Chapter 25

It took him a few minutes to slip away from his new friends; Yang in particular was ready to throttle him for leaving so soon, but was appeased when Pyrrha suggested swapping contact information, and Aldric reminded her there would be plenty of chances for the both of them to beat the tar out of eachother once the semester started. The encounter that surprised him though, was when he was flagged down by Cardin Winchester before he managed to slip out of the stadium. He flexed his networking muscles for five minutes longer than Aldric had any patience for, opining that Beacon would probably put the strong together in a team together, and that anyone who could fight the Invincible Girl for as long as he did - the fact that Cardin lost at the first chance he got, and that Aldric got his ass kicked by Pyrrha apparently not registering on Cardin's radar - was strong enough to get paired up with him.

Aldric let him go on until he finally got to the point and programmed his number into his scroll, and after he got away from him and made it outside, the cheers of the crowd and the drone of the fight buzzers becoming distant and muffled as they were contained by the arena's walls, he got another text.

Oh theeeere you are! For a second I thought you might be standing me up. :(
There's a hole-in-the-wall called From Dust 'Till Dawn, a couple miles east of you. Come find me!

Oh yeah, I guess that would be happening soon. Aldric slid the scroll shut again.

As he settled back into the mindset of 'everything was trying to kill him', he again brought up whether or nor he should drop the RWBY bomb on the Watchmen. Ignoring that that sounded like a passable idea for a comic book, Aldric concluded that brooding over it right here and now would do him no good. Instead, he decided he would make the decision after this little meeting; and if he had to murder Neo, he vowed that the answer would be an automatic 'yes' due simply to the fact that her death would put him on ice so thin that a feather would break it.

He didn't dawdle as he trekked to the store. After a quarter of an hour of walking, he found it, and his radar informed him that Neo and, it seemed, her employer were waiting for him. Aldric let out a long, low sigh through his nose, frowning; he considered sliding his shield onto his arm, but after a brief debate, decided that it wouldn't really help him. They were all packing heat: Aldric had his arm, the chainsaw, the Power Glove, and his pistol, Torchwick had his cane, and Neo had eight concealed blades, three pistols, a grenade, and more than a few of the beads on her necklace looked like they were filled with what was likely an aerosolized poison. If they were here to get violent, him walking in with the safeties off wouldn't change that. So, he collapsed his white cane and stuffed his hands in his pockets, left his shield hanging from his back, and strolled into the shadowy alley next to the store. They both turned to acknowledge him, Neo was leaning against the wall, a light smirk on her face, and Torchwick had both of his hands on his cudgel.

"My, my, my." Said Torchwick, as Aldric came to a stop just a few feet away. "You're just full of surprises, aren't you, Mister Goud?" He confidently strolled over to Aldric, orbiting him, as though appraising him. "Come a long way since our first little meeting just a few short months ago. I wonder -" He said, in a sing-song tone. "- have you been playing this game from the very beginning? Or is this a recent development?"

Aldric remained silent, staring straight ahead and waiting for -

Hold on. He turned to face Torchwick and gave him a poke on the arm with the collapsed cane. When the crime boss didn't shatter like glass, Aldric gave a sidewards nod.

"Well would you look at that!" Torchwick grinned, adjusting his hat. "I'm certain the boy we saw months ago wouldn't have had the wherewithall to realize that this could very well be an elaborate ruse..." He let his shoulders slump and frowned dramatically, "unfortunately, I must confirm that this is indeed quite real, and must also confirm your suspicions: Miss Neopolitan does, indeed, hold loyalties to me first, and others second. She is, after all, my gardener, and not yours, or Miss Fall's."

At an expectant glance from Neo, however, Torchwick circled around Aldric's front and rolled his head, in an exaggerated manner. "oh fine." He turned to face Aldric, "she would, however, like me to point out that she had been the slightest bit conflicted as to whether or not to bring your little stunt to my attention. She is fond of you - especially now that you've gone and revealed that, when not in the midst of a battle, you aren't nearly as meek and naive as you like to pretend to be." He turned to the ice cream mute, and asked with an exaggerated bow, "is that okay?" And she nodded with a smile.

"Good." He turned to Aldric, "now... Though I believe I already know, please humor me: What were you doing that made you bring the two of us into your little lie?"

Aldric remained as silent as Neo.

Torchwick huffed, "you know as well as I that I won't even hesitate to bring this up to your now-questionable ally, mister Aldric; and my patience only lasts so long." He warned, as though he were a parent admonishing a child.

"Then why haven't you?"

Torchwick grinned at this, "and he speaks!" He held his arms out and to the sides, "wonderful! I was worried." He dropped them back onto his cane, and tapped it on the ground. "To answer your question, Mister Aldric... One doesn't get nearly as far as I do, in a business such as this, without learning two things: How to take anything presented to you and turning it into something beneficial, and how to prepare for as many scenarios as is imaginable." He said, leaning back on the balls of his feet. "I, for instance, am a man who prides myself in being prepared for anything... And while your actions may have been surprising, the goal they imply to service towards... Why that is something I've considered as well." He leaned forward, "do you understand?"

