Due to understandably negative feedback, I've rewritten this chapter. This is the new version, which is meant to fix a lot of the incompetence, but I feel it also works better dramatically.

23: Crossing The Divide

Although they didn't get a clear answer on what would happen when they got there, the nine Remnans soon found themselves in a police convoy heading in the direction of the portal at high speed. Rose had a sneaking suspicion that they weren't going to be let anywhere near it, let alone through it, but kept that to herself. Most likely, they would want them to help communicate with the other side, not make physical contact.

"Wow, Chilliwack really isn't that far away when there's no traffic," Yang commented lightly. "Well, I mean, there's traffic, but..."

"Yeah, the siren really comes in handy. I can't count the number of times I've used it to cut through traffic to get the donut shop," Rose joked back.

The car came to a stop, and they stepped out into the parking lot. Chilliwack's small municipal airport was now a hub of official activity. RCMP officers stood guard, blocking the roads and keeping civilians away. Among the light planes that normally used the airport were several helicopters with US, Canadian, and British markings, as well as C-130 and C-17 cargo aircraft.

Their police escort showed his badge to one of the RCMP officers, and he directed them toward the small terminal building. It was abuzz with activity, with police, military, and civilians setting up equipment wherever it would fit. A group of tough-looking men in combat gear sat in the airport coffee shop.

"The military is turning Chilliwack airport into a full-on forward operating base," Iverson explained to them, standing up and putting down his laptop. "It's the closest airstrip to the portal, so a lot is going to be brought in by air through here or Abbotsford."

"So, when are we going through the portal?" Ruby asked eagerly.

"I can't give you an answer for that," he replied. "There's a lot of things we have to go through first."

"Like what?"

An officer wearing the insignia of a Canadian Army Colonel glanced at Iverson. He nodded in reply.

"We've started broadcasting the welcome message," the Colonel answered. "We're listening on every band we can and we're hoping to hear a response- if that happens, it's above my pay grade and we go from there. If that doesn't work, NASA is prepping a special aircraft to conduct initial recon. The US Air Force might bring in Rivet Joint, too."

"Wait, NASA?" Ruby asked. "The space people?"

"National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It's complicated. I don't know the specifics myself; it's classified."

"So what's between us and the portal?" Rose asked.

"Right now, police. The 75th Ranger Regiment will be there within the hour. First heavy unit will be BATUS by the end of the day, along with a Marine unit and our own reserves by the end of tomorrow. Air support is already here, from our air force and the US Navy," he answered. "We can take care of a few stragglers. We have the high ground and the terrain favours us. Worst case, we pull back toward Chilliwack and push back to the portal once heavier equipment arrives."

"I'm afraid there's nothing we can do but wait," Iverson told the disappointed Remnans. "However, we're about to bring a 747 home. You're welcome to listen in."

Forty-thousand feet above a red forest, a Boeing 747-400 circled quickly in a loose holding pattern. The pilots had been advised to climb and accelerate, and they did so immediately. Soon after, they'd been joined by a pair of CF-18 Hornet fighter aircraft.

"Okay, Speedbird eight-four, our priority is to get you home," the pilot of the lead fighter told them over the radio. "I'm going to try penetrating the anomaly. If I can make it back through, I'll radio you from the other side. It'll be your call whether you take your plane through behind me, but your only other option will be to find a place to land here."

"Copy that, Hawk Lead," Nigel acknowledged. "Good luck, mate."

The CF-18 disengaged, leaving his wingman with the 747. He banked to the left and accelerated, white trails forming as he tickled the edge of the sound barrier. Within thirty seconds, he disappeared from view.

"You know, they never told us if this is actually Remnant," Howard mentioned.

"I don't know if they know."

"A hundred quid if it turns out, then."

Nigel considered it for a moment. "Not going to take you up on it. It's a-"

"Speedbird eight-four, this is Hawk Lead back on Earth," the fighter pilot called. "The ride was slightly bumpy but we made it back fine."

"Copy that, lead. Speedbird eight-four, coming home." Nigel eased the yoke over, banking the plane in a far more gentle emulation of the fighter's maneuver. That put them on a straight course for the portal. He was tempted to throttle back and slow the airliner, but the fighter pilot had gone through and he wanted to match what the other pilot had done as closely as possible.

