Chapter 24: n+1+15

Sidewinder, 2554

POV: Red Team, Team JNPR


Premise: Kill the Meta.


Red Team and Team JNPR were currently inside the abandoned Freelancer base looking for anything that could help keep the Epsilon Unit stable and from shutting down.

"Simmons what are we looking for?" Grif asked his friend

"Power cells, batteries." Simmons replied, as he looked through several crates with Ren next to him, "Anything that has electricity."

"How does a power cell differ from a battery?" Grif asked

"Not now Grif!" Simmons hissed at him

"I can just use my semblance guys." Nora spoke up, "I can produce electricity from touching any electrical outlet."

"Wait, you can do that?" Simmons asked, "How?"

"Oh, struck by lightning, didn't die." Nora replied casually, "Crazy thursday."

Suddenly, a loud bang was heard from outside, which caught everyone's attention

"Hey, did you guys hear that?" Sarge asked everyone

"Yeah…" Simmons muttered before he picked up a rocket launcher, "I did, come on guys!"

"Aren't we supposed to run away from explosions?" Grif questioned, as he, his team, and Team JNPR all ran out of the base.


POV Change: Blue Team, Team RWBY

Meanwhile, Blue Team and Team RWBY were in another section of the base looking for the same thing as their fellow peers.

"Damn, for a heavily advanced base. This place is a dump." Tucker muttered, "Where the fuck are we gonna find tools in a place like this?"

"A tool box maybe?" Weiss muttered

"Really? Yeah, no shit." Tucker quipped, causing Weiss to roll her eyes.

"Will you two shut up and start looking." Yang spoke up, "We better hurry before the Meta shows up and kill us all."

"Wait where's Ruby?" Blake asked everyone

"Probably with Caboose." Tucker replied, "Besides, when this is all over. You guys should head home. The two are probably just going through...you know...issues?"

"Oh." Blake muttered, "Right."

Meanwhile, Ruby and Caboose were in another room talking with one another.

"I guess this is what they call the 'calm before the storm' huh?" Ruby said to him

"Yeah…" Caboose replied, "Like a hurricane."

Ruby couldn't help but giggle at Caboose's child-like intelligence before speaking again.

"So...after this...what do we do?" Ruby asked

Caboose looked at her confused, "What do you mean?"

"Well...after this we have to leave. Our job is finished here, we helped you guys...and I can't stay here with you because-"

"Because, you have a purpose at home?" Caboose asked

"Yeah." Ruby replied glumly, "So we should probably find a way to work things out."

"So we can still be a thing." Caboose replied

"Exactly."

Suddenly a loud bang was heard outside from where they were.

'What was that!?" Ruby shouted

"Let's go!" Caboose replied as they ran out of the base, with the rest of their teams in tow.

POV Change: Reds and Blues, Teams RWBY and JNPR

"OW!" Church yelled, as he was thrown to the ground by a grenade courtesy of the Meta. The latter himself was currently fighting Wash, who was gravely injured. Ranging from blood stains on his amor, and a cracked helmet visor.

The Reds and Blues, followed by Teams RWBY and JNPR ran up to Church, who was getting up at this point.

"What happened?" Sarge asked him

"The Meta." Church replied, pointing over to the brute, "There."

Sarge looked over to where Church was pointing, "And I was afraid we wouldn't get to kick a little ass today! Come on fellas!" he said as he led everyone towards the Meta.

"Someone should stay with Church!" Tucker said to everyone

"I'll do it." Doc replied, "Pacifist remember?"

"Right." Ruby said to him, "Thanks Doc!"

Meanwhile, Wash avoids an attack by the Meta. Followed by slashing the brute with a combat knife. He then dodges a second attack before throwing his knife at the Meta, striking him. He then pulls out his battle rifle just as the Meta does, and the two fire. Wash ends up missing, while the grenade from the Meta lands by his feet and detonates. Sending him flying into his already destroyed Warthog.

