I'm back!
A bit later than I wanted, but my laptop broke right in the middle of writing it, and I had to buy new one, so I basically had to write it nearly twice.
Without further a due, here we go.
Despite being back on Remnant for quite some time already, walking around the Atlas Academy didn't stop feeling nostalgic to him.
Although it might have been merely a year here, for him, the journey he went on in the other world took multiple decades. At the very least, if he used the standard calendar from there, that was.
Counting the years had been quite difficult in the United Human Worlds, when most of them had a different timescale, after all.
He had to bit back a sigh at the mare thought of the vastness of the universe he had been sent to so long ago. When compared to all of that, his home world of Remnant felt almost childishly simplistic.
"G-General I-Ironwood, sir." Someone called out to him shakily, and he had to do his best not to scoff at them.
It seemed that his grand return, had earned him quite a reputation among the people working for Atlas.
Seriously, just because he executed some weak replacement General right upon his return, didn't mean that he was some uncaring monster. Besides, it was that guy's fault for daring to question him and demand access to information far too classified for them, anyway.
Thankfully, after offering some of the technology he came across in the other world to the Atlas military, and making the average soldier powerful enough to handle small armies of Grimm, the government of Atlas managed to brush the death of the replacement General under the rug.
A little bit of threatening from him, might have helped with that, as well.
"What is it, soldier?" He asked coldly, before turning around to look at the person who dared to call out to him.
The boy, for he wouldn't willingly describe someone who was so soft and weak as a soldier, looked like he was about to lose his consciousness at any moment while looking at him.
Now that he looked at the boy a little closer, however, he seemed a little familiar.
Wasn't he the aide of that replacement General he had executed?
"T-The Bullheads are ready to take you and your team to V-Vale, sir." The boy said with a salute. "S-Should I inform them, you will be arriving there s-soon, s-sir?"
He scratched his chin a little in thought.
The boy's voice did sound familiarly squeaky, now that he thought about it. That would also explain the sheer panic and terror he could feel from the boy, when they were close to him.
Maybe he really was that aide?
"Not yet, soldier." He decided to finally answer while raising a hand in negation. There was only so much pressure he could inflict on his soft subordinates before they go completely mental, after all. "Before heading to Vale, I would still like to do one last check up on the whereabouts of the specialist Clover. Tell the people, responsible for my, and specialist Schnee's, Bullhead to prepare more fuel for us, however."
The boy appeared unsure a little at his response, as if they wanted to ask him something, but in the end they only nodded really stiffly, before going back and completing his order.
A quiet sigh escaped him, as he observed the scared boy disappear into the crowds going through the corridor he was currently in.
Being the Atlas General, and having access to multiple different and confidential databases, made it surprisingly easy for him to figure out the identities of at least a couple of the other otherworldly heroes.
It was impossible for a person of any importance in Atlas to completely disappear from the grid, and for it to not be reported somewhere he could check.
Sadly, it also meant that the moment he regained his position and did the basic info gathering, he almost immediately learned just which of his subordinates, and dare he say it, friends, were going to be his enemies in this godforsaken war.
It so happened, Ebi Clover, one of his most trusted specialists, was among them.
If the man didn't go into hiding right after returning to Remnant like a coward, or a traitor, he might have offered him a chance to work together for most of the fights. Nevertheless, it was something he would have to offer to only one of his aids, in the end.
Speaking of which, he calmly turned toward one of the doors in the corridor as he felt the surrounding temperature visibly lower itself.
"Is there anything you need of me, Specialist Schnee?" He asked sternly as he carefully watched Winter Schnee slowly walk out of the door he was looking at.
Although, there hadn't been any fight between them yet, with both of them being well aware of each other's identities as otherworldly heroes, the tension was always high whenever they met.
"Nothing much, sir." Winter said in a tone that sounded falsely kind and cheery. "However, I am here to tell you that, there have been reports of an unnaturally kind and lucky man travelling south from the north of Vale. While there was no mention of any unnatural abilities or technology, I think we can both agree that this man is probably our missing Atlesian otherworldly hero."
He looked at the cold white haired woman before him with a frown on his face.
While specialist Ebi Clover went into hiding the moment the War of Heroes had begun, Winter didn't bother with pretending that she wasn't an otherworldly hero.