They hit the anomaly at high speed, passing through in under a second. The plane bumped up and down again like it had hit a sudden burst of turbulence. The strange red forest disappeared, replaced with the emerald green forests of British Columbia.

"Vancouver Tower, Speedbird eight-four," Nigel called giddily. "We're back in Terran airspace, request a vector for landing."

"...desire peaceful dialogue and await your response."

Headmaster Ozpin leaned back in his chair as the recording ended. It was the third time he listened the broadcast, and again he found himself curious and enthralled. He was fairly sure it was not a hoax. It could be the most profound transmission ever heard in all of history. "Hmm..."

"It is quite the thing, isn't it?" a strong voice called.

"Back so soon, James?" Ozpin asked, turning in his chair as General Ironwood entered the room. "I half expected you to have penetrated the anomaly with guns blazing by now."

"I could have moved in and secured the anomaly, by all means necessary," Ironwood told his old friend. "It might have even been the best course of action. Technically, I have standing orders to do so. But I hesitated. Now I have people screaming at me to move in and people pushing at me to pull back."

"And because you have hesitated, we are now able to open dialogue with the people on the other side of that portal," Ozpin reminded him.

"Yes, and probably lost our best chance at taking Earth." The general sighed. "We've lost the initiative, and more importantly everyone's heard the broadcast. There would be hell to pay if we started a war. And if they're lying, if they're gearing up to invade us, then every second we wait is a second of preparation for them."

He raised an eyebrow. "Certainly we should view them with some suspicion, but open hostility?"

"If you could snatch a safe haven out of the hands of primitives with minimal losses, wouldn't you?" Ironwood asked rhetorically. "Except now we know they're at least advanced enough to send us radio messages." Tell me I made the right choice, Oz.

"I've sent a team of some of my best huntsmen and some of my most promising students to secure the anomaly," the Headmaster told him instead of answering. "Hopefully, they will make peaceful contact. If not, I'm sure they will be able to defend themselves."

"Without any official sanction?" Ironwood asked, surprised. "Are you sure that's a good idea? The Council is not going to be happy."

Ozpin's reply was calm. "The Council already is dissatisfied with me. You said it yourself, James. Many are asking for war, and in fact your standing orders are to start one. We must ascertain the true intentions of these Earthers as soon as possible."

"Are you sure it's not going to turn out a mistake? You might be jumping the gun here, Oz."

"Were your not so eager to launch an invasion only a moment ago? Better the ambassadors first than the invaders." Ozpin paused. "History will be the judge, James. We must simply wait."

"We have contact."

As soon as the announcement was made, the loud, bustling airport terminal turned silent.

"They've returned our call on our frequency," Iverson explained, bringing up a digital recording for the others to hear. "We just picked this up from our forward-deployed radios."

"Greetings, people of Earth. I am Headmaster Ozpin, representing the people of Remnant for the time being. I have dispatched a team of our best to secure the portal and make contact with the people of Earth." a familiar voice crackled.

"That's Headmaster Ozpin!" Nora shouted redundantly.

"The people you will meet will be hunters, the protectors of our world," the Headmaster continued. "They will be armed, but you must understand that our world is dangerous, and that they are armed merely for the purpose of self-defence. In fact, I advise you proceed cautiously. The Creatures of Grimm are monsters that inhabit our world and..."

"They're expecting us to meet them on their world," Iverson explained.

"Do we drop the bombshell on them?" Rose asked. "That we already know and that we're standing here ready to go back?"

"No," Iverson said. "Not over an open channel." He turned to a woman wearing the distinctive camouflage of the Canadian Forces. "We stick to the script. Give them the cryptic reply. We have some knowledge of their world and look forward to meeting them."

"Yes, sir."

"Colonel Hale, what do you think?"

"It's a complicated situation, sir," a heavily armed man in CADPAT told him. "We have to strike a balance between protecting our men and not appearing too aggressive to the Remnans."

Seeing the perplexed look of RWBY, Iverson explained, "Colonel Hale is leading the military contact team."

