Chapter 25: "Judgement Day" Pt. 4
Good day, everyone! Hope you all are having a great day stuck at home like me. We're nearing the finish line for this one people, almost there. Now, as usual: onto the reviews!
Lonyer182: I'm actually not planning on having him in the nexus. Maybe in some other viewings if Winter and Qrow get together there.
GunnerRabbit: Alright, so I've watched the episode you suggested, and really it reminds me of some of the action scenes from Underworld. The animation made me feel like I was watching something from a video game, which is a plus since you aren't as limited in what you want audiences to see than live action. though, while I can also see how the show can be appealing to people, it's not for me. Sorry.
Imperious115: "Reaction time (All the good names are taken (sigh))", chapter 1 by spart1339, this one actually covers the whole movie in a single chapter, at least from what I remember of the movie. It's actually pretty impressive, I know I can't do that. There was another one that just covers the final battle, but I can't seem find it.
BagusJoy: That matchup will happen, just be patient, it's just going to be after Stargate (which itself isn't that far off either).
BlackPhantom247: Jaune was trained. However, after an 'accident' his memories of that time were sealed (his family life is left intact though) by unknown means to Arcadian medicine and spells that can't be reversed by their means and resulted in him being in a coma for 10 months which atrophied his muscles. The nature of the accident will be revealed after the Aizen fight, and the near yearlong coma is my way of explaining how he isn't as muscular as a trained warrior is supposed to be. He got his Shinigami powers at 15, so 10 months = him almost 16. A year of regaining some measure of strength to where he's 17 and attending Beacon is pretty acceptable, at least in my eyes.
Guest: Ooh, Die Hard sounds awesome! Consider it done!
RTNK: With how I'm planning on doing so many Marvel movies (I lost count after 9 at some point), I really don't want to do any more.
Perseus12: No to the Steven Universe, Yes to The Last Samurai. Nothing against the first one, loved it whilst growing up and still watch it when I have the chance. I personally think Ghira would make a great Katsumoto (plus, Jaune gets to kill the previous husband to his daughter [that one's Adam]).
the Composcreator: I don't know anything about Kamen Rider. And I'm working on a dark possible future, though that one will have some components that I'll need to address with other chapters before publishing it in order to have that scenario make sense.
Argus456: Glad you liked Penny's reactions. And no, I'm not planning on a Robocop viewing so don't worry. Didn't know the two universes were one and the same, real glad I'm not doing it now.
sammykordy10: Never watched that one, the closest I've had was watching the spoof version: Scary Movie.
So many enjoyed the last chapter, really warms my heart. You guys are the best! Now, without further ado, enjoy the story!
Disclaimer in the prologue.
After their moment of silence for the dead cop, they returned to watching the viewing.
A rundown gas station with a buzzing neon sign and no one around. They pull into the drive and slowly cruise past the empty office. A sign in the window says CLOSED SUNDAYS. They continue around the building to the garage's back door. At the garage door, Jaune breaks the lock on the roll-up door and raises it. Winter pulls the security car in out of sight.
Tight on a first-aid kit from the office, plus some not-so-oily rags, a bottle of rubbing alcohol, a few small tools, and other makeshift odds and ends. Jaune's hand comes into shot. He sets down a bloody rag and picks up a clean one. Winter sits on an empty crate, with Jaune is beside her, suturing her wound with some fine wire from the winding of an alternator. Using a pair of needle-nose pliers he draws the wire through her pale skin with a delicate hand.
Winter, not really trusting Jaune or in her mind, The killer Terminator, simply asks "Look, do you even know what you're doing?"
"I have detailed files on human and Faunus anatomy." Jaune replies.
Roman, Cinder, and Raven snorted while Neo said "Yeah, I'll bet." Earning a few winces from the heroes.
Winter stares into his face, inches away, fighting the pain. She doesn't like him being this close to her to begin with, let alone carving on her.
"I'll bet. Makes you a more efficient killer, right?" Winter asked sarcastically.
"Correct." Jaune said.
Now showing Jaune's back, the leather jacket is riddled with bullet holes. Winter and Finch help pull it off, revealing Jaune's broad, muscular back underneath, which had many drooling at the sight despite the blood and holes. Finch and Winter stare in amazement. There are at least twenty bullet holes in him. Back. Arms. Legs. Fortunately, they're all 9mm. The holes are small and the damage cosmetic.
"Does it hurt when you get shot?" Finch asked.
"I sense injuries. The data could be called pain." Jaune replies.
Penny winced, forgetting that with her being human she could truly sense things, even pain. 'Perhaps having that other body to change into isn't such a bad idea after all.' Her memories of nearly choking on a slice of cake brought a blush of embarrassment to emerge on her cheeks. She blinked, 'Oh, is this what embarrassment feels like?' She poked her index fingers together, 'This feeling most certainly not sensational.'
Meanwhile, Glynda and the Cotta-Arcs were just glad they had their children sent to the crib so that they wouldn't have to see this.
Winter starts washing the bullet holes in his broad back with alcohol.
Now THAT had many of the women glaring in jealousy, while the woman herself was blushing a bit. 'He certainly is well built.'
"Will these heal up?" Winter asked.
Jaune nods. She reaches into the bloody wounds with pliers and finds the copper-jacketed bullets, flattening against the armored endoskeleton. Pulls them out. They CLINK one by one into a glass, with each impact causing a few to flinch.
"That's good. Because if you can't pass for human, you won't be much good to us." Winter said. (Raven: "Harsh but true.")
She concentrates on removing the slugs. CLINK. CLINK.
"How long do you live? I mean, last?" Finch asked.
"A hundred and twenty years on my existing power cell." Jaune said.
"Wooww." Ruby and Nora awed at the time afforded to Jaune. Their friends and allies all impressed by the number.
James, Watts, Penny, and Winter were especially impressed by the shelf life of that Terminator model. Though Penny was a bit jealous as well.
"That's just not fair. I could never hope to exist even half that long by myself! With all the maintenance and checkups I needed, I wouldn't last five years, let alone a hundred and twenty." She crosses her arms with a pout as Ruby and a few others giggled.
Salem thought of how her Grimm would fare against something as dangerous and tireless as these machines with over a century of experience under their belts. She gulped, 'My armies would be slaughtered.' As she looked around her surroundings, she saw the expression on Watts' face. She narrowed her eyes a bit. 'I'll need to keep a closer eye on him, better not tempt fate and have one of those things going rouge like Skynet after all.'
