I do not own anything relating to RWBY and Battlefield 1. RWBY is belonged to Rooster Teeth and Battlefield 1 is belonged to DICE and EA. All names mentioned in this fanfic belong to their respective owners.
The ideas in this fanfic belongs to me.
All criticisms are welcomed, especially the ones that are constructive.
After counting the number of votes, it seemed that most of you guys prefer me not replacing the characters. However, after much consideration, I have decided to do this: I will also upload this story on Wattpad but that version will have the characters from RWBY replacing the Battlefield 1 characters, and the version on FanFiction will not have the characters replaced. If you want to read the one with replaced characters, simply use this link: www. wattpad story/238741555-watching-and-learning-history-of-another-world. So, without further ado, let's jump right into the story.
Just as the screen turned back on, instead of showing the prologue like Eli said it showed a punch of error codes in red. Everyone just stared at the screen in confusion, some even seemed fear at this.
"Uhhhh, Eli...?", Ruby asked fearfully.
"What's going on, man? Why there's a bunch of red letterings on the screen?", Neptune asked.
"Hold on guys, give me a sec.", Eli brought up a holographic screen in front of him and started tapping vigorously. After a minute, he sighed.
"I have good news and bad news. The good news is that everything is still okay, nothing to be worried about."
"And the bad news is?", Ozpin softly asked.
"You guys will no longer be featured in the film. The files and codes responsible for that have been corrupted and cannot be fixed, so we'll watch the original characters instead.", Eli calmly answered.
While Weiss, Blake, Ren, Pyrrha, and the adults didn't mind this small issue at all, other hunters and huntresses-in-training seemed disappointed as they wanted to see how they were going to kicking butts in another world.
"Awwwww... That's so bad. I wanted to see me kicking asses in a war, a big one no less.", Nora and Ruby pouted.
"Well, at least the movie wasn't corrupted so, there's that.", shrugged Yang, though she was also a bit disappointed for not being starred in a film.
"What Yang said.", all members of team SSSN said.
"I agree!", Penny chirped.
"So with that out of the way, let's watch shall we?", Eli asked and after receiving various forms of affirmative from the audience, he clapped his hands again.
A soothing jazz then started playing with the words "A DICE PRODUCTION" appeared on the screen. It then showed an African American man sleeping, his face constantly shifting as if he was having a nightmare. A woman placed a hand on his shoulder then he suddenly woke up from the touch. The scene then cut to him waking up but instead of being on his bed, he was seen lying on the muddy ground of a battlefield before being pulled up on his feet by a soldier. All around him, his comrades and enemy troops were killing each other savagely and the landscape itself was hellish. An enemy was seen rushing the man from his left, but he dodged just in time before pulling out his knife and stabbing the enemy in the side, effectively killing him. Throughout the slaughter, the soothing song kept playing in the background.
Everybody was staring at the screen with shock on their faces, some even gagged and teared up at the gruesome sight. All female students turned their heads away as they couldn't take in the slaughter. Weiss was clinging onto her sister and buried her face into Winter's shoulder. Ruby was a shaking mess and was holding her mother's and sister's hands for comfort while having the hood of her cloak covering her face. Yang frowned and turned away from the screen but she constantly took a small peak at the screen every now and then. Blake was burying her face inside her book while tears of sadness and scare was rolling down her face and fell onto the pages, ruining some of the words but she didn't care. Pyrrha was crying in the arms of Jaune and Nora was seen also doing the same thing. Penny was the luckiest as being an android means that she could block out the gruesome sight in front of her. Among the male students however, Ren was having some flashback about his hometown and unknowingly had his semblance semi-activated.
"Dear Oum...", Glynda gasped with both hands covering her mouth in shock.
"This amount of destruction... Not even a Grimm attack can match this.", Ironwood said, trying his best to remain calm. Though the same could not be said about his subordinate as the older Schnee's chest is moving up and down a bit more violently than usual.
"I'll say...", Ozpin said sadly. But then he realized something not normal. "But where are the Grimm? And why do these soldier die so easily? Shouldn't their auras protect them from the beatings and stabbings?"
"That world doesn't have Grim, auras, semblances, and Dust.", Eli just simply said.