That was the brute turned his attention to his other enemies.

"ATTACK!"

"GET HIM!"

"WE'RE GONNA FUCKIN' DIE!"

Red and Blue standing side by side united followed by eight superhuman teens all charged at the Meta. The brute growled in anger and fired several rounds at them all, which missed. Yang, using Ember Celica, fired several rounds behind her giving the brawler a boost. She then delivered several blows to the Meta's chest before he punched her in the chest as well, and threw her back towards her team. Ruby, using her semblance, snuck up behind the Meta fired several rounds of ice dust at him. This caused his armor to freeze suddenly, and the brute started to desperately struggle to get rid of the ice. Weiss then summoned a glyph that turned the ice in fire, setting the Meta a blaze. The Meta panicked, which was something quite odd to come from a person of his kind. He did manage to put the fire out however. Lastly came Blake who instead just charged at him like a normal soldier trying to play hero. The Meta growled and tried to grab her, only for Blake to suddenly disappear, and suddenly reappear next to him and strike a few blows. Despite having the appearance of a mindless brute, the Meta himself was a rather intelligent person, and realized that Blake was attacking in a pattern. The Meta then timed himself before reaching out with his left hand and managed to grab Blake by the neck and throw her into the rest of her team.

"Ruby!" Caboose shouted as he broke off from his team to help her and her team, "Are you okay?"

"We're fine Caboose." she replied, "Go stop the Meta."

"Ok!" Caboose then ran back to join the fight.

The Meta checked his surroundings before turning his sights onto his next opponents, which happened to be Team JNPR.

"Go for his legs!" Jaune shouted to his team. Nora fired several grenades at the Meta's legs, causing him to stumble a bit, she then turned Maghild into its hammer form and slammed down onto the ground, causing a small but powerful shockwave. The Meta was promptly flung in Pyrrha's direction, she used her semblance on the brute and slammed him into the ground, dragging him through the icy snow. She then flung him towards Ren who slashed at him with StormFlower. The Meta then finally had it, and managed to grab Ren by the lag and throw him into Nora before setting his sights on Pyrrha and Jaune...only to be distracted by gunfire.

Now it was the Reds and Blues turn. They managed to avoid the Meta's first attack, and they all stopped by where Wash was. Both teams then proceeded to give the brute everything they got. Shooting at him, live frag grenades, plasma grenades, and even fire grenades they had on them. The Meta protected himself by using his domed energy shield he obtained from the late Agent South. The Reds and Blues continued to rain hell on the meta before the ex-Freelancer deactivated his shield and jumped into the air and fired several grenades at the group, causing Tucker and Grif to roll out of the way. Simmons then raised his rocket launcher at him.

"Fire in the hole!" he shouted before firing a rocket in the Meta's direction. But the brute dodged the projectile in mid-air before using the blade on his brute shot to slice clean through the maroon soldier's weapon, rendering it useless. Tucker jumped out of the way, putting his rifle on his back before taking out his energy sword. He swung at the Meta but was blocked by the brute's own weapon, before being knocked to the side. The Meta then set his sights on Sarge who fired a round at the Meta but it was blocked by the brute shot. Then in a rare act of bravery, Grif pounced onto the Meta's back and he put his arms around his neck trying to strangle him.

"Yeah!" he shouted, "He fights like a bear!"

The then proceeded to grab Grif and throw him to the side, but not before Grif could steal his brute shot.

"Yoink!" the orange soldier shouted, as he was thrown off to the side.

The Meta, now unarmed, went back to Sarge. The red soldier tried yet again to shoot him, but missed. The Meta knocked him to the ground as Sarge tried shooting him again. He dodged the shot and threw Sarge right into Grif and Simmons, sending them flying back to where Wash was. The Meta then turned around and was caught off guard by Tucker, who managed to stab him in the chest with his sword, barely missing the Epsilon Unit.

