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(Weiss PoV)
Seeing Cloud again was enormously pleasant. Something inside me cooed and whispered 'I missed you.' I would hardly make such a noise aloud. But it was true. I had missed him a great deal. And now we were back together. It only cost Ruby. That was a short term circumstance, I was sure. I would be back with her soon and it would be the three of us.
Cloud had talked about Ruby's dream and how he would probably go along with it if he had the real opportunity. That was something that I also wanted. I had had the time to think about it. When Ruby first brought it up it took me by surprise but then I had the time to get used to the idea. And I fancied it a little. It would be hard but Cloud thought he really could take Salem down. That could make the dream a true possibility.
For a certain definition of taking Salem down. He made it clear he could defeat her but not vanquish her. That could really change things up for us. Without Salem in the picture we could sit back and enjoy our remaining years with him. We could do whatever we wanted. I wasn't one hundred percent sure what that was.
It obviously entailed time spent together with the three of us. But beyond 'be together' there wasn't much of a plan. I wasn't super happy about that but then again Cloud probably wasn't super happy about confronting his mother. None of us were happy about that. Something to keep in mind while talking with him in the future. It wasn't his fault that his Mother was screwing with his mind. It just sort of was and it was something the three of us would have to come to terms with. All three of us together. Not him alone anymore. He needed to get that through his thick head.
Ruby had been right when she said there was something in him that wanted to see us laughing at his body.
We just didn't want to. And we had seen some of the horrible awful side to him as well and that really didn't change things for us. We still wanted him and each other. He had no reason to hide from us now. So we should obviously refuse to let him. Ruby had been all about not giving him space from the beginning and now I was inclined to agree with her now. Especially if he was really getting better and even if he wasn't we wanted to be with him.
Kill him with real affection and destroy his self hatred. That was the plan. He could never be a good father if he was holding himself back and that was something Ruby and I both wanted. It was time for him to accept us and I thought that living with him would give me the perfect opportunity to really do something about it.
He couldn't run or hide from me now. He couldn't set off on another journey without me. And if he wanted to then that was just too bad. He was mine. And he wanted me to be his. In his passions he had nearly marked my neck with little bruises. I had to make him stop in his attempts to discolor my pale skin. And I really hadn't wanted to. It felt so good when he kissed along my jaw and down the side of my neck. But I had to stop him from making any real blemishes but that had only seemed to encourage him. He left marks all along my back instead. They were little signs of the passion he felt for me. And I would be damned if I was going to be without it again.
But enough about that. It was time to teach. Ruby had really been the one to talk me into it while I was bored up in Atlas. Even I could get a little stir-crazy. She convinced me that I could instead work for the Academy I was locked inside of. She was always doing that. Finding the half full side of every glass.
But eventually she would run out of work up there in Atlas.
So Ruby would have to come here. I'd send her a message and soon as she got the chance she would come down and be with us. And Cloud would just have to deal with the consequences of his actions once Ruby got her hold of him.
I alternated days that I was teaching with the other politics instructor. It wasn't a super big deal. I made my way to the front of the class. My fist class of the day was with the first years. I spotted the young girl Cloud had trained in the back row. She was with her team. And didn't that bring back memories of the time I had spent here with my little family.
I hadn't known about Cloud back then. Things sure had changed and we're so different now. He had still been Jaune back then. He had been constantly pursuing me and chasing me. Maybe things weren't so different except now I liked him chasing me and following as he had the day before. I liked making him chase me and teasing him until his passions overflowed. It made me feel powerful in a queer manner.
It was so strange the way things had played out.
"Class, your attention please," I requested politely. Broadcasting my voice from the front of the lecture hall, I took in the sight of the bright faces. Some distrust was there. Some unfamiliarity with the new teacher was to be expected
"I'm Professor Schnee of Atlas Academy. I'll be assisting in your education in politics," I went on.
"Why do we need some Atlas specialist teaching us?" Some kid in the front row blurted out. "My Mom was killed in Black Out Day. Not by Grimm but by Atlas machines. Why the fuck should I listen to you now."
Okay, rocky start, I do confess. Did I give the boy detention because he swore at me or did I get right down to the heart of the matter?
Both, I decided.
"That will be detention for your course language. But I shall address you as well. Atlas does accept full responsibility for the hack which led to the machines running rampant. I am here because Atlas's and Vale's ties have no reason to fall into disrepair over the tragedy that was Black Out Day."
I paused and leaned back against the desk at the front of the room. I flicked my long hair back behind me in its enormous braid from over my shoulder.
"This isn't the first time Atlas and Vale have struggled together. Have you all been taught about Mountain Glenn?" I asked the class. There was a general chorus of disagreement.
"Mountain Glenn was a major expansion attempt made by Vale with Atlas support and investment. It was to be the creation of a whole city between the two kingdoms. Something that joined us both together. A tunnel was even made all the way to Vale so people could work and live in either city and commute back and forth by train. It was a lot of work and a lot of investment and much like the most recent Vytal Festival it all went so wrong," I lectured.
I was getting into my rhythm now. I wanted to make the point that tragedies had happened in the past but Atlas's and Vale's connections could remain close. I wanted to focus less on the tragedy and more on those ties.
"Grimm flooded the new settlement in a tide and the city had to be abandoned. It's still abandoned to this day. As hunters you will deal with tragedies. They happen. People will die under your protection. If your other teachers tell you differently they are lying. You cannot save everyone and the bigger the mistake that gets made the more lives are lost. And that is what Black Out Day was. A mistake on Atlas's part that Vale paid the price for. There's no denying that. But just as before with Mountain Glenn Atlas and Vale don't have to become enemies because a few people found an exploit and used it to kill thousands of people."
