RWBY - The Pen and the Sword

by TwoChimpsWithoutOne

-For the Record- Surviving a plane crash? Not enough. Being hunted by super predators? Not even close. Hopping worlds? Why not? I'll see that, and raise getting recruited by a woman who fashions herself a goddess. OC/I

18. The Long Halloween

AN

I'll be quite honest: Originally this one monstrous chapter was two others, but then I thought of the perfect chapter title to describe the events that go down, so I took the beginning segment of the next chapter and smashed it onto the end of this one to see how it went.

The result was one hell of a long chapter (just a few hundred words shy of the longest I've ever done), but I like how it turned out regardless. Much like the Maiden fight before it, the entire story has been building up to what'll be happening here, and I like how I pulled it off.

So, have fun, this is technically one and a half chapters.

---

Chapter 17

---

For the Record

Just got back from the prosthetist. It was a delightfully normal encounter - I got to shoot the shit with an engineer, and the resultant three hours taught me more about Remnant's technological standing than weeks on their internet.
I also freaked him the fuck out when I started using my radar pulse to see things, even though - by rights - I am visibly blind.

I think I'll use the power glove and start walking around with a cane, blind man style. Start making the illusion that I am blind, put people less on guard when they're around me.

Anyways, I spent that three hours working out what all I wanted out of my new robo-arm, and I swear to god, if I hadn't already picked Nathan Drake as my code name for this meeting with Qrow, I would have chosen 'Venom Snake' instead. This arm is basically going to be his - visually, at least - and it's gorgeous.

The guy's just as excited about the arm as I am, he hasn't met anyone who could keep up with him like I did. Most folks just say 'gimme something shiny!', and he has to figure it out from there, but I had an idea of what I wanted and we hashed out the rest.

To skip over a very long, jargony conversation, it looks like Venom Snake's arm, but it may very well function as the Winter Soldier's, with some Adam Jensen hidden weaponized goodies to boot. I got it made out of carbon nanotubes (Remnant has those! But god help you if you want to know why they don't use them.), so not only will it be far less magnetic than anything else would have been, but it will be functionally indestructible to boot. I also managed to learn that my worries about enhanced strength were unfounded - I can get wickedly enhanced strength out of this thing, and at no detriment to my body. It has something to do with dust and aura (as does everything on this planet), and that was all the explanation I got out of him.

I can shoot the shit 'till the cows come home about Remnant's science, but the moment dust enters the picture, people turn into Todd Howard. 'It just works'.

So, greatly decreased magnetism, and enhanced strength. So what about weapons?
Well... That's where I struck out.

While it's not impossible to hook up ranged weapons to robo-arms, the long and short of it is that it's damn difficult, and then I'd have an eighty thousand pound weight swinging from my shoulder.

But, my consolation prize was... Well... Groovy.

I forget if I mentioned it here in the journal, but a long while ago, around the same time I started experimenting with the power glove's versatility, I wondered if it wouldn't be possible to make some kind of chainsaw-like implement for it. I ended up shelving the idea both because I felt I didn't have the time to figure out mono-molecular/atomic cutting edges, and also because I couldn't even begin to figure out how to make anything but a disc-shaped blade.

Well, guess what the prosthetist said he could totally wire into my arm?
We determined we could skip the teeth of the saw with small portions of the Power Glove, and that plus using the same materials the arm itself will be made out of, means that we can exponentially cut down on the weight. It'll be stored in the forearm, and while it won't replace my power glove at all, it'll definitely be a good backup in case I lose it and can't get at my backup canister.

Ashy Slashy.

I'm not totally giving up on some kind of ranged implement, though - during our little conversation I learned that Remnant has energy weapons, too, and that gave me an idea on how to expand my arsenal, but it'll be some time before I have the time or resources to even start on it.

Saying that, I feel like Neo near the end of the first Matrix - when he walked in strapped with, like, two dozen weapons hanging from his chest, arms, and even stuffed in his coat.

I mean, for chrissakes - the Power Glove has nigh limitless applications for simple weapons, ala the T-1000 from Terminator 2.
I've got the pistol/knife I hardly use.
I've got my semblance that basically turns me into some kind of Goku-lite, what with the melee combat, among god knows what else I can do with it.
And now I've got a Winter Soldier arm, with super strength and a motherfucking hardlight chainsaw that doubles as a paddle, if I'm not wanting to maim people.

I don't even have anything witty, to say about that.
Just... Damn.

Hardly six months ago I'd never held anything heavier than a BB gun, and now I've got (and am getting) weapons enough to outfit a small army.

That's all, for now. It's time for food, and after that, I'm going to try and slip out of the Garden tonight and meet up with Qrow.

Here's hoping.

'Till next time.

---

Aldric's dreams were haunted by the sights and sounds of him gouging the former Fall Maiden's eyes out, and her screaming in that unholy pain. He woke up the next morning in a cold sweat, and didn't speak much on the return journey to the Aviator. It took them another day to get back to Vale, and the night following the fight hadn't been any different, still restless and still filled with the visions of blood on the Power Glove, and sunken, deflated eyes. He woke up feeling more exhausted than when he'd gone to sleep.

Now he found himself in the dining room, idly picking at a sandwich he'd picked up for lunch, thinking.

So... It's been a couple days. I'm not at one hundred percent, but my window for meeting Qrow is shrinking. I'm going to have to go out tonight. Thought Aldric, as he dug at the food, focusing his senses on a television showing the news. I can probably simulate an arm if I just duct tape the gauntlet to my coat's sleeve, and then use my semblance to do the rest of the work. Long as I don't over extend it, I should be fine.

Aldric sensed someone approaching his door, and knew already who it could be, even without the omnipresence afforded by the radar pulse. Mercury was up in the restaurant enjoying more extravagant food, and Emerald - well, Emerald wasn't around anymore. The only remaining candidate had the door opened for her before she even knocked; and when she entered, she slid into a chair across from Aldric's bed, and gave him a blank look.

Aldric reciprocated, a sandwich inches from his face. "What did I do?" He asked, in a comical tone.

Cinder shook her head, "nothing wrong, this time." She said, and Aldric took that as clearance to take another chomp out of the sandwich. "I was merely hoping you could explain something to me."

"Shoot." He said, through his full mouth.

"When you fought Amber... Are you aware that you came out of that battle with fewer injuries than any of your previous ones?" Cinder asked.

Aldric was silent, his expression blank and unchanging, as he slowly turned his 'gaze' down to his bandaged stump. Moving his head about was mostly for others' benefits than it was for his. He turned back to face Cinder. "I see what you mean." He deadpanned, in the most droll tone he could muster.

Cinder showed restraint enough to only shake her head, "before that, I mean."

"So... You're saying I didn't take any hits... Until I did." Aldric parroted back to her. "That... Describes every encounter I've had in this world, hot stuff." He drawled, "now, it may be the pain meds making me loopy, but I swear you're not making any sense right now." He said, "unless getting my arm torn off and my eyes gouged out don't count as injuries to you... In which case, holy shit, you're -"

"Aldric." Cinder grunted, shutting him up. "Perhaps I started this incorrectly. My point there was that before, and even after, those two injuries, you accrued little, if any, else." Aldric still felt that that point made less sense than she thought it did, but kept silent as she continued. "But let me try again. Yesterday you mentioned something to me that prompted a great deal of thought." She said, "would you explain to me how you tore Amber's lightning out of the sky?"

Aldric frowned, lowering his gaze. He didn't want to let her in on the whole 'manipulating mass' trick if he didn't have to, so he looked back up after a moment and shrugged. "I dunno." He grunted, with a shrug. "I just... You know my radar pulse? I could feel the lightning in the clouds, so I thought... 'Can I grab that?'... And did." It wasn't a total lie. "Was I not supposed to?" If they weren't bound by bandages, he would have furrowed his brows.

Cinder shook her head, "Aldric, a Maiden's powers - my powers, now - rely on something wholly separated from dust. They are functionally magic, they do not obey laws as we understand them... And yet you forced them to do so, such that you could wrest control away from her and then use it against her. That should have been impossible." Cinder pointed out, flexing her hand and her fingers, her golden aura arcing between the digits and glowing bright.

Aldric, however, shook his head. "I disagree, there." He could tell her this much, at least. Right? "Remember how she pulled an apple outta nowhere? What you say, you imply that the apple should have been something separated from our universe. When she gave it away, whoever she wanted to give it to wouldn't have been able to touch or eat it." He nodded to Cinder, and finished his sandwich. "If you believe what you say." He stressed. "But, what is magic but science we don't understand? I think Maiden powers don't disobey the laws of physics, they work strictly within them... But operate on another, completely different, set of laws, that seem like they're disobeying ours.

