Thankfully, the elevator stopped, and with a cheery ding, the doors opened, revealing the room beyond.

Well, I thought, time to go piss off some more important people, yay.

Entering the room, I scanned it for routes of escape, immediately smiling from what I saw.

Almost every wall of the room, except the wall the elevator was part of, was made of light grey-tinted glass, with a clock inset into each of the three window's centers. The gears that ran the clocks where all interconnected through the ceiling and floor, both of which were made of glass also, allowing you to see the gear's rotation.

The room itself was about thirty by forty feet, with a rather impressive desk, also made of glass, set against the wall/window opposite the elevator, facing towards us.

Even though the room was more impressive than any other office I'd had the pleasure of visiting (read: dragged/forced into, most being almost bunkers in relation to construction), I did my best to hide my bewilderment at this office's construction behind my signature smirk, looking at the man I'd noticed sitting behind the previously mentioned desk.

He wore a dusty green suit, having a somewhat angular face, a slightly styled mop of white hair on his head, wearing a pair of round glasses.

Propped against the desk, within easy reach of his chair, was at first glance an ornate cane, but considering everyone I met wielded some form of weapon, I had no doubt he knew how to use his cane as such.

As we approached, the man stood up, and offered an outstretched hand."Hello, I am Professor Ozpin, Headmaster of this academy."

I shook his outstretched hand."I'm Maximum Ride, though some of your students know me as Alex." I said, taking a seat at one of the two available chairs,"but I'm guessing you already know that, with the information you got from Goodwitch here when we were on that aircraft, and whatever you picked up with the cameras and whatever audio bugs I bet you have scattered on the school grounds."

"True,"Ozpin said, sitting back down, steepling his fingers,"I did learn of your actual name, as well as the fact you lied to my students and staff, before you entered the room. However," he said, motioning towards the other professor,"I did not ask Glinda to bring you here in order to reprimand your actions, as to you they may be justified. Can you guess why it is I asked her to bring you here?"

"Probably has something to do with me whupping that Ursa Major, or whatever it is, without this Aura people keep mentioning, but no one has actually explained to me what it is or why it's important," I replied, holding back my sass in the hopes of getting answers.

"That is partially the reason," Ozpin started, before activating a transparent keyboard on his desk.

I've seen that before, I thought, thinking of the Uber-Director, but then my mouth dropped open.

Several holograms appeared around the desk, shaped as panels, with semitransparent images acrossed them.

Well, that's new, I thought, pulling my jaw off the floor. Since when had holograms been a thing?

"The reason I had you brought here, was this." Ozpin said, pulling up what looked like a satellite image.

I hope they didn't see my wings, I thought, watching as the Headmaster zoomed in on, and pinpointed an area I recognized. The Forever Fall forest I'd awoken in.

"Around five hours ago, a strange energy surge was detected around fifty to sixty miles due north of the location Professor Goodwitch, along with the students she was chaperoning, had been heading to."

As he said this, a large, swirling orb of dark purple energy could be seen forming in the forest, at least a quarter mile in diameter, before, within the span of an instant, shrinking to an almost imperceptible speck, then exploding in a wave of crackling energy that dissipated over time, covering at least five or six miles before disappearing completely, leaving behind the forest it had covered untouched, as if it had never occurred. All of this taking the span of about twenty seconds, give or take a few.

"The most intriguing part about this energy wave, is that all Grimm within four miles of its center were destroyed, instantly."Ozpin pulled up another video, this one looking like the opposite of infrared, showing a large collection of red dots wandering around a gray background of different shades.

"The red represents the Grimm detected," Ozpin explained, superimposing the two videos so they lined up,"and even though it only represents a rough estimation for the Grimm present, it works well enough."

He started the two videos, and you could see as the purple energy sphere grew, all the little dots within five-six miles stopped moving randomly, all starting to move towards the orb at a fast pace. Then, the energy exploded outwards, and all the dots within its ever expanding reach disappeared upon contact, leaving no Grimm behind for a good five miles at least.