Aldric's frown didn't budge. What he was having trouble reconciling was Torchwick's flippant disregard for Aldric's actions against him by proxy. By working to subvert Cinder, which Torchwick seemed to be all but stating he knew Aldric was doing, even if he didn't know how, Aldric was putting him at risk, too. There was no way around that - if Cinder fell, Torchwick would go too; and he wasn't a dummy, he'd been at this particular kind of game longer than Aldric had, and longer still than Cinder had. He'd also outright told him that he wasn't the kind of man to be blindsided by things, so why was he taking this in stride, and letting Aldric in on all of this, if he wasn't going to turn right around and spill the beans to Cinder?

Unless... Aldric's brow furrowed a fraction of an inch, but it was enough for both Torchwick and Neo to pick up on.

"I think he's figuring it out." Torchwick hummed, as he straightened up.

"You're double dealing on Cinder." Aldric rumbled.

With the look of unrestrained glee that graced Neo's face, Aldric was pretty sure she would have squealed in delight if she could have. Her eyes widened and her lips parted in a big smile, and even more off-putting for the woman Aldric knew primarily as a high-functioning sociopath, was that she looked like she would have kissed Aldric had Torchwick not been in the way. Torchwick, meanwhile, let a sinister sneer play at the corner of his mouth, as he retrieved a cigar from his coat, and lit it.

"You're right, Miss Neo." Torchwick intoned, as he took a drag from the nicotine stick. "He is perceptive." He flicked some ash off of its end, and then nodded his head to the side. "Though I would only go so far as to say 'in a manner of speaking'." He responded. "I play with the winners, Mister Aldric. I always have; and the winner is the one who survives at the end of the day. That I practically own Vale Police is only part of the reason I've remained out of prison for any significant amount of time, after all." He let it hang there, likely wanting to know if he was picking up on her implications.

If I had to guess... "You drop information on rival gangs to keep you and your guys out of jail." Torchwick nodded, and Neo's one-sided smile grew wider. "So you're not double-dealing with Cinder, you're just poised to look like, if she wins, you were on her side, and if she loses, you remain mostly untouched by virtue of whatever you've given to the proper authorities." Holy deva-vu, Batman.

Behind Torchwick, Neo began rotating her hand in a circular motion, as if to say, 'go on'.

"You're not concerned about me because no matter what happens, you win." If Aldric managed to destroy the Legion, then Torchwick could ride high on the information he gave to his government contacts, and find a place to wait out the aftermath. If Aldric failed and the Legion won, then he was one of their most useful players. Then, of course, there was the fact that Torchwick had him by the balls, and pretty much had a get out of jail free card for both sides. Pissed off Cinder? Well, he could redirect her ire by hinting that Aldric was up to some shady shit. Need to lose some heat from the feds? Well, he knew a certain someone who owed him one hell of a favor, and was pretty high up in the hierarchy, well worth an immunity.

Torchwick nodded, "I so willingly work for Cinder because I am well aware of what she and her allies are capable of. They are, in a word, unstoppable - and Neo can attest to the fact that that is not a word I use lightly." He intoned, "as I'm certain you know by now, I'm a pragmatic man. I know what bets to make, when to fold my hand, and when to point two dozen rifles at the night's entertainment because he broke the rules." His grin turned to one that was straight-up taunting. "But I am also well aware that sometimes, despite the cold and harsh reality of our world, things simply do not go according to plan. So many wars have been won and lost to a superior enemy because of one divine stroke of good or bad luck... I myself have pulled off the miraculous against impossible odds enough times to consider the option." He said, "as such, I prepare." A nod of the head. "Just in case."

So... Less Wilson Fisk, and more Hans Landa. Torchwick was perfectly willing to work for the Legion, but just as willing to read the situation as it was, and not as he wanted to be, and subsequently abandon ship and drop hints to the League so they'd focus more on their enemies than him. "And you're telling me this because you know there's not a damn thing I can do about it."

Torchwick's smile remained unchanged. "Can? Will? Or both?" He asked, "because, let's face it, Mister Aldric: I'm starting to agree with Neo, there." He nodded to her over his shoulder. "You are interesting. I would call you a wild card, even... Having weaseled your way into Miss Fall's good graces and for so long bamboozled her... Why, you even managed to pull the rug over us, up until you made your one mistake." He hummed, spinning on his heel and taking a few steps away. "It is such a wild nature... Such an inherent and growing skill in subterfuge... That I see the potential for perhaps a third winner in this little shadow war." He looked at Aldric from over his shoulder, what was visible of his face lit aglow by the lit end of his cigar, before he plucked it from his mouth. "So perhaps there would be a way for us both to win... No matter the outcome." He said, his face curled up into a victorious grin. "So what do you say?" Torchwick asked, making another turn to face Aldric.