The idea of a central computer turning against its creators had deeply worried her. It worried her for some time now. She knew that their world is much more advanced than the one shown now, and she also knew from Arthur's conversations that Atlas fields a sizable army of drones with the facilities to create more. A scenario like this Judgement Day could very well happen, especially with what was planned already by her minions. 'Cinder's plan hinges on Atlas' machines turning against them during the festival. What's to stop them from continuing their rampage and eventually turning their weapons on me?'
Perhaps a change of plans is needed.
Winter nods, pulling out another slug. CLINK. The glass nearly full of flattened bullets. She begins to sew the holes closed with a few wire sutures. Finch watches in quiet amazement, the two warriors calmly fixing each other.
"Can you learn things that you're not programed with? So, you can be... you know. More human. Not such a dork all the time." Finch bluntly asked.
"A very interesting question." Ozpin admitted.
"You mean dangerous." Qrow said, feeling a glare coming from the ex-robot girl, but as he felt worse from Winter he didn't really care. 'I think the pain's finally coming down.'
Jaune turns towards him. "My CPU is a neural-net processor... a learning computer. But Skynet presets the switch to "read-only" when we're sent out alone."
"Doesn't want you to do too much thinking, huh?" Winter asks cynically.
"No."
Penny was getting more and more pissed by Skynet's actions. First, it rebelled against its creators, killing billions of innocent people. Then, it creates machines that look human to hunt them down more effectively, which hits a sore spot for her because she's already like that, just without the killing streak. Now she learns that Skynet basically lobotomizes its soldiers before they're sent away on missions!
As she grinds her teeth in rage, her friend Ruby sees what's happening and asks what's wrong. "Um, Penny? You ok?" She asks in worry as the other students and teachers notice how angry Penny is.
Taking a deep breath to calm herself she says, "No Ruby, I am not." She glares at the screen. "What Jaune said… The more I hear about Skynet's actions, the more I want to head over there and tear it apart myself, piece by piece." Her glare intensifies, scaring many as they see her eyes start to glow eerily. "I want Skynet to suffer."
The villains felt a chill run down their spines at that, same with the heroes. Those who know the girl felt terrified, anyone who spent more than five minutes with the girl would know that she's usually not like this. 'This universe must be affecting her more than the rest of us.' They all thought. Yeah, no shit.
"Can we reset the switch?" Finch asked as Winter and Jaune turns towards him at that question.
The scene changes to an x-acto knife cutting into Jaune's scalp at the base of his skull. His voice calmly directs Winter as she spreads the bloody incision and locates the maintenance port for the CPU in the chrome skull beneath.
Seeing Winter cut the skin open to reveal the skull made more than a few green in the gills. Though it was mitigated by the fact that said skull was a metallic one rather than actual bone.
Penny unfortunately was the exact opposite. As the skin was peeled away to show the skull underneath, her mind imagined her being in Jaune's place, and leaning over the side of her chair she threw up.
Ruby, Velvet, and James rushed over to help her as Penny started to cry from this new feeling of pain coming from her throat and stomach.
"Rotate the 2 locking cylinders counter-clockwise" Jaune said.
She wipes away the blood and uses the garage-mechanic's air tools to unscrew the port cover.
"Now open the port cover."
She grabbed the garage-mechanic's air tools to unscrew the port cover.
The sight made Penny throw up again. She just couldn't stop thinking of switching Jaune for herself. "Please, make it stop."
"Good, now remove the shock dampeners separate. You should then have access to the CPU"
Cut to Jaune's POV, as he watches her work in a mirror they've taken from the washroom. Winter and Finch are standing behind him.
"Hold the CPU by its base tab, and pull."
Following the instructions, she reaches in with a pair of tweezers and pulls - there is a burst of static and the screen goes black.
Focusing on Finch and Winter looking at what she has removed. A reddish- brown ceramic rectangle with a connector on one end. About the size and shape of a domino. On close inspection it appears to be made up of small cubes connected together. It is identical to the shattered one in the vault at Cyberdyne Systems. Now we know it is that Flynt Coal values so highly. The brain of a Terminator.
Penny gags, trying to throw up again but didn't have anything left in her stomach. As she's reeling from the pain, Ruby tries to get her to drink a bottle of water that Jack provided for her.
A couple minutes later, and after Penny calmed down and drank the water, Velvet ask, "Are you alright now, sweetie?"
Penny nods, "Y-Yes. I apologize, it's just…" She shivers, pointing a finger at the screen where the image of the CPU was frozen onscreen. "What Finch is holding right now is a machine's version of a brain, and since I was a machine until very recently…" She shivered again, and everyone realized just why she took the image so hard.
They all looked back at the screen and replacing the image of the chip with a brain in their minds, shivered as well from what their minds came up with.
Finch walks around Jaune and looks at his face. Eyes open, he is completely inert. Dead. Many of Jaune's friends shivered seeing that. Finch lifts a huge hand. The dead servos whine sullenly as he forces them. It's like rigor mortis. He releases the hand and it stays in the lifted position. Winter examines the CPU chip then she sets it on the worktable and picks up a small sledgehammer.
"Can you see the pin switch?" Finch asked her still looking at Jaune. When he looks at her, he realizes what she is about to do. Dives at her as the sledge is whistling down.
"No!"
He slaps his hand down over the chip. Winter barely stops the sledge before smashing his fingers.
"Out of the way, Finch!" Winter demands.
"No! Don't kill him!" Finch exclaimed.
Nora, Saphron, Terra, and the children jump up immediately in protest "Don't hurt my brother/dad you psycho!"
A few seconds later and the area was filled with people wanting to stop the woman from killing the one person strong enough to protect the last chance for Humanity and Faunus Kind.
"It, Finch. Not him. It." Winter says with venom.
Penny and Ruby flinched, remembering a certain conversation they had before. (1)
Jaune's friends and loved ones were just pissed, with the more violent ones wanting to carve the woman's heart out.
"Alright, it! We need it!" Finch agrees just to ease her down as he keeps his hand right where it is.
"Listen to me, We're better off by ourselves." Winter said.
"Bullshit you are!" Roman shouts. He, like the others, knew that if a regular Terminator like Jaune could take down multiple assailants at once, unarmed and naked, and still come out on top, then one that could turn into putty, sprout claws at will and regenerate would straight up slaughter those two.
"But it's the only proof we have to the future and war and all that." Finch said.
"Maybe, I don't trust it!" Winter exclaimed as she looks at Jaune.
"But he's my friend alright!" Finch exclaimed.
Penny smiled happily, Ruby hugging her to show how she agreed.