Everyone immediately turned their heads towards Eli, but before anyone could have the chance to ask, Eli just said "It's another world."
The killing continued. A soldier was smacked in the face by a soldier who was holding his rifle like a bat, before being stabbed through the hand by an enemy. The African American man from before looked around him, still trying to get his bearings straight before the scene cut to a soldier pushing his enemy to the ground before pounding on his face continuously, with soldiers stabbing each other in the backgrorund. Around the African American soldier, screams of pain, hatred, and anguish rang loudly, as he held his rifle and stared directly at the audience before the screen cut to black.
The silence in the theater was deafening as everyone was busy taking in the sight just now. Just as they thought it's finally over, a sentence appeared on the screen.
Battlefield 1 is based upon events that unfolded over one hundred years ago.
More than 60 million soldiers fought in "The War to End All Wars".
The audience gasped loudly at the staggering number of soldiers that joined the war.
"I... can't believe it... 60 million soldiers...?", Ozpin said, unable to fathom the fact.
Roman for the first time in a long time, spoke up while having his head bow down a bit in solemn, "And many more unnamed or forgotten."
"60 millions... Last time I checked the population of whole Remnant isn't any where close to that!", Jaune said horrified.
'You would be surprised to know the number of population on that planet', Eli thought to himself amusingly.
Another sentence appeared just below the last one.
It ended nothing.
"Just like I thought", Qrow sighed and took a sip from his flask.
Yet it changed the world forever.
What follows is frontline combat.
You are not expected to survive.
Summer frowned at the last sentence. "Does that mean we're going to see lots of men losing their lives in this?"
"Unfortunately, yes.", Eli nodded sadly.
Turning over to her girls, Summer began, "Ruby, Yang..."
"It's okay, mom. I can do this.", Ruby assured her mother with a small smile.
"Yeah, mom. We are huntresses-in-training, we can pull this through.", Yang said in support of Ruby.
After a few seconds, Summer finally relented. "Alright, girls. But if it's too much for you, don't look okay?"
The screen brightened up in the first-person view of a soldier looking down at his weapon, an M1909 Benét-Mercíe light machine gun. His comrade came up to him in a hurry and gave him an order before going back to his position.
"We're surrounded! We have to hold this line!"
The soldier then hefted his LMG and started making his way towards the rest. While he was going, a giant metal vehicle drove past him as well as a few soldiers who were busy dragging the dead and wounded comrades back to safety. When he finally met up with his allies, some explosions broke out all over the place as mortar shells rained upon them.
"They're coming!", a soldier yelled out.
Everyone was on the edge of their seats with morbid excitement, wanting to see how the battle played out.
"It's going down, guys. The battle is going down now.", Neptune shivered while grabbing the armrests tightly.
As soon as the soldier took position at the window and mounted his LMG, an officer blew his whistle loudly, signalling that the enemy force was now attacking.
"Here they come! Fire at will!", an officer yelled.
The soldier scanned the barren wasteland for targets as enemy infantry started charging his and his comrades' position with deafening war cries. Since the enemy's uniforms helped them blend in with the grim landscape so perfectly, the machine gunner resorted to open fire on anything that was seen moving instead.
"Maintain your position!", one of the officers barked.
Switching position, the machine gunner spotted a small group of three infantrymen charging up towards him. He instantly mowed the three men down in a hail of bullets without even properly aiming the gun, just unleashing death by firing from his hip.
"Can't believe they can cause this much destruction without the interference of Grimm or Dust-based weaponry.", Ironwood quietly said while shaking his head sadly.
"Indeed, Sir... And over a hundred years ago, too...", Winter replied in solemn.
Penny suddenly remembered something. "Um Eli? You said before that this is World War 1 right? Does that mean...", she trailed off.
"Yes, Penny. It's called a World War because nearly all countries in that world took part in the war, and yes after this world war there was another one called World War 2, with greater scale and much more destruction and casualties.", Eli said, his eyes was full of sadness.
The audience didn't know what to say.
"There was even a greater war after this one?! What is wrong with those people?!", Pyrrha suddenly yelled out with tears rolling down her cheeks.
