I do not own anything relating to RWBY and Battlefield 1. RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth and Battlefield 1 belongs to DICE and EA. All names mentioned in this fanfic belong to their respective owners.

The ideas in this fanfic belong to me.

All criticisms are welcomed, especially the ones that are constructive.

Concern and worry were the only two things the audience was feeling when it was clear that the fighter had been shot down. The fact that silence continued for a few more seconds as well as the screen was still dark was enough to make the group feared for the worst.

"...So that's how it ends, huh?" Sun said, followed with a heavy sigh. The rest of his team also looked dejected.

"At least they went out with a bang" Yang commented with a sad sigh. Everyone immediately turned and stared at her with incredulous eyes, and the blonde knew what was going on inside their heads. "No, that's not a pun, I'm serious."

However, among them there were two individuals who would like to disagree with the others about the implication that the flyboys had been killed in the crash.

'These people really are stupid, huh.' Neo tapped in her scroll and showed it to her partner. In return, Torchwick chuckled and patted Neo's head. "Haha. Trueeeeeee."

Sitting in a few seats from them, Qrow overheard the crook and asked the guy out of curiosity. "Something funny?"

The person in question looked at the drunkard of a Huntsman and was surprised to see the rest of the audience was also looking at him, waiting for the answer. He considered not saying anything but then remembered that they literally could not do anything to him. With that in mind, the self-proclaimed criminal mastermind smiled smugly and opened his mouth.

"Oh it's nothing. I and my cute assistance over here were just chatting about how much of a dunderhead you people really are~"

Obviously, that comment enraged the majority of Remnant's natives except Ozpin and of course Eli as they openly glared at the man with orange hair and a white trench coat. If looks could kill, the man in question as well as his associate would have been a few hundred feet under already. In particular, General Ironwood wanted nothing more than having Torchwick and Neo punished severely for their crimes.

But then again, Torchwick and Neo knew that there was nothing these people could do to harm the duo.

General Ironwood began to feel frustrated as the two most wanted individuals were finally within arm's reach right in front of him yet he could not cuff their hands and throw them in jail where they deserved to be. At least he could still throw some empty threats and insults and if doing so could alleviate his frustration then so be it.

"You claim that you're smart but that's just it. You claim yet you haven't shown any evidence regarding how intelligent you are. If you have one, of course." Ironwood sneered with a mocking smirk. He also emphasized on the word 'claim' to drive his point home.

Torchwick shot back in return with a tone that suggested he was getting bored. "If those two have died right there then who has been narrating the story so far? A ghost?"

That actually made the rest of the audience pause and thought about it seriously. They then realized that the crook actually had a point and that they all jumped to the conclusions too soon. Thinking back, they realized that previously in the 'Through Mud and Blood' arc, they also thought that the tank crew were killed when the commander, Townsend was his name, decided to call an artillery barrage on their position to take out the German forces as well as his crew.

"Also, I'm smart because, hmm…" Torchwick looked onto the ceiling with a hand under his chin in a thinking manner. "How many assets have you lost so far again?"

This time, it was Winter who decided to humor the criminal with a condescending smirk. "The White Fang stole them. Try again."

"Actually, it was me who stole your toys and sold them to the Fang. Try again~" the crook replied in a mocking tone with Neo giggling uncontrollably beside him and Winter, along with her younger sister, glared at him. In reality, the Atlesian Specialist was not wrong when she said the White Fang had been stealing their military hardwares but most of the time, it was Torchwick and Neo who did it and then sold the weapons on the black market as well as directly to the White Fang.

Before further arguments and insults started flying around, Eli helpfully stepped in. "Alright, calm down now, you guys are wasting time. Let's get back to the show, yeah?"

The Schnee sisters would love nothing more than to physically wipe that smug smile off of Torchwick's face. But then again, Eli did have a point, they were currently stalling the show for everyone so they relented… for now.

"Fine. Let us continue then." Winter grumbled while Weiss made a face that spoke of great displeasure.

The screen remained black following the dull thud which signaled the crash of the Bristol for a few more seconds. Suddenly out of nowhere, a voice casually spoke up from the screen, and its owner was none other than Blackburn the gambling pilot himself.

"The bird was busted. She buried her nose in no man's land, a half a mile due west of where I went down."

Blackburn began to slowly regain consciousness and by the time he had fully opened his eyes, it had already been nighttime. The pilot then realized he was being suspended in the air instead of lying on the ground, and after seeing green leaves as well as tree branches on both sides of his, he came to the conclusion that he was indeed stuck on a tree after jumping out of the crashing plane.

