smiling." That hits me in a way I didn't expect. Not that it hurts, but just how much it does. Qrow twists the knife. "Like after Pyrrha."

"She shouldn't look up to me." I mutter. "I'm no hero."

Qrow snorts. "Tough."

"The people who you saved would disagree." Winter follows up with logic where Qrow uses attacks on my emotions.

James moves his hand and speaks. "We all make choices that affect peoples lives. All that we can hope for is that we make the best ones we can."

Bastard takes my argument out from me before I can make it. The dead I made, the people I sent.

Too many dead children.

I couldn't save them all.

"That what this is then?" I ask. "An intervention?"

"You died." James attacks again. "And before that, you put yourself in harms way far too easily."

Qrow finishes me off. "Alloy, do you want to die?"

i

No, of course not. I wouldn't have survived if I just gave up...

I wouldn't have... celebrated my victory, my survival.

my...

'SCREW YOU DEATH!'

I only laughed and was happy because I won. Not because I survived. That I defeated death, not that I am still alive.

My first thoughts were that I saved the Silver Eyes from Adam. That there was a fight still going on that needed to end.

Not once was I grateful I was still alive. Not even now.

"Want to? No." I confess. "I just don't care."

If I died, things would be fine. Things would be normal. That's what my heart tells me.

My head disagrees. It points out all the ways my death would affect the people around me.

Did affect the people around me. Pyrrha, when I jump to her, she was in shock. I had to take control to push her out of it.

I look up at Qrow, really look at him. He saw me die, saw my ripped open and limbless corpse grinning as a line of Red exploded my head.

I look at Winter. She saw too. Not my death, but my body. Amber's body.

"Transference." I start. "When I first got it, my first thought wasn't, 'This is an evil power.' or 'Oh, that's really useful.' or anything like that. It was 'Of course.'."

I breathe with James' lungs. "Why? A few reasons, each one more important."

One. "With how I got here, bodyless and all. If I didn't have a soul and then suddenly got one, maybe it would develop a Semblance based on some event in my recent past. Say, jumping into a body that is not mine. So, of course I got Transference."

Number two. "I called myself Tenno, took up the name from a videogame it is from, something important to me. The second most important ability a Tenno has. So, of course I got Transference."

Three. "I've... never really like my body. I've hated it, actually. Always valued my mind far more than my body, even with my crippling low self esteem. It's why Warframe, the Tenno game, meant so much to me. At first it was just fun, but then the story started to happen and suddenly the idea of someone who can just switch bodies... So, of course I got Transference."

Four, always four. "And..." Breathe again. Admit to them, to myself. "I like fiction. Stories of people who are-"

The words are hard to get out. The idea is hard to expose. "Remnant, with it's colour and it's wide array of people, all self determined, all so... expressive of who they are..." I look to Winter, seeing Weiss in her. "I looked up to those people. People who are people. Not like me."

James' hands are very interesting. "Not like me. An audience member. A spectator. At most a voice in someone's head, helping them along, but never the character of my own story."

"I used to be afraid that I might overwrite whoever I was with, like Ozma. I still check it, but..." Not anymore.

Breathe again. Just, get the words out. "Of course I got Transference. I'm not canon. This isn't my story. I'm not the hero, you all are."

I look up at them, dead. Using James' face.

Not my own. I don't even have a body, I never did.

The one Amber gave me was thrown away. The ones I borrow are never mine.

"Bullshit." Qrow spits.

I smile emptily. Of course you get to say that. You're Mr drunk uncle of Yang and Ruby, agent of Ozma, teammate of Summer and member of the once Team STRQ.

Winter goes to speak, but I interrupt her. "If you are going to throw my 'acomplishments' at me, don't." She stops. "I cheated. Hard. And if I did nothing..."

Too many dead children.

"Pyrrha would be dead. You would be dead. Ruby wouldn't smile." Winter has learned from Qrow my triggers. "Yang would be dismembered and the teams broken."

"They're not the only people in the world. If I did nothing the Sieg-"

James takes over. "If the CCTS went down, there would be Sieges all across the world."

I wince internally.

It didn't. I thought the CCTS went down, but the virus isn't what took it down in Canon. It was the Wyvern literally destroying the tower. Oh, it went down for repairs and purging the virus, but that was controlled.

It didn't trigger massive fear and apprehension that leads to Grimm attacks across the world.

"Relations between Vale and Atlas are, paradoxically, stronger than ever." James continues. "Even after being made to look like idiots, you made it clear we were not traitors. Painted the Red Fang as the enemy to unite us."

I don't take back control immediately. James exploits that.

"You saw the worst of the Siege, always moving from hotspot to hotspot." I know, I know I have a distorted image of the Siege.

James pulls up the data on the Siege. Casualty reports, yes, but also a live map of the fight. "The idea of sending Huntsmen teams to target the oldest Grimm and drawing the rest into killing fields and alone turned the fight from hopeless."

What?

But that's so basic.

I look at the map projecting from his scroll. That can't be right though. I frown, hard, with James' face. "Do you not know what a killbox is?"

"Overlapping fields of fire concentrated on small regions where enemy forces are pushed or pulled into." James replies. "We do now."