Watching the video, I began to grow uneasy, thinking of this whole strange situation (which may or may not be a hallucination) and I voiced the theories forming in my head.

"So either someone has developed some kind of anti-grimm weapon that leaves behind everything else, only harming these Grimm," I started, looking at both professors."Or the area was being cleansed of danger, for something...or someone." I finished, ending in almost a whisper as I realized just what could have occurred if this wasn't a hallucination.

What have you gotten yourself into now, Max? And more importantly, who wanted you here? I thought, and admittedly I was starting to doubt my theory that all this was an elaborate, drug induced/produced, hallucinogenic experience. Even I couldn't imagine some of the stuff I'd seen so far, and I doubt any Whitecoat, even Jeb, would invest the time and energy to create a completely new/fake world to torture me with. Much easier to use locations on Earth, and from what I knew the Whitecoats almost always took the easy route.

"Those are my thoughts precisely,"Ozpin said, nodding his head in agreement before taking a sip from his mug, which I just noticed."And since I'm more than ninety percent sure no one has developed an Anti-Grimm bomb that targets only the Grimm, it leads me to believe that area was cleared of Grimm by something new, in preparation for what is still unclear." He stated before looking at me, quirking an eyebrow,"but this strange energy surge, combined with the fact of your appearance in aid of my students, coupled with that there are no towns or villages for nearly a hundred miles in any direction from either location, leads me to believe that you are somehow tied to all this."

He took another sip from his mug, looking at me expectantly, waiting for my response.

I looked at the two professors, trying to gauge just how much I could trust them. After scrutinizing them both, I saw the way their shoulders were slightly drooped, the sad yet determined look in their eyes and recognized it as the same look I saw in my reflection, weighed down, as if the world's fate rested on their shoulders. In that moment, I decided to trust them, though if my theory was right, then there would be no need to tell them about the flock.

I hoped my family would be alright without me, I thought, though I knew Fang would take over, and that eased my worries somewhat.Hopefully I'll find some way back.

Clearing my thoughts, I looked at the professors with a rare look of seriousness."I'm just going to come out andsay it, I don't think I'm from around here."

Ozzy(he probably wouldn't mind if I called him that, right?) had a look of contemplation on his face, but Glinda was just confused.

"What do you mean by that?" She asked, giving me a quizzical look."That you're from one of the other kingdoms? Mistral, or perhaps-"

I cut her off,"No. I meant exactly what I said, that I'm not from here." I stood up at this point, watching as both the professors tensed."I'm not from the Kingdom of Vale, or Mistral, or whatever other place you can think of. I don't even think I'm from this planet, whatever its name is."

"Then would you care to enlighten us?" Ozpin asked, remaining seated while Glinda moved to his side of the desk, standing just behind the side of his chair.

"I come from a planet...called Earth." I had been expecting looks of confusion, but only Glinda had said emotion plastered across her face. Ozpin, on the other hand, for just a moment, once more grew tense, his face going pale, before apparently collecting himself, and turning to Glinda.

"If you don't mind, professor, I would like a moment to speak with Maximum, alone."

looking at me with a now worried expression, Glinda went to start leaving the room before I interjected. "No. She needs to hear this to, from what I've seen of the two of you, you know what it is to have a difficult, if not impossible choice in front of you, with neither outcome being good, yet forced to make a choice. You know what it is to have the pressure of the world on your shoulders, struggling your hardest to preserve what little remains of your humanity." Both gave me a look of shock at this, seeming taken back at the thought that not only had I hit the nail on the head, but understood as well.

Probably trying to figure out just what I've been through, I thought, watching their expressions before I continued.

"It's this fact that makes me willing to trust you, both of you, with what I've gone through, at least, what I'm willing to share. But I will be wanting information in return, and won't ask for more than you are willing to tell me."

"That is very presumptu-" Glinda started, before being cut off by Ozpin.

"Glinda, since she is sharing information with us, it is only natural that she asks for the same in return." He said, motioning towards me while giving the other professor a stern look.

