Chapter 25

"And that's it, that's the whole entire story. What do you think?" I asked as I let the happy huntress and politician digest the words I'd just spoken.

Robyn finally let go of Ironwood's hand, as well as mine, the glowing green aura on them vanishing as quickly as our hand contact ceased. We'd spent a clear ten minutes explaining everything: Ironwood talking about Salem and the confirmed existence of the gods, and me explaining everything that happened in a previous timeline, and how I planned on preventing it. All without mentioning the tempting powers that were the four maidens and the four relics.

Robyn was wearing her huntress outfit, a black sleeveless coat with gray accents over a red double-breasted sleeveless vest, a brown high neck shirt, and a light gray short-sleeved shirt with one right short sleeve that has a black cuff whilst the other sleeve was longer. With that was her brown belted waist cincher with matching brown pants tucked into black knee-high boots with dark brown cuffs, and an olive green scarf with tails hanging behind her. Her outfit looked much cleaner than what was seen in Volume 7 or 8. Her weapon was also still on her person, the wing tipped arm mounted crossbow shield hybrid collapsed smoothly on her left arm.

"I...I'm not sure I know what to say," Robyn said, clearly shaken by this knowledge. "So...all this time, the reason why your military was prioritizing itself over the people-"

"We were preparing for war against the queen of the Grimm. And as you heard Mister Onissa say, it's coming. And we lost the last time around," Ironwood said.

"I...wow," Robyn said quietly. It was easy to see how this could be overwhelming. But I believed I made the right call alerting her to this threat - since the major starting issue that led to the fall of Atlas in Volume 7 was the animosity between Atlas and Mantle. "So why did you tell me?"

"Because you become a small problem when you aren't in the know," I said, sighing to myself. "We planned on you working with us to prepare Atlas further, to keep the people calm while we continue to work on repelling Salem when she eventually comes. Keep Mantle and Atlas allied."

"All the while, Onissa, Ozpin, and I work on preventing or at least mitigating the attack on Beacon. This is a plan many many months in the making, Miss Hill," Ironwood finished. "And it's by Mister Onissa's word that we trust you with it."

"Please?" I asked. Robyn began to think some more, before slowly nodding. Turning, Ironwood made to face Winter Schnee, who was listening without as much as a raised eyebrow in surprise. "What are your thoughts on this, specialist?"

"So...there is queen of the Grimm," she stated. At my nod, she fell into deep thought, similar to Robyn. "Then that means we have an objective other than survival, a chance to go on the offensive. I trust the general to plan and act accordingly."

Ironwood nodded briefly. "Thank you, specialist," he said before looking at me. "What happens for Beacon?"

I didn't tell the specifics just yet, only mentioning that Beacon fell and led to an entire chain of events that led to Atlas and Manel falling after. "The White Fang unleashed Grimm on the city, while Salem's agents hacked into the stationed Atlesian ships and turned the Atlas battle droids against the people," I explained. "Atlas becomes distrusted, and Remnant loses one of its major huntsmen academies."

"The CCT attack was averted, and we're avoiding the use of Atlesian Knights in Vale," Ironwood explained. "Still, the White Fang and the Grimm are a problem. Our enemy knows they can't use the CCT or our own troops against us, so they have to have contingency plans."

"That's the big question. But that's not what you or Winter have to worry about right now," I said. "Beacon should be focused on right now. Atlas can continue development while Ironwood, Winter, and I are in Vale."

"What should I do?" Robyn asked as she finally spoke up once again.

"Form a group of people you can trust. Keep things close to the chest," I said. "Focus on keeping Mantle on Atlas on good terms. One of the main reasons between Atlas and Mantle dying includes the split between them. Don't make it seem like you're siding with Atlas."

"Heh, that's a lot of pressure," Robyn said, without much bite to it. Judging by her grin, she was up to the challenge. We discussed a bit more before Ironwood dismissed Robyn and Winter, having them promise that they stay quiet over this. They agreed at once, and the real meeting could begin. Liya and I were brought to a room of tacticians and commanders alongside Ironwood, and we explained everything that happened in the Breach, about Torchwick, about their plan to bust down the tunnels and cause immense casualties, as well as Ironwood's quick reaction to deploy troops the moment Grimm was detected in the city.