It worried him.
All the logic and human instincts, would recommend hiding the fact one was taking part in the war as much as possible, if only to not paint a giant target on their back and allow themselves at least a single surprise attack on an unsuspecting enemy.
It was something all the other heroes in this war were doing, knowingly or not.
The fact Winter didn't bother to try, could only mean that she was either dumb enough to not realise all the obvious advantages and go against her instincts, or strong enough to not bother with hiding in the first place.
He subtly tightened his fist a little, in such a way she wouldn't see it.
While he had no idea what sort of powers she gained from the world she went to, he knew very well that Winter Schnee wasn't stupid.
"Will we move to fight him?" Winter asked after a moment of silence.
He huffed a little.
Regardless of the supposed power of his closest aide and their inevitable battle, they still had a couple of matters to take care of first. He wasn't thinking about defeating other heroes right now, either.
"Not yet." He said curtly with a shake of his head. "Our first direction is the Land of Darkness."
"The Land of Darkness?" Winter titled her head slightly in confusion.
He nodded his head. Just because they were fighting for the fates of their respective other worlds, didn't mean they couldn't save Remnant along the way. He wouldn't put it past Salem to have some of the otherworldly heroes on her side, either.
Admittedly, it was more of a guess on his part, than anything.
"That was the reason I asked for more additional fuel for our Bullhead." He informed before starting to move towards the Bullhead docks. "You may not know it, but other worlds aren't the only places that need saving."
Winter slowly followed behind him with clear curiosity in her eyes.
"Remnant can use some heroes, as well."
(...)
In the farmlands of Mistral stood a small wooden shack.
There wasn't anything unordinary, or really special, about it. The wood it was made out of was common. Its design was ordinary, and could be found basically anywhere else in the kingdom if one were to look for it.
If one were to walk past it, they would have likely not notice it in the first place.
Yet, the moment someone were to gaze upon the person residing in that shack, they would have to struggle with all their might in order to not bow in reverence in front of said person.
At least that was what, Oscar believed, an ordinary person's reaction would have been when faced with his Will.
That was how he had reacted when meeting a person with a King's Will back in the other world, after all.
An arrogant smirk appeared on his face.
Truly, after meeting real kings like Arthur, or Alexander, he didn't think anyone from Remnant could be considered impressive to him. It didn't matter if they were Huntsmen or high government officials, they all were insignificant compared to him by now.
He silently looked at the broadcast from Vale on his scroll, and a confident smile appeared on his face.
Even other so called 'heroes' didn't seem to be worthy enough to be considered his equals.
"So that's the place you all chose as the center of all the action, eh?" He murmured to himself as the broadcast turned to bird's eye view of the now destroyed city. "I suppose I could go there and find out if there's someone actually interesting in this war."
A loud chuckle escaped him as he thought of fighting against actually worthy opponents.
Grimm and all the filthy bandits, he could find near his place of residence, weren't really scratching his itch for a good fight any more.
He didn't bother to acknowledge his aunt, who was looking at him with concern and discomfort in her eyes, from outside his house. The short time he was back on Remnant had already made him realise, he couldn't fully connect with ordinary people any more.
A completely quiet sigh left him, as he thought about that.
Sadly, it was something he would simply need to learn to live with, after the war ended.
Not everyone could have the perfect ending, and, even though he was certain he was going to be the winner of this cruel war, it didn't mean he would live his remaining life with true happiness.
He groaned a little as he stood up.
Whatever, it didn't matter yet. He should first focus on finding all the other heroes he could be defeating, instead of lamenting about what he was going to do afterwards.
The war has barely just started, after all.
(...)
Walking through Beacon, after everything she had just been through, was a horrible experience for Pyrrha.
After the great tragedy of central Vale, as it was dubbed by all the news outlets, every student at Beacon, or any other school in the Kingdom of Vale as far as she was aware, received a mandatory two weeks of break from lessons.
Some people used this time to cry, while others, to drink themselves to unconsciousness.
No matter what, however, everyone was currently spending that time grieving.
The amount of casualties her battle against Jaune had caused was only surpassed by the fight that followed right after. After the night ended, there probably wasn't a single person in Beacon who hadn't received news of their close ones dying.
