Welcome back to the second chapter! Sorry that it took sooooo long. I got terribly sick and also I has to write up some essays and finish some projects for my school I attend, which made me postpone the chapter a bit.

This chapter has been kind of rushed so I can get this out as soon as I can so a few things might make no sense. Since school has begun for most of us, it will take longer to publish new chapters which gives me an idea, how long should I make the chapters? Remember, the more words there are per chapter, the longer it takes to finish, edit and publish that's what usually happens if a writer writes a long chapter.

I tried to go a little in-depth of the character Jacob Whitman and reveal a little bit about the girl he mentioned in the first chapter. If you guys can guess what her name is and how she died before I reveal it, which will not be for a while, (I have the name and how she died planned out so in no way will you be cheated but you only get three chances.) I'll think of something I can reward you with like I make a story to your liking or something, I'll think about it.

Also while I was writing this chapter, I gained some ideas for stories I have yet to write which was another reason why it took so long to finish. I do want to make more stories, but I don't know if it's alright if I start publishing multiple stories for my ideas or if I should wait until I finish this then move on to the next. I don't know because what I have seen from other writers is that both options will cause an author to take longer and lose inspiration to continue and I don't want that happening to me for as long as I can.

I have now added something new, after the chapter ends, I give some fun facts about WWII that most of us never knew or remember and give you guys some history of different weapons.

If you want me to give a history of your favorite weapon (doesn't matter what weapons it is from any era or genre, imaginary or not, because my author's notes at the end are usually not going to be related to the story) or have your favorite quote from your favorite character or person, just pm me or say it in the reviews.

Your OCs are still welcomed.

Now onto the reviews.

Edrap: Can't say that I have, but I'll take a look at it, thanks for the suggestion!

Mesnakesta: Thanks for pointing that out, while I was writing this story I was wondering how the ranking system was like because I didn't have any sources I can look at to find out. The first chapter has been fixed, thank you. I am kind of new to this writing stories thing, so I do not know how the beta reading works so I probably need help on how to set that up.

No RWBY characters just yet, but soon. Enjoy! Semi-AU

"Tonight I cry because it's never the end. It will happen again. We are the human species. We are so intelligent, we do such astonishing things. We can fly to the moon, but we still do stupid things."- A Dunkirk survivor.

December 25, 1928

California, United States

Months before the stock market crash

Christmas. The most wonderful time of the year. The day where people give gifts to one another, perfect opportunities for families to get together and celebrate, the celebration of Christ's birth, or just a plain day for the Scrooges.

At the Whitman's home, Jacob's entire family would visit and celebrate every year. The Whitmans were not rich, nor were they poor, but had enough to provide many people.

Jacob's mother, Marinette, was a beautiful woman. Some say that she is the example of a perfect woman. She has silky brown curly hair and brown eyes. Her face, to others, looked like an angel has made its presence known to the world. For a woman in her early forties, maintaining a youthful look for a long time was an accomplishment among women.

Marinette does more than maintain her beauty, she once worked as a teacher for some time, then became a home mother to take care of Jacob. She was a loving and caring mother, but when she needed to, she had to discipline Jacob if he uses bad behavior and manners. So far Jacob has improved over the years, but not by a lot though.

Now Jacob's father was a very intelligent, and good looking, man. Compared to other men, Matthew, Jacob's father, was very masculine and muscular. His hair was a dirty blonde, and sharp blue eyes. Matthew was a manager of a weapons production factory. HE handles what weapons to produce, how much to make, the cost to manufacture the amount, what price the put on the weapons, and the locations of hotspots to sell them at. Not only was he a manager of the most successful business in America, but also served as an artillery man in the Great War.

Sometimes Jacob would ask Matthew to tell stories of his time in the war and how the legendary Jaune Arc saved him from death. Marinette would tell Jacob that it was disrespectful for him to ask questions about the most horrific event in the world, but Matthew insisted that he didn't mind the questions because after all, Jacob knew nothing about war.

Right now, Jacob sits next to his father in the living room, listening intently on the stories being told. Jacob's relatives believed that Jacob had some mental issues at birth because, I mean who would ask questions about a war that happened not long ago and was the cause of millions of deaths? So they would try to avoid Jacob as much as they can, except for Matthew's father.

Jacob's grandfather was a kindhearted person. He understood Jacob's passion for war stories because he was just like him when he was young. Like Matthew, he served in the Civil War on the Union side, and boy was he happy when he was able to meet the president himself. He even has a souvenir the president handed to him and to this day, he still brags about it like he just received it yesterday.

So it was just Matthew and grandpa in one room sharing war stories to Jacob while Marinette and everyone else were in other rooms.

The grandfather concluded, "Even though they had those Indians on their side, we still won the battle and had those farmers running back to Texas." He had just finished a story of how the Confederates and Native Americans ambushed a Union battalion, ending with the Yankee's favor.

Jacob was thrilled to hear the story, "Wow Grandpa! That's so cool!"

Matthew chuckled at his son's innocence, "yes it was Jacob. By the way, your friend from the Philippines sent you a gift." Matthew took out a small wooden box and on the sides were intricate carvings of waves and flowers. The opening was seen at the top of the box.

Jacob became excited and took the box to his room.

Matthew and his father laughed at the boy's excitement. The grandfather then turned to his son, "Hey Matthew, all of this made me remember that time when I brought you a big empty box and you thought that there were hunting dogs in there" the old man laughed.

"I don't see how messing with your own children is funny, father."

"Oh my boy, it was only supposed to be funny to me. The look on your face was priceless" he laughed harder while Matthew gave his dad an annoyed look, clearly he didn't want to remember that horrible "prank".

"And then, and then you were like, 'where is my real present dad?' and I said that the real present was in the kitchen and turned out to be wooden dogs!" The old man was having the time of his life.