"Stab!" Tucker quipped as he attacked him

Sarge then got up on his feet, and turned to Wash.

"Wash, come on." he said to him, "He needs help."

Wash shook his head, "I can't. I'm done...here take this...you'll know what to do."

Sarge looked at what Wash was handing him. He did know what to do.

The Meta proceeded to punch Tucker to the ground just as the aqua soldier's sword deactivated and fell to the ground, no longer in the Meta's chest. The brute was about to deliver the final blow when he was stopped by a blue armored fist. He turned around and noticed Caboose standing next to him.

"I will eat you unhappiness!" he said in a deep baritone voice before hauling off and swinging at the Meta's face. The brute was flung into the snow,now with a massive crack and dent in his helmet visor.

BANG!

A shotgun shell hit the Meta's shielding systems. He turned around and noticed Sarge standing there.

BANG!

Several assault rifle rounds then hit him. He then turned around and noticed Caboose. He turned back to Sarge.

"Come here you big son of a bitch!" Sarge taunted him as he walked up to the brute. Caboose did the same.

Back and forth, the red sergeant and the blue idiot fired at the Meta. With the brute himself trying to figure out what to do.

"What are they doing?" Grif asked everyone

"It looks like they're going to kill themselves." Simmons replied

"Oh no!"

The two red and blue soldiers were a foot close to the Meta. Who immediately disarmed then and grabbed them both by their necks.

"Caboose!" Ruby shouted in fear

"Hey Grif! Yang!" Sarge runted while in the Meta's grasp, "I lost my shotgun. What am I gonna do without my shotgun? Shotgun dammit!"

The duo looked at him confused, "Shotgun?" Grif muttered before he turned his sights on the destroyed warthog. "Come on guys!"

Sarge looked at the Meta, "Hey Meta. Settle a bet would a ya. Does that thing kinda look like a big cat to you?" he asked, gesturing his head over to his friends. The Meta looked over there and saw something strange, the remaining Reds and Blues along with Teams RWBY and JNPR pushing the destroyed Warthog over the cliff. But the tow cable was detached and somewhere else.

Where was it?

Uh oh…

The Meta looked down in fear and saw the hook of the tow cable was attached to him. He looked back up at Sarge, who was now flipping him off. The other finally pushed the car over the cliff, and the Meta was pulled instantly along with it. He let go of Sarge and Caboose, with the latter managing to grab the Epsilon Unit off of his back.

As the Meta quickly approached the cliffside. He made a last ditch attempt to survive by grabbing onto Grif's leg, pulling him with him.

"Whoa!" Grif muttered as he pulled down the cliff side

"GRIF!" Simmons and Yang shouted as they ran over to help their friend. Both managed to grab onto both of Grif's arms but soon were struggling due to the weight of the Meta and the warthog combined. Sarge then ran over with his shot gun and looked over the edge.

"META!" he shouted, "YOU JUST GOT SARGE'D!" he fired one last round at the Meta's hand. Causing him to let go and lose his grip. He fell over the cliffside to his death in a distraught roar of fury.

Simmons and Yang helped Grif back up onto the ground.

"Thanks guys." he said

"No problem." Simmons replied

"So does this mean you owe me something?" Yang quipped

"Hey now don't push it." Grif hissed at her

While all of this was happening, Doc, Church, Caboose, and Team RWBY looked over the ever more damaged Epsilon Unit.

"Yeah, that thing doesn't look like it's in good shape." Doc said

"There's not much time." Church said to him, "I need you to use it on me."

"Me?" the medic questioned, "I can't! I'm a medic! I took an oath!"

"Oh right." Church replied, "Ugh, the first line is 'leave no harm' right?"

"Well actually now first is 'lobbying against socialist reform.'" Doc explained, "But second is, yeah, the 'no harm' thing."

Church then looked at Caboose, "Caboose, do it."