Goodwitch sighed,"You're right, Headmaster," she then turned towards me,"I...apologize...for being overbearing at times."

You better be sorry, I thought, and based on her expression, she had rarely, if at all, had to apologize to someone younger than her. I feel so special.

I simply gave her a nod before starting,"Here, your people, from what I've seen, seem almost at peace with each other, probably banding together to fight your common enemy, the Grimm." I stated, getting nods of confirmation from the professors.

"There's a bit more to it than that, and we have had wars in the past between the kingdoms, and more recently, the Faunus, but in summary, yes." Glinda said.

Faunus? I thought, before catching myself. Come on, focus Max! Save your questions for later.

"Well, on Earth, there are no Grimm,"I continued. Goodwitch looked surprised at this, the idea of a world without those creatures probably being a foreign idea for her. Ozpin's expression remained neutral though.

Curious. He doesn't seem surprised by this information. Perhaps there is a way home!

"Sadly though, because there is no common enemy for Earth's cultures,"I stated, motioning towards an image of a wolf-like, bipedal GrimmOzpin had on one of his screens."The world powers fought constantly over most anything of worth, culminating in some of the bloodiest, and most destructive wars in our history. The things fought over ranged from actual concerns, such as slavery, to things that were petty, and generally inconsequential, like religion."

Both the professors looked aghast at this thought, but I continued."Finally everything came to a head about fifty years ago, and possibly even earlier than that, when multiple corporations and organizations acrossed Earth shortsightedly determined that the only way to save our planet, and thus humanity, was global genocide."

Looks of horror crossed their faces at the prospect, but Ozpin recovered first.

"What… What had they been thinking?!"

"Personally, I try to avoid figuring out the hows and whys for those Whitecoats." I said, practically spitting the word out of my mouth, my voice filled with venom.

"Who are Whitecoats?" Glinda asked, her expression telling me she was uncertain if she should have asked.

"Whitecoats," I started, the hate clear in my voice,"was a term me and a few others came up with for all the deranged scientists who were part of the plan, but that's not the worst part."

I paused for breath, seeing them lean forward almost subconsciously. "The worst part, was they viewed their global genocide as only a temporary solution, and had the opinion that in order for humanity to not just survive, but thrive after the planned doomsday, humanity could non longer be completely human."

"You're talking about synthetic evolution, aren't you?" Glinda said, the disgust clear in her voice.

"Yes,"I said, subtly rolling my shoulders, prepping for the big reveal."And it was found out they weren't starting with animal test subjects for their experiments. Oh no, they'd jumped straight to human testing, the majority of subjects being small children or younger."

"Those poor children," Ozpin said sadly, Glinda covering her mouth, seemingly on the verge of tears.

"Yes, the experience for those kids was horrible... As I should know better than most,"I said, getting a look of surprise from Glinda, and sympathy from Ozpin,"Because I was one."

Fwooosh

I shot out my wings, stretching them out to their now full length of nearly eighteen feet across. I gave a small grimace from how sore they were, but man did it feel good to stretch them out.

Ozpin looked at my wings in bewilderment, somewhat tempered by his professionalism, and taking a look at my wings I gasped in surprise.

My wings… Whereas before they where a light tan color underneath, leaning towards white near the edges, the backs being of a darker brown flecked with a mix of lighter browns, now… While the underside remained much the same, instead tan fading into white, it faded from tan to deep purple at the edge, and the back of my wings were completely different, starting off black at the top, and fading through to their original deep brown, now having a slight gleam instead of their rather flat appearance before.

"Is something wrong?" Ozpin asked after having pulled himself together.

"Well, the wings aren't new, but they used to be a have a different color, though I'm not complaining." I expressed, before seeing the almost fuming look on Glinda's face.

"Why did you feel the need-,"she began, and seeing Ozpin about to interject again I held out my hand, expressing my desire to listen to what she had to say.

"- to come up with potentially the worst story I've ever heard, just to reveal you're a Faunus? Explain yourself!"

