Operation Forging Steel

by licklicklick123

An American general goes to a new world with the simple task of setting up a military base, but this task turns out to not be so simple, when creatures of the dark, otherworldly human life, terrorism, and possible war come into play.

22. Gall and Audacity

Ozpin sat at his desk, dreading the meeting that was about to happen. His hands sat clasped atop each other, his head rested upon the rough structure of his interlaced fingers. This was a political meeting, as such Glynda would not be a necessary addition, but he already knew what including her would mean, probably the swift whipping of the man he was about to meet.

The elevator opened with a ding, and out came the bane of his current day, Oscar White. Every day he had to thank the heavens that he was not reincarnated into this man.

Oscar White walked straight into his office; arms flared out to the sides "What? I don't even get a good afternoon? You've really lost your politeness, Headmaster."

His balding and graying hair had been slicked back; he wore a cream two three-piece suit with his wedding band on the wrong finger and this man wanted Ozpin to greet him politely? After his whole political career had been built on disparaging Ozpin's name and ranting and raving against the faunus.

"Hello, councilman." Was all he said.

As Oscar had reached the front of his desk, he raised his hands in false surrender "Ozpin, Ozpin, why the cold shoulder, sir? Not happy the vote yesterday didn't turn out your way? Because news flash, headmaster, not everybody wants to be the lapdog of aliens."

"Not lapdogs, Oscar, collaborators. Do you not see the benefit of all this? We join this United Nations and we reap the benefits, I don't understand why you are so against it."

Oscar rolled his eyes with his head "We cannot let these people determine our way of life, Oz. Did you read that charter of theirs? 'To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends.' And who are they to determine our common ends? Is it this 'human rights' they keep talking about? I was very happy when I heard about that from Ambassador Ziegler, but then he went and said the part about it including the faunus, too. Why would we let these aliens dictate how we treat our own citizens?"

Ozpin shook his head, his teeth nearing a grit "You megalomaniacal knave, you won the council election off the votes of a racist class who still cling on to their old prejudices from the Faunus Rights Revolution, you have a clear bias against everything this kingdom stands for."

"That 'racist class' is still among the citizenry of Vale, and I speak for their interests, and it's a two thirds majority to win vote, I'm one of six council members who voted 'no', why am I the only you called here? And against everything this kingdom stands for? Really? Oz? I don't remember you winning the great war 100 years ago. Is your name 'Oslo' King of Vale? I don't think so,"

Ozpin took a deep breath. No, he could not say 'I am the King of Vale, I did win the Great War 100 years ago.' But here was a man testing his temper to a degree he had not felt since his married days.

"Because as much as you talk about hating being a lapdog, we both know you're the leader of this 'faction', your lapdogs going against your vote would mean political suicide. And from the very beginning this kingdom stood for unity and peace. When Oslo established returned to Vale after the war, he set forth a policy of equal rights and opportunity for the faunus. What you're doing today stands completely against that."

"Oh? And what about Oslo's complete hatred of military conflicts, of the concept of a military in general? But you've allowed Atlas to bring troops here, you've started amicable relations with the brothers damned largest military this world has ever seen! Oslo's solution to the Faunus Question was a clear misstep. What else has integration brought us other than disunity and the weakening of our society? Deportation, like my ancestors suggested, was the right way to go. Out of sight, out of mind."

Ozpin sat there, his mind reaching dangerously close to the point of wanting to grab his cane just for the sole purpose of corporal punishment. Oh, did he now regret doing away with that system 122 years ago.

"Remnant today is not ready for integration. They killed us for wanting to put them away in Menagerie, so if they want so badly to live in our kingdoms then they need to learn to segregate; the White Fang is evidence of that. Until that day comes, it's segregation now, segregation tomorrow."

"Oscar… people like you…" He wanted to say it, he wanted to let out those words he'd been waiting to say since he saw the man get elected. The words almost left his lips '…are the reason why the White Fang exists'.

But he relented, instead saying "…need to change your views on the faunus. Such backwards policies will not win in any council vote, I can guarantee you."

Oscar smirked and nodded "Not yet, but the more the people and maybe even fellow councilmen start to think like me, the more likely we can finally fix this damn kingdom. And at the very least I'm stopping you from letting the Americans culturally and economically invade us."

Ozpin fought the urge to scratch at his scalp. The man had just blocked investiture banks and aid agencies from Earth from helping develop Vale's infrastructure. Not only that but voted against making the decision to join the United Nations a kingdom-wide vote. Both were resolutions that Ozpin could bring up again at any time in the council, but with Oscar's faction making up an exact third needed to strike down any vote, it would be difficult.

"We gain nothing in this back and forth. I just want you to look at what the Americans have done in Cooperwick, in Shion before they left, and tell me you don't want that same aid here."

"You mean those villages letting their militias and assigned huntsmen lay down their arms cause the Americans are there?" He scoffed "No wonder our huntsmen are getting weaker, you're letting them get complacent, Oz."

Ozpin stood up, looking down upon the man, he spoke "Is that why you're against them? Because they're making our huntsmen weaker? Or is it really because lowering your profit margins? I heard the White Huntsman Company saw an 80% decrease in domestic contracts. Does that have anything to do with you being so against the Americans?"

Oscar just stayed silent, his condescending glare never leaving despite what Ozpin had just said.

"You think you're so smart, headmaster." He turned around and walked to the elevator "One of these days I'll get you out of that seat."

Ozpin sat back down.

---

Southern Residential District

Kingdom of Vale

0330 hours

Once again, Bowman was driving, but the car ride had none of the hip hop he would usually play. No, it was silent. They were on a mission, and it had to be timed right and with little margin of error.

"(COMMS) Bloke's just made a right turn on Cornley Street." The accent of Michael Page came through on the radio placed near the actual car radio.

"Fuck, she's going down south, one way road to the upper-class district, that's outside police district 3." Mason said reading off a map.

"(COMMS) We're right behind her, if you speed it up, we can cut her off at the intersection going to Haven Avenue."

"Speed it up? I got you."

Bowman stepped on the gas pedal, making speedy turns. There was nobody else in these streets anyway, it was 3AM.

They reached it, Haven Avenue, the turn going into Cornley street would be where their targets car would be coming from, and where Page's car would be tailing a couple hundred meters behind.

Bowman hit the brakes, blocking the intersection. They heard the breaks of a limousine just to their left. Everyone in the vehicle, consisting of all of Yankee team, exited the vehicle. Civilian clothes on, all black balaclavas, pointing their modified M4s that looked like standard Remnant carbines straight at the car.

Behind the vehicle, Page and Daley had gotten out holding their own weapon at the car.

Page and Daley rushed straight at the car alongside Woods, Bowman and Weaver. Mason stayed behind, continuing to aim his weapon at the car.

Since the vehicle's windows weren't tinted, they could see the driver at the front seat with her hands up shaking in fear.

They all rushed forward.

Woods took to the right side, the driver seat, while Weaver took the other side, both opening the door at the same time.

Their target put her hands up "I surrender! I surrender! What do you want? Money? Just let me- "

Page and Daley rushed in from Woods and pulled her out.

"HELP! HELP!" They needed to work fast. While the two Brits restrained her, Woods put zip ties on her legs and hands with Weaver putting a bag on her head. "I'M BEING KIDNAPPED! HELP!"

"Pfft- "Bowman almost laughed as Page and Daley carried the woman over to the open trunk of their car.

They slammed it shut just before they all ran back to their vehicles. Around them, lights switched on in the houses and apartment buildings, their residents having been woken up by the commotion. Bowman slammed on the gas pedal, the asphalt below them broke away at the spinning of the car's tires, the vehicle eventually kicked into motion, with the other car tailing right behind them.

"Shit!" Woods exclaimed as he looked at the surrounding homes switching on their lights, no doubt some people already calling the police.

"Step on it, Bowman." Mason insisted.

Bowman didn't respond, instead just pressing harder on the gas and making sharp turns. It wouldn't be very hard to get out of the crime scene, but the problem would the CCTV in the area tracking them. They were in the residential area, there were too many cameras in the area. They had their plates covered in duct tape, but getting tracked was still an issue.

To mitigate that, they already had a set route.

Woods checked the sideview mirror - the British were hot on their tail, which was good.

Weaver in the back seat rolled down the window. As he did, the distant wail of police sirens could be heard.

"Fuck! That's the cops! I thought they were with us?" Weaver yelled.

Woods shook his head "The guys who're gonna do the investigation are with us, not the first responders."

A police standoff was not something any of them wanted, and it would be disastrous to the United States.

Bowman was going as fast as was reasonable while still being able to make sharp turns. They took a right and came upon a suspension bridge.

"There! Juvelino Bridge, straight line from here!" Woods pointed with his finger on the map he was holding.

They were entering the agricultural district of Vale. High density apartment buildings and houses left their view as they got onto the bridge, the police sirens growing distant.

A long river bordered the industrial district and the agricultural district, the scenery, which was once a dense urban environment, had been replaced by fields of crops and trees, the occasional manmade structure dotting the landscape.

"One lucky night, god damn, ho- ly." Bowman shook his head and laughed.

"All thanks to, your driving, eh?" Woods gave Bowman a pat on the shoulder.

Weaver chuckled in the back seat "Learned from successfully escaping 3 DUIs back home."

"Fuck you!"

The rest of the drive continued silently, with very little turns taken from this point. They passed by tree lines, fields of corn, of wheat, fenced in livestock. Woods completely rolled down the window and took off his mask.

"You sure you wanna do that?" Mason asked.

"Not like the cops are gonna know we're here anyway, we're good from here." At that everyone else took off their masks.

Woods brought out a pack of Camel lights and put the filter onto his mouth, he looked down at the gear lever and the AC controls, looking for the car lighter.

"Ain't no car lighter here, buddy, how the fuck you still got Camels anyway? I ran out of my cigs yesterday."

To that, woods took out the zippo in his back pocket and lit the cigarette "Pack extra next time, PX back at Juno was selling these for 7.50 a pack, bought myself ten, I'm not buying the Remnant stuff for as long as I can." Woods then offered the open pack to Bowman who obliged.

"Give me one too." Weaver nudged his head forward. To which Woods held back behind his seat. Weaver took a cigarette; Mason took one too.

The six SOGR officers had been planted in Vale for ten days at this point, most of their days were spent idling around the town watching buildings or people, as such amenities like cigarettes or snacks from back on Earth were dwindling fast.

And as all four smoked, the car was four open windows away from becoming a hotbox. By the time they were all done with their cigarettes, they had arrived at their destination, an abandoned farmhouse. Single-story, small, closest inhabited house was four hundred yards away, it was perfect for an out-of-town operations center.

They drove down the driveway and parked just in front of the house's porch, the other car did the same. They donned their masks once more as they left their vehicles, just in case any neighbors were indeed awake and were watching them now.

The two British men left their car and walked over to the trunk and popped it open, immediately they could hear the woman squealing and making attempts at screaming for help from the tight head cover.

