Chapter 21 — Theory

"Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement."

— Vladimir Lenin

The evening's dinner consisted of roasted fish, peas, and potatoes. It was late afternoon and Serena was occupied with scaling and preparing the fish. All the while, Adam sat at his place on the rock by the fire, watching said human as she worked. He watched as she bustled around what she designated as her kitchen, though it was anything but. For him, it was nothing more than a convenient collection of rocks and boulders.

Questions swirled through his mind as he observed her removing the innards of their dinner. Questions such as, why did she live here? It was isolated, with not a soul in sight. Then; why was she alone? Did she not have any family to live with? And how had she managed to tame a Grimm?

The last question was the most important one. It had been unheard of in all of Remnant — never before had there been a human that could get as close to a Grimm as this human girl could. He himself had been shocked by the fact that that stupid rumor was actually true. Plus, the way in which she did it was even more confusing. She did not use force, but instead showed them kindness, love even. The concept made his head hurt.

Which was why he decided that he would forego the usual silence that filled their dinners and would quite simply and bluntly ask her. She had been nice the entire time, and Adam was sure she had no idea of the importance she held, and what a potential target and weapon she was. Not only for the White Fang, but for every military on the planet.

Serena daintily smeared the paste of herbs onto the fish's skin, humming a song she used to love while doing so. While doing so, she reflected upon the changed behavior of her guest. He used to avoid talking to her altogether, occasionally voicing one or two words before returning to complete silence. But now, he had become more talkative, even asking questions. She chalked it up to the fact that she was the only other human here, and that he was quite simply bored.

Nevertheless, she was grateful for the change of attitude. His tactic of ignoring her before had hurt and irked her to no end. She knew that Faunus were hostile when it came to the topic of humans, but she had not given him one reason to consider her his enemy. But that had all become better now. At least a little.

"So how do you do it?"

The question came out of nowhere, and Serena almost jumped out of her skin. It was not the way in which it had been said — he had never once talked loudly, always speaking in a deep, gruff voice — but the fact that he suddenly expressed an interest in conversing with her. And, even more shocking to her, she could detect a hint of curiosity and genuine interest in his deep baritone.

Placing a calming hand on her still racing heart, she cleaned her hands before turning her body to face him. His face was impassive, a mask that constantly observed and assessed her. But his eyes shone with the inquisitiveness she had detected earlier.

Tilting her head and leaning against her counter, she contemplated his words before asking, "Do what?"

His eyes narrowed dangerously. "You know what I mean. How do you control those monsters?" he asked gruffly.

It was Serena's turn to look displeased. The Grimm were not monsters, even if the whole world viewed them as such. So she voiced her disapproval of his wording. "They are not monsters. And I don't control them."

His eyes seemed to sharpen their glare at the frosty note that entered her voice and he sneered once. "Then what do you do? They listen to you, so there obviously is a method to control them," he argued, pronouncing the word 'control'.

"There is no method," the girl replied calmly. "I respect them and they respect me. That's all."

"You've gotta be kidding me. That can't be all!"

Adam grit his teeth at the stubbornness of the human girl. There must be a way to gain control over the Grimm, and he knew she knew which one it was. She was even more ignorant than he'd thought her to be if she believed that all she had to do was show those monsters a little kindness, a little respect, and they would do her bidding. She was hiding something from him, he could feel it.

"I know it sounds crazy and it's hard to believe, but there is no trick behind it. The Grimm are much more human than you might think. All you need to do is show them kindness and they will return it. As long as you trust them, they will trust you as well. They will accept you that way."

Adam scoffed at her explanation. This human was so deluded, not even he could believe it. Either she really believed the bullshit she preached, or she was humoring him. Either would not work out well for her. He would get the answer sooner or later. The Grimm were mindless creatures, born only to destroy humankind. They did not even understand the concept of love or respect, much less trust.

The girl must have heard his scoff for she lifted her eyes, blue clashing with red in a silent battle. There was no doubt in her eyes — she really believed what she just told him.

That settles it; she's nuts, he concluded. Living in isolation must have fried her brain.

"I'm perfectly sane," the girl suddenly quipped, and for a moment Adam suspected he'd talked aloud. "You didn't say it, but it's written all over your face. You're not as unreadable as you might think to be."

His blood boiled at the arrogant smirk she threw him. Why, this little-

"When I first met Ajax, the Grimm that always accompanies me, he attacked me."

The information hit him out of the blue and his blood stopped simmering. Instead, he payed rapt attention to the words that came out of her mouth, eyebrows furrowed all the while.

"It was shortly after I'd ended up here, so I had no idea what a Grimm was. And when I stumbled upon him, he attacked and injured me," she explained, turning her left arm so he could spot a thin scar that trailed across the upper part. "Naturally, I fled. But somehow, I knew that he was more than a wild animal. So, when I met him again, things went differently. I assume your reaction to the encounter would have been to kill him," she addressed him.

Adam nodded his head and she continued on.

"See, that's the problem. The Grimm are used to the fact that, as soon as they encounter a human, they will be attacked and, subsequently, killed. So I didn't do anything. I noticed that he only attacked out of fear for his own life — he didn't do it for fun or anything, but to protect his life. I started talking to him, and that kinda did the trick. He calmed down and that's how we became friends," she finished off. "And after a while, he also introduced me to Aeolus, Napoleon, and all the others."