"So." He changed his position on his bed, letting his legs hang off the edge, and sliding the plate to his good side with his semblance; it briefly ocurred to him that his mother would probably murder him if she saw him eating on an expensive mattress, but he pushed those thoughts out of his mind, as he often did when they orbited around those subjects. "This lets her do strange stuff, like conjuring lightning storms, pulling apples out of nowhere, or making force fields. But all of those things still exist in this universe... So I think, she may have pulled them from somewhere else, but by bringing them here, she had to make them obey our laws... The only caveat being that they bended to her will. So..." He nodded to the side. "She conjurs lightning, I could sense it, I used my semblance to rip it out of the sky and blast her with it." A beat, as Aldric's face fell. "I don't think that made any sense. Did that make any sense at all? Let's try it this way -

"She can make something out of nothing, yes. That something bends to her will as a maiden. But it still exists as a physical object in this universe, which means someone else with the requisite skill or power, can manipulate it." He paused, before nodding his head. "She pulls an apple out of another universe, gives it to another person, that person can eat it. I could have beaten her with that apple if I'd wanted, but I felt lightning was a better option. That better? Sounded like it."

Cinder nodded, "If I may point something out?"

I'm not lying... Aldric nodded, "go ahead."

"I noticed something, when you grabbed ahold of her lightning. You changed, just a bit." This got Aldric to tilt his bandaged head, and Cinder grew a thin smile. "I think there may be more to you than we initially realized... That perhaps your body -"

"Stop right there!" Aldric leaned back, pointing right at Cinder with his good hand, a crazed expression on the less bandaged portion of his face. "Don't you fucking do it, hot stuff!" He begged. "Please don't tell me I've done some kind of... Unconscious magic Bee-Ess that locked away most of my power! I don't think I'll survive whatever you come up with -" He started laughing, and even Cinder covered her face with her hand, to hide her smirk. "- to figure out how to access it!" He leaned back forward and indicated his stump, "for chrissakes, I'm hardly at full strength as it is! More of Cinder-brand trading would probably finish the job!"

Cinder lowered her hand, wiping away the first genuine smile he'd seen grace her face in a while, though Aldric could still see its remnants in the way the muscles on her face twitched; an advantage of his radar pulse? He could arguably see far better than he ever could have before, case in point: The micro-expressions and subtle movements in a person's face. He wasn't nearly good enough to be able to read them all and apply meaning to them, but that he could see them meant all he had to do was learn what they meant.

"Unfortunately, you seem to have hit the nail on the head." She intoned, airily. "Just as the human body unconsciously limits how much muscle power it can call upon at any given time... So too, do I think you may have placed a lock on your own abilities, and you entered the aura-equivalent of fight or flight, for just a few seconds, during your battle against Amber. This allowed you to access this power, and exert your will over hers."

Well that flew in the face of everything he'd come up with, so far. "So... Wait, are you saying that I'm magic, myself? Or that I'm not metaphorically left handed, and what we've seen so far is just the tip of the iceberg?" Thinking about it, that made a little sense.

Maybe this could explain how he'd torn the building down on Neo? He'd entered a brief fight or flight, tapped everything inside of him, and torn the building down. It made him wonder if there hadn't been a point in his fight against Yang where he'd done something similar, but then he realized that, in the entire fight against Yang, while he'd been hurt like hell, he hadn't felt as if his life were truly in danger. He hadn't considered Yang would kill him, and as such, he never entered that fight or flight. Then move on to Amber, whose fight he'd been dreading since day damn one, and it only helped this theory. He was scared for his life and had been throwing everything he had into the fight since it started, it would only make sense that he would enter fight or flight again, and that gave him the power - or was it control? Or both? - to sense the electrons above him, take ahold of them, steal them from Amber, and bring them down right on top of her.

Funnily enough, as excited as the potential applications of a veritable Super Saiyan transformation made him, it also plugged into his earlier thoughts about exponential growth, and again made him wonder if all of this wasn't inherently unhealthy to him. He still didn't know if everything he was pulling on wasn't actively killing him, as if he were using his very soul as gasoline to fuel the car that was his semblance. This 'Fight or Flight' Cinder was theorizing, it only lent credence to this idea, while admittedly, potentially, precluding him from his earlier ideas that he may drop dead in the middle of a fight. If he was locking away the majority of his strength, then using just what was available to him meant that there was still a huge surplus waiting on him, and he wouldn't be in danger of running out.

It may also give more weight as to why he was able to use his semblance as much as he did, in the way that he did, without ever running out of strength. There was just so much aura to draw off of, he never ran out. This worked the other way, too - if he didn't use his semblance, his aura shields picked up strength, and would protect him from goddamn everything because he had what equated to a functionally endless supply locked away inside him.

What did that make him, Gohan?

Cinder seemed to have reached similar conclusions, saying, "perhaps it is both. Perhaps that which our leader sensed wasn't overwhelming power, but a world of people who, at their basest, were similar to our Maidens at their strongest. Perhaps in unconsciously sealing away your abilities, we interpreted what remained as your semblance, and nothing more."

This chick thinks I'm Doctor Strange! Aldric frowned, "you've mentioned that, a couple times. Your 'leader'. Who is he? Or... She?" He asked.

But Cinder shook her head, "we are off topic, and that is something I cannot reveal to you quite yet." She said, waving the question away. "Return to your abilities. What is your theory? What do you think?" She asked, as the ship shuddered, finally coming to a full halt against the landing docks.

Aldric shrugged, "well... I'm tempted to say 'I don't think I'm magic'... But if all of that's locked away? I can't get at it? Then how would I know?" He questioned. "Maybe the answer is somewhere in the middle. " He made to raise both hands, but frowned and instead held up the thumb and forefinger of his right hand, as lances of phantom pains shot through his nonexistent left arm. He pushed his momentary lapse in memory away, and continued speaking, staring into the space between his fingers.

"I wouldn't go so far as to say Earth is a planet full of people with magic like Maidens..." Though that would actually fit far more than he was comfortable with, considering how separate his semblance and aura seemed to be. Was the reason he had to sacrifice defense for offense, and vice versa, simply because he hadn't mastered his powers? "But maybe we're somewhere between human and Maiden. Demigods." He shrugged, and let his hands drop.

There was another option he didn't voice, so as to make Cinder think her 'fight or flight' theory held more weight than the other one, and it harkened back to what he'd argued earlier. Amber had managed to make something from nothing - create an apple out of thin air, summon a lightning storm out of a clear sky, freeze leaves, start fires, the whole nine yards. But what if that wasn't her pulling energies and objects from nowhere, but was instead her telekinetically rearranging the atomic structure of literally everything around her? Theoretically, if she could do that, it would make her more than capable of creating an apple out of nothing, or bonding hydrogen molecules to oxygen molecules to create stormclouds, and then use the leftover electrons and ambient charges made by the friction of the clouds to create lightning. The fire and ice were also simple to explain: She'd just sped up, and slowed down, the atoms respectively.

This didn't even eliminate the 'magic' option, either, as it could very well be that the 'magic' of the Maidens wasn't that they did, what they did, but how. Instead of doing what Aldric had started down the road to doing, and individually feeling out and rearranging each and every single subatomic particle until they got their apple, they could just think 'apple', and their powers would do the rest. While the good news was that Aldric wouldn't have to worry about multiversal Doctor Strange-style magic, this also meant that the Maidens were Green Lanterns without the rings. Whatever they thought, whatever they wanted, they got, they needed only visualize it - and that thought alone slowed Aldric's heartbeat down, as he realized how much it applied to him, when he'd been trying to figure out how to use his semblance. Thinking about it too much had gotten him nowhere, but every time he was able to visualize what it was he wanted, his semblance figured out the rest.

Could he really be a - what was the male version of Maiden? There was Patron to Matron, Patriarch and Matriarch, Bachelor and Bachelorette... Would it be Master? Master and Maiden? That wasn't arrogant at all, but he couldn't think of anything else. No, actually, wait, he could think of something better, the question was whether or not he wanted to walk around calling himself a 'Saiyan', even though that applied more handily than he'd originally thought. Regardless, he'd make a choice on this later. But could he really be a Master? Could every terran on Earth be a god to people on Remnant?

Thinking about it, there was some weight to this theory.

