Two months of hard work had finally paid off. I had immersed myself in Remnant's culture, history, and science and come out with a plan that was now in motion. I knew that it would be months for the changes to become evident. There was so much friction to overcome within the corporate ranks even for the Schnee family and there was so much I had yet to learn. There were gaps in the knowledge that could lead to disaster, and I felt that perhaps I had already made mistakes. But I reminded myself that letting self-doubt control me, rather than guide me would only extinguish the hope that I wanted to share.

I wasn't under any illusions that it would be easy. There were almost too many things that could go wrong, too many enemies to make as we tried to pull the world out of the downward spiral of retaliation and escalation. But Weiss had been a reminder of the fact that we had allies in the waiting as well. It was only up to us to reach out to them.

The next step, I figured, was to remind the people of hope. I had discovered the Peace Charter that had been signed in the wake of the Faunus War and its message of peace and brotherhood between humans and faunus, and the mission it had entrusted to everyone to foster compassion and understanding between the two races, to heal old wounds and forge new bonds, to strengthen the tentative peace into a welcomed and lasting one.

It was a message of hope that had fallen by the wayside as greed, ignorance, and prejudice festered in the wounds left by the war. Bigots from either species had twisted the Charter's words and used them as weapons of hate and intolerance that escalated to the breaking point that resulted in the White Fang's change of heart.

Where there was once a yearning for equality, was now a thirst for blood.

But, I couldn't help but wonder if there were still others who held on to what the White Fang originally stood for. If so, where were they?

"Hey." Winter placed her hand on my shoulder. I opened my eyes and looked at her. "What're you thinking of?"

"White Fang." I said, then reassured her when that concerned look went on her face. "No, no. Not like that. I was just wondering if there are still members of the White Fang, or ex-members, who still believe in what they originally stood for."

"Well." She hummed. "If there are, they're really good at hiding, especially if they're still running with the White Fang."

I sat up and stretched my back. "True. Maybe we'll get informants that way. Maybe we won't."

"And it's risky too."

"And don't forget, if they find out you guys are involved the situation will go all FUBAR."

"FUBAR?"

"It's a military term from where I come from." I reached for the coffee pot and poured myself a cuppa. "Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition."

"Ah." She poured herself a cup too, then grimaced after taking a sip. "Sounds useful. Wait a minute."

She stood up and answered her ringing Scroll, and I saw the mask go over her face once again while I respectfully didn't notice the details of her conversation with the military man on the other end of the line, judging by her use of 'sir.' She frowned faintly several times, and she sighed in frustration when he finally hung up.

"Damnit! It's too early in the morning to be dealing with people like him." She seethed. "Sure. I'm all for using robots against the Grimm. That was what they were made for after all."

"But?"

"Colonel Glass wants to use them in ops against the White Fang, again!" She put her scroll down. "Even the Knights are terrible against sapient opponents. Everyone knows that. And there's the fact that they have no discretion! Just shoot to kill! Top it off with bad intel! Every op we're forced to send them ends up… FUBAR because of that!"

She took in a breath. "Schnee only makes the military programs them, but we still get the splash."

"Can't you appeal to General Ironwood?" It was my turn to put my hand on her shoulder, and she slumped tiredly into a chair.

"I can try, but it'll take months for him to get back to Atlas to assess the situation for himself because he's off managing security for the festival!"

"You could threaten to cut supply. Say that their usage of your robots doesn't meet the standards that SDC sets."

She winced. "We could have done that, but now that we're easing off the pressure on our competitors and allowing them to grow… Atlas now has a bunch of upstarts to choose from. Orange Psychotronics for example."

"The one with the crazy robots?"

"That one."

"What about a demonstration to prove precisely why that sort of programming is bad?"

"Something to discredit our own product?"

"No. something to discredit narrow-minded thinking."

"We're going to make a lot of enemies, aren't we?"

"Hey. At least we have each other."

She bit her lip, and then looked away.

Records of The Great War were unsurprisingly sparse and incomplete. The ruins of the Empire the people of Remnant were either long overgrown, or torn down to make room for new construction. I was pleasantly surprised to find that a Great War museum could be found in Atlas, and I immediately made plans to visit. But first, I needed to get rid of this headache.

The room spun a bit as I stood up, and I had to hold on to the chair to keep from falling. Maybe I'd contracted some sort of disease native to Remnant? I managed to get my 'going outside' clothes on and checked my pants for my wallet. It was there. I made my way to the pharmacy. I showed the lady behind the counter my ID and by prescription, then bought a bottle of water to help a pill down. It helped immensely and I sat down on a bench in the park to think.

I turned the bottle over in my hands, reading the label. Remnant medicines were essentially blends of various types of Dust. Traditional Remnant medicines were also made on the same principle and used various blends of dried plants and animal parts that also contained concentrations of Dust. It made sense, I suppose. The people of Remnant didn't generally get sick the same way we do. An Aura's passive healing effects took care of that, though there were some microbes and parasites that could survive an Aura's energies to wreak havoc on their host.

Instead, a great number of common illnesses were caused by imbalances in the flow of the Aura's energies throughout the body, and the intake of various combinations of Dust in the right amounts would correct the flow. I chuckled. I would have dismissed this as quackery on Earth. But I wasn't on Earth and things were different here on Remnant so I just took things as they were.

I sighed. I wondered what was happening on Earth, whether or not my family was alright, and whether or not that same stroke of luck that brought me here would happen again and bring me back.

A gaggle of schoolgirls, judging by the uniform and the chatter, brought me out of my thoughts. One of them came by and asked me if I could watch their stuff. Sure, I nodded. Then they all came over and dropped all manner of bags and purses and weapons on the empty space beside me. I had to adjust a spear that had fallen the wrong way and poked at my cheek.