"Hey! Make her shut up!" Mason quietly yelled in their direction.

Even if she was unintelligible, the whole area was silent, a neighbor hearing a woman screeching might mean they would call the cops.

Daley lightly slapped the girl with the stock of his rifle "Shut up will ye? I'm gonna fuckin' shoot you if you don't quiet down, yeah?"

This only seemed to make her cry out louder. Page rolled his eyes and grunted at his partner's failure. He lifted up the woman by her armpits and forced her to stand, she kept making attempts to scream as hobbled on the ground in an attempt to stand despite the zip-ties

Page let go of her, the others watched on curiously, Page wrapped his right arm around her throat and neck, with his right hand he grabbed his left bicep, and he began to both his arms together

The effect was immediate, the screaming had stopped, the sounds now replaced by gagging and gurgling as the woman attempted to break free, kicking at his legs, stepping on Page's feet with her heels, grabbing at his arms, to no effect.

Mason and Bowman averted their eyes as this happened. Woods and Weaver just watched uncomfortably as the movements of the woman grew weaker and weaker, until she went completely limp, but Page kept on choking.

"Venom, you've done enough." Woods argued.

"Nope" Page responded, his accent clear "With a rear naked choke she'll wake up within a couple seconds of passing out, need to choke her a little longer to give us time before she starts screaming again to at least get her into the house."

And so Page stayed that way, before finally letting go, squatting down and putting their hostage into a fireman's carry.

"Let's get to the house." Woods turned away and started walking.

---

Embassy of the United States

Kingdom of Vale

1235 hours

It had become routine for Elijah to buy coffee at the stand in the chancery lobby. This time going for whatever an 'Iced South Sanusian Latte' was. He always made it a point to order something different every time he was here, after all immersing himself in the culture of Vale was an inevitable part of his job, something some of his non-intelligence-community colleagues in the embassy weren't taking seriously.

This choice of Elijah always seemed to please the barista however, getting to make a drink other than the same old lattes or black coffees that the other American staff would order.

"Thank you, sir!" She held up the coffee with both her hands and a smile, Elijah took it with one hand and gave her a nod.

In his other hand he held a suitcase filled with documents, documents he just had the analysts back in the SACR office make up, he would be making the personal trip to forward them to their target. He moved to leave the embassy chancery. As he got outside and the dry cool air of Vale hit the skin on his face and hands, he heard a set of heeled footsteps come behind then beside him.

"Mr. King! I need to talk to you!" It was Iridia Nikkos, in business attire, coming from the same direction he was.

Elijah just kept walking to the gate.

"We can talk while we walk, I have urgent business." He took a sip of the coffee.

She wore glasses, she looked up at Elijah who was a full head taller than her even though she was already a very tall woman.

"I just came from Mr. Ziegler's office-"

"And?" Elijah took long strides which Iridia had to keep up with.

"-He strongly suggested that the United States will start donating to the political campaigns of certain councilmen, I can't allow that-"

"Why not?" another sip from his coffee

"Because that would mean the United States is directly influencing our politics, everything the opposition is against! Don't you see why I'd have a problem with this, it's a foreign country sticking its hands where it doesn't belong!"

Elijah sighed as he finally reached the gate which a marine opened, he turned to look at Iridia.

"And?"

Iridia looked at him in complete disbelief. "And?"

"If Jacques Schnee is allowed to leverage millions of his own money to make sure Oscar White stays in the council, why can't we use our funds to make sure say… Clair Ardelean gets a seat in the council, huh?"

He again walked to the SUV with Iridiya following him.

"How did you even get enough money to donate? And there's a difference! Jacques Schnee is an individual with clearly defined interests rooted in profit, he is also a native of this planet. You- ow!"

At this point a diplomatic security agent had decided Iridia had gotten too close to the vehicle detail for Elijah and pulled at her shoulder.

"Let her go." Elijah calmly dismissed the agent who just returned to the vehicle "You were saying?"

"You- your country I have no idea what it is you want here, what you really want, nobody does. Why are you- "

Elijah turned his body sharply and looked straight at Iridia "Ms. Nikos, the United States is not breaking any laws, you can point me to a law we've broken by donating to political parties, and we will promptly stop, until then, you can stop questioning why I or Mr. Ziegler as agents of the United States work in its favor, the same way you try push things in Vale' favor."

"But- "Iridia was silenced as Elijah finally got in the car, a DSS agent getting inside with him at the front seat.

Through the heavily tinted window, he could see Iridia sigh to herself and walk back to Embassy. Elijah just took another sip of his coffee as the vehicle started to move.

"Tough opposition, Mr. King?" The marine security guard right next to him asked. Vale allowed them to bring the MSG as extra security for out of embassy trips, extra firepower since there weren't that many DSS agents here.

"Nah, she's at the very least willing to negotiate and make concessions, unlike the councilmen here."

"She has no real power though, right?" The marine relaxed in his seat.

"She's a liaison, so no. But she's also our main method of communication with the people in the council, as well as the public, her views on things can easily influence the views of others."

He took another sip from the coffee and set it down at the cupholder, he produced a leather cigar case from his overcoat, he flicked it open and took one. He punched open the front end and used a cigar torch to burn the other side. He took a few preliminary puffs before relaxing in his seat.

To his right he saw the marine was looking at him, particularly at the cigar.

He took the cigar case and flicked it open again, one left. "You want one?" He offered the marine.

"Sure thing, sir." Elijah punched a hole on the front end and handed it to the marine, he stuck it in his mouth, Elijah then lit the other end for him.

"You ever smoke a cigar before?"

He took a few puffs "No, sir, cigarettes only. But I know how to smoke one, my dad loves them."

"Mm." Elijah nodded as he took a few puffs of his own cigar "What's your name, son?"

"Sandhagen, sir, Rob Sandhagen." He said as smoke fell from his mouth.

Smoke fell from Elijah's own as he spoke "Well, Rob, how're things going on the marine side? This is my first time stationed at an embassy, I see you guys patrolling all the time 'round the place."

Rob chuckled "The usual sir, guess it's a bit more hectic than Earth, my last post was Spain, lot more relaxing outside of patrols and the usual duties."

Elijah watched the scenery change outside, the classy residential district of Vale, at least the part where the embassy was situated. European style homes and apartments were everywhere, posh looking people walked on the sidewalks, faunus, human. It was a pleasant and relaxing sight.

"What's hectic about here? I know there's the occasional protest, but that should be the norm for US embassies."

Rob smiled in agreement "Yeah, but here we already had a few attempted break ins. Most people walk away when we tell them they're not allowed past the gate, but one protester just started running in, the ROE says we can't shoot unless they're identifiably armed though, lucky bastard."

"Ha! I heard about that, was that why 'Duck and Cover' was played on PA system yesterday? "

"Yes sir. I was the guy to tackle him just before he got through the gate, Derrick Brooks style. We brought him in for questioning, unarmed, but he did say he wanted to beat the shit out of Ambassador Ziegler." He couldn't hold in his laughter "After all we've done for this planet, sir, they still have it out for us."

"Some of them, of course it's only the people who hate us who come out to protest, but I reckon most of Remnant at the very least doesn't mind us, maybe uncomfortable with the concept of alien beings in their planet, but who wouldn't be?"

"All due respect, sir, we might be aliens but we look and act just like them, I don't really see why they'd hate us, the guy who rushed in was human too, not like he'd be mad about the White Fang war."

Elijah thought on it for a second as took a sip from the coffee and did another puff of the cigar. Rob was being reasonable, but at the same time it was his job to understand what made his opposition tick, why it was that some in the general populace hated them, and how the United States could change that, and he could think of a few reasons why some in Vale still hated them.

"These people have been conditioned to be utterly disgusted by war and things that involve war, Atlas is the only military power in this world, and no kingdom is moving that direction. Aura has made it so that a lot of person-to-person combat doesn't end in death or maiming, so when they see us clearing whole cities of White Fang, or footage of what a Bushmaster autocannon can do to people back at Shion, they're terrified. I think their hatred is built on that fear."

"Hm." Rob nodded "I guess I can see that. But what about the people who might like what we've been doing? All I've been seeing is protests so far, especially after what Ambassador Ziegler said back on Tuesday on TV about American troops remaining at Mountain Glenn."

"I've heard good things about the way civilians treat the marines up at Cooperwick, and did you see that parade last month? People at Shion were waving American flags and woopin' and hollerin' for our boys."

Rob shook his head "Here at Vale though sir, I mean we didn't save them like we did Shion, but surely they have to see all the good we've done on the planet."

"Maybe you just haven't gone out enough. All you see at the Embassy is the protestors, but maybe if you uh… went to a bar or walk the streets you'd have people greeting you."

Rob pressed his lips and tilted his head in thought "Maybe, us marines in security haven't been cleared by det command to go out in public yet."

Elijah turned to Rob in shock "Really? So you've been cooped up at the embassy the past ten days?"

"Yes, sir, but I've been hearing rumors that they'll let us soon. They say they'll even get us apartments outside; the whole detachment been sleeping on bunks in an empty storage room the past week."

Elijah laughed "Isn't that normal for marines?"

"Not for MSG sir, we usually get our own rooms, perks of the MOS."

Elijah hummed. He looked outside the tinted window. Over the course of their conversation their surroundings had morphed from the dense European looking upscale apartment buildings of Vale's residential district to an area filled with quaint looking suburban homes.

They passed over a bridge, and soon the houses would be far in between. Those in the SUV had to appreciate the beauty of their surroundings, the fields of wheat, corn, and barley that were daintily lit by the bright glow of Vale's late afternoon sun.

In the fields, tractors hauled over equipment, residents sitting on the porches of their farmhouses stared down their vehicle as they drove past, probably confused by the utterly blacked out SUV with heavily tinted windows driving down the non-urbanized section of Vale.

They eventually came to a stop in front of one of the few run down looking farm houses. Elijah stepped out of the vehicle, accompanied by the DSS agent who had sat on the front seat. Rob would remain inside unless needed.

With the Cigar in his mouth, Elijah made the walk to the farmhouse, his protection detail right beside him.

The PAG agents had looked over real estate occupancy details and obituaries and found that the family who previously inhabited the home and owned the property had died to a grimm incursion in a shipwreck during a trip to Argus. Unfortunate for them, very good for the CIA's need for more safehouses around the city.

In this particular case it was used so that the SOGR elements could bring in their hostage without the offending sights of nearby neighbors or cameras, also that Elijah could visit without turning too many heads.

He opened the door, his security following behind him. And the room he entered, he could immediately feel the heat, the smell of rotting wood, it was dim, the only thing lighting the room being three candles on the floors by the walls.

The light being just enough to reveal six men lounging around, they all wore ski masks, but Elijah could tell them apart. Two of them, Woods and Mason were sat on the floor opposite of each other playing what looked like crazy eights.

Weaver was enjoying a cigarette on a nearby chair, his arms crossed, staring blankly at the ceiling.

Bowman laid on the floor, using his arm as a pillow, his eyes blinking in and out of consciousness.