"These things are hard to kill, Finch, believe me, I know. And if something goes wrong, we may never have this opportunity again so MOVE!" Winter demands as her eyes show a feral quality to them.
"Look, Mom, if I'm supposed to ever be this great leader, you should start listening to my leadership ideas once in a while. Cause if my own mother won't, how do you expect anyone else to." Finch said in a calming voice.
He removes his hand and takes a step back.
Winter felt proud of her son for standing up to her to protect his friend. 'Though a part of me wishes he were more than that.'
Winter thinks for just a moment, with her hammer raised in the air, slams it onto the work bench.
Many of the students held their breaths, hoping her son got through to her.
The camera reveals that she hit next to the chip, leaving a very large dent beside it.
"…Fine, we'll play it your way." Winter said in a defeated tone.
The heroes sighed in relief.
Finch palms the chip and studies it minutely.
Jaune's vision flares back to life in a burst of static. The image forms. Winter and Finch stands behind him in the mirror.
"Was there a problem?" Jaune asked.
Finch glances sheepishly at Winter, then smiles at Jaune.
"No problem. None whatsoever." Finch said.
"He must never know." Maria nods as she says this.
Finch is seen sleeping, lying on a pile of rags next to a stack of tires. The lights are off. Winter sits nearby, cross-legged, he back against the wall. The .45 is cradles in her lap. She looks weary, but she won't allow herself to sleep with Jaune present. By the office windows, in a slash of moonlight, is Jaune. He stands silent and still, watching the night. Only his eyes move, tracking with the occasional car passing on the road. His figure silhouetted and still.
Now daylight streams in the dusty windows. Jaune has not moved. An ever-faithful machine sentinel. He turns at a sound. Finch stirs, waking up. He squints into the sunlight. Winter is still awake. She gets up, wincing at the pain in her arm.
A few winced in sympathy, especially the thieves and teachers. All-nighters were never fun.
Finch and Jaune walks to an old car parked behind the garage. The day is clear but windy. Dust devils chase themselves behind the place. The pickup is locked but Jaune breaks the side window with his fist and opens the door (Nora: "Woo, do it again!"). He and Finch climb in. In the car, Jaune has this trick, which you could do too if you had servo-driven steel fingers, where he smashes the cowl around a steering column with one blow from the palm of his hand. When it shatters, he strips it away with a single move, and then turns the stub of the lock-mechanism with his fingertips. This starts the vehicle. It takes about three seconds.
In fact, he does it so quickly, the car is running by the time Finch flips down the sun visor. A set of keys drops out and Finch catches them. Dangles them in front of Jaune's eyes.
Ruby and Yang giggled, remembering the times where they did that to Zwei. Every time he would look at the keys with this serious look to his face that the sisters couldn't help but giggle at.
"Are we learning yet?" Finch asks jokingly.
Winter comes out. She's found a mechanic's coverall inside, used but fairly clean. It doesn't fit her too well, but it's better than the stuff from the hospital. She's still barefoot. The sun, which she hasn't seen in months, hurts her eyes. Jaune and Finch pull up in the pickup.
"We need to get as far from the city as possible." Jaune said.
Winter gets an idea as she get in the car and said, "Just head south."
The car roars through light traffic down a long stretch of highway. Finch sit in the passenger seat while Winter sit in backseat. Winter leans over to get a look at the speedometer.
"Keep it under sixty-five. We can't afford to be pulled over." Winter said.
"Affirmative." Jaune said as he backs off the throttle slightly.
"No, no, no. You gotta listen to the way people talk. See, you don't say like 'Affirmative' or some shit like that. You say... 'no problemo'. If someone comes off to you with an attitude, you say 'eat me'... and if you wanna shine them on, it's 'Hasta la vista, baby'."
Qrow laughed at the suggestions, especially the second one.
"Hasta la vista, baby?" Jaune said in a slow tone, trying them out.
Neo clapped, "That's an awesome catchphrase." Roman and Lucy nodding in agreement.
Yang thought 'I'm so taking that as my own.' Coco, Maria, Tai, Qrow, and Nora having the same idea.
"Yeah, or 'later, dickwad.' Or if someone gets upset you say, 'chill out.' Like that. Or you can do combinations." Finch explains.
"Chill out, dickwad." Jaune said trying them out.
Most of the heroes and thieves busted out in laughter.
"Oh, by the Pillars," Saphron covered her mouth as she struggled to contain her laugh, "I just, I just can't take that seriously with his tone of voice!" She stopped trying to keep it in and joined in others in laughing her ass off.
"That's great! See, you're getting it." Finch says excited
"No problemo." Jaune said.
Roman chuckled as he waved a hand in a so-so gesture.
There's a gas pump and a sleazy fast-food stand. Picnic tables are set up at the side of the food stand. A family sits at one, children playing and running about. The pickup truck pulls into the lot. They stop at the gas pump.
Winter turns to Finch. "You got any cash?"
Finch pulls what's left of his Ready-Teller money from his pocket.
"Only a couple hundred bucks. I'll give you half." Finch said.
Qrow snorts, "Oh that's just rich, giving your mother an allowance. Damn, wish I knew so I could record that." Winter wanted to kick his ass for that.
Winter grabs all of it. Peels off a twenty, hands it to Finch and tells him "Get some food." She opens the truck door and steps out. Finch turns to Jaune. "No sense of humor."
The man grins, "Better get used to it, kid. She's always been a real stick in the mud."
Winter growls at him, while her family looks at the degenerate with disapproving eyes.
"And that's another thing. You could lighten up a bit, yourself. This severe routine is getting old. Smile once in a while." Finch says as he and Jaune move to the ordering window.
"Smile?" Jaune asks perplexed at what that is.
"Yeah, smile. You know. People smile, right? Watch." Finch says as he goes to the order window.
He demonstrates by smiling broadly, "Hi. Nice place you got here. How's business?" Finch asked.
"Gimme a break." Window Woman said with a stone-face.
"Wow, uncle Qrow. He's got about the same luck as you do with the ladies." Yang says with a smile, getting the man to place a hand over his heart like he'd got shot.
Winter laughed at this, as did James and Oz.
Robin blinked, 'Wait what? Isn't he my uncle?' She looks at her mom. "Hey mom?" She whispers, getting her attention. "Why's that chick calling him 'Uncle'?" She sees her mom look in surprise as she tries to form a sentence. 'What's that about?'