They split off into two groups. One of the groups had gone to one of the sand beds to rake sand and meditate, the other went to another to drill and spar. Fighting was very much a cultural activity here on Remnant. Atlesian styles were very precise and motion-efficient while Mistralian ones were rather more graceful, but no less effective. Vale was a mixing pot of styles, though I guess their 'own' flavor was more of a brawl. Or was that Vacuo?

Schoolgirls took to the rocks in pairs and began fighting while the rest watched and cheered. I opened up my scroll and started drawing, analyzing how they fought as I sketched the motions. 'Raven', the girl with black hair, liked to move around and had a very fluid style that could switch from precise and efficient to very showy displays that used her hair as a distraction.

"Why doesn't she just grab on to the hair?" I asked the girl who was standing by the water fountain and filling bottles.

She looked at Raven and her partner, then to me. "Conditioner."

"Oh." That made some sense.

Raven's opponent had tried to do just that, and a kick to the gut had her sprawling in the sand. Only it did not. The girl used her semblance to stick herself to the rock and rebound with a headbutt, sending the girl with slippery hair into the sand.

"Hey, that's cheating!" Raven called out and the schoolgirls immediately divided into two camps arguing whether or not it was cheating.

The one filling the bottles sighed and rolled her eyes.

"This happens a lot, doesn't it?"

"Yeah. Hey, sorry about this." She turned to them and called out. "Why don't we all ask this guy?"

I quirked an eyebrow up at her and shrugged as they turned to me. "Well, if you were all using Semblance, then I don't see why it would be cheating. If you weren't, then it's cheating."

Apparently that was good enough because they carried on with their rounds.

Minutes later, the other group started screaming as a combatant flew into the air a dug a trench into their lot of sand and ruined all the rakework.

Calla, my sparring partner lashed out with a kick aimed at my jaw. It and threw her off balance enough that hooking my foot around her ankle and pulling sent her sprawling on the large, flat rock. She recovered quickly and flipped over her back and landed in a crouch. We had been in a stalemate for a minute or two since the match started. Her punches were pushed away by my Aura and I was too slow to get good hits in.

"C'mon, Cally!" One of the girls called out. "Hit him already!"

"I can't!"

"Why not! He's big!" The girls beside the one egging Calla on giggled. "NOT LIKE THAT!"

Truth be told, the top of her head was about chin level for me. And then suddenly we were face to face and her head was quickly approaching. I put my elbow in the way and swept my arm to the side, but she danced out of the way of that and jabbed at my kidney. I felt it connect this time, and I winced. The pain faded as I maneuvered to get some space, but she grabbed my arm, surged forward and tossed me over her shoulder and into the sand.

I rolled over onto my back and took the offered towel to wipe my face of sand.

"That sucked."

"That was actually pretty average." One of the girls said. "One minute and ten seconds. The very best of us can hold out against her for around three or four, and that's either Raven or Sandie."

"Thanks then." I stood up and stretched a bit before hopping up and down a little to get most of the sand off.

Twayblade, the water girl who had invited me to spar, tossed me a bottle of water. I caught it and drank about half before placing it with the other bottles. Cally came up and punched me in the shoulder with a grin.

"Up for round two, hot stuff?"

"Maybe. What time is it?"

"Around four past noon!" Someone offered.

"Well, I guess I'm not going to that museum, then." I shrugged. "Sure. Let's do round two."

Round Two started off similarly to the first bout. We circled each other for a bit as we sized each other up. Her stance was solid and spread, making her hard to push or throw but I knew from experience that she could move fast. I decided to stay light on my feet so I could more easily move out of the way. That saved me from getting thrown again, and I stepped back from her to gain some extra distance and time to think.

She could only move quickly in short bursts, and had to spend some time between each burst as well. So if I kept her moving, she would tire out and I would have the advantage. On the other hand, she had been at this for years while I had only been training for two months so she definitely had more endurance than me. I ducked under her punch and retaliated with a hook to the jaw. It connected and she smirked. And then she aimed a jab at my head. We were too close for my Aura to deflect it, and I screwed my eyes shut and covered my arms with my face in anticipation of the blow.

I felt an upwelling of power then and there, like a surge of energy traveling from my chest and into my arms, and then into the air. I felt static wash over my skin and a sensation of something being drawn from my chest. I opened my eyes.

Calla was frozen elbow deep in a shimmering display of light. Her arm had been truncated from the elbow down, and the missing parts stuck out of another light show a little bit behind my head. Everyone looked on with wide eyes. I blinked.

"You should probably get your arm out of that before it closes." I said.

She winced at the image I had probably given her and withdrew her arm. "Right." Her arm thankfully came out intact.

"So, were those glyphs?" She stepped back and flexed her arms. I noticed the rippling muscle and decided that I really didn't want to get hit.

"I guess so. I don't know?"

She charged once more, though more carefully than before and I ducked and leaned away from her punches with relative ease. Though I was able to strike back, it didn't seem to do much to her when they connected. I'd have to end it decisively or else I would end up in the sand again. She turned around and lashed out at me faster than I could react while I scrambled to get some space. She didn't let up though and electricity arced around her hands, and I blacked out as her fist smashed into my forehead.

I woke up on the sand dizzy and miserable as heads crowded my vision. My forehead throbbed painfully and I think my nose had been bleeding, because my lips were sticky and tasted like copper. I felt like I wanted to puke. Everything shifted in and out of focus.

"Oh Dust…" I heard Calla say, her face loomed in my vision. "Are you alright?"

I groaned painfully and screwed my eyes shut again. "Not really…"

I heard her apologize.

I blacked out again.