He nodded. "We're going to have to meet them either on Remnant or barely on Earth, so we'll need to take position near the portal. We can try to meet them before they meet the bulk of our forces, but that will leave us vulnerable. Best bet is to go out front with limited air and armour support, but the rest of it behind enough that the Remnans won't see them yet close enough that they can move to support us."

"We don't have a lot out there yet," Iverson reminded him.

"Yes, sir. But we do have the Apaches, and those are second only to the AC-130 for close support. If things get too hot, we'll retreat and wait for the cavalry to arrive. That's why we stick close to the portal and that's why we stay mobile." He paused. "Of course, this all hinges on the portal being traversable. We know it can be done at speed and altitude, but we'll have to try it with the MALP before we go through."

"MALP?" Ruby asked, confused by the acronym.

"Mobile Analytical Laboratory Probe. It's actually just a bomb robot with a few modifications; the name is a reference to something before your time," He turned to Iverson. "Speaking of robots-"

"I had Morris check an hour ago. The Reaper is halfway across the country," Iverson told him.

"So that leaves us with your COTS units, our ScanEagle, and the Shadows the Rangers brought with them." He thought about it. "It's not ideal, but we can work with that. It means that Apaches will be doing a bit more."

"Let us come with you," Ruby offered. "We can bring a lot of extra firepower."

"On one hand, I've seen what you can do. On the other hand, it's a lot of unknowns I have to deal with. And I don't feel comfortable bringing them on a military operation," Hale admitted candidly.

"Technically, it's not," Iverson reminded him.

"Colonel, we could be meeting people I knew personally," Rose interjected. "Look at this from a diplomatic point of view. There's meeting strange aliens who know who you are and then there's meeting an old friend."

"It's your call, Hale." Iverson stated. Indeed, Gemstone was no longer calling the shots. Technically, authority resided with a NATO commander, but the chain of command was still in flux.

He mulled it over, knowing that he'd be responsible for the decision if it went south. "It'll take ten minutes to preflight the chopper. You have until then to do what you have to do."

"You sure you're up for this, Tai?" Qrow asked his brother in law, shouting over the noise of the engines. He held a grab handle tightly with one hand and his weapon with the other, the Bullhead bumping around and threatening to throw a less coordinated person out the open door.

"I'm fine," he answered coldly, continuing to inspect his weapon. The man had aged in the past year, looking noticeably older and more haggard than before. The loss of his daughters affected him deeply, and he'd left his teaching position at Signal in favour of Grimm extermination missions.

"Don't you think it's a bit weird that we have two huntsmen with us but neither of them are Beacon professors?" Coco mused from the other side of the Bullhead.

"I heard they're old friends of Ozpin's," Velvet said to her leader. She sat in the back of the Bullhead beside her gigantic teammate, Yatsuhashi.

"A portal to another world, eh?" Coco asked. "Man, that's crazy. I bet this is just some overblown training mission."

"I don't know, the broadcast seemed pretty real to me," Fox interrupted. He stood at the front of the Bullhead, next to the cockpit.

"It's real, kid," Qrow interrupted. "There's another world past that anomaly, and they're talking to us. They say they're peaceful, but who knows. Keep your guard up, because the Grimm might not be our only enemies. We have no idea what these people are capable of."

Far away on the other side of the portal, a convoy of military vehicles rolled down Chilliwack Lake Road. A mixture of militarized SUVs and military trucks, they carried both the special team and their equipment toward their destination.

"This road will take us most of the way to the site," Colonel Hale explained, mostly to the civilians riding in the back of the truck with him. "After that, we'll switch to the ATVs and Gators. There are trails and old logging roads that will get us the rest of the way. We'll split up into mixed Terran-Remnan teams and wait along the length of the portal."

"How much warning will we have in the Grimm show up?" Yang asked him. She tense, like the others, but not for the same reasons. Riding in the back of a military truck brought some not so fond memories to mind.

"Enough to get the hell out of the way," the soldier told her. "It's wide open terrain, so if shit starts going downhill, the plan is to bolt and let someone else take care of it. We'll only engage them ourselves if we have to and there aren't enough to make it futile. Otherwise, we have Apaches and soon we'll have LAVs and maybe tanks."