Aldric would give him credit where it was due, Torchwick was good at this. The only time he felt as outclassed as he did now was when Ozpin had fooled his radar pulse and managed to sneak up on him. Torchwick was in a position where, no matter what happened, no matter who won - Aldric, him, or Cinder - he'd be taken care of. Clever, especially considering that, unless the terran was willing to outright kill Neo and Torchwick - which he was willing to bet the both of them knew he didn't want to do for more reasons than just the moral ones - he wasn't wrong. There wasn't anything he could do, here.

If he said no to Torchwick, he'd get sold out to Cinder in exchange for no doubts about the mob boss' loyalties to the Legion, and Aldric's loss of position in the Legion would likely also lead to Adam Taurus cutting ties with him as a precautionary measure, such that he wouldn't be operating alone against Cinder. And, though they didn't know this, provided Aldric survived the ensuing ceaseless attempts at his life, his only allies and only course of action would be to retreat to the Justice League and give them the RWBY SD card, so they at least still had one chance and something of a source of information in the Legion; hell, with the way things were looking now, Aldric was starting to consider that option anyways.

But, if he said yes, he may still have his place in the Legion secure, but it would be even more precarious than it used to be, as two people firmly outside of the Watchmen would be aware, perhaps not of exactly what he was doing, but that he was double crossing them. Aldric had no misconceptions that if he accepted the unspoken offer of alliance, he would beholden to them. While they would be limited by feasible options, it likely wouldn't be difficult for them to assume he had contacts, and important ones at that, in the League; and as such, while any requests made by Neo or Torchwick would by necessity be limited to what would not draw suspicion on him or them, they could still blackmail him into doing anything they wanted. And without the names of any of Torchwick's government - or perhaps even Justice League! - contacts, she and Torchwick had him by the balls. The latter in a metaphorical sense, and the former, as clearly evidenced by the look of hunger in her eyes, a more literal sense.

In summation, no matter what he did, sooner or later he'd be fucked.

"From where I'm standing, the only one of us who would benefit from this would be you." He said, cautiously.

Torchwick hummed, "well, while such an arrangement would seem beneficial at first glance, I know better than most what happens when someone on a lower rung on the totem pole is put into a singularly beneficial relationship." He tapped his cane on the ground again, "it never lasts. Either he gets what he wants in the end and deposes the person in charge of him, or he dies trying - and in either case, his boss' gain is only temporary. " He shook his head, "no, in situations like these, I prefer a different solution... One you may have tapped into just a moment ago."

"Give your partners something in return." A pause, "like a business arrangement."

"And much like how you ceaselessly impress my gardener, so do you never cease to impress me." He hummed, "yes indeed. At the outset we can simply, mutually hold eachother's secrets, but as time goes on... Should we find ourselves in need of the other's help, we could provide it."

The part of Aldric that had thought it was a good idea to bite Pyrrha's sword was tempted to ask what exactly Torchwick could provide that could help him, but the part that had gotten endlessly excited at the prospect of getting a handful of Mercury's glass coins knew damn well and good what a powerful underworld connection like Torchwick could do. So too did he know why Torchwick want favors from Aldric - he was willing to bet, and rightly so, that Aldric could turn those favors in to far more legitimate sources, and potentially get things that the underworld couldn't.

"Fine." Aldric grunted, before he sighed. "Fine."

Torchwick's sneer turned to a genuine smile. "Oh good!" He said, clapping his hands together. "Now - as much as I do enjoy our time together, I do indeed have a robbery to finish planning." He nodded to the building next to them, and then to Neo. "I know how to get in touch with you." He hummed, "and I'm pretty certain one of us at least, will be seeing you again soon." And with that, and a tip of the hat, he began walking away; as he passed by Neo, he made another show of rolling his eyes, "oh fine. You've got until the car comes around."

Neo nodded gratefully, as Torchwick rounded the corner and out of sight. Now alone, Neo gave Aldric an amused look, resting her chin on her hand and arcing an eyebrow. Aldric knew that the whole song and dance he'd been giving her ever since he figured out she wanted in his pants was, at this point, thoroughly useless; so instead of adopting the facade, he merely dropped his shoulders and let the tension flood from his muscles, as he turned his head towards her. Yes, it didn't really make any difference in regards to him actually looking at her, or anyone really, but it got his point across. And, as much as she may terrify him, he did still have to deal with her; he dug this hole, it was time to lay in it.

After a few moments of silence, she made to straighten up, but found she was held in place by his semblance. A higher quirk of the eyebrow was her way of responding to it, to which Aldric said, "my fight against Nikos notwithstanding, I've gotten better." He let her go, and she sauntered up closer. "I don't blame you, but that doesn't mean I'm not pissed."