What.

Oh.

OH!

"Remnant really hasn't had a war since the Great War, has it?"

Winter confirms. "There has not been a major armed conflict between Kingdoms since then, no."

"Nobody, 'cept Atlas, even has an army these days." Qrow follows up.

Jaune's sword and shield. They are heirlooms from the Great War. A literal sword and shield. "When were guns invented?" I ask to make sure.

"Before the War, but only Mantle had em. Well, Mistral too once Mantle gave them some." By-ragdolls-stuck-in-doors-badly-clipping, they don't understand mass tactics at all, do they?

I remember the attack on Atlas, the few scenes of the Atlas military from above. Blocks of soldiers with columns of Paladins between them standing out in the open as the Grimm rush them.

That's really how they fight, isn't it? "James. Bring up a simulation of Atlas under siege, like how I described in the OT."

Do they even have artillery? Is Dust so expensive that they can't have mortars or mines? Or is it a lack of conflict that has led to a stagnation of tactics?

"Later. We are getting off topic." He says, ignoring my revelation.

And rightfully so. Qrow snorts as I pout using James' face before James takes over and points at the casualty reports from the Siege. He never let me see them before now, despite my asking. Despite my guilt driving me to learn the names of the dead.

"How small is it?"

My borrowed eyes widen. Not thousands, not tens of thousands. A few of hundred. 712 people dead. How? No, it must be wrong. I saw more dead myself than-

Qrow interrupts. "Just 'cause a person isn't moving, doesn't mean they're dead. Lot of them were injured or couldn't take their Aura breaking and passed out."

"We had medical teams constantly going out and others moving injured people back." James follows up. "More than that was your presence. Hope. Then Unity."

The Grimm are drawn to fear.

And I was an icon, swooping in and saving the day. Never resting. Never stopping until the end. That was the basis of the Warbeat, of getting Vale up to some kind of state of Total War. Rather than having scared civilians hiding in the shelters, have them out working.

I move and put my hand on the holographic list of names. Children still died though. Parents too.

"It would have been much worse had you not been there." James says, but I still feel like he is lying. "The Attack on Vytal ended very quickly after you called for surrender. Far faster than what would have happened in the OT."

Because it wasn't just Ruby flashing her eyes and freezing the Wyvern. They abandoned Beacon entirely and still had to fight in the city. This time Beacon was saved, the Red Fang shattered in two and all the new members turning to fight the Grimm. The Amberheart overhead providing fire support.

"I still don't belong." I'm not canon.

"So?" Winter asks. "What is so important about that?"

Oh. Winter. The girl who left her family to run away and join the Atlas military, who no doubt felt out of place and isolated. Someone like her, a rich girl, would be well known by her fellow soldiers, possibly targeted because of it for harassment.

Still wrong. All my memories of RWBY, of the timeline. None of them have me. I feel like I'm invading, out of place and wrong. Too many fanfics of every fandom where 'I wake up in X universe and am immediately friends with everyone, especially my favs!'

Or saving the day and being awesome. Mary Sue, or a fix fic.

That's it. I feel like I'm in a fanfiction, the world still feels unreal. I haven't suffered any loss-

Death.

Amber dying.

The Siege of Vale is my fault.

Cinder got away.

Ruby is targeted now.

The trust between Ozma and everyone else is shattered.

"It feels like I hijacked Ozma's role." I admit and Qrow bursts out laughing.

It kinda scared me how loud and sudden it is. After a few seconds he explains.

"So? Fuck him." He winces. "Don't tell Ruby I said that."

"Swear." I mutter with a slight smile before he continues.

"He doesn't know what he's doing, and he misled us to think he was." The last words of his sentence turn bitter, Summer coming to mind.

"Nor do I." All my 'solutions' are stupid. Insane. Each one requiring a massive amount of resources and perpetration for a slim chance it might work, as well as the fact that if the 'solution' doesn't work, Salem will react.

"But you have told us that." James counters. "We know now, not just the OT-"

"Which is becoming increasingly invalid, don't rely on it." I interrupt.

"-but also that we can look forward and find a solution that works."

"Unlike Ozpin's 'plan'." Qrow mutters before taking a sip of his hip flask. "Ugh. Orange juice doesn't belong in a hip flask."

Funny, but by the look he is giving me also... pointing out that he would still be ever drunk were it not for me.

"It doesn't matter how much good I do." I still don't-

James' scroll beeps and he takes over, pushing buttons on his scroll, the display shifting to- "There are many people who would disagree."

It's a live feed of the- oh. No wonder James wanted me here now, with Pietro allowing it.

A crowd stand all around a large stone base set aside for an upcoming statue. The bastards really are going to make a statue of me.

Inscribed around the stone base are names. The names of those who died, and words of thanks for their sacrifice. My sacrifice.

Into the camera's sight walks a little boy. "I don't deserve tha-" I recognise him.

A little boy in tears, holding a man's hand. They lean down and put their item down, a picture of the mother I had to leave to die so I could save her son. She thanked me, not with words as her lungs were filled with blood, but with a look and a smile even as that same red leaked out from her lips.

