Agree To Disagree



As soon as she got into her police cruiser, Rose turned on the FM radio and tuned it to a local news station. She left the police radio on, but mentally tuned it out, focusing instead on the news about the attack. There were a few hard numbers- at least a hundred dead, many more injured. A few names were thrown around- the White Fang, Roman Torchwick, Cinder Fall, and Team RWBY. Remnant. A lot of speculation and a lot of fearmongering.



Confused thoughts swirled around her mind. Was Remnant really another world somewhere out there? She wasn't crazy? All those flashes of things she'd long discounted as spasms of a damaged mind had actually happened? Were those really her daughters? Who the hell decided to make an animation out of it?Had she really once been a Huntress on another world?



She needed to know if there was some authority to go to. A brief mention of Army attack helicopters piqued her interest. She knew the response time for those were slow- she didn't remember how slow, but it was slow- so there was a good possibility the government had some kind of advance warning. Maybe the Feds would know more. And if not, they'd hopefully at least believe her story enough to look into it again.



It was not uncommon for local police officers to visit the FBI office on official business, so nobody paid much attention when she pulled her police cruiser into the parking lot. She parked, shut off the engine, stepped out, and locked the door behind her before heading toward the FBI office.



The lobby seemed busier than usual, though maybe the few times she'd been there before were just slow days. She pushed past a line of civilians and approached a serious-looking man behind desk. She knew from before that he was a sworn agent and not a secretary.



Rose didn't give him a chance to speak. “I have potential information about the attack in Washington.”



“May I ask what kind of information you have?” the agent asked, all business. Coming from anyone, it would be something he'd have to take seriously. Coming from a police officer doubly so. “Is this from your department or yourself?”



“It's... kind of complicated.” She took a deep breath. “I've identified a person of interest who might be from Remnant.”



“Come with me.” He stood and lead her through a door into a maze of desks and cubicles. The federal version of my own precinct, she thought to herself. They passed throngs of busy agents and stepped into a glassed-in office near the edge of the room. A pale-skinned man with glasses a size too small sat at his desk, busy poking away on his computer.



“Carl, I have an NYPD Officer who says she has the possible identity on a person from Remnant.” the front desk agent told him. He said to Rose, “Special Agent Cooper is the closest thing we have to an expert on this sort of thing.”



“Alright, no sense fucking around,” Cooper said to Rose, taking off his glasses and placing them on his desk. “Who is our mystery man?”



“Mystery woman, actually.” She took a seat across from the FBI agent and spread her arms dramatically. “Me.”



He asked flatly, “Explain.”



“Ten years ago, I woke up in a hospital with next to no memory of what happened before. I joined the force after completely failing to find out where I came from or who I was.” She reached into a pocket on her uniform and retrieved a small flat object. “This was one of the few things I had on me.”



Cooper inspected the artifact, a photograph that had clearly shown better days. A woman with silver eyes and red-and-white striped hair sat with a black and red haired toddler in her lap, with a young violet-eyed blond standing in front of them. Behind them was a large blonde man with a broad smile. The agent gingerly turned it over. Usually photographic paper had the brand labelled on the back, as opposed to printer paper which usually didn't-



“Don't bother, it's a copy,” Rose interrupted, realizing what he was doing. “I keep the original in a safe, I'm not stupid. But if you're curious, the original has light blue stylized snowflakes on the back. It's probably just a seasonal pattern or something, but it always makes me think of Nazis.”



He asked skeptically, “Is this supposed to be you in the photo?”



“I dye my hair, and I've been through some shit since then. Whatever erased my memory did a number on my body, too,” she answered quickly. “The girl sitting on me is Ruby Rose, the other one is Yang Xiao Long, the guy is Taiyang and I'm pretty sure he's my husband. I've always known the names, and I know they're my kids even though I don't remember ever meeting them. I also remember Raven and Qrow Branwen- I guess they're siblings- but they're not in the picture.”



“Damn. Your story would be incredible if it was true,” Cooper said slowly, after a moment of consideration. “I want to believe you, but a photo and a story just isn't enough to go on. With that being said, we have standing orders to take anything seriously. So I'm going to look into your history, and I'm gonna pass this upstairs and see what they can do.”



“I guess that's all I can ask,” Rose admitted. She stood to leave. “Thank you, Special Agent.”



* * * * *



Remnant was a hot topic, and the airwaves were flooded with views of the new world from every angle. Everyone wanted to cover either the attack or its wider implications, and Discovery Channel was no exception, airing a hastily put together special instead of its normal programming.



“A lot of people are discussing the philosophy, the spirituality of Aura, but what do you think from a scientific point of view?” the show's presenter asked her guest.



