Chapter 9

For the Record

Spent the last few days recovering from Neo. Didn't sleep much, though - my nights were spent half learning Remnant English, half catching up on the show, re-upping my knowledge, so to speak. Yes, it's a risky gamble, but I keep the volume down, headphones hooked up... And I leave the ship whenever I do it.

Dumb as it sounds considering all of my stab wounds, that last part actually serves a double purpose - the rough idea I have for contact with Qrow revolves around us returning here to Vale, or some kind of populated area, to recover from the battle and plan our next move. Considering the Legion is fighting the League, hiding right under their nose will probably be the smartest choice - why would they look on the homefront, after all? So, I drop Qrow the note, something like:

'Hey asshole. Be at (wherethefuckever) in Vale at Eleven O' Clock in (howevermanydays). I'll bring alcohol. From another world, even! Love, Nathan Drake.'.

Oh wait, I left all the alcohol at the plane. Is it still there? Maybe I'll get shitty after the Fall Maiden. Still need to learn to fly. Shouldn't be hard, I think - I can move things easy enough. Moving me is just the next step up.

Anyways, and to validate to them me not being in the Aviator late at night, I've started taking walks, doing light exercises and such, at night, under the auspices that I can't/don't sleep much. And thanks to aura, I can function on a lot less sleep than usual... So long as I do get some eventually.

Though, 'light exercises' is a misnomer - I am not fucking kidding when I compare myself to Captain America. I can keep up with cars. I felt like I was in Cap 3 for a few minutes. It was awesome. So 'light' to me is approaching 'Olympian' to the folks back home.

Regardless, even if they're watching me these first few weeks, me doing exactly as I say will build a routine in their eyes, and eventually they'll stop questioning it. They don't have a reason to distrust me, after all, and that I hardly ever stop training also helps. Even laid up in med, I'm juggling stuff with my semblance - my record is the entire contents of the bag from my plane for two minutes.
So, by the time the Fall Maiden Fight rolls around, me slipping away for a few hours to meet Qrow won't raise suspicions.

Anyways, I'm back up to one hundred percent now, and alongside those exercises I've been trying to figure out this whole defense thing. Get it working right, so I don't get a repeat of Neo.

Making some progress, but not much... And I still fear I may have to swap out again the damn second I have to test it out.

On that note, I'm considering doubling down and getting some kind of armor. I'm thinking something Batman would wear - lightweight and flexible so I can keep my agility up, but also effective against blades and light gunfire.

If I could pull off the Knightmare look, I'd shit bricks. Sure, the movie wasn't all it should have been, but I did enjoy it, and Batman in a goddamn trenchcoat and military gear. 'Nuff said. Hell, buying a mask probably wouldn't be too dumb of a decision, considering I wouldn't want my face revealed to Qrow prematurely.

Things to think about.

'Till next time.

The ship was as dark as the port outside. It was well past midnight - around five in the morning, if Aldric remembered correctly. After taking a few days to heal from his fight with Neo, he had taken to waking up early to work on his telekinetic shield. He wanted to get to the point where he could keep something like it up at all times, to act as a replacement for his aura shields. He'd thought he would have a weak aura shield if he'd gone full-attack, but his fight with Neo had taught him better. Hopefully, if this worked, it would allow him to fight with everything he had, and not worry about sacrificing combat strength for his aura shields. If all went to plan, as time went on and his experience, focus, and concentration grew better, he'd be able to split his concentration well enough that he wouldn't be sacrificing potential reaction time, either.

To do all of this, he'd appropriated a fork from the Aviator's small dining room, and had taken to stabbing the hell out of the back of his hand every morning, until he worked out an ironclad, low-concentration method of deflecting it. Unfortunately, all of that was easier said than done.

Aldric stared at this morning's fork as if it had personally offended him, as music idly played in his ears. A lot of his Earth tech was beginning to die on him, and while he was making some progress on bridging Remnant and Earth tech, he'd already fried one tablet after screwing it up. By now, he was of the opinion that he could either make their deaths as slow and as painful as possible, or just get it over with. He'd either figure out a way to power them long-term, or not, but either way, they'd die eventually, so damn it, he'd have his music.