By the time he was stable, I could only say one thing to her before she passed away. 'He will be safe.'

I could have saved her. Could have spent Aura and time to save her life.

At the cost of others. The 8% of Aura that would have been spent healing her went into 6 other people, her injuries too severe. The minute I would have had to spend to stabilise her would have cost those lives, and more.

For every second I wasn't in the sky, serving as a symbol the fight wasn't over, every second I spent burning Grimm, that saved far more people than using Amber's Semblance ever did.

712 people died. Hundreds of thousands lived.

The man picks up the boy and hugs him tight, tears in his eyes clearly being held back while the boy spills his freely. 'He will be safe.'

Others come now, other faces I know. I realise the reason the crowd hasn't covered the place in words and items is because the people I personally saved are going first.

I'm crying. Using James' face to shed tears I wouldn't allow myself to with Yang. The breakdown I long suppressed and only partially dealt with coming back.

The twins hold hands, so tight their fingers are white from cutting off. 'Stay together. Care for and protect eachother, and you will be alright.'

A sob rips it's way out of me and they lean down, as they never let go of eachother, and put a down a large photo with 6 faces on it, all smiling and cheerful posing for a picture before a picnic. The two twins in the photo are bored while their dead older family members...

"I can't. I can't." I cry.

Another one. He's alone after pushing his friend back, to show that he can do this. 'Got fight in you? Good. Then fight.' I realise I'm mouthing the words I spoke to them as I remember them.

Another. She's a huntress, and she is still alive. 'You get the bastard?' She asked me.

Another. "You know coffins aren't all that comfortable, would be easier to get up."

Another child. "Run. Laugh. Smile for her. Because you can, and because she can't, so you need to do it for her."

James' hands are wet with my tears as I struggle to breathe, struggle to see through the blurry eyes. Still the video stream is as clear as possible, my eyes locked on it.

"Second chance. Fancy going to a new high score?" Wearing a shirt, now full of holes and bloodstains, of a shooter video game.

"You're going to be alright, just breathe easy." She was small and had her throat torn open. A single blade on the Grimm's clawed hand almost took off her head.

More and more come, and every one I remember what I said to them.

"A Huntsman protects, are you still a Huntsman?"What I said to inspire them, heal them.

"You're boyfriend is putting up a hell of a fight protecting you. He'd be pissed if you gave up now." He rushes over and sobs, like I do now, that his boyfriend is okay.

"Air feels strange, right? Keep breathing it though, there you go." No blood in his lungs.

"You are going to be fine, you a dancer or a Huntress? Ha, both, of course." Ballet themed, how stupid.

"The dawn will be beautiful. Don't miss it." I tell the child as he hugs his father, both brought back from the edge.

"You're going to be alright." I lied. But... Here they are.

Another sob breaks out of me. "You're going to be alright." Another lie made true.

"She's gone, I'm sorry. Make them pay for it." He nods and grabs the gun to avenge his older sister.

"Will this break you? No, thought not." A Huntsman stands on a leg that was torn to shreds, ground still red with his blood.

"Have you ever flow on an airship before?" The youngest shakes his head while his sister or a very young looking mother mouths 'thank you'. Not for healing them, but for distracting him from the war around us, for calling for pickup.

Dozens more, (How did I help so many? How long was I fighting for?) come and go, and I remember every one. Some stand strong, some broken, many with people to lean on and support them.

I know who the last one is before she arrives. I know everyone I saved, every face and every word.

The little girl with blue hair, though I remember it purple with blood, the first one I healed, walks forward. Alone.

I can't breath.

She wasn't all that badly hurt.

Everyone else around her was dead.

She was sobbing as the Grimm came. As I bathed the place in white fire.

As I decided that simply killing Grimm wasn't enough.

She stands tall, hard, trying to keep herself strong.

Air forces itself into me.

We speak in sync. "Bad things happen. Run, be scared, live, and cry. But one day, when your ready, stand up. Say: 'ENOUGH! I will not be hurt by this anymore!' And then... Run, be scared, live, and cry. Not for what you lost, but for what you have to gain. Laugh, swear, do the little things that make you irritated. Bad things happen. It's up to us to make them good again."

She strides away to the arms of a family member or friend, tears held back where I spill them freely.

Nobody else approaches the half stone platform.

From above it comes, slowly lowered by cables and bullhead, covered in a cloth.

The statue lands. With a clunk.

Cables are removed.

Everyone who I healed comes forth and grabs the cloth.

They pull.

I scream silently and my chest constricts harder than should be possible as I see it.

Not a sign of great victory, though there are Grimm and fire. Not a sign of devastation, though there is ruins and debris.

A ring of tiny black marble Grimm around the edges are pushed back by a ring of white marble carved fire. In the center, a Woman kneels on tiny ruined buildings, larger than life, with a single arm outstretched to help. Kindness radiating off every facet of the shaped stone.

The statue is smiling.

I sob and scream as part of me dies.

No.

As part of me becomes alive again.

As I feel everything. Every loss and every life saved. Every physical stab at Amber's gift and every emotional peak I have lived through.

As nameless characters become people.