She nodded at that, shrugging. The longer I know you, the more you surprise me, Mister Aldric. She wrote, after slipping her scroll out of her pocket and tapping on its screen. I'll let you in on a secret, consider it a cementation of our alliance, and a show of good faith: Cinder has no idea. Aldric didn't respond, he just leaned against the wall, next to her. I know her type, and I saw her earlier today. She wants to be there for the robbery tomorrow, see how Torchwick acts. He brought up our 'rendezvous', and I swear, if she had any less self control she would have gone as red as a tomato.

"And how does that indicate she doesn't know?" Aldric asked, "because every time I speak to her I get the opposite idea."

That's because you scare her, Mister Aldric, as does she, you. She said. You've been playing our game for - how long did you say? Barely a year? Not even? No experience in that, no fighting experience, nothing of the sort, and the mountains you've climbed between then and now, she knows the potential she tapped into when she sank her claws into you, and I could tell from the way it took her just a little longer to respond than she usually does: When you weren't there the night we were apparently together, that was, if not the very first time period, then at least the first time she realized how little control she really has over you, and how much less she'll have as you grow stronger. She nodded her head to the side, before typing out, I'll admit, I saw potential when we had our first fight, but there was always that little spot of doubt... And that evaporated when I got that text. I know what you're capable of, now, even more than she does, and that's how I can tell you that she's not only scared, she's right to be.

"I got my ass kicked by Pyrrha Nikos." But Neo didn't even type a response to that, she merely frowned, shook her head, and waved his statement away, as though it were irrelevant.

As she continued typing, the tone with which she was 'speaking' made it occur to Aldric that maybe Neo herself was taking a page out of her boss' book, and double dealing against everyone by trying to win him over, such that, even moreso than Torchwick, it didn't matter what happened. Unless she died, she'd be taken care of. She worked for Torchwick, and no matter who won, so did he - but if Aldric was right, and she was trying to deal with him like he and Torchwick were dealing with eachother, that meant even if Torchwick somehow lost, then she'd still be fine: Aldric was her backup. And, if her words were any indication, she had more than a sneaking suspicion that Aldric may find a way to come out on top over everyone, and if that was the case, then she'd still be fine, because even if her interest wasn't fully reciprocated, she was willing to bet her actual life on Aldric being too unwilling to compromise his morals to the point where he'd just let someone die if he had the ability to stop it.

Worse was that even with one murder and another by proxy on his soul, as well as the inevitable participation in anywhere from dozens to thousands of deaths, Aldric wasn't sure if she was wrong. Maybe it was some sort of insane, twisted version of stockholm syndrome, or maybe it was because, of everyone he'd met so far, Neopolitan was the only one who had her head on straight, knew what she was doing at any given moment, and acted as though she had nothing to hide, but she was starting to grow on him.

Only one person I've ever seen has positioned yourself like you do - and he just walked around the corner, thinking I might try and not take 'no' for an answer. A beat, as she let that sink in, before she added, - still not an impossibility, mind you. ;) And her own expression matched that which she'd typed out, a wink and a smug sneer she made no effort at all to hide. And like he said: He knows what sides to bet on, and you're looking like a surer and surer bet, the more we learn about you.

"You'll forgive me if that doesn't comfort me." Aldric deadpanned.

She nodded, you're racking up a lot of experience, but you're still new to this, so I'll give you that one. She leaned in close, examining him. Bu~ut, I can also tell that you probably just made your first body, so I won't give it long until you change your tune.

"Again..." But she interrupted him with a wave of her hand.

Oh shush, if you're worried about her, I already said she has no idea. I've seen a lot of people after their first kills, I've seen the people who can't hold it in at all and the people who can hide it so well that it's almost impossible to tell. You're about halfway between the two, leaning to the other side, but Cinder? She surrounds herself with killers, and I'm pretty sure actually hasn't yet killed, herself. So she hasn't ever seen the look or burned it into her memory. She grinned, before adding, and though I will admit to a curiosity as to whether or not that body had something to do with our little midnight rendezvous, I suppose at the moment it doesn't matter. I'll get the gory details some other time... Instead I'll point out that I definitely noticed how you avoided answering Mr. Torchwick's question. She paused a few moments, tilting her head to the side, as though listening for something. But the car's almost here, so let's wrap this up before you start answering to 'Goud' again.

Whoever you work for, be it yourself, or Cinder in your own way, or even if it's those who Cinder works against, you have a powerful ally now, just as duplicitous as you, and very interested in what it is you've accomplished in your short time.

She then lowered the phone and leaned in close to him, standing on the edge of her toes and bringing her mouth inches from his ear. "So don't... Mess... Up." And after a quick peck on his cheek, she spun on her heel and skipped away, sliding her scroll into her pocket and snatching her umbrella off of the ground.

Aldric stood there, leaned against the building that would, in its own way, kickstart the next year and everything afterwards. He didn't move for hours, silently staring at the ground, a frown on his face as his mind became a whirlwind of information and thoughts. First it was Ozpin and Qrow, then it was Adam Taurus, tentative as that was, and now it was Roman Torchwick, which could be argued as both more, and less, tentative than Taurus' hand.