Great, just his luck.

"Wilson, the poor sap, didn't make it out. But that was his bad luck."

Everyone could not believe what they just heard. No, they REFUSED to believe that they just heard Blackburn say those words. While the man was a thief and also a cheater, he was at least a very good pilot who contributed greatly to the war effort so the Remnantians could overlook those flaws of his. But when the audience heard that Blackburn just brushed off the well-being of his teammate, Wilson, they all, unsurprisingly, didn't take the news very well.

At once, they all, save for Eli, collectively glared at the screen with hate; even the ones who were involved in… less than moral practices also did the same.

Outraged, Jaune yelled. "Hey, what the hell?!"

"Your friend just died and you just… what the fuck?!" Neptune added. Under normal circumstances, his yelling and swearing would have raised so many eyebrows considering the guy was shown to be a calm, collected, and respectful individual with a carefree attitude of team SSSN. But the current situation was anything but normal so nobody really batted an eye.

"Selfish scum." Scarlet silently growled.

The adults also wanted to yell out some profanities but managed to restrain themselves. Instead, they resorted to something more "civilized".

"Oh look, the amount of respect I have for that man just sent me a goodbye letter. Cool." Summer sarcastically remarked. Her daughters as well as Blake and Weiss also nodded in agreement.

"What do I even expect from a criminal?" Glynda calmly commented, yet her body language said otherwise.

Ozpin glanced at his second-in-command and noticed this subtle fact but he didn't say anything about it. Instead, he just closed his eyes and shook his head along with a big sigh.

The pilot then turned to his right to see a German soldier who just returned from his patrol and groaned exasperatedly.

"I had more pressing problems."

"To be honest, after hearing his comment earlier, I actually prefer him getting captured instead of hightailing back to the friendly side." Nora nonchalantly said.

"I second that." Blake added with a nod.

"Even though it's wrong to wish harm on someone else, I have to agree in this situation." Penny commented, though everyone could hear the clear hesitation in her voice.

After undoing the straps of his parachute, Blackburn dropped to the ground making a loud thud. The pilot then crouched down and quickly slid under the nearby wooden cart to conceal himself. For some odd reason, the German soldier nearby did not even turn around to check on the commotion Blackburn made just now, as if he didn't even hear the noise despite how loud it was.

Aside from the huntsmen and huntresses-in-training, everyone including Penny noticed the strange fact on screen immediately.

"How come that soldier over there didn't hear the sound Blackburn made?" Ironwood questioned with a raised eyebrow. "From the looks of it, those two are only about six and a half feet from each other."

"Maybe the dude has gone deaf at that point? I mean a person's ears can only last so much with all the explosions and gunfire and stuff happening around them." Qrow suggested. Some adults found the huntsmen's logic to be very sound and nodded their heads in agreement.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the youngsters were utterly confused as to what Ironwood and Qrow just said but instead of asking them or other adults, they decided to keep quiet and continue watching. Perhaps the answer that they were looking for might appear later on.

The pilot, now being fully concealed, silently prayed that the soldier just right in front of him would walk away so that he could get out of this situation. To his dismay, however, a second German soldier walked into view, slightly worsening his dilemma. Thankfully, the second enemy was further away from his position so at least all hope was not lost.

Quickly looking around the muddy ground to look for a rock or something to use as a decoy, Blackburn sighed as he found none. Just as he was about to formulate another plan, he found a lone shell casing laying nearby next to him. The object made of brass was brightly glistening under the influence of a nearby oil lamp as if inviting the pilot to pick it up and use it to his advantage.

As expected, Blackburn immediately picked the shell casing up and started formulating his plan.

While the majority of the audience didn't have any issue with what was going on on the screen aside from how oblivious the German soldier was earlier, some certain individuals did and they weren't shy to voice their sentiments about it.

"Another stealthy segment…" both Nora and Yang groaned at the same time which made their teammates and friends sweatdropped.

"With the same strategy as before, also." the blonde brawler added with a big yawn as a bonus to show everyone how bored she was. (Me also. The stealth segments are such a chore since I have to try and write them in a somewhat interesting way. It's hell. Send help plz.)

"It's a tried-and-true strategy. I don't see any problem with him using it." Weiss defended Blackburn's decision even though she herself hated doing it. After hearing and seeing how much the man "cared" for his teammate, the Schnee heiress didn't give a damn about the pilot's survival anymore.

"Also, this is not a video game and the people there do not have aura" Blake said, further supporting Weiss' argument. "People there die way more easily than us, so stealth tactics are strongly recommended here."