Like he'd thought earlier, Aldric's powers had shown themselves to be growing exponentially, just as Cinder was with her new abilities. What's more, his abilities seemed to be completely distinct from his aura. No matter how hard of a hit he took, and no matter how long he fought, he could always pull more aura out of his ass to fuel his semblance, almost as if his semblance and aura were two different things entirely. That using his full power knocked out his shields was the biggest monkey wrench in this theory, but, thinking on it further, he realized that whenever Amber had defended against his and the Legion's attacks, she'd been putting conscious thought and effort into creating her barrier, much like how he had to to create his barriers. But unlike him, she didn't put everything into her offense, instead opting to leave some energy for her aura shields, exactly as he'd learned he could do, but had decided not to so he could milk all of the power he could out of his semblance. So there seemed to be some sort of tangential similarity between Aldric's powers and those of a Maiden, and if he spent more time around Cinder as she experimented with her new powers, he may be able to draw more conclusions. Best case scenario, if he could get Qrow on his side, he may eventually, down the line, be able to pick Ozpin's brain about this and see what he thought.

However, if he and Cinder were right, and if that were the case, then that meant that Cinder was closer to the mark than she realized, and it also spawned a sobering thought. What if Salem knew in the first place? Ignoring whether or not she'd learned about RWBY as a show, through her observations of Earth, what if she'd come to the conclusion that terrans had within them the power of Maidens, only naturally? That was why she wanted Aldric, or as many terrans as she could get her hands on: They were an entire species of Masters and Maidens, but without Ozpin and the Justice League's monitoring and protection. That was equivalent to someone from Earth hoarding a nuke in their backyard, not good.

He gave Cinder a look, noting that she'd been quiet the entire time he'd been thinking. "You really think I could be a..." He paused, for effect. "Uh... what would the male version of a Maiden be?" He asked, frowning.

"Master?" She briefly shrugged.

"Well, you said it, not me." Aldric chuckled "You really think all of my people may very well be gods to yours?" Yeah, he had to get in contact with the League. If the Legion of Doom managed to figure out how to pull more terrans over to this side, the Justice League was screwed. Hell, it was more than possible that Salem may try to use Aldric as a battery, or a conduit of sorts, to do just that.

Cinder, at this, shrugged again. "Clearly, neither I nor many of my people think as yours do. I only think on what I see, and I saw a man standing up to a goddess. Had I not stopped you, you very well could have killed her."

Does that make me David, as in, David and Goliath? Or Kratos? Aldric let out a long sigh. "It seems that the more I learn, the less I know. Your world is fucking crazy." He rumbled, briefly leaning back, and letting his head loll about. "I wasn't kidding, though. I love you three... Or... Well... Two to death, but I do not want to to be put through the ringer again." He laughed, breathily, running a bare hand through his thick hair.

Fortunately, Cinder agreed with him. "I am thinking of ways we may be able to help you unlock your power. Even if you are not this 'Master' you and I have coined... There is still a great deal of power you've yet to tap into, and there must be ways for you to access it."

So... In short... I really am Saitama, I just haven't started the workout, yet. Aldric shuddered, "that doesn't put me at ease." He whined, "so when do we meet with Torchwick? He's supposed to be coming here, right?" He wondered if them talking and dealing with Torchwick would be breaking the Garden's rules.

"Tomorrow night." Said Cinder, as she checked her own scroll. "If my understanding is correct, Adam Taurus' next train robbery was the day after our battle. We meet with Torchwick tomorrow and obtain the dust and funds... You get your new arm. Then we pack up and go back to Taurus before he abandons his camp."

Aldric hummed, shaking his head and leaning back forward. "Alright... I'll think on what we talked about, here." He'd have to start wearing brown pants more often. "Probably going to head out for a run tonight. Got me feeling kinda..." He jerked his head to the side. "Amped up. Might not be back 'till after dark."

"Stay safe, Aldric." She intoned, getting to her feet and passing him by for her own room.

---

For the Record

I... I can't even. My life is starting to become more complicated than a comic book superhero's.

Apparently I'm little 'g' god.

Cinder seems to think that my little stunt with the lightning bolts the other day is indicative of me being the male equivalent to a Maiden, and that everyone from Earth has this kind of power.

There's a 'ten percent of your brain' Lucy-or-something joke in there, somewhere, but this has got me so fucking stressed out I can't even work up the energy to type it out. I'll go into it later.

Regardless, I wrote this little bit here before I grabbed my shit. I'm going to go out for a run, I'm going to leave my scroll here in case Cinder decides to uses it to listen in on me. Gonna stay out 'till dark, pray I meet up with Qrow. I'll think/write more on this when I get back.

'Till next time.

---

Taking this chance to literally run from his problems had given Aldric more than enough time and space to clear his head, and drown whatever thoughts remained with Johnny Cash. His head felt like it did whenever he studied hours on end for a physics test - overheated and unable to think any more. What with him adapting to his injuries, making game plans for when he met up with Qrow, and now the bomb Cinder had dropped on him mere hours ago, it had him stressed out like nobody's business. The biggest thing he was scared about was trying to decide whether or not Salem knew. If she did, then her endgame would no doubt include drafting more terrans. If she didn't she would soon enough, and the point was moot; and since Aldric had no idea how to go home, that meant he couldn't try and start some kind of human-nuclear arms race and recruit more terrans to his cause.

Though, this did make him wonder a moment if this all wasn't to suggest that terrans and humans didn't have some kind of common ancestor. Maybe the wizard who granted the original four Maidens their powers had been a terran who'd gotten stuck here? That'd certainly answer a lot of Aldric's questions, at least. That one little tidbit would explain functionally everything about why Aldric's powers seemed so similar to a Maiden's. It also made him wonder if that meant, when he died, if he wouldn't start his own equivalent to the Maiden's succession cycle? That his powers would shunt into some random dude, and so would be birthed the Masters, the equal and opposite to the Maidens? Maybe his earlier Avatar jokes hadn't been too far from the mark.

Aldric shook his head, as he sat on the edge of an overpass, cars whipping past his back, his legs dangling over the edge and kicking back and forth. He felt like Deadpool, sitting like this, though he wasn't planning the violent death of an entire armed convoy, he was just waiting for the sun to set. With his eyes out of commission, he actually couldn't watch it anymore - his radar pulse couldn't stretch ninety two million miles. But, he was at least able to see the light the sun cast on the world around him and track it as it lowered its intensity, signalling the passage of time and the setting of the sun. He also had a watch and could see its display, and it had a big picture of a sun on the horizon, and it was setting in real time; but that explanation wasn't nearly as fun.

Night would be coming soon, and after that, his first chance to meet with Qrow, and get his in with the League. Considering the time that had passed between the fight and now, that he doubted Qrow would have stopped for anything beyond basic first aid, and that Qrow on his own, even with Amber in his arms, could probably cover more ground than the Legion, he was pretty sure he'd gotten to Vale before now. He may be in Ozpin's office right now arguing the merits of heeding Aldric's message versus attacking him and getting a prisoner, not an ally.

Fortunately, if that's the case... Thought Aldric, as the sky turned a bright red shade, with the sun dipping down over the distant horizon. Qrow's ass can't fly. And even if they brought all of the League with them, none of them can, either. I can get the eff out of dodge, lose their trail... Maybe hide out in the Garden? Shit, that wouldn't be a bad idea. I'd probably never be allowed back in, but at least they'd save my ass. He huffed, running his good hand through his hair. That happens, though, I don't know what I'll do after. He sensed a car slowing down and pulling over to the side of the overpass.

Frowning, Aldric turned his head, 'looking' at the car over the side of his shoulder; he sensed a driver stepping out, a concerned look on his face, as he slowly approached the crash survivor. "Uh... Hey there!" The man called out, over the sounds of the other cars driving by.

It dawned on Aldric that, what with him sitting on the edge of a busy highway, with a several dozen foot drop below him, and with him staring wistfully off into the distance, he looked like he was contemplating suicide. "Hey." If that was why the man had pulled over, Aldric wouldn't be afraid to admit the gesture would warm his heart. "You break down?" Aldric didn't know the first thing about Remnant cars, but if the man said yes he'd be more than willing to kill some time trying to help him out.

"Uh... No, I just..." The man had a loud, booming voice, his sleeves were rolled up revealing hairy, lumberjack-like arms. "Saw you sitting there."

Aw... That's actually kind of nice. Just as he'd said, he felt a small tingle in his chest as his lips drew upwards. "I'm just sittin', dude. No worries." He used his semblance to lift his left gauntlet, it secured to the sleeve of his arm with a healthy amount of tape, and making a thumbs up.

The man approached cautiously, "what's on your mind?" He asked, lowering his voice as he grew closer.