Page sat cross legged by a corner wall, writing down on what looked like a journal

Daley leaned on a wall, his legs extended across the floor as he fidgeted with a lighter, flicking it on and off.

But as they all noticed Elijah walk through the door, they all immediately stood up, Woods was the one to greet the man.

"Sir." He simply said.

Elijah didn't respond, he let the smoke fell from his mouth as he took notice to the final figure at the center of the room, a woman, brown hair, wearing blue two-piece suit, tied to a chair. She was bound and gagged. Ripped cloths bound her legs to each leg of the chair, her arms had behind her back, and a much thicker cloth over her mouth.

As she saw Elijah come through, she started to squirm a little, she tried to speak but every word came out garbled and incoherent on account of the gag.

He turned to Woods, he spoke casually "Jesus, Woods, I told you to nab her and keep in her place. No need to do all this." He gestured with his hand up and down at the woman.

Woods opened his mouth but was cut off by Page.

"She was screaming and screaming sir, gash thing that was. Couldn't risk the neighbors waking up, kept trying to kick at us too, hence the…" He simply pointed at the cloths restricting her movement.

Elijah slowly nodded. He noticed red marks around her throat, he'd have to ask them about that later, but at this point it didn't matter, Elijah would have preferred if she was handled more respectfully, at least as respectfully as a kidnapping could be, but either way he could still achieve his goal here, just probably with less amnesty from the one he would be talking with.

He sighed and got behind the tied woman and placed a hand on the knot of her gag. "I am with the United States." As soon as those words left his mouth her eyes widened.

"You will not scream." He began "As soon as I take this gag off if you scream for help, the guns of my two friends over here..." He tilted his head to left and right to gesture to Woods and Page "Will sound off and your brains will be liquified. Is that clear?"

Tears streamed down from her eyes as she nodded. Elijah obliged and began to undo the knot, the gag came off and the woman did not speak or make sound, the only things audible being her sniffling.

Elijah stepped forward and got back in front of the woman.

"Rain Carmon, journalist and news anchor for Vale Post. Two days ago, my operatives sent you an offer of 50,000 Lien to rescind your articles disparaging the United States, calling for the removal of our embassy, and saying that our bases on Sanus are a 'deep aspersion to the authority of Vale.'" He quoted directly from one of her articles "What authority? Vale's only jurisdiction is Vale, remind me again who took back Mountain Glenn after Vale lost it eighty years ago? Was it Vale?"

The woman just kept sniffling, but her stare at Elijah grew in contempt.

"Didn't think so." He answered himself "In any case, you rejected that offer and the very next day we were surprised to see a new article titled 'The American Folley at Shion'. Now usually we wouldn't care about some journalist disparaging the United States, but you have a large reader base, and you publish clearly biased and defamatory lies against us. We offered you the carrot and you rejected, and now we are giving you the stick."

This was her fault at the end of the day, Elijah saw no issue with some of the other journalists who often opined against the US and took no action against them, but this woman molded the truth in a way that seemed rational to the average reader despite it being masked lies, and this had to be stopped. Saying that Shion was a publicity ploy, that it would now end up like Cooperwick and become a vassal state to America. This was despite the 173rd Airborne leaving just a week ago.

"The police right now would be investigating the kidnapping, but this is a farce, but the police captain handling District 3 is in our payroll and the story we give them is what they will tell." He had PAGR to thank for that one "If you die here right now, nobody will question why. But we're giving you the option to live, under a few circumstances."

A silence came in between the two, with Rain simply glancing around her, noticing the guns still slung around the six other men in the room and the one man behind Elijah.

Elijah examined her eyes, noticing the hopelessness in her gaze, there was still a fire there somewhere, a want to break free.

"We know where your son is, Pharos Academy, Vale. If you thought it was easy for us to get you, imagine how easy it would be for little Ernie Carmon." And just like the fire in her eyes died down.

"No- please." Her eyes welled up once again, she lunged forward, only being stopped by her restraints.

"Yes. So you will work in our interests from now on and I can promise the safety of both you and your son."

She nodded intently. The kidnapping was partially done to demonstrate the extent of their abilities, to show that it very much was within their boundaries and skillset to do something like this and not get caught.

"In a few hours we are going to release you, the story the cops will say and what you will say to the media if interviewed is that you were kidnapped by radical remnants of the White Fang in Vale due to your previous articles critiquing their organization. They looked young, inexperienced even, and were nervous even once they had you, arguing at length about what to do with you until they had a change of heart and let you go."

More nods.

"There will be an investigation to find these White Fang that will inevitably lead nowhere. Live your life as usual, but never mention what really happened here today to any colleagues or interviewers. Go back to work, see your son. The day Ozpin announces his pushing for the resolution to begin the process for UN membership again, you will endorse it in your articles. In two days, the United States is going to announce the arrival of some of its allies on Remnant, you will commend this, if there are any further instructions, we will contact you."

In the time Elijah spoke, she began to hyperventilate. "Contact me how?"

"We just will." Elijah turned around walking back to the door he came through, speaking as he did "These boys will keep you around about an hour more and leave, police detectives will come by then, and they'll know the fake story."

Elijah reached the door and tugged it open, letting the sunlight through the dim room, he suddenly turned around and saw the further illuminated reddened and tear-stricken face of the disgraced journalist.

"Oh. And if you ever talk about any of this to anybody other than us, you know what will happen to your son."

---

In a family restaurant in the middle of Vale's eastern residential district were two women, a mother and a daughter, reunited at last and having casual conversation.

"And I looked at Cordovin and I told her? Really? Your kingdom extracts all of Argus' dust and you want to tell me I'm profiteering?" Iridia rolled her eyes and took a sip of her milkshake. Pyrrha just laughed.

She really had no idea about politics, but Pyrrha was just glad that she finally got to see her mother again after six months of letters, calls, and text messages.

"That's enough about me though, I know you find my work talk boring." She smirked.

"Not at all, mother." She gave a nervous laugh and scratched the back of her head "I'm just glad to talk to you again after so long."

"Well, that's wonderful, but I wanna hear about you, less about your grades and your wins, more about life in general, you got a boyfriend yet?

Her face went a touch red at the implication "No…" She looked down and held her left shoulder with her right hand.

Her mother's head tilted, a devious smirk coming to her features "Why the bashfulness? Is that disappointment I see? There a guy or gal you like?"

There was not a response just the continued bashful reddening of Pyrrha's face "Maybe…" She finally said and took a deep breath before saying quickly "His name's Jaune."

"Oh." Iridia was not expecting the immediate confirmation. "What's he like?"

"He's kind, he's willing to learn, and he's so very genuine." She listed off quickly as the embarrassment left her.

Her daughter was usually not a sociable one, even in her combat school days her time and effort were all put into making sure she did well in tournaments, she never made any friends or went out very often outside of training, as much as Iridia was happy to see her daughter's success in this passion she had to worry as a mother about what all that did to her social skills. So the fact that she got to know a boy well enough to start liking him warmed her heart.

"Why aren't you dating yet?" She teased.

"He… likes someone else." She looked to the right not meeting her mother's dissatisfied eyes.

Iridia waved her hand dismissively "Oh don't be like that when I met your father, he was dating someone else, that's much worse."

"Mom?!" Pyrrha stared incredulously at her mother who just laughed it off.

"I stayed friends with your father, and I think he started liking me more than that other girl… Point is whoever this other girl is Pyrrha, it's over for her, show this 'Jaune' what you're made of, put out more, drop some hints, you're not gonna get anywhere by just waiting."

Pyrrha threw her hands around "Le- Let's change the subject, what's it like at the American embassy?"

Iridia laughed it off, but obliged to change the subject "Well… They're a lot different than the Atlesians at Argus, they play a more subtle game but at the end of the day it's all the same, they try to put the pieces in their favor."

"How so?"

"I was optimistic on my first day, the Ambassador and Mr. King- "

"Mr. King?" Pyrrha tilted her head.

"Oh he's the Assistant head of Public Affairs, in any case they both kept telling me that the United States just wants to cooperate and wants what's best for both Vale and Mistral. I was very happy when they said that. But as the days went by… I learn they're donating to certain political parties, that they're 'investing' in news agencies, and I have a personal theory that the rise in combat footage from 'random' American soldiers on Worldvid is them trying to get the world to view their military more positively."

That all did seem quite concerning "What's wrong with all that though mother? From what I've seen most of what they're pushing on the news is something about… United Nations membership, isn't that a good thing?"

Iridia sighed "Yes, but the more we let them ingrain themselves in our lives and politics through their thinly veiled bribes, the more we might become subservient to them one day. Today it's UN Membership, tomorrow it's letting them stay in Mountain Glenn, the next it's an occupational force in Vale's streets, the framework for that will be there if we keep letting this happen."

Pyrrha grimaced hearing what her mother suggested that all didn't sound very good "How do you stop it?"

"Right now? We can't, they're not doing anything illegal as far as I know, I might have to suggest to the council that they quickly introduce legislation against this."

"So the Americans are bad?" Pyrrha had the question, from the recent episode of the World War 2 documentary they had been watching, the image of America she had was this rather fangless nation that never acted, it appeared that today it was quite different.

The Americans not acting as the nations in Europe, if she remembered correctly, Britain and France, were attacked seemed completely contradictory to what they were doing today.

"I wouldn't go as far as to say that, neither would I about Atlas, they just work heavily in their interest which sometimes might go against Vale's interest. At the end of the day, they've done quite some good here on Remnant, but they should not overstep their bounds, it's as simple as that."

Pyrrha found herself nodding in agreement with her mother. Her mother then stood up. And left a few Lien cards on the table.

"Well that's all the time I have sadly." She looked down at her scroll to check the time "At this rate I'm gonna be late already for my meeting with the council, let's do this time, same time this Thursday."

"Of course!" Pyrrha smiled warmly and accepted the tight hug that her mother suddenly brought her in.

"Be a good girl now, keep working hard." Iridia separated herself from her daughter, she turned around and walked in a fast pace to the door of the restaurant. "And chase that boy!" She suddenly yelled out, causing many of the other patrons in the restaurant to look at Pyrrha who shrunk in embarrassment at the stares.

She stood in silence for a few seconds, watching her mother walk off from the restaurant window, before she sat back down and finished the last bite of pancake that was on her plate.

Nora would be mad to say the least if she learned Pyrrha wasted her pancakes. She wiped her mouth down with the napkins, counted some lien for the payment and a tip and she left.

She went for the door and felt the cool air of Vale hit her, she had to be back at Beacon before 1pm for her next class, she had no time to spare, so she started walking to the nearest airship station.

"Oh look it's the invincible girl!" Pyrrha inwardly seethed.

She turned around to see a man in a leather jacket. She anxiously waved back, no matter how much she tried and no matter how long she'd been world famous, she never could get used to being recognized in public.

"Hello!" Was all she could bring herself to say.

The man stepped forward. He spoke enthusiastically "I saw you in the restaurant earlier with someone, didn't wanna interrupt… But can I get an autograph?"