While the kids of teams RWBY and JNPR were busy arguing, Ozpin was having a private conversation with his peers.

"The young man is suspiciously lucky, isn't he?" the Beacon's Headmaster said to some of his associates. While Glynda, Ironwood, and Winter understood what the wizard meant, Qrow did not.

"What do you mean, Oz?" the veteran huntsman inquired.

"Pay closer attention to the whole thing, Branwen" Winter jumped in. Aside from answering Qrow's question, the Atlesian also saw this as a golden opportunity to lecture the guy. "First, Blackburn fell from the tree making a loud noise and yet the soldier over there somehow did not notice it. Second, there's a shell casing that's just conveniently lying in front of him. Third, if your eyes are good, you will notice there's a conveniently placed shovel right there, ready for Blackburn to pick up and bash that soldier's head in. Don't you find it odd that everything is just so convenient for him?"

"Add to the fact that the young pilot was also lucky enough to jump out of his plane in this exact location where everything is laid out and waiting for him to use to his advantage, too." Glynda chimed in.

The logic presented by the assistants of Ironwood and Ozpin did make a point, Qrow thought. Now that he thought about it, it did seem somewhat suspicious and far-fetched.

Looking around one last time to make sure there was no one standing behind him or on either side of him, Blackburn threw the spent casing as hard as he could at the nearby shed. The sound produced was immediately picked up by the German soldier near Blackburn, evident from the fact that the man raised his rifle, a Gewehr 98 bolt-action rifle, and slowly yet nervously walked towards the source.

(In German) "...I-Is someone there?"

Unbeknown to the German, Blackburn had already crawled out of his hiding spot, picked up the shovel nearby, and carefully crept up on him from behind. The unnamed soldier bent over and picked up the shell casing, before scoffing and tossing the object away. Just as he was about to fully turn around, Blackburn dug the sharp part of his improvised weapon into the German's neck and covered his victim's mouth with his free hand, preventing the German from yelling.

Seconds later, the German's body went limp. Blackburn then dragged his victim into the shed on his right and hid the body.

"Yep, time for another stealthy shoveling action." Jaune commented, slightly cringing at the kill.

"If he had to kill, I wish he had used a knife." Pyrrha commented. "Way more efficient and cleaner than a shovel."

"It's highly possible that Blackburn does not have a knife on him so he has to use the closest thing to a weapon that he could find." Penny chimed in with her facts and logic. "A shovel is a very good alternative."

Walking back outside, Blackburn picked up the rifle that the German had dropped earlier and retreated back inside the shed. Pulling the bolt back, he ejected a cartridge and quickly caught it mid-air so that it wouldn't fall on the ground and alert the remaining German. Slowly, Blackburn walked through the partially destroyed shed while keeping his eyes peeled for his second would-be victim. He left the shed though the second enemy soldier was nowhere to be found.

Blackburn was just about to stand up and sighed in relief when he turned to the left and, lo and behold, the remaining German was standing right there before him with his back turned towards the pilot. Seeing that nobody was around and his ammo-throwing tactic wasn't needed here, Blackburn quietly put the round he ejected earlier back into the rifle and firmly gripped the weapon, preparing himself for a bayonet charge. The pilot then crept up towards the soldier in order to ensure that when the German turned around, he wouldn't have enough time to react.

When the distance between him and his victim was close enough, Blackburn stood up, got into position, and charged while yelling a war cry at the same time.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Blackburn ran like a madman towards the German soldier and said soldier, surprised by the sudden scream behind him, turned around only to be met by a bayonet piercing his chest, heart, and left lung. As his victim fell, Blackburn pulled the rifle's bayonet out of the German's chest and began searching the body for extra ammo.

While the audience didn't really have any impression regarding the kill since the majority of them had grown used to it, the blatant act of desecrating a dead body, enemy or not, really pissed a lot of them off. Even though they still considered the act of killing was wrong, they would still willingly turned a blind eye to it as long as it was deemed "necessary for the greater good" and not plain wanton murder. Looting dead bodies, on the other hand, was an instant no-no.

"LEAVE HIM THE FUCK ALONE, ASSHOLE!" Neptune roared, outraged with the show of disrespect before him.

"The title of lowly criminal suits you well." Weiss disdainfully sneered.

"I hope you GO TO HELL!" Nora joined in. Normally, she would never wish death upon anyone considering her own traumatic past. However, this particular instance was an exception.