"Ah, just dealing with some shit." Aldric said, noncommittally, as he turned his head back forward. "I'm not - I'm not going to jump." He added, with a brief sidewards nod. "I was out jogging, needed to sit down, got to thinking." A fall like this wouldn't kill him, either. He'd been thrown further by Cubone, and had survived, and that had been without aura. "I'm fine." He grunted. "Can't see worth a fuck, but I'm fine." He eagerly anticipated the day he could remove the bandages covering his eyes, he could hardly even wait to see the expressions on the face of the first person he'd poke his empty eye sockets in front of.

"I wouldn't call a kid jogging along a freeway 'fine', little man." Said the baritone man, as he sat down next to Aldric. "That looks serious." He nodded to Aldric's head, "uh, the... Bandages. I just nodded." He said, a sheepish, regretful frown on his face.

At this, Aldric snorted. "You got aura, friend? That shit lets me outrun cars, you have no idea how fun that is." It made him feel like Captain America; Neo did admittedly have a point when she'd said one had to enjoy the little things. "And the eyes aren't an issue. Aura again, though I still wouldn't recommend it. Hurt like hell." And he was probably in a small minority when it came to circumventing these injuries; smaller still if Cinder and his theories about Masters were any indication.

He sensed the man give him a once-over at this comment. "You're a huntsman? Or a student?"

Aldric was tempted to drop the 'student in the class of life' line, but instead shook his head. "Halfway between, I'd guess." Aldric wondered if this wouldn't be another Rosa situation. At least here he had an easy out - he could just slide off the edge, scare the shit out of the guy, and then salute as he flew away. "Complicated." He added, with a nod.

"Ah, I understand that." The man itched at his bushy brown beard. "Get the feeling 'complicated' rhymes with 'can't talk about it', am I close?"

"Closer than you'd think." Aldric grunted, wondering if he'd finally met a man as genre savvy as him.

"Well... If you're not thinking of killing yourself, and you're not going to talk about it, at least let me drop a nugget of wisdom, then I'll get out of your hair." The man rumbled. "Yeah?"

"I'm killing time, man. You are only helping me." Aldric returned, giving the man a brief glance. He had a healthy tan and long, thick, wavy brown hair, but his eyes were wrinkled upward in a smile, and they shone with the light of the setting sun, looking far more jovial than the rest of him.

Huh... I get a mirror, I'll be able to see the sun and the stars again. Interesting... Aldric thought, as the man cleared his throat.

"See, I've got grandkids." He raised his hands, "I know, I know. I hardly look old enough. But my daughter, the guy she'd had 'em with was a huntsman, and she was all worried about aura sapping and whether or not she'd be able to carry them to term. She told me, 'the world seems so big, dad. There's too much to deal with.'. So you know what I told her?"

It occurred to Aldric that the man might have stopped by literally because he saw an opportunity to tell a story. It was cynical of Aldric to think, but it still popped into his mind. "What'd you say?" He asked, deciding to call the man Iroh until he learned better.

Iroh's smile only grew, as he splayed out his hands, "you just gotta make it smaller." He brought them closer together. "The problems seem so big because you're looking at the big picture. But if you take it apart, boil it down, you'll see that it's really just a lot of small problems adding up to something big. So you just gotta make it smaller, solve one problem, move onto the next, and before you know it you're done." He dropped his hands to his meaty thighs. "Told her that, and, it took her a while, yeah." He nodded in a conciliatory fashion. "But she took the advice eventually. Looked up some stuff online about how civilians can carry huntsman babies even if they don't have aura, went to a couple clinics and classes, and now I've got two beautiful twin grandkids, and my daughter's still alive to tear her hair out over them."

You know what? There is a God, and he has a sense of humor. How else would someone just show up, at random, with something he needed to hear, on some level? He's throwing me a bone from another universe. "Make it smaller, huh?"

"Make it smaller. Don't stress about the big stuff, enjoy the little things, all that stuff." Iroh clapped his hand on Aldric's back, "take it from an old man." He said, sagely.

Well you're going to regret saying that. Aldric smirked, "okay." And he pushed off the edge.

Iroh didn't even move, he was in such deep shock that Aldric had done it. What got Aldric smiling was how he slowly, robotically, followed Aldric as he floated outwards, as if he were treading water. His coat hung down like a cape, and his legs were still crossed as if he were still sitting. Once he snapped out of it, Iroh actually laughed before Aldric did, and Aldric soon joined him, floating back over to the ledge and taking his seat back.

"Ha!" The man barked, "haha! Ho, ho man, that was good, kid." He wiped tears from his eyes. "Enjoy the little things... You showed me." He let out a long sigh, "whew! Haha!"

Aldric shrugged, "you walked right into it, sir." He grinned, as the sun finished setting and the red sky bled to black.

"I'm going to have to remember that." Said Iroh, as he got to his feet and held out his hand. Aldric accepted it and got to his feet, before he shook the bearded man's hand. "You take care kid..." The man shook his head and made back for his car.

Once he'd driven away, Aldric stowed his hands, both the real one and the facsimile made by his semblance, in his pockets and again stepped over the edge. He took in the feeling of the wind in his hair before he slowed himself down and landed gingerly on a rooftop. He was cast in harsh, bright green light by a great neon sign looming above him, the sign spelling out Mogar's Grillin Bar in huge, bold lettering. Aldric reached into the pocket of his coat for his ballistic face mask, sensing someone closing in on the rooftop. As the individual grew closer, Aldric gave a slight jerk of his head, impressed at how quickly the guy had come, and slipped on the mask. Next, he strapped on a pair of thick goggles, and to finish the image, he pulled out a plain shemagh and wrapped it around his head, masking his hair and also the exposed portions of his bandages. Hardly a second later, the figure he'd sensed charging the building leapt up onto the roof, but he overshot it, leaping high into the air, his sword raised -

"Oh shit." Aldric said, adopting a rumbly, raspy tone, before he whipped around. He swung his arm up and, in the interests of not giving this man as many ways of identifying him later as possible, a shield did sprout from his Power Glove, but it was less of a red white and blue disk than it was a heater shield, and because this was a new shape, it took on the standard, muted, glowing blue wireframe that all new, unedited shapes took on.

Qrow came swinging down, his blade slammed onto Aldric's shield with a loud clang of metal striking glass, and he saw the Huntsman lean into the attack as his feet hit the ground, trying to put his weight into it but not totally grasping how Aldric's shields deflected pretty much everything that could be thrown at them. Aldric saw the man was scowling something fierce, and on second look, he actually looked sober.

Oh... I'm in trouble. But Aldric decided he'd wait this one out, see if Qrow was actively trying to kill him, or just saying 'hi'. Where the hell did he get a new weapon so fast?!

So he threw his palm forward, Qrow saw it happen and lunged backwards, but was still sent skidding back, hit in the gut by Aldric's semblance. Qrow's sword scraped off of Aldric's heater shield with a shower of sparks, and when Qrow got his footing again, he lunged back forward. Aldric was able to dodge his next two swings with his semblance and he responded by burying his fist into Qrow's stomach in an underhand punch. With his semblance augmenting the force of the strike, Qrow skidded back again, but before he could charge again, Aldric held his hand up.

"Wait." He grunted, doing his best Christian Bale's Batman impression. He would have liked to try something that wouldn't tear apart his throat, but he didn't trust himself enough to try and use his semblance to change the pitch of his voice. "If we're really doing this, I'd like to know ahead of time. Else we can skip it and get to why we're here." He lowered his hand, and stowed it in his jacket, and lowered his gaze a fraction. "You know I'm good already, and I know who you are, so I don't need to prove you." Though if they would have to fight, Aldric may have to try a different form of his discus shield, such that he could adopt his usual fighting style, without the identifying red white and blue. An aspis might work, but that would be huge, and given what he knew about Qrow's semblance, that was a risk he didn't want to take.

Qrow scowled at him, but Aldric could see sense dawning in his eyes. Though, while his words had indeed reached the Huntsman, it also seemed Qrow, at least on some level, subscribed to the whole 'the best way to communicate is by fighting' shtick, and he charged forward again. Aldric tore his hands out of his coat and crouched low, a massive aspis appearing on his arm, it blocking each of Qrow's three horizontal swings with the sound of metal striking glass. Aldric shoved forward with the aspis, it hitting Qrow on the chest, but this time he had his feet dug firmly in the ground and he didn't stumble back. Aldric saw his blade crack open with a hiss, and then as it extended and took on its scythe form, it curved around his shield. Aldric, however, had seen this trick before - used by the same family, no less - and before Qrow could rip the shield from his grasp, he let it fall.