He handed a rifle identical to the one he carried to the Remnan woman across from him. "Do you know how to use that? It's more like what you had in your department than what you had on Remnant."

Rose nodded. "It's an AR-15 with bigger bullets and a giggle switch. I've got it."

"I can't believe we're finally going to see home again," Ruby buzzed, excited. "Do you think we'll see Dad and Zwei?"

"Hopefully, kid," Rose told her daughter.

"Caution is the name of the game. We don't want any heroes. If anyone spots the Remnan contact team, radio it in. We'll regroup and head toward them," Colonel Hale instructed one final time. "Be conservative if you encounter Grimm. Pull back, regroup, and let the heavier assets take care of them."

The Bullhead hovered above the stark red of the forest, engines pointed downward with their exhaust visibly flattening the trees below. A small patch of red-covered ground was visible below them. Qrow motioned to the other passengers before silently stepping off and descending to the ground below.

"Showtime," Coco told her team, jumping to Earth behind them. Her team landed elegantly on the ground as they'd done a thousand times before. Another second year team, AAZR, came down after, with Taiyang bringing up the rear. Immediately after he jumped, the Bullhead pulled up and flew away.

"Okay. Remember, we get to the portal and meet the Earthers," Qrow repeated. "Kill any Grimm in the way, but they're not the mission, and we don't want to scare the Earthers too much-"

"What if we're scared of them?" Velvet asked quietly.

Taiyang was already heading into the forest. "I'm not scared of any dirt people."

Two kilometers from the portal, a pair of American soldiers sat inside what looked like a truck with a satellite dish on top. In fact, it was a mobile ground control station for their RQ-7 Shadow unmanned aerial vehicle. The "satellite dish" was not a satellite dish at all, but rather a directional antenna pointed at the UAV flying thousands of feet above them. Their job was to monitor the Shadow's camera feed and keep watch for potential threats approaching their teams on the ground.

"Hey, what's this?" one of the soldiers asked his companion, pointing at a black blip on the screen. "Should I call it?"

The other soldier, the more experienced of the two, took a brief glance. "Yeah, call it."

"Jumper Three, Rake Three-One, looks like you have some something headed your way," he told the ground team over the radio. "Maybe a small Grimm or two heading toward you from near perpendicular. Looks like one mile out."

Perpendicular in this case meant perpendicular to the portal on the Remnan side. One of the challenges that had immediately come up was dealing with directions with the strange portal involved. The solution was fairly simple; use the portal itself as a reference.

The reply came over the radio. "Copy that, Rake Three-One. Vacating the area, thanks for the heads-up."

Satisfied, the Rangers commanded the drone to climb and turn away to observe a different part of the forest where a group of something had appeared to stop. They'd check later to see if there were more and they were still coming, but they believed the immediate threat had been appropriately acted upon. Unfortunately, they- and the intelligence officers that had advised them- had missed one crucial detail.

The Shadow's nitrogen-cooled infrared camera worked by picking up the heat emitted by a potential object of interest, perhaps a human or a vehicle. But the Creatures of Grimm are not alive in the biological sense, and while they have a thermal signature, it is much different than that of a living being. The thermal camera could see through trees to an extent, but the red trees of the forest blocked infrared light in a way normal green trees did not.

What they had thought was a single stray Grimm was something else entirely.

Slowly but surely, the Remnans made their way through the forest. They hadn't encountered more than a few scattered and easily dispatched Grimm, but knew it could change at any time. The group paused in a clearing for a brief bite to eat, a check-in with Ozpin, and to get their bearings.

"What the hell is that noise?" Coco complained after finishing her sandwich. They'd heard it a few times, fading in and out. It was a strange sort of whapping sound, almost like an engine but not quite.

"Some kind of flying machine?" Arvin Laguna, leader of Team AAZR, asked. "Like their version of a tiltjet?"

"It doesn't sound like one."

He nodded agreement. "True."

"Is it that thing?" Yatsuhashi suggested, pointing at a spot in the sky from behind them.

"What thing- oh. I thought it was a bird."