"I can't." Caboose replied

"Yes you can." Church tried to convince him, "You do this all the time."

"Yeah, I don't want to." Caboose replied, very concerned

Church sighed, understanding how hard it was for Caboose, "Alright, Ok Caboose, I'm sure I can do it on my own."

"But what if you don't come back?" Caboose asked worryingly

"Well, you know what Delta always used to say?" Church asked him

"Memory is the key." Caboose replied

"If I don't come back then." Church said to him in a gentle tone, "You're in charge of remembering me, ok? Don't let Tucker help, he'll... just fuck it up."

Church then left his body and appeared in his ghost form, out of sight of Team RWBY.

"Bye buddy." he said as he entered the unit.

"...Is he...gone?" Blake asked

"Yeah, he went in." Caboose replied

Ruby hugged Caboose to comfort him, surprisingly Weiss joined in as well.

Sarge, Simmons, and Jaune then arrived.

"What happened?" Jaune asked everyone

"Church went in." Caboose replied, "He's going to find her."

"That AI unit looks bad." Simmons said to him, "Let me take a look at it."

"Doc, go check on Wash." Sarge ordered the medic, "I don't he's gonna make it."

Doc ran off to assist Wash as Simmons started looking at the memory unit.

"Oh no!" Simmons shouted

"What? What?" Yang asked

"There's only a few more seconds left until it shuts down!" he replied, "After that, he'll be trapped!"

"Come on Church!" Caboose shouted, "Follow the sound of my voice!"

But it was too late, the unit flickered on last time before it shut off.

"It's shutting down! I can't stop it!" Simmons shouted

"Church?" Caboose muttered, "Are you there?"

"I'm sorry Caboose." Simmons said to him

"...Church?" Caboose muttered in sadness. Causing Ruby to comfort him again, along with all of Team RWBY. Team JNPR and Tucker then showed and noticed the scene, realizing what had happened.

They won, but at the cost of a friend.


POV Change: Sidewinder

A UNSC marine looked over the snowy canyon of Sidewinder, along with a large detachment of the UNSC police that was securing the old Freelancer base that was there. One officer was interrogating the Reds and Blues at the time.

"...And where the hell did the Pelican in the water come from?" he asked them all

"The Meta must've hijacked it." Tucker said to him, "That makes sense right?"

"Man, the Chairman is going to be pissed." the officer said, "The budget only allows for one crashed Pelican per mission! All right, well I guess you guys check out. You can head back to your training bases now."

"We just call them bases." Sarge retorted

"Hmph. I bet." the officer replied smugly

"Hey! We solved your problem." Grif hissed at him, "Not bad for 'trainees'?"

"Got to hand it to you." the officer said to them, "Killing one of these agents is tough." But three? And this guy." he looked over to the body of a soldier in steel gray armor. The body of Agent Washington, "The Chairman is not gonna like that he's dead."

"Yeah…" Tucker trailed off

"Yeah that's too bad." Caboose added

"Well be sure to let him know we're sorry." the real Agent Washington replied, inside Church's old armor. Which now had yellow accents on his arms, helmet, and thighs.

"Whatever." the officer replied, "You're free to go."

The officer then walked back to the old Freelancer base. While the Reds and Blue walked over to a nearby cave that was out of sight from the security detail.

"You can come out now guys." Sarge spoke to the cave

Suddenly, out stepped Teams RWBY and JNPR.

"Man it is cold in there." Jaune shivered

"At least we aren't wanted by the police anymore." Weiss replied, "So, did it work?"

"You bet it did." Sarge said to them all, "We got off clean, Wash faked his death, the Meta is dead, and we can all go home."

"Should we...come back to see you guys?" Nora asked

"Hey, that's entirely up to you guys." Simmons replied, "Just wait a week or two until things die down over here."

"Agreed." Yang spoke

"So…" Tucker muttered, "I guess this is it?"