The center of the back of his right hand was bright red, from him having slammed the fork into it so many times. There had to be something he was missing, he needed these shields to be powerful enough to deflect anything, but also in such a way that he could do it without much conscious thought, and would work in extreme close ranges. After all, most of the people here used melee weaponry, but then there were people like Yang whose punches literally exploded. If those got too close for his TK barrier to do anything, he'd find himself losing limbs real damn fast.

Let's try envisioning... A counter-force. Something to push back against whatever pushed against it. He thought, lifting the fork in his hand and holding it in a reverse-grip.

He thought hard, conjuring up an image of a trillion tiny industrial fans blasting upwards against anything that would attempt to strike him. After focusing for a moment, he drove the fork down and -

Thump.

"Ah! Dammit!" He cursed, shaking his hand back and forth. He continued croaking out curses, trying not to wake the other members of his ship at this early hour.

So that was out.

He let out an exasperated sigh, scowling at the fork, focusing his semblance's tactile sensations upon it.

With this, he began to feel the metal more intimately, as if it wasn't just his hands touching it. Every inch of surface, it was as if it was made entirely of nerve endings - he felt the metal, his fingers brushing up against it, the chill of the dark morning air. The more he focused, the more he felt, eventually delving deeper. He felt the metal ringing, some of it warming up against his skin. After awhile, he continued honing in on it, he thought he could feel things bouncing around in it.

Is... His brow furrowed, it felt like trillions of fire ants crawling around, bouncing into eachother. Are these atoms? He wondered. I wonder... He tried to tighten his hold on the fork; after all, it took a lot less energy to hold something in place, than it did to move it around.

After a few minutes, Aldric let out the breath he hadn't even realized he'd been holding. A pressure was released from his head, and he gasped for air, his vision having darkened. After he recovered, he turned back to the fork, and found that there was a thin sheet of frost covering it, as if it had been left in a freezer for a few hours.

Hm... Things for later. He decided, rubbing at his chest to bring his heart rate back under control. Slowing things down is just a few steps removed from speeding them up. Maybe next time I'll get it glowing red. He set those thoughts aside with a shake of the head.

It was time to get back to his shields. As much as he may not have wanted to, he lifted the fork again and concentrated hard.

Thump.

He growled in pain, it soon devolving into a light chuckle as he shook his head. If his parents could see him now, they'd shit themselves, thinking he was trying to cut himself.

No, mom. I'm not cutting. I'm forking the hell out of my hand in an attempt to work out a way to make my superpowers work for me and not against me. He raised up the fork again. I'm not crazy. Down it went, again into the pink skin on the back of his hand. Yeah, this ain't working.

He hummed to himself. If not this, then what would work?

As he'd learned back in the forests, thinking about it too much was a recipe for a very slow success. He had to use his instincts, he had to feel it just as much as he thought it, such that he could call it up almost instantly in a fight. That was his hangup, as he had no precedent for something like this, not in the myriad of movies, books, or video games he'd seen.

Maybe... A shield. Like in Halo. He tried envisioning a small cocoon wrapping around his hand, an impenetrable barrier. He lifted the fork, and -

"What are you doing?"

Aldric blinked, and turned to his left. There stood Cinder in her casual nightwear, lightly rubbing at her sleep-filled red eyes, and giving Aldric a look of abject confusion.

"Uh..." Aldric paused, knowing that there was no necessarily easy way to explain this. Here he was repeatedly striking himself with a fork - and poised to do it again. He looked like an axe murderer practicing on himself. "Science." He deadpanned.

Cinder stared at him through half-lidded, sleepy eyes. "I thought your science exploded." She countered.

"What is an explosion but something that hurts a lot and tears stuff apart with a lot of heat and friction?" Aldric returned, the fork still raised high. "Can I help you?"

"You were making something of a racket. I thought it was Emerald looking for her coffee cup." Cinder strolled over to the cabinets, grabbing one of her own and sticking it in the brewer. "Mercury has taken to hiding it from her."

