Prologue: The Fall of Point Hope

"We knew that we weren't ready. The scientists knew we weren't ready. Mother knew we weren't ready. She knew we weren't ready. Not only were we low on supplies, we were still 3 years short of when we were meant to be deployed. It didn't matter. When the Grimm and Herforces poured into Point Hope, everyone knew what it meant. Honestly, we were amazed we ever made it through the first hour – let alone ever got away alive." – Excerpt from the Journal of Red Scythe Squad

All around was chaos. The sounds of klaxons blaring. Orders being shouted. Blast doors being shut. Everyone knew what was happening. They had been found. The last bastion of hope for humanity had been detected by Her. And if they fell then the light would finally be extinguished.

If one were to look around, the first thing they would notice would be the snow and ice. Point Hope was built in it after all. Hundreds of tunnels of snow and ice, leading to and connecting dozens of caverns. Then they would notice the figures dressed in white wool coats and clothes, Faces being hidden by helmets, others by wool hats. All these figures had weapons of some kind. They were all rushing to points that they had to defend. An even closer look would reveal that the majority of these white figures were the exact same height, and had the exact same shape.

However, there was a group of four that stood out from the rest. They didn't have the same clothes as the others. Instead, they had armor. However, the most noticeable differences were the dark red scythes painted on their right shoulders.

None of that mattered to anyone though, as they raced through the tunnels, towards the ever growing sounds of gunfire and combat and death. They moved in sync through the dimly lit halls of white. After a few seconds, they reached a closed door, with the sound of bullets flying just beyond the thin piece of metal. The four stacked up on the door, ready to breach. Seconds passed. Then one with a black stripe on their helmet moved their hand. In the blink of an eye, one of the soldiers hit a button that opened the door, and two of the four started running into the room, while the leader and another gave cover fire through the door.

When the first two reached some boxes in the room, they started to open fire on both the white metal soldiers, as well as the various Grimm in the room. The two left at the door started moving up through the room, spewing out dust-infused bullets at all in their path. When a beowolf jumped out from behind a row of control panels, the leader of the four simply batted the soulless creature down, before shoving a bayonet into its skull.

After that, the room went quiet, with the four spreading out and searching for stragglers. After finding none, they began looking at the bodies. Not the wrecks of the atlesian knights they had destroyed. No, they were looking at the human bodies slumped up in chairs, or laying lifeless on the floor. They had a lighter version of the uniform the regular infantry were wearing, with officer rank bars on them. Most of them looked completely different, with some being old men with graying hair, others being young and beautiful women. However, there were three bodies in the room that were almost exactly the same. These three bodies were of girls, no older than fifteen, pretty short, with a crimson head of hair. The only differences were their hairstyles and the fact that one of them was a first lieutenant, instead of a second lieutenant.

Not that that mattered though, as the squad of four checked to see any were alive.

None were.

After all the bodies were checked, the leader pressed a button on their wrist, and brought it up to their face. "Command Center clear. No survivors found." The voice was heavily distorted by some system in the helmet, and in a cold and almost uncaring tone, but there was still a slight feminine hint to it.

In a few seconds, a reply came from the device on her wrist, "Copy. We have reports of heavy fighting in sectors four to eighteen. Get to the command consoles and put those sectors under level five lockdown. Put sectors two and three under level four lockdown. Put level one under an omega lockdown. Once you do that, get to Sector One. Rosemother wants you."

Without replying, the leader turned the device off and had her squad get to work. One of them, with a blue stripe on their helmet began to gain access to the base computer system. After about a minute, they gave a thumbs up to the others, before alarms started to blare, signaling a level five lockdown. Before getting away from the console, they made sure to memorize the override command they would use to get all the way to Sector One.

With that, a sprint began to get to Sector One before the locked-down sectors were overrun. Only engaging when they had to, the four left the regulars to deal with most of the Grimm and knights they came across. Pausing for only a few seconds to get doors open, they made it to Sector Two in record time. However, it seemed that luck was not on humanity's side, as the primary blast door between Sector Two and Sector Three had been damaged by the goliaths and other Grimm above the underground base.

There was one with an orange stripe who came up to near what was now just a gigantic steel wall. The others in the squad saw this and started moving back through the halls, getting into cover. The orange striped soldier took out explosive charges, and quickly placed them on the door while trying, and failing, to stop giggling at the coming destruction. The demolition specialist ran back into cover, and detonated the charges. The soldier's helmet seemed to amplify the sounds coming from them, as the feminine, borderline-insane, and distorted laugh was able to be heard over the sound of the explosion.