Qrow was prepared for this though, and the moment he felt give he swung down with the scythe. Aldric had to use his semblance to leap out of the way before it could tear into his coat, but Aldric shuttle-ran, switching directions on a dime and blasting right back towards the Huntsman, his coat billowing with the motions. Qrow grunted as Aldric buried his shoulder into the haft of the man's scythe. As Aldric reared his good hand, Qrow pivoted onto his backfoot and made Aldric overextend his next strike, using that as leverage to swing Aldric over his shoulders and slam him onto the roof. Aldric sensed Qrow raising his scythe and quickly spawned another aspis, which took the next strike just as it had before. The recoil managed to stumble Qrow, and Aldric was on his feet in an instant, spinning around in a wide circle and hurtling the almost man-sized shield at the Huntsman.

Qrow saw the shield coming, but he wasn't far enough away to have the time he'd need to dodge it. It slammed into his chest and he grunted on impact, and as it bounced back to Aldric, he was charging back towards Qrow. Aldric leapt into the air and thrust his good fist forward, the shield slid back into place on his arm and it vanished in a dull blue shower of light embers, to be replaced by three long blades protruding from Aldric's knuckles. Qrow growled and thrust his haft up, using it as a staff to block Aldric's next strike. He then wrenched it around, twisting Aldric's hand at a painful angle, and he used Aldric's pain as a chance to attack, kicking him in the chest. Aldric's barriers and armor blunted most of the force, but he was still sent back a few feet - just far enough for Qrow to swing his scythe with all of his strength.

Oooooh shit! Aldric used his semblance to dodge this swing, and it was so close that he felt it dragging through his hair.

However, he had a problem - he'd been so rough with his semblance that he felt his entire spine flare up in pain at having been bent so bad. He wasn't able to recover from this fast enough to stay on his feet, and he fell to his back. He sensed Qrow dart over and loom above him, swinging the scythe down. With a grunt of effort, Aldric rolled to the side, the scythe coming down so close to his ear that he could hear the metal ringing from the impact. Qrow used this chance to land a heavy punch to the side of Aldric's head, and it flashed through his barriers with enough force to bounce Aldric's head off of the ground.

Aldric sensed what happened next just a moment before it happened, and with a metallic squeak, the hatch to the roof opened and one of the employees, likely a manager, stepped up onto the rooftop with a, "what the hell -" But saw a Huntsman and a heavily masked man fighting to the death, both of them snapping their eyes right over to him.

"Get out of here!" Both Aldric and Qrow barked in unison, causing the man to shout in fear and retreat back down inside the bar and grill, as the fighters met eyes again.

Qrow growled and grabbed Aldric by his cuirass, hauling him into the air as his scythe collapsed back into a sword, and with a single jerk, the blade collapsed at a right angle, revealing twin rifle barrels, which he dug into Aldric's side. Aldric, however, wasn't letting this go lying down, and with a grunt, he used his semblance to snap his sidearm to his hand and he dug it into Qrow's, instantly setting the terms for their standoff. They stayed there for several seconds, Qrow scowling at him with such a livid fury that a lesser man may have wet his pants at the sight. Aldric met his gaze, his mask, goggles, and shemagh masking his neutral frown.

"Alright." Qrow finally said, in his characteristic rasp. "You're good." He dropped Aldric to his feet. "But you've got a lot to learn."

Aldric landed with a huff, "I don't disagree." He admitted, in a deeper, gravelly voice, it muffled by his mask and the scarf.

"That doesn't change what you did." The Huntsman growled, as he hung his blade from his back, and Aldric stowed his pistol in its holster. "Twenty words. You explain to me why you gouged some poor girl's eyes out in twenty words. I don't like what I hear, I stop holding back." The man's expression was halfway between a livid scowl, and a guarded frown, as his right hand rested firmly against the handle of his blade. His usually white coat was a bright, vibrant, neon green as it reflected the lighting fixture the two stood behind. The shadows cast by his body were particularly powerful due to their proximity to a strong light source, casting his details in perfect clarity, and ensuring Aldric was almost completely shrouded in shadow.

Aldric was tempted to be snide, but as much as he was riding high off of his not dying again in the face of a goddess, he also knew Qrow could back up what he said, and considering how he still lacked a few important limbs, and hadn't once had Qrow on the defensive during their little spat, he wasn't quite keen on his chances. "Lady in Red wanted to kill her." Aldric said, using his semblance to pull his coat back over to him, seeing that it, too, seemed more of a deep, dark green than its usual black. "Ensure she was the last in her thoughts." What was that, fifteen? "I had to buy time." Twenty, bitch, your move. He slid his hands back into his coat, letting the adrenaline drain out of his system.

The Huntsman frowned, "time for what?"

"I gambled real hard." Aldric said, in his gravelly rasp. "I was operating under the assumption that your faction was either aware of her identity, or watching her, in some fashion. Lady In Red's original plan was to overwhelm her and steal her powers, but she feared that she would be able to resist her and perhaps even halt her efforts. Then she found me, figured I could turn the tide, and the plan changed from ambushing her to fighting her. She thought that if we fought her wholesale, we'd weaken her resistances. Then she'd come in for the last part of the fight, make sure she was the last woman she ever saw, and was the last person she ever saw before she died. Lady In Red intended to deliver the killing stroke. Line of succession would then fall to her, she'd become the maiden.

"I bought as much time as I could, hoping I was right and she was being watched." Aldric continued rasping. "I was. But when we depleted her aura, and you showed up and were being held off while she was focused upon by a fresher fighter, I knew I had to do something, to buy as much time as I could. So I acted, I destroyed her eyes such that Lady In Red would have to try plan B. This worked, and you managed to halt the process and extract the Maiden."

Qrow shook his head, "no." He growled, "don't give me that. You had my name written on that bloodsoaked letter. How did you know I would be there?"

"Process of elimination." Aldric responded, locking his masked eyes to Qrow's scowling expression. "We have something of a headcount. Names. Ozpin and the headmasters wouldn't leave their academies. The teachers in the know wouldn't leave and draw suspicion. But a professor at Signal, still accepting missions and moonlighting as a Huntsman? That would definitely fit the bill of someone capable of watching over the Fall Maiden." Then Aldric shrugged, "and even if I was wrong, your name was on the list. Whoever picked her up would pass it on."

"That's one hell of a gamble, kid." Qrow grunted.

"So is trying to act a spy right under Lady In Red and the White Witch." Aldric countered.

Qrow's frown deepened, "who's Lady In Red?" He demanded.

But Aldric shook his head, "I give you her name, you find and kill her, fingers start getting pointed. No one easier to point to than the new guys. I get made, you lose your inside man." He responded. "I can give you all I can, but not everything."

Qrow huffed, starting to pace back and forth. "So let me get this straight. You want to betray them, but you aren't willing to go so far as to risk your neck to do it." His frown deepened, "you're making it real hard for me to trust you, here. Almost sounds like you want to convince me to let you in on our little 'circle' as you called it, just so you can screw us over." He turned to Aldric, frowning. "You realize what I'm getting at. You want me to vouch for you, you gotta give me something beyond what's already happened. Give me something to work with."

Aldric kept his body language stilled and guarded, the body language equivalent of a neutral, unchanging frown. He could either tell the man about him, and pique Ozpin's curiosity when he no-doubt reported it, or tell him about the short-term endgame, and get Qrow's trust. Both had their benefits, and both their drawbacks. If he told him about Earth, he risked pissing Qrow off because he wasn't giving him something relevant. If he told him about Cinder's endgame, he risked losing his position in the Legion when Ozpin inevitably outmaneuvered them. He did not know about how Salem operated, and there wasn't much he had from the show that could tell him how she thought, so he had to assume she was Sherlock Holmes meets L levels of genre-savvy intelligent.

He decided he'd test the waters, and if Qrow wasn't interested, he'd fall back. "What do you know of ancient dust?"

And just like that, Qrow stopped his pacing, immediately rounding on Aldric, eyes wide and lips pursed in a tight, shocked frown. "Go on."

"It's something of an in-depth story." Aldric rasped, as he turned to look over his shoulder, and then approached an air conditioning unit, growing closer to the huge neon sign above them, the shadows it cast upon him turning even harsher, blending together until he was practically a black mass reflecting green light. "Multiverse theory." He began.

Qrow nodded, "heard of it." He followed Aldric, and rammed his blade into the roof with a light metal-on-stone scraping noise. Its haft then extended outwards and snapped over sideways, providing him a flat surface to sit on. "What's that got to do with ancient dust?"