Pyrrha smiled and nodded

He suddenly reached under his jacket, there was something metallic underneath his clothes, she could sense it, why would his notebook be metallic?

Instead, he pulled out a very normal leather-bound notebook but there was no metal on it. There was a thin metallic object that ran under his shirt from his chest down to his pants, strange, but she'd sensed stranger before.

The man opened to book to a certain page and handed it with a pen to Pyrrha. She signed it and gave it back to the man. The man only took the notebook

"Keep the pen. My gift."

Pyrrha nervously shook her head "No, no, I don't need a new point, it looks quite nice, I would just feel guilty taking it from a…" She did not want to say 'fan' "…watcher of mine." She cringed, oh that was much worse.

But it was true, the pen was quite nice. It was a ballpoint pen but made from a heavy steel, gold trimmings on the cover, she felt the insides having metal too, it was probably a custom designer pen, definitely not something she felt comfortable taking from… a fan.

The man just shook his head "No, no I insist. You have no idea, least I could do for the autograph and all the punishment you put yourself through in your fights.

If this man really wasn't going to budge, then she just had to accept "…alright. Thank you." She finally said as she pocketed the pen.

The guy smiled and waved away "No, thank you for the autograph, keep kickin' ass!" He got back inside the restaurant, leaving Pyrrha to herself.

She made the journey back to Beacon, not knowing of the microphone inside the pen.

---

Upper Class District, Kingdom of Vale

0800 hours.

Page didn't bother opening the car window as he smoked a cigarette.

"What is that? Smells different." Said Mason from the driver seat who was with him today. He wasn't paired with Daley today, he was their EOD specialist, he was on a different mission today, Woods, Weaver, and Bowman were off facilitating a deal with some gang outside the city.

"Lucky Strikes. Unfiltered." Page responded.

Mason just nodded.

They watched from their parked car intently. They were just outside, at an intersection a few dozen yards away from Oscar White's mansion, viewing the gate where outside stood a security guard, pacing back and forth in front of the gate, hands inside his pockets. Their car was partially obscured by some trees and bushes.

Mason checked his watch, it now read '8:01 AM'.

"You sure he comes out at this time?" Mason asked, agitated.

Page let out a stream of smoke as he spoke "I've been watching this bloke's house three days a week for the past 15 days, I'm telling you, he leaves every day between 0730 and 0800, he should show up any minute now."

And still the gate remained close, with the guard just walking around outside, Mason's leg started jumping up and down, his arms crossed as he looked the lavish, fenced in, and gated mansion of Oscar White.

"Didn't take you for the fidgety kind." Page snuffed cigarette onto the cup of coffee in the cupholder and threw it inside.

"Not used to this type of work is all. Like come on, we've been waiting two hours now. And I don't like… being so close to those things." He pointed his thumb at the back seat which sat a cardboard box.

"You scared of bugs, mate? Didn't you throw bants at Bones for being scared of 'em?" Page gave a mocking chuckle.

"There's at least a hundred of those things inside, right? Even I'd be fucking scared of that!"

Page looked Mason with a mirthful smirk "Are you mad? Not a chance they could fill that thing with a hundred, Godfather said it was a 'small colony'. And you're not the one who has to hold the box, you're just an extra gun if things don't go so well."

"Right, right." Mason flicked open a pack Marlboro Lights and lit a cigarette.

Page looked out to the side but suddenly felt frantic tapping on his right shoulder, he looked at Mason who was now pointing at the gate being opened by the security guard, with a car pulling to exit.

"That's his car."

The car made left turn, then a right turn, and drove right past the two's car.

"Alright, give it a minute." Mason cut in.

Page didn't waste time though, he reached down at the cap that he dropped at this feet, bright green, with white text that read 'VPS'. He put on. He then zipped up his green and black jacket, the same 'VPS' text on his upper chest.

"Wish me luck." He said as he exited the car, the guard hadn't noticed him yet, he simply approached the back seat.

He opened up the door and took the cardboard box, he kicked it to close with his right foot. As he approached the gate, he felt a bit squeamish, already feeling the movement of the critters within, a light tapping that could be felt within the box, one that slowly subsided.

Perhaps they were just agitated from the sudden movement of him picking the box up.

The guard finally noticed him as he got closer, he stared right at Page who wore a neutral face, holding the box with both hands, he got within a few feet of the guard he then spoke.

"Delivery for an Oscar White?" Page said.

"Delivery?" The guard squinted his eyes "I wasn't told about any deliver today."

Page then grabbed the clipboard attached to his waist, he unclipped it handed it to the guard.

"I don't know sir says right there on the ledger, Oscar White, 1539 North Calvert."

The guard accepted it and read off the list of deliveries. "Huh." He said inquisitively, he then picked up a radio on his waist. He put it close "Forest, we got a delivery guy here, Vale Postal Service, says he has a delivery for Mr. White."

The guard then put it up against his ear, Page couldn't hear what was said.

"What is it?" The guard questioned.

Page then pretended to read the paper taped to the box "Uh… A hoover max extract pressure pro."

"Vacuum cleaner…" He nodded "Maids did mention that our carpet cleaner was broken." He muttered.

That was totally coincidental, but absolutely appreciated, he was getting ready to have to just chuck the box inside through a window from outside the fence.

Page then handed him the box "It's already paid sir." He just nodded and took the box from him, his eyes then suddenly narrowed.

"What's that… movement inside?"

"Ah, the battery switched on by accident during the drive here, bumpy ride, I suggest you switch it off inside, sir, so it doesn't overheat."

"Good idea." He nodded. The guard then turned around and walked for the door.

He had about a minute before the guard opened the box and saw what was inside.

Page speedwalked back to the car, as he got outside of the view of the house by being slightly obscured by some bushes and trees at the turn, he sprinted for the passenger side door.

He yelled at Mason "Drive! Drive! Drive!"

Mason snuffed the cigarette that was previously in his mouth and put his hands on the wheel. He stepped on the gas pedal and made a quick U-turn before speeding his way out of the residential district.

Back at the mansion, the security guard walked up to the steps leading to door, he twisted the knob open and walked inside where he was met by his boss, Forest.

"Lyle, that the delivery you were talking about."

Lyle nodded "Yep, it's a vacuum sir, batteries switched on and running though so I gotta open it and shut it off

Forest followed Lyle who hefted the box to the living room and set it down. "You need to use a knife." Forest picked out a switch blade from his pocket and handed it to Lyle.

Lyle cut at the tape holding together the top cover of the box and opened it up.

Immediately what looked like hundreds of large cockroaches skittered out of the box, onto Lyle's arms, onto the floors, some flew about, landing onto Forest's hair, on the furniture, they got everywhere.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" Forest yelled as he slapped and rubbed his head to get rid of the critters crawling on his hair.

Lyle just screeched his lungs out as he jumped up and down trying to get the cockroaches off his body, inadvertently stomping on some on accident. Many of the cockroaches had already crawled away finding various nooks and crannies within the mansion to hide within as the two security guards danced around trying to get the rest off their bodies.

---

"No! No! That is completely incorrect!" Thrax looked over the blue piece of paper again to make sure the design specifications were correct. "Your weld is horrendous!"

The white fang grunt looked up at him, lightly shaking, knowing exactly what happened to his brothers and sisters in Vale when they displeased Thrax. Fortunately for him, Thrax had no such power here as Sienna was watching just behind him.

He roughly grabbed the welding rod's handle from the man and pointed his thumb at the door. He ran out, dropping the welding mask on the floor. There was toolbox on his right, he took a screwdriver as he stripped away at the solidified weld, which due to the bad job done on it, chipped away rather easily. He donned the welding mask and started anew.

"What… is that?" Sienna stared at the large metal structure that vaguely looked like a refrigerator. Thrax had been working on it since she entered his workshop that was right next to his hut

"It's an incubator." He deadpanned as the welding rod came to life, nearly blinding her, she shielded her eyes with her arm before just turning to the side.

"What for?"

"To properly procure my anthrax, my toxin. Ever since I came to this world and your group has so gracefully facilitated my work, I have had to use soil and livestock to procure the bacterial spores necessary to produce the toxins, then using the rudimentary refiner over there to produce the solution to contain the spores."

Thrax pointed to the left, there Sienna saw a massive structure made of a mishmash of scrap metal and pipes.

"Well, that was until Cinder Fall informed me of an ally of hers that can obtain for me the necessary equipment and materials for more efficient procurement of my toxins, and even help with my engineering. He is to arrive in two weeks. But until then, I want to maximize the production of bacteria, hence the incubator. Livestock and soil are unreliable, I can produce agar from the seaweed that grows at the coast, then put the spores in culture plates with this agar, put those cultures into an incubator, then they will multiply more and more to form millions of beautiful bacterial spores."

A maniacal laugh exited his lips as he finished welding one edge of the incubator.

"And… what makes your toxins so deadly?" Admittedly she had come here today specifically because she had just heard from Adam about Arthur Watts' impending arrival and how he would help Thrax expand production for his toxins.

She had never seen these toxins or their effects herself of course, only hearing about how deadly they were from Adam, Cinder, or the few White Fang members who survived Kirkman's culling in Sanus.

"Bacillus anthracis, the bacterial component of anthrax is already quite deadly by itself, but it also has a long incubation period and is susceptible to antibiotics and vaccines. Meaning if someone were to inhale or consume anthrax spores, they will have a period of a few days to a few months to begin treatment before they die. But my anthrax, those on Earth have given it an entirely new taxonomic nomenclatural subspecies 'Anthracis mortis' after its lethality."

He laughed proudly; she could almost sense a wide grin coming from under his scarf. He continued.

"Through a series of mutations done over a decade of work I was able to make the bacteria far more dangerous, I shortened its latency period, made it gram-negative, therefore removing the cell lining that antibiotics use an anchor. Increased the transposon genes to make it more adaptable. These changes made its lethal effects take place within hours, made it somewhat resistant to antibiotics. At my peak, I was able to create strains that took effect within minutes of breathing in the spores."

She had heard stories before from Adam, how he'd take insubordinate or traitorous members in Vale and hand them to Thrax to allow him to test his developed toxins. He talked of how he personally witnessed one execution - it took over an hour for this person to die. She writhed in pain, her limbs went red and black, she vomited blood, wheezed for air, it sounded like a horrific way to die, especially over the course of an hour.

"How long does your current version take to kill?"

Thrax pondered for a moment, pausing his welding of the second corner before continuing.

"The last time I was able to test it on a human subject was before I left Sanus five months ago. That iteration, I timed it, took 67 minutes. Again, I had been using unreliable methods to procure spores, as such, my methods for mutation had been slowed, but now with this… Watts arriving with better equipment and engineering, hopefully that timeframe can be halved or quartered. The goal is to have it kill before a post-onset anti-toxin can be administered. An hour is far too long."

The doctor finished his welding, he then grabbed a nearby set of hinges and started to weld them to the metal frame of the incubator.

"Doctor." Sienna suddenly called out his moniker.

