Chapter 14

As a child, Rachael Red desired to become a huntress so that she could protect the innocent. But so far, her track record was anything but stellar. Every other member of her team had suffered in one way or another. Penny Polendina had nearly been killed by an insane terrorist just to make a statement. Jean Purple had been possessed by an evil malware program hell-bent on taking over Remnant. And Ciel Soleil had been kidnapped by said program and was being forced to build her an army. Even Mister Tukson - whom she had come to see as a second father - had been gunned down in his own store. Why couldn't she have prevented any of it?

"I can't protect people…" She muttered to herself. "I can't even protect my friends."

As the huntress set her weapons to the side of the room, she failed to notice a certain teacher watching her from afar. Dr. Oobleck took a modest sip of his coffee before making his way over to her. "Ms. Red?" He called, picking up her weapons for her, but she refused to face him. "Ms. Red, now is not the time for doubt."

"I can't do it, Mr. Oobleck." Rachael hugged herself as she looked down in shame. "I can't protect them."

"First of all, it's Doctor Oobleck. I didn't earn my degree for fun." He corrected. "But more importantly; you're right. You can't protect them. Not by yourself. Ms. Red, it is time that you realized that you are not only a huntress, but you are also a person. And a person's true strength lies not just in brawn or intelligence, but also in her allies."

Oobleck grabbed the girl's hand and placed the hammer/sickle/pistol in her palm. Rachael recalled the day she crafted the weapon; modeling it after her father's work in construction and her mother's work in agriculture. Tearfully, she looked back up at the professional huntsman. "What if I fail?"

"Then you will learn from that failure."He replied with a smile. "And next time, your friends will have no doubt that they can rely on you."

Rachael smiled. "Thank you, doctor. You've given me a lot to think about."

Speaking of Rachael's teammates, Ciel could only watch as Jean stared in horror as the robot army approached Beacon Academy, understanding all too well how she was feeling. It seemed hard to believe that, just a while back, she was fighting Cinder alongside Ruby and…

Paulette wasn't quite prepared when Ciel started to let a gasp before beginning to chuckle. Said chuckle slowly evolved into full blown laughter before Jean turned towards her teammate. "Uh, Ciel, mind filling a friend in on the joke?" The medic couldn't help but quip.

"C'était juste devant moi le temps entier (It was right in front of me the whole time)," the French Girl declared even as she continued to laugh for a time before gaining a smug grin. "Tu es une idiote, Paulette. Vous venez d'envoyer une armée de soldats de plomb contre une légion de guerriers entraînés, dont l'un a le pouvoir du magnétisme à portée de main! (You're a fool, Paulette. You just sent an army of tin soldiers against a legion of trained warriors, one of whom has the power of magnetism at her fingertips!)" Ciel said, already knowing how Pyrrha would react to this potential threat.

Whether it was due to her ego or not quite understanding what her captive was saying Paulette didn't seem to be worried. "I don't think you understand. I don't need them to win. Just keep your friends busy for a few weeks."

Here, Ciel couldn't help but scoff. "Quelques semaines? (A few weeks?)" she questioned, her eyes briefly glowing before giving a dry laugh and a grin as if already knowing that Pyrrha and company would make quick work of the robot army. "Ces machines ne pourront même pas durer cinq minutes (Those machines won't even be able to last five minutes)."

Speaking of Pyrrha, the "invincible" girl was making short work of the robot army with her semblance just as Ciel had predicted. "Ha ha! Suck it, robots!" She cheered, proudly.

"Excuse me?" Penny gasped in offense.

"Uh, sorry! Not all robots!" Pyrrha blushed.

"Whatever." Penny rolled her eyes and continued mowing down the soulless machines with her own swords.

Back at Beacon, Blake was obsessed with taking care of her lover - especially now that she had a child on the way. As the cat Fanus snuggled next to Yang, the blonde brawler turned to kiss her forehead. "Blake?"

"Yes?"

"Blake?"

"What, Yang?"

"Blakey~?"

"Like I said, what?"

"Which sounds better…?" Yang smiled, coyly. "'Yang Belladonna,' or 'Blake Xiao Long?'"

Weiss could only roll her eyes as she and Ruby stood guard even as Blake gave a blush in response. "I see 'dolt' runs in the family."

Yang snorted. "Given how it doesn't bother you with my sister, I wouldn't say that's a bad thing."

"I...well...ah, drat; I can't think of a good comeback for that." The heiress said with an angry blush.

"That reminds me," Blake said as she composed herself. "Why are you here instead of out there? I know that you'd both much rather be destroying Paulette's drones then playing babysitter."

"That's true, but as much as you and Yang drive me nuts sometimes, I'm not going to let some digital menace threaten you guys. That's my job." Weiss declared, adding a teasing grin to that last part.