Whereas the "good" portion of the audience were all enraged by Blackburn, the "bad" portion somewhat understood why the false pilot had to do that. After all, considering the disadvantageous situation the man found himself in, he would need to find whatever resources around him in order to survive and get back to friendly lines, including looting the dead. They decided to hold their tongues, though, as starting a verbal fight would be a waste of time, effort, and oxygen.

Pocketing the ammo that he looted, Blackburn looked at the compass that he found on the German's body and determined the direction that he needed to go. Once that was done, he slung the stolen rifle behind his back and began his jog on the main dirt road towards what he hoped to be friendly lines.

"I'm just gonna say, I've had plenty of practice moving quietly. Out the back of bars, bedroom windows - you don't need the details. Anyway, once those Germans were gone I put my skills to work, heading west towards the British front, quiet as an alleycat."

"Such quiet with those boots stomping the muddy ground, bud." Yang jokingly stated, and for the first time in a long while some of her friends actually found it amusing and chuckled along.

"Wow, Yang. That joke is actually good!" Ruby complimented.

"It is?" the blonde brawler asked, astonished that her joke was actually well-received.

"Yup! I will say that's a nice character development of yours." Jaune said with a grin.

"Awwww thanks guys! I guess you can say that Yang is back with a bang!" Yang proudly exclaimed, and whatever praises her friends just gave were now replaced with groans of disappointment.

"...And she's back at it." Ruby muttered with a facepalm. As the blonde's sister who had been with her since she was little, the little Rose should have seen that coming from a mile away.

"I retract what I just said earlier." the leader of team JNPR groaned.

"Between me and the British front were German trenches and German guns. Oh, and half the population of Berlin, all spoiling for a fight."

Blackburn ran up a small hill on the right side of the road he was on which provided a perfect view of the things below him. Before the pilot were a few houses, both intact and damaged, tents, as well as numerous German soldiers all over the place. Seeing that there was no way he could make his way through this place alive or uncaptured, Blackburn decided to go around the encampment, avoiding as many confrontations as possible.

The pilot retreated back to the main dirt road he was on earlier and went into the dried-up ditch on the left. Blackburn then quickly jogged down the ditch and towards a stone bridge ahead of him, where he saw a German soldier was enjoying his cigarette on it. Blackburn immediately exited the ditch and laid prone at a nearby bush; luckily for him the enemy troop did not notice him. He could have played it safe and waited for the German to walk away but right now he was not in the mood for patience. So instead, Blackburn decided to use the old trick of throwing bullets again.

Slowly and quietly, Blackburn unslung the Gewehr 98 on his back and, just as quietly, racked the bolt back five times, ejecting all five cartridges currently sitting inside the rifle. Once he was done, Blackburn discarded the rifle and readied himself for the daring plan he was about to execute.

"Uhhh why's he doing that?" Ruby asked as she was baffled by what she was seeing. In her opinion, if the little Rose found herself to be in that situation she would certainly hold on to that rifle until she made it back to safety instead of discarding it like that.

"I don't know." Blake responded with an equal amount of confusion like her team leader. "Maybe he needs more bait? There are a lot of hostiles there, after all."

While everyone was still speculating Blackburn's action, a certain android had already figured it out. "From my observation, I believe that Blackburn finds the rifle to be quite cumbersome considering he's going for a stealth approach. Plus, that rifle isn't suppressed, which makes it basically useless in the event he needs to engage the enemy."

"He can simply shoot every enemy that comes his way, you know." Jaune countered the last point of Penny.

"Except he's only one man and he's in the German's backyard." Ren said after a very long time staying silent. "He would get killed in no time, Jaune. Stealth is the only option here and that rifle he carried not too long ago would have been a death sentence for him had he not discarded it."

The young Arc sheepishly scratched the back of his neck as he realized how stupid he was. He was going with an assumption that since Blackburn was the anti-hero in this story, the pilot would get what Jaune called "plot armor" and be somewhat invincible.

While Blackburn was still busy readying himself, his 'other-self' spoke up.

"My lucky day. The Brits must've been sitting down for tea and crumpets instead of shelling the Germans. Still, I had to get through to our side of the line before those guns started up again."

Taking advantage of the soldier on the stone bridge looking up towards the sky, Blackburn used as much strength as he had and threw a cartridge towards the other side of the bridge. The sound the brass object made upon impact made the German soldier turn his head and he then walked towards it to investigate. Blackburn then immediately left his hiding spot and crouch-walked towards a new one under the bridge, where he then stopped and began assessing his surroundings before planning his next move.