I'd recently found out that Vale and Atlas were in a fragile state after the Breach, with many conspiracies stating that the Breach was allowed by Ironwood in order to let Atlas be the hero, and we couldn't exactly tell the public that a Faunus boy foretold the future. So we came up with the idea that localized seismic activity was detected between Mountain Glenn and the city of Vale, which gave Ironwood ample time and reason to deploy the troops the way he did.

Luckily, he'd sent troops all over Vale instead of just the town square where the locomotive had busted through, which made the whole thing much more believable. I also added extra details for what could happen, mainly the fact that Torchwick had sped up the operation when we showed up - hinting that the Breach was going to be part of a different operation, something potentially bigger.

Ironwood backed up my assumptions with results of interrogations and leaked information from captured White Fang members back in Vale, as well as scanned plans and more. The Atlas military had also confiscated all intact heavy weapons and Paladins in the train, though all White Fang members involved would be tried in court at Vale, rather than being exported to Atlas.

Liya and I talked a lot during that meeting, and soon, we ran out of things to talk about when it came to the White Fang and the Breach, and Ironwood had me moved to another meeting elsewhere in Atlas, which was more or less just a large board meeting for Atlas's Research and Development branch. This was a bit more interesting than the former meeting, which was just recounting and relaying information.

"So this is the young man who provided the specs for these...ahem, railguns," one particularly old man, a director, said as he leaned forward in his seat. "Have you considered working directly for Atlas?"

"I have," I said, only half-lying. "But I'm a Beacon student through and through. And I'm not done helping Atlas yet." I pulled out the 3-dimensional model of the helicarrier I threw together last night. "This is a sub-orbital aerial carrier that I more or less thought up for the past few weeks. I only managed to make this a day or two earlier."

"This...is unlike any design that could practically be conceived," another director said. "But the general believes you to be incredibly useful, and these railguns have been successful as of now. So I shall put my trust here. I think I speak for all of us when I say I'd like you to please go over the specifics."

"There's the issue of the engines. They're far too proportionally small to support a vessel of that size," another director at the end of the table mentioned. "I presume it's going to have an incredibly high dry mass as well. We don't have a high enough mining and purchase rate of gravity Dust to effectively spend on ships this large and heavy if my thoughts are correct. That Dust can be spent much more effectively in so many other projects, civilian and military alike."

"Because they're only going to partially run on gravity Dust, just enough on the densest areas of the ship. Four air plasma engines will lift the carrier up using matter compressors, which run on conventional power. Dust or not," I said. "They convert oxygen into a plasma form of matter, which will have no need of fuel, which thrust downwards at a consistent rate, allowing the vessel to stay in constant flight without a fear of it crashing. They can run on up to two engines in an emergency situation," I said.

"Matter compressors have been a concept in our development branch for several years but it was never completed. They were more or less relegated for water shortage preparations. I assume you'll have a plan for that, young man?" the first man asked.

"Nah. I'm pretty sure your tech in development for years is a bit more tested than a concept that I only have a basic idea of," I said as I pulled up a list of the armaments. "Deck artillery and broadside quad cannons with a decent range of articulation," I listed off. "Hull missiles and point defense cannons. Though I don't exactly know what kind of point defenses you have."

"Chain electric drive powered autocannons, in twin or quadruple mounts," Ironwood said. "But for the more important question: what purpose would these vessels serve?"

"Additional warships and carrier vessels, but first and foremost - emergency evacuation ships," I said, as the people sitting at the large table began to mutter amongst themselves. Ironwood and I knew, however. "In case we can't save Atlas," I thought.

"Emergency evacuation?" one director asked.

"A precaution that I thought of in the Breach. If the White Fang could sneak an entire swarm of Grimm and an entire terrorist army in the heart of Vale, who knows what other kinds of threats could be out there?" I said. "Large carriers that can serve as quick lifeboats in case of something cataclysmically bad. And they will likely work as better combat ships than your airships in some regards."

"This is incredibly unlikely. Our airships are currently some of the strongest warships on the face of Remnant-" someone else said.

