Chapter 7: A New War

Been a while since I've updated… oops.

I did consider making Tora a "Nopon" faunus but given that the show kind of built Atlas up as having deep rooted racism, I didn't think that was realistic.

Also, it's been so long since I've worked on this story, I've genuinely forgotten a lot of stuff I was planning or had already written out. So after this chapter I'm going to go back and rewrite the previous chapters. I shouldn't be changing anything plot related so I'm not going to upload a completely new story like with Fixing the Past but there will (hopefully) be a few differences that will make the entire thing a more cohesive and better story.

….

So apparently it wasn't just Blake who was an idiot, it was all of team RWBY. Those numbskulls had tried to infiltrate a White Fang recruitment rally… well they tried and succeeded, then immediately got chased down and had to fight an Atlesian Paladin. The only reason why they had even survived was because the pilot, Torchwick, didn't have any training in a simulator or an actual mech.

They had also dragged two other suckers along for the ride, Sun and Neptune. They were pretty good combatants but nothing to write home about and apparently hadn't even been there to actually fight the damn thing.

If it was even a standard Atlesian soldier piloting the Paladin, it would have been more than enough to kill four huntsmen freshmen. He didn't even want to imagine what would have happened if they fought a more advanced mech or someone more skilled than a petty theif.

And apparently they're just ignoring all of it now in preparation for some stupid dance. Why they were even remotely excited for it was beyond him, it would just be a bunch of teenagers being awkward at each other. Or grinding, there would also probably be a lot of grinding.

Rex and Pyra were excited but they were obviously already a couple so it's not like anything would be awkward there. Even Nia seemed a little interested.

But he seemed to be the only outlier as everyone else was hyped up for it. Whatever, even if he did like that stuff, he wouldn't have anyone to go with anyways.

He would rather spend his time being productive, or maybe on some video games. Unfortunately it seemed like the others had heard his unwillingness to go and Ruby, Yang, Nora, and even Weiss seemed to have made it a personal mission to get him to attend. Weiss was a bit of a surprise but given how much effort she was putting into the planning, he guessed it made sense.

Eh, ultimately between training and classes so that he could fight the Grimm more effectively, it was his duty to engineer a way to kill Salem.

"You know you can at least pretend," Nia said, stepping into their room coming back from whatever her afternoon training was on top of a shower.

"Pretend to do what?" he feigned ignorance, still working away at the electronics he was tinkering with.

She sighed and hopped onto her bed, "the dance you bloody moron. Everyone else is lookin' forward to it."

Brandon rolled his eyes, "if I tried to fake excitement, it would come off as fake. I'm no actor."

"Even Weiss is excited," Nia said, "and Weiss never gets excited."

Brandon laughed, "she got excited enough about the Vytal festival to try to scout out the other schools."

"Hm. Why aren't you interested in the dance anyways?" She gave a smug smirk, "surely it's not because you have no one to go with."

Brandon turned his chair around and smiled, "I openly admit I've got no one. I also don't care. I'd rather play some video games than go to that dance."

"Ruby would also rather play video games than go to the dance, but she's goin'."

Brandon shrugged, "it would be weirder for her not to go given how much effort she's putting into the dance." He almost chuckled to himself, "why is she putting in so much effort when she doesn't even like big social events like that?"

Nia shrugged, "I think it's her team in general."

"Blake doesn't care about the dance," Brandon pointed out.

Nia rolled her eyes, "she's more concerned about the White Fang than her own health right now. She's not in a stable mental state. Yang's working on her."

Brandon tilted his head, "am I really any better? I'm technically acting very similarly to her."

"Why do you think I'm here right now trying to convince you to do something else? If you weren't obsessing over this quote, unquote, war on Salem, I doubt I would be asking you to go."

"How generous," he snorted.

"Look," she pressed on, "I'm your friend. And I know enough about you. If you were just being antisocial, I wouldn't be concerned."

Brandon heaved a sigh, "and if I say yes, will you get off my back?"

She laughed, "now you're getting the picture."

"Alright, fine," he rolled his eyes, "I'll go. You owe me one for this one though."

"And what do you want from me?" Nia asked, "I hope it's not cash, I'm not exactly rolling in it here."

"A favor," he said simply, "and I want dinner, on you."

"That's it?" She shook her head, "I guess I shouldn't be too surprised."

"What? Were you expecting more?" Brandon tilted his head, "you don't even know what the favor will be yet."

She shrugged, "knowing you, I doubt you're going to ask for anything sexual, nor are you going to extort me. I do trust you."