"Hm?" He simply responded, not bothering to turn around, only continuing to weld.

"Your group fought effectively against the US, right?"

Again, he paused, then continued "That depends on your definition of 'effectively'. We may have lost in the end but over the course of the six years of war with them where I was in the organization, before I appeared on Remnant, we had inflicted over nine thousand deaths on their forces and a further three thousand to the coalition they brought with them. Much of that can be attributed to my toxins. But again, we were impatient, used the bulk of our forces in trying to fight a conventional fight, a mistake. Should have stuck to our roots…" He clicked his tongue in frustration at the end.

Sienna's eyes narrowed "And what were your roots?"

Thrax stopped welding, turned around on the stool he was sat on, and took off the welding mask, revealing his cowled features, only showing his dark brown eyes that seemed to stare a hole into Sienna's soul.

"You're asking for advice, yes?" Thrax saw right through her, of course this wasn't just a normal question and answer session.

Sienna only gave a nod, finally staring back at Thrax now that the blinding light was gone.

"First of all, do not centralize your power to Menagerie and in these massive overground compounds. Your branch in Vale is effectively gone with Adam back in Sanus hopelessly trying to revive it. You have small cells in the areas around Atlas and Vacuo, but your largest branch is in Anima."

Sienna just stood still in shock at how well studied he was on the White Fang. For all his faults, Thrax was a genius, from matters of science and engineering to things like strategy and study.

"The moment you begin conflict with the Americans, this very compound we are in will be the first thing they target, so are any compounds you may have in Anima. You will not be safe; they will bring upon you unseen and unknown airstrikes. Do you plan on conducting war with the Americans soon?"

Sienna looked up then down, she had been thinking on that for a while now.

On one hand they were a terrifying force, capable of destroying the White Fang in Sanus with relative ease and with little damage to themselves and did the same to the most powerful bandit tribe on the planet, conducting said operation from a different planet, no less.

And to learn that they were aliens with an even bigger military force just waiting on that other planet, that they had allies. It terrified her to no end that these people may one day be her enemies.

But at the same time, they angered her to no end. These people had killed those that she considered loyal brothers and sisters, people who had fought a common struggle with her, and they were butchered in the most impersonal and overblown manners.

An organization that began as a movement endemic to Menagerie that grew to be global, an effort that she undertook, and the Americans were in the process of crushing it. She hated it, she hated that she could do nothing about it.

Until now.

Adam's introduction of Cinder Fall and her group had potential hope, but Thrax, one who had done well against the Americans before and stood here with knowledge on how to beat them or tire them out at the very least had the most potential to change their fortunes. With geniuses on the sciences and the ability to exploit them for utter lethality, there was just a glimmer of hope, and she was willing to hold onto it.

"Once your toxins are fully refined, and once our group expands its horizons and ideals, then yes." She nodded "I want the American presence here on Remnant either destroyed or gone."

At hearing those words Thrax's head tilted down, but his stare remained on Sienna, his eyes held this manic joy, an insanity withheld only by the confines of his gaze.

"Good… good… then you will take my word as haqq, truth. As someone who has fought them before and seen success. Take my advice, you share a common struggle with even the humans who live on the lower rungs of society."

That had been a topic of their previous discussion. She gritted her teeth; but he was right, she had thought on what he had said before. The struggle was common, it was not racial, it was classist. She needed to unite those in this struggle, including humans, and this would inevitably allow her to see an increase in membership.

She gave an affirmative nod to Thrax, who chuckled madly.

"Next, you may continue living in this lavish compound for now but begin preparing. Order your people to construct tunnel complexes in caves and beneath mountains. Perhaps even convert abandoned dust mines into livable and workable space. All of this in complete secrecy of course. Once the war with the Americans begins, this is where we will retreat to."

A smart idea, again she agreed.

"The rest we can work on from here. I will begin crafting an easy-to-understand pamphlet to be distributed to the men and women of the White Fang instructing them on ambush tactics and guerilla warfare. After this, I will discuss with the soon to arrive Doctor Watts on possible feats of technology that we can accomplish for the organization."

She agreed once more, but then she squinted her eyes at Thrax as she realized something.

"Wait… back on the topic of human membership, how will we even get human members? How will we stop our current members from leaving once they hear about it? How can we convince them of this… class struggle as you call it?"

Thrax breathed in, almost seeming as if he was holding in another laugh "I will worry about this. I will write a text, a manifesto, for both the human and the faunus. Once it is complete, you may distribute it on the internet and to this organization under the White Fang's name."

---

Slums of Vale

0020 hours

Page was alone today, not joined by Daley or any Yank, having done this same procedure before, he had no problems anymore with doing this.

So, he stepped straight through the wooden doors of the shady establishment he had entered just the week prior. He walked forward to the brunette receptionist who looked surprised to see him again. Around him there was nobody, but from outside he saw the lights being open in some rooms, with the curtains closed, whatever patrons that were here were already getting busy.

"Newspaper, please." Was all he said.

The receptionist reached under her desk and plopped down a newspaper. "Here you go, sir."

Thank you, he took the newspaper and waved it out to straighten it, he flipped to the page of worker catalogues and reached into his pocket for the lien cards he had already counted out, he placed them in the necessary square and handed them back.

He dressed more lavishly today to fit with the other clientele he'd seen enter before. Instead of the jacket and jeans he wore last time, he went for a two-piece pine green suit and a Rolex.

The receptionist took a glance at his choice and gave him a smirk filled with mirth for a just a split second.

"You seem very sure of your choice, sir." He opened his mouth before being cut off "Room 221."

Great. He walked off. He just portrayed himself as already being a hornball for a specific girl. Not quite a detriment to his mission, but it was rather embarrassing. He followed a familiar path to the last time he was here before arriving in front of the door of Room 221.

He clicked the knob open, but it didn't pull all the way down, locked. He knocked three times, no response, he heard some scurrying in the room, was there still someone inside? The receptionist shouldn't have told him to go up already if that was the case. This was quite the disservice-

The door came open to reveal the same woman as before, wearing the same outfit as before, and even wore the same fake smile on her features.

"Welcome sir- " As soon as she realized who it was, her smile disappeared and she got herself of, she stood in almost stunned silence.

"Evening." He passed right by her and walked inside. As he stopped into the open bedroom he observed a few differences, it was quite a mess really, it wasn't clean like before, someone had just finished work here, that would explain her scurrying, likely an attempt to clean up.

Unfortunately for her, the sheets were in disarray, some of the drawers were left slightly open, the clean freak that was Michael Page noticed this all.

He heard the door creak to a close behind him. He turned around, hands in his pockets "So, in a few days- "

"You asshole." She suddenly stomped towards him.

"What did I do?" He asked, confused.

"You said you'd be here in '4 days', last week. I was so worried! I was convinced you'd sold me out! Sold my family out!" She looked up and yelled at him, as he fought the urge to laugh in her face.

"You really believe that if I had sold you out, you'd still be standing here now?" At that she stepped back a bit, calming down "No. Things were busy on our end, so the schedule had to be moved, the plan has changed anyway."

"Good. I do not want to film myself in the act with White, I wanted to tell you that."

Page shook his head "No, you have to, didn't you agree to it for 2 million Lien?"

"Yes, but I don't trust what you say when you mean, 'protect' me and my family, what exactly do you mean by that?"

"We'll give you new identities and move you to some frontier village. Perhaps Cooperwick."

She stomped once on the ground and frantically shook her head.

"A frontier village? With all the grimm?" She shook her head again "Scratch that, they can still find me and kill me."

All the grimm? Page was sure that it was everywhere by now that Cooperwick was the safest place with regards to grimm. But she did raise a good point about her possibly being killed even within Cooperwick, it had very lax entry laws from what he had heard. He needed to reformat the deal; Elijah did give him full rights to give whatever their assets wanted within reason.

He started thinking of a reasonable deal as she stood there in front of him.

"How about this, you won't be required to speak out against White, your face will be censored on the video."

"They will still be looking for me as soon as I'm out of this place."

Damn. A good point. He had one last offer to make, one that he was at least a little confident that Elijah would allow.

"Alright, I have very good offer for you then, I am not actually with the Vale Police Department, I am with MI6, an intelligence component of the United Kingdom, an ally of the United States." He explained.

He was safe here, she seemed to care quite a lot about her family, she wouldn't rat him out if it meant risking them. And Elijah trusted them as to the extent of the information they chose to reveal to their assets, and in Page's case, he believed that to make the offer he was about to make.

Instead of the shock he was expecting from Olivia, she looked extremely confused "You're not with the Vale police, the United what?"

"Kingdom." Page clarified sternly, to which Olivia just squinted her eyes. Page sighed and rolled his eyes "I'm with the Americans." He finally said, hoping this would be what clarified things to Olivia.

"The Americans?" Finally! She understood- "Who are the Americans?"

As Page heard those words leave her mouth, his eyes grew a tad, his mouth went agape, he couldn't believe what he had just word. The operative implication is that everybody knew what Earth was or at the very least knew who the Americans were, how on Earth did this woman not know anything?

Then he cleared his mind and thought of the why.

"…How long has it been since you were kidnapped?"

The confusion didn't leave Olivia's face, but she answered the question nonetheless "Two years."

"Have you been allowed to leave at all, have your own scroll, talk to anybody else inside the building?"

"Not really no, I've been stuck in this damn room for two years now. The just leave food at my door, cleaners come by to change my sheets every week and give me new clothes. I only see the outside world through that window." She pointed to a window to the far left of the room that had its curtains lowered.

He rubbed his face in frustration, an action that only confused Olivia further. He wanted to feel bad for this woman, he really did, but this lack of knowledge was just going to make things a lot more difficult.

He spoke slowly and tried to curb whatever frustration he had,

"Alright… So, 8 months ago now, a nation called the United States of America, from another world called the Earth, discovered a portal to Remnant." All confusion left her face, and it just fell flat, but he continued "Long story short, they have a big military, and they've since used that military to quell grimm, destroy the White Fang, help frontier settlements, and have begun operation in Vale to remove opposition to its political status, they do this in conjunction with its allies, I am an agent of one of those allies."

Her face remained flat, her eyes looked bored, just scanning him for whatever reason "What a sick joke! if you actually had nothing of worth to give then you've made me out myself to you for no reason!"

"I'm not joking." Page breathed in, and reach under his suit jacket, pulling out his scroll. And went to WorldVid, typing in 'America', he handed the thing to Olivia who accepted it.

He could see her pick out Lisa Lavender on the thumbnail, probably a familiar face to her.

"Today US Ambassador Ziegler spoke to VNN for his comments on the failure of the resolution to become a member of the United Nations within the Vale Council. He stated the following…"

The video feed transitioned to show Ziegler speaking in his office, the confusion came back to Olivia's features.

'Those in the council who voted no are making a mistake, I'm not just talking about American interest here, Vale will benefit so, so much from trade with Earth, and from active diplomacy with the nations of Earth. Our world has a lot to offer, the Kingdoms can be so much more with our help, and I hope the nay-sayers in the council will one day see that."