"They plug into eachother." Aldric rasped, "the White Witch used ancient dust to crack open a portal to another world." Aldric said, bluntly, noting how Qrow's posture went from hunched over to straight in seconds.

"You're implying you're from this world." He concluded.

Aldric nodded, "I know you've never heard the name Nathan Drake. It's not colorful, is it?" Qrow gave him a sidewards, conciliatory nod. "Where I come from, there is no dust. But there is aura." Again he attracted Qrow's attention, and he nodded, spinning his hand in a circle, prompting him to continue. "So without dust, the aura of my people just builds, and builds, and builds. The longer we live, the more we get. The more we get, the more we generate. Think of a bucket of water. Once it's full, it overflows. With my people, once it's full, the bucket gets bigger, and we keep filling it."

"How many of your people does Salem have?"

Aldric shook his head. "Only me." He said, "I was the only one who survived."

Qrow blinked, "the machine at Beacon Cliffs. The books we found. The bodies in the grave. That was you? Your people?"

Good, he wouldn't have to provide proof. Aldric nodded, "survived nearly a week on my own. Grimm caught onto the negativity generated by my surviving and all of the people dying. Had to fight a beowolf without aura, and a Nevermore joined in for a while before I blew up a dust lab. Killed the beowolf, got the nevermore to get the eff out of dodge. Lady In Red figured if I could survive that without the super aura, then with it I'd be unstoppable." He gave a sidewards nod. "Proved her right when I fought Amber and didn't die." He'd skip mentioning his arm and eyes; if Emerald had masked their identities, he wouldn't make it easier for Qrow to peg him.

"But you're the only survivor." Qrow stressed, making a chopping motion with his hand.

Aldric nodded, "there were some bodies I never found, but Lady In Red focused on me. Without outside help any other survivors would have attracted Grimm. Keep in mind I almost died fighting a beowolf, and I had the supplies from my crash. They would have had less than that. Chance? Yes. Likely? No." He explained.

Qrow let out a shaky breath, "okay." He looked up, "so your people. Strong enough to fight Maidens. Salem only has you. Can she get more?"

Aldric shook his head, "I've been led to believe that, for now, I'm it." He rasped, "something about a peculiarity of the ritual they used to take me. I'm still working it out. But that may change if and when I meet up with the White Witch."

"You haven't seen her yet?"

Aldric shook his head, "we haven't left Vale, yet. It's all been picking up resources and tracking down the Maiden, so far." He rasped, feeling his throat going raw from the torture. Soon he wouldn't have to be acting.

"And what comes after that? Can you tell me?"

Aldric crossed his arms, leaning back, and letting his semblance act as a barrier against which he sat. It looked unnatural, the way he was leaning back and not falling over, and Aldric hoped that was the effect it was having on Qrow. "I haven't been let in on it." He rasped, "but I've pieced something together. I believe they want a paradigm shift on an untold scale. They intend to systematically destroy the pillars of society as we know it. Starting from the biggest, and working their way down. The Huntsman academies... The councils of three. The capital cities. The endgame catches me up. I do not now if this is for domination purposes, or destruction purposes."

Qrow no doubt tightened his frown because he was thinking on things told to him by Ozpin, soon reaching the conclusion that Salem wanted the Relics of the Deity Brothers. The test here would be whether or not he gave that up, or kept it to himself. "And how do they intend to do that?"

Damn. Though Aldric didn't fault him for keeping it. Strictly speaking, the only reason Aldric knew was because of the show; Cinder herself hadn't even mentioned anything even remotely approaching Remnant religion. "Don't know. We only just got part of the powers of the Maiden, after all, and whatever our plans may have been, not having all of our ducks in a row will have changed things."

"How did she take Amber's powers?" Qrow demanded. "Or is that something else you don't know?"

"How long ago did the Oz-man tell you about the crash in the forest?" Aldric countered. "I've been here only a little while longer. What I've given you so far is almost everything I've managed to piece together from what little they have told me." He said, "think of it this way." He fought the urge to clear his throat, knowing that would be a weakness he couldn't display. "I helped cripple one of the four women you and your circle are sworn to protect and set up a parley with you. The moment you arrived, fifteen minutes ago, you tried to kill me. From the beginning of this conversation until now, with everything I've told you, would you say you trust me?"

Qrow nodded, "fair enough."

"I've been right alongside them, bleeding, sweating, and training the entire time, and they only trust me now."He rasped. "Now, that I've risked my life alongside them to get at Amber. Before now? Not so much." He thought a moment, before deciding it prudent to test the boundaries a bit. "Don't chide me, Branwen. I've nearly died fighting before now, but this is the greatest risk my life has been in the entire time I've been in your world." His gravelly voice grew deeper as he continued.

"Then give me that, at least. Why would you betray the people who ostensibly saved your life after you went tumbling into another world? If you're willing to do that, then why should I trust you?" Qrow challenged.

Aldric chuckled. "Put yourself in my shoes, Branwen." He requested. "I fell into this world. My airship crashed and everyone including my father either died or could be presumed dead. These huge giant bear demons then started hunting me and every day of my life I had to fight just to go to sleep. I nearly die to kill them, then these three assholes show up, and tell me they're why I fell out of the sky.

"They're why I almost died. They're why my father is as good as dead, and they're why I can most likely never... Ever go home. And they came right out and told me." He squared his gaze on the Huntsman. "What would you do?" He deadpanned. "Work with them? Do what they want?" He paused, this was getting personal, that was what Qrow wanted, he couldn't give him anything more than what he was willing to lose. "No." He shook his head, and leaned back forward, "no."

He wasn't lying, either, much as he say he may have been made loyal to their faction, they still killed a lot of innocent people and his father. Even if he hadn't the show to color his opinions, even if he'd been convinced of their cause and had been made loyal, that didn't change what they'd done. They'd killed his dad, told him he was a Super Saiyan, and proved it by giving him those powers, even going so far as to later claim he may very well be a god. For all his talk in his journal about 'they probably would have me loyal by now', loyalty only went so far in the face of good ol' fashioned, pre-meditated revenge, and they'd given him the tools for said revenge. Without the show, it simply would have taken longer for him to figure out the how of it. He would have found some way, regardless, but because he had the show, he knew so sooner how to royally fuck them over. It was, perhaps, his greatest secret, his one great truth, perhaps the one constant out of the innumerable ways his life could have played out.

He didn't even blame Cinder, really. With the show he knew, she'd never experimented with this. She was good, and crafty, but she wasn't that creative. It was Salem who'd done it, who'd figured it all out, and it was she who was the target of his ire. With the show, without the show, if he'd come here and his father had died, it still would have been Salem who did it. As a result, with the show, or without it, he would have made every attempt to kill her. He would have used everything he had - his aura, his mind, the secrets he had from Earth - all of it would have been dedicated to killing Salem. He even knew how he would have tried it without aura, too. Hell, he was pretty tempted to try it even with his aura, it would be one hell of a backup plan. All of his power, if he won, she died, and if he lost, she'd die anyways.

After all, nuclear physics hadn't even existed in the few years before World War II scientists had invented it. But with Remnant's technology, arguably more advanced than Earth's in all the areas that counted, years could have been turned down to months, and it wouldn't have been long after that before he could nuke Salem.

Nuke that bitch until she glows. Pretty good exchange for an airplane of people and my Dad, right? Aldric thought it was pretty ironic, really. The only person alive, aside from himself, who knew his one great truth was also probably the only person alive who had the greatest reason to doubt it.

Shit, maybe Neo wasn't as wrong for him as he'd thought.

Regardless of that, Qrow's frown actually softened, as he considered Aldric's words. "Well..." He grunted, "if you're telling me the truth... Then I am sorry for your loss. I guess that'd be a good enough reason to risk your life like this, wouldn't it, Mister Drake?"

Aldric smiled, underneath his mask. "They think I'm some... Callous child." He rasped. "They think I'm cold, that I didn't care about the lives on that plane..." He sighed. "Ship." He corrected, more for Qrow's sake than his. "Because I survived, and they gave me toys that, here, are commonplace, but there, are godlike. But - and I think you may understand this as well as I - if you take enough from a man, he's more than willing to let parts of his soul rot in order to get his." Now for the killer, "I'll have to live with what I did to Amber for the rest of my life. I'll have to live with what I will do, alongside them, for just as long. But I'm willing to take that evil onto myself. Whether or not I'll win, whether or not I'll even get close, I'm willing to do this. To try... With or without you." He paused for effect. "So, Qrow. This is your choice.

"What will you choose?"