"I... can't believe it... two wars on a global scale...", Blake mumbled with wide eyes.
"Hold in place!"
The soldier kept shooting and killing the enemy soldiers that came into his vision. After a while of shooting and reloading, he noticed that his ammo is running dangerously low, while the enemy just keep coming.
"That is not good at all.", Qrow said, his eyes were now glued to the screen.
"Stand fast!"
The officer's order was overwhelmed by the sounds of battle. Bullets landed near the machine gunner's position, with one almost hitting him as it embedded itself into the ground, kicking up mud. Enemy infantry started flanking his and his comrades' positions while firing their guns wildly. All around him, his comrades were being shot at and killed one by one as they fell down, which made it harder for him to defend his position.
"Hold, men!"
"What was that officer even thinking?! With that much casualties, he should have ordered a tactical retreat, reorganized the troops, then counter-attacked the enemy!", Jaune shouted angrily, totally not liking what was being played on the screen. The rest of the students also agreed with him, with Yang's eyes even flashed red for a second before turning back to normal.
Ironwood and Winter both stared at the blonde knight in surprise. "Keep an eye on that kid, Specialist Schnee. He can be a great field officer one day.", Ironwood whispered.
After loading his last ammo strip into the LMG, he started firing at as much enemy soldiers as he can before the weapon ran dry. He then switched to his pistol, an M1911, and continued to fire. He started going around looking for another weapon to replace his now useless LMG before spotting an M1907 SL rifle lying next to the corpse of his comrade. Picking it up along with the spare magazines, he ran and took cover behind some sandbags before engaging the enemy.
"Stand fast!", his officer roared again, but the sound from a grenade's explosion completely overwhelmed the order. Regardless, he still stayed firm and his shots still hit the targets.
Roman take a small puff on his cigar. "Someone should give this guy a medal for just being able to stay calm in the middle of all that. I don't think I can even last as long as him given the same circumstances."
Surprisingly, everyone also had the same opinion as Roman. "As much as I hate to say it, I agree with you, Roman Torchwick.", Ruby said reluctantly.
"Thanks, Little Red.", Roman smirked with Ruby frowned at that annoying nickname.
The soldier kept firing until his rifle ran out of ammo. Before he had the chance to even pull the spent magazine out, a soldier wearing a gas mask and a large metallic backpack while holding a strange pipe made his way towards him. The soldier, upon seeing the masked individual, suddenly panicked and drew his pistol before dumping all eight rounds towards the masked man. Three bullets hit the metallic backpack and it suddenly bursted into flame. The masked man, upon realizing his back is on fire, flailed around while screaming in panic before the backpack exploded, killing him instantly.
The whole audience was horrified at the soldier's fiery death. Sure, the other deaths were also terrible but at least they died quickly, but the fact that they got to hear the flame trooper's muffled scream before exploding to a thousand pieces was too much. Ruby, Nora, Weiss, and surprisingly Neo summoned a paper bag and proceeded to dump their lunch into the bag. A trash can and a cup of water then appeared in front of them, which they gladly used it.
"I... suddenly want someone to push my head... down into a bucket of ice water...", Neptune stuttered in fright while trying his best to put his big cup of water onto his lips as he was a shaking mess.
"Wjat jind oofff sokdier wwas yhatt?", Neo shakily held up her scroll towards Eli, the message on it was filled with typos since the poor girl's was shaking so much that she couldn't concentrate.
"That's a flame trooper, a type of soldier who wields a weapon called a flamethrower, which is a weapon that literally spits out flame as well as a stream of highly flammable liquid, which in turn helps extending the effective range of the weapon."
Everyone was horrified at the weapon. They all vowed to themselves to never go that far and develop such destructive weapon.
However, it seemed like the former machine gunner's luck had run out. Despite backing away from the flame trooper before he exploded, the soldier still got burned quite heavily. Not only that, enemy troops had already overrun their line of defense. Before he could reload any of his weapons, however, two soldiers bayonet charged the man from both sides while yelling their war cries. He immediately drew his shovel and swung it directly into the neck of one of his attacker, killing him instantly, but he couldn't dodge the second one as he drove his bayonet deep into his side and twisted the blade, thus killing the soldier. The screen then slowly faded to black before turning back on, only this time the view was from above the soldier who was slowly falling to the ground. White letters then appeared in the center of the screen.