"First off,"I said counting on my fingers,"I don't even know what the heck that is. Second, I asked for you to be here, so you could at least show me a little respect. And third," I continued, letting out the full force of my sass."I just expressed that I had the absolute worst childhood of all time, either locked in a freaking dog crate until the next horrid test those Whitecoats could come up with, or after finally escaping, spending every waking moment of my life running from, yet trying to tear down, the downright evil people who wanted to watch the world burn." I stepped towards her folding my wings back under my jacket as I approached her.

"The last of those people who I dealt with being a delusional science project gone wrong, nothing more than a collection of organs and a head in clear plexiglass containers, strapped to a motorized wheelchair, who had been trying to auction us off to the criminal underworld of Earth, claiming that whoever owned us, and more specifically me, controlled the fate of the world."

At this point I was almost right in her face, my venomous sass dripping off my tongue."So excuse me, for asking for you to stay. Excuse me, for thinking you could, at the very least, attempt to understand all the pain and suffering I've had to endure in my horrid excuse for a life. I now understand it was a mistake, for me to ask that you remain, so if you're wanting to leave, than by all means." I practically spat, poking her with my counted fingers,"Do so."

Practically petrified by the mix of anger and sarcasm, I watched as Glinda walked somewhat stiffly to the elevator,"I'll… Paige me when you're done." She said to Ozpin before leaving.

Several awkward moments passed after the elevator doors closed, me and the Headmaster staring at each other.

"Well," he started, breaking the deafening silence,"that wasn't very nice."

"You can't deny she had it coming,"I stated,"I mean sure, I lied out in the woods, but what would I gain from lying now?"

"That is true,"Ozpin agreed,"but there's more than that as to why I believe you."

I waited for him to clarify, but then realized he wanted me guess, as he had before.

"The other reason being?" I inquired, the guessing starting to get on my nerves.

"First, tell me the last thing you remember, before somehow being transported to our world. That may clarify my theory somewhat."

"Well," I started, somewhat curious as to where he was going with this, even if he had redirected the conversation somewhat,"as I told Glinda just now, me and my group had been taken by a Whitecoat calling himself the Uber-Director, ego for days in my opinion,"I explained, seeing Ozpin had a look of concentration, trying to glean anything from my story that would help no doubt.

"Anyways, he picked a bad time and place to hold his auction, the place because it was a skyscraper, and the time because a category five hurricane was set to hit the city. For claiming to be a scientist, he wasn't all that smart, 'cause he'd barely started his auction when the building was practically torn apart by the hurricane, flinging all of us into fates hands. Me and my group were able to get to the ground in relative safety due to our 'skills.'"I said, poking the tips of my wings into view,"But then I was stupid."

"What do you mean by that?"

"After making sure my group was safe, I looked out into the storm and saw the Uber-Director being tossed about in the air, and I couldn't bear the thought of that thing possibly surviving, and so I flew back into the storm, and cut the straps holding his various pieces to the chair."

Ozpin grimaced at that imagery, but motioned for me to continue.

"I then tried to make my way back to the ground, but the hurricane's strength overcame my own, and the last thing I remember was the feeling of smashing into the window of a skyscraper. Then, I came to in the middle of the Forever Fall, and the rest is history."

Ozpin tapped his steepled fingers against his chin in thought."Would you normally be able to survive either the injuries attained from smashing through the window, or falling from that height?"

I got a sinking feeling in my stomach as I realized what he could be hinting at."Crashing through the window? Possibly. Falling from that height? Most definitely not. I was at least five hundred feet in the air at the time, so survival would be slim at best, even for a recombinant such as myself."

I had grown rather somber near the end of my estimation, and was hoping hat he would disagree with my suspicions of what he was getting at.

"You think I died, don't you."I could barely bring myself to look, seeing him slowly nod his head in reply.

"Yes, I do think you died, and had my suspicions long before you entered the room, which was why I had wanted Glinda to leave the room earlier, because even though I've trusted her with much in regards to the actual state of this world, reincarnation and/or resurrection is not something I think she's ready to handle. And as you saw, the concept of interplanetary travel was also something she wasn't ready for."