"I didn't know coffee existed in this universe." Thump, and he struck the back of his hand again. He was going to draw blood, at this rate.

"It may just be a shared term for a different drink."

"Touche." Thump, another lance of pain.

"I am curious, though. What are you doing?" She asked, brushing her bedraggled hair out of her eyes, as her cup was filled with the scalding dark liquid.

"During my fight with Neo I had my first good chance to test my whole defensive strategy. It... Well... It didn't not work, but it didn't work anywhere near not as well as I'd hoped." A lot of the problem, he'd noticed, had been when she'd closed in on him and gotten close. "So now I'm trying to find some way to use my semblance in a manner similar to that of my aura shields." Thump.

He also had a secondary reason - if Neo was able to get in close and do this kind of damage, what kind of damage would someone with a weapon like Yang's be able to do? She had shotguns strapped to her fists. One good shot and he'd die. He needed a better means of protecting himself, without sacrificing his combat strength, thus: The barrier.

"By impaling yourself with a fork?" Cinder removed the cup, came over to the table and sat down opposite Aldric.

"Well..." Thump. "There are probably better ways to be doing this..." He leaned back, briefly casting his gaze around the dark ship. "But this is the best one I can think of without putting myself in mortal danger." He paused, "sorry for waking you up." Thump.

Cinder shook her head, "I've woken up earlier than this." She said, as Aldric rubbed at the back of his hand. "I notice how dedicated you are, to all this." She mentioned, as he laid his hand flat again.

"Oh?" Thump - hey, he almost didn't feel something that time! Progress!

Or he was going numb.

Damn it.

"I wouldn't have thought you'd just throw yourself headlong into some other world's war." Cinder mentioned, as Aldric struck the back of his hand once again.

"Well... I feel like the cause is just. And in my world, there's a saying." Thump. "With great power..." He groaned through the pain. "Must also come great responsibility." He stretched his fingers. "So if you've got powers, like you or I do, and you intend to use them, that means you've got a moral obligation to help those who don't have it. And if you try your best and fail, you tried your best, that's all they can ask of you. But if you half-ass it and still fail, you failed because you half-assed it." Now how many Spiderman reboots did he just quote, he had to know. He found it amazing how one could get the same point across in so many different ways.

"So you're saying you joined up with us out of a moral obligation?" Cinder arced her eyebrow.

Thump. "Kinda-sorta." So clearly the Halo shield wasn't working, how did they do it in Chronicle? Didn't they say something about a 'barrier between you and it'? Or was it a wall? Well, he'd try 'em both. "You convinced me that this was a situation that had to change. There are so many factions out there vying for power..." Thump. "Too many people with too much access to too much military strength. And since it's technically the species that's at risk, what with the Grimm... You guys say I'm Superman - err... A physical god... With all this aura cooped up in me. The right thing to do would be to use it to help as many people as possible." Did he mention how he fully intended to betray everyone on this ship?

"So you really do think you're making the right choice." Cinder summarized, with a half-nod of her head.

"Yeah, I guess that's a good way to put it." She was more right than she thought. He raised his fork, "people need help. I have the power to help. Vis a vis, I should help." He swung it downwards.

There was the sound of metal scraping against metal, and he didn't feel a lance of pain in his hand. He blinked, and then flipped the fork back up right, a smirk growing across his face as he saw the tines folded over on themselves. With a brief pulse of his semblance, they straightened back out, and he tried to recall exactly what he'd felt here. He'd imagined it as a barrier, like a bubble, or a sheet of metal, hovering just a few centimeters over his hand, one that pushed away just as hard as was pushed towards it.

"And what of when we're done?" She asked. "What would you say your fate would be?"

"Well..." He swung downwards, and again found the fork blocked. He was liking his barrier concept more and more. "If possible, go home. Maybe use my powers there, fix things up a bit... Figure out how to awaken other peoples', get something of a neutral nation of aura users going, to keep the peace across the planet." He'd call them: Jedi. "And if I can't go home... Who knows?" He swung downwards, and again felt the tines deflect off of his shields. "Maybe...

