Chapter 4

Everybody's Gotta Die Sometime

Beta: Recycler

3 Years Ago

We were separated into two Black Hawk helicopters, two of each team in both. Some people didn't like that idea, namely Valkyrie, but I was adamant about it. Having two of each team on separate helicopters would ensure that even if one were shot down, God forbid, then the mission could continue as necessary.

Of course, we had three squads of elite Navy SEALs on standby if we needed assistance, but having backup plans never hurt anyone.

I sighed, the sound going unheard over the sound of the wind. Rose looked over at me anyways, her gray eyes the only part showing on her face. I nodded towards her, smiling under my mask. She seemed to notice somehow, she always did, and gave a happy nod back. How she stayed so optimistic, I wouldn't know. Especially as the commanding officer, I expected her to be a stick-up-the-ass kinda person.

I certainly was under equal pressure. I looked over at Ren and Schnee, both of which were focused entirely on their equipment. I thought about doing the same, but I had already done so about five hundred times as soon as we got on the Black Hawk.

Hell, I was so nervous that my motion sickness didn't even cause any problems. My inner turmoil was doing enough of that as is. I gripped the oh-shit handle as we hit a particularly bad burst of turbulence, another sigh coming forth. How shitty would it be to die from a damn mechanical malfunction?

To make matters worse, a fairly severe sandstorm was brewing. Sure, it was the reason they decided now would be a good time for the mission, as the compound would be on skeleton crew because of it, but it was terrible for flights.

Ren looked up from his weapons, two HK MP7s, and looked over at me, his pink eyes covered by a pair of goggles. "We're almost to the landing zone." With a nod, I spoke up, both to the others and through my comms.

"Hope everyone's brought cookies, we're almost at grandma's house." I heard a couple chuckles, but I knew they weren't because what I said was funny.

"Let's hope there's no wolves when we get there." Belladonna commented through the comms, but Xiao-Long laughed. I almost scowled - her joke wasn't funnier than mine, damn it - but I kept it away.

"Don't jinx us," Schnee followed up. "Or else you'll being eaten first." We all shared a brief laugh at Xiao-Long's protest. I felt my muscles relax and let out another sigh, nodding to myself. It was good to see all that tension fade away when we talked to each other.

"Enough joking kids," Rose chided good-heartedly. "We're here." As she said that I felt the chopper jolt as we hit the ground, causing me to suck in air through my clenched teeth. I always hated these damn machines, they were more like large metal coffins than anything. When the doors opened, I was the first out. I hid it under the guise of me checking for any potential threats, which if Ren's attentiveness was any indications, wasn't that bad of an excuse.

"Secure the perimeter," I told Nikos and Belladonna. "Make sure we don't have any wolves." They nodded and went off together, their weapons drawn and ready. I looked over at Valkyrie and Ren, nodding towards Rose. "Go with Rose to stake out the compound. Protect her and each other." They replied in unison with a 'Yes sergeant' before leaving as well. That left Schnee, Xiao-Long and me to set up base.

"Geez, left us to do the boring work, huh Sarge?" I rolled my eyes at the woman, deciding not to fall into her trap. She sighed dramatically. "And I put so much effort into my hair this morning. You're gonna make it mess up."

"Well maybe if you cut it, that wouldn't be a problem," Schnee scolded. I chuckled, shaking my head as I checked the radio, changing frequencies to ensure it all worked.

"I'll cut my hair when you dye your hair something other than platinum blonde." Schnee growled, her ice blue eyes narrowed on Xiao-Long.

The two continued to bicker, not that I cared. It didn't have any real heat, though it might once have, so it didn't hurt any. Besides, it was kinda funny. I looked up off in the distance, barely seeing Rose on her stomach looking through her scope as Ren and Valkyrie were on guard behind her.

An odd feeling came over me, and I knew it wasn't good.

Present

Jaune walked down the empty halls of Beacon, his feet on autopilot as it led him to class. He woke up late, having been awoken by his partner, but they left for class when he got in the shower. Which was fine with him, really. He needed alone time to think things over. Namely, the other Jaune Arc. Or rather Arthur, as he decided to call himself.

He wasn't sure what to think of him, or why they didn't get along. Surely they should have clicked since they were the same person? But they didn't, and it was somehow his fault, so Arthur said. What did he do wrong to the guy? Sure he wasn't as rugged, but he had still improved greatly since the start of the school year a month ago. Not as much as he'd like, heck he still couldn't beat that bully Cardin, but he was getting there!