Thousands of people had lost their families, and even more had lost their friends.
She was pretty sure that if her involvement in anything that happened back there was made public to anyone, she would have been chased out of the school by a small army of furious huntsmen in training. The teachers and other staff members of the schools would have only helped them.
Personally, she probably wouldn't blame them.
It wasn't like anyone could do anything to release their anger and sadness, either.
Every student from Beacon was directly forbidden from going to Vale, and doing anything to help the survivors, by headmaster Ozpin himself. Whether it was for their safety, or simply to not lose any man power in case of another tragedy like the previous one were to happen, nobody knew.
What everyone knew, however, was that while all the civilians and full-fledged huntsmen were busy helping each other and setting up camps, they were trapped in the school on a large cliff with no way out.
It somehow made her feel worse about herself.
Not only was she partially responsible for all the death and destruction that happened, she couldn't even help all the people who somehow survived her battle.
She stopped in place as she entered another empty corridor in the weeping school.
Was fighting in that stupid war worth it, if it caused so much destruction on Remnant already?
What sort of things were going to happen in the later fights?
Would Remnant even survive their battles?
She quickly shook her head.
No, she couldn't think like that. If she didn't fight at all, then the battles between other heroes would surely destroy just as much, if not more, than her fights would. The best she could do was try to contain all their fights to small locations from now on.
It wasn't like she was among the strongest heroes, anyway.
That was the reason she was traversing through Beacon right now, in the first place.
If she wanted to have any real chance at winning this war, and hopefully not destroying entire kingdoms along the way, the only thing she could do was accept that alliance offer from Qrow.
She subtly moved her hand to one of her rune-stones.
There was no guarantee, this whole offer wasn't actually a trap, so the best thing she could do was prepare herself in case of a fight. Although, Athenas was still recovering his physical form, she hadn't lost her access to most of her other Guardians.
With her hand never stopping grasping one of her rune-stones, she quickly moved towards the door of team RWBY's room.
If Qrow wanted her to contact him through the help of his nieces, then she wasn't going to make it difficult for him. It was beneficial to her, too, as she doubted the older man would be willing to risk a fight that would endanger his family.
After a final deep breath for confidence as she stopped right before the door, she finally decided to knock.
Her arms were stiff and slow, as if one wrong move could bring untold danger upon her, and if she was perfectly honest with herself, it probably would, but she didn't dare to stop herself from knocking.
If there was one thing she knew she needed for this war, it was the alliance.
The repetitious sound of her slow knocking echoed through the halls of Beacon, carried by the absolute emptiness around her. Somehow, despite not hitting the door too hard, she was sure there wasn't a single person on this side of Beacon who didn't hear that.
Not a few seconds later the doors in front of her finally opened to reveal the youngest student at Beacon, and the leader of team RWBY herself, Ruby Rose, right in the entrance of the room.
"Hello there." She greeted with a dishonest smile as she observed the weirdly weary younger girl before her.
"H-Hi, Pyrrha!" Ruby said with a stutter. "Is there something you need?"
It seemed that Qrow hadn't told his nieces about his offer to her. Should she simply tell them what's going on? Or was she supposed to hide the whole otherworldly hero was from them, instead?
She opened her mouth to ask Ruby about her knowledge of the war, but before she could say anything she heard a loud panicked shout from deeper into the room.
"Don't talk to her, Ruby!"
Following the shout, she saw Yang frantically hurrying through the room towards them, before grabbing her younger sister and dragging her back.
"Y-Yang!" Ruby shouted as she was thrown away from the door.
"Uhm..." She blinked in a slight confusion at the frankly bizarre scene before her.
Was Yang trying to protect Ruby from her?
W-Was she really that terrifying?
"What do you want from us, you monster?!" Yang asked with a growl as her eyes turned red.
"I-I..." She opened and close her mouth in befuddlement as she couldn't comprehend the sheer hate she could feel radiating from Yang towards her.
S-She wasn't so bad, right?
Without the aid of her summons, she was practically a normal human being, like Yang or anyone else. There shouldn't be absolutely any reason for anyone to be so afraid of her, should there?
"Yang Xiao-Long! What the hell are you saying!?" She heard Weiss scream in indignation.