"…That's the US ambassador, US means United States." Page remarked.

Olivia just stayed silent exiting that video feed and going back to the search page, scrolling through multiple videos, clips, and news pieces on the Americans. Page stepped beside her and looked alongside her.

'American Soldiers giving away food and supplies at Shion days away from exiting.'

'Statues of Charlie Bennington, General Kirkman, and Colonel Burton, erected at Shion.'

Page had to fight the urge to laugh as he looked over the thumbnail depicting the three men facing, waving, standing at attention while forming a circle.

'Blackout drunk US Marines at Cooperwick.' This one didn't come from a news channel, but rather what looked to be a personal channel, the thumbnail depicting two marines passed out on a sidewalk with a very angry looking gunnery sergeant standing over them.

Then a video from a channel called 'Conspiracy Sunday.'

'Earth Theories: Robots? Disguised as humans? Faunus Massacre?'

She side-eyed Page upon reading the last line.

"Faunus just don't exist on our planet, okay? We didn't kill anybody."

Olivia immediately switched off the scroll and silently passed it back to Page.

He crossed his arms, his lips smacked as he opened his mouth. "Believe me now?" He smirked at the shell-shocked Olivia, perhaps it would take a bit to process this kind of information.

She took a deep breath in, then one out "…Okay, so you're an alien."

His smirk flattened "For lack of a better term, yes."

"And you're from this United States."

He rolled his eyes and quickly corrected her "Ally of the United States."

"Right." Strangely, her face showed no emotions as she just kept asking questions "And you're trying to take over Vale?"

"Not at all, Vale would be ours if we really wanted it, it's more like we're trying to shift Vale in the favor of our interests."

"And you need me for that, why?"

"Because Oscar White is in direct opposition of further Valean cooperation with Earth."

Another deep breath "Okay, okay, okay." She went off, just repeating the single word again and again.

Page had to wonder if he broke her, maybe she forgot what he was offering "The mission remains the same, woman, you still have to incriminate White, but your reward is much larger now, you will not only be paid but also be given American citizenship, outside this planet, far from the reaches of anybody, and you get to bring your family with you."

She suddenly turned on her heel, and faced him directly, she looked down upon her.

"Can you guarantee my family's safety in this other world?"

He pursed his lips "Wow, no further questions, you just learned that your planet has been discovered and settled by aliens."

"I'll deal with that shock later, but for now, can you promise me that my family will be safe?"

"Yes." This was an honest answer, if White's goons somehow found their way through MOB Juno, through the Green Gap Research Facility, out of MOB Kostanav, out of Kazakhstan and into the United States, he might as well lose all faith in the security protocol of the Yanks.

"Good, what do you need then?"

"Just your consent to film you, but I assume you're already allowing that, in any case, I'll be coming back in two days with equipment, I'll plant hidden cameras, microphones, the works."

A nod. "How will you get me and my family out?"

"We'll begin planning for that as soon as I report back to my superiors. Most likely we'll pick up your family at their homes and put them in a holding facility for the time being, as for you…" She looked hopefully at him "I don't know how we can get you out without causing noise, but we'll think of something, we always do."

She pouted. "Fine."

"Alright, I'll be off then." He turned around and took the first step to the door before feeling a tug on his suit jacket.

"Wait." Page turned to Olivia with an inquisitive stare from his eyes. "Let me rough up your suit, make it look like we actually did something." She then suddenly placed her hands all over his clothes, crinkling them up and just making a mess of them.

Not even asking for permission first? It irked Page but he couldn't get angry, she made a point. Once she was satisfied, she placed her hands on her hips, almost as if she was admiring her work.

"Happy now?"

"Your watch- "

"Not the Rolex."

---

Upper Class District, Kingdom of Vale

1230 hours

"Can't believe it actually worked." Mason gripped the steering wheel with one hand, making turns while he used the other hand to hold a cup of coffee, he had been taking occasional sips from.

Woods turned to Mason, a lit cigarette in his fingers "Moola tends to convince people. White paid the company to do the job, we learned what company from his bank transaction, then we paid the company more to give the job to us, win win." He took a hit from the cig.

"Hate that we have to wear this shit though." Momentarily Mason looked down at his yellow suit.

"What Level C hazmat? Thank God that you don't have to wear a MOPP 2 suit every day again cause Thrax's troops are in the area." He scoffed to which Mason rolled his eyes "Plus it's just for a couple hours while we work this guy's house."

Mason brought his eyes back on the road as they parked in front of Oscar White's house, a guard standing outside his painted metal gate. The guard eyed their car for a few seconds, squinting his eyes as he did.

"He looks confused." Mason said with a curious tone.

"You would be too if exterminators were in a car and not a van, not our fault godfather couldn't afford to buy one and just painted a logo on a used sedan that Vale provided."

The guard came up and knocked on Wood's window, he rolled it down.

"You guys the pest control?" He looked down at a clipboard, likely a schedule for people who come by today.

"Yep." Woods smiled, he leaned outside and tapped his palm onto the car while looking at the pest control logo painted onto it.

The guard stepped back "Alright, come on in."

Mason and Woods exited the car, they were donning the yellow hazmat suit without the hoods, half-type respirator hanging loosely at their chests.

Woods popped the trunk open and unloaded a duffel bag which contained their other equipment. They walked up to the guard, who led the way inside, he spoke as they walked through the front yard of the lavish mansion.

"Delivery driver came by a few days ago to drop by a new vacuum unit, box was filled with roaches, my superiors think that it was some sick joke on Mr. White."

Mason stopped himself from laughing while Woods nodded sagely.

"Could be, sir. But I reckon that their warehouse could have an infestation, it's pretty common, ants, rats, roaches, you're lucky it wasn't termites." Woods shot off some ideas to remove suspicion that the cockroach infestation had been done on purpose.

"Eh, either way the roaches got too much, crawled on the madam's leg while she was asleep, screamed Mr. White's head off, and that's why we called you." He opened the door for the two and let them both in

They stepped inside and looked around the lavish home, an interior that wouldn't be out of place in a Beverly Hills home, porcelain tiles, lots of natural light from windows, furniture that just screamed upper class.

Woods stopped admiring the home and walked closer to the security guard.

"Gonna need to ask you a few questions sir."

The guard put his hands on his hips "Shoot."

"Do you have any idea where they could have nested?"

"Well, I don't have a clue."

"Which rooms do they show up in?"

He chuckled "Better to ask which rooms they don't show up in, I see them everywhere, Mr. White does too. In the bathrooms, living rooms, kitchen, bedrooms, everywhere, my guess to where they've nested is in the vents maybe?"

Mason tapped on the various walls in the living room as he spoke "How often do you guys change the temperature on your thermostat?"

"Almost daily, Mr. White gets picky sometimes, and whenever he's out the missus sets it to her liking."

Mason tapped a few more times, the foundations of the house were made of concrete "Then they probably aren't in the vents, roaches need consistent temperature to nest. They probably won't like the airflow either depending on how strong you got your fans going."

"Huh. Then where else could they be?"

Mason walked around the living room, tapping on the wall, as the guard looked perplexed at him. Mason finally arrived at a wall where a door was, he opened it slightly to reveal a bathroom, he tapped a few more times on the wall, it sounded hollow.

"This dry wall on wood foundation?" He asked the guard who nodded.

Woods then spoke "If you have holes in your drywall there's a good chance that roaches nested behind them, if your drywall expands to the rest of your house, we'll have to clean all the sections with drywa- "

Woods suddenly stomped his foot heavily, shocking both Mason and the guard. They all looked at him, then at his boot, and as Woods lifted his boot, on the floor the mangled remains of a dead cockroach.

"We're gonna need to confirm, either way. Mind if we look around the house, check behind furniture see if there's anywhere, they could get into the drywall" Woods ignored the stare the guard was giving the dead roach.

"Yeah… Yeah… Go ahead." He said absentmindedly, as Woods and Mason started to look around the first floor. All the areas where the drywall connected.

Mason took the living room and the nearby bathroom, while Woods took the kitchen.

"Eliza! Clean this up, would you?!" The guard called out to seemingly nobody until somebody came down from the second story, a maid, in full uniform, in her hand was a handheld dustpan and a brush.

Her face immediately transformed to one of disgust as she staired at the floor and walked slowly before crouching down and cleaning up the dead roach.

Woods and Mason observed this, bemused,

The guard simply observed the two as they started moving and checking behind furniture. They already saw a few holes, but this wouldn't suffice, they needed to check for cracks in the foundation or drywall upstairs to get where they needed.

The guard just saw Woods and Mason whisper to each other before Woods turned to him.

"There were a few cracks on this floor, but we're gonna need to pump pesticide everywhere we see them to make sure they're all dead, so we need to check upstairs too."

"No problem" The guard nodded.

They walked upstairs without saying a word to the guard who simply followed them. There were five doors upstairs, two of them being closed.

The two started with the open doors, Mason arrived at another bathroom, he checked behind the tubs, around the showers. Woods arrived at what appeared to be a guest bedroom, he looked under the bed and saw the glossy appearance of a cockroach's exoskeleton stuck to the underside of the mattress.

A single roach however meant that it wasn't the nest. Woods stood back up and checked behind t he drawers and nightstands, no cracks.

He went outside to see Mason coming out of another open door and he shook his head.

Together they went into the other open room, a smaller bedroom, dull colors, and a small bed, this was probably the maid's room. The realization of their being a live-in maid made Woods snort.

They checked, and again there was nothing.

They went back out to the hallway to see the guard just standing there with his arms crossed. The two walked in front of one of the closed doors.

"Sorry sir, but we found nothing, mind if we check these two rooms?"

"Uh sure, but the master bedroom is currently occupied, just give me second." Ah so this was the master bedroom.

The guard knocked three times "Mrs. White!" Woods and Mason gave each other a look "Pest control is here! Come out please!"

They heard footsteps on the other side of the door, the clicking of the doorknob as it pulled back to reveal a taller brunette woman with puffy red eyes and an evening gown, she walked right past them without saying a word.

The guard just sighed and walked in with the two, immediately the noticed a fist sized hole above a lamp. Mason smirked; Mr. White seemed to be an aggressive individual.

Mason walked right up to it, the duffel bag still around his shoulder, he reached inside and took out a flashlight, he examined the inside, initially there was nothing, then he looked from an angle and there he saw dozens of cockroaches scurry about as the light reached them.

"Yup! That's a nest alright." Mason had to hide his disgust "Least thirty of them in there."

"They probably like the heat from the fireplace." Woods remarked as he pointed out the large fireplace in front of the bed, the embers within still gave a dim red light "Heats them right up from outside the drywall, roaches love it."

The guard clicked his tongue "Alright, alright, so you just gas them out there, right?"

Woods shook his head "We still have to check that other room for cracks and holes, sir."

"That's Mr. White's personal study, can't let you do that." The guard shook his head for the first time.