For fuck's sake, he was building an army. But only a third of it had anything approaching loyalty for him, another third all but promised to betray him once their common enemy was gone, and the last one made it clear that the moment he showed weakness, they wouldn't hesitate to eat him alive.

Fuck... How does it go? Aldric thought, leaning his head back. I must be spending every day pretending to act like I'm falsely letting on that I'm not not unbetraying someone I don't not purport to allegedly not work for, but really do. Eat your fucking heart out, Revolver Ocelot, he had a lifetime of practice to make sure he did that every day and never had an aneurysm; Aldric only had six months of trials-by-fire.

He wasn't just losing control of this anymore, he'd gone and lost control entirely. He'd barely managed to stabilize it enough to keep moving forward as he'd originally intended, but one bad move, one mistake, and that was it. He needed a fallback now more than ever.

But he only had one.

He let out a long, exhausted sigh, and nodded to himself. "Tomorrow."

For the Record

I'm going to be up late tonight, so this one will be fast.

To summarize:
I passed the entrance exam (whodathunkit),
I actually had a match with Pyrrha in so doing (she kicked the ever-living shit out of me),
I've added Torchwick to the Watchmen (Holy Fucking Shit),
I think Neo may be so confident in me that she's double dealing everyone in the event that I win (Jesus Fucking Christ),
The dust store robbery that'll get Ruby Rose into Beacon is happening tonight (And so it begins).

Aaand... I'm about to do something really fucking stupid.

Welp, let's hope I don't fuck this one up.

I think something this monumentally stupid calls for a song.

So sing it with me:

We're off to see the Wizard...

The wonderful wizard of Oz...

He spent the rest of the day preparing, and waited until it was midnight on the dot before he went out. That night, he had his mask, glasses, and shemagh all secured to his head, and a single destination in mind. He took off through the cold night air like a bullet fired from a gun. It was actually further than he initially expected, taking him twenty minutes to get there at nearly mach-speeds, and he didn't land until ten minutes after he arrived - he had to scout the place out thoroughly to make sure nothing surprised him.

We hear he is a whiz of a wiz, if ever a wiz there was.

Fortunately for his first visit to Beacon, all of the huntsman teaching there, both retired and active, were catching up on their sleep, likely in preparation for the tidal wave of students they were about to be slammed with. There wasn't a single man or woman patrolling the grounds, and most importantly: Ozpin wasn't in his office. That may not have been comforting, considering the last time Aldric 'saw' him, but at least this time Aldric had been able to locate him, bunked with the rest of the teachers in their quarters.

If ever a wonderful wiz there was, the Wizard of Oz is one because -

So after he checked the grounds and the quarters five times, once even focusing his radar so closely that he could discern individual atoms in the air, and gaining confidence that there wasn't anyone patrolling the school, Aldric, with a deep breath, settled in for the long haul, and came in for a landing. There were cameras everywhere, and befitting of the importance of the building and its martial structure, there were hardly, if any, blindspots where it mattered, so Aldric didn't even bother trying to hide from them - thus why he took on the disguise. He'd probably have to abandon his beloved longcoat for something smaller after this, at least until he was out of Beacon, but he had convinced himself - or at least was praying very hard - that it would be worth it.

Because, because, because, because, becaaaaause...

The building was powered down for the night, so Aldric had to unlock and open the doors with a swipe of his hand - after making sure they weren't connected to any security systems, of course. He closed them behind him, and with his hands in his pockets and a general Rorschach-esque air, strode further inside. He walked through the cavernous, dark, and silent lobby, and past the front desk, to the elevators. The one in the center was his goal - it was the only one that went as far up as he wanted, and, his radar clued him into, also went down.

Of all of the wonderful things he does.

After resisting a mountainous urge to actually go down and see if he couldn't find what all the League had recovered from his crash site, Aldric jabbed a finger into the 'up' button. The trip up was smooth and, aside from the light groan and grind of the cables, completely silent. He was deposited into Ozpin's wide office, and spent a moment to marvel at how he wasn't deafened by all of the gears tirelessly turning all around him. Once he was done, he walked right in, to Ozpin's desk. Aside from how dark the office was, it looked just like Aldric had seen it so many times before, its touch-screen powered down, silent, and void of anything atop it.

Aldric changed that.

He reached into his coat and pulled out a small, bulky, brown paper bag. On its upward-facing side was written, in big white letters, 'CHECK EMAIL B4 OPENING'. Aldric hesitated for a moment, staring at the beg, knowing this was his last chance to back out, his last chance to try and keep going at this alone, to keep his single greatest trump card close to his chest.

He shook his head. "Down went Alice after it." He turned to face the desk, and tossed the bag on it with a light thump, that single act seeming to take all of his strength. Stowing his hand in his pocket again, he turned to the corner of the room - where he saw an unhidden security camera.