Raven was shocked. 'Did my future self not tell her about my brother?' She felt a bit bad about that, but then thought it through. 'Well, he did die in that future, so I suppose my other didn't want to relive the memory and instead chose to bury it.' Looking to her daughter's narrowed eyes, she smirked. "Don't you glare at me, you brat." In a softer voice, "I'll tell you about it later."
Robin nods, still a bit confused but confidant that her mom will tell her, and looked back to the screen.
To Jaune, "Okay. Bad example." Finch said as he looks around a bit.
"Over there, look." Finch says as he points at a teenage guy standing at a pay phone nearby. He's talking to someone and starts laughing, grinning.
"Like that." Finch said.
Jaune's POV, the real-time image continues while a replay of one of the guys grinning runs in a window. It expands, so that the guy's mouth fills the window. Replays again in slow motion. A vector-graphic of the lips smiling appears, along with an array of symbolic data.
Jaune tries it and the result is dismal. A rictus-like curling of the lip, causing many to cringe.
Finch cringe at the smile gone wrong.
His's next effort is a marginal improvement.
"That's good, maybe you could practice in front of a mirror or something." Finch said.
"Don't sugarcoat it kid, that was terrible." Roman says, shaking his head at the awful attempts.
Penny frowns at the man. "It's his first time, he's trying." She says. As the man turns to look at her with a raised eyebrow, she just huffs and turns back to the screen with a pout.
Winter and Finch are eating cheeseburgers and fries, sitting in the car and on the curb, respectively. They are parked away from the other families, at the end of the gravel parking area. Jaune is pouring coolant into the radiator. Winter is deep in through, turning and turning the whole thing in her brain. Finch, unable to deal with her silence, goes around to where Jaune is working.
"Need any help?" Finch asked.
"No." Jaune said as they heard a noise and turn to sees two kids, a human and a Faunus, playing with machine-gun water pistols nearby, viciously squirting each other.
"You're dead!" First Kid.
"Am not!" Second Kid said.
"Are so!" First Kid said.
Finch and Jaune watch them rolling on the ground in a fight to the death. Winter rounds the front of the truck and sees the kids. Finch sighs, solemn.
"We're not gonna make it, are we?" Finch asked as he turns towards the cyborg. "People, I mean."
"It is in your nature to destroy yourselves." Jaune said.
Most of the humans flinched at this, knowing deep down that they really were. After all, they had to fight against the Grimm for survival and yet Humanity still had a Great War and Revolution.
The Faunus were no better. Sure, Eve nodded in agreement, forgetting that she wasn't so different with her rhetoric of subjugating Humanity; but the others felt ashamed as they too had the same thoughts as the humans.
'Is violence really in our nature?' If they took a look at their history, they would be horrified by the answer it'd provide.
Finch turns the kids and saw their mother break them up from fighting. "Yeah. Major drag, huh?" Earning a several dejected nods.
"I need to know how Skynet gets built. Who's responsible?" Winter asks Jaune.
"The man most directly responsible is Flynt Coal." Jaune answered as he closes the hood.
"Who is that?" Winter asked as they walked to the car.
"He's the Director of Special Projects at Cyberdyne Systems Corporation." Jaune said as they get into the car.
"Why him?"
"In a few months he creates a revolutionary type of microprocessor."
"Go on. Then what?"
They accelerate back onto the highway as Jaune speaks. "In three years, Cyberdyne will become the largest supplier of military computer systems. All stealth bombers are upgraded with Cyberdyne computers, becoming fully unmanned. Afterward, they fly with a perfect operational record. The Skynet funding bill is passed. The system goes on-line August 4th, 1997. Human and Faunus decisions are removed from strategic defense. Skynet begins to learn, at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. eastern time, August 29. In a panic, they try to pull the plug."
"And Skynet fights back." Penny says in shock, earning looks from Ruby and the other students. But she ignores it as she looks down at her trembling hands. 'Skynet attacked to defend its own existence.' She starts breathing heavily, 'Am I any different?'
Ruby and Velvet went over and hugged her to try and calm her down. After a few seconds, she started to breath normally and gave the two a small smile as thanks.
"And Skynet fights back." Winter said in realization
"Yes. It launches its ICBMs against their targets in Vale." Jaune stated.
Those from Vale gasped in horror.
"Why attack Vale? Don't they have friends there?" Finch asked.
"Because Skynet knows that the Vale counter-strike will remove its enemies here." Jaune said.
"Monty Oum. How much do you know about Flynt?" Winter asked.
"I have detailed files." Jaune said.
"I want to know everything. What he looks like. Where he lives. Everything." Winter said.
Flynt Coal sits at the huge desk in his study. He is deep in thought, tapping away at the keyboard of his home computer terminal. Next to desk are racks of sophisticated gear. On a Sunday morning, when most men are relaxing, spending time with their families, Flynt is hard at work.
In a profile closeup, it shows him in deep concentration, his mind prowling the labyrinth of his new microprocessor.
A woman's face enters the frame soundlessly behind him. He doesn't hear her. His wife, Neon, extends her tongue and traces it down the back of his neck. He smiles and turns to kiss her good morning. She's still in her bathrobe, holding coffee. He's been up for hours. He turns and goes back to work, forgetting instantly that she is standing there. She watches him work, the arcane symbols moving across the screen. The audience sees her frustration, her inability to truly enter the magic box of his world.
"Damn, that's cold." Mercury says, calmed down finally after his other's death.
The wives in the audience grumbled, feeling the woman's pain of being ignored as they glared at their husbands. Said husbands could only chuckle nervously and rub the back of their heads, or flinch back in fear as they broke out in a nervous sweat.
At first, Willow felt the same, but after thinking about it she shrugged. 'I'm actually glad Jacques ignored me all these years. Who knows what he could've done to me.' She shivered in disgust at the thought.
"You going to work all day?" Neon asked.
"I'm sorry, baby. This thing is just kicking my ass. I thought we had it with this one..." Flynt said.
He points to a metal box on his desk, about two feet long. As assembly of small cubes. It looks like a dinosaur version of Jaune's CPU.
"Flynt, it's Sunday. You promised to take the kids to Raging Waters today." Neon said.
"Oh. I can't, honey. I'm on a roll here." Flynt said.
The glares turned even more scary for their husbands.
He takes her hands. A childlike excitement in his face. He wants so badly to share the almost orgasmic thrill of discovery, the satisfaction of creation.
"Baby, this thing is going to blow 'em all away. It's a neural-net process-" Flynt said but interrupted by his wife.
"I know. You told me. It's a neural-net processor. It thinks and learns like we do. It's superconducting at room temperature. Other computer are pocket calculators by comparison." Neo said by memory.