"Could be it," Qrow acknowledged, coming up behind them. He raised a spyglass to his eye. "Hmm. Looks like a little airplane. They're scouting from the air."

"Should we wave?" Arvin asked.

The veteran huntsman shook his head. "Nah, they won't see us."

"Too bad," Coco said. "Hey, Arvin, what do you think these Earthers will be like?"

"They're smart enough to build those and return our call," he replied. "I don't know much about the Earth legends. They talk about a primitive world, but they're old legends. No reason they can't be true, just a thousand years removed. That's a long time to develop."

"It's supposed to be a world without Dust. You think they'd develop advanced technology?"

He shrugged. "Why not?"

"What's bothering you?" Qrow asked the girl standing near the edge of the group. Her rabbit ears were twitching. Qrow knew the Faunus had superior hearing to humans, and the rabbit faunus with her massive ears likely more so. It wasn't racism but scientific fact.

"Something's not right," Velvet Scarlatina replied quietly. "I think I can hear strange noises. Machines and maybe animals or Grimm. From near the portal, that way." She pointed. "I don't know. Maybe I'm imagining things."

"Give yourself some credit, kid," Qrow told her. He turned to his current partner. "Tai?"

"I'm going to circle around and scout out ahead," the seasoned hunter responded. "It could be nothing, it could be the Earthers, or it could be the Grimm."

"Be careful, " Qrow cautioned. He received no answer, the other huntsman having already disappeared into the trees.

Just past the threshold of the portal, a Gator rumbled along the rugged ground near the edge of the treeline. The vehicle was somewhere between a quad bike and a jeep, perhaps better described as a golf cart on steroids. Normally, it carried two people and a small amount of cargo. This one had a man driving and a woman riding shotgun- or, more literally, rifle. Another Gator zipped along ten meters behind them.

"You really fought those things?" Sergeant Matthew Trembley asked the woman sitting beside him. "The Grimm, I mean."

"Once upon a time," she answered. Her trained eyes scanned back and forth for threats. It wasn't something that could be unlearned. "Don't remember a lot, though. Not what they look like or how to kill them. You probably know more than I do."

"That's- holy shit!" A black shape appeared in the treeline and bolted toward them. Grimm.

"Go!" Rose shouted, bringing up her rifle and firing off a round in the general direction of the creature.

Matthew needed no second bidding. A hardened military man, he felt true fear as the black creature barreled toward them. He hammered the accelerator, sending them veering away from the creature and toward the portal. "Jumper Three, we have encountered the Grimm, requesting immediate assistance!"

The Gator behind them was equipped with a machine gun, and the gunner behind it unleashed a flurry of .50 caliber rounds at the creature. The first few didn't appear to do much, but he kept on it and the creature soon ground to a halt.

His radio crackled, "Jumper Three, Jumper One, copy, we are moving to assist."

Another two Grimm emerged from the bush. The first zipped toward the rear Gator, which swerved out of the way and opened fire again. The other went straight for Matthew and Rose. She pulled the trigger to get only a click in return. Cursing, she slammed in a new magazine and leaned back, firing at the Grimm as it bounded toward them.

"Shit!" Matthew swore, hitting the brakes and swerving to narrowly avoid a jutting boulder. The sudden deceleration gave the creature the opening it needed. He turned away and toward the portal, but it was too late. The creature leaped up over the vehicle, claws extended. With a splattering of deep crimson blood, his head was gone. His dead foot slammed down on the accelerator, sending them careening into the forest.

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck!" Rose awkwardly grabbed the wheel, twisting it to keep vehicle from slamming into a tree. They erupted into a narrow valley, which bought her enough time to push the corpse out the vehicle and off the accelerator. She couldn't reach the brake, and the vehicle was slow to lose momentum. The barely controlled vehicle hit a boulder and flipped onto its side, carving a deep trench into the soft loam.

Sure enough, the impact hurt substantially less than she thought it would. Rose was a bit worse for wear, but surprisingly alive. The headless body thrown to the ground beside her was in much worse shape. She laughed ironically as she picked herself up, knowing there were many more of those things out there hungry for a bite of her tasty flesh. Her rifle was empty, but seemed to be intact, so she quickly swapped magazines.