"I don't even know what I'm going to ask for," Brandon laughed, "for all I know, it could end up being extortion."

Nia shrugged, "we'll cross that bridge when it comes to it then. I'm assuming you don't need anything else right now then?"

"Not right now. Not unless you know how to fit together complicated and intricate electronics."

"And why would you need that?" She asked.

"I'm making a few things to help me in combat. It seems like everyone's already figured out my tactics so I'm making more electricity based weapons since that seems like the only way to effectively fight against other people's aura. Though this does mean that I'm very much going to be a one on one fighter."

"Is that a bad thing?"

Brandon shrugged, "it is versus large hordes of Grimm but in that situation I'd probably just use a gun. Or maybe just a flamethrower."

He hummed to himself, "you know, I've always wondered why fire isn't used more often against the Grimm. I feel like given how easy they are to use, you could just equip some soldiers and just burn any incoming Grimm."

"Maybe if you played attention in Port's class you would know they were banned internationally after the Faunus wars."

"I do read you know," he countered, "this isn't human conflict though, it's just pest control."

Nia snorted, "I wish it were that simple. But the horror from the war means that they're not even produced anymore. Burning Faunus out of trenches," she shuddered.

"You say that as if you have experience."

Nia laughed with little warmth behind it. "If you think worse tactics haven't been used on rogue Faunus, you'd be mistaken. I may not have been in the trenches but I can picture it."

Brandon nodded. Having been involved in a war himself, there wasn't much horror left he couldn't imagine. He could still remember Artifices burning armies and crews dying thousands at a time whenever a capital ship would fall.

While Atlas did have almost capital ship level capabilities, they didn't have the destructive power of his world. No nuclear technology because of dust, which he supposed was a good thing but then again, dust was a limited resource.

"So then," Nia interrupted his thoughts, "where would you like me to take you to eat?"

Brandon scratched his cheek, "I don't know, why don't we make it a date for the dance?" He chuckled when she did a double take, "since you so kindly asked me out and all."

Nia blinked at him, "since when were you able to make a comeback like that?"

"I learn from the best," he chuckled.

"I guess you do," Nia said, a hint of a smirk on her face, "the student becomes an equal."

"Not the teacher?"

"No."

"Dammit," Brandon sunk back into his chair.

Nia laughed, in an almost singsong way, "you're goin' to have to try harder than that to impress me."

"Eh, I don't care too much about impressing you," he waved a hand dismissively, "I just want the experience so that I don't lose to a flyting match."

"A what?"

Shit. He had gotten too complacent in his banter there. And while there was no way that she would know Norse mythology given that it was from a dead civilization, the point was that no one did. If she looked it up it would give her no results.

"A verbal sparring match," he amended, "slip of the tongue. Don't know how that came out of my mouth."

The look on Nia's face made it abundantly clear that she didn't believe him, but was polite enough to not say anything.

"Anyways," she changed the subject, "where do you actually want to eat, if the time and date is set."

"I don't know. Never really had a favorite," lying through his teeth this time. He had plenty of favorites and some food from his time had popped up here as well, even some crops and animals had carried over. But what was from his time was different, naturally given that much time, evolution does take its course, and there were hosts of new plant and animal life across the world. A lot of it was okay, but he just couldn't adjust to it.

The closest Remnant got was some food from Mistral, given that their culture seemed to be an emulation of a mix of traditional Asian cultures.

"But," he continued before Nia could say something, "I'm down for anything with rice."

"Rice huh?" She pulled out her… scroll… why the fuck were the called that? It was a cellphone, or smartphone, or just a phone. English developed almost identically in Remnant as it did in his time, and stuff like coffee still carried its name over, why were random things like this different?

Nia typed a few words into what he assumed was a search engine. She waited a second.

"Uh, there's a Mistrialian place near the edge of the city that I'm seeing has good reviews."

"Hm?" Brandon's interest piqued, "well, it's up to you. You're paying after all. I just gave my preference."

"Your preference is somehow both super generic and super restrictive at the same time."

"I'm complicated like that," he grinned.

"Annoying is more like it," she sighed, "alright, I'll get to work finding a suitable restaurant for his majesty's tastes."

"Of course milady," he smiled at the challenge, "I'd expect nothing less."

Brandon was reading over the text he had received again for what felt like the hundredth time. There was no number associated with it, but it was signed off with the name Morag Ladair.

She was easily one of the strongest huntresses in Atlas, if not the strongest. And as Special Inquisitor, her position allowed her to… bypass certain laws and restrictions.