With firm, purposeful motions, he pointed at the brown paper bag, then at the camera, and then tapped on his wrist, as though he were wearing a watch. He then pulled out his scroll and slid it open; it woke up to his messaging app, already open and a draft waiting on him. Still making eye contact with the camera, Aldric tapped 'send', and then snapped the scroll in half, stowed the broken pieces in his inner pocket, and then his hand in his waist pocket, and then promptly began walking right out.

Never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.

From: PrivatePyleWhatAreYouTryingToDoToMyBelovedCorps-(a)-ScarlettMailCCT

To:OzpinHeadMast-(a)-BeaconCCT

Subject: The Scientific Method; Or - how YOUR LIFE can be saved by the miracles of post-modern thought!

Message:

I think you're close, but you're not asking the right question. Since an assumption that Earth is either A) Somewhere out there in this very universe; or B) In another universe entirely, is irrelevant due primarily to the fact that, barring an act of God, I won't return there or you won't visit there, I think the more prudent question would be to ask why do humans exist on two separate worlds, with more similarities between them than differences?

I'm not sure quite how you people do it, but mine boiled the pursuit of knowledge down to an ironclad method.
First, we ask a question, which I've done.

Then, we do research, figure out what we know.
What we know without a doubt is that humans exist simultaneously in two different locations. We know that humans and terrans both speak remarkably similar languages, with familiar grammar rules, the only difference between the two being the way it is written, and that can be boiled down to merely a locational difference. Despite that, the way we represent our numbers is completely identical.

We know that, in many areas, our technology mirrors eachother, and in others we are either behind or ahead of the other. We know that terrans and humans share many concepts with eachother, despite ostensibly having never met once before I was brought here to exchange said ideas; to the point that even many of our religions either share elements and ideals, or are functionally identical.
And finally, we know that humans and terrans have aura, despite only one planet having any sort of evolutionary imperative for the generation and use of such a thing.

Expanding on that, we know that aura is tied intrinsically to Dust, in so much that the latter is often required in some capacity to awaken or empower the former. Once awakened, is capable of things that bend, or even break, the laws of physics as we know them. Aura-users can craft realistic illusions, create clones of themselves, heal themselves, achieve relativistic speeds, manipulate the physical world without the application of physical force, and read and influence minds, with new and unprecedented abilities sprouting up at such a consistent rate it would be simpler to say 'constantly'; to say nothing of the Maidens. And that finally, it is possible for skilled aura users to sense other users.

With our research done, we then construct a hypothesis.

In this case: Humans exist in two different places, and share so many concepts and ideas primarily due to the influence of Dust.

From here, we test this with an experiment.
In this case, the experiment would be one world, in some way, making contact with the other.

This has empirically happened twice, and conjecturally: Thrice.

The empirical evidence we have of our worlds interacting is first in myself. The first conjectural evidence we would have would be if we, due to the similarities between the Maidens and myself, assume that the original Master was indeed a terran and thus from Earth.

As for the second empirical evidence of contact, I have no doubt you discovered a package in your office alongside this message.
Open the box, and inside you will find terran technology. The small black brick with a wire running out of it is something I modified myself, so as to ensure the device can safely be connected to Remnant power grids and regain its charge. The large slate in the green sleeve is known as a 'tablet computer', think of it like you would a large scroll. On one end you will find port you will plug the smaller end of the wire into should it ever need a full charge. On the other is a headphone jack, which will be useless to you - I am yet unsure if your analog headphones would work with my technology, and I only have one pair of terran headphones, which I will keep, hopefully for obvious reasons.

On its side is the important parts. Orient the tablet such that the headphone jack is on top, that is the upright position. Once upright, on the tablet's right-hand side are three buttons, the one closest to the top is the power button.

And while not relevant at this very moment, this will be useful later: On the left-hand side of the tablet, closer to the bottom, is a small hatch that can be pried open. Inside that is a card that stores the data you'll be accessing here in a moment. To remove it, merely press on the card until you hear it click, and then let go - it will slide far enough out that you can pull it the rest of the way.

Hold the power button until the screen lights up, and once the computer inside is finished booting up, you will find that it functions similarly to scrolls. Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to unlock the device; the code is 0-6-3-6.
I have purged most of the data except for what you will need right now, anything left that I don't explicitly mention here was left on accident, call it a gift if you wish. If at a later date you require or desire the less relevant data I possess, I can see about arranging a delivery. At the bottom right-hand corner of the screen you will see several icons, select the one labeled 'camera roll', with a picture of a camera in front of a picture frame over it.

Before you follow the next instructions, I will preface this by saying I am not a programmer. Everything I've learned since I got to Remnant has been self taught, and I haven't yet figured out how to make terran tech and human tech interface. Resultantly: The files you will find on this device originated from Earth, and years before I arrived here, at that.