What could Arthur even do? From what he could see, all he did was push him, and it wasn't even that hard. Maybe he held back, but his anger seemed out of control. Jaune wasn't an expert on emotions, but usually when someone was that angry they wouldn't just hold back punches. At least he wouldn't hold back, and it was a safe bet that an alternate him would be the same.

So why was the guy so infuriated at him not being stronger, or cooler, or more courageous when he was the exact same? It was irritating enough that he had himself pulling hairs trying to figure it out!

He sighed, shaking his head slowly. Thinking wouldn't help solve the problem, but he couldn't think of anything else to do. Confronting the guy would probably end just as badly as the last time, and he doubted Pyrrha and the others would be fine with him going again anyways. A part of him told him to just talk to Ruby again, as she was able to cheer him up when he had some self-conscious moments.

Or, a louder part of him said, he could instead just prove him wrong. It would be hard; a lot of sweat, blood and tears most likely, but he'd do it. His hands tightened into fists, his eyes narrowing at the thought. He'd have to train harder, harder than ever before…

Which wasn't saying much, since the hardest he trained was in Miss Goodwitch's class, but still! He'd start running laps around the academy, doing a hundred push-ups and sit-ups in the morning and night, doing fifty pull-ups every day!

Well, maybe he was exaggerating, but he'd get there. "Hey Arc," A voice broke him out of his thoughts, causing him to look over at the source. It was his one and only bully, Cardin Winchester, standing there with a patronizing grin. It made his blood boil.

"What are you doing out of class Cardin?" He asked, trying to sound as nice as possible. Maybe Cardin would leave him alone if he didn't show his feelings? He hoped.

"I should be asking you that," He stepped forward, his grin growing wider. "But that would be looking a gift horse in the mouth. I couldn't help but notice you mumbling something about this 'Arthur' guy. Is he your boyfriend?" Jaune rolled his eyes, an exasperated sigh coming forth.

"He's not my boyfriend, I'm not into guys." He ignored the sarcastic 'sure' from the larger teen, resisting the urge to grit his teeth. "He's," He thought for a second, before answering hesitantly, "my brother. He just came to Beacon to, uh, visit me. I was just thinking about how I would show him how much I've grown."

"Your brother? Is he just as much of a loser as you are?" The knight shrugged, although he felt a strange surge of irritation at the bully for insulting Arthur. Why would he be mad about that? The guy deserved every insult he got for how he talked to him. He was probably just mad about being insulted himself, yeah.

Jaune started to walk again, his legs moving faster than previously as he tried to get out of the conversation. Sure, he wasn't being as antagonistic as usual, but it was kinda like that saying about calm and storms. "I don't know, I haven't seen him in a long time. He was like me when he was my age though."

"Well, once a loser, always a loser." The auburn-haired teen followed Jaune step for step, causing the blond to gulp. "Say, how about you take me to him? I'd like to meet Jaune the First." The boy's grin suggested he wouldn't take 'no' for an answer.

Jaune was stuck between a rock and a hard place; either say no to Cardin and probably get pummeled before being forced to take him to Arthur anyways, or confront the older him and probably start something between Cardin and Arthur.

'Better him than me,' Jaune thought, resigning himself with a depressed sigh.

"Well, I don't know where he's at, but we can look for him after classes, I guess." Seeing Cardin's pleased grin made a sense of dread fill in Jaune's stomach. He should've stayed in bed…

Beacon was nice, Arthur supposed. It may just be the fantastical feel of this world, but it gave him a sort of Hogwarts feel, despite the obvious differences between the two vastly different schools. He had asked Glynda if there were any evil noseless guys seeking immortality, but all she gave him was a strange look.

It's not his fault they don't have decent books around here.

"...and that's where the students go for Combat Class, which I teach." The professor pointed to a bland door which had a plaque above it, titled very originally, 'Combat 101'. He chuckled briefly at the name.

"Neat. Can we go in?" He asked. The other blonde hummed for a moment, before nodding her head in approval. She looked over at him before verbally replying.

"Don't touch anything that looks important unless I give you permission and am there to guide you. Understood?" The man nodded, his eyes rolling at the lecturing tone. Glynda either didn't notice or just gave up on his attitude before walking into her class, her phone quickly unlocking the door. Arthur noticed, however, and stopped at the futuristic lock.

"Whoa. Did this unlock your door just by reading your cell?" She quirked an eyebrow, holding up her device.