After what seemed to be a collective look of disappointment from the squad, directed at orange stripe of course, they moved through the newly made hole in the blast door. As they passed through the smoke and warped steel, they heard weapons being readied. The last member, one with a green stripe, was the first to react. The soldier shouted, in the same distorted, but feminine voice as the others, "Friendlies! We're Red Scythe!"

With that, there were sounds of reliefs, and of breaths held being released. Red Scythe Squad made it through the smoke, and they were met with people in the same white uniforms. One thing anyone would notice though, was that almost half of the infantry in here had the exact same face, height, and even voice. The same as the three in the control center. One of these girls, a captain, walked up to Red Scythe. "Sisters, you gave us quite the scare. Either way, it is reliving to see commandos."

Done greeting the commando squad, the captain started barking orders to get the hole in the blast door plugged. The infantry complied, with some even using dust to fix it. Fire dust to bend the steel back into place, and ice dust to cool the red-hot metal. The commandos began to get on their way, before the sound of one of the base intercoms came on. Screams and sounds of battle were echoing through the ice tunnels now, when a voice, the same as the other girls, began to talk. "Sector Seven has been overrun, and Winter has entered the base, repeat the Winter Maiden has overru-." The transmission went dead, but not before everyone heard the screams of the now-dead soldier, as well as the sounds of ice freezing them.

Knowing that they were in a race against time, the commandos started going through Sector Two. It was a change of scenery, compared to the rest of the tunnels and caverns of snow. In place of the white snow and ice, there was now white, sterile metal, with shiny gray floor. As the four advanced through the area, they passed windows overlooking rooms with strange columns. These columns held tanks of blue liquid, which in turn held what almost looked like newborns. Scientists were in these rooms, directing soldiers who were trying to evacuate or secure these tanks. Some soldiers were being helped by children, all of which shared the same features, and even looked a bit like the soldiers that looked the same.

There was no time to stop and admire the labs though, as every second of delay meant Winter got closer. Red Scythe Squad keep going forward, all the way to an empty room in a dead-end corridor. The four nodded at each other, before hitting a button on their wrists. After a few tense seconds, a part of one of the walls slid down, while the lights in the room went out. As the darkness fell, lights came on, originating from the helmets of the commandos. With the way lit, the commandos went into the newly revealed hallway.

The hall was long. Simple gray metal on all four sides, becoming five as the door closed behind them. Their footsteps echoed off of the walls, making the small tunnel sound massive. But they kept going, and made it to the other side after almost five minutes of running.

Exiting the tunnel, the commandos were greeted by a group of scientists, most with graying hair, and some with scars from either former battles or former inventions. Without saying a word, the scientists led the four warriors through a few halls, and eventually through a blast door. When they were in, the giant metal wall closed behind them.

This room was strange. There were steps leading down onto some kind of platform. This platform had coils of metal, electricity bounding through them, on its corners. It had arcs going over it, with wires going every single way imaginable. It looked like one of the least safe things they had ever seen, and so the commandos did not trust it. They keep staring at it.

"So you four made it, good." The commandos whipped around, turning to face a woman who managed to sneak up on them. She had a mop of crimson red hair, was dressed in a black and red version of the commando armor, had no helmet, was slightly taller than the commandos, had a red weapon on her back, and most important, had eyes of silver that radiated power.

When they saw her, the commandos instantly dropped their guard, and all at once shouted, "Mother!" Rosemother began to sport a smile at the commandos with that, deceiving the idea that she was some kind of silver eyed goddess of war.

"You all did well. Your actions bought time. Enough time for us to get many embryos evacuated." The commandos were likely hiding looks of pride behind their helmets as Rosemother said this. Her look turned sour though, as gained a serious tone of voice and said, "But it was not enough. Not enough people got out. Point Hope will fall. Humanity dies today." And despite the helmets, the commandos could not hide the fact that they were shocked by her words.

"We can escape though. Tell me, have you heard of Project Tempus?" With the commandos not responding, she began walking down the stairs and continued "Doctor Polendina, start readying it," she ordered the head scientist, who looked as if his age was catching up on him. "Red Scythe Squad, this is Project Tempus." She waved her hand towards the platform they had reached at the bottom of the stairs. "It is a device, one that could change the course of this war."

"You see, this device is a time ma.-" She couldn't finish her sentence, as there was a sudden chill in the air. One that, could cut to the bone. Rosemother and the commandos readied themselves, with Rosemother's eyes glowing even brighter, slivers of silver, and some of hints of a bright orange flame, at her fingertips. Dents began appearing in the blast door. Each new dent came with a new bang, echoing off the walls of the chamber. The scientist keep working to get Tempus operational, but still flinched at each hit on the door.