Apparently getting his number was simple enough. And apparently digging up some more information wasn't that difficult either. She knew his official story, but apparently she had been asking around. Why? Why had she been looking into him? Also that means that there was some variable that Ozpin didn't account for since everyone who should know him was paid to say so.

Well, all she was requesting was a meeting. Technically he didn't have to go, she wasn't threatening him with anything if he didn't. The threat was more unspoken, that he would make an enemy here if he didn't go. Ironwood couldn't order her around either since her position meant that she decided her own missions and assignments as long as she ran them by the Atlas council first.

Brandon ran a hand through his hair in frustration. He slung his backpack over his shoulder.

"Where are you going?" Nia asked.

"Library," he responded.

"Isn't it a little late?"

"A bit but I can't find what I'm looking for online so I'm going to have to do this the old fashioned way."

Nia smirked a little, "good luck on whatever new project you're working on."

"Thanks," he said.

He closed the door, nodding to Rex and Pyra on his way out. He resisted the urge to glance around the hallway since if he was being spied on, that would only put the spy on edge. He strode through the dorms and out into the open.

"Brandon Hunter."

Brandon did his best to not react to the Special Inquisitor appearing out of the shadows but it was likely she noted it anyways.

"Special Inquisitor," he greeted.

"Come with me, we have much to discuss."

Brandon stepped into the soundproofed room he had been guided to. He gave Brighid a short bow before taking a seat at the conference table. Morag closed the door and sat down opposite of him.

"First," she began, "the truth. You weren't part of any Valean military, were you, boy?"

"No."

"Then why have so many people insisting that you were?"

"Classified," he narrowed his eyes, daring her to challenge him.

Morag sighed, as if expecting that, "just like how Salem is classified?"

Brandon tilted his head, unsurprised she knew, "you know?"

"It was not easy information to find, even as the Special Inquisitor. I am well aware of your position as one of Ozpin's inner circle," she held up a hand before Brandon could say anything, "I know it is him who is meddling in affairs across Remnant and I know Ironwood is one of his trusted allies. Why he is important is fairly obvious. Why you are important is not."

"I make weapons," Brandon shrugged, "hopefully I'll make one to kill Salem."

Morag sighed, "I'm assuming that's the best I'll get out of you tonight?"

Brandon shrugged again, "if you want to know anything about the physics of my weapons, I'll be happy to show you, but I doubt you'd understand what they did without a degree in math and science."

Morag nodded, "well then, for the other reason you are here." Morag looked frustrated, "there appear to be too many factions choosing to move their pieces now of all times when we are so close to the Vytal Festival."

"What factions?"

"I'm not talking about the governments and Ozpin's group. If Ozpin is doing anything, it's subtle. No, what I'm more concerned about are the more standard terrorist groups, the White Fang and Torna."

"I thought Torna was out of commission, they were cleaned up by the Valean police force."

"That was what the media was told," Morag explained, "but only Jin of the nine leaders was ever captured. They acted recently and rescued him. This rescue was kept out of the media to avoid mass panic."

"Jin escaped?!" Brandon's eyes went wide in fear, "he's one of the most dangerous men alive."

"I am aware," Morag crossed her arms, "as far as we can tell they have been gathering soldiers by systematically taking out the criminal undergrounds across both Vale and Mistral and absorbing them into their forces."

"And?"

"And while that threat is great, the White Fang is much more pressing," she said, "we have always been at a form of tense peace with Menagerie after the Faunus war, however, with the increased White Fang movement and attacks, we feel it is not unlikely that Menagerie will eventually officially join the White Fang, if only to ensure their own survival from the pressure from the other kingdoms."

"Menagerie's leadership never seemed to be in favor of violence."

"I know that, you know that, most people don't know that. One of the problems right now is that most elected officials are elected by people who hate the Faunus, both from the Faunus war and racism in general. That means that the politicians are likely to act against Faunus in general just to ensure they get elected again."

Brandon cursed, "I hate politics."

"You are not the only one," Morag sighed, "on top of all of this, the Valean branch of the White Fang seem to be acting independently. Their targets have been completely different from the other branches of the White Fang. Given the amount of dust they have stolen over the past few months, I find it likely that they are going to make a move soon. There is also reason to believe that this branch in particular is working in tandem with Salem's own forces."

Brandon scowled, "what makes you think that?"

"This branch has been seen working with humans."

"I know they're working with Torchwick, that doesn't mean anything."

"It does when no other branch has ever been associated with a human before. If it truly was just Torchwick, I wouldn't be too concerned but my spies report at least four different humans seen within the Faunus ranks."

"Fuck."