"But they're battleships. Kinda limited," I said. "Big guns don't really solve too much in terms of everyday security. Carriers can deploy lots of craft: bombers, transports, fighters, and more, much more than your current airships can deploy. Carriers alone would probably extend your reach and versatility much more than two of your warships. And let's not forget assault ships, they could transport entire armies and armored battalions with ease, probably more than your battleships can carry as well."

Luckily, no one was offended at me pointing out the flaws of the Atlesian Fleet, so I continued. "Emergency lifeboats, support vessels, large carriers to extend the versatility of your fleet. And they're already heavily armed in their own right," I said. "Try building one to see what happens. Fill in the blanks I can't. In the end, the results will speak for themselves."

"This is an ambitious undertaking. Especially since it's something so...new," one of the directors said. He sounded unconvinced, but he also seemed intrigued. I honestly didn't expect them to take my suggestions seriously, but they were likely convinced by the railguns. "But all projects have such ambitious beginnings."

I thought of the Penny Polendina Project and nodded. "That's all I ask," I said. The meeting was dismissed minutes later, and I sighed as Ironwood escorted me out of the room. "Talking all fancy for board directors is hard."

"I won't lie, I didn't notice," Ironwood said. "But your plans have merit. I just hope we aren't going to seem like a warmongering kingdom. It may cause much more political issues in the long run"

"Eh, with how things are escalating, people aren't going to care," I said. "So what now?"

"Now, I help get you prepared for the fights to come. I am taking time away from your classes, after all," General Ironwood said. "But first, I think we need to take a look a your aura. I understand you had it unlocked during initiation."

"Yeah...I'm only aware of the basics in handling aura," I admitted. "Any tips or tricks I can do to handle it better?"

"Yes. I went over the combat recording of you and Winter," Ironwood said, deciding not to mention how the specialist Schnee had wiped the floor with me using every part of my body as the mop and the handle. "I'm sure you noticed her aura handling."

"When I slammed her on the wall, yeah. She barely took any damage," I said.

"That's because she used a technique known to lower aura consumption at a cost," Ironwood said. "To keep things simple, she lowered and spaced her aura to allow some of that damage to affect her directly. It leads to direct damage and is incredibly risky, but it allows the aura to only take a fraction of that attack. Specialists use it to fight harder, and they go through incredible self control training tactics to work up their stamina and endurance. And its incredibly risky, especially if the attack you're trying to split between you and your aura is fatal. It's best effective against blunt force attacks and being thrown around. Not ideal against sharp weapons or firearms."

"Oh. Uhh, think I can do that one day?" I asked.

"Only a handful of specialists and myself can do that, but you can try," Ironwood said as he sighed. "But it'll be incredibly rough. Progress will be slow, but if you're adaptable, you'll be able to handle the basics by the time you go back to Beacon."

"How bad is it?" I asked.

"Lots of training, lots of rough obstacles, and very few breaks. With the assistance of aura, your body begins to adapt to rougher and rouge conditions. Though, expect a lot of pain," Ironwood said.

"How much pain?" I asked.

"The Ace Operatives had their own problems as they worked with this technique," the general said as we continued to walk. "We saw plenty of hospitalizations when they pushed themselves too far. Specialist Ebi vomited blood on more than one occasion. Specialist Schnee overworked her aura to the point of being unable to use her semblance without pain for many months. Specialist Zeki completely voided his aura and left himself injured enough to be unable to use it for days. And Specialist Bree ended up with paralysis, for weeks on end after spinal damage on one occasion. She's received surgery and long term intensive care, and is fine now, in case you were wondering. Atlas's medical technology is some of the best on the planet, and she only required implants for a few months after spinal repair."

I paled nervously at the last part. Paralysis was always terrible. As I made a note to never bring anything remotely related to that around the prideful speedster if I wanted my own spine where it was and not being used as a strangling cord by Harriet, I quickly looked back to the general.

"OK," I said, filled with a new feeling of determination as I recalled the potential that Winter displayed of this ability when I first arrived on Atlas. And I needed to get stronger - from my failing to convince Roman at the Breach, to not being able to do much when we were all thrown into the city in the crash. I needed to improve. Knowledge would be useless without any sort of real power to support it. "So when do I start?"

- 2 and a half weeks later -

I regret it. I regret it all so much.