The guest in question was a moderately well-known science communicator who had in fact only arrived at the studio an hour before. He'd been offered a large sum of money to come in on such short notice, but part of him would have done it for free. “First of all, it's important to mention the popular definition of Aura. An extension of our soul that protects us from harm. Try to ignore it.”



“You disagree with that definition, even though it's been confirmed as the general Remnan understanding?” She feigned surprise, but as a scientifically inclined individual herself, expected the response.



“It's not that the statement is necessarily incorrect, but even discounting veracity for a moment, without knowledge of the cultural context, the definitions, the wording, it's useless. What do they mean by soul? What do they mean by expression? It's a scientifically meaningless statement. In other words, it's not even wrong.”



“So, if that's not Aura, what is it?”



“At this point? Speculation.” He laughed. “We can infer a fair deal about its effects from publicly available footage. It does indeed appear to act as a forcefield, preventing kinetic impacts and thermal effects from affecting the user. It may or may not protect their weapons and clothing. It is definitely limited, but we don't know what happens when Aura runs out.



“But where it comes from and how it works? Those are far more nebulous questions. It's likely to be some sort of energy field, which to an actual scientist is nearly a meaningless concept without knowledge of what type of energy or what type of field. This is the kind of thing that could take years of dedicated study and might even open up new branches of science to figure out.



“Where it comes from? The fact that it is something they have and we do not implies that this is inherent to Remnan physiology or granted by some natural or artificial process on their world that we do not know about. Perhaps it is indeed produced intrinsically via some totally unknown mechanism. There are many ideas out there. Some can be formulated as legitimate scientific hypotheses. If that all sounds very vague, well, it is. None are currently provable and few are currently disprovable.”



“You mentioned publicly available knowledge,” the host mentioned. “Is it reasonable to assume that top secret government labs have already been asking these questions and might even have answers?”



“I would be very surprised if they hadn't been investigating this, and I'd be nearly as surprised if they managed to come up with any meaningful answers.”



“So, what about Dust? Do we have any idea what this could be?”



“We have confirmation of the basic types: Fire, Freeze, Wind, and Lightning. We know it can be composited. We know the effects are very similar to what one would expect from the names. It appears that the reactions of Fire and Lightning are quite energetic, Wind probably so, and Freeze somehow endothermic.”



“But what is it?” Again, she knew her guest probably didn't have an answer, but she also knew this was the question her viewers were no doubt screaming at their screens.



“We have yet to see the substance itself; only its effects. There's simply not enough there to speculate on. We can guess that it's a crystal, and that it's made of something we haven't seen before, but even those very basic postulates are guesses. I don't even feel safe speculating whether it is a source of energy or a moderator of energy transfer. Again, this is new, undiscovered territory for us.”



“Let's consider something else for a moment,” the host said. “What if this isn't anything scientific at all? What if it truly is magic?”



“There's no such thing as magic,” he refuted in response. “There is what we understand and what we do not yet understand. We apply labels to these, but really the only thing separating supposed magic from science is that one is established and one is unknown. Throughout history, magic has always become science at some point.”



“So, hypothetically, if wizards existed and were casting spells-”



“If we can describe it scientifically, it becomes science. Even the most fantastical magic is bound by its own laws. Describing those laws is by definition science. As odd as this may sound, if we insist on applying the label of magic here, we could literally have the science of magic.”



“Finally, if you could meet a Remnan scientist, what would be the most burning question that you would ask them?”



“I'd ask them if they're as underfunded as we are,” he quipped with a laugh. “But honestly, there's so much to ask, and it would be a struggle to get a word in edgewise over their questions.”



* * * * *



On another channel, this one a general news channel, the journalistic staff also scrambled to bring in Remnant-related content. They were in a fortuitous position. They had a professor from Harvard University who was supposed to be talking about the philanthropy of Pope Francis. It was not too difficult to persuade him to talk about Remnant instead, though they did have to sweeten the deal a bit.



“Good morning, America. I'm here with Professor Alexander, a leading lecturer on philosophy and theology at Harvard University,” the anchorman introduced. “Both the Pope and the Dalai Lama have released statements today. Now, what's happened is definitely affecting how we see things spiritually. Could you give us some context on that, professor?”



“I think a lot of people are reevaluating their beliefs, yes, but I don't think we're going to suddenly become a nation of atheists,” the professor replied. “It's definitely a time for reflection, for reconsideration, but hardly one to abandon belief in a higher power. People are trying to fit this new knowledge into their worldview rather than the opposite.”



“Could you elaborate on that?”