That added bit of information made his already loose jaw drop, and Adam quickly tried to recompose himself. Coughing once, he asked, "To who?"

The girl smiled. "They're other Grimm I met a few months ago. Aeolus is a Nevermore, and Napoleon is the leader of one of the Grimm packs. Ajax introduced me to them shortly after we became friends. Oh, and then there's Loki! He's a Beowulf that just loves to taunt me." She shook her head while chuckling to herself. "They're all very nice."

Now Adam was sure his jaw was on the floor. Had this girl really just addressed mindless killer-beasts by names? And she talked of them as though they were human!

She said 'others', so she has control over many more Grimm, the Faunus realized with astonishment. Just what kind of monster is this girl?

Serena was pleased that she seemed to have baffled her — for the moment — unpleasant guest. At least that made him shut up. She honestly hated it whenever he called them monsters. They were so much more than that. If only the humans of this world could see that.

"So, what you're saying is that, although Grimm are the greatest threat in this world, the only thing they want from us is to be loved?" he mock-questioned her. Of course he would.

"Yes, I think that would be best for all," she replied, standing her ground. She was done with him mocking her about things he knew only little about. "Instead of continuously killing them, it would be best for the population of this world to learn to understand them."

His eyes gleamed for a second before he continued with, "So, let me guess, they're here to help us. I'm sure some over-worldly power sent them, not to kill us, but to help us. They're heaven sent angels."

Exasperation took hold of Serena. It was tiring to argue with him. But, then again, it was obvious that no one would believe what some girl living in a cave said. By his standards, she was probably bonkers. But she refused to give him the satisfaction.

"Actually, I do."

His chuckling stopped abruptly and his eyes snapped to her in their surprise. Even if it was only a small change, Serena was determined to change at least this man's opinion about the Grimm.

"Contrary to what everyone else thinks — that the Grimm are meant to extinct humanity and so on…" She waved it off with a lofty hand as though she was not talking about the future of the entire human race. "… I think that they serve a much bigger, much more important purpose."

"And that would be?"

"Helping humans to avoid war," she declared. Waiting a few moments to let the idea sink into his thick skull, she continued on matter-of-fact, "Think about it. Has this world ever experienced war? No, it has not. And that is because you do not have the time to. Should one of the kingdoms decide to wage war, they would have to deploy all of their military forces. They would have to leave their land with minimum defenses. It would be easy for the Grimm to storm such a weak kingdom. Plus, the negativity that is exuded when war is waged would only amplify the Grimm's strength."

She paused a moment, watching how he processed the information she had just thrown at him. It was satisfying enough to see him so perplexed.

"So, you see, there really is no opportunity for you to attack each other. The Grimm help balance this co-existence: if one kingdom starts to get unhinged, the Grimm will be there to put it back in its place." Lightening her tone, she added, "And just look at all the technological advances the Grimm have brought you. Alone your weapon would be something the humans in my world would need decades to construct. We didn't even think of it yet! The Grimm help you to evolve. That is their purpose; not to destroy you. They are to keep the harmony until you are capable of maintaining it yourselves."

Adam had never been so perplexed in his entire life. The girl's theory was sound — she had prove that added strength to her arguments. But the Grimm as keepers of peace? If he was not wrong, then it was the Grimm that attacked humans on an almost daily basis. They did not need Hunters and Huntresses for nothing. They were a very real threat, and many kingdoms had already fallen prey to them.

Still, she had a point. Not once had he or his family experienced war, and he had been on this planet for twenty-two years, his parents and grand-parents even longer. It made sense that none of the kingdoms would want to declare war on each other when there was an enemy just outside their doors, waiting to trample everything down.

But the whole concept of the Grimm being peace keepers was not the only thing that irked him.

As she had so earnestly explained her view on things, he noticed how she had said 'your world' and 'my world'. It was as though she counted herself as not being of Remnant — which would be impossible. But she had shown no traces of mockery; she really did consider herself to not be of this world. That only added to the heap of questions already forming in his mind.

It seemed that, with every new information he learned about this particular human, a thousand new questions arose. She proved herself to be an enigma, and a complicated one at that. But then again, he loved a good challenge.

The girl remained quiet for the rest of the evening, as did Adam. They consumed their meal in silence and she was the first to retire for the evening. The Faunus hovered by the fire, once more going through all of the information the human had divulged today.

It all made sense, but the application of it would be difficult. Especially regarding the part of humans showing respect to the Grimm. At the moment, they weren't even capable of showing some respect to Faunus, so he guessed that the whole humans-and-Grimm-living-in-harmony-thing would have to wait for a long while.

But the one question that permeated in his brain was: Who is this girl?

In all his life, he had never met someone like her. She saw the world completely differently — as though she really were not of Remnant — and sometimes spoke in mysterious ways.

But the point was: she was an interesting human, and if Adam did not want to return to Spike with empty hands, he would have to learn more about her and her powers.

Edited 02/07/2017

Again, I re-wrote the entire thing, but nothing major has changed. Maybe just a few tweaks here and there.

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any of its characters. All I do own are my OC and the idea and plot of the non-canon parts of the story.