There will only be one folder, labeled 'Video', and in that folder, only five files. Four are relevant, but I included the one labeled 'WOR' for posterity and transparency's sake. Select the one at the bottom of the list labeled 'Volume One'. Choosing to view 'Volume Two', 'Volume Three', and 'Volume Four' can be done at your own discretion afterwords, but for the moment, only the first file is required. Everything following this will be written under the assumption that you will have followed all directions thus far written, and have finished the file labeled 'Volume One'.

...

Now that you're finished, I will once again repeat: That file, everything you just saw, came from Earth. From one of my people.
And if I'm right, then those beginning few minutes - in which you met Little Red Riding Hood and invited her to your school - either have already happened, or will happen in mere days, at the absolute latest.

I believe this - and the rest of the files I included - to be evidence of further contact between my world and yours, and perhaps even explanatory of a few questions we still have lingering about how the White Witch located Earth and was able to pull terrans from it. On Earth, we believed this to be a work of fiction, and whether we exist concurrently in the same universe, or in two different realities altogether, that supposition clearly wasn't correct, and this ties into the final steps of the method:

Analyze the data and draw conclusions, and I believe these files can allow us to do just that, with far greater accuracy than we can without.

Common religious belief on Remnant is that people were born from Dust, and that it has as many physical properties as metaphysical ones, and due to Dust's intrinsic relationship with Aura, and humanity's relationship with both of them, I believe we can conclude that on some level this is true: That Dust led to humanity's evolution, and, as an aside, the absence of it on Earth could potentially explain the stark lack of terran faunus.

With this conclusion, we can move forward to understanding how it is we share so many concepts: The very Dust we were born from bred the same species in two different environments. It controlled most of the variables of said birth, and from it, the people of Remnant drew most, and if not, all of their current scientific and technological breakthroughs, starting with the utilization of our Aura. One could take this to imply and indicate that Dust not only birthed our species, but similarly a great many of our scientific concepts, and perhaps even our very concept of society as we know, understand, and experience it.

To wit: All of these shared ideas and concepts exist in two very different environments specifically because they existed in the one thing our species invariably have in common: Dust.

The question of 'then where did Dust get those ideas' can be left for a later date, as it may be anywhere from theological to perhaps even extraterrestrial in nature.

Back to point, there is no better proof of the above than the files I just had you watch.
Here we must make just one assumption, but considering out previous correspondence and indeed empirical evidence, this assumption wouldn't be an outlandish one to make.

Since we believe - or at least theorize and are assuming - that the original Master was a terran, that thusly means it is possible to awaken Aura on Earth, albeit it is difficult, due to the vast difference in quantities of Dust between our planets. Since it happened once, that means it isn't impossible for it to happen a second time - and I believe, in this case, it very well did happen again.

The 'creator' of this 'show' awoke his aura, and whereas what is left when my powers seal themselves up is a telekinetic ability, his could have been one of foresight. The exact machinations of this foresight (my leading theories are tachyonic literacy or the ability to read Dust itself) are semantics, as they both lead to the same conclusion: He saw the future, and since such an ability would lead itself to functional omniscience, it doesn't become difficult to conclude he saw the futures of Remnant and Earth.

Exactly why he chose to make a literal show out of it, we may never know. Perhaps he saw the futures of Earth and Remnant were both linked and sought to warn the terrans of what it was he saw in the only way we would accept the information at face value: As a form of fiction. Or perhaps he didn't understand exactly what was happening, and merely attributed it all to the creative muse. Perhaps both at the same time, perhaps it is somewhere in the middle.

But, if we accept that he awoke his aura, then something else falls into place: The White Witch discovered Earth because another Aura-user, of strength and power reminiscent - and perhaps greater than - the four Maidens and the original Master, awoke his power, acting as (if you'll forgive the term) a beacon of sorts, one only those powerful enough could sense. The White Witch took this information, and Ancient Dust, to create an easier method of observing and studying my planet, and eventually discovered and executed a way to physically reach into it and pull out a small population of terrans, leading to the accident that crashed my plane and left me the sole surviving terran on Remnant, and everything that happened afterwards - also explaining why the events depicted in the files I sent will differ in ways either small or huge, from what we have experienced now: The future changed because he looked into it.

To summarize:
Whether or not we share a universe, our worlds are empirically and conjecturally linked, and this link is why humans exist in such identical ways, despite the vast distance that separates us.

Now, as I am certain you will ask: Why am I giving this to you?
I could say that it's because I trust you, and while therein does lay some truth, a vast majority of that truth instead lies in that it's because I've come to the conclusion that failing to do so would be tantamount to supporting the enemy more than I already am.

On my world we have a saying, that with great power must also come great responsibility. It means that if you have the power to do something, to improve a life, it is your moral obligation to bear whatever burden you must and do so. If you don't, and something adverse happens as a result, it happened because you failed to intervene; but the inverse is also true: If you have power, and tried your best, and something still happened, you can take some small solace in the idea that you at least tried.