"Maybe live off of the 'saved the world' royalty checks... Retire." He straightened out the tines and then slid the fork across the table. "Throw that at me, please. And after that... I dunno. Maybe find a cute other-dimensional girl, settle down, revolutionize education in my free time. Introduce Earth science... Get a space program going. That'd be fun. Be this world's Neil Armstrong, set foot on the moon and all that." He would love to know how Remnant's moon hadn't floated apart and peppered the planet.

Cinder gave the fork a cautious look, but picked it up regardless. "A girl, hm?" She reared the fork, and then chucked it at him.

It rebounded off of his face without even touching him. He grinned, and snatched it off of the ground with his semblance. "Sure, why not?" Certainly be an interesting first date, though. Hi, I'm Aldric, I'm from another planet in another universe and I can tear buildings down by accident. I know the future and within a month of being here I began actively conspiring to work with a terrorist organization that would be responsible for the deaths of dozens to thousands to even tens of thousands of people. Do you want my children? He slid the fork back across the table, "one more time, hard as you can."

Cinder hummed. "Rather... Tame, considering what we've seen from you so far." She commented.

"Well -" He didn't see Cinder throw it, but it bounced off of him all the same.

It wasn't perfect, though. She'd thrown it hard enough to displace air, and he felt that light pulse of air hit his forehead. There was a clear difference between this and his Cap Shield, but other than that, it deflected the fork. Yeah, he's got this. The next step would be trying it out in combat, so long as he could keep up his barriers he could use the full power of his semblance without sacrificing his defenses for it.

"I guess you could say I'm capable of a lot of things you wouldn't expect." He picked up the fork again, but this time, using his radar pulse, tried to amble it back into the drawer. It took more concentration to not tear the drawers out of the cabinets, but after a few seconds of struggle, he succeeded, albeit by slamming the drawer shut once he was done.

Progress.

"I like to think that there are two sides to everyone. What you see in public, and what you see after you know them." He leaned back, wondering if it would be easier to split his focus mid-battle, or just focus everything on whatever was needed at the time. Whichever was the case, he seriously needed to amp up his reaction time.

Cinder now gave him her full attention, her orange eyes locked to his gunmetal gray. "What would we see if we got to know you?" She asked, with a tone that made Aldric initially think she wasn't testing him, but rather genuinely curious as to the answer.

He had to remember, after all, she may be a part of the bad guys, but she was a person nonetheless.

But, she was also the mastermind, or at least the right hand to the mastermind, of half of the bad shit that happens in this world, so despite his reminders that she was a person just like him, he also had to take everything she did with a gain of salt.

He hummed. "Interesting question." He crossed his arms, looking up at the dark ceiling. "I mean... I could answer it, but that would be telling, wouldn't it?" He asked, giving her a brief glance. "Tell you what - one question, one answer. Sound good?"

Cinder frowned, before she nodded to the side. "Sure." She took a sip from her mug. "What truly drives your desire for strength?"

Aldric chuckled, "you mean besides the whole 'great power' shtick?" He got a nod from the raven-haired woman. "Well... I guess I want it, more than anything." Want it to protect himself, to protect others, to play the greatest game of Gambit Roulette the world's ever seen, there was a lot of reasons he wanted it. "This is a taste of a higher level of being. Why not milk it for all it's worth? See where it goes? Use it to protect those who can't themselves?"

Cinder lowered her cup, nodding. "Admirable. Many people get lost on the path to power... You seem genuine in your desire to use it for the greater good."

He shrugged, "like I said. With great power." He leaned forward, "how about you? Why do you fight? With the whole 'fate' shtick you've got going on, you strike me as someone who prefers to lead from the front, as it were. Charge into the great unknown and come out with one hell of a story."

Cinder shrugged at this. "Perhaps. Much like you, I desire power. However I would prefer it primarily for my own sake."

"Oh?"

"Not in the sense that I wouldn't use it for others... But in the sense that, should my fate be secured, I could then work about to improve that of everyone else's."

"You see your fate as the linchpin of the world's?" He asked, to which she nodded. "Damn, got high hopes for yourself."

She hummed, "what is it you keep writing, in your room?"

