Remnants of WAAR (Book 2)

WAAR and PEAC

Ruby POV

We sit at the cafeteria table eating breakfast. Me and my team. Who is team, you ask? Only the best team in all of Beacon history!

Team RWBY!!!

We're talking about how we should prepare for our field trip tomorrow. Another Professor Peach assignment. We should know where we're going and what kind of Grimm to expect. Aside from the usual ursai and beowulves.

Yang: Fire dust, for sure!
Weiss: And blow up the whole forest? Ice dust should be effective and safer.
Me: Nah! Lightning! It looks so cool.
Blake: I'd rather not get electrocuted.

We talk amongst ourselves for about 3 minutes. Then we hear someone clear their throat. We look over and see team WAAR smiling awkwardly at us. Well, most of them. Ever since we learned the truth about them at the docks a few weeks ago, John has hardly been seen. I've only seen him sitting in the far corners of classroom's. As for the rest of them, I guess they feel guilty for putting us through it and they feel weird talking to us.

They shouldn't. They're our friends. They were trying to protect us. They didn't want what happened to their world to happen to ours.

Arthur: Mind if we sit here?
Yang: Not at all!

They take their seats by us. We had a lot of questions that we wanted answered. But, for their sake, we'll take it slow.

Me: So, totally out of the blue, but how did you enter your wars?
Alex: John and I lied about our age for personal glory.
Arthur: There was a draft and I guess the government thought they could get away with sending a 17 year old.
Dick: I actually joined the Marines at the legal age of 18. They normally don't send fresh recruits, but someone in the government screwed up with the paperwork. Next I know, I'm shipped off to Iraq under the mistaken assumption that I'm a lieutenant.

Wow. John and Alex chose to go to war, but Arthur and Richard were forced to go. I don't even know what to say.

Blake: How's John doing?
Dick: He hasn't spoken a word since the docks.

He really feels guilty. He needs to know that we forgive him.

???: Ahem, uh... vould it be alvight if we sat here?

We all turn and see four students standing behind us with trays.

Dick: Well well, if it isn't team PEAC (peace).

Team PEAC arrived around the same time as the dock incident. They went through "transfer" initiation about two weeks ago. I use quotations there because, like team WAAR, team PEAC are also from Earth.

Their leader, Penrich, was a soldier in the Imperial German Army, the soldiers John was fighting in the memory we saw.

Alex's country was at war with two other armies. The Nazis, and Eniko's army, the Imperial Japanese Army.

Alexi's country, the Soviet Union, was, in a sense, responsible for Arthur's war in the country of Vietnam.

Cohad was a member of something called the "Iraqi Coalition", which was the army that Richard had to fight.

WAAR and PEAC. Enemies on Earth.

Yet here they treat each other as brothers.

Alex: Feel free to sit where you choose!
Penrich: Danke, Komraden.

They take a seat and start talking to each other. When team WAAR told us who team PEAC were, I found it odd that they would treat their enemies as friends. Then one day it hit me. They were only enemies because their leaders told them to be. They don't have anything against each other personally.

In fact, most of team PEAC has actually helped team WAAR in some way. The German we saw spare John in his memory? That was Penrich. Alex has a brother fighting the Japanese. Eniko had saved his life. Cohad found Richard injured in a small place called Tikrit and provided him aid.

When team PEAC arrived on Remnant, they had more questions than team WAAR did. Like naming the teams.

Alexi: Why is it WAAR when you're leaders name starts with a J?
Arthur: His middle name is Winston.
Alexi: Ah.

We talk for 10 minutes. Except for Blake. Like John, she hasn't been the same since the docks. She eventually gets up from the table.

Eniko: Are you well, Blake?
Blake:... Alex?
Alex: Yeah?
Blake: When you see John, tell him I don't blame him for what happened. Anyone who can go through that and come out the same... isn't human.

She walks off.

Arthur: That's... very understanding. A lot of people from my time treat veterans horribly when they come back.
Dick: Yeah. Life for you Vietnam veterans was rough. You go through such atrocities and return home to be abused by the populace.

That must be hard. Even more so when you learn that before his war he was discriminated because of his skin color, similar to how faunus are discriminated for having animal traits.

Cohad: Oh my...
Dick: What is it?

Cohad reads the newspaper he has in his hand out loud.

Cohad: "Police are investigating the murder of the owner of 'Tucson's book trade'".
Yang: That's awful...
Cohad: There's more... "The victim is believed to be an ex-White Fang member.".
Weiss: Now the White Fang is murdering anyone who leaves them?!
Eniko: It appears so...
Penrich: The White Fang? Aren't they terrorists?
Me: Yeah. Terrorists with a legit cause.
Alexi: Do we tell Blake?
Alex: She'll find out regardless.

We eat the rest of our breakfast in relative silence, with small talk lasting a minute.