"I was watching the both of you as I explained where I was from,"I said as I sat back down, wanting to uncover the elephant in the room,"but whereas Glinda was surprised, you looked almost...Worried. You knew about Earth before, didn't you?"

Ozpin sighed,"I had hoped we could avoid this aspect of the topic until later, much later, as I don't think you'll believe what I have to say."

"Try me," I replied sitting cross-legged in the chair, and draping my wings over the it's back, letting them air out."You showed the courtesy to believe me, so I'd be hard pressed to just throw away whatever it is you have to say."

"How religious are you?"

His question threw me off for a moment."What do you mean by that? I mean, admittedly I'm not the most religious, and in terms of what I believe I can't say. Whatever faith you have in beings watching over you tends to go out the window when stuck in a cage."

"What if I told you that in ages past here on Remnant, there lived two brothers."Ozpin looked me in the eye before continuing."These brothers where the God of Light, and the God of Darkness, who are believed to have created Remnant, and existed before the moon was shattered."

by this time, it had grown almost dark outside, and yep, the moon was broken alright, the largest piece forming a crescent moon on the left, with a trail of broken pieces coming off the obliterated right side.

"It is said the Grimm were created by the God of Darkness, jealous of the life his brother spread acrossed the globe, however, they both realized soon afterwords that the world couldn't achieve balance without a neutral party, a group that could choose light or dark. And so, banding together, the Two Brothers created the Humans and Faunus. What they didn't expect however, was the Grimm began targeting only the neutral party, not just the other life on the planet. Something had corrupted them, and now the Grimm where drawn to negative emotions, the stronger the emotion, the stronger the lure Grimm felt. This corruption caused even their creator, the God of Darkness, to grow to hate them, seeing them now as a blight against the world."

Ozpin stopped at this point, looking at me pointedly, as if waiting for me to scoff at what he was saying. And yes, I did feel the desire to throw it in his face, and be overly sarcastic while doing so, but I suppressed my desire to do so. But man, it's true what they say,'old habits die hard.'

"What then?"

The headmaster sighed in seeming relief, probably glad he didn't get a treatment of 'Max Sass.'

"The Two Brothers came to the conclusion they needed Champions to combat the growing dilemma, each needing to choose one, who working together, would unite the people, and end the Grimm Blight."

"Besides the fact of whether or not I believe all this, are you implying that I'm one of these 'Champions?'" I said, making air quotations,"Because if so that's a large pill to swallow."

"I won't pressure you to believe anything, but yes, I do believe you could potentially be one of the Champions, plucked from your world before, or after your death. However, I can't be sure until it is proven or dis-proven." Ozpin said while standing up, grabbing his cane as he walked around the desk, and offered me a hand, which I shook, getting to my feet.

"All I ask is that you consider what I've said," he expressed walking with me towards the elevator.

"Not to seem ungrateful or anything, but Glinda mentioned something about temporary housing?" I asked as we entered the elevator, Ozpin pushing the button for the ground floor.

"For tonight, I've set up a guest room for you, and tomorrow we can further discuss your living arrangements." the Headmaster said, adjusting his glasses.

Just what did he mean by that? I thought, and was pondering that thought as he lead me down a few halls to a door.

Handing me a small, device, he told me it was a Scroll, and would function as my room key, as well as a few other functions he would go over with me tomorrow.

Closing the door behind me, and taking a quick whiff of my shirt, I crinkled my nose.

Shower, then Bed, I thought.

Ten minutes of heavenly shower time later (you really learn to appreciate a good shower when running from worse than mad scientists), I crashed onto the bed, wondering about the recent events in my crazy life, my last thought being of the flock as I felt my consciousness slip away….

Sorry for the conversation/lore heavy chapter, but now that that's out of the way we can get into the fun stuff! (although I do admittedly love writing out Max's conversation sass, so…)

Anyways, any lore she learns from here on out will be either summarized or (in rare cases) skipped.

Hope you're all having a wonderful morning, noon, or night!

Until next Chapter!