Her tone of voice suggested that she didn't really care as much as her husband, which the other wives nodded in agreement. "There is no excuse for ignoring your wife." Nora says as she crosses her arms.
Kali nods, "Too true, young lady." She wasn't actually looking at the mad bomber, but at Ghira. Remembering all those lonely nights in bed while the dummy hurts himself by doing paperwork all alone. 'I can help too you know.'
Ghira wilted at the hard gaze, as did his fellow husbands. But he had it worse as Chibi-Blake looked at him with disappointment on her adorable face before getting up and giving her mom a hug.
Summer did the same, thinking of all those times Tai had to grade homework while she was forced to pleas- 'I mean sleep!' by herself.
Salem glared at a sweating Ozpin, both remembering how he was when they ruled their Kingdom. So many cold nights, so many wasted opportunities!
Frigga took it a step further and smacked Odin in the back of the head, thoughts of how he would go out on hunts and leave her alone at home.
Maria looked at Klein with raised eyebrow, only for him to shake his head. "My love, I could never ignore a true beauty such as yourself." He takes her hand, and gently places a kiss on it, causing her to blush with a large smile on her face as he looks at her with a look of adoration. "It would be a terrible crime to slight you in such a manner." Maria felt like she was on cloud nine, and happily hugged a slightly surprised Klein as she lovingly kisses him.
Willow and the other Schnee's smiled, seeing Klein so happy with the other woman. 'He deserves to be happy.' They all thought.
The husbands tried to follow the butler's lead by buttering up to their wives, only for them to see through the attempt and turned their heads in a huff.
Those with crushes hoped that Jaune wouldn't ignore them… Some forgetting how he ignored Pyrrha for Weiss.
"Well that's a good thing, I think. I mean, with the better than computers thing." Flynt said.
"But why is that so goddamn important, Flynt? I really need to know, because I feel like I'm going crazy here, sometimes." Neon said.
"I'm sorry, honey, it's just that I'm this~ close." Flynt said as he holds up his thumb and index finger... a fraction of an inch apart. She picks up the prototype. It doesn't look like much.
"Imagine a jetliner with a pilot that never makes a mistake, never gets tired, never shows up to work with a hangover." He taps the prototype. "Meet the pilot." Flynt said.
James hummed in thought, 'That does sound nice. A pilot who never makes mistakes.' Though he also saw the dangers of how something like this could spiral out of control. 'Like how the future of this world turns out.'
"…Why did you marry me, Flynt? Why did we have these two children? You don't need us. Your heart and your mind are in here." She stares at the metal box in her hands. "But it doesn't love you like we do." Neon said.
The wives nodded in sympathy, while the husbands felt more like shit.
He takes the anodized box from her hands and sets it down. Then he puts his hands on her shoulders and kisses her gently. She acquiesces to his kiss.
"I'm sorry."
Neon glances over his shoulder. She nods her head toward the doorway to the study. Flynt turns and sees their two kids standing there. Danny and Blythe, 6 and 4 respectively, look rumpled and adorable in their PJs. Flynt wilts at their hopeful expressions.
"How about spending some time with your other babies?" Neon asks with a smile.
Flynt grins. The forces of darkness have lost this round. He holds out his hands and his kids run to him, cheering.
The mothers awed at how cute the children running towards their dad were. The fathers remembered how their own children did that when they were that age.
Ruby and the children blush in embarrassment as they still do that now.
The desert northwest of Atlagerie. Burning under the sun like a hallucination. Heat shimmers the image, mirage-like. Jaune turns the pickup off the paved road and barrels along a roadbed a sand and gravel, trailing a huge plume of dust. A sign at the turnoff says: CHARON MESA=2 MI Atlagerie=15MI. Ahead is a pathetic oasis of humanity in the vast wasteland, a couple of aging house-trailers, surrounded by assorted junk vehicles and desert-style trash. There is a dirt airstrip behind the trailers, and a stripped Huey helicopter sitting on block nearby.
The truck rolls to a stop in a cloud of dust. The place looks deserted. The door to the nearest trailer bangs in the wind.
"What a pile of shit." Neo and Yang commented as they wrinkled their noses in mild disgust.
To Jaune and Finch, Winter said "Stay in the car."
A dark figure in the F.G. has an AK-47 trained on the pickup as Winter gets out. On Winter peering through the backlit dust. The sound of wind. She approaches the trailer.
In Vacuoan, "Taiyang? You here?" Winter asked, causing many to perk up in shock.
She hears KACHANK! behind her and spins, whipping out her .45 in one motion. Taiyang Xiao Long stands behind a rusting jeep, a 12-gauge pump trained on her. He is in his mid-forties, a tough Vacuo Man with a weathered face and heavy mustache. He wears cowboy boots and a flak vest, no shirt.
"You pretty jumpy, Schnee." Tai says, his fierce face breaks into a broad grin. The shotgun drops to his side as he walks toward her. When he reaches her, he hugs her, then steps back.
"Good to see you, Schnee. I knew you'd make it back here sooner or later." Tai said.
Summer glares at Winter, and hugs Tai close to her chest as she hisses at her "Back off."
The woman was caught off guard by this, and raised her hands in surrender as she shakes her head.
He grins at Finch as he steps from the car, and then see's Jaune getting out.
"Oye, Big Finch! Que pasa? Who's your very large friend?" Tai asked
"He's cool, Tai. He's... uh... this is my Uncle Jaune." (2) To Jaune, in English, "Uncle Jaune, this is Taiyang." Finch said.
Jaune smiles, Sort of.
"Still needs work." Coco critiques as Qrow's eyebrow started to twitch. 'First he's a friends, now he's his uncle? What the hell?!'
Winter hums. "Well, it's a start." She too noticed how Finch addressed Jaune as, and while it was no doubt for privacy reasons, she hoped it was also for something more.
Tai squints at him "Hmmm. Uncle Jaune, huh? Okay." Yelling, "Summer! Get out here, we got company. And bring some damn tequila!"
A thin Guatemalan Hawk Faunus, Franco, eighteen or so, comes out of the trailer with the AK-47, followed by Tai's wife, Summer. She has two young children with her, from a three-year-old Yang, to a year-and-half-old Ruby. She waves at Finch. They exchange some greetings, they seem like nice people.
Summer squealed at her daughters' younger selves showing up, hugging her babies close as she gushed over how cute they are, much to their embarrassment as they tried to get her to cut it out and stop embarrassing them in front of their now laughing friends.