"Don't try to defend this monster, Weiss!" Yang shouted back with a quick turn of her head. "You weren't there when the Vale was being destroyed! I was, and I saw the people responsible for it! This monster here was one of them!"
She gulped a little as she saw Yang's hair start to glow with aura.
If she didn't do anything to de-escalate the situation quickly, she might end up finding herself fighting against a very furious huntress in training very soon.
"L-Look, Yang." She started before jumping a little in surprise as Yang instantly turned towards her with red in her eyes. "I know that Jaune and that ridiculously powerful black haired woman probably terrified you. Trust me, they scared me too, but I'm not like those two monsters. In the end, I'm just a normal huntress in training, just like you."
Sadly, it seemed that her calming words had a reverse effect on Yang, who appeared as if she was burning from all the anger in her.
"Just like me? Just like me!?" Yang screamed furiously as something akin to madness began creeping into her eyes because of their conversation. "I saw what you had done there! I saw the beast you command! You are just as monstrous as your team leader was! If not even more, since unlike him, you are somehow still alive! You all are monsters worse than the grimm! You! Your dead leader! And my mo-!"
"Alright, I think you have already vented enough of your anger on her, firecracker." A calm and nonchalant voice of Qrow Branwen who suddenly appeared out of a small rift that hurt to look at, silenced the room instantly.
Everyone present immediately turned towards the new arrival with widened eyes.
"U-Uncle Qrow?" Yang asked with a voice a bit hoarse from the shouting.
"Relax a little bit, kiddo." Qrow patted Yang's head with an easygoing smile. "Despite what you may think, Pyrrha simply came here to talk to me. I was actually the one who invited her in the first place."
"B-B-But..." Yang tried to protest.
"Don't worry, Yang." Qrow dismissed her worries with a casual wave of his hand. "I may not look like it anymore, but I'm quite strong myself. I can easily handle some huntress in training with a couple beasts on her side."
She looked at the uncle and niece duo with some guilt in her eyes.
Had she not attacked Jaune, Yang probably wouldn't have been so scared of her. Though, she simply couldn't see herself as a monster equal to any of the other heroes she had witnessed fighting, she probably understood what Yang felt while watching her fight.
At least, she thought she did.
"Now, since you clearly didn't come here to be shouted at by my nieces, I think we should move somewhere more private for our chat." Qrow moved towards the room's entrance. "We wouldn't want to involve too many innocent people in our little spur, would we?"
She nodded slightly while moving aside to make way for Qrow.
It was hardly surprising that Qrow didn't want the war between them to affect his nieces. Now, she was really glad she didn't reveal too much about the war to Ruby when she just came here.
It wouldn't have done her any good to accidentally go against the wishes of her potential future ally.
Qrow had tightly shut the team RWBY's door behind him as he left the room. Before she could ask where he wanted to go for their chat, though, he immediately smirked silently and opened the same door again.
This time, however, instead of leading to team RWBY's dorm, it opened to a twisted sight of nightmarish walls made out of some unsettling organic matter.
"W-What?" She couldn't help but ask in surprise.
"Don't worry, it's just a basic precaution from any unwanted listeners." Qrow said before heading into the horrific room with the confidence of someone who had done it countless times already. "As long as you are with me, you should be safe from any danger. I'm also pretty sure that most of your summons would have been able to deal with the danger here rather easily, as well."
Seeing how casually Qrow had entered this bizarre place, she could only gulp in nervousness before heading in too.
The moment she entered the room, the door behind her closed tight shut, and they have practically disappeared from the face of the Remnant. While they still technically were connected to the world outside this weird realm, she was pretty sure that nobody from Remnant would have been able to learn of this place's existence now.
Somehow, the fact she was completely hidden from any possible enemies didn't put her at ease while in this place.
Everywhere she looked, she could see eyes and teeth of some weird monsters gnawing at her. The whole room, if this place could be called a room that was, looked like the insides of some eldritch monstrosity.
Although, as she looked at the monstrous sights around her, she couldn't help but note that the whole place smelled weirdly familiar to a salty sea, or an ocean.
"Are you done admiring the sights, kid?" Qrow asked with a small chuckle, startling her a little.
"Y-Yeah, I just found this place a little bit peculiar." She said diplomatically.
