Peace was a once-familiar face, now long forgotten in our bleak world. Those who wage our wars fight to determine the lives and deaths of all below them. It's our ideals that shape us as people, and our leader's ideals that shape us as a nation, but those some ideals lead us down the path of conflict. The same path that drags humanity kicking and screaming back to the dark ages. The same path that very well could be the end of it all.
Weiss let out an annoyed sigh as she headed towards team RWBY's dorm from lunch, not enjoying the fact that there appeared to be two boys in there that did not belong, both voicing their opinions on some matter loudly. Pushing her through the doorway, she was able to more clearly hear what the pair was discussing. Both of them looked towards each other, Neptune appearing concerned and quite frankly frightened, while Sun appeared a little more expressive of anger.
"What do you mean they 'just took over Mistral', they can't just do that."
"Well they did, Sun. Every major city's under Atlas control."
"That's bull Neptune, they couldn- you. Do you know what your family an' Atlas just did?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Atlas just invaded, scratch that, took over Mistral. According to Nep here they did it because 'they couldn't stand to see Faunus treated just like people, instead of animals'."
"And what exactly do you mean by that?" Weiss's body displayed her high annoyance levels, with her arms crossed over her chest and face scrunched in defensiveness.
"Uhh, 'scuse me princess, but whose family is one of the richest and most Faunus-hating in all of Atlas? Oh, right, yours." Sun took a step towards her, his fists clenched, though Weiss was sure he wouldn't hit her.
"Well it's not like they ever tell me anything anyways! How was I supposed to know? Just because my parents are friends with the leader doesn't mean they came to me like I had any say!"
"You know what? I'm out. Your family supplies the nation that attacks my people and my nation and you stand here and act like it's fine! Like everything's just peachy 'cause 'oh me Miss Little Racist didn't know nothin' about no invasion', just screw off." The blonde-haired boy stormed out of the room.
"I never said it was alright!" Weiss shouted after him, her voice echoing the hall. She spun and slammed the door to the room, going over to where her bed would be before realizing that Neptune was still standing there awkwardly.
"I-I'll just go, uhh, try to, umm, sorry.." Neptune headed out of the room, quietly shutting the door behind him with a slight click.
He comes in here accusing me, like I had anything to do with it. I don't like the Faunus but I wouldn't try to take over a kingdom about it… Weiss stormed over to her desk, shaking her head
Jaune whistled as he made his way through the threshold of the door and into JNPR's dorm, heading towards his bed that he'd set his Scroll on, before noticing Pyrrha on her bed, facing the wall. She was slouched over, her body language giving off the vibe that something was up. "Uhh, Pyrrha, is something wrong?"
"Jaune, I… The news…" It was all Pyrrha could get out. She was too worried about her family, about whether or not they were safe, to care about explaining the situation.
"News? What news?" Before Jaune could go on to speak, an announcement came on, Ozpin's voice filling the school.
"Attention students of Beacon Academy, there is an emergency assembly being held in the assembly room. Please attend if at all possible."
And with that announcement over, Jaune noticed Pyrrha slowly lift herself out of bed, and slip on her shoes. She hid her face as best as she could from Jaune, but he could see the how red and puffy her eyes were. As dense as he may sometimes be, he connected the dots. He figured that the emergency assembly would shed some more light onto the matter.
The headmaster of Beacon sat in his office, facing out the large window, accompanied by the ever-so-talkative Glynda Goodwitch who paced her way back and forth the room.
"I can't believe they did this. What are we supposed to tell the students?" Glynda, not one to get overwhelmed very often, was currently struggling to digest the news. Ozpin, on the other hand, looked as stone-faced as usual, processing what he had heard for himself.
"The truth. They're going to find out anyway, so why not tell them directly?"
"Ozpin you can't be serious-" The green-suited man ignored her, and began his announcement. .
"Attention students of Beacon Academy, there is an emergency assembly being held in the assembly room. Please attend if at all possible." He pushed down on his cane as he lifted himself off of his chair, and headed towards the aforementioned room. Glynda followed suit, voicing her frustration with Atlas's decision rather vocally.
"I bet Ironwood did this. He's always wanted a war, something to make him look strong. What a pathetic man." She spat the words out of her mouth, appearing as though she had just brushed her teeth and downed some orange juice in one go.
"Now, Glynda, we do not know about General Ironwood's involvement in this, so I would prefer to hold off on judgement until we know more." Ozpin headed up the stage steps, students already filing in, anxious to hear the news if they hadn't already. Luckily, classes were not being held, so they were not interrupted. Kind of them to reserve war for an off day.
Ozpin glanced at the multitude of students before him, patiently waiting until he saw no signs of more entering the room. He began his speech, not happy to break the bad news to them all.
"As you may have heard, Atlas has occupied Mistral, for lack of a better word. We've been informed by the leaders of Mistral that all students will remain here at Beacon. As for our students from Atlas and Vacuo, you are to remain here in Vale until further notice. Classes may or may not resume as scheduled given the circumstances."
There was a low hum of noise coming from the mass of people in front of him from that admission, but Ozpin's expression remained resolutely nonplussed as he looked amongst each of the different faces of his students. Some displayed confusion; others anger; a few even expressed outright fear.
Still, there was little he could do.
He continued, barely letting the brief silence affect his confidence."That is all for now. I will make announcements when we are made more aware of the situation." Ozpin releases a sigh as he heads back towards his office, expecting the Council to contact him again soon.
I suppose I should clear things up. Atlas, Remnant's leading military power by quite a bit, offered all of us a solution to our increasing Grimm problems. Their security bots would roam our streets, as well as our villages, in case of Grimm threats. Of course, they would send human soldiers as well, but the deal mainly comprised of the machines.
Vale's council immediately declined, recognizing the threat it could pose, especially considering Atlas and Vale's rising tensions. Once close allies turned bitter enemies, each tried to outdo the other over and over. Leaders having a pissing contest, that's all that they were. Eventually, calmer heads prevailed on Vale's side, and patched up relations. This shattered when Atlas proposed the deal, taking it a sign of mistrust that Vale would not allow them to have military presence inside of it.
Mistral on the other hand, fully accepted. The country wasn't poor necessarily, but military-wise they certainly lacked. Their leaders figured that having less Grimm, while simultaneously not spending any money, was easily worth allowing their largest ally military access into their lands.
Vacuo, as neutral as always, opted for the middle-man route. They only allowed human soldiers, as well as keeping their numbers limited, and in areas that were very heavily-infested with the Grimm. They, like Vale, were wary of Atlas's large military presence, especially considering their leader's rather close-minded views on faunus rights would clash with the faunus population in Vacuo and Vale.