Eventually, the door gave. A spear of ice pierced through the think metal, and the ice began to grow, began to spread. The hole that the ice spear made was being expanded by the ice. Eventually, the growth stopped, and the spear was ripped out of the hole.

Everyone was tense, as seconds passed without anything happening. Then, in the blink of an eye, a blur had jumped through the hole in the blast door. Spears of ice flew from the white blur, into the scientists manning the controls for Tempus. Blood stained the gray metal floor as the spears impacted, impaling scientists onto the floor. Some died instantly. Most weren't that lucky. A wall of hail and snow shot up between Winter and Tempus itself, before being blasted towards Tempus by the maiden.

Just before the machine would be hit by the wall of frost, a wall of flame burst up and stopped it. When the flames cleared, Rosemother was there, ready to make another strike.

"Why must you do this?"

The question came from the now still Winter Maiden, standing at the top of the stairs, looking down on the Fall Maiden. She was in a white combat skirt, had white hair, and pale skin. The only thing that broke the image that embodied the Winter Season was an old scar, going over her left eye.

The commandos readied their weapons at her, but were held off by Rosemother.

"Because, unlike you I still have hope!" was her reply, in a pained tone.

"That is where you are wrong!" Winter sounded so sincere, that if someone had no context, they might have been convinced. "I have sacrificed so much, and look at me now! I am one of the most powerful people in Remnant!"

"All you are is a pawn for Her, and a traitor!" Rosemother's voice was starting to gain an edge with this declaration.

Winter moved as if hurt, but so exaggerated that anyone could tell it was just a mocking movement. "I am your partner! All I want is for you to join me! We could topple Her, together!" Winter began to lose her composure as she said this, desperate for Rosemother to join her.

"After what you did to him?! After what you did to us all, Weiss Schnee is dead! And you killed her!" There was no hiding the absolute hate in Rosemother's voice now. Flames started to burn around her, nearly raging out of control.

Weiss though, she did not take it well. She went still. She showed a face of pure pain. Then her face went blank. Without any emotion at all, she began to rise into the air, and doing so, a blizzard began to form around her. "So be it Ruby. I thought we were partners. It appears I was wrong."

Ruby Rose did not reply. Instead, she prepared for what was to come. And when she was ready, she taunted Weiss. Tipping her over the edge, she was about to lash out at Ruby, when only one thing stopped her. A voice from behind. A voice from the controls for Tempus.

"Salam, Salam will not win," were the last words of the great scientist Dr. Tyler Polendina, as he fell over, beaten, battered, bloodied, even impaled in the leg, onto the control panel for Tempus.

When his body hit the console, the metal coils that were on the corners of Tempus began to throw out electricity like a tesla coil, causing lightning bolts to cross between the coils, forming walls of electricity around the commandos and Ruby.

"What the hell is going on? Mother, what is this thing?" were the questions of the day, asked by the leader of the commandos. There was no response from Ruby, as she was watching Weiss try to breach the electric shield with her ice, but being completely unable to.

"No! I won't let you go! I won't allow it!" were the cries that Weiss keep shouting at Ruby, while she was starting to cry. Weiss was crying both tears of pain and sadness and anger. She snapped, and charged at the platform, not caring about the lightning flowing around it. When she reached the barrier of electricity, she let out a scream, but kept trying to push through. Her features began to deform, shriveling up, and her hands, pushing directly against the wall of lightning, began to burn.

Ruby turned away, and looked up. The arcs began to light up. Slowly, lights came on. Each one that came on was closer and closer to the center. As the center light was lit, all the lights on all the arcs went red, bathing the occupants of Tempus, as well room in a dark red light that one would see in a red room.

With this, Ruby turned around, and with the use of her powers as the Fall Maiden, pushed Weiss away. Charred, deformed, and mentally broken, yes, but still alive. She then let out a scream. It lasted for seconds, before finally, it happened.

Tempus went active. Ruby's power was unleashed. Not as the Fall Maiden, no, as a Silver-Eyed Warrior. From her eyes, from her very fingertips, a bight silver energy emerged. This energy weaved its way through the air. It locked on to the coils and bolted at them. The energy began to wrap around the coils, until the coils had filled with the energy. The energy was released. In less than a microsecond, the silver energy began following the paths of the lightning, surrounding Tempus in the silver light.

And then:

The silver energy burst. It glowed brighter than a thousand suns.

And it all happened in much less than a second.

When the light and silver energy had dissipated, there was no one left inside Tempus. Not Ruby Rose, not any of the commandos. No one.

"Incredibly we had emerged from the crucible of Point Hope as true soldiers. Battle-hardened and ready for whatever would be awaiting us on the other end of Tempus." – Excerpt from the Journal of Red Scythe Squad