Jerome Johnson
1899 – 1918
"Rest in peace, Johnson. You've earned it.", Ironwood said solemnly while bowing his head slightly.
"At least he went down swinging like a champ. Hats off to you, Johnson.", Roman took off his hat and closed his eyes in respect of the fallen soldier with Neo doing the same.
"Here's to you, my man...", Qrow raised his flask towards the screen.
"We came from all over the world, so many of us thinking this war would be our rite of passage, our great adventure. Let me tell you, it was no adventure."
The view then flew up higher in the sky before landing at the perspective of a soldier manning a stationary heavy machine gun, a Maxim MG. He then rained fire down upon any enemy soldier that managed to make his way through the trenches below.
"Airship incoming!"
"More coming in on the right!"
It started off quite easy to identify the targets as there weren't that many soldiers to take out but as the number started to rise, it was getting harder and harder to tell who's friend and who's foe.
"Is it just me or was he just shooting at anything that moved down there?", Summer asked, her voice full of uncertainty.
"Unfortunately, yes...", Eli sadly replied.
"Open fire! Keep shooting!"
The soldier didn't care anymore and just shot at everyone down at the trenches. As he was firing, the giant airship from before finally got into position and rained heavy artillery strike down onto his position as well as the surrounding area.
"Shiiiiiiit! Shiiiiiiit!"
He was knocked back when a round landed on his position and destroyed the machine gun he was wielding just now. Quickly turning to his right, the man picked up a pump-action shotgun with a bayonet attached before getting back on his feet.
"They're getting through, rally at the church, we have to hold there!", an officer ordered.
Rushing towards the church, or what's left of it, he saw that enemy infantry was pouring inside.
"Watch the windows!", a random soldier yelled.
True to that man's words, as soon as he snapped his attention towards one of the windows, he saw an enemy soldier was in the processing of vaulting over the structure. He pulled the trigger and the his enemy instantly fell to the ground.
"Coming in through the window!"
The number of enemies pushing into the church was growing steadily. Just as he turned around a corner, he met face-to-face with a flame trooper, and he started pumping shells at the threat while at the same time trying to gain as much distance as possible. But before he could get to a safe distance, the flame trooper exploded and the soldier found himself caught in the flame, his uniform was drenched in some of the flammable liquid. The soldier screamed as he tried to put off the flame but to no avail, before eventually succumbed to his horrific death.
Orville Jefferson
1885 – 1918
"Dear Oum...", Glynda gagged. Never in her whole career as a huntress had she ever witnessed the sight of people being exploded to pieces or being burned to a crisp like that... and she hated it.
"This war, or just this battle alone, makes Remnant's Great War looked like a mere skirmish in comparison.", Ozpin sighed, finding his coffee was harder to swallow than normal.
"I'm... willing to choose dealing with the Grimm anytime of the day than participating in that.", Yang paled with her teammates and friends shared the same opinion as her.
Summer rubbed her arm as she shivered at the fiery death. 'If I have to choose how to die, I'm definitely going to let the Grimm tear me apart again instead of that.'
"New killing machines, like the tank, changed the shape of the war overnight. Luckily, they were mostly on our side, mostly."
The perspective then changed to that of one of the two gunners inside a tank.
"So that armored vehicle we saw earlier is called a tank...", Ironwood looked on in great interest.
Sensing the General's intention, Eli said. "It's one of the first tanks ever made. And it was also plagued with flaws in regards to design, safety, and reliability."
"If it was as bad as you said, then why did they even deploy it?", Winter asked curiously.
"World War 1 was basically the Dawn of Mechanised Warfare, so it was also a sort of testing grounds for new inventions.", Eli calmly replied.
"And the soldiers were test subjects.", Qrow said while shaking his head.
"Our boys in the church are overrun, we need to push through!", the tank commander ordered the crew. The tank then started moving towards the frontline while staying closely behind another tank.
"PBI are counting on us!"
They drove past their allies who were seen dragging the dead and wounded, or was walking back without his weapon in hands while staring at his hands hauntedly.
