A/N: so this is yet another Story of mine I don't know that I will do very much with it until I get some of my other story's a bit farther along. But it was an interesting concept that I wanted to get down. So the first thing to understand is that this story takes place at the end of the Faunus Rights War. This is a different war that the Great War that Qrow talks about in the world of Remnant. So obviously most of the characters involved will be OC's just because our beloved RWBY cast hasn't even been born yet. Another note I will make is that this fic is a Summer/possibly Ruby are faunus AU. So yeah enjoy!

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They're monsters. That was all Sergeant Tanner Rose could think as he saw a Faunus huntsman jump off the tank that he had just destroyed. The Faunus themselves were just soldiers, like him, but the huntsmen and huntresses on either side were nothing short of terrifying. They would tear through defenses like they didn't exist and slaughter companies of men at a time. Normally that wouldn't be too much of an issue, let the huntsmen fight huntsmen and soldiers fight soldiers. But at this moment they had no huntsmen of which to speak and what the enemy had was destroying their well fortified position. Tanner looked out across the battlefield to see even more Faunus soldiers pour over the hill on the other side. There is no way we can hold here. He walked down the trench towards the center of their line. When he got there he found his company commander.

"Lieutenant Arc!" Tanner called out.

"Sergeant Rose, What can I do for you?" the Arc called back. Tanner came up beside the young lieutenant so that they could talk without being overheard.

"Sir, we can't hold this position, we need to fall back." Tanner told him.

"Sergeant we were ordered to hold this position," The Lt. answered, "unless I get a message from Colonel Winchester.."

"With all due respect, sir, screw Colonel Winchester!" Tanner interrupted, "That coward evacuated with the headquarters company as soon as the enemy arrived with huntsmen!"

"Sergeant!" the Arc began.

"No, Sir, if we stay here we will all be dead!" the Arc seemed to consider, until they both heard a roar coming from the other side of the hill.

"It's General Lagune's Tanks!" one of the soldiers called out recognizing the unit emblem on one of the tanks that came over the hill. Tanner also recognized the emblem, but decided that the Faunus riding in the gun turret signaled the tanks change of allegiance. Apparently Lieutenant Arc noticed this as well and it made up his mind.

"Not anymore, everyone fall back!" he ordered, "scatter into the forest, we will link back up at division headquarters! Go!" the men seemed to hesitate until the first shell flew overhead and detonated on one of their bunkers. There was no organized retreat as the men scrambled to grab whatever gear they had set down and took off into the snow covered forest with their winter cloaks fluttering in the wind. Meanwhile Arc took out his sword and shield, unlike the rest of the unit his wasn't standard issue. It was a family heirloom from the great war, and so it bore his family crest rather than Vale's crossed axes.

"Sir, what are you doing?" Tanner asked.

"Someone has to stay behind and cover our retreat, might as well be me, now go!" It took Tanner all of half a second to decide that was a bad idea. The Lieutenant was brave, no question, but he was young and naive. He wouldn't be able to hold of the approaching enemy for any given amount of time. Furthermore, Tanner knew that the Arc had aspirations of becoming a huntsman when they got back, and could actually do it, whereas he was simply a flunkie college student who joined Vale's army out of patriotism.

"No, Sir, you need to go with the men, I'll hold them off." Tanner grabbed the Lt. before he could head towards the enemy.

"Sergeant Rose, I made a promise to get all of you home," the Arc said, "an Arc always keeps his promises."

Why can't this ever be easy? Tanner thought to himself, "Sir, I'm not a hero, I'm not going to die here, but we are going to need huntsmen when this war is over, and that's you sir, so you get back to division headquarters and I'll meet you there!" after a few moments of debating with himself before finally nodding.

"You better keep your promise Rose, I'll see you there alive." the Arc said as he ran into the forest.

"You too sir." Tanner said before looking at what he had to work with. The trenches meant that there would only be a few paths that the tanks would be able to take without getting stuck, and the river nearby would be his best bet of escape. He went to the now abandoned supply shed and found what he would need, extra bullets, dust grenades, and timed explosives. He could hear them meticulously searching or destroying any potential ambush points on their way towards him. It made him want to find every recruiter that had told them they were going to fight dumb animals and smack them. The Faunus were neither dumb nor animals, and many a soldier had died learning that the hard way. He spent the next ten minutes hastily constructing as many traps and bombs as possible. He had just finished setting another timed explosive in a major walkway when he heard several footsteps behind him.

"Hands up Greenie!" the lead Faunus soldier called out. Tanner doubled over laughing, though the motion was to conceal him pulling a fire dust grenade from the pouch he had put it in earlier.

"GREENIE!" he said while still laughing, "Is that what you call us!" the Faunus soldiers looked at each other, probably sharing the thought that he was crazy.

Let them think what they want, Tanner thought, in a few moments I'll get out of here.

"Yeah, well you wear green uniforms." the Faunus told him, it was true the Valean soldiers wore green fatigues under their white winter cloaks, even still Tanner laughed harder.