While the pilot was busy looking around, he caught sight of a pair of German soldiers standing next to a tree, their backs both turned towards him. He could hear them talking to each other in German, and while he didn't understand a single German word, the audience could thanks to the subtitles.

"Look at these poor bastards." one of the two, conveniently called 'Soldier 1', said.

"I heard they were on the line for several weeks." the other one, 'Soldier 2', responded in a more somber voice. "Many of them started falling ill to some sort of flu."

"Better them than me."

"That's not a very nice thing to say." Nora scolded the apathetic German soldier.

"I thought soldiers are supposed to be like brothers and sisters to each other?" Weiss pointedly questioned her sister, who sighed in return.

"Although the military environment is indeed highly disciplined, there will always be some… bad apples in a bunch."

"Oh…"

Meanwhile, General Ironwood was more interested in the mention of some kind of mysterious flu that these soldiers were talking about. Judging by the tone of voice Soldier 2 was using, he was led to believe that whatever sickness their comrades were having, it must be quite serious.

That was just his theory, though. He would need to listen more before coming up with a more concrete conclusion.

"Why are these guys back here? They should be in quarantine." Soldier 2 expressed his concern.

In return, Soldier 1 just dismissively scoffed. "It's just a flu."

Soldier 2, however, didn't back down. He continued to try and reason with Soldier 1. "Well, when I was on leave, I saw a Spanish paper. Thousands of people are dying of this flu. Not just in Spain, but all over the world."

"That does not sound good." Summer said, her voice filled with concern. "At all."

"Indeed, Mrs. Rose." Ozpin responded in a strangely somber tone of voice. What most of the audience didn't know was that Ozpin, in one of his previous lives, had once witnessed countless soldiers dying left and right in the Great War, not by enemy weapons but by diseases. In his honest point of view, he would rather die at the hands of his enemy since it would mostly guarantee a quick and somewhat painless death. Getting sick by an unknown illness and slowly dying was way worse and he wouldn't wish anyone to suffer such fate.

Not even his arch-nemesis.

"That Soldier 2 guy is right. Why aren't the sick in quarantine?" Sun confusingly said. His friend, Neptune, also nodded in agreement.

"Perhaps we will know if you pay attention." Scarlet said with a roll of his eyes.

"If it was that serious they would tell us." Soldier 1 replied with the same manner as before.

Soldier 2 turned to face Soldier 1 with a shock expression. "Are you kidding? You think men would continue to fight if they knew their families back home were falling ill to a disease that is claiming hundreds of thousands of lives?"

To Soldier 2's astonishment, Soldier 1 just simply rolled his eyes and brushed the matter off. "Come on man. You and your conspiracies. Our government wouldn't lie to us. Too many people would know about it. The information would get out."

Soldier 1 stopped to take a cigarette out of his pocket and put it on his lips before continuing. "And the idea of hundreds of thousands of people dying?". He then lit his cigarette with a lighter, took a drag, exhaled the smoke, and continued. "I don't believe it."

By this point, Soldier 2 was very frustrated with his comrade's stubbornness and dismissiveness. He simply said. "Then you're a fool. Mark my words, this flu is dangerous. It will affect many people."

Soldier 2 then stormed off, leaving Soldier 1 behind with his cigarette. Soldier 1, having lost the mood to enjoy his little nicotine-filled stick, heavily sighed and threw the white object on the muddy ground and crushed it, putting it out. He then walked towards the general direction where Soldier 2 went seconds ago, making it extremely easy for Blackburn to slip away undetected.

"That's beyond worrisome to me." Pyrrha stated. Everyone else also agreed with the redhead's sentiment regarding the information they just heard.

"Hey Eli. Please tell me that Soldier 2 guy was just exaggerating stuff." Nora nervously said. However, to her shock and disappointment, Eli shook his head.

"Nope. That guy was talking about a very deadly pandemic which began in February of 1918 called 'Spanish Flu'. Also known as the 'Great Influenza epidemic' or the '1918 influenza pandemic', it was an exceptionally deadly global pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus."

The audience became both horrified and intrigued by this new piece of information. But when they thought back about the conversion between the two German soldiers, they suddenly realized something.

Their own government hid any and all information about this deadly pandemic from its own soldiers.

"Why didn't their government inform them of this?" Penny asked as the realization dawned on the android. "Maybe then more lives could have been saved!"

"It's because of morale." Torchwick curtly said, making everyone turn their heads towards him.

"Morale?" Sun asked.

The crook was about to elaborate when a certain cat faunus did it for him, though what she said wasn't the same as Torchwick's. "The pandemic broke out near the end of World War 1, when wartime censors suppressed bad news in the belligerent countries to maintain morale."