Liya and I lay in the infirmary, wrapped in full body casts as we were pumped with aura boosters and painkillers. Liya had somehow convinced Ironwood to take part alongside in this specialist only training regime and we ended up going though incredibly painful events with incredibly little sleep or any sort of a break.

Eventually, it was too much. My partner and I ended up with many long term injuries, and Ironwood barred us from continuing the training, especially since he also added the fact that it was recommended that only personnel of 20 years or older could effectively start training. It didn't mean you couldn't start younger, it only made it harder due to a lack of aura experience at our age.

Even more so for my situation because of the fact I had my aura unlocked literally less than a year ago.

"If it weren't for all the military behavior and whatnot, I'd say he was like Ozpin or something, I swear," Liya mumbled.

"Yeah. One of those 'see for yourself' people. Practicality and hands-on stuff and whatnot," I said, wincing. "Still, how did you do?"

"I think it was good," Liya said, wincing as she spoke. "The aura thing, I'm pretty sure I can't do. But the endurance training was good."

"Yeah," I sighed. "Same with me. I don't know if the body works like a self repairing wall or whatever the analogy is, but I feel like it's working."

"Yeah," Liya said weakly. "Remember that punch from Elm? Guess what? It hurts less now."

"How less?" I asked.

"...five percent less," Liya admitted. I laughed before choking on my breath as a spike of pain rose from my chest from laughing. "I think it's aura," I finally said once the pain died down eventually. "Since aura isn't controlled by some mental on and off switch, I guess it becomes more or less a part of our body. So some part of it is staying active to help improve us as we push our limits."

"Yeah," Liya mumbled. "I guess it's like that." She looked down at her mummified looking body before sighing. "You ever wonder what things would be like if we never went to Beacon?"

"Huh?" I asked. "What do you mean?"

"Like...what if I never came here? What if you were never accepted?" Liya asked. "I mean, I expected to be fighting Grimm and learning standard huntsmen and huntress training lessons. Now I'm fighting terrorists and getting some Atlas specialist training, as well as being part of...what I'm pretty sure was politics last night."

I laughed and winced once again before falling into thought. Liya would be in Mistral, either a student there or being part of her family business. I would be in my home universe, living life like normal and none the wiser of my opportunity now, of this...alternate timeline. Or reality. I leaned back as best I could in the bed. "Life is strange like that," I said. "But I suppose things never really stay simple for long."

Liya and I sighed simultaneously. "Eh," she said as things got quiet once again. "I heard you requested an early leave."

"Yeah. I don't feel like spending several weeks in Atlas. It doesn't feel like home. No offense to this place - it's pretty great," I said. "But once we're recovered, I wanna go back and see Yang. To see RWBY and JNPR prepare for the Vytal Festival."

"Yeah," Liya said, her tone falling. I know she was more or less still sour over not being able to participate in the Vytal Festival, after all. Still, she was accepting it - a decent step overall. "I mean, Atlas is kinda white all the time. Beacon had plenty of color, forests, all sorts of stuff."

"Yeah," I said tiredly. "But, we did get stronger. And we did help in the situation against the White Fang and the Grimm."

"Huh? Don't you mean just the White Fang? I doubt the Grimm are like an organized terrorist organization like they are," Liya said. And she was right, they weren't.

They were so much worse.

"Yeah. Sure," I said quietly. The infirmary fell back into silent contemplation - the only sounds being that of the machines that kept our auras working around the clock.

- three days later -

We left Atlas the moment we recovered. No real pomp, nothing special, just a simple goodbye and good luck for the Vytal Festival to come. We even got some payment (2,500 Lien each) for assisting the Atlas military with intel in their fight against the White Fang, and souvenirs to bring back from Atlas - mainly Atlas Academy sweatpants, some Dust (some for my belt and some for Liya's specialized ammunition), and mugs with the Atlas Academy emblem on it. Turns out there isn't too much in terms of memorabilia when it comes to a militaristic school.

General Ironwood had also planned to toss me some more Lien for payment in terms of the railguns I submitted, but I refused - telling him he could repay me by putting those guns to good use. Winter Schnee had pulled me privately aside before we left, asking me to keep an eye on Weiss and to let her know that she'll always be proud of her.