"My scroll is connected to the security system, allowing me to unlock any door if I need. Where students' scrolls can only unlock the doors to their dormitories, faculty scrolls can unlock almost any door. Ozpin and myself are the two faculty that can access the few places other teachers cannot."

"Scrolls? Strange name for a cell phone, but I guess it works." He shrugged, running a hand over the scanner. "When I was young, I had these aspirations of making some grandiose technology that would solve lots of problems. World hunger, poverty, even war." Retracting his hand he turned towards the door, walking inside after Glynda.

"Did your World War prevent you from doing it?" He shook his head, a frown appearing on his face.

"No college would accept me, so I thought I wouldn't be able to do it. I knew about Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, how they created a multi-billion dollar businesses on technology even though they were high school dropouts, but I never thought that could be me, y'know?" She stayed silent, but he knew she was listening. "So I just kinda gave up, worked a mediocre job at a local Wal-Mart before I got drafted into the military. Very ironic for the kid who wanted to create world peace and be heralded as a hero."

The blonde woman hummed quietly, walking over to the controls in the front of the room. "It seems fate has a cruel sense of humor with you, Mr. Arc." The soldier grinned darkly, following her still.

"Guess so. Makes me pretty special that the universe up and decides 'Hey, let's fuck with this guy specifically' and then teams up with another universe to do it." The stoic teacher shook her head in amusement, her hands flying across the controls. "What are ya doin'?" He asked, peeking over her shoulder.

"I actually have a class coming in in a few hours. I didn't have the time to set it up earlier because I was with you, but thankfully it seems I have time now."

"Seems you do." He looked up at the screen, noticing all the names on it. There was a whole bunch of randoms, but there was a recurring theme with it. It was subtle, but not so subtle that someone with the right know-how couldn't pick up on it.

They all had names associated with colors or colorful objects. He looked at the green eyed professor and asked her why the names were like that, unknowing of the enriched history behind it.

Without looking up, Glynda replied, "Around eighty years ago, the largest war ever seen on Remnant came to an end. It was a war on personal liberties and freedom of expression, to put it in fairly simplistic terms, but it ultimately came out with individual expression the victor. A..." She paused, searching for the proper word. "Law, I suppose, came about, saying that children must be named after a color, something that sounds like a color, something that means a color or something that is evocative as a color. People call it the 'Color Naming Rule', aptly so."

Arthur leaned against the desk, his expression slightly confused. "Ignoring the piss poor summary of your version of World War I, that whole law is a oxymoron for individual liberties. Forcing your people to name their children after colors seems like a pretty damn terrible way to maintain freedom of expression."

"I called it a 'law' because I couldn't think of a better word to describe it, though 'custom' would be a more appropriate term." Glynda sighed, rubbing her forehead. "It's not mandatory to name a child after a color. In fact, plenty of people ignore the color rule. It's not enforced as a law, but it is technically a law, as the King at the time instated it in an attempt to prevent anti-individualism from rising again."

"Your history is all kinds of whack. Mine is a little more orderly, and we fought our World Wars to prevent dictators from ruling the world. Not to prevent people from seeing the whole." Seriously, fighting over things like self expression? He'd expect those early 21st Century 'Social Justice Warriors' to do that, not actual lawmen.

"You don't seem to understand what I'm saying, though that's understandable. You're new here, so you don't understand our politics." He nodded. That's true, this entire thing was confusing. But he didn't understand his own world's politics either, to be fair.

"We need to make every citizen as happy as possible to prevent negativity from spreading. Get enough negativity in your city and Grimm swarm it like someone just rang the dinner bell. We can fight off Grimm, certainly, but a Grimm attack only increases the negativity due to the destruction, drawing in more and more until we either retreat and abandon the settlement or everyone in said settlement is dead.

"Personal liberty and freedom is necessary to prevent such an event. Some disagree, namely the Kingdom of Atlas, and instead divert their efforts into fighting back a Grimm invasion. But I digress," She sighed, pushing up her glasses. "The people are happy and unique, we have strong militaries, and we have Huntsmen and Huntresses ready to defend the people at a moment's notice. For the foreseeable future, we're safe."

"You call yourselves Hunters, so why not just go out and, well, hunt? Sitting back and defending makes no sense with a name like that."

"You think we haven't tried?" Glynda snapped at him, causing him to frown towards her. "There's far too many Grimm. Our best estimates range in the billions, with some going so far as to say hundreds of billions. While human population has surged since the Great War, it's still barely over a quarter-billion. Not even five percent of that becomes military personnel, and not even five percent of that number become Huntsmen. We are very rare, Mr. Arc. We may be powerful, but even ten million huntsman couldn't hunt down and slay every Grimm out there, let alone the numbers we have in reality."