Qrow was silent for several moments, no doubt weighing the validity of Aldric's words, before the corner of his mouth ticked upward, and he reached into the pocket of his coat. Aldric didn't even need the radar pulse to know what it was, considering Qrow's love for the drink, he'd probably have been waiting for a chance to go for his hip flask.

His words, however, threw him off. "Well, Oz? Waddaya think?"

Uh... What?

Aldric's radar pulse was consummate, in the way it worked. He called it 'radar pulse' for the ease of which that would explain the concept, but that was a very simple way of explaining it, it was a lot more complicated than that. With his semblance, he could sense everything around him - it was as if every surface around him, and even the air itself, for at least ten meters, and usually more if he focused it, had a nerve ending, and he could feel it. It painted a three-dimensional image of the entire surrounding environment directly onto his brain, giving him a complete three hundred and sixty degree, full-penetration x-ray vision of everything around him. He could see, literally, everything, as long as it was in range.

There was no fooling it, even Emerald's illusions couldn't fool the radar pulse, and if she hadn't bitten the dust, it would have been how he would have been sure they hadn't followed him, or spiked his coat with a listening device. It was one of the major reasons he felt he'd been able to steal lightning from Amber, and was also what he felt was the main contributor to his rapid growth in skill. He saw everything, and it was all burned onto his mind, creating a sort of eidetic memory he could view from all angles, at any time, he never forgot it. With it, he could see every single foe charging him and could use his semblance to redirect their attacks and dodge those he couldn't, it was how he'd been able to perfect his dodging and his barriers. With enough focus, he could even feel the individual atoms in the air for what they were, and not simply for what they made. There was no fooling it, period. Nothing had done it in the entire time he'd had it.

Until today, when he felt a hand rest on his shoulder. A hand attached to a body that, hardly a second ago, hadn't been there. Not that he'd missed it, but the space this body occupied had been completely empty until just then. The person standing there, his hand on Aldric's shoulder, hadn't existed in that space. It took all of Aldric's concentration not to start, and he slowly turned his gaze to the pale skinned hand, itself turned a bright, vibrant green by the neon lights they stood behind. Had he had eyes, he would have found himself staring into eyes of Beacon's own headmaster. The messy white-haired man grinned at him, his brown eyes looking at him from over the ridge of his glasses. Just as Aldric was, so too was half of the headmaster cast in powerful, hard-lined shadows by Mogar's bright neon lights. That he was here, and had gotten through his radar pulse, Aldric knew he'd been outplayed from the very beginning. This hadn't been Qrow testing him.

This had been Ozpin testing him.

Aldric would give credit where it was do, and he reflected this with a brief, impressed sidewards nod of the head. Ozpin and Qrow had been at the game far longer than him, to think he could have just waltzed right in and played at their level, it was like giving a ten year old a billion dollars and not expecting them to burn all of it on candy and toys. They were on a whole different level than him, and it had been perhaps the epitome of arrogance to think he could have even tried to play at their level, and Ozpin being here was them telling him this. They seemed to respect his attempt - that had probably been the point of Qrow fighting him, come to think of it - but they were basically saying, 'Okay, good job kiddie, now let the adults play'.

"I think..." Said the calm, neutral tone of the Huntsman Headmaster. "That he still has secrets he's yet to let us in on. This 'Lady In Red's' identity notwithstanding." He patted Aldric's shoulder, "but for now, I think we can trust him."

Hooooooly shit, that was close. Aldric repressed a shuddering sigh. "I lost control of this the second I planted that note on Amber, didn't I?" He asked, keeping up his gravelly voice. At this point he wouldn't put it past these two to already know who he was, what his name was, and what he looked like, but he had to keep up appearances, just in case they were bluffing.

The headmaster pushed his round sunglasses up the bridge of his nose. "You give yourself too little credit, young man." Said Ozpin, rounding on Aldric and coming to stand next to the still sedentary Qrow. "While you may think of yourself of a skill and level far below myself and my colleagues, it takes no small amount of gumption to do what it is you've done. No small amount of mental fortitude to keep your stories straight and win the trust of Lady In Red, whilst simultaneously keeping from her your true intentions, even the feelings you harbor for their part in your father's death and your predicament." He paused, "truly, had you not mentioned it, even we may have reached a conclusion similar to them." He said, with a nod. "Callous... Not many children your age use words like that."

Qrow surfaced from his flask, "he's tryin' to say 'good job', kid." He slurred, wiping some stray alcohol from his hairy chin. "Even I'll give some credit where it's due. It takes balls, doin' what you are. And a certain kind of smarts, and you've got both of those in spades." Another swig, "all your people like that?"

Aldric shrugged, "consider your question. That would be if a Huntsman came to my world, and I asked him if all of his people had powers." He said, his raspy tone cutting through the cold night air between them.

He noted a grin stretch across Ozpin's face. "Quite." He said, with a nod. His posture remained straight, but with a slight relaxed bend to his spine, and his hands held behind his back. It looked kind of strange, not seeing him with a coffee cup in hand. "You've quite a mind on you, Mister Drake. Hearing you speak to Qrow, here, I begin to understand how you were able to pull these things off. At the risk of repeating myself, it takes no small mind to be able to do what you do. Were this any other situation I may have invited you to my academy..." He lifted his gaze, looking over Aldric's masked head, towards Beacon Tower, in the distance.

Don't tempt me, man. You know how much I'd like about a year's worth of not thinking? Aldric nodded, "I appreciate it." He rasped. "I guess I can consider this your choice?" He prodded, getting the conversation back on track.

Ozpin hummed, "you would be correct." He said, with a nod. "How would you intend to get back in contact with us, in the future?" He asked. "Would a scroll be too mundane?"

"My group consists of a master thief, a master assassin, and a demi-goddess, Oz-man." Aldric deadpanned, his throat starting to become sore. "I plug your number into my scroll, they'll find it. I keep a second scroll lying around, they'll find it. I have to operate under the assumption that they're always looking." He elaborated. "I'm working on something, a reliable means of contact that they can't crack into, but until then, I'm going to have to go the long way. Public libraries, disposable burner scrolls, things of that nature." There was a reason he was trying to bridge Remnant and Earth tech, after all, and an Earth-English keyboard was only one of them. "Obviously, that means it may be long delays in between you hearing from me.

"And to add on to that, I can't give you everything." He said, "as much as I may want to, a victory in the short term may lead to a defeat in the long term." He rasped, with an apologetic nod.

Qrow chuckled, leaning over and giving Ozpin a light backhanded slap on the side. "Hear that? Now complain about me not saying much over scrolls again, I dare you." He grinned.

Ozpin didn't respond to the Huntsman, instead nodding. "There is a wisdom in that. A wisdom I understand more than you may think." He said, with a nod in Qrow's direction. "As well, I would think our time here grows short, no?" Aldric nodded, "is there anything else you can give us tonight? Something that won't cast suspicion onto you, but will allow us perhaps to preserve lives? Time to prepare?" He elaborated, nodding with each point.

Aldric was silent a moment, "we're a quality over quantity style organization. There aren't many of us directly involved with the White Witch. I haven't seen her yet, myself. We've spent this time before our attack on Amber gathering agents with resources. They gather numbers, delegating our small, short-term goals, while we work on the bigger picture. So you find thugs, go ahead and assume they don't know anything. It's leaders and lieutenants who would have a chance at knowing more. People like Roman Torchwick, and Adam Taurus." It was a hell of a risk giving them names like this, but so was playing the role of double agent in the Legion of fucking Doom. He got to his feet. "But even they only have pieces of the puzzle, they don't know the whole picture."

The Huntsman and the Headmaster exchanged a glance, the former halfway through taking a swig from his flask. "Food for thought." Intoned Ozpin, as he turned back to the crash survivor-turned spy. "But as you've pointed out, we cannot truly act upon your information until such a time as we ourselves can gather the proper evidence against these peoples. Even more importantly, in a fashion believable to our enemies without risking your cover, Mister Drake." He nodded. "You've given us a lot to think about, and for what it's worth, I thank you a great deal for these risks you are taking. We will use what you can give us with the utmost care."

Aldric stared down at the man's hand, wondering if he shouldn't tell them about Cinder's theories about the Masters. Fuck it, it may get him laughed at, but he had to lay his cards out on the table. "There's another." He rasped, turning to face the neon green sign, as it illuminated them all in powerful green light.

Ozpin blinked, "oh?"

"During out fight." He began, "she used her powers to create a lightning storm." He said, his gravelly voice filling the air, as Ozpin and Qrow briefly exchanged glances; details of the fight itself were, obviously, scarce, but aside from having her powers stolen, they hadn't thought there to be any truly relevant details. "I used mine to rip that lightning out of the air and throw it back at her." Aldric turned his gaze back to the two.