"A journal. Trying to keep everything in order... Maybe they'll get published into a memoir, one day. Eliminate everyone's hearsay, and give the story as it happened. The pen is mightier than the sword, and all that." He itched at his scalp, "what's after this White Fang stuff? Right now we're gathering an army, yeah, but there's got to be a play coming soon."

Cinder hummed, "I guess I should let you in on that... You proved yourself with Neopolitan, after all." She set her cup down. "As we told you, our operation is small... But there is a great deal of room for..." She paused, thinking for her next words.

Aldric grinned, "aggressive expansion?"

She shrugged, "sure. We've told you that our goal is to gather people with resources, as opposed to simply numbers. It is why we sought out Roman Torchwick and are seeking Adam Taurus. They've the resources to gather anything we need, from numbers, to weapons, to dust, and beyond. But we do this in the pursuit of one goal in particular..." She leaned forward, resting her arms on the table. "Perhaps one not very morally forward."

"We're a group of terrorists, hot stuff. We can try, but we can't always be on the straight and narrow." Hell, the Colonial Militia fit the bill for a group of domestic terrorists, technically. "But so long as there's a line... I would think we're fine." He lowered his gaze, now giving her something of a Kubrick stare. "There is a line, yeah?"

She nodded, "so long as our enemies do not either cross a line, neither shall we."

Wow, so that's what bullshit sounds like. It was one step forward, two steps back, for her. How was she expecting to win him over by the time the Vytal tournament rolled around. "Alright, shoot." He nodded.

"There exist a group of four individuals in this world." She explained. "They are known as maidens... The story of what they are is a long and... Shall we say, not very reliable one, but the legend goes that they were originally four women granted extraordinary power. To the point that I believe it would only be people from your world who could potentially eclipse them."

Oh don't give me ideas, Cinder. Please. "Okay."

"It is our intent to locate one of these Maidens and capture her power for our own use."

Aldric nodded, "get a goddess' power on your side, huh?" He ran his hand through his hair. "I get the strangest feeling in the back of my bible that I'm not going to like the part that comes next."

"Had you not worked out, we would have attempted an indirect confrontation, Aldric. We would have had to ambush her and pray we could weather her down... But with you, we think we may be able to defeat her in pitched combat. Should we do so... To steal her powers would be rendered a much easier, faster venture."

Hoooly shit they're using me to weaken the pokemon before they throw the goddamn ball. "You really think I'm that strong? For Chrissakes hot stuff, I'm not a god." He hadn't even had good vision until they'd awakened his aura! "So, if I hadn't been here, what would you have done? Tied her down?"

"We would have beaten her, stunned her just long enough for me to perform the necessary actions."

I actually wonder if these people are as powerful as you say, considering how easy the victory seemed to be in the series... Unless everyone used their aura as a crutch, and suddenly when their shields are broken they get too scared to fight. He frowned, that makes a lot of sense, actually. Why else would a goddess try to run away instead of smiting her enemies? That or the Fall Maiden was a bitch who couldn't use her powers. "And with me here acting as your tank, you actually think you can beat her in pitched combat?"

It actually raised a very good question, in Aldric's mind. How empirically strong were Maidens? If Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury were able to beat one within a handful of minutes, were they really all they were cracked up to be? Or was it a measure of skill and ability versus raw power? In the series, the original Fall Maiden had used everything from fire to ice. Aldric was starting to wonder if this wasn't like trying to compare someone like Iron Man to someone like Doctor Strange - it was a bad comparison because they were just two monumentally different beings. He did consider that Qrow would mention that the Fall Maiden was 'young' and 'inexperienced', but he still felt his point valid. Were they supposed to be Iron Man? Or Doctor Strange?

"I think we can, Aldric." She said, "to better explain them... I would say they truly are magic... Whereas people like us are simply... Human."

Oooooh, okay. So my Iron Man and Doctor Strange thing was apt. "How's that?"

"The Maidens' power comes from something separate from Dust. We know little about it, but I would compare it to your definition of magic. The reality warping kind." She explained. "If that is true, then they would have the potential ability to circumvent aura-based defenses and strengths altogether... And added on to their immense power, they would be physical goddesses." Cinder explained.