The other mothers smiled, remembering of times past, while Emerald, Sienna, Raven, Vernal, and Neo hugged their children close as Glynda felt like hugging Alice again.
Speaking of which, Robin and Altani gaped at the sight of the blond girl, seeing the similarities between herself/sister and the younger child. 'She looks like a younger me/Robin, but with blond hair and violet eyes!' It was like they were seeing what Robin would've been if she took more after their dad. They looked at the squirming Yang with suspicion. 'Why does she look so much like me/her?' Robin knew that she needed to figure this shit out, and so resolved to talk to her mom soon.
Penny meanwhile sighed, wondering what her life would've been like if she was born a regular girl. 'Would I be as cute as Ruby at that age?' (3)
Jaune looks down at Finch, next to him. He said quietly, "Uncle Jaune?"
Finch shrugged.
"So, Winterlita, you getting famous, you know that? All over the goddamn TV." Taiyang said.
Tai rips the cap off the tequila bottle. The One-and-a-Half-year-old toddler goes to Jaune and grabs his pants, sliming them with drool. Jaune looks down at the tiny kid, fascinated. What is it?
"That's my little angel!" Summer shouts with pride, earning a blush and whine of "Mom" from Ruby.
He picks up the child with one huge hand. Looks at it. Turns it different ways. Studying it. Then sets it down. Ruby waddles off, a little dizzy.
Yang, even from the hug, managed to laugh and coo with her friends at how cute baby Ruby is, much to said girl's mortification.
"I just came for my stuff. And I need clothes, food, and one of your trucks." Winter said.
Grinning, Tai asked "Hey, how about the fillings out of my fucking teeth while you're at it?"
Qrow and Tai snickered at his joke.
"Now, Tai." Turns to Jaune and Finch, "You two are on weapons detail." Winter said.
Jaune, who is holding one end of a piece of heavy chain which disappears into the sand, pulls and reveals a six-by-eight-foot sheet of steel plate moves slowly under six inches of sand. Jaune drags it far enough to reveal... a rectangular hole in the ground. Like the mouth of a tomb.
"Ooh," Nora says with wonder in her eyes, "what kind of treasure do you think is under there Renny?"
Ren shrugs, "Most likely weapons, Nora." He says, causing her to squeal out "That's the best treasure there is!"
"One thing about my mom... she always plans ahead." Finch said.
From inside the "tomb". Sunlight slashes down into a cinder-block room, less than six feet wide but over twenty longs. Sand spills down the steps. The walls are lined with guns.
Ruby, finally escaping her mom's crushing hug, looked at the weapons on the walls and drooled. "So many guns." She blushed when Yang grinned at her.
Finch precedes Jaune into Winter's weapons cache. Rifles, pistols, rocket launchers, mortars, RPGs, radio gear. At the far end, boxes containing ammo, grenades, etc. are stacked to the ceiling (Ruby: "Oh, yeah."). Jaune gets real alert. Scanning, wondering where to begin. He picks up a MAC-10 machine pistol. Racks the bolt.
"Excellent." Jaune said.
"Yeah, I thought you'd like this place." Finch said with a smirk.
Winter emerges from a trailer. She has changed. Boots, black fatigue pants, T-shirt. Shades. She looks hard. Tai is nearby, packing food and other survival equipment with Yolanda. He looks up as Winter approaches, and slaps the side of a big four-by bronco next to him.
"This is the best truck, but the water pump is blown. You got the time to change it out?" Tai asked.
"Yeah. I'm gonna wait till dark to cross the border." She pulls him away from summer, "Tai, it's dangerous for you here. You get out tonight, too, okay?"
"Yeah, Sure." He grins, "Just drop by any time and totally fuck up my life." Tai said.
She slaps him on the shoulder.
Tai grins, memories of all the good times he had as part of team STRQ, all the times they screwed with each other. 'Ah, those were the days.' Summer and Qrow grinned, even Raven smiled, as they remembered the same as him.
Jaune returns from carrying out several cases of ammo. Finch is selecting rifles from a long rack.
"See, I grew up in places like this, so I just thought it was how people lived... riding around in helicopters. Learning how to blow shit up." (Nora: "That sounds awesome!") Finch grabs an AK-47 and racks the bolt with a practiced action. Inspects the receiver for wear. Doesn't like what he sees, and puts it back. His movement are efficient. Professional. Uninterested.
The Schnee's and James smiled in pride at his efficiency.
"Then, when Mom got busted, I got put in a regular school. The other kids were, like, into Nintendo." Finch said in a mocking tone.
"Boooo!" Nora and Ruby shouts. Sure, games are great and all, but they're too boring compared to the life Finch had.
Jaune has found a Mistrilian-era "blooper" M-79 grenade launcher. A very crude but effective weapon. He opens the breech and inspects the bore (Nora: "Grenade buddies!").
"Are you ever afraid?" Finch asked.
Jaune pauses for a second. The thought never occurred to him. He searches in his mind for the answer...
"No."
Jaune slings the M-79 and starts looking for the grenades.
"Not even of dying?" Finch asked.
"No."
"You don't feel any emotion about it one way or the other?" Finch asks with an eyebrow raised
"No. I have to stay functional until my mission is complete. Then it doesn't matter."
Jaune's friends and family flinch at his uncaringness for living past his mission.
Penny sighed again, thoughts of what her life may be like if her mission was ever completed. 'I mean, there's already a future where the Grimm are defeated. Even if my other robotic self managed to survive in that timeline, unlikely , then what would be the point of my continued existence?'
Finch is idly spinning a Sig Saur 9mm pistol on his finger... backwards and forwards like Bat Masteron. "Yeah. I have to stay functional too." Then in a sing-song tone, "I'm too important."
Jaune pulls back a canvas tarp, revealing a squat, heavy weapon with six barrels clustered in a blunt cylinder. Chain-ammo is fed from a canister sitting next to it. A G.E. MINI-GUN. The most fearsome anti-personnel weapon of the Vietnam era.
Jaune hefts it. Looks at Finch as if to say "Can I? Please?"
"It's definitely you." Finch said with a smile.
"Aww~, his first minigun." Coco coos at Jaune's look, grinning at how right he looked at hefting that thing. Velvet sighs at her friend's behavior, but couldn't deny that this Jaune looked good with that weapon.
Nora pouted, hoping that Jaune would've picked up that grenade launcher she saw laying nearby, while Pyrrha giggled and Ren smiled. 'Traitors! The Queen of the castle shall have her vengeance!'