Mason walked up to the guy before he talked "We're gonna need to hose down all the cracks sir, if there's another nest in the area of the study, you risk another infestation if we don't hose down the interior of drywall properly."

The guard just sighed "Fine."

He walked out, waving his hand to signal the two to follow him, he reached into his pocket and got out a set of keys attached to a keychain.

The three got up to the locked door as the guard picked out a key from the set and unlocked the door, opening it for the two who entered.

It was an unassuming place, just an average office with a desk, a scroll computer sat atop it, a few bookcases, in front of the desk were two chairs, on the wall behind the desk was a portrait of Oscar White and his wife.

There weren't any obvious faults in the drywall, but regardless they started searching. Woods and Mason helped each other slide the bookcases away from the walls to search for cracks, and when they found nothing, they lifted the painting from where it sat on the wall and there they found a small hole the size of a few inches just below the nail where the painting hung from.

The painting was probably put there in the first place to cover it up, they set aside the painting, laying it on the floor nearby.

Woods then slowly turned to the security guard as Mason donned the gas mask and opened up the duffel bag.

"Sir, we're gonna need you to leave the room, the pesticide we're using can cause some problems without the right equipment, we'll be done in a minute."

The guard just stared worriedly but relented "Alright, alright, be quick, Mr. White is gonna come home any minute now for lunch and he uses his office as soon as he gets home, so get it done fast."

He promptly exited the room as Woods and Mason got to work.

Woods opened up the duffel bag to take the pesticide spray and its canister as Mason started inspecting the room further for anywhere, he could plant cameras and microphones. He found three spots.

Mason and Woods both donned the hoods of their hazmat suits and started their respective jobs.

Woods grabbed the pesticide implement and inserted the nozzle into the hole in the wall and started spraying pesticide through it.

Mason grabbed a toolbox from within the duffel bag and walked over to White's desk. There was an ornamental plant on his desk, he dug up the dirt on the put, making a small pit in the dirt around the plant, he opened up the toolbox and took one of the lavalier microphones within.

It was a small thing, a microphone component attached to a radio frequency microchip with a batter unit, he placed it in the hole he dug and covered it up with the pile of dirt he had dug up.

"You got about a minute, Lake." Woods reminded as he switched the angle on the nozzle and kept spraying.

Mason ignored him, picked up the open toolbox and walked over to the closed door, above it was a wall clock. He got on his tip toes and grabbed the clock, once it was in his hands, he crouched down beside the toolbox and inspected it for screws.

The back panel was supported by three Philips screws at different points of the circular panel, he took a screwdriver and quickly unscrewed all three, he popped open the back panel with force which revealed the disposable battery unit as well as the back of the clock face.

He pressed on it and it wobbled, it was plastic. He took a box cutter from the toolbox and cut a small circular hole where the '9' was from the back. He took a Minox C camera unit, an upgrade to the Minox B, and placed its lens over the hole.

He then took duct tape and scissors from the toolbox. As he cut pieces of duct tape, he could see in the corner of his eye that Woods was already done spraying pesticide into the dry wall and had begun putting the portrait back on his own.

Mason secured the camera to the clock face and battery unit with duct tape and placed everything back inside the toolbox.

He screwed the back panel of the clock back and inspected the whole device, the glint of the camera lens could just barely be seen from the front, but only up close and if inspected well, he was satisfied. He hung it back up on the wall.

he walked over to the duffel bag and put the toolbox inside, and grabbed his own pesticide implement to make it look like he had also done work.

Woods nodded in approval as they both sprayed the room with a light cloud of pesticide. When they were done, Woods slung the duffel bag over his shoulder and they both walked out of the room to see the guard standing outside playing around on his scroll. He immediately pocketed the device as he saw Woods and Mason walk out.

"We're done sir." Woods said, "We had to spray the whole room a little bit, need to make sure any roaches outside the nest are also dead, if just a few of those things survive, they could start up a whole new nest."

A concerned look fell upon his face "Thought you said that your stuff was toxic."

"If fresh." Woods clarified "It won't be in an hour or two, it has a short half-life. But the smell will take a while to go away."

The guard nodded in approval.

"Anyway, next room." Woods and Mason walked over to the master bedroom.

---

Office of the Ambassador of the United States

Embassy of the United States, Vale

1300 hours

Elijah and Ziegler both stood as they watched two people enter the room, the two Americans greeted the two Valeans a 'Good Afternoon' as they all shook each other's hands.

As Ziegler shook Ozpin and Glynda's hands, he used his other hand to gesture to Elijah who gave a toothless grin.

"This is Elijah King, our Assistant Head of Public affairs."

"Where's the head of public affairs?" Glynda asked as she took a seat.

Elijah amusedly swept his hand across the air as he sat back down after shaking both their hands "Oh, Mr. Seaborn loves to keep his work at the desk, I'm the one doing most of the talking when it comes to official business."

In reality, public affairs work really was a desk job, rarely requiring direct talks in the context of the embassy, Elijah was simply performing his duties as the head of the CIA on Remnant.

Ziegler crossed his arms "Anyway, I brought in Mr. King here today because your concerns will be affected by public relations which is his field. Mr. King already knows the both of you, no need for introductions, he's as well studied on Remnant as I am."

That was an understatement.

Ziegler continued "Anyway, so… Ozpin, you plan on reconvening the council, this week, correct?"

"Yes." Ozpin nodded as he leaned on his cane from his seat.

"Why so early?" Elijah felt the need to ask "There's no sign from Oscar White or his faction that they're going to budge, and you just called the vote last week, is their really a chance that they'll change their tune so soon?"

Ozpin nodded again "Yes, I understand that, but over the last week we were surprised to see an influx of influential members of the public, particularly journalists supporting the passing of the vote. I am hoping that just one person in Oscar's faction folds to public pressure since the election is soon to come."

Elijah gave no reaction upon hearing his work be vindicated, yet Ozpin was still too quick to pull the trigger in his opinion, Elijah still had a few more cards to play.

"I suggest you wait a bit for any sign that the other councilmen will vote in your favor, if you reconvene so soon you risk annoying some of the councilmen that already…" Elijah tried to think of word.

"Don't like you." Ziegler said it straight, causing Ozpin to chuckle and Glynda to smirk.

"Alright, I'll take that suggestion, I'll delay the reconvening by another week or so."

Elijah smiled curtly upon hearing those words. Ziegler then spoke.

"Anyway, I'd like to ask, why did you bring Ms. Goodwitch here? No offense but aren't her duties related to Beacon academy and not the council."

Glynda opened her mouth, but Ozpin answered for her "There is actually something she's been meaning to propose." Ozpin then looked to Glynda he got goosebumps as she gave him a side eye for cutting her off.

Ziegler and Elijah both sat in anticipation.

Glynda then spoke without interruption "How would the both of you feel about integrating the history of Earth into Beacon's curriculum and bringing in academics and scholars from your planet?"

---

CANON OMAKE

RWBY and JNPR react to Apocalypse: Second World War Part 2 (Episode 3)

As part of further extra credit, the two teams had once again been relegated to watching a documentary on the history of Earth's most devastating conflict. Two weeks ago, they had watched the first episode which centered around the beginnings of this conflict, the week earlier they watched the crushing defeats of what would be known as the allies, today was the third episode simply titled 'Shock'.

The episode began right after the details of the events of the last, the defeat of France, the recognizable nazi flag flew on the Scroll projection. Soldiers with guns slung on their backs rode on bicycles.

"Heh bicycles." Yang quipped. "They're like kids."

Weiss rolled her eyes "Yeah… Kids who took over the whole continent."

"But also got their butts kicked in the skies in… Britain." Yang took a second to remember the name of the place where the famed Luftwaffe met their match.

The narrator then detailed a certain German unit who had been ordered to vacation in the capital of France, Paris. The unit of a Lieutenant.

"He writes 'We are given very strict instructions, we must be impeccably dressed, and we must avoid all contact with the population.'..."

As this was said, footage of soldiers in grey looking uniforms loitering around the city amongst civilians played

"Why do they need to dress so good?" Nora queried as she used her arms to relax on the floor.

"Maybe some form of decorum?" Ren tried to answer "Still, I don't get why they'd have to avoid the population.

Blake tilted her head "Hm. The population did just get their country invaded; they probably hate the Germans."

Seemingly as to confirm what she just said, the narrator continued "The French refuse to look at them, some have started to fight back."

"There you go." Blake's eyes widened a little at that, resistance groups exited everywhere, not just on Remnant.

The spirit to fight back regardless of how put down people may be seemed to be a quality of everyone, both on Earth and on Remnant.

The footage of a newspaper then zoomed into a headline in a foreign language, a caption translating the text appeared on the bottom 'Sentenced to death by shooting'.

"These two men who sabotaged telephone lines will be the first to be executed by the Germans."

"That's horrible!" Pyrrha paled at the statement "Just cutting some wires and they get executed like that? They're the invaders, for brothers' sake!"

"Remember what they did to Polish? The… Jew people. Segregating them and kicking them out of their houses. I swear, they're just pure evil."

"Atlas and Mistral were doing the same fifty years ago." Blake remarked to which she got a few knowing nods.

The footage switched to show an older gentleman stepping outside a black vehicle, wearing a red and green cap on his head and giving a salute to a German soldier.

"The new French state under the authoritarian rule of Marshal Petain chooses to collaborate with Germany. Petan promulgates a set of anti-Jewish statutes that exclude jews from public life, he and Hitler have shaken hands."

"WHY?!" Yang threw her hand up as she relaxed on a beanbag.

Ruby looked in disgust as further footage of this 'Petain' played of him with Hitler. "What is their problem with Jews?" Ruby felt the need to ask.

Pyrrha added "And the whole world knows Hitler is evil by now, why work with him?"

They continued to discuss as footage of the German army marching played and the narrator discussed the German forces occupying the various capitals in Europe, showing them in vast cities of differing architecture. The Nazi flag hoisted upon every building in sight.

Weiss just crossed her arms and analyzed the whys "Maybe they see the Jews in the same way? I'm not sure. For some reason, so much of Europe seems to hate the jews, I mean Hitler built his popularity on being a hateful man towards t hem."

The teams just watched on in disgust, the idea that so much hate could spread and be made institutional was an idea they found rather morbid.

There was a scene switch, the spectacle of hundreds of marching German soldiers was replaced by a little girl shoveling snow with her mother, before it again switched to show her coming out of a brick building with an older gentleman who was smiling.

"Rose is brave. And bravery is called for in Great Britain."

What showed next was the remains of buildings, still fresh from destruction, smoke billowing from where the bombs fell upon them, within the smoke silhouettes of men and women could be seen clearing the debris. Another scene showed this clearing in more detail, with what looked like policemen helping coordinate the cleanup.

"Great Britain's cities have been decimated by German bombs… But the country stands firm around Churchill."

The man they understood to be the country's leader, Winston Churchill could be seen walking alongside a cheering crowd, walking with a cane and smoking a cigar.

"For people who're being bombed… They look pretty happy." Jaune commented.