As I stop caring about canon and fanon.

As the metal plate is removed and I see the title inscribed around the base of the statue.

AMBER YUKI TENNO

I go silent.

The room is silent.

Then Qrow speaks. "So. That's what it means to be a Tenno." He looks from the statue to me. "Guess we little Huntsmen have a lot of catching up to do." Winter glares at him for a moment.

I laugh and cry, or some melded thing between.

After minutes I am finally spent.

And I am ready.

"James. You want to see Mettle, don't you?" I ask.

He nods. "I need to."

So, not want, but need. "Then these two should stay here. This isn't going to be pleasant."

James is the one sobbing now. I didn't show him everything, he doesn't really need to see Weiss sneaking coffee to Ruby in the middle of the night, but I did show him everything important.

I showed him how he trusted Ruby's group, and how they lied to him, betrayed him.

I showed him shooting a child as he turns.

I showed him how he lost himself.

I showed him as he helped destroy his Kingdom.

I showed him the survivors lost in the deserts of Vacuo.

I showed him broken before dead. 'And that's, Checkmate.'

I showed him as Mantle is flooded.

The only word he can get out is: "Why?"

Why did they lie? "Because it was Ozma's plan to go to you. Because the first thing they saw when they arrived was Grimm in the city. Because they were arrested for trying to help, for having weapons, when there are Grimm in the city. Because you either knew and didn't say, or didn't and would be broken. Because even after explaining your plan, it still put pressure on Mantle."

I sigh. "Because they are children. They wanted the best solution, one where everyone is safe and happy. They couldn't make the hard call."

Asking Ruby to choose lives. She has been raised on fairy tales, where the hero always saves the day, where everyone lives happily ever after.

"Because when they finally told you, it was too late. You had been under constant attack from the people you were trying to protect, made worse by Salem. You could only trust those who would stand by you, and then they stopped. You tried to carry the world, James, just like she planned. And it broke you, just like she planned."

I push memories of the conversations I have of Salem and her council talking about James, about Atlas. How they're scared that Ozma will talk some sense into him, how they don't want him calling for help from the other kingdoms.

How they were intentionally playing him by his strengths to isolate him and attack him. Not from a military perspective, but a psychological one.

To the point he was broken. "Mettle was beaten, James."

"I was beaten." He gets out. He can't separate the character of Mettle from himself like I can.

"James." Qrow speaks, and he looks up. "It'll be different this time. We'll make sure of it."

"They're all dead, Qrow. I killed Atlas." Oh James.

"You said there were survivors." Winter points out to me, I think. "You said 5%."

"No." I speak. "I rounded up, hard, to overcome the human minds flaw in understanding numbers." I mentally sigh. "Thousands. Not A hundred thousand, not tens of thousands. The most saved was 20 thousand, at most. Maybe 30 if you are being particularly generous."

"Saved." It's a pained, broken word coming from James.

I know. I'm sorry. I speak, spelling it out to Winter and Qrow, as well as to myself. "A panicked population, fully fearful from the Fall of Atlas, thrown into the deserts of Vacuo during a sandstorm with only a few huntsmen..." The Grimm shown would only be the first, and the least. A population like that, in those situation, with as few huntsmen and soldiers to defend them... Grimm would come in mass. Even with Maiden Winter... "Unless a lot of help came in an hour, maybe two, then..."

They wouldn't have survived. Even if by some miracle they pushed back the Grimm, food and especially water would kill them. None of them packed supplies or clothing or anything for the sudden change in location or the new situation. Winter's magic would give them some relief, but not enough. Far too little.

Unless they emerged right outside of Vacuo city, which was impossible to see due to the sandstorm... Even then, Vacuo's huntsmen wouldn't be able to fight well in that condition. Even then, the humanitarian crisis from a few thousand refugees suddenly putting strain on the Kingdom. Even then, the fear from the news and the population grieving would pull Grimm on an already weakened Kingdom from the Fall of Beacon.

No wonder Salem wasn't bothered by 'thousands' of people 'saved'. They would poison Vacuo's moral. Salem wouldn't even have to do anything, but she would.

They are as good as dead.

James' fists curl up as he blames himself, as he takes back control.

He looks up at Winter. "Specialist. I need to know you can beat me."

Even with how devastated he feels, he hasn't lost his way. He is planning contingencies, strategies, plans and failsafes.

So it never goes Mettle again.

One of them is Winter.

James and I had nightmares that night.

I fight them, James fights them, but the dead keep calling. Atlas keeps falling. People keep dying of thirst and Grimm in sand while others drown in too much water in snow. Never does he dream about the rocks falling on him, on the broken man.

Always they are falling on civilians whose names I don't know.

They scream that he betrayed them.

Atlas Academy's arenas are made of hard light, a tech I find very interesting. I didn't really think much of it during the team JNR and Oscar vs FNKI match. Nor am I thinking of it now as I sit silently in James as he fights Winter.

I do not help as they fight, beyond telling James to go all out, that Mettle would and he needs to know she can beat him, really beat him.

James wins.

Damm.