"As the future leaders of Vale's protectorate, it's absolutely critical that you recognize where you have allies. Even if past events make things seem unsightly. And they are unsightly. There can be no denying that."
"Atlas and Vale both want the same thing. Closer cooperation for security and economic and technological reasons. We shall discuss more in depth what Vale and Atlas both have to offer the other kingdoms at a later juncture."
"Rebuilding is hard. It's much easier to burn bridges and cut everything out. But alone each kingdom is weaker. Especially and including Atlas and Vale. No economic support, no energy trade, no military support, no communication, all these things make a state naked and vulnerable. That's why Atlas and Vale have both decided I should teach here. That's why Atlas worked so hard on getting international communication back up and running. That's why Vale is working so hard on rebuilding and relying on it's network of allies."
"And I'm not an Atlas Specialist. I am a teacher at Atlas Academy. Before that I trained to be a huntress here at Beacon. I'm hardly a hardcore militarist mule."
"Now onto the strengths and weaknesses of Vale and Atlas. Atlas has a great deal of dust reserves and technology. Vale citizens know all too well how an overdependence on technology may very well be Atlas's major weaknesses. Vale doesn't share that aspect towards technology. This means they have to do things the old fashioned way. This is a strength in its own right but could easily be turned against the kingdom. During the Great War Vale and Atlas were enemies. But you can see well how they were able to play off one another's strengths in the decades that followed. This led to a tradition of the states being close allies."
"It isn't difficult to imagine what each has to gain. Atlas can sell technology and dust and Vale can sell foodstuffs, commercial goods, and intellectual property which isn't always technology based. Culture and the arts are critical to any standing nation and not just because partaking in them declines the Grimm but also to that nation's overall health. Everyone got hurt on Black Out Day. Literally everyone on the planet. Technology like that boosts our carrying capacity and without it a lot of people died. Not just in Vale but all over the world. The world needed the new Vytal Satellite. The world could also benefit from Beacon tower being rebuilt. And it's really not a question of 'why' so much as a question of 'how fast.'"
"So I hope that answers introductory questions and establishes why I, as an Atlas Academy teacher, am working under Glynda Goodwitch. With preliminaries out of the way we can move on with the lesson. We are going to discuss the new satellite and what it means for the world."
"The satellite was made out of the old Vytal Festival Stadium and is kept aloft by wells of gravity dust. It allows the satellite to go higher than the Grimm can reach. It serves as a proxy for the other towers. A stand in should any of them fall to keep the network online and broadcasting. The satellite can move to the affected area and take the role of the missing tower in just a matter of days. It took no small amount of investment on Atlas's part. You can see how much Atlas values communication. In a vacuum Atlas suffered a lack of culture and the arts. Vale normally exports movies and cultural exchange. Without music and the arts people get sad. They do. Vale is the primary exporter of such things across the world. Without those exports and with what happened on Black Out Day all the kingdoms were injured and none so much as Atlas which lacks music and that sort of culture in comparison to Vale. The loss of the fleet was little in comparison to that."
I reminded them that Atlas lost a great deal in Black Out Day. Vale was the hardest hit but it was hardly alone. Everyone everywhere had been struck that day. It was hard to remember and easy to forget that. Especially in the context of Atlas machines killing civilians. That was a big problem. But there was nothing to be done about it now except to move forward.
"Grimm fell on all the kingdoms in wave after wave and put a great strain on the population of hunters. Hunters are already overworked and under a great deal of stress. PTSD is common for hunters and that can lead to psychotic features. And you should be aware of the threat a rogue huntsman can pose to any kingdom. Anyone in this room could wipe out entire villages especially while communication was down and nobody would have been able to stop you. It happened a lot with bandits out in the Grimm lands recently. You may have heard of the unification of the bandit tribes into the Branwens. Raven Branwen was able to make portals so she could bypass the communication issues involved in running a multi continental empire. Every once in a while an ace appears in the wild. Like Raven Branwen and these are the sort of threats that make whole kingdoms shudder. But they aren't alone. Raven Branwen was a threat to Mistral and Vale both. Together they worked to oppose her strength even with communication down. That was absolutely critical. In the end it was not the kingdoms who brought down Raven but it was a huntsman who now works for Vale: Cloud Strife."
It always came back to Cloud or his mother. No matter how much I tried to escape it that was the fact of the matter. Cloud was too entrenched in every day happenstance and current events. He surfed on the waves of the future and drifted along bringing order in his wake to this lost planet.
It was so very strange how he had become the best of us from the worst of us but I suppose that was just the nature of Limit Breaker. It allowed him to go beyond time and time again and pass by his older peaks to rise above even them.
"The occasional ace can be drawn on either side and Professor Strife also once served in the Atlas military. They are hardly a bunch of evil sycophants. Most are just people. Like Vale's standing army and Guard, personnel in the Atlas military are just common men and women doing their best. They deserve your respect because many of them don't have aura of the training you do but they still put their lives on the line every single day to hold back the tide of Grimm. The Grimm are always the true enemy. Not one another. In trying times and when tragedy strikes we are so quick to blame one another. The actions of a few misguided individuals can bring us all to ruin by destroying the ties between kingdoms. It is imperative that we not allow them to succeed in this regard. We should not allow them to bring us down and split us up because we all become weaker individually."
"And I think that's all the time we have for today. Come see me for your detention assignment," I addressed the young man who had spoken out of turn at me and dismissed the rest of the class. They went all filing towards the door and out of the room with low wakeful murmurs. Hopefully I had succeeded if only a little today. There was still so much to be done.
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-WG