I was a bit put-off by her request, but I wasn't too surprised - she knew Weiss and I were friends, after all. I gave the snow haired specialist my word that I would, and she smiled.

General Ironwood had waved us goodbye as the airship doors closed. We were using the Ace-Ops transport once again, after having talked to Ironwood about having the elite operative squad kept at Vale for the Vytal Festival for additional security. The flight started with haste, with a day and a half of us flying ahead of us.

Within the hour of us leaving Atlas, Liya and I were playing chess in the main lounge room of the ship. Vine was reading next to us, and Marrow was playing some game on his scroll. Harriet and Elm were sparring with each other in the simulation room.

Clover had stayed behind with General Ironwood for unknown reasons, but I had a few decent guesses for what those reasons were. Ironwood did mention that he'd return to Beacon with Clover in a week's time from now. Moving my knight piece, I leaned back and awaited Liya's turn.

"Checkmate," Liya said. Groaning, I flopped back in my seat. "You suck at this."

"I know, I'm pathetic, yadda yadda yadda," I droned on before crossing my arms. After a few seconds of sulking, I got up. "I'm gonna go make a call."

"Yang?" Liya asked. At my nod, she returned it and began to set back the chess set. Making my way to the bunks, I lay in mine before turning on my scroll, sending a call out to Yang. She picked up in a minute, and I could see she was in her pajamas. I forgot timezones existed in Remnant.

"Hey, Markus," Yang said, which was followed up by a cry from Ruby and the red and silver blur latching itself onto her back. "Markus is here?!"

"Yeah. Hi Ruby," I said awkwardly. "I know I promised to call, it's just Atlas training is so difficult, and I got pulled into board meetings when it comes to the White Fang, and-"

"Hey, it's cool," Yang said, cutting me off, surprising me. "We were on a pretty big mission ourselves. I doubt we'd be able to really contact you anyway."

Oh yeah. The events of Grimm Eclipse. I hadn't played the game myself in a while so I asked them what the mission was about. Yang and Ruby told us about how they were going back to Mountain Glenn for further investigation when they came across Doctor Merlot's lab. They learned that he was the cause of the entire settlement to fall, and they learned that he was responsible for creating massive mutations of Grimm over scientific obsessions.

"Honestly, some people are just bonkers!" Rubyc cried. "I'm ready to stay in bed for another week, cuz I'm so tired!"

"Heh," I mumbled. "You should probably sleep then. I still have a day to plan with Yang-"

"Hey, about that..." Yang said, cutting me off. "You don't mind if we just cancel the whole cat maid thing?"

"Why?" I asked, a bit confused but also relieved nonetheless. I wasn't looking forward to crossdressing again, after all.

"Blake's really getting on my back over the whole 'cat maid stereotype', and she's making me feel shitty over it," Yang said. I heard a squawk of indignation - Blake's no doubt whatsoever in that regard - in the background.

"Oh. Umm, OK," I said. "What did you have in mind?"

"Well, there's lots of festival stuff in the planning. They even set up some amusement park stuff in Vale, and it's going hot for the next few weeks," Yang said. "I was hoping we could maybe have a day of fun there? Jaune and Pyrrha spent a day there and they came back smiling nonstop."

A second date? That sounded grand. Smiling, I agreed. "It's a day and a half of flying, so we should arrive...what, in the morning two days from now."

Yang smiled. "Awesome," she said. "That's when we go."

"Can I come?" Ruby asked, not seeming to notice the concept of a third wheel in a date.

"Oh, uhh," Yang stuttered. "Sorry Rubes, it's just the two of us kind of thing. But, maybe when the Vytal Festival is over, we can all hang out as a team!"

I winced nervously. "Actually, what if we all went together right before the Vytal Festival. Since Liya and I aren't participating, we could treat JNPR and RWBY together as good luck before the fighting starts," I suggested.

I prayed to all that was holy that she'd accept, and Yang and Ruby would agree to that. We exchanged a few more minutes of decent conversation before Weiss cut in, reminding us that it was time to go to bed. Hanging up after telling team RWBY good night, I turned over in my bunk and sighed. "A date," I said to myself, feeling quite giddy as I stretched my arms and legs.

I winced, as I still felt rather sore from earlier.