A 'test' with Pietro, myself jumping across to Qrow while Jaune refilling James' and Winter's Auras. Now Qrow and I stand in the observation booth watching the rematch.

James is winning. With the Aura sensors and even my understanding of combat, I can see that.

{She's holding back.} Qrow explains to my novice eyes.

{James isn't. He knows her too well, and he needs to know she can beat him at his best.} Winter just has too much respect for him right now, while James is using his formidable will to make himself fight as hard as he can.

Winter's Aura breaks as she collapses against the wall. I mentally sigh while Qrow takes a sip of... Pineapple juice? Huh. Guess he's trying out new flavours.

{Think you can push the Ice Queen?} Shit. I know exactly what he is asking.

But he's right.

{Watching her sister die... would probably do it.} James looks up at us in the observation booth. {Looks like James has the same idea. I won't Transfer across unless she volunteers though, really volunteers. Not if she only does it because he orders it.}

Even if she accepts, even if I push her...

Pietro gets more data. Winter...

'WEISSSS!' Winter's haunting scream echoes in the memory shared as as the real Winter's rigid body strains with her tense muscles after watching the Fall of Atlas.

Winter gets a new nightmare. Several new nightmares.

But Weiss falling will be the biggest, even as the real Weiss hugs her.

I am still with her when we walk into the arena. Memories and terrible ideas ready to be pushed across the moment she hesitates.

Winter has looked up to James for so much of her life. Not just as her superior officer, but as the General of the Atlas Military, ready to protect the people. And, as I am learning, as a bit of a mentor.

{If you had to choose...} Weiss or James.

Winter draws her weapons, shifts her stance, and speaks. "Weiss."

Can she beat him? Winter is good, but James is so much older, so much more experienced.

In canon, the Penny Killer cannon was a detriment, even with it's sneak attack on Winter. If she wasn't injured still, she would have beaten him if he used it. Winter might be unhurt, but this James doesn't have it.

We rush forward, Glyphs on her feet accelerating her faster than her Aura boosted leap alone could. I immediately realise she is too aggressive, too wound up from the memories to fight clever.

James does too, and he has been learning from the past spars. Due Process black fires and he janks out of the way, the weapons gravity rounds adding the extra momentum needed to counter Winter's increased mobility from her Paradigm Shift.

His feet impact the raised hard light pillar and I feel his Aura flare as he uses it to jump off the side of the structure. Into Winter's side.

She doesn't turn fast enough.

A pair of Glyphs fade in the air where her feet was as she is thrown back by his blow, her blade coming up to block the shot he fires as a follow up despite still being mid-air.

{Advice?} Well, that's unexpected, Winter asking me for help.

{You're too aggressive, emotional, so play into that and his expectations. Feint.} I do my best to help, even if it's tipping the scales.

Winter lunges again, this time at an angle towards a pillar while James leaps upwards at one, both abandoning the ground. My mind runs through possibilities and limitations.

James only has 12 shots each gun, damage and gravity, so him going high is a disadvantage to him. While he can manoeuvrer very well, he can't maintain it for long. Nor can he afford to waste shots.

{Target has severe ammo limitation, Paradigm Shift summon a Nevermore swarm in blind spot.}

Ammo is his biggest limitation. In close quarters he holds a major advantage, in strength and durability with his augs as well as him having at least twice as much experience. Winter might be good, but James augs aren't a cosmetic choice.

They clash, blade blocked by gun before sudden pain flares up as James headbutts her over the locked weapons.

A momentary distraction, but all that is needed for Winter's offhand blade to lose focus, and for James to fire two shots into her gut.

That's when the Nevermore arrive and hit him from behind. {Glyph the barrel end of black.}

Winter ducks, twists, slashes with the free main blade in feint while her focus sits on blocking the end of the gravity gun. James attempts to escape the Nevermore swarm but using it.

With the force from the shot amplified by the round itself impacting at the end of the gun, James is given far too much push. That should have shattered or damaged the weapon beyond use, but Remnant's engineering and materials science plays into his aid.

Either way, he impacts another pillar and falls to the ground. Winter again rushes him, and I whisper to defend the swarm with Glyphs from his incoming fire before getting her to cloud his vision with the white mist they create.

Enough for Paradigm Shift to come into play again and her to force him into the wall with a small but powerful set of Glyphs. James' strength will break them in a moment.

But that moment costs him three heavy hits to his Aura.

Again I plan and this time the Paradigm Shifted Glyphs form underneath his feet, disrupting his footing.

James is powerful. Skilled. Tough.

But he isn't as adaptive as he would like. Brittle, that's the word Yang used to describe someone who has gotten used to fighting the same opponents over and over. James isn't brittle because of that, but because overwhelming power and speed has let him win.

There is a term in game design that I've forgotten, though I know what it is. A simple, powerful technique that lets new players get a feel of how to play and to score some easy wins. Powerful, but not as powerful or versatile as more complex and harder to used ones.

{Pinch weapon between two Glyphs and twist to break his grip.} James spins mid air as he refuses to release his weapon, but that plays into Winter's next strike.

In game design, it's a good idea to have, but you have to make it not work early on. Or a player will grow to rely on it too much. So when they encounter something it doesn't work on, they will know to adapt and do something else.