Arthur sighed, shrugging in defeat. "If I were you, I'd just launch some nukes out in the wild, at least cull their potential habitats for a while to gather strength. From the sounds of it, they've been a big thorn in your side for hundreds of years. In my world, a threat like that would get nuked pretty solidly. So long as other nations agreed, of course." A fine blonde eyebrow was raised from his companion.

"I'm not sure what a nuke is, but it sounds very similar to a missile."

"You don't have nukes? Damn, let's hope your militaries don't find a way to cross dimensions and try to screw with mine. Anyways, they're kinda like missiles, just a hell of a lot stronger. You have TNT, right?" At her affirmative nod, he continued.

"The first atomic weapon we tested, the Trinity Project, had an explosive yield of 20 kilotons of TNT. That's twenty thousand tons of TNT. But that was just the first, and it was one of the weaker ones. Atomic weapons could only get up to around half a megaton, but the largest hydrogen bomb ever detonated was fifty megatons. That's fifty million tons of TNT.

"Anyways, I won't go into the other thousand or so nukes, but these things are strong enough to blow up entire cities and kill millions of people. I'd recommend you guys get some of that, it'd help you out a lot. Not the killing millions of people, though. That's kinda bad."

"I see…" The awe in her voice made him grin. "Why would you make these things?"

"Well…" He launched off into a little more history of World War Two, talking about Nazis and the Japanese. History wasn't his thing, but he took a particular fancy to WWII. They chatted for a good hour and a half, sharing stories and history and whatever else came to mind. It could have gone on for longer, had the bell not rang, signaling the next class period.

Glynda sighed, walking over to the computer and typing a few more things in. "Class is about to start. If you want to, you may stand near the office door and spectate. Just please do not interfere or interact with the students. If you get asked any questions, stay quiet and I'll handle it."

"Alright, I guess." He mumbled, walking over to his spot. "What'll you tell them?"

"The truth. You're our new night guard and I'm simply showing you the ropes." Arthur nodded, scratching the back of his neck. "You're worried about Team JNPR, aren't you?"

He scowled, scoffing. "As if I would be worried about a buncha kids coming in here."

"So you are, then."

He just scoffed again, crossing his arms. A scowl adorned his face, his prior good mood sunken at the mention of this universe's version of his friends. "I'm not concerned about it, alright? I couldn't give a single shit about any of them."

"Except you do, otherwise you wouldn't be so angry." The teacher looked at him, her green eyes analyzing his reactions. He didn't like that look; it made him feel like he was some sort of exhibit and she a tourist.

"Whatever." He grunted, leaning against the wall. Shortly after, students started walking in, their chatter filling the room. The grown man sighed and closed his eyes, a yawn tearing itself from his throat. After a few short minutes the entire class was filled, much to Arthur's chagrin, as the sound was amped up quite a bit.

Glynda stepped forward and cleared her throat, immediately silencing the entire room. "Good afternoon, class." There was a few mumbled replies of 'good afternoon Miss Goodwitch', but for the most part they remained quiet. "We'll be continuing where we last left off, with Ruby Rose and Dove Bronzewing."

Arthur watched as a young man with dirty blond hair stepped forward, his walk filled with arrogant swagger. Though the seasoned soldier could tell the boy was nervous and was trying to act tough and confident for his reputation.

It was the other person who stood up that caught his attention though - while shorter and much younger, it was clearly Ruby Rose. While her red cape wasn't being used as a scarf, it was clearly the same material and held the same importance. The gothic outfit was new too, but from what he knew she was around the same age as when his Rose was in her whole goth phase.

The two combatants squared off in the middle of the ring, their hands held by their weapons. Bronzewing's sword was easily distinguishable, whereas Rose's was, from what he could see, a strange red and black block thing.

"Are you both ready?" Glynda asked the two teens.

"Yeah," Bronzewing replied, his squinty eyes glaring daggers at his opponent.

"Yes ma'am!" Rose answered, her silver eyes watching the boy carefully yet confidently.

"Then you may begin." As soon as the words left the professor's mouth, the two jumped into action. A sword slashed where Rose used to be, but all that was left was a flurry of rose petals.

She appeared on the other side of the arena, her blocky weapon out of its holster and directed towards the boy. It shifted, to Arthur's surprise, into a very sniper-esque shape, scope, trigger and all. She squeezed said trigger, firing off three rounds in quick succession at the knightly boy.