"...How do you know this?" Weiss asked with eyes as wide as dinner plates, astonished that her teammate somehow had knowledge of this.

"I managed to catch a glimpse of this event in a book in the library. It's… disturbing, to say the least." Blake replied. She shuddered a bit as she recalled some of the things she read in that cursed book, none of which were beautiful.

The former White Fang operative was no stranger to the phrase 'life isn't all sunshine and rainbows', but the materials she read made Remnant look like a mere daycare compared to Earth.

"How bad is this pandemic, Blake?" Ruby cautiously asked.

The girl in question took a few seconds to remember the relevant data before answering. "In just two years,estimates of deaths range from 17 million to 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million."

If Eli's earlier revelation was not shocking enough, Blake's definitely did. The audience then thought back about the number of soldiers who participated in the war and they couldn't help but wonder just how many of them were actually killed by the enemy.

'Kitty got traumatized, lol.' Neo tapped into her scroll and showed it to her partner, who silently laughed and patted her head.

Even though the coast was seemingly cleared, Blackburn continued to crouch-walk just to be sure. A few more meters later, the pilot spotted a German soldier who was looking towards his general direction, though said soldier seemed somewhat distracted. Blackburn went prone and slowly crawled towards a nearby pile of empty artillery shell casings, their smell showed that these shells had been fired just a couple of hours ago.

The pilot took out another bullet from his pocket and threw it. As expected, the German before him immediately turned his head towards the sound and went to check on it, allowing Blackburn to pass by unnoticed. He finally arrived at the entrance leading to the German trenches and without a moment of hesitation, Blackburn walked right in with zero cautiousness.

"That's very reckless of him." Ren commented disapprovingly.

"I agree." Ozpin nodded. "If he's not careful, he will certainly get himself killed."

"If I were him, I would stick close to a wall and keep my head down as much as possible." Winter crossed her arms as she said. "That place is the German's own backyard and Blackburn is an uninvited guest. He walks as if he owns that place and that will indeed cost him his life."

Instead of pointing out how dumb Blackburn was like the others were doing, General Ironwood was musing on another problem. At first glance, nobody would really notice anything strange about Blackburn's story so far, though the Atlesian officer was different. So far, he had spotted at least two things that could potentially render the pilot's story to be false. He decided to hold back his judgment, though, and see where this story was heading.

Perhaps later on there could be an explanation to those things he had in mind.

The wooden planks under his feet groaned as Blackburn walked along the single pathway. So far, he had encountered zero German and thus he began to pick up his pace a bit even though it was an extremely risky thing for him to do.

"Those trenches were packed full of Kaiser's finest." Blackburn narrated.

"What's Kaiser?" Sage spoke up after a very long time of staying silent, making some raise their eyebrows in surprise. "Is that another nickname for the Germans?"

"Just like last time, very good observation." Eli complimented. "It is indeed another nickname for the Germans, just like 'Fritz' and 'Jerry'."

As the 'actual' Blackburn continued to walk, 'narrator' Blackburn continued to… well, narrate.

"But hopefully, most of them would be looking for trouble coming the other way. Hopefully."

The pathway led Blackburn towards the exit of the part of the trench he had been walking mere moments ago. He then arrived at a muddy clearing where there was a small tent with a siren alarm on a pole. The pilot could make it extra safe for him by sneaking in there, killing some guards if he felt the need to do so, and disable the alarm, but he didn't do that. Instead, he decided to ignore it and went around the place, keeping a low profile as he did so.

The route Blackburn chose actually led him to the wet, muddy, and uneven ground above the trenches. The false pilot then heard voices coming from a part of the trenches next to him on the right and he immediately went prone. He then started crawling, all the while frowning as his whole body and outfit were covered in dirt and mud.

"He's in the military yet he couldn't stand having his uniform dirtied?" Summer said disapprovingly. Ever since the beginning of this episode, Blackburn had only given her bad impression after bad impression, which made the pilot to gradually be her least favorite character; at least for now.

"What do you even expect, Mrs. Rose?" Scarlet commented. "The guy is a criminal, no wonder he will get upset when his outfit is dirty."

Next to him, Sun and Neptune chuckled in silence, and even though Sage didn't chuckle, his mouth at least curled up showing a slight smirk. Unfortunately for the two members of team SSSN that chuckled, Scarlet heard them. With an annoyed expression, he asked. "What's so funny?"