"Use that Emma Gee! Sweep the ground!", the commander ordered.
The tank's gunner swerved his cannon machine gun combo towards the church from before and unleashed a hail of fire towards the soldiers inside, killing everyone including two flame troopers.
"Keep going, driver!"
As they were going, they caught sight of a large squadron of aircrafts flew overhead.
"That's our flyboys up there!", one of the crew cheered before being scowled by his commanding officer. "Keep your eyes on the ground, son!"
The tank then stopped next to the lead tank as they both took positions facing the wasteland in front of them.
"They're moving in from the trenches!", the commander said and less than a second later, enemy infantry started pouring out from the trenches in front of them. "Use that machine gun! Mow them down!"
The gunner then opened fire at his targets without a second thought. When the enemy soldiers saw what was cutting down their compatriots left and right, they instantly turned around and ran back to where they came from.
"We've got them on the run! Push on!"
The two tanks then started moving forward again. "Forward! For King and Country!", the tank commander cheered.
The gunner keep on firing at any enemy soldiers he could see. All while he was shooting, his commander cheered again, which further helped boosting the crew's morale. "We'll chase Fritz all the way back to Berlin!"
Sage hummed. "I'll hazard a guess and say that this 'Fritz' that man said is their enemy and 'Berlin' is their enemy's capital."
"Very good observation, Sage. 'Fritz' was a nickname that the British Empire and some other countries used to call the Germans back then.", Eli replied.
"So that means we're looking through the perspective of a British soldier?", Ren asked and received a nod in return.
The pair of tanks suddenly stopped in the middle of a clearing for some reason. Swerving the gun around, the gunner saw a scene that the locals from Remnant considered to be heartbreaking. A German rifleman was seen with his shoulders sagged, walking very slowly while dragging his rifle next to him, totally oblivious to his surroundings. Not far away from him, another soldier was seen sitting down on the ground while curling himself up and holding his head in his hands, as if he was crying.
Everyone felt bad for the two Germans, with some quietly sobbed at the scene. Nora's pancakes was now a bit soggy from all the tears that she failed to contain. Ruby closed her eyes and bit her lower lip hard, she couldn't stand seeing people being distraughted like that.
"Those poor souls...", Weiss mumbled.
"Is this what war truely is...?", Pyrrha whispered, tears kept on running down her cheeks.
Without any hesitation, the gunner pointed the crosshair over to the German walking...
The students all went wide-eyed.
... and gunned down the man, before killing the crying man on the ground shortly after.
"NOOOOO!", the students screamed.
"WHY?! THEY COULDN'T FIGHT ANYMORE, OUM DAMN IT!", Yang's eyes immediately turned red and she yelled angrily.
Roman sighed sadly. "I don't like it as much as you do, blondie. But you must know that this is war, and those two Germans were still potential threats to them."
Although Roman's reasoning was totally convincing, the blonde brawler just couldn't bring herself to agree with the thief. It was only thanks to Summer's motherly reasoning that she finally calmed down, though in her mind she was still hating it.
The tank's gunner was busy cutting down the retreating soldiers when suddenly his commander yelled.
"Incoming!"
Artillery fire then landed at their position. One of the shot managed to hit the other tank as it blew up, killing everyone inside.
"Field gun took her apart!", a crew member yelled. "We're just a big fat target for that thing!"
"Move driver! Go around!", the commander ordered and the tank started going moving. "If you get a clear shot on that blasted field gun you take it!"
The tank then made its way up a small slope before turning left, facing a wall of a long-destroyed house.
"Hold on! We're pushing through!". Just after the commander said that, the tank smashed through the wall and crushed some German soldiers at the other side of the wall. After mowing down some enemy soldiers with his machine gun, he spotted the field gun just underneath a makeshift tent with a single soldier operating it.
"Field gun! Take the shot!", a crew member yelled. Switching to his cannon, the gunner fired a single shot at the field gun which created an explosion destroying the weapon.
"Good shot!", his commander complimented. "Let's open a path for our lads!". Another friendly tank emerged from their left. "Move up with the rest of the armor."
The tank kept going deeper and deeper into the barren land void of life, with explosions happened everywhere.