"I mean you kinda have to be." Yang swayed her head side to side "What else are you gonna really do? No use being miserable about it."

"I would be miserable about it." Weiss crossed her arms.

The scene once again transitioned to show the leader of the United States at the time, Roosevelt sitting upon a leather chair as he spoke to his contemporaries.

"…and with the providential aid of Roosevelt… Roosevelt has just been reelected for a third term as president of the United States. Though American opinion remains opposed to war, he declares 'we must be the great arsenal of democracy'. Only a part of the equipment he sends to Britain gets through."

Weiss clicked her tongue a few times "I don't get it. If they have so much equipment that they can just start sending it to Great Britain, why don't they just go over there and fight the Germans themselves?"

"War is expensive… And they probably don't want to see their family getting sent off to war to die." Blake explained "I agree with you though, the neutrality even until now is pretty surprising, especially after what America's been doing these days."

"But isn't there a greater good at stake here? They need to do something."

Everyone silently agreed, they continued watching in relative silence as the documentary continued detailing the horrid conditions of British survivors of naval attacks, the furthering of the occupation of Poland as the sizes of both the Wehrmacht and the SS in Poland are increased. It detailed how Jews were beat as a form of genocide.

The narrator quoted the journal of a German soldier.

"…'we didn't know that this was the beginning of the genocide to which we would lend our hands and our courage'."

"Genocide?" Nora asked as she turned around to the rest of the group "What's that?"

She got a resounding shrug.

Discretely, Jaune tried to look up the word on the internet to pass it off as his own idea but, strangely, he found nothing on the term, perhaps it was a word only used on Earth.

Once again, they watched in silence as the documentary detailed Hitler's aid of Benito Mussolini, his ally. Then showing a map of two unfamiliar parts continents, southern Europe and North Africa. With the nations of Italy, Libya, Greece, and Egypt being highlighted with arrows pointing against each other appearing.

Mentioned again, is Hitler's wanting to invade the Soviet Union, but he does not want to fight a war on two fronts. Stalin is told of Hitler's plans and wants, but he apparently ignored these reports. He even kept sending materials to the Nazis.

"W- Why would he ignore them?" Weiss was in disbelief "Has he not seen how invading is literally Germany's go to?"

"They had a deal, the non-aggression pact." Pyrrha rebutted.

"I think it should be pretty clear that Hitler is not the type of guy honorable enough to hold up that agreement." Blake deadpanned.

Yang gave mirthful smirk "He's even helping them out, I don't think this uh… Stalin guy is right in the head."

Jaune nodded "Yeah, I think it was said in the first episode how those Soviet guys also did some bad stuff in Poland. Huh. They seem pretty perfect for each other; wonder why they don't just become friends."

Blake responded, "Hitler hates communism." She remembered what was said in the first episode "Whatever 'communism' is."

Another silence fell upon the group as they continued watching. The final supplies are sent by Stalin to Nazi Germany by the middle of 1941, then the very next day…

"On June the 22nd at 3 AM, without officially declaring war, the first Wehrmacht sappers steel over onto Russian territory."

Dramatic music played as the film showed German troops loading shells into massive guns, and them in single fine lines crossing pontoon bridges.

"They are followed by 153 German division, as well as by Finnish, Romanian, Slovakian, and Hungarian troops. There is even a division of Spanish fascists."

Weiss gaped at the number of divisions "153…" She said under her breath

The Atlesian military only comprised of five divisions.

"Is that a lot?" Ruby said, confused.

"153 divisions would be around 2 million soldiers."

Nearly everyone paled at those numbers, that was utterly ridiculous. How a nation could even mobilize so many men was unprecedented-

"3 million soldiers, along with 600,000 trucks, many of which made French manufacturers such as such as Berliet and Renault… more than 3000 tanks, 7000 cannons, 3000 aeroplanes. Within 24 hours, 1500 Soviet aircraft are wiped out on the ground. "

It then showed video taken from an aircraft diving upon a landscape dotted by these Soviet aircraft, they are shot and decimated.

"3 MILLION?!" Weiss almost had to scream.

Pyrrha coughed "I don't think even at its peak Vale's army reached 300,000 during the great war."

"It's hopeless." Weiss continued "How is anybody supposed to beat a country that can mobilize millions of men just like that." She said, blissfully unaware of the eventual amount mobilized by the Soviets or Americans that reached the tens of millions.

Video continued to play taken from a German plane of it shooting down Soviet aircraft, inwardly, Ruby, Nora, and Jaune thought the spectacle was quite cool, but they felt wrong feeling that way knowing just the kind of death destruction these same actions caused.

The documentary then highlighted the German objectives, the cities they planned to take and the direction of their offensive operations. A German patriotic song played while the constant visual of German soldiers marching through soviet territory continued on.

The song was in German, a language completely unrecognizable to them, but translations appeared within the captions, the song detailed how their armies would conquer Russian land and how they march forward, ending with the lines…

"Freedom is our goal. Victory is our banner. Fuhrer, order us! We will follow you."

Blake gave a mocking and unheard chuckle as she heard the word 'Freedom', quite counterintuitive to what they are doing in application.

More and more, the rapid German advance into Soviet territory, but then clips are shown of German soldiers passed out and exhausted as it is said that they were beginning to realize how vast Russian territory is.

"Seems about right." Pyrrha tapped at her legs "I know how tired I got when we had to do those runs back in combat school, three miles back and forth."

Ground fighting was finally shown video with Germans in trenches firing at an unseen enemy in the distance. It showed further clips of German tanks firing at and destroying the recently introduced T-34 tank which was described to be the workhorse of the Soviet Tank force.

Videos of corpses, both German and Russian were shown, completely uncensored, causing many in the room to pale at the scene. It is detailed how both sides are beginning to take heavy losses. But despite this the German advance is steady and the documentary shows the map of how the Germans have almost reached their objectives in the north at Leningrad, have already reached their objective in the south in Ukraine.

Finally, the grim music began to take hold as the narrator spoke. For one of the few times since the first episode, black and white footage played of a massive crowd of people. Then clips of German troops surrounding these people.

"Himmler and Heydrich set up execution commandos called einsatzgruppen that are composed of SS members, policemen, and Wehrmacht soldiers who round up the Jews…"

"Oh no…" Was all Ruby said.

"Execution commandos?" Ren narrowed his eyes at the screen.

"The SS take the Jews into the woods and give them shovels so that they can dig their own graves."

Those in the room sat stark still at what they heard as footage continued to play in black and white of the Jews digging holes in the ground, with the SS standing ominously around them, pacing back and forth with their rifles at the ready.

Footage with audio then played of people standing in one of these holes as a gunshot ring and they fall dead on the ground.

Ruby and Weiss gasp, the others just stay in silence at the morbid display of a unique evil.

A clip played again in black and white of a group of hundreds marching into the woods, presumably to their graves, with the narrator only confirming this line of thought.

"33,771 Jews will be executed in two days, men, women, and children."

The video panned over a photograph of nude people standing in line in front of a grave… then after that… a massive pile of bodies with a single a German pointing a rifle at the pile.

Almost everyone averted their eyes upon seeing this, with only Blake, Nora, and Ren being able to stomach continuing to look.

"This premeditated cold-blooded murder would come to be known as the Holocaust."

---

Woohoo! Another chapter out! I'm glad at the positive response for the new approach of the story for the arc, but to anybody waiting on the return of military action, don't worry, this is a military story after all, it will be back soon. In any case new developments this chapter are interesting, Ozpin and Oscar goin crazy, CIA makin moves, Thrax makin moves, we cant forget that Omake.

Anyway this is the first chapter to be made in collaboration (through beta-ing) with Hart on th Discord server, so, thank you Hart! She makes stories here too on FFN as BroztheBro, check em out if you wanna.

Review Responses time!

Gunfighterxy76: Thank you! I hope you liked the conversation between Sienna and Thrax on this one too, arguably it's more interesting now that theyre actively collaborating. Adam wil present some problems, but Thrax his ways.

NRF: Lmao yeah

Doberschman: LMAO of course!

Crazzytony: Soon bro, soon

Maglad: Already responded to you in PMs, in any case thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Warmach1ne32: I'd argue not, Hitler was horrible, Stalin too, caused more deaths arguably. But Hitler actively dehumanized people and sent them off to concentration camps, Stalin was more indifferent to human life, at least that's how I interpret it.

Monster King: YES KING!

Kumalalakumalala: Thanks! I'm happy people are happy with the political/spy thriller thing I got going rn.

Warmachine324: and thank you! For reading!

Viper221: Unfortunately is a fact of life that evil people will be part of any worldly religion, don't worry though I don't plan on slandering Islam or any religion for that matter, it just so happens that Thrax is a muslim and it will be part of his backstory as I tell it. And yeah remnant will for sure see earth religions as a whole.

Raeuly Dan: Thank you! And yeah that's actually the aesthetic I was going for with Elijah.

AniVnz: Thanks! As for more COD stuff, I might, but shadow company is a whole other thing and including that might shift the story off-axis, Im just sticking to including characters here and there. And good luck with living Venezuela lmao. Thank you for reading as always.

Trigger2019: Yep! There will be more Earth history soon guaranteed.

Knightynight: I have a few ideas for Salem, but that's still far off.

Fleetingspectre: You'll see.

Thebaddy: Thanks! And yeah I wanted to slowly ease in Elijah, hence why he was introduced early, I'm happy people like his character. As for the civil war? One day.

IIIArmaliteIII: Yep, you may be right with some of these.

Kells: I won't be putting anything inside you, thank you very much, but thanks anyway.

SombraZorro70: Thank you! And indeed we are. But yeah I wanted to implement just a lil bit of Ironwood's Volume 7 or 8 personality and show off his (warranted) paranoia. But yeah Thrax is a baller in this universe.

SuperEarth2077: Well to be fair, these are things the CIA has been doing for a while IRL, I'm simply implementing tactics I think they would implement on Remnant, but yeah they are a bit morally gray, or downright evil in some cases like yeah the cocaine. Also thanks! Hope you liked this omake too!

Goatfur2: no for the battleships.

Angrypotatoe: Thanks! They'll prolly be surprised

Ravenguard0009: Probably because media surrounding WW2 is far more prevalent, kinda like how most people have probably heard or watched documentaries of WW2 before WW1, it's also a lot easier to understand and contextualize for people with no knowledge of Earth because there's such a clear good and evil in this war.

Guest: Thanks! As for huntsmen, we discuss this extensively on my server, but my personal estimate is that a high level huntsman like say Ruby could probably take out a whole Platoon with no issue, but after that shed run into problems cause then you have company level assets like mortars and stuff. As for Thrax, well the problem with Botulinum is that he has to make it first and he doesn't have very many materials, anthrax is relatively easy to produce.

Christianvirtudazo07: Thanks for reviewing so many times lol! Anyway yeah RWBY will react to more WW2 soon.

Guest: Thanks! That's actually an interesting idea.

Major Simi: Thank you!

Well that's all, come join the discord if you haven't already.

And as always, thank you so much for reading!