"My thoughts exactly," she said, "I fear if we do not act quickly, the kingdoms will find themselves in a war on three fronts."

"The White Fang seems to be the most concerning right now," Brandon said.

"As I have told lady Morag multiple times," Brighid said, finally putting out her own thoughts, "but she has remained unsure of herself and thus remaining inactive, not dealing with any of the problems that have been revealed."

"Really?" Brandon snorted, "I didn't expect the Special Inquisitor of all people to self doubt."

"We all do," Brighid said, "if you didn't, I would doubt that you were human."

"Brighid speaks wisely," Morag gave her a pointed glare, "I would however appreciate not being talked about in such a manner. Insecurity, fear, they are all human emotions. It is how you deal with it that is important." She cleared her throat, "let us focus on the task at hand."

Brandon tilted his head, "why exactly do you need me? Even if you know about what's truly going on, I'm still only a student at best. I'm not nearly as good a combatant as any other student at Beacon."

"All true, however, I doubt that your cover story would be being military if it didn't hold some sort of truth to it."

She saw right through him.

"So?"

"What sort of military operation were you involved with?"

"More of a rebellion than anything else. Hit and run guerrilla tactics and small arms skirmishes. There were few large battles."

"Hm," Morag said, "nothing too uncommon for what I assume is a city state?"

Brandon nodded. Easier to go with that, after all Remnant wasn't his Earth. Due to the Grimm running around uncontested around the majority of the world, the world's population was unlikely to be much more than a hundred million, compared to the nine billion from his world.

City states were very common having declared independence from one of the four larger Kingdoms. They were able to defend themselves alright due to modern huntsmen. The kingdoms in the past were a product of having to band together to fight off the Grimm, one body for each continent and each developed almost completely independently.

The majority of the population lived in cities with massive border walls across the globe. Few dared live outside in smaller towns and villages with limited protection. City states were the exception.

Morag let out a tired breath, "It is unfortunate that politics must get in the way of human survival."

Brandon shrugged, "I see it as inevitable. Without a big threat to humanity, people won't forget their differences."

"Salem could be that big threat."

"Ozpin doesn't want it revealed to the public," he said, "it would cause half the people to start panicking and the other half to believe it a lie and lose what little faith they had in the government."

"So politics again."

"I wouldn't say politics. It's just that some people don't trust the government, which is understandable."

Morag nodded as she stood up, "my curiosity has been satiated for now," she folded her hands together behind her back, "I will call for your assistance as needed. These weapons you make, boy, are there any that you would believe useful in dealing with the White Fang?"

"Don't need a specialized weapon," Brandon said, "you take advantage of the fact that their senses are better than ours. You use flashbangs and sonic weapons to incapacitate them."

Morag paused for thought, "I cannot believe I didn't think of that."

"Sometimes it's the obvious solutions that get overlooked. Plus both of those were invented," he coughed, making a mental note to go and get a few, "after the Faunus War."

"Of course," she said as she glanced over at the clock, "I'll take you back to Beacon before it gets too late."

"That was fast," Nia commented. She was sitting at her desk, her computer on in front of her.

"I was looking for something specific," Brandon shrugged as he closed the door behind him and slung his backpack off his shoulders, tossing it onto his dresser, "doesn't take that long if you know how the library system works." He opened his bag up and pulled out an electrical engineering textbook and waved it at her.

It was a good thing he had looked the book up in the library database on the ride back and had asked to be dropped off at a smaller public library.

"Didn't think they would have books on engineering in the library," Nia commented.

"First off, Beacon's library does have books on engineering. There are classes on basic equipment and weapon maintenance, plus there are those who want to learn how to fix up their mechashift weapons on their own," he said defensively, "second, I got this at a public library."

Nia raised an eyebrow, "why public?"

"This is a university level textbook. Beacon doesn't have those."

Nia blinked then shrugged, "whatever," she said, going back to her assignment.

"By the way you got question two wrong," Brandon said.

Nia sighed, slumping back in her chair, "not helpful."

"You know you can always ask me for math help."

"It's basic math," Nia said, "I want to figure this stuff out on my own."

"You don't have to do everything on your own," he argued, "it's not like I'm just giving you the answers."

"Oh alright, fine," she caved, "help me."

Brandon grinned, "alright," he pointed to her textbook, "since you're looking for…"

"Whoa," Rex said, "you two look terrible."

Brandon grimaced, he probably looked as bad as he felt. He pulled out his phone, not even bothering to turn on the camera and checked his reflection in the dark glass. Hair was a mess with massive bags under his eyes. Makes sense.

He yawned, "Nia kept me up all night."