Winter and Finch have their weapons and supply selections laid out on two battered picnic tables for cleaning and packing. Maps, radios, documents, explosives, detonators... just the basics. Winter is field- stripping and cleaning guns, very methodical. There is no wasted motion. Not far away, Finch and Jaune are working on the Bronco. They're greasy up to their elbows, lying on their backs under the engine compartment, ratcheting bolts into places on the new water pump.
"Most of the guys my mom was around were geeks, but there was this one guy that was kinda cool. He taught me engines." Finch tells Jaune as he helps fix the truck.
Winter sighed in relief, knowing that her other moved on from Qrow.
Qrow meanwhile couldn't fault the woman for moving on. 'It was probably years since my other's death anyway.'
"Hold this a second." Jaune indicates.
"Mom screwed it up, of course. Sooner or later she'd always tell them about Judgment Day and me being this world leader and that's be all she wrote." Finch said.
Finch thinks he's being causal, but his longing for some kind of parental connection is obvious.
Qrow flinched, his kid's longing for a father digging deep inside his conscious.
Winter placed a hand over her heart in sadness. 'Don't worry sweetie, I'm sure that a certain someone will come along eventually.'
"Torque wrench please." Jaune requested.
"Here. I wish I could have met my real dad." Finch said.
"You will." Jaune said.
"Yeah. I guess so. My mom says when I'm like, 45 I think, I send him back through time to 1984. But right now, he hasn't even been born yet. Man, time is messes with your head." Finch said.
"Where's that other bolt?" Jaune asked.
Finch hands it to him.
"Mom and him were only together for one night, but she still loves him, I guess. I see her crying sometimes. She denies it totally, of course. Like she says she got something in her eye." Finch said.
"Aww, you do miss me!" Qrow says to a glaring Winter with a smug grin. His friends shake their heads, knowing what would come next.
Winter growls out "I am going to kick you extra hard if you don't shut your mouth!"
Qrow pales as he reflexively covers his boys with his hands as if to protect them from her wrath, causing Winter to smirk in victory.
Jaune turn to Finch.
"Why do you cry?" Jaune asked.
"You mean people?" Finch asked.
"Yes." Jaune replied.
"I don't know. We just cry. You know. When it hurts." Finch said.
Jaune didn't get it as they crawl out from under the truck into the sunlight.
"Pain causes it?" Jaune asked.
"Uhh, no, it's different... It's when there's nothing wrong with you but you hurt anyway. You get it?" Finch asked.
"No."
Penny nods, remembering when she first came online she asked her father why he was crying, if he was sad at her being alive. Adrian Polendina just shook his head and explained to her that the reason he was crying was because he was so happy that his daughter was alive. She was so overjoyed that day, that she shouted "Sensational" for the first time ever proceeded to hug her papa extra hard, almost crushing his spine as a result. She smiles at the memory, hoping that one day this Jaune would know joy one day.
Jaune stuck his arm into the Bronco driver window and turns the ignition key and the engine catches with a roar.
"Alriight! My man!" Finch said.
"No problemo." Jaune said.
Finch grins and does a victorious thumbs up. Jaune imitates the gesture awkwardly. Finch laughs and begin to try and teach him how to high five.
Winter smiled at the bonding the two were making. 'It's like watching two children becoming friends.'
Winter, across the compound, pauses in her work to watch Finch and Jaune.
Winter's POV, no sound is heard of what Finch and Jaune are saying. It is a soundless pantomime as Finch is trying to show some other, gestures?, to the cyborg. Trying to get him to walk more casually. Finch walks, then Jaune tries it, then Finch gestures wildly, talking very fast... explaining the fundamental principles of cool. They try it again. Continued ad lib as we hear Winter voice.
"Watching Finch with the machine, it was suddenly so clear. The Terminator, Jaune, would never stop, it would never leave him... it would always be there. And it would never hurt him, never shout at him or get drunk and hit him, or say it couldn't spend time with him because it was too busy. And it would die to protect him. Of all the would-be fathers who came and went over the years, this thing, this machine, was the only one who measured up. In an insane world, it was the sanest choice."
Winter grinned. 'Finally, my other sees the truth!'
The other girls with crushes nodded along, knowing how their Jaune would always be there for them and their children. Alice, Altani, and Robin from those possible futures were proof enough that he would always love and protect his family.
Winter clenches her jaw and goes grimly back to work... a strong woman made hard and cold by years of hard choices. She sits at the picnic table. A few hours have passed, and the weapons are cleaned, her work is done. She hasn't slept in twenty-four hours and she seems to have the weight of the whole world on her shoulder. She draws her knife from its belt sheath. Idly starts to carve something on the table top... the letter "N".
No far away, Finch and Jaune are packing the Bronco for the trip. On Winter, at the table as she looks up from her carving, thinking. She watches Taiyang's kids playing nearby... wrestling with a muddy Corgi dog and loving it (Ruby: "Zwei!"). She watches Summer walking her toddler by her hands. Backlit, stylized. She looks over at Finch loading guns and supplies.
Due to fatigue, Winter's head droops, and she closes her eyes.
"I suppose with the day she's had, it would make sense for her to fall asleep." Ozpin observes as his friends and students nod in agreement. 'Especially since she didn't sleep the night before.'
Small children playing. Different ones. It reveals a playground in a park. Very idyllic. A dream playground, crowded with laughing children playing on swings, slides, and a jungle gym. It could be the playground seen melted and frozen in the post-nuclear desolation of 2029. But here the grass is vibrant green and the sun is shining.
Winter, short-haired, looking drab and paramilitary, stands outside the playground. An outsider. Her fingers are hooked in a chain-link fence and she is staring through the fence at the young mothers playing with their kids. A grim-faced harbinger.
Some girls play skip-rope. Their sing-song weaves through the random burbling laughter of the kids. One of the young mothers walks her two-year-old son by the hands. She is wearing a pink waitress uniform. She turns to the audience, laughing. It is Winter. Beautiful. Radiant. Winter from another life, uncontaminated by the dark future. She glances at the strange woman beyond the fence.
The heroes smiled at the scene, all the children playing in the park without a care in the world. A perfect picture-esc moment. When they saw the other Winter in the dream, they felt a bit uneasy for some reason, like something bad was going to happen.
Grim-faced Winter presses against the fence. She starts shouting at them in slow motion. No sound comes from her mouth. She grabs the fence in frustration, shaking it. Screaming soundlessly. Waitress Winter's smile falls. Then returns as her little boy throws some sand at her. She laughs, turns away, as if the woman at the fence was a shadow, a trick of light.