He rolled out of the way, managing to avoid the first two shots but getting nicked in the ankle by the third. He grunted in pain but rolled up, his legs pushing as he sprinted in a circle towards his opponent. He managed to slash the other shots coming his way, the ones he missed only grazing his body. The screen above indicated his aura beginning to hit the yellow while Rose's was still full.

Arthur idly wondered if the blond boy had any ranged weaponry - surely he wasn't primarily melee focused in a world with guns? - but he didn't move to use anything with efficient range. The soldier frowned but remained attentive to the fight, eagerly absorbing any information he could about Huntsman capabilities.

The boy finally reached his opponent, forcing the girl to somersault backwards to avoid being cut in two. Oddly enough, she spun her rifle, forcing the length to extend and a curved blade to pop out. His eyes narrowed as he witnessed the weapon's transformation, his tongue clicking. A scythe wasn't the most practical weapon; it could easily chop off a limb or two of the wielder if they made even the smallest mistake. What was she thinking?

But he was soon shown how wickedly efficient the teenage girl was with the scythe as she attacked the armored boy with a frenzy of spins, slashes, and jabs with the pointed tip. It was impressive that Bronzewing managed to last for longer than a few seconds under such pressure, even being able to land a few hits of his own throughout the ordeal.

"No wonder Ozpin allowed her in two years early…" Arthur mumbled, entranced with the epic display. This kind of skill and power in his world would make whoever had it a damn superhero if they wanted! Even the boy, though clearly the inferior combatant, could casually parry sniper bullets with a sword, something he'd never thought he'd see outside of fiction.

Before he knew it, Glynda called for the match to end. He glanced up to the screen, having been briefed on its purpose before, and felt a small sense of surprise at the results. Rose's Aura was still in the green, though it was close to the yellow, while Bronzewing's was into the red. The teacher walked up to the two, her sharp eyes focused on the boy.

"Mr. Bronzewing," The boy flinched. "Your skill with the sword is adequate, but your inability to defend yourself against both ranged attacks and rapid assault will be your downfall against any opponent who truly wishes to harm you. Better your defense and look for any opening you can to counter attack." She looked over at the goth-themed girl, her eyes getting even sharper somehow.

"And you, Miss Rose, must also work on your defense."

"Wha- But he barely hit me!" The girl complained, causing the teacher to sigh and shake her head.

"But he still hit you while you had the clear advantage. You had the advantage in range; your sniper rifle could have easily incapacitated him if you focused more on accuracy than how many bullets you can shoot out. Your scythe is the perfect mid-range weapon for melee; you should have been able to keep him far enough away so he couldn't hit you. Mix this in with your Semblance and you should never be hit by an opponent who lacks ranged weapons." Rose slumped, her previous pride having been washed away.

"You may return to your seats. I expect better next time - from both of you." The two nodded and returned to their respective teams, each member clapping and congratulating their teammate. Arthur watched Rose's team, his mouth set in a firm frown. Schnee, Belladonna and Xiao-Long were all members of her team, all familiar faces in an unfamiliar world - though there was something off about that bow… He shrugged it off. It was probably nothing.

Glynda called the next two teens to the arena, catching Arthur's attention. He didn't notice the brown eyes of Cardin Winchester locking onto his person, nor the finger of Jaune regrettably pointing him out to the boy.

Well well well, it's been about two weeks. Yeah, I can't keep a deadline, so never trust me if I say I'll get a chapter here on time. I'm probably just saying it for face.

Anywho, we got it done, so all is good in the world. I added a little action, 'cause the story kinda needs it. Sure, I enjoy character interaction, but an entire story which is supposed to have fights kinda gets less interesting as time goes on. So yay, a (hopefully) realistic representation of combat class! :D I might have amped up Dove's abilities, but I've heard he's the strongest member of Team CRDL, so I decided to make him capable of actually doing something to a talented student. Plus, they're supposed to be capable warriors and the show only shows them as bullies who get tossed around like nothing.

Sadly, I graduate high school next week, meaning I won't have access to computers as much as I usually do. However, I might just steal my grandma's laptop for my own uses, so I might get to write more than before. We'll see.

Remember to favorite, follow, and review! Especially review. It gives me the motivation to continue this story. Without it, I probably wouldn't even have a decent story! So keep it up, I really enjoy them, even if they're nothing but flames. As cliche as the saying is, it's true; Haters are my motivators. But so are my lovers, so keep that comin' too. 3

I bid you all adieu until next time!