As he heard her answer, Qrow began to chuckle louder. No doubt, amused by her fear of one of his, likely, more basic abilities. Despite what Yang had said, she stil couldn't picture herself among the monsters that were the other, otherworldly heroes.
Qrow Branwen, in spite of his light-hearted attitude and desire for alliance, was no different from those monsters.
"If by peculiar, you mean absolutely bloody terrifying, then I have to agree with you here kid, this place truly is the most peculiar." Qrow finally said from between his laughter. "Hell, the first time I had the chance to visit this place, I nearly fainted from fear of it."
Somehow, that admission calmed her down a little.
Sure, the only other person she was here with admitting they were scared of the place they were in was probably a bad sign, but at least it meant Qrow wasn't entirely untouchable.
Maybe she would even have a chance at fighting if their negotiation turn south?
She could only hope.
"Can we please hurry up and talk about our alliance, instead?" She shifted a little in place while asking, "I would rather not risk my life or sanity by staying in here for any longer than necessary."
Hearing her question, Qrow's chuckling slowly died out, and he instantly turned more serious.
"I suppose we should get to that." Qrow slowly nodded. "Look, I know you probably don't fully trust me, or any other hero for that matter, but what I want to offer is simple. We work together to eliminate all the other single heroes with our numerical advantage, and then at the end of the war, we decide between ourselves which of our worlds deserves saving more."
She had to blink a couple of times at how bare-bones Qrow's offer sounded.
"Wouldn't it make more sense for you to eliminate me right now?" She couldn't help but ask. "You have the information advantage, and could still take me by surprise here. If we truly do form an alliance and eliminate all the other heroes, then I would have a lot of time to learn all your tricks by the end of the war, when our fight would happen."
It was the first thing about this alliance that didn't make sense for her. Although, she likely wasn't as strong as all the other heroes, even she could probably take one of them if she had the entire war to learn of all their strength and weaknesses.
There was no point in forming alliance with someone if you knew your partner was going to kill you in the end, anyway.
"Honestly, I would rather deal with you at your strongest after the war than with some of the other heroes in this war." Qrow shook his head. "Can you imagine defeating people like the knight boy or my magical girl sister in a fair fight?"
Okay, that was fair.
Any sane person, who didn't earn some unbelievable power from their respective other world, would probably feel the same way.
"Why me, then?" She asked another thing she had on her mind. "I'm sure that all the other heroes you could find for your alliance, would have been stronger than me. Wouldn't they be a better pick for the alliance?"
Unlike the previous question, Qrow didn't answer this one immediately. Instead, he became quiet for a while, and appeared to concentrate, as if to either think about something deeply or talk to someone in his mind in some way.
Was one of Qrow's abilities, telepathy?
She didn't dare to ask that out loud, in case it was taken as openly probing into her possible ally's weaknesses. If she really wanted to learn about Qrow's power, she would need to be a bit more discreet than that.
Finally, after a good few minutes of tense silence, Qrow sighed.
"To be perfectly honest, kid, you are one of the three people in this whole war who would consider forming an alliance with anyone in the first place." Qrow coughed a little into his hand. "Truth is, all the other heroes are far too confident in their power to think about entering any sort of partnership. The two of us here are the exceptions, not the norm, in this tournament."
She nodded her head.
With the power levels she had already witnessed in this war, it came as no surprise to her that the remaining heroes could be terrifyingly powerful, as well. If she hadn't been completely defeated once already, she probably wouldn't have considered accepting this alliance, either.
"I plan on adding just one more person to our alliance later down the line, but for now it will be just the two of us here, kid." Qrow extended his arm with an inviting smile on his face.
She looked at the extended hand with far less wariness than she had expected of herself.
"Are you with me, kid?"
Knowing it was her best, and likely only, chance at winning this war, she quickly mustered all of her courage before grasping the hand in agreement.
Whatever happened in this war from now on, at the very least she would have an ally to help her.
"I'm glad to have you on my side."
Hopefully, the two, later possibly three, of them would be enough to take on anything other heroes throw at them.
(...)
What once was the very center of Vale, the most lively city in the whole Remnant, now was mere ruins.
All the places where once stood huge skyscrapers and lavish building, now were filled with nothing more than shabby tents and field hospitals.