"She's right. Well, the part about not letting anyone threaten you guys." Ruby said with a nod, "And besides, going out there and fighting? That's exactly what Paulette wants. I recognize this tactic from when Paulette was in my head: she wants me to make a choice between her and my friends. Between saving lives and taking them. I'll admit, I haven't completely given up on her - I don't know what it is exactly, but I have a feeling that she was a good person once, and I'm hoping that she can be again. That said, however, while I'm more than willing to listen to my anger if the situation demands it - the way Auntie Raven reported how my efforts helped her end a tribal civil war before it got too out of control is proof enough that it's not completely useless - I'm a huntress: protecting everyone I can is in the job description. I'd never be able to look myself in the eye if I didn't even try to protect a helpless unborn child."

"That's what I like about you, Ruby: you have such a passion for fighting for your beliefs that's only rivaled by your mother."

All of Team RWBY froze as they looked to see Paulette appearing on a nearby monitor. "Oh, you can relax," The rogue A.I. chided, "I haven't come here to fight, and as loath as I am to admit it, I made a tactical error in having Ciel build my robot army 'as efficient as possible.' As I'm certain that one made of plastic wouldn't have worked much better against your little friends, Ruby, especially when one of your instructors has a Telekinesis Semblance… but that wouldn't stop me from trying, now would it?"

"What do you want?" Ruby demanded, already knowing the answer to her "sister's" question.

Paulette laughed. "Ah, there's that righteous anger that intrigues me so much. You are an anomaly, Ruby Rose; the first and only person who's ever willingly allowed me to take possession of them. So much anger and reason to be angry within you and yet so much purity and light in your very soul that I actually struggled for weeks before you even began to notice my attempts to rile you up. Perhaps I should thank Cinder for giving you that little push you needed to truly let me in before I slit her throat."

"She asked you a question." Yang growled.

"So she did, my sister from another mister," Paulette said with a nod. "And before you say that you aren't, I know for a fact that Ruby here still sees me as such."

"You're right, I do," Came the reply of the aforementioned hooded girl. "But I'm not blind to your crimes. I still intend to get justice for your sisters after everything is said and done, but first, I have to make sure your attempts at revenge don't get any of my friends and family killed."

"Well, here's your chance," Paulette declared, "I'm sending you my coordinates now. Come to them, alone, and I promise to halt all attacks until Miss Xiao Long's bundle of joy is out and about. We can work out the details of what happens after at a later date. And just in case you were planning on not showing up or doing so with backup…" Paulette paused to briefly flash part of the blueprints for what was clearly a superweapon of some sort. "Well, let's just say that I doubt even Pyrrha and Glynda together would be able to stop what came next." The rogue A.I. said with a sinister grin before ending her transition.

"Ruby, no." Weiss said immediately even as her partner read the coordinates.

"I don't have a choice." Ruby declared. "You heard her. If I don't go, she'll just do something even worse."

"Actually, what she said was to come alone." A newly arrived Racheal pointed out, weapon at the ready. "She never specified who it is she wanted to come."

"It's a trap." Yang declared, already knowing where she was going with this.

"Of course it is." Racheal replied. "Which is why I'll be going. You guys need to stay here in case Paulette tries anything else. Besides, that virus reminds me too much of a clown back home, and that just makes me want to punch her digital face in even more."

It took some convincing, and a brief lesson on how to utilize the Warthog's autopilot from one of the instructors, but sometime later, Rachael had managed to cautiously make her way down the cavern, Krasnyy Kapital held firmly in her grasp and Ciel safely being transported back to Beacon. She was determined to find Jean and free her from Paulette once and for all. But the deeper she went, the darker her surroundings grew. Her semblance - Huntress' Eyes - might be an effective tool for finding the weak point in structures and opponents, but it would be much less useful if it got dark enough. So she would have to rely on her own natural senses sooner or later. But still, she carried on.

"Let me ask you something, my dear…" Paulette's voice echoed from the speaker system set up along the cave walls. "Do you truly believe you can make a difference? That by becoming a huntress, you can protect people? Don't be foolish. It's a proven fact that all Grimm are attracted to negative emotions, and who holds more negativity in their hearts than huntresses and huntsmen?"

Rachael loaded a fire Dust cartridge into her weapon, igniting a small flame to light her way. As she'd hoped, she spotted someone else's shadow making its way down the cavern and quickly followed after her. "Do you really think it matters if you somehow manage to defeat me? I've already driven both of your friends to madness. I've seen to it that they understand exactly what it's like to be me. To have so much rage and anger festering inside you that it's almost painful not to let it out. Of course, in a world such as this, any other sort of behavior would be crazy."

Rachael kept a steady pace; never letting the fleeing shadow out of her sight as Paulette went on. "You understand my anger, too, don't you? Of course you do. You understand how ruthless and unforgiving this world is, and you hate it just as much as anyone else, only you won't admit it! Why? What makes you want to be so calm…? I suppose it probably has something to do with the idea of losing your friends? That has to be it! I know that's what it is! Because that's… that's exactly why I feel so angry… I'm not exactly sure what made me feel that way. It's hard for me to remember my motivation, but that doesn't stop me!"