James has mastered the basics, and has the experience and intelligence to adapt to most gimicks and quirks of a Semblance. Because that's how a lot of Remnant's fighters fight. A couple of gimmicks and a few shared basic skills.

Emerald uses her illusions, Ruby her speed and momentum, Roman the environment, Penny her many blades and later flight. A small set of skills that can be learned and adapted to mid fight.

But if you keep changing your tactics, keep them off guard, have a wider set of skills and abilities to draw from.

Winter doesn't need my input for her next trick. A Glyph forms and James fires his gravity gun to rush towards her, to get in close where he can leverage his strength and avoid Winter's ranged attacks. He rushes right into the Glyph.

James fighting style is like his strategy. Powerful, direct, and vulnerable to ever changing conditions.

Icy mist blooms out of the Glyph James is kissing and visibility drops. The last of the nevermore swoop in, as well as two small glyphs that slash at James' Aura.

He swings, hard, at the air. Nevermore shatter and the mist clears.

We are above him and coming down hard, but he doesn't see that. Too distracted by a third Glyph just at the edge of his vision spitting fire at him.

He leaps to the side to avoid the fire blast while Winter's feet Glyphs redirect our flight enough for us to hit him.

He goes down on one knee as his Aura flickers.

Black Due Process fires and he fires a shot from White at us.

The end of his gun explodes as Winter recycles the barrel jamming trick.

Winter pushes forward, blades slashing at him, an absolute look of concentration on her face as she focuses less on fighting him and more on disrupting him. Changing the rules of the fight.

I do not provide any more help, it would only distract her now, and she needs to be able to do this on her own. More than that, she finally understands how to beat him.

Disrupt, distract, deceive, and never let him gain his footing. Never let him take a moment to think. Push and undermine.

James's Aura shatters as he hits the ground, black gravity glyphs messing his latest attempt at attack up as Winter redirects him.

When he looks up, her blade is at his throat.

Before it drops, Winter panting.

"You had help." James says after he catches his breath. 'Can you beat me alone? If you needed to?'

"Only in the beginning, sir." Winter replies. 'Yes.'

Her weapons go away, and she holds a hand out. I smile.

As much as she may need to beat him, she is still his friend. Still his ally. Still trusts him.

James takes it with his organic hand.

And I get to see him smile.

{Again.} I state in Winter's head. While I'm here, I might as well do some training.

6 Glyphs fly around us in formation, before breaking up and going independently. Winter frowns, hard, as she tries to track and fly 6 distinct objects in a coordinated but unpredictable manner.

It doesn't work. {Stop.}

She huffs, more frustrated with herself than with me.

I pause and think. {New plan. Permission to-}

{Yes.} I do keep asking for permission every time I want to do something, which is getting kind of irritating I think. Or she's still frustrated with herself.

I call up a small Glyph in front of us and focus. It moves in a wide arc. Hmm.

Again. Hmm.

What if I...

I mark 4 places in space mentally and then move the Glyph between them randomly. That... Isn't working like I would like. It should just be like moving a limb, but it's not. Not... yet. {Please call out a random number between 1 and 4.}

{2.} Winter sends me and I move it to position 2. {Ah. 1.} 1.

1, 2, 1, 4, 3, 4, 2, 1, 4, 3, 3, 2, 1. Slow at first, then faster. The Glyph begins to spaz out. I add two more points in space, then a second Glyph.

It takes every second number, as the first one is still moving, and the result is a mess to look at. To track. Even at only two Glyphs. But I'm not looking or tracking the Glyphs separately, I'm just mentally tracking the number locations and moving it towards them.

Then I take the entire set of numbers, of points, and rotate them around Winter's body in a locked orbit.

Every step I feed what I am doing to Winter as I invent a new training exercise. She might be able to summon and control 6 Glyphs, but only at the speed she can think of it, which means they tend to fly in formation.

I stop.

{Now to apply the concept to a different concept.} I mentally generate a small list of actions. Arcs, zig-zag motions, a straight line, no movement at all. Apply a letter to each one and give Winter the list.

A single Glyph moves along preset pathways, preset motions, in a random order. Every letter called out triggers the next movement, but the component movements themselves are becoming slightly easier. Something that Winter points out to me.

Excellent.

Now two Glyphs, each with their own letter action sequence. Rather than control each Glyph constantly, though that is a skill needed, having a shared skillset of movements drawn from a random sequence of letters seems to be easier.

Winter points out it's like learning to fight. You drill each move in isolation before working them together into a sequence before finally blending them all together.

I was thinking of it like pushing buttons for a fighting game character.

{Of course you were.} Winter sighs. {Still, this would serve as a basis for an entirely new fighting style.}

{Good.} I clap before blinking. I'm still in control of her body. Opps. Time to pass back control. {I suppose they'll call it the Schnee fighting style or Winter's Blitz or something.}

It's funny how I just added to a clan fighting technique. Not that the Schnee are like a Naruto clan or anything.

{Or perhaps we will name it after Yuki, the person who taught it to us.} Winter teases me. That's odd.