That's what I'm doing here: Trying.
With the nature of my work, I could be made and killed at any given moment - verily, I've come closer in the last few weeks than I have since I first contacted you - and if I die without giving you the information I have, then every single life that is lost is on my shoulders, as a result. But if I instead give you this information, and then I die, at the very least someone can take on my work and use that information for the betterment of mankind. Even if the future has already changed so as to be unrecognizable, and that information is only useful as reference material, that doesn't diminish its value, but rather changes the way it is valuable.

While I work in the dark, Ozbourne, and use it in my own way, you, who work in the light, can use it in your own way.

And, while I have every confidence that you are smart enough to realize this, I do feel it still needs to be said: Beyond Crowley, whom I would only include due to him already being in the know, what you have cannot be allowed to spread too far.

I personally would say at all, but considering the weight of it, and indeed what I'm doing right now, I would instead say: To anyone with whom you don't trust your very existence, or the entire success of your plan.

It has to be eyes only. There is only one other copy in the world of the data you have - and I specifically keep it stored in a medium that is removed from devices that can read it, and on my person at all times. If it spreads, the damage wouldn't be catastrophic, it would be downright apocalyptic - especially if we operate under the assumption that those files serve as a warning, and that both of our worlds are in some sort of danger.

And finally, as I know it will be brought up:
Yes. This means I lied to you on at least two occasions, and indeed could have tried to spare Her, if not of the encounter entirely, then at least during said encounter. Indeed it's arguable that my actions left Her in a worse state than she would have, without me.

I make no excuses, I only offer up this as an explanation. More than once I found myself in a discussion as to the ethics of our deployment of the first and second atomic bombs during World War 2, and my argument never shifted, in that, while the heinous nature isn't in question, there do exist 'necessary' evils.
To wit: While I know, understand, and accept, that the act of taking a life is in and of itself evil no matter the context, if taking said life saves more than would be lost by sparing it, then ending that life becomes a necessary evil.

I affirmed this belief when I voluntarily chose to work with Lady In Red, under the understanding that I could do more good by staining my soul and taking evil unto me, than I could by deliberately avoiding it in service of seeking a moral high ground.

To that effect: With what you knew at the start of the day, and what you will know once you finish going over my files, try to imagine only what would have happened if I had prevented Lady In Red from taking Her powers entirely. Even if you ignore the fact that such an act may have rendered my contacting you impossible - or at the very least incredibly difficult - and the risk to my own life it would create, I am certain that her plan to attack and destroy Beacon would have resulted in far more casualties and lives lost, as she would have forced it to continue for as long as it took her to hunt Her down and steal Her abilities. Following that, the fear and negative emotions such a tremendous loss of life would create, would cause a domino effect across all of Remnant, making the Grimm more powerful and more violent, resulting in even more lives lost, and around and around the circle goes, until it ends at perhaps a greater ease with which she could topple other academies and kingdoms.

And that's just if I rescued Her. Say I killed or otherwise removed Cresset from play (As an aside, I believe I have secured his alliance as well, but I would hold him at a greater length than Red Bull, due to the former's opportunistic inclinations) - a power vacuum and a gang war would be the result. People would die, and she would use the chaos to more easily steal Vale's Dust - likely with less skilled gangs, who thusly would end up killing more during the process. And, of course, the Grimm would feed off of the despair such losses of life would generate.
If I made or make any hugely major changes that may give us gains in the short run, we could very well find that those gains outweigh what it costs us down the line.

So, you can understand why I didn't initially give you two the information I have. I wasn't then - and honestly am still not - fully sure the benefits gained by sharing this information with you would outweigh what interacting with the very fabric of time would inevitably cost us; but as I said, I feel it is my duty to share with you this information, such that it does not die with me in the event of my death.
And whatever damage it may do to your image of me, I also had to be sure, beyond the shadow of any doubt, that those events truly were indicative of the future, and not merely a potential outcome among many. Thus, why - among others - I had to allow our battle with Her to take place.

You said you read about the Manhattan project, and perhaps that will summarize the 'why' of this nicely: What I just gave you is the information equivalent to a nuclear bomb. Anyone with it has to be precisely careful in the way they use it, up to and including the way they would consider using it - because once it is used, the war they're fighting ceases to be recognizable, for better or for worse.

Anecdotally, what you may not know about that project is, initially, the numbers pointed to the bomb (among the weakest of its kind, as technology has advanced) being capable of lighting our entire atmosphere on fire - obviously killing every single living thing on Earth - if detonated.
People often like to follow that up with, 'and they did it anyway', and that is indeed a valid lesson to be taught: Sometimes the situation is dire enough that extreme force and a sudden, drastic, and irrevocable change to everything as we know it, is warranted in the effort to fix it.

But what few know and fewer point out is that the man who was the driving force for the science behind the bomb, was confronted with these numbers. His response to them was to command the scientists who got the numbers to check them again, and then check a third time. He said that if they didn't change at all, he would do what he had to to ensure the project was abandoned and buried forever, because defeat was a preferable outcome to that.

I hope you understand what I'm implying.

-Nathan Drake