Nia elbowed his side. "He was helping me with homework," she explained before Pyra could get flustered. "It's the homework due tomorrow for geometry."

Pyra gave an understanding nod, "I noticed it was more difficult than usual."

"Was it that hard?" Rex asked, "it wasn't that bad for me."

"Nothing to say here," Brandon said, "if I want to take math I would dual enroll at Vale university, except I can't dual enroll."

"If you're able to brag about that, then you've got the energy to come on a run with me," Nia put a hand on his shoulder threateningly.

Rex laughed and tossed Brandon an apple, "here, you're going to need it."

"You suck," Brandon said as Nia dragged him out of their dorm.

"Good luck!" Rex called after the pair as the door slammed shut.

Brandon bit into the apple as he treaded down the hallway following Nia. "How far are we going today?"

"We're warming up with a ten kilometer run, then we're sparring."

"You're ruthless."

"I have to be, otherwise you'd just sit in your room."

Brandon couldn't find the words to argue that point. He sighed, "could we at least skip the run?"

"No."

"But-"

"No."

"Fi-"

"No."

"Hey! I didn't even finish my sentence," he complained.

"Whatever excuse you have, it won't work."

"I wasn't making an excuse. I was going to say fine, do you have some water?"

Nia grumbled before tossing him hers, "next time, be prepared."

"Next time, don't drag me out without warning," he countered, dropping the apple core into a trash can as they stepped outside. The two stretched before breaking out into a light jog.

Brandon tried to regulate his breathing, in through the nose, out through the mouth… in through the nose… and he promptly gave up and started panting through his mouth. He knew it was a bad idea but he just couldn't be bothered.

At least it was a nice Sunday out… and it got even better.

"Jaune!" He raised a hand in greeting as the blonde, along with Pyrrha, joined them.

"Hey," he groaned, "Nia your taskmaster today?"

Brandon laughed, only to have Nia smack the back of his head. "If you can laugh, you can run faster."

"Can we trade?" Brandon asked, ignoring the Faunus, "I think my trainer is defective."

This time it was Jaune laughing, but Pyrrha didn't physically abuse him, much to Brandon's dismay. Of course Pyrrha was too nice to do that. Nia, on the other hand, was not. A direct and stark contrast to their teaching styles.

Nia had kind of taken a coaching role for Brandon over the past few weeks, making sure that he was very prepared for the Vytal Festival's tournament.

Pyrrha was doing the same, though she had been training Jaune for longer, but with the tournament drawing closer and closer, she had kicked it up a notch.

Brandon and Jaune fell behind slightly as they were chatting while Nia scoffed and pulled slightly ahead with Pyrrha, loudly complaining about Brandon's lack of work ethic.

"I think she likes you," Jaune said.

Brandon scoffed, "oh I'm sure. The problem is that she dislikes the fact that she likes me."

"Well… we've all gotta start somewhere… right? At least you're going to the dance with her."

Brandon groaned, "okay, how many people know?"

"We all do. It was part of our master plan," he grinned.

"You mean you all planned that together," Brandon pulled a face, "you're kidding me. Why didn't you do that for Blake?"

"We did. Yang's working on her."

"Of course of course. Then any success with Weiss?" He teased.

"Don't remind me," Jaune somehow managed to hang his head in shame while jogging, "nothing I've done worked."

"I'm going to remind you because that guitar playing was atrocious."

"Hey!" he complained, "I worked hard on that."

"Dude, it's pretty clear she's not interested. Why not ask Pyrrha?"

Jaune laughed, "you know she's so far out of my league, I honestly didn't even consider it. Hey, why don't we make a bet, she doesn't get a date, I'll wear a dress to the dance."

"You're on. I'm not wearing a dress though. How does a hundred lien sound?"

"I'll take it."

The two shook.

"Oi, you'd better not be slacking back there!" Nia yelled from the front.

Brandon gave her a wide smile, "no ma'am!"

….

Hm, I've just had an idea. Since I've effectively made the Xenoblade humans Starcraft Terrans, why not make protoss units Artifices? The Artifices were designed by a supercomputer AI after all and therefore didn't follow human design conventions.

There is the issue of power scaling which would be kind of difficult to figure out given how canonically, Protoss weapons are pretty fucking overpowered. Disruptors, for example, have a blast radius of 3 km, which means one alone can output the destructive potential of a nuke… repeatedly…

Also, I'm tacking this extra bit on after rereading this thing, I can't believe I spelled Nikos as Nikkos… man, and I even looked up how to spell Pyrrha's name when I started writing RWBY stuff.