"Stay focused men!". Right after the commander said that, the tank that joined them just now got hit and destroyed, with pieces of steel flying everywhere.
"Push on dammit!", the commander yelled, although there was a slight hint of fear and despair appeared in his voice. Regardless, he tried to stay strong to keep the whole crew's morale high.
Winter suddenly found herself looking up to the on-screen commanding officer for being able to keep his cool and push on amidst that hellish battlefield. She didn't think she could do the same if she was put in the same shoes as he was.
"We're almost through. Fire at anything that moves!"
The gunner wasn't need to be told twice. He started gunning down any German troopers he could see with both his cannon and machine gun. "We're gonna make it!", a crew member shouted in joy as they were very close to the German line of defense. But their joy was short lived as the tank commander spotted artillery rounds flying down towards their position.
"Shit!", the commander yelled, "Incoming!"
Almost immediately, a shell impacted the tank, making it explode in a bright brilliant fire and sending pieces of metal flying everywhere. Another name then came up on the screen, although it was a bit harder to read because of the explosion in the background.
Bryan Brandt
1885 – 1918
"Yet another one fell...", Neptune sighed.
"They were so close to their objective, too...", Jaune said solemnly.
Penny, however, saw something strange about this. "I thought there was more people in that tank. Why there's only one name, Eli?"
At this, Eli just sighed solemnly while shaking his head. "Like Roman said at the start, some were identified, others were lost to history."
His answer made the audience gasped in shock with some started crying. Qrow and surprisingly Ironwood summoned their alcohol and gave a toast towards the screen before downing the liquid in one go.
"Instead of adventure we found fear, and in war the only true equalizer is death."
The perspective then switched to that of a soldier fighting in the trenches with an Automatico M1918 SMG in his hands. A cloud of green gas slowly made its way towards the soldier as he promtly put on his gas mask and charged into the fight.
"Uhhh guys... Why does that smoke colored green?", Scarlet asked wearily.
"It's because that's not an ordinary smoke. That's poisonous gas.", Eli replied.
Qrow narrowed his eyes at Ironwood. "Jimmy, be truthful to me. Does Atlas have that kind of weapon in its arsenal?"
"Qrow Branwen, I swear with my life, Atlas does not possess such devastating weapon and if anyone is caught making something like that, I will personally punish them severely.", Ironwood crossed his heart.
All around the soldier, screams, war cries, and the sounds of whistles being blown intensified as he sprayed his weapon at any German soldier he came across. However, his life was cut short when a flame trooper lit him up with a concentrated torrent of raging flame, burning him to death.
William Sumter
1894 – 1918
The view immediately changed to a nearby rifleman. As he was picking off his targets, he saw something in the corner of his eyes.
"Airship coming down!"
True to whoever said that, he turned his head and saw the giant airship that rain fire upon his comrades a while ago was burning intensely and falling nose first into the ground.
Ozpin stared at the screen in complete shock. Throughout his numerous incarnations, he had witnessed numerous battles and even lived through the Great War. But this war... this 'Great War' made all of Remnant's conflicts combined seemed like a small friendly banter between children.
"It's like... an apocalypse is happening...", Blake mumbled.
The rifleman then snapped back to shooting at his targets. After a while, he finally ran out of ammo but instead of pulling out his pistol, he bayonet charged an enemy and embedded the blade deep into the poor soul's chest. Unbeknownst to him, in doing so he accidentally exposed himself and became an easy target for the enemy. He then received a bullet to the chest, two to his left leg, and one to the head before falling down and die.
Alfred Carlisle
1892 – 1918
The perspective then switched one more time and everything was being in slow motion. As he was taking aim and firing at the enemy troops in front of him, one German soldier wearing a gas mask came up from his right, spun him towards the man, then hit him in the head with a shovel. The man fell down, and just as the masked German was about to finish him off, explosions happened extremely close to him.
"Artillery!", his comrade shouted before the screen turned black.
The Remnant's locals were still shaken up from the experience just now. They couldn't bring themselves to believe that people with such obsolete technology could wage a war with that horrifying level of destruction. They all felt dread as they thought about what kind of war those people now have as they progressed through the years.
"Is it over yet, Eli?", Nora asked weakly.