"Sometimes I wished I didn't have the day off" Matthew muttered.

In Jacob's room

Jacob sat on his bed with the box in hand. Before he opened it, he looked at the design and detail of it and to him, it looked cool. Once he opened it, there was a letter and a necklace that contained beautiful sea shells and pearls with a wooden shell that spelled out,

J X J

Of course Jacob didn't know what that meant, and thought that it was something best friends do. He had a big smile on his face, after years of not seeing each other, he was able to hear from her again. He took the letter and necklace out of the box, and began to read the letter.

Dear Jacob,

I missed you a lot when I left the United States. Things were not much fun back home when you are not around. I hope you can come visit me someday so we can be happy again. I made this necklace for you because you are special to me. Merry Christmas!

Jacob dropped the letter and picked up the necklace. He looked at it for a while with a smile on his face. He will always remember what she said.

June 6, 1944 hours after the victory of D-day

You are special to me.

The only thing Jacob remembers every time he looks at it. Every time he does, he also remembers how he failed everyone he promised to protect. 'If only I knew what you meant back then, things would have been different.'

As Jacob continued to look at the necklace, which has been "broken" over time, a man in his early thirties walked up to Jacob with a serious look on his face, "Sergeant Whitman."

Jacob looks up to face the man.

"Colonel George would like to see you at the radio center."

Jacob sighed and put his necklace in his chest pouch then stood up, "lead the way."

Along the way, there were men all in their own groups chatting and laughing as if they just won the war.

"The Krauts are going to get what's coming to them then we serve them on our famous hot dogs!" one soldier joked and the others in the group laughed.

"The rest of the journey should be a piece of cake, we're basically unstoppable at this point with the Russians from the west and the Brits from the North" another soldier gloated.

"Can't wait to get some women along the way too, this is going to be fun" one said with lust in his tone.

The sad thing about the comments were that some of the men were in their forties and a few around Jacob's age.

'Foolish men' Jacob though. 'Why are they even able to serve? Why are they even alive?'

The man escorting Jacob interrupted his thoughts, "That's a nice necklace you have with you, where did your girlfriend get you that?"

Jacob replied coldly, "It's none of your concern."

"Oh, ok. I'm sorry about that it's just that my daughter gave me something similar to what you have. Brings back so many memories."

Jacob remained silent the rest of the way.

The radio center was filled with men trying to communicate with citizens under the Third Reich's rule and the French Resistance through a secret channel, informing them that the U.S. has come to help liberate Europe while some were using typewriters to write stories and reports of the events that occurred not long ago.

The center of the room had a large table with a map that shows a detailed geography of Europe and all the cities within the continent. There was also the Colonel and several other soldiers.

Colonel George was in his early fifties with brown eyes and a very masculine face. He then greets the two, "thank you for coming, please stand by the war map because this is important." The Colonel never took luxuries like introductions because to him, timing was everything and when you waste his time, things get ugly pretty quick.

Once everyone gathered around the war map, Colonel George began, "Alright everyone, The Germans know that we control Normandy and we need to push them back into their territory. Our main goal is Berlin, Germany's capital and the place where the man who started this war resides in." He began to move his finger around the map, telling everyone which oaths to take and how much time it should take to get there.

"Warrant Officer Samson, you take three squads with you and head north east to look for the missing paratroopers from the 101st airborne division. Their planes were shot down a few hours ago and no one returned since the few hours passed. Find the survivors and collect and dog tags and letters from the fallen."

"Sergeant Yuluz, tell major Hemmings to take 45th and 12th Sherman division along with 42nd infantry division and liberate a few cities on your way to Berlin. If you run low on numbers, return back to Normandy as soon as you can."

"Technician Duhon, take twenty men with you and link up with Lieutenant Kaleb to reinforce 4th platoon and their part in the liberation of Paris."

Colonel George then turns to Jacob, "Sergeant Whitman, you and Corporal Johnson will take the 51st Sherman group, an escort squad codename 'Ghost' and a rookie squad codename 'RWBY' and link up with the French Resistance in the north. Once you do that, help them fight off a German offensive."

The men around were snickering and smiling, trying to hold back their laughter.

'Why do I have the useless job' Jacob thought.

The Colonel was never oblivious to his surroundings, but boy did the situation right now made him mad. He looked at everyone with a death glare that terrified everyone in the room. "This is NOT the time to be fucking around men! IF the French Resistance cannot hold the German Offensive in the north, we will be quickly surrounded and driven off of Europe, then Russia would declare war on us!"

Everyone then knew the seriousness of the situation. The only reason why Russia left the Axis was because they were betrayed the second most powerful country, Germany. Russia only joined the Allies triumverate because they wanted revenge and to also spread their communistic views to the world. Having the world's largest and deadliest army as the enemy would be the end of everything.

'Fuck, I can't believe the whole world rests on the rookies' shoulders. This makes my job harder now and I cannot fail' Jacob thought.

The Colonel then ordered everyone to leave except for Jacob and Corporal Johnson. "You two, come with me, I will show you your new squad."

Fun Facts: During the rise of Communism in Russia during the 20s and 30s, Vladmir Lenin killed 20 million of his own people and cause 3 million intellectuals to leave the country in order to have communism take over. That is 4 times the amount of deaths than Hitler's death count with the Holocaust.

Nazi Germany had the world's first stealth bomber. The cockpit was made of metal while the rest was made up of wood and it was powered by Jet fuel. It's purpose was to stay hidden from Britain's radars, but once they are detected, it would be too late to react in time. It was successfully tested but came in too late in the war, thus it was abandoned until the Americans stumbled upon one and the blueprints for it (which later became the stealth fighters the U.S. uses today).

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