Aldric whistled. So he was being asked to fight someone who didn't play by the same rules as him, and could likely also break said rules because 'fuck you that's why'.

Okay.

Sure.

"You think challenging something like that is wise?" He finally asked.

Cinder nodded, "I believe we can win. The benefits outweigh the risks." She responded.

"Didn't answer my question, but I'll let it slide." He grunted, looking out the windows and seeing the sky slowly begin to brighten. "So these chicks are actual magic, and that puts them leagues above everyone else." He turned back to her, "if I'm to believe you, you think Earth is a planet full of people like this... Or at least, people strong enough to weather that kind of assault. So... Call me paranoid, but why am I still alive? You could have much more easily stolen my power than warred against a goddess." He pointed out.

To which, Cinder shook her head. "We may not meet the definition of good people, Aldric, but we do have standards. I assure you, had you refused, you would have been provided for. We chose instead to give you your choice."

"Risking me saying no."

"Risking you saying no." She nodded, before finishing off her drink.

"Alright. Last question, then."

"Shoot."

"These Maidens. Use some kind of power separated from dust and unique from semblances. They are, to you, what people from Remnant are to people from Earth. Functionally gods. Considering that this is the first time I've heard of them, I doubt they're common knowledge. I would assume then... That there's a group running counter to ours. People who protect these Maidens." He gave Cinder a stern look. "So are we really warring against the kingdoms, here? Or this group for hoarding gods?" He challenged.

Cinder looked at him, long and hard. "I must say I'm impressed." She finally intoned. "I hadn't expected to broach this so soon... Though I assume I should have."

"Should I preface this by saying I'm not necessarily mad? Just want to know the whole truth... Not the lying by omission." He was taking a hell of a risk here, pushing like this, but if she told him these things, and he accepted them, he was all but certain it would buy him, perhaps not trust, but at least something approaching it.

"We have not been lying to you. Not wholly, if that is what you are worried about." She finally let out. "You are correct, in that it is these people against whom we fight. But it is not something so simple as petty ideological squabbles... No." She shook her head. "They hide the Maidens because of their history. Once, they were common knowledge... But then they were hunted for their power, and wars were fought over them." She explained.

"Is that not what we're doing? Are we not proving them right?" Aldric asked, "and... Please don't get me wrong. I'm just playing devil's advocate here. I want to understand."

"Certainly... But if you're capable of making these conclusions, then so too should you know that history is written by the victors."

Aldric nodded, "yeah." He thought back to his point about the Colonial Militia. Had Britain won that war, the terminology would have been a lot different, more reminiscent of rebels, vagabonds, and terrorists. "Give you that."

"Then you would also know that there are two sides to every story, with the truth laying in the middle." Cinder continued. "Yes, there were many a king who stole after the four Maidens for personal reasons, but so too were there those who genuinely intended to care for them. To convince them to use their powers for the betterment of mankind. Ozpin, however - the man who leads this counter faction - he would have you believe no one at all had honest intentions. That they all simply wanted power for power's sake.

"We seek the maidens in an attempt to unite their power." She explained, "we genuinely want to help our world." She broke eye contact, "but to do so it will take great sacrifice. On many parts."

Aldric found himself wondering what parts were genuine, and what parts were her damage control. Still, this was a chance to convince her he was on their side. "My people have a saying. They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions." He began, "now... Let me summarize this. These Maidens, these four women of intense magical power, they're being kept apart by this Ozpin fellow. His people do this... I would assume... Because they fear the paradigm shift of bringing them together could either be very good, or very bad." Cinder looked back up to him, a light in her eyes. "And they don't want to run that risk if it turns out very bad."

Cinder nodded, smiling.

"You all, however, run counter to that theory. That perhaps the reward outweighs the risk." In other words, if he were to believe Cinder, Ozpin and the League was analogous to Batman refusing to kill the Joker, whereas Cinder and the Legion were the Punisher, committing evil for good's sake.