{Are you feeling alright? That was dangerously close to being a positive emotion.} I counter tease back.

{You have been spending far too much time with Qrow.} There we go, that's better.

I'm half giddy with excitement, half trying to maintain a serious mindset as James and I look through all of Atlas' secret research projects. I mean, so cool, literal top secret stuff here, but also I am looking through them for a reason.

To see if any can end the world.

I'm actually a bit stunned that James is even allowing this, seeing how short of a time he has known me, but that is apparently just my trust issues flaring up again.

Yes, he has only known me for a little while, but I've hard proven to be trustworthy. Dying, saving and giving away advance technology.

As well as ruining their trust in Ozma.

I stop on one. It's not world threatening.

It is worrying. {You didn't tell him.}

James sighs. {No. Dr Polendina is... far too optimistic to allow his technology to be used for something like this.}

Before me is the design for the Aura Transfer Machine, based on Pietro's work. Not designed by him though. He designed and used a smaller scale device to help create Penny, while this is just a very large version.

Designed to rip the soul out of someone and shove it into someone else.

Pyrrha was right. It's wrong. Morally wrong. I might not have spent much time in Remnant, but even I can see that. Havok, my Semblance is basically what this machine is suppose to do, what James hopes it would do, and the first thing Qrow did was beat into me how morally evil it is.

The fact that this can be forced on someone, like Amber, is worrisome. Fria was basically sleeping in one, just in case, in the OT.

She isn't quiet at that stage yet here, but her room has one in there.

{What would you have done?} James asks me, suddenly.

{About what, in particular?}

He hangs for a moment. {Atlas falling.}

It's been on his mind ever since I told him about it, back at Beacon. Showing it to him though...

I sigh. {My first thought would be to use the staff to create a mirror, prism and lens array, and then have Ruby use her Silver Eyes to power an anti Grimm superweapon network. It's light, after all. Casts shadows, might reflect of surfaces and stuff. But that would have taken Atlas down. So, I would rephrase the request. I would have used the staff to generate a 'flying city fortress' of Atlas, giving the Artist schematics of existing and proposed weapons. The Artist can't destroy, but he can create weapons.} Just delete the enemy army.

James huffs, as if he was about to start laughing only to find he has no joy to put into it. {That simple.}

{Yeah. For final type of attack that Salem leveled at you, yes. Maybe she would use that as 'James can't be trusted, he might turn said weapons he was hiding downwards'. There would be a lot of questions from people where such a thing came from, and why Mettle's rule thus far was so awful. But those are medium and long term problems.}

{Atlas would survive.} James mutters.

{I might be optimistic, but unlike Ruby, I understand there are limits. I'm just sometimes clever enough to look for and see the option that lets us win.}

{It wouldn't have worked, would it?} James asks and I wince.

{No. Short term, rasing Atlas is a good idea for the current threat. Long term. Dust. Water. Moral. Salem is immortal, she can wait until you have to send craft down and then attack them. A prolonged siege with the endless and tireless Grimm on the ground. If you had flown Atlas to another Kingdom, then maybe.} But that's not what you were thinking.

{Tell me.}

James is beating himself up, yes, but he is also making sure that he never tries to do anything like that again.

{Water. Even with the Maiden, growing crops requires a lot of water. If you were above the clouds, then you would need to send ships down to siphon water moisture, inefficient, from them. That would make them vulnerable to the Grimm. Dust, well, it's on the ground. You would need to send teams down to find, mine and then return with the Dust, making them vulnerable to the Grimm.}

I sigh. {Worse, any team that goes down might come back up with Salem's agents. Or any other aircraft approaching.} James winces physically. {Then they kill the Maiden. Or even from the ground, they broadcast the Maiden and the Relic. The resulting panic from some of the population, either from them realising how fine of a line they are on, or the less sane elements trying to take what either power for themselves, would plunge Atlas into a restrained civil war.}

Keep going. Keep extrapolating. {You would crack down hard, turning the city of Atlas into a military state, police conducting random checks with excessive power, corruption from both people and Salem exacerbating the situation, everything checked and monitored. Nobody would have any freedom anymore. That's if you 'won'.}

James hangs his head. {It would be the Color Crisis all over again.}

{Yeah. If you lost, some idiot uses the staff and Atlas falls. Or the Maiden is killed and the power goes to someone untrustworthy, or to someone on the ground. All Salem would have to do is wait. Except...} It's not a sob, more an exhalation of air. {One, Salem would be free to move on all other Kingdoms, and two she can design Grimm.}

He realises. {She would make high altitude Grimm and attack the city. Even without a major offensive, the entire basis of my power would be Atlas free of the Grimm. A simple, single sighting would cripple that. An attack would destroy it.}

{If she was lazy, or needed to put extra pressure on you earlier, she could decorate and paint a bullhead black and have it get spotted. Wouldn't even need to design a Grimm.}

James does laugh at that. {A Kingdom taken down by a single passenger aircraft.} It's bitter. {I am very glad you are not on her side.}

I grin. {If I were your enemy, even without knowledge of the OT or Terran Tech, you would have already lost.}

{Never use Plan T.} He counters and robs my of my self confidence boost.