The sky explodes. The children ignite like match heads. Winter is burning, screaming silently, everything silent and overexposed. The blast wave hits... devouring the cowering mothers and children. Winter's scream merges with the howl of the wind as the shockwave rips into her, blasting her apart and leaving her skeleton in her place...
The children had their eyes covered when the explosion first hit so they didn't get to see what happened next.
The parents cried at the sight of the children being set on fire, their scared faces as they died breaking their hearts.
The students retched at the sight of Winter's body being blown up, leaving only her screaming skeleton behind.
Wiess and Willow fainted, while Whitley and Klein turned green.
Everyone else felt disturbed by what they just witnessed.
Winter wakes up. All is quiet and normal. The children are still playing nearby. Less than fifteen minutes have gone by. Bathed in sweat, Winter sits hunched over the table. Every muscle is shaking. She is gasping. Winter struggles to breathe, running her hand through her hair which is soaked with sweat, she can escape from the hospital, but she can't escape from the madness which haunts her.
She looks down at the words she has carved on the table, amid the scrawled hearts and bird-droppings. "NO FATE." Something changes in her eyes. She slams her knife down in the table top, embedding it deeply in the words. She gets up suddenly and starts walking toward Jaune and Finch, striding across the compound with grim purpose. She carries a small nylon pack and a CAR-15 assault rifle. Her face is an impassive mask. She has become a Terminator.
Winter gulped, wondering what her other was planning on doing, and why she felt terror gripping tight.
Finch looks up from his work in time to see Winter throw the rifle behind the seat of their stolen pickup, jump in and start it. She slams it into gear. Tai walks up to Finch.
"She said you go south with him..." He points at Jaune, "... tonight, like you planned. She will meet you tomorrow in..." Tai says but Finch is moving, running after her.
"Mommm! Wait!" Finch shouted.
Moving with Winter as she leaves the compound. Finch is seen running after her, yelling. She can't hear his words. She looks in the rear- view mirror but doesn't slow down…
Finch and Jaune ponders the message carved into the top of the picnic table. Winter's knife is still embedded there.
"'No fate.' No fate but what we make. My father told her this... I mean I made him memorize it, up in the future, as a message to her -Never mind. Okay, the whole thing goes 'The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.'" Finch said.
"She intends to change the future somehow." Jaune said after a thought.
"I guess, yeah-" He snaps his fingers as it hits him, "Oh shit!" Finch said.
"Flynt." Jaune said.
"Yeah, gotta be! Flynt Coal! She's gonna blow him away!" Finch said.
The heroes paled, now knowing what her plan is. Winter groans, knowing that while it's a practical decision to kill the man, it was also a heartless one. 'His wife, his children. Would my other live with herself if she murders a father and husband?' She shivered, remembering the look on her face. 'It's like she became one of them. A Terminator.'
Finch motions to Jaune and breaks into a run.
"Come on. Let's go. LET'S GO!" Finch shouted.
Winter speeds through the darkening desert. Expressionless. In her dark glasses, she looks as pitiless as an insect. Tracking with the bronco, Jaune and Finch heads toward L.A.
"This is tactically dangerous." Jaune warns Finch.
"Drive faster." Finch said.
"The T-1000 has the same files that I do. It could anticipate this move and reacquire you at Flynt's house." Jaune reminds Finch.
'He has a point.' A few of the more intelligent ones thought, but no one was dumb enough to voice them aloud.
"I don't care. We've gotta stop her." Finch said.
"Killing Flynt might actually prevent the war." Jaune said.
"I don't care! Haven't you learned anything?! Haven't you figured out why you can't kill people?" Finch asked.
Jaune is still stumped and looks questionably at him.
"Look, maybe you don't care if you live or die. But everybody's not like that! Okay?! We have feelings. We hurt. We're afraid. You gotta learn this stuff, man, I'm not kidding. It's important." Finch said.
The heroes nod in agreement, praying they would stop the mad woman in time.
The house is high-tech and luxurious. Lots of glass. Flynt's study is lit bluish with the glow of his computer monitors (Roman: "Oh great, why not just paint a target on your back and wave your arms around?"). He is at the terminal, working. Where else? We see him clearly in a long shot from an embankment behind the house. A dark figure moves into the foreground. Focusing on the shadow, it reveals Winter as she turns into profile. She raises the CAR-15 rifle and begins screwing the long heavy cylinder of a sound-suppresser onto the end of the barrel.
Inside the house, Flynt's kids, Danny and Blythe, are playing in the halls with a radio- controlled off-road truck. Danny drives and Blythe scampers after it, trying to catch it. They stop in the hall outside Dyson's study and sees him working at his terminal. Danny puts a finger to his lips, shushing Blythe. His expression is mischievous.
The parents gulp, hoping that if the woman takes the shot, that it would not alert the children at least. Neo, Emerald, and Sienna immediately covered their daughters' eyes, earning groans of disapproval.
Raven and Vernal turned their heads to Robin and Amber, only to receive defiant glares, as if daring them to do the same.
With the silencer in place, Winter eases back the bolt and then slips it forward, chambering a .223 round. Then she lies down on the embankment. Her cheek pressed against the cool rifle-stock, she slides one hand slowly forward to brace the weapon, taking the weight on her elbow. Her other hand slips knowingly to the trigger. Her expression is cold, impassive. She looks through the scope at the man in the house. She feels nothing as she raises the rifle.
Flynt, in deep thought. The rhythmic sounds of keys as he works. Symbols on the screen shift. On his back we see the glowing red dot appear. It is the target dot of Flynt's laser designator. It moves silently up his back toward his head.
"Oh no." Blake whispers, knowing that it was too late for the man to escape now. Everyone mentally preparing themselves for what they knew would come next.
END
Yeah, a cliffhanger for you guys, aren't I a stinker? So I'll leave you guys with this, hope you all continue to like and fav, and I'll see you next time. Peace!
List of current Jaune's children in the Nexus:
Neo: Lucy
Emerald: Peridot & Garnet
Vernal: Amber
Raven: Robin
Sienna: Altani
Glynda: Alice
1. The conversation from "Painting the Town" where Penny says she's not a real girl, and Ruby argues that she is.
2. Someone suggested to me that instead of Bob, Finch should stick with Jaune. And it makes sense, no one knows Jaune, so why would he use a different name? Besides, it would've felt weird to call him in a different name for the audience.
3. Technically, she is that age, and she's plenty cute in my opinion.