"what do you call the Mistralli? Brownie's?" he said, he had finally gotten the grenade free and was fiddling with the pin.

"Enough!" the lead Faunus shouted apparently getting flustered, "put your hands up or we'll shoot!" Tanner stopped laughing, well now or never.

"Are you sure you want me to do that?" he asked quietly, apparently the Faunus hearing was as good as he had heard because the Faunus responded with a "yes!" Tanner took the grenade in one hand and the pin in the other and raised both hands above his head.

"Grenade!" one Faunus shouted and they all dove for cover, at the same time Tanner threw the grenade at them and dove into the nearby river. He swam downstream towards allied lines. When he got as far as he could with his head under water, which was much further than he had believed possible, he got out of the water. He did a quick equipment check, his cloak had a large tear in it now, he still had his rifle and sword and shielth, though he lost the grenades as well as much of his extra ammo.

"Darn, I could really have used that." Tanner mumbled to himself. He jerked his head up as he heard the first of his traps being detonated, whether it was because it had been triggered or the Faunus had brought in explosives experts to destroy them didn't matter, they would be slowed down either way. A breeze picked up through the forest and suddenly reminded Tanner why you didn't go swimming in full clothing in the dead of winter. "I need to find shelter."

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It was well into the evening when Tanner spotted a small half destroyed cabin hidden well within the forest. He wandered inside and found a fireplace with firewood already stacked beside it. After a quick search to ensure the cabin was empty, he started a fire. Once the fire was started he began to take off the white cloak and the green jacket of his uniform, as he was clearing layers he heard movement near him. A glimpse out the corner of his eyes showed a pair of canine ears, atop a humanoid form. As fast as he could, Tanner ripped his Valean steel sword from it's shielth and brought it around to strike the enemy soldier who had failed to sneak up on him. His blade passed inches over the top of the Faunus's ears. Tanner blinked, the Faunus was way to short. He looked down at the tiny wolf Faunus, to see that it was a child. Her pure silver eyes were staring wide with fear, at him. She couldn't have been more than four or five, if that.

'What is a Faunus child doing here?' Tanner thought, 'I thought they were being forced into Menagerie, that's what this whole war was about.' He realised that several moments had passed and neither he nor the little girl had moved. The girl flinched as he returned the sword to it's shielth.

"Uh, are you cold?" Tanner asked after a moment, the girl hesitantly nodded, "well, um, fire's going, go ahead and take a seat." Tanner went back to the fire and the little girl sat next to him. Just to be safe he moved his rifle and sword to the other side, out of her reach.

"Um, what's your name?" he asked.

"Summer." was all the girl said after a moment.

"Where are your parents Summer?" Tanner asked. All Summer did was point towards the destroyed part of the cabin. It was Tanner's turn to wince as he looked at the burned out section of the small cabin, the damage was similar to what he had seen many times. Dust artillery shells, from which side was impossible to tell, but the damage was done just the same. What was almost more concerning was that the damage was nowhere near fresh.

"Summer is anyone taking care of you right now?" She shook her head. Tanner sucked in a breath what was he going to do? He couldn't just leave the girl out here in the middle of the forest, certainly not with it soon to become the new no-man's-land between the new frontlines. He couldn't take her to the faunus lines, that would be a good way to get himself killed. There wouldn't be many, if any, Mistrali that he would trust to take care of what they would consider an enemy kid. There was always Old Grandma Ruby's in Vale, that was an orphanage that he knew would take care of faunus kids, they had gotten a lot of political flak for it at the start of the war.

"Uh, M-Mister Human?" Summer stuttered out, jerking Tanner out of his thoughts.

"Yes?" he said while taking a look at her. She didn't look back at him but he could see tears forming in her eyes. "What's wrong?!" he asked suddenly very concerned.

"A-Are you going to put me in a cage?" she was crying now, not wailing, but the tears were certainly flowwing already.

"What?! No!" Tanner exclaimed quickly, "why would you think that?!" he grabbed his handkerchief from the breast pocket of his uniform, it was slightly damp still but would work to wipe up her tears.

"Daddy always said that was what the humans would do if they found us." Summer answered his question. Tanner opened his mouth to say that was a ridiculous idea, but thought about Colonel Winchester and some of the ideas he spouted. They were often drunk when he would start talking about what he believed the faunus deserved, but Tanner wasn't certain what was the alcohol talking or what was what the Colonel actually believed.

"I won't put you in a cage." he said after a moment, "and I'll make sure no one else does either okay?"

"Okay." Summer was down to just sniffles by now. Tanner had made up his mind about the girl. He was going to take her back to Vale with him. He would get her to Old Ruby Garnett and make sure that she would be well taken care of.

"Also, My name's not Mr. Human," he told Summer, "It's Rose, Tanner Rose, or Mr. Rose to you." Summer nodded and a few minutes later she was asleep leaned against Tanner. Tanner meanwhile was trying to figure out how he was going to get this little girl back to Vale.

"Boy, What did I get myself into?" he asked himself quietly.

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