The sounds of the battlefield overwhelmed him, making his head spin even as he slew his enemies with Nīlama. Despite his best efforts to quell it, hate burned in his gut, but not towards his opponents. No, the faunus were simply trying to free themselves from the injustice of discrimination. He didn't agree with their method of warfare, but to allow himself to place all the blame on them would be unthinkable.
No, his hate was against the Atlas leaders, the ones whose bullheadedness had started this war, the ones who had drafted his team into the military, that had changed James, that had forced them – forced her – to fight on the frontlines, and for what? A cause they themselves had fought against to save one of their own from being expelled and deported just for her race?
Watching Glynda have to put her life on the line for another's cause (again) was hard enough without the stupidity of the reason.
Metal clashed against metal, bringing him back to reality. He had brought his sword up to block a woman's clawed gauntlets without even thinking. Gold eyes met artificial brown, and he became suddenly aware of the woman's dark skin and the multi-colored streaks in her ebony braid.
Trying to prevent a sensory overload in the middle of a raging battlefield with blood dripping down your sword onto your hands is so much harder when you find yourself suddenly fighting against the very person you once fought and failed to protect from the people forcing you to fight.
"Tatiana," their weapons once again clashed as she attempted to slice his face open, "I don't want to fight you!"
"Sorry, Oz," her claws shredded the sleeve of his jacket, "but I'm not backing down, even for you. Now stop holding back, or I'll kill you."
Several bullets whizzed towards his former teammate. Most missed her by a good half-inch as she dropped into a low crouch, but as she straightened, one lodged itself into her right shoulder. Tatiana grunted in pain.
Alexander lowered his sword, concern making him forget himself. "Are you all right?"
The faunus rolled her eyes and lunged at her former leader.
He put up his sword just in time to slice through the leather binding of her left gauntlet, but the claws managed to graze across her throat. He brought his hand up to his neck. Fresh blood gushed out of the wound and through his fingers.
"Oz!" Glynda seemed to materialize next to him. She began ripping the bottom half of her skirt off.
"I'm fine," Alexander rasped.
"Shut up." The blonde took his hand away and pressed the piece of cloth against his throat. "James! Def: Trinity!"
The dark-haired man pulled away from his corner of the battle. Two metal manikins followed and arranged themselves in a triangle formation with their master around Glynda and Alexander.
Their leader rolled his eyes. "I'm fine."
"Fine like the time you had a 101-degree fever during final exams and didn't tell anyone?" James didn't even look at him. "Or fine like the time someone accidentally kicked you at boot camp, broke your ribs, and you didn't tell anyone?"
His puppets clattered as they fended off several faunus.
Tatiana, who had somehow ended up inside the defensive formation, laughed suddenly. "You guys haven't changed a bit!"
Major Ironwood's head whipped towards the brunette. "Tatiana…" He breathed. His eyes darted back and forth from the blood on her clawed gauntlet on the ground to the gashes on Alexander's throat being bandaged by his blonde counterpart. "Did you –"
A sudden gravity crossed the Faunus's face as she remembered where they were. "Yes." Her nails elongated and curved into sharp dark claws and lunged at one of the puppets with a snarl.
The team would later claim that they couldn't remember what had happened, but for all three it was a lie.
They would never be able to forget how Tatiana took down James's manikin and began attacking them; how James and Glynda were forced to fight as their leader stood helpless on the sidelines, held back by the remaining manikin, yelling desperately for them to stop until his already weakened voice grew hoarse and became lost; how, in the midst of the fight, Glynda reached for the wrong weapon and faltered for the briefest of seconds.
And as Tatiana tried to take advantage of the blonde's weakness, a Private First Class named Chloris tackled her from the side. The battle quickly melted into a mess of golds, browns, grey, and flashes of metal from Chloris's daggers.
Just as quickly, the fight was over with the PFC's blades dug deep in Tatiana's gut. Blood bubbled up and out of her mouth.
Chloris pulled out his daggers and relaxed. Not a second later, he fell to the ground, convulsing, his throat torn open. The faunus fell next to him, and the image of the light fading from her eyes would be forever burned into her former team's memory.
Faunus surged forward, full of renewed fury. For a moment, the three didn't – couldn't – move, but soon their survival instincts took over. Truthfully, Alexander couldn't remember anything of the remainder of the battle beyond a blur of colors and the dull roar of sound. (Not that he was complaining – the last thing he needed was another trigger for PTSD.)
They would ultimately lose the battle, forced to retreat as faunus captured the fortress, but team ARG(T) would each gain several awards and a promotion.
During the next two years, the three would steadily move up the ranks, gaining infamy as demons of Atlas until Lieutenant General Ozpin was dealt a crippling blow that caused him to be honorably discharged at the age of twenty-five. Major General Goodwitch would join him less than a year later with the war's end, victory and freedom going to the faunus.
But first, the silver-haired man would collapse onto the ground as the Atlas army finally stopped for the night. He gasped for air, his head pounding, vision blurring.
The blood of over a hundred enemies stained his hands, but as soldiers began swarming around him, he wasn't thinking about those he killed or the wound bleeding profusely on his neck or the death of one of the closest friend he'd had in years.
The single thought that occupied his mind was that it was the first of March and he had forgotten to say "Rabbit, rabbit."
A/N: :D
"Rabbit, rabbit" refers to chapter 26 in which Ozpin says the phrase at the beginning of each month to bring good luck.