Sun and Neptune's chuckles eventually came to a stop. The monkey faunus of the team then answered his teammate's question. "Well, remember that one time we all went for a stroll after a rain? You constantly complained about all the tiny puddles on the streets and that you didn't want dirty water to get splashed on your boots? Remember that one?"

Seeing that it was a battle he had no chance of winning, the redhead simply rolled his eyes and turned his attention back towards the screen.

Blackburn crawled until he was certain that he was far enough to not be spotted and went back to the crouch-walk position. He then came across a very narrow trench which also served as a gap separating one muddy ground to the other. Blackburn cautiously looked into the trench as well as both sides of it to ensure no one was there. Unfortunately for him, there were two soldiers standing on both sides of the trench. Fortunately for him, however, both of them were also having their backs turned towards his direction.

He really needed to cross this gap and since there was no other way visible, the con man began to think of a strategy in his head.

"If he stands up and simply jumps towards the other side, he will definitely expose himself to countless enemies behind him." Penny commented. "He only has one option: drop down onto the trench and quickly vault over the wooden wall before the guards can spot him."

"Isn't that extremely dangerous?" Ruby asked her android friend. Instead of receiving the answer from Penny, her Professor, Glynda, did it instead.

"He does not have another choice, Ms. Rose." the blonde woman said and pushed her glasses up a bit. "Even though the risk of getting caught is strikingly high, it is the only way."

The audience watched with bated breath to see how the lone pilot would pull this off. That particular part was, in their opinions, the part that decided whether Blackburn would live or die, which in turn meant that whether the story would continue or abruptly end.

Finally making up his mind, Blackburn took a few deep breaths of reassurance and dropped down onto the wooden floor of the trench as light as he could. Thankfully, both soldiers did not hear or see him.

Now came the hard part. Knowing that there would be no way for him to quickly climb over the wooden wall without making any noises, he decided to just propel himself up towards the muddy ground above as fast as he could.

The creaking sound of wooden panels and the loud splash sounds of wet mud made everyone cringed. That would definitely attract the guards from before and some of them, not all, prayed for Oum to give Blackburn some sort of miracle, no matter how stupid it may looked, so that he could make it out alive.

As expected, the two German guards immediately turned around towards the source of the loud noises. Instead of seeing an intruder like they had expected, the Germans only found their teammates standing in front of them.

"Did you hear something?" one of the soldiers, dubbed Soldier 1, asked.

"I did." the other soldier, Soldier 2, replied. He took a quick look over to see if there was anything suspicious only to find none. "Maybe it's just some rats running around."

"Yeah… Yeah, probably." Soldier 1 said. He then noticed the rifle Soldier 2 was equipped with and couldn't help but whistled. "Nice rifle you got there."

Soldier 2 just laughed in return upon hearing the praise. "Thanks. It's a gift from my cousin. He's in the Flying Corps." He then walked towards Soldier 1 and unlung the rifle from his back. "Want to check it out?"

Soldier 1 smiled and immediately accepted the offer. The two then sat down face-to-face with each other on two wooden boxes which also served as makeshift seats and went over the rifle, marveling at the intricate workmanship that was put into it.

That lighthearted scene certainly drew a few chuckles from the audience. It really was a much needed respite from all the horrors of war they had been witnessing so far.

In slight contrast to the rest of the people inside the theater, a certain pair of daughter and mother were also gushing over the weapon Soldier 2 had in his hands just like the two Germans on-screen.

"That gun looks beautiful and very well-made!" Summer exclaimed excitedly.

"Yeah, mom! It looks amazing! Even though it looks rather antique, it certainly gives off that 'collector's special' vibe!" Ruby added with the same enthusiasm as her mother.

"Like mother, like daughter." Qrow muttered with an amused smirk.

"I know you guys are gonna like it!" Eli laughed. "That baby right there is a Mauser M1916 self-loading carbine. It's a semi-automatic rifle that used a delayed blowback mechanism and fed from a 25-round detachable magazine. The mechanism of this particular rifle is quite delicate and only works reliably only when completely clean, which made it unsuitable for infantry use. At least the Imperial German Flying Corps adopted the rifle for its aircraft crews so it was not entirely useless."

"Wait a second. If that's the case then why is that guy having that M1916 rifle out on the battlefield?" Jaune asked.

Next to the blond boy, his teammate Pyrrha answered that question. "He did say it's a gift from his cousin who's in the Flying Corps, so that makes sense."

"Worst and at the same time best gift ever, if you ask me." Nora said with a laugh.