“Certainly. Some Christians argue that the Bible is the story of Man and God on Earth and does not apply to the Remnans, while others argue the virtual opposite. Some denominations already have no problem with other intelligent life, as well as Islam and most Eastern religions. Others see these people as an extension of humanity, bound in the same way. There are many perspectives to take that do not run counter to what we believe or what we see in front of us.”



The anchorman forced a topic change, worried about time. “What about Aura? It's said to be a reflection of one's soul. How does this change and not change things?”



“On the surface, it would seem to confirm the existence of a soul and our lack of a soul. But I don't believe I'm a soulless husk, and neither to many others. And of the ones that do, I doubt most would believe Remnans would have one if we do not. We cannot conclude its true nature from unsupported statements.”



“So you think that we, who have just encountered Aura, have a better understanding than Remnan scientists, who have studied it for a very long time?”



“Not necessarily. My experience with hard science is limited to the periphery of it, but I would be very surprised if any scientist took what we know at face value. We don't have a proper scientific consensus from Remnant, but only unsupported statements and non-expert opinion. In fact, this isn't a matter of science but of communication.”



“But, if we do take a spiritual view of Aura for a moment, why, then, might they have it and might we not?”



“Well, some Christian groups are saying that this is something given by God to fight the darkness as some sort of test or challenge. I'm not sure if anyone has taken this position- it's more like something from neo-Pagan or Eastern philosophy- but it could be explained as some kind of symbiotic interaction with their world, balancing out the evil of the Grimm. It's poetic if nothing else.”



* * * * *



Sam like to think of himself as a pretty average young adult, but he had to admit that some of the dreams he had were fucking weird. Unfortunately, he forgot most of them upon waking up, only remembering how strange the experience had been. This case was no exception.



An excited voice rousted him from his slumber, any memory of his odd dream going with it. “Sam, Sam, wake up!”



“Whaaat?” Sam drawled groggily. Immediately, he realized that waiting room seats were not great things to sleep in, because he was sore in places he hadn't realized it was possible to be sore in.



“They're starting to fly out of here again!” Cliff said excitedly, clearly not suffering from the same issues he was.



He managed to form a cohesive sentence. “Is our flight flying out?”



The response was awkward. “Well, no.”



Sam fumbled with his phone, checking the time and finding it not to his satisfaction. “I'm going back to sleep.”



* * * * *



Facebook.com - The Official Student and Staff Announcement, Communication, Page of the Mos



Vicki Lee

I think we might have went to school with Team RWBY. I'm probably going to say too much and things I shouldn't say, and maybe I'm insane, but here goes.



Anna Weiss is Weiss Schnee. I mean, now that I've seen pictures, it's pretty obvious. I mean that's literally Anna with a ponytail. I never saw the scar but I think you can cover that up with makeup. She's also amazing with a sword (long story) and She talked like she was rich and important but not anymore.



Bella Blake is Blake Belladonna (such a great name lol). She was pretty quiet. And always wore a hat.



I never really knew Ruby Jones so I can't really say if she's Ruby Rose or not. Anna said she was her best friend, though. I guess... maybe?



Linda Anderson always went by Yang which I thought was pretty weird until she told me she was from Richmond. I always figured she just had Chinese friends or something. The only weird thing is that her eyes are a different colour.



Am I crazy?



Harrold Yeung

Does it bother anyone else that we went to school with aliens that could have pounded us into paste?

Janit Tan

yes!

WahpreetWillow Amrit

But they weren't aliens to us. They were just normal teenagers like us, and maybe they were a bit weird but so are a lot of other groups on the fringes of our society. I think that despite all that's different there's a lot of common ground. And those of us that knew them knew them as Ruby and Bella and Linda and Anna and not some weird superpowered aliens from the planet Remnant.

Sam Tilley

So that's why Bella always wore that stupid hat!

Aaron Wong

Hah! I knew it! I always figured there was something weird about those girls. Also, yeah, Gavin Lloyd met Linda down here and it turns out she's actually Yang.

Jeff Llelewn

Wait, what?

Aaron Wong

Exactly what it sounds like, dude.

Frank Fletcher

The hair color is wrong.

Daemon Brooker

Hair dye is a thing you idiot. Also, it's spelt colour.

Aaron Wong

Coloured contacts and hair dye.

Darrel Fletcher

One time I was in the gym and I thought I saw a blonde girl lifting like two hundred pounds. I guess these people are fucking strong.

Aaron Wong

Haha yeah I remember that. It was Yang. Blake was pretty good too I think.

Jon Edward Tang

maybe its not the best time to mention it but the title is still cut off



* * * *



You may notice that this series of chapters is not entirely linear. It's a deliberate experiment in anachronic order... okay, no, it isn't, I just screwed up. Also, I know the New York field office is actually a highrise.