If he hadn't the show to color his opinion, Aldric would honestly say he was certain they would have had him, by now. Hell, even with the show coloring his opinion, he was seeing the logic in her argument.

"Allow me to tell a story, yeah?" He said, as the ship brightened with the rising sun.

Cinder blinked, but nodded nonetheless.

"In my world, there's a story. It's called Batman - he's a hero, and he abides by one rule: Do not kill. Under no circumstances, he doesn't kill. His greatest enemy, however, taunts him with this - constantly escaping from prison, constantly killing scores of people, and constantly daring him to break that rule. Batman, however, refuses, on the grounds that justifying the death of one would then lead for it to be easier to justify the death of another... And another, and another. This ideology has led to the deaths of untold hundreds, perhaps thousands, including many of his closest friends and family." He nodded, "you follow?"

She nodded.

"Now, then there's the other side of the story. Another character, his name is the Punisher. A former soldier, he's a man who knows that sometimes, evil has to be committed for goodness' sake. So instead of refusing to kill, he specifically kills. Murderers, rapists, thieves - he slaughters his way through the criminal underworld, ending as many evil lives as he can. He does this, he takes this evil onto himself, such that no one else has to, and so he can remove a greater evil from the world.

"The debate..." Aldric cleared his throat. "Is which one is right. Is it better to not kill, to accept a moral high ground built on the countless lives lost to keep it? Or is it better to take an evil unto oneself, such that others can live in good?" He presented to her, "me... I was always the Punisher's side. I always felt that, yes, not killing is admirable... But knowing that sometimes, evil just has to be committed, is just as admirable. The wanton slaughter for the hell of it? That may be going too far... But seeing that there is clearly no other option but to kill, and not taking it? That's as good as killing the victims yourselves." He said, gesticulating with his hands. "It's unrealistic. Admirable, but unrealistic.

"This Ozpin fellow, he reminds me of Batman. He wants to avoid evil, even though it leads to far more deaths in the long run. Your group, however..." He indicated Cinder, "you remind me of the Punisher. You're willing to take this evil onto yourselves, to service a much greater good." A pause, "I can respect that." He finally let out.

The best, or perhaps, worst, part was that he wasn't lying. If Salem's goals started and ended as Cinder explained them, he'd be hard pressed not to pull his Ozzymandias scheme. However, he knew what it was they were after, it wasn't just a paradigm shift, it was a theft and consolidation of power. Cinder wanted this power, Salem wanted it - but they didn't want anyone else to have it. They wanted to rule the world, and kill it all the same, and likely even wanted at his once they were done. He couldn't support this, and as such, he had to play Green Hornet.

Cinder let out a long, low breath. "Thank you, Aldric. You've little idea how much that means."

Oh... I've got an idea. Aldric nodded, "I just wish I hadn't had to play Sherlock Holmes to get it out of you, hot stuff." He said, dropping his serious tone and once again taking on his joviality. "And, by the way..." He said, as he stood to his feet. "That..." He pointed at her, "is that I'm like when you get to know me. Equal parts snide asshole and philosophising ideologue. Think too much and talk even more. It'll be fun cracking into your shell." He said, leaving her with a kind two-fingered salute, as he retreated back to his room.

For the Record

And that is how you bluff your ass off.

I feel it important to continue to remind myself (and whoever ends up reading this) that I'm not writing these folks off as completely lost causes, that they're people and probably think what they're doing is right, the problem is I know better. I would honestly say if I didn't have RWBY as a base, I'd be approaching %100 loyal to the Legion of Doom by now.

But I'm a little ahead of myself.

Cinder - continuing her steadily growing trend of attempting to win my loyalty through the mere exposure effect - found me this morning trying to work out my TK shields.

Admittedly, there may have been some genuine concern in there - I was stabbing the shit out of my hand with a fork - but I digress. She and I played a little Holmes and Moriarty game, swapping loaded questions back and forth for about an hour or so.

Building off of the Holmesian reputation I've been making for myself, I made the incredibly intelligent - dare I say genius - decision to call her on her BS, and basically ask her who it was we were really fighting against. Fortunately I didn't have to validate many of my claims, and after I asked her, she basically decided my Holmesian leap of logic was sufficient.