As the two Germans were busy drooling over the weapon, Blackburn continued to crouch-walk towards his destination. He was met with another narrow trench line just like last time, but this particular part only had one single soldier in it. As if Lady Luck had been smiling on him the entire time, this lone German soldier was busy cleaning his equipment and checking on his ammo, probably getting ready for an upcoming attack. To make it even better, the oblivious soldier was literally crouching in front of the trenches' exit, signaling Blackburn that he was almost home free.

Like last time, he silently dropped down onto the wooden pathway and snuck up behind the German. The pilot could simply throw a cartridge to distract the man, but after realizing that this was the final German he had to face, he suddenly felt the urge to just kill him off. At least doing so meant that there would be one less German charging Brits' position.

With swiftness and brutal efficiency, Blackburn raised his shovel and buried its sharp part into the neck of the poor German soul, killing him instantly. The con man then moved to rip the improvised weapon out of his victim's neck but it somehow got stuck in there, so he just simply let go of it and continued on with his journey.

While all that was happening, some of the adults took a quick glance at the young ones to gauge their were taken aback by how well the huntsmen and huntresses-in-training were handling themselves. The adults felt somewhat worried; they just hoped that the youngsters hadn't seen so much death that they had become desensitized to it.

"The dozen German machine guns at my back kinda encouraged me to keep my head down." Blackburn narrated with a carefree and somewhat arrogant tone of voice.

Now out of the German trench systems, a surge of confidence filled Blackburn's head as he confidently crouch-walked towards the friendly lines. Occasionally, there would be some bullets whizzed past him but they were all far enough to not pose an immediate danger to his life. As he continued to traverse the muddy ground, he realized that he had arrived at the infamous No Man's Land.

"No Man's Land was a maze of barbed wire, dead bodies, and debris. But I held my course."

The audience involuntarily shuddered at such an ominous term. The sight of the muddy battlefield before them looked similar to the opening part of the last chapter, yet different at the same time. Plus, Blackburn's description of the place did not really do much in lifting that feeling of unease that they were experiencing at the moment.

"'No Man's Land', huh." Ozpin muttered, flashbacks of past battlegrounds suddenly flared up in his mind.

"A very fitting name for a place like this." Ironwood commented.

"What kinds of battles were fought there for that area to earn that name?" Summer wondered aloud, a question that was also shared by many others.

"In World War 1, No Man's Land often ranged from several hundred yards to in some cases less than 10 yards. Heavily defended by machine guns, mortars, artillery, and riflemen on both sides, it was often extensively cratered and was riddled with barbed wire, rudimentary improvised landmines, as well as corpses and wounded soldiers who were unable to make it through the hail of bullets, explosions, and flames." Eli explained, which garnered gasps of shocks from everyone.

"You mentioned 'corpses and wounded soldiers', did you mean that…" Qrow asked. Although he didn't fully complete his sentence, everyone understood what he meant.

"Yes." Eli sadly replied. "Their bodies served as obstacles as well as covers for both sides, no matter of allegiance."

"Damn. Even in death, they weren't able to rest peacefully." Torchwick muttered. He may be a con man just like the pilot on the screen but even then he was a professional.

And professionals had standards.

Blackburn continued to crouch-walk. Along his way, he came across a lot of corpses belonging to both sides of the coin being eaten by rats.

It was kinda amusing to the pilot in a twisted way. When alive, these people tried their best to take away their opponents' right to live. Yet here they were lying dead on the ground and became nature's food. Blackburn couldn't help but wonder just what the hell were he and the rest of the men, no matter which side they were on, fighting for. Why the hell were he and the rest of the men here had to put their heads on the guillotines so that the big fat men on top could live comfortably?

Blackburn pushed those thoughts aside. Thoughts like that always gave him migraines which he was never a big fan of. He only cared about his own survival and that's final.

As he was making his way back to safety, he came across something… unusual. There were fallen trees on fire several meters away from his position to his left. While fallen trees on fire was a norm in No Man's Land, it was how the trees fell that caught his attention. It looked as if something had crashed between them.

It seemed like his guess was correct as he saw a burning heap of… something rested in between the mentioned trees. Blackburn was about to ignore it yet something in his guts told him to at least take a look at it; and he compiled. As he carefully walked closer and closer towards the burning wreck, his eyes started to widen as he recognized what it was.

It was a crashed Bristol F2A, more specifically HIS crashed Bristol F2A.

A/N: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, everyone!

UPDATE DEC. 28, 2021: I'm now aware of the "Kaiser" detail in this chapter and I'm sincerely apologize for that. Instead of fixing it, I've decided to leave it like that. It will serve as a reminder for me to pay extra attention to detail in the future.