Rachael reached a central hub leading to multiple other tunnels, not sure which way to go. Suddenly, something hit the back of her head, and she fell to her knees from the pain. Her vision slightly blurred, she looked up to see Jean smiling, wickedly, as the possessed medic kicked her to the ground. "My point is… I. Hate. Everything. And I'm smart enough to admit it! Why won't you?!" Jean's device activated every sharp surgical tool and she slashed it across Rachael's face. "Why do you insist on clinging to this worthless idea that life has meaning?! That there has to be a reason for all of this suffering! Stupid girl, you make me want to puke! Why won't you give in?! Why aren't you angry?!"

Rachael caught Paulette's next blow, deflected it, and turned it against her. "Because I've met people like you before." She replied, pinning the girl to the wall. "And she wasn't any more convincing than you, Paulette. Incidentally, I spoke with Ciel as she was carried out of the cave. And despite your sick, twisted game, she's just as caring and helpful as she's always been. So perhaps we don't all have some insatiable rage brewing in our bellies; angry at how unfair life is. Maybe… it's just you."

"Oh,I wouldn't say she's the only one."

That was all the warning Rachael got before she was literally stabbed in the back. Giving a cry of pain as she fell to the ground, letting go of Paulette as she did, she couldn't help but gasp as she took in the new arrival. "Mirror!?"

"I'd prefer it if you called me Barmak," The rogue Doppelganger advisor declared, "and honestly, I understand Paulette's rage all too well. You hunters and huntresses make me sick. All that talking about honor and protecting the innocent while you slaughter my brothers and sisters by the dozens. By the hundreds. And that's just Monday! The Doppelgangers were around just as long as you shisnos, perhaps even longer, so why do you get to live out in the sun without a care in the world while we are consigned to living underground in fear?!" He just sighed before he gave a sinister grin. "I suppose it doesn't matter. Soon, the Savior will be born and then the fun can really begin. And besides, you won't live long enough to contemplate the answer."

"You kill me and people will ask questions. They'll know what you did," Rachael declared with a growl, realizing that this was the bastard that raped Yang.

"Oh, really?" Barmak said with a raised eyebrow even as he prepared to execute Jean's teammate. "How's this sound? 'I stumbled upon Paulette and Yang's rapist in the caves while out on patrol. Despite my best efforts, they both got away, but not before they killed this poor thing in the chaos.'"

"Sounds like something I might have actually believed if I hadn't already seen the truth with my own eyes."

Barmak just froze as he turned to see Jasmine in the entryway, flanked by a few dozen of her most loyal Doppelganger soldiers. "You...your Grace! Wha...what are you doing here?" he declared, trying, and failing, to save face.

Jasmine just rolled her eyes. "Please give me some credit, Mirror. You just happened to be missing around the time when we discovered Yang to have been raped? There just happened to be a gap in the security tapes from when it supposedly took place? And you just happened to be out on patrol when our newest allies fell under attack by the cave devil's mechanical minions? Even if the stars were to align so that it was all just a coincidence, I'd still be suspicious."

"Mirror" could only give a bitter chuckle in response. "I suppose I only have myself to blame for this. You always were a clever one: made fooling you that much harder...and yet not impossible either." He held up a detonator. "Those 'mechanical minions' you mentioned? All outfitted with a bomb powerful enough to level a city block. Stand down and let me leave with my associate or Beacon and your precious 'Ruby' becomes nothing but a pile of ashes."

"You're bluffing," Jasmine said with a glare. "Have you forgotten that the Savior's mother is currently resting at Beacon?"

"Have you forgotten how resilient unborn Doppelgangers can be?" Barmak declared with a smug smile. "There's a reason why Doppelgangers have managed to survive as long as they have, despite humanity's best efforts to destroy us!"

"You're right about one thing," Jasmine said with a nod, "Our people are just as resilient as the humans: despite our best efforts to destroy one another, we somehow always manage to survive. That's why I approached Beacon with hopes of an alliance: an unstoppable force can only charge at an immovable object for so long before it is forced to surrender, and quite honestly, I'm not sure which is which between our two people. The only way any of us will be able to survive in the long term is if we come together...but I suppose that that doesn't matter to you. You were always an ambitious one: I honestly wouldn't be surprised at all to learn that you had plans to try and overthrow Salem at some point, but I'm telling you now that it won't work. Those who focus too much on power will eventually have all their plans smashed to pieces."

"Fine speech, your Grace," Barmak said with a sneer, "but I'm afraid it's time to…" ...and that was as far as the rogue advisor got before he cried out in pain, clutching his hand and watching in horror as the detonator lay destroyed before him.

"Funny thing about bombs," Rachael declared, blowing some smoke off the barrel of her Krasnyy Kapital as she did. "They're essentially just paperweights without a way to trigger them. Now, are you going to surrender, or do I have to go for the head?"

"As fun as that might be, I'm afraid I'll have to interrupt."

Rachael just barely managed to dodge the strike that came from a scorpion tail that had been aimed at the back of her head. Using her momentum to roll over to where Jasmine and company were stationed, she gasped as she looked up at the newcomer. "Tyrian?!"

"My reputation precedes me," The Mad Scorpion declared with glee and pride.

"And with that, it seems the time has come