"Not yet, but we're close to it now."
The soldier from before then regained his consciousness and got back on his feet, wobbling a bit while doing so. He turned his heads around, seeing bodies of his friends and foes littered everywhere, and the ground and trees were charred or were still burning from the artillery strike just now. Turning to his left, he spotted a German rifleman slowly stood up while holding his rifle. The two stared at each other for a moment before tiredly lifting up their rifles and aimed at each other.
"Don't do it guys. It's not worth it.", Roman murmured with quiet ragged breath.
"Please don't... It's already enough...", Glynda sobbed.
Everyone looked on in anticipation, none of them want to see either of the soldiers pull the trigger.
"They push – we push."
The faces of both soldiers showed clear hesitation and uncertainty as they both absentmindedly lower their rifles just a tiny bit. The rain that had been pouring throughout the battle then finally stopped as the first rays of the sun appeared.
"Every once in a while, we push hard enough that the light breaks through the clouds-".
The two scarred souls' gazes softened as they further lowered their weapons. The African American soldier gave a light nod and the German soldier pointed his weapon towards the ground, tears began to appear on his eyes as he squinted his eyes a bit to contain the tears.
"-so the world beyond the war glimmers-"
Finally, the African American soldier's shoulders slummed as he held his rifle in his right hand while closing his eyes and sighing tiredly.
"-just out of reach."
The audience let out a huge sigh of relief.
"Thank Oum...", Weiss sobbed, relieved that none pulled the trigger. Seeing her sister in such a state, Winter pulled Weiss into a tight hug as she tried to comfort her.
The screen then shown a female warrior pulled out a sword while riding a horse in the middle of a desert.
"The war is the world and the world is the war."
It then cut to soldiers climbing out of their trench and running forward, while a squadron of fighters flew overhead.
"But behind every gunsight is a human being."
A soldier was seen wearing a gas mask and holding a spiky club while charging towards the enemy's position, bullets whizzing passed him.
"We are those people."
An old man wearing a hat with the brim flipped up slowly looked up towards the screen. Then it cut to an armor train slammed through a barricade made with two cars. Various scenes of people participating in the Great War and battles then played out as the narrator continued.
"We are the jaded and we are the naive."
"We are the honorable and the criminal."
"We are the bound-for-legend and we are the lost-to-history."
"We are the knights of the sky, the ghosts in the desert, and the rats in the mud."
"These are our stories."
And the screen finally turned black.
The lights in the theater turned back on, signaling it was over. The guests were still busy contemplating on the things that they just saw as well as the things the narrator said at the end. After a while, Blake was the one to broke the ice as she slowly clapped her hands. One by one, other people also joined in, and the clapping started to get faster and louder.
"Settle down, everyone. Settle down.", Eli said, effectively calmed down the audience. "So, what do you think about the prologue?"
"It was... dark, and horrible, and dreadful. In a good way, of course.", Summer commented.
"It really painted the gruesome picture of war.", Roman said.
"I really like the final bit with the two soldiers. It really showed that in war, compassion and mutual understanding still exist.", Pyrrha wiped her tears.
"And with that much destruction, it's just pointless to continue the killing.", Jaune continued.
"The final speech from the narrator was very deep, too.", Weiss said after composing herself. "After the dark days of suffering, light of hope will eventually come down and guide us towards a better path, a better world, where the war is no longer relevant."
Ironwood, however, sighed sadly. "To think they even had another World War is beyond me..."
"Indeed...", Ozpin sighed, taking a sip from his coffee mug. "Is this how humans and faunus will become if Remnant doesn't have Grimm...?", he wondered.
Everyone shuttered at the Headmaster's question. Never in the life had they seen such a battle and they didn't want to be a part of it at all.
Eli smiled softly at everyone. "I understand that it was hard to watch and it won't stop being that way from now on, so how about we take a break? This place is actually than you think and it has lots of indoor facilities like a swimming pool, a library, a bar, a small botanical garden and so on. Go ahead and use the place as you like, we'll continue the viewing after two hours. Sounds good?"
Everyone's mood immediately lightened up at that. Then one by one, they say their goodbyes to Eli and go to their places of interest.