Qrow frowned, "okay." He shot back.

Ozpin, however, his eyes narrowed, his gaze briefly dropping in thought, before he raised it back up. "How could you do that with your semblance being telekinesis?"

Aldric decided to ignore how Ozpin noticed this, concluding that it was either because he spent so much time around a TK, or because he was just that good. Considering Qrow gave the headmaster an astonished look, Aldric leaned a bit more heavily towards the latter.

"Telekinesis is the manipulation of objects with the mind. Objects are things that have mass, and take up space. The electrons and other such charged particles that make up lightning fit that bill." Aldric responded.

Now Qrow was looking at him, "that'd take a lot of power." He said, "even Goodwitch - she's good, but that far down? She nearly died trying to mess with molecules. Barely filled a glass of water."

I forget that they're both teachers. Thought Aldric, as he nodded. "Lady In Red has a theory. That my semblance isn't really one... But rather what remains of something much scarier being sealed away." He rasped. "Consider Amber, and others like her. They can create lightning storms, pull apples out of thin air, can freeze objects solid and melt them just as easily." He gave a wide shake of his head, "that's all accomplishable through telekinesis. But as you said, it would take a lot of power, and even more control. But a Maiden? She would have both of those in spades... Their powers being akin to reality warping magic. Now humor me. What is magic, but science we can't explain? That we don't understand?"

Ozpin appeared ready to humor him, genuinely interested in where this thought train went, if the inquisitive shine in his eyes was anything to go by, but Qrow cut right to the chase. "Are you implying that you know how Maidens can do what they do?"

"No. I'm saying that I made a theory based off of available evidence." Aldric rasped, "and so did Lady In Red."

Now Ozpin's inquisitive grin turned into a frown, and while Aldric wasn't completely sure, he thought he saw a small tinge of fear. "Mister Drake, please be frank with me. Are you trying to tell us that Lady In Red believes all of your people to be equivalent to Maidens in power?" He asked, directly.

Smart. Aldric shook his head. "No." He rasped, causing Qrow to double take.

"But you said -"

"I'm saying she thinks we're an entire species of Maidens, with the same capabilities, and she's using my feats as basis for this." Aldric continued, as if he hadn't been interrupted. "She coined the term 'Masters'." He deepened his voice with this last word, to hammer it on home. "I feel it important to stress that there is a secondary theory, perhaps just as likely." He added, "but the similarities between my feats and abilities, and those of Amber's and Lady In Red's with what fraction of the power she has are too many to be written off as simple coincidence." He didn't even wait, knowing they would ask for it. "She thinks that it could be just as likely that I seal away the majority of my power instinctively. That I was able to grab Amber's lightning because I tapped into this... She called it an aura equivalent to fight or flight. That when I entered this state, I gained access to everything for just a few seconds.

"Initially I believed this fight or flight theory to be true, but as she continued talking and I continued thinking, I began to lean more to the Masters theory." He croaked. "I point to our defenses as the easiest parallel with the least assumptions required. Amber used her powers more often than she used her aura to defend herself, and when I overtook these powers, it took little effort to break her aura. This reflects almost perfectly my own abilities, which operate on the principal that, the more power I desire, the less aura I have to shield myself with, but I can just as easily use said power to defend as I can to attack." He finally had no other choice and had to clear his throat, cursing himself for it.

"When I fought her, I got the same feeling. That everything she had was being put to her offense, and that she was using said offense to defend herself. That her aura was merely there to catch what she could not." He finished.

Ozpin and Qrow were silent for several long moments, before Qrow ran his hand through his hair. "Fuck me." He growled. "This is really happening."

"This is indeed a troubling revelation." Said Ozpin, still frowning in thought. "I must admit I do not know if I am ready to believe it." He locked his brown eyes to Aldric's own masked ones. "And you say she believes this to be true?"

"Neither she nor I have any definitive proof of either being the case." Aldric assured. "I specifically kept some of my own conclusions to myself in the aim of leaning her towards fight or flight. But the fact of the matter is that at the moment, we don't know. It may very well be that because I am from a different universe... A different planet... And indeed a different species altogether, that my aura simply works in a manner different to humans and faunus on Remnant. However the similarities are present and are startling in number, and it would provide an even larger reason for the White Witch to want to crack into my world. As such..." He trailed off.

Ozpin picked up on his line of thought. "We have to assume the worst." He said, with a solemn nod. "I must admit, I knew to what you were implying the moment you began to lead into it. I did then and still do find the concept of a male Maiden..." He shrugged. "Well, the phrase itself should convey the ludicrous nature of the idea. I can understand why Lady In Red chose 'Master' instead. But considering the unprecedented nature of the situation in which we find ourselves..." He nodded to Aldric. "A man from another world stands before us. And our vault is filled with everything we could scavenge from your crash site." He summarized. "I am willing to believe this, until such a time as we know for sure one way or another. Can I trust you to keep us up to date with any news on this subject?"

Aldric nodded, "I've placed this must trust in you. Until such a time as I learn that it was misplaced, I will continue to do so."

Ozpin let out a steadying breath, and extended his hand. "I suppose that is all either of us can ask for, until we have fully earned the trust of the other." He said. "Thank you, once again." He said, much more emphatically.

Aldric shook the man's hand, as Qrow handed him a slip of paper. "That's our personal contact info. I'm sure you'll use fake emails and one-off scroll numbers, so sign your messages with this pseudonym you've given us, so we'll know it's you."

Aldric accepted the paper, stowing it in his coat and making a mental note to fold it up and put it with the RWBY SD Card. "One last thing, before I go." He said, looking from Qrow, to Ozpin. "How is she?" He rasped.

This made Ozpin's expression fall, as he sighed. "Amber?" He clarified, "not well. She remains unstable yet. She requires constant service by a team of skilled doctors to keep from deteriorating too quickly... You did quite a number on her, Mister Drake." He said, with a solemn nod. "But we've allies of our own from Atlas, making here posthaste with technology that may extend her life until we can come up with a plan." He nodded to him, "whatever we decide, we will let you know. So I would recommend waiting at least an hour or two before disposing of your... Shall we call them 'dead drops'?"

Aldric was pretty sure that didn't apply at all, but he nodded nonetheless. "Alright. One hour is what I feel confident in giving you." He said firmly, again swapping his gaze between the two. "Have your updates ready on a moment's notice, yeah?"

At this, Qrow laughed again, this one more sardonic than earlier. "Oh man... Goodwitch is gonna hate you." He drawled, taking another swig from his flask.

Aldric ignored the jab, "if there's nothing else?"

Ozpin shook his head, "when I have had more time to think upon the subject, I shall send along my thoughts about the Masters." He said, before cracking a small grin. "On a lighter note... Am I to assume the mask and your convenient case of laryngitis were for all of our sake?"

It took a supreme effort of will not to laugh at that. "I don't exist in this world. Anonymity is as much a weapon as is anything else... And if you two saw or knew anything about me, and we met on the battlefield, you may hesitate. God forbid I survive that fight, let alone win, Lady In Red is good. I operate under the assumption she's better than me, so she would notice it. That would spark suspicion, and from there everything falls apart." Aldric stowed his hands in his pockets. "Maybe one day we'll meet on equal terms... But until then? This is what we get."

Ozpin nodded, conceding his point. "Alright, Mister Drake. If that is how you want to play this, we'll follow your lead. Though, next time, I would suggest a voice modulator." He added, with a smirk, before it faded away and he returned to business. "The logical conclusion then would be to keep your very existence on the proverbial need to know?"

You people have voice modulators?! And I've been tearing apart my fucking throat? Okay, fuck you, fuck you, and fuck you too. I'm on Cinder's side, now. "That would be best." He'd read far more than enough stories where a person who was guaranteed to be trustworthy turned out not to be. If a spy in Salem's faction was made common knowledge among the League, eventually someone would leak it out, in some way, shape, or form. It wouldn't take long at all for all roads to lead to him, and then his life would be forfeit. "Anything else?"

Ozpin shook his head, "nothing but a good luck, Mister Drake. And stay safe. If ever you feel an... Exit strategy... Shall we say... To be appropriate, Beacon's doors will always be open to you."

Okay, now Aldric had to lay on the snide. "The same academy that has a target on its back. That myself and my allies are actively planning on destroying." He deadpanned.

Ozpin either didn't notice it, or, perhaps even better, matched it, as he smiled warmly and nodded. "The very same, yes."

Aldric liked this guy. "Okay, then."