A voice from the body called to her. "Jumper Three interrogative, what's your status? Where are you?"

She picked up the radio and held the transmit button. "Jumper One, this is Rose, Trembley's dead. I'm in some kind of a valley. Kinda rocky."

"Jumper Three, Rake One-Actual, reinforcements are inbound," another voice announced. "Drones are getting a fix on your position."

She was about to respond when she noticed a blonde-haired figure at the edge of the clearing. He appeared to stay still, staring, and she realized he was incredibly familiar. A black shape appeared from behind him. Her eyes widened. "Move, you dumb fucker!"

Rose raised her rifle, flipped the safety to auto and held down the trigger. Twenty rounds of 7.62 unloaded in the space of a few seconds only pissed the creature off, and it turned its terrifying red eyes toward her.

She briefly toyed with the idea of charging the creature, bolting forward with some kind of spear-flail. She dismissed the thought immediately, noticing a black shape in the corner of her eye. She scrambled for it as the creature began its charge.

Rose picked up the grenade launcher, rolling out of the way of the charging creature before aiming down the reflex sight and pulling the trigger. A high-explosive grenade exploded out the barrel, covering the distance in a split second and blasting the bone over the creature's face into splinters. She pulled the trigger again, rotating the next chamber into place and sending another round into the creature. Bits of black substance sprayed in all directions before evaporating.

She turned toward the blond man. Blue eyes locked with silver. "Tai."

"No." His confused expression turned to a hard glare. A whirring of gears echoed through the forest as he readied his weapon. "You're dead."

"Aw shit."

These are the same review replies.

15delgizzij: The Remnans may demand territory, but I highly doubt they'll get it. But I think they will take no for an answer once they understand that the consolation prize isn't too bad and trying to force the issue would be a Very Bad Thing. Eradicating the Grimm is a pipe dream, but Terrans might be able to assist in securing areas against them.

Xavier Rall: I'm aware of this, and I don't disagree. The reality is that real life writes Convergence far more than I'd like to admit. If it feels thin, like it's not covering it all, it's probably because I just don't have the time to do so.

InterestingAuthor345: There may be a few surprises in store for both sides.

5 Coloured Walker: Provided the invasion routes are limited, Earth could deal with the Grimm for a very long time. The same holds true for Remnant, of course- that's why civilization is tucked into small but secure enclaves.

Smithrooks: Technically it's all one arc, but yeah, the pacing is quite messy. I'll admit I kind of wrote myself into a corner a bit.

Irax: Yang is a very difficult character to pin down. She's shown very different tendencies and I'm still not sure about her personality. But she's not stupid, and is quite empathetic given time.

Ahardie: An unavoidable consequence of FFn's review format, unfortunately.

DinoGuy2000: Perhaps slight spoilers: While the location can be controlled, it can't be controlled with perfect accuracy. They wanted "in the vicinity of Vale", and that's what they got. You don't want it too far away, because then you can't easily move supplies, but a forest isn't great terrain for that anyway.

Guest: It'll be dealing with the consequences of the events of Convergence.

Cipher92: It's a messy situation for sure, and the players are going to have to be careful with their cards. It could be potentially catastrophic, or beneficial for everyone.

Guest: Emergence Next will still take place 20 years after Convergence. That hasn't changed.

Just Another RWBY Fanfic reader: The flow of time is more or less the same on both worlds, at least with the portals open.

DOOM maniac: It's just not a terribly interesting topic for me. Yes, they'd certainly want to do something about the Nazis, and yes, they'd probably stomp them harder than the Nazis got stomped in reality. I thought about doing a Cold War AU, but I just don't have the time to do it. This would have been a lot more interesting to me, because this is when we start to develop technology that can counter the stuff the Remnans have and neither side is so massively evil that they'd immediately fight it.

Guest: I haven't actually played Starcraft, so if that's the case, it's not intentional. From what you describe and my limited knowledge of the series, yeah, I can see it.

Fallout24: I said there would be a 20 year time skip, but I never said the portals would come after.

Guest: Not necessarily. While they might not be able to kill a Hunter, they can still kill civilians and destroy property.