Damn, did I get some decent information.

The long and short of it is, assuming she's to be believed and that she's not hiding anything else, the Legion wants to fight the League over the Maidens. The way I understand them now, the Maidens are to Huntsmen what Doctor Strange is to the Avengers - something operating on a whole different level, within a completely different rule set. The Avengers fight fucking aliens, Doctor Strange fights eldritch abomination multidimensional universe eating gods.

Just a minor difference.

Really small.

Like, minuscule.

But it's there, if you know where to look.

Anyways, the Legion wants to gather them together, steal their power, and use them ostensibly to fix the planet.

The League, however, runs counter to them - fearing that bringing the Maidens together could lead to something either very good, or very bad, and deciding that sticking to the status quo is preferable to inciting a paradigm shift and it resulting in the very bad option. It's like having a %50 chance that pressing a button could either cure all diseases forever, or could infect everyone with super cancer.

Actually, I guess this is a good Schrodinger's Cat scenario. The world is the box, the Maidens are the poison, and the entire Remnant population is the cat.

The League doesn't want to close the box, they don't want to take that risk on the grounds that when they open it up the humans and faunus may be dead, but the Legion does, on the grounds that when they open it up, it may be the Grimm that's dead. They're willing to be evil for goodness' sake, in other words.

It's not a strong metaphor, but it works.

Again I stress: If I didn't have the show to color my opinions, I think I may have sided with them, by now. But the problem is that I don't know if this is the full truth, or just what Cinder's telling me as damage control. And then perhaps the biggest problem - I got dragged away from Earth looooooong before this show wrapped up, so I can't even try to use it to influence my decision.

Knowing Oum's brass balls, he may very well have been setting up Salem and the Legion to be pulling an Ozzymandias - similar to how Itachi turned out to be a martyr as Naruto drew to a close. For all I know, Salem's faction may very well be the right one to root for, in the grand scheme of things.

But I don't know, and as such, I have to operate with what I do know, and that's that the Justice League is ostensibly the best option here. What happens when the Maidens get brought together - I have no clue. Maybe it's an Infinity Gauntlet situation and whoever unites those four becomes omnipotent. Maybe it's a test from Remnant's God - with a big 'G' - and everything will turn out fine once/if we pass. I don't know, and damn if this isn't eating at my brain. I have to side with Ozpin, have to play Green Hornet.

Fortunately, that game gets easier now that Cinder thinks I'm fully on her side.
Well, should think, at least.

Anyways, though I say all this 'they're human' somesuch, when I can literally use the show to validate earlier theories. For instance, being able to compare this 'Lady In Red', nice, talking to me, Cinder, to the 'Follow Orders and Don't Think' one we have in the show, I think it confirms my whole idea about her wanting to stay on my good side and build up some kind of loyalty. She may bitch slap Emerald for talking back to her, but I'm willing to bet that's because Emerald falls more on the 'utility' half of the 'utility versus versatility' argument. She can confuse folks with her illusions, and steal from them, but that seems to be about it.

Me, on the other hand, they think I'm a powerhouse (and considering I tore down a goddamn building, they may not be wrong.) with a brain. I talk back, she gets pissed, but doesn't want to turn around and piss me off for risk that I'll leave as - as I said earlier - aside from them, I've nothing tying me to any one specific faction.

Or - also likely - I'm being incredibly arrogant and am overstating my importance to her, and my constant attempts at getting under her skin will backfire one day and she'll disintegrate me.

That's probably something I should worry about more. Pretty much everything I do is operating under the arrogant assumption that Cinder won't kill me. If I'm wrong, or Cinder just decides one day I'm too much trouble, she's more than capable of working all of this without me - there's an entire show dedicated to proving that right.

But, there's not much I can do about that, though. I've made a role, I've got to play it. Hopefully this little conversation I've had will convince her there's more to me than meets the eye, that I should be kept around, even if it means dealing with my bullshit.

For now I've got to focus on my training. I've got to perfect my shields and figure out how to use my semblance to ape the Flash.

'Till next time.