"Appears so." Jaune replied

Ruby ran up and hugged Caboose one last time.

"So...I guess we try out the long distance relationship thing?" she suggested

"Yeah." Caboose replied, "I'll try to send mail as well."

Ruby giggled, "Speaking of mail." she then pulled out several photographs and handed them to Caboose.

"Take these." she said to him, "They're pictures of all of us from Beacon. They're for all of you by the way. But Caboose…"

She took her symbol pin and gave him it, "That's from me."

"And this is for you Ruby." Caboose replied, as he handed her his pistol, "Since you like weapons."

Ruby gleamed with joy as she held it.

"Thanks." Caboose said to the teams, "For everything."

"Alright, you fellas better skedaddle now before the UNSC comes over here." Sarge spoke up

Team RWBY and JNPR gathered around and Weiss activated the teleporter. A bright light engulfed the cave, and quickly dispersed. The two teams were gone.

"So why are you guys helping me?" Wash asked the sim troopers

"You helped us Wash." Caboose replied casually as he walked off with Ruby's symbol pin in hand, "Just made sense."

"Yeah, plus we had to even the teams." Tucker added, "Also I was tired of Caboose saying: Can we keep him? Can we keep him?" he then walked off as well

Wash nodded in agreement, "Well, for whatever it's worth, thanks." and he walked off with his new found team.

Red Team watched them still standing by the cave.

"Looks like Blue Team has a new recruit Sarge." Grif said

"Doesn't look tough to me." Simmon quipped

"Yeah, maybe this one can shoot." Sarge jokingly replied, "Come on fellas, let's go home."

"Uh, jeeps busted Sarge." Simmons reminded him, "Are we walking?"

"That depends." Sarge replied, "You boys have gotten over your fear of flying yet?" he asked them as he started to follow the Blues.

"No sir!" Simmons happily replied, and he and Grif went after Sarge.

Both teams proceeded to board two Hornets that belonged to the UNSC, which caught the attention of a nearby guard.

"Hey! You can't take that!" the guard shouted at them, as the Reds and Blues flew off, "That... That's UNSC property! Get back here! Hey, come on, I'll lose my job!"

"Hope you don't lose your job!" Simmons shouted back, as the two teams flew away from Sidewinder towards an unknown destination. Who knows what would happen next…


POV Change: Epsilon-Church

Epsilon Unit, Blood Gulch, ~2552

Everything looked different…

But he needed to find her…

Church opened his eyes and found himself in the middle of a canyon. Not just any canyon however. He was back in Blood Gulch, but now it was different. The environment was much more greener than before. Blue Base now had a small beachline behind it, while Red Base had a seemingly strange steel wall behind it. But he didn't care at all. He chose to be here, and he wasn't complaining one bit. It was his memory, and he was happy about it.

"Hey Church." a voice said to him. Church noticed a soldier in aqua armor similar to him. It was his memory of Tucker.

"I think the Reds just got a new vehicle!" Epsilon-Tucker said to him, "Let's go check it out!" he started running towards the cliffside near Red Base.

"They only got a jeep!" Epsilon-Caboose shouted, as he ran after Tucker, "We have at a tank! That's way cooler!

"Yeah, I'll be right there!" he shouted back

"Hey Church!" a voice then shout at him. Church looked up at a large rock formation and noticed a soldier in black and red armor. She carried a sniper rifle, and a knife that resembled a sickle.

"Ruby?" Church asked, "Is that you?"

"Yeah, just watching you guys." Epsilon-Ruby replied, "I better head back to my team before Weiss gets angry that I'm speaking with you guys."

"Ok, see ya!" Church shouted to her as she ran off

He was right, things were different here. Everything in the outside world was based on the Alpha, his father. But in here...he was the Alpha. Now he had to find Tex, and save her once again...in his own memories.

As Church ran off to join his team, he realized that if he had to live the rest of his life in his own memory..he should at least make it a good one...


THE END