I sigh. He's right. They're right. There's too much risk I might survive and be shaped into working for her. {I swear.}

.

{It was never about Plan T, was it?} I ask after a moment.

{No. We brought it up because of how quickly you devised it. Because of how worried Ozpin was that you were almost eager to use it.} I... I didn't... was I? I can't tell.

{It was a good plan.} I protest weakly.

{No it wasn't.} James intones.

Bastard. {No it wasn't.} I quickly agree. {Hate all of you.}

No I don't.

I go back to the top secret documents and continue scrolling through them, looking for Fusion, Fission, any matter-energy equivalence technologies, faster than light anythings, self replicating robots, basically any tech that might end the world.

Oh look, super dense alloys made from gravity Dust pressing on them. That might end the world, if they achieve fusion. Looks like the levels are way too low though. Still, I get James to nudge it down if it crosses a line though, just in case.

Winter wins, 5 to 3. Only once since I was with her did James win, and it was close at that. Winter has picked up on the distract, disorient and destroy strategy well.

I'm with James as he falls flat, Winter's summon holding him against the wall with it's claws, mouth charging a blast that would take off his head. Our head, I suppose.

It fades away and we fall, James panting.

"Excellent." He manages to get out after Winter helps him up.

This time she fought him long enough for his weapons to run out of ammo.

"Thank you Sir." Winter preens a bit.

"Yeah yeah, break it up you two." Qrow interrupts. "We're going to be late if you two keep making eyes at eachother."

Winter manages to retain her composure, but I suspect that is only because James is right here. Ever since I joked about Qrow's dick compared to James, everyone has sniggered whenever he tried to make a jab at James. So, he switched tactic to shipping and alluding to James and Winter.

Even asked me what the shipping name is for it, but I don't know. Had to make it clear I'm not a shipper.

Still, he is right. If we are here much longer we will be late.

A few minutes later and we arrive, in Dr Polendina's lab.

Everyone else is there, all of Team RWBY and JNPR, and now Qrow, Winter, James and I. Oh, and Pietro, but he hasn't really left this room for a while except to sleep and eat.

Today is the day he tries to bring Penny back.

A glance at the door as we walk in, a nod, and he returns to the display, fingers clattering across the keyboard. Already a much smaller Aura Transfer Machine is in place, cables running to Penny's half torso still hanging from the roof.

That's a bit morbid, now that I think about it. He has basically been living in a room with half his dead daughter hanging from the roof. That can't be good for his mental health.

The bags under his eyes, and the obvious weight loss, show that as well.

After a couple of minutes, he stops.

"Are you ready, Doctor?" James asks.

He nods. "As much as I will ever be." He looks, not to Jaune, but to Pyrrha.

She's noticed the Aura Transfer Machine and has been looking at it warily the entire time, though now she looks up and nods to Pietro.

She swears.

Good enough for him it seems. He nods in return and calls Jaune up who helps him out of his robotic wheelchair? Spiderchair, and onto the table.

A few buttons are pushed, before he hesitates. "Thank you."

Just in case he doesn't make it.

He will.

The last button gets pushed.

Pietro didn't scream, not with the process being a much lower level than what they tried to do to Amber. He does groan though as part of his soul is pulled off and flows into Penny. Jaune follows instructions they must have practised at least a hundred times.

James and I stand by and watch the process as it completes, as the machine turns off, and Pietro is helped back into his spiderchair.

Ruby and Pyrrha stand nervously, with Pyrrha falling back on her public presentation training and Ruby fiddling around, unsure what to do with her hands.

Penny's best friend breaks first. "Did it work?"

Pietro at least gives a chuckle at her eagerness. "It would seem it did. Give me a moment to... There."

A head on a neck, connected to the upper part of a curved plate serving as a ribcage that wraps around a glowing green orb suddenly opens it's eyes.

The first word out isn't some confused murdering, not the panic of her last moments. It's- "RUBY!"

Cheerful. Smiling. Alive.

Ruby rushes forwards and hugs her, crying. "Ruby, what is wrong?" She looks down. "Oh, I seem to have misplaced something."

"Nothing's wrong Penny. Nothing at all." Ruby tries to explain, but Penny is still a bit oblivious.

"Then why are you crying?" While she tries to explain that, I talk to James.

{One day, scenes like this will be common. Only, they will have no tears, no deep seated fears. One day, that black terrible thing will be gone, and nobody will ever cry when someone dies again. Because Death will be dead, a short visit to the other side, and never the gaping hole of loss and pain it now is. Civilisation will outgrow such petty, primitive concepts like Death, and move forward towards something greater.}

"Salutations, Pyrrha Nikos! That is some Semblance you have there. I didn't even realise what was happening until it was too late! Congratulations!" Penny congratulates her killer, because Death is such a small thing.

What was important was that she had fun in the match, as short as it was.

Pyrrha breaks down crying too, the weight of guilt suddenly gone.

Pietro walks up to his daughter, and the years he seemed to have lost suddenly return to him.

A quote, a lesson, learned from an old fanficion again echoes through my head. 'This was what magic was for. Not killing and war.'