There was no person living in central Vale who wasn't heavily wounded and homeless. Of course, it only took into account the people who were lucky enough to not die during the whole tragedy.
Yet, it didn't mean that there weren't any people who were better off than others.
In all the chaos and destruction present in Vale, the otherworldly villain called Roman Torchwick was thriving.
The stupid heroes who had decided to kill each other so quickly into the war, and appoint Vale as the center of the war, had only made his job easier.
Not only did they eliminate one of his targets already, they also gave him ample time to prepare himself and his city for the inevitable moment remaining heroes arrive to duke it out amongst one another.
A wide, predatory smirk appeared on his face as he slowly entered one of the bigger field hospitals.
They had even left him a perfect chance to build himself an army.
As hundreds of people were hurrying around in the hospital, nobody tried to pay any real attention to him, and he could easily use this lack of any supervision to locate the person he was here for.
Finding them was made way easier by the fact they didn't try to hide from him at all, either.
He chuckled quietly to himself, as he began moving in their direction. Although, perhaps it would have been more accurate to say that they couldn't try hiding from him in the first place, as they were practically bound to their hospital bed.
It didn't take long for his target to notice him, which wasn't too surprising for him, as he didn't want to stay hidden in the first place.
"What do you want, Roman?" He heard a coarse voice of his old acquaintance calling him with a pained cough.
Arriving closer, he instantly noticed that the fight between the other heroes, which happened at Vale, wasn't as kind to his old friend as it was to him. Unlike him, who was both perfectly healthy and safe, bloodied bandages covered the majority of his friend's body, and he could clearly see three out of his four limbs missing, with the only a single arm remaining.
"Well, Junior, my friend." He sat down next to his barely living friend with a wide smile on his face.
Junior looked towards him with cold rage in his eyes, undoubtedly focused and directed at whichever hero was responsible for all of his pain, patiently awaiting his next words. The words which left his mouth, however, probably weren't what the barely clinging to life man expected to hear.
"I'm here to strike a great deal with you."
And cut!
One deal was made, another one offered, and we saw a couple more heroes be introduced.
This time there will be files on both Qrow and Ironwood, as Qrow finally showed a bit of his power, and Ironwood's abilities are more tech based than anything so I might as well do it early.
Also I'm thinking of changing the rating for this story from T to M after this chapter, but I'm not sure yet. Tell me if the content becomes trully too much for T at any point.
Anyway, that's it from me for now.
SEE YA!
[World Name: Infinite Seas]
[Inspiration: Sunless Sea/Bloodborne]
[Hero: Qrow Branwen]
[Description: Despite being currently the most numerous sentient species on the Infinite Seas, humans weren't actually the first ones there. That tittle belongs to the Infant Great Ones, colloquially known as the Whales by humans, whose existence itself kept the whole Infinite Seas in perpetual chaos. The Infant Great Ones have set up their resting places all over the Infinite Seas, and made any attempt at making long-lasting far-reaching human country pointless. Instead, humanity there forms small single-island governments/kingdoms, with the only thing in common with them being the profession of Whalers. Whalers' sole duty was hunting Infant Great Ones and helping humanity survive in a world not meant for them. The way they managed doing that was always a secret, however, with only some rumours about using the powers of the Whales for the good of humanity being spread around.]
(...)
[World Name: United Human Worlds of Milky Way Galaxy]
[Inspiration: Warhammer 40k/Doom]
[Hero: James Ironwood]
[Description: A couple centuries ago, Humanity of the Milky Way Galaxy lived in prosperity, exploring the universe and advancing technology to the points of impossibility. The light speed barrier had been broken millions of times over with a near miraculous HLDrive which punctured holes in reality to travel through impossible dimensions. Unknown to the early humanity, however, the impossible dimensions they've been using to colonise the galaxy were connected to uncountable different realms, with one of them being the Hell. All it took was a single misfired FTL jump connecting their normal galaxy to Hell for humanity to doom itself. By now the only remaining human government, United Human Worlds, had been at war with the never ending forces of Hell for multiple centuries, ceasing any improvement in technology, and becoming a mere brutal shadow of its former glory. Nobody knows how many worlds are being lost every single day, or how many humans are being killed, but every single human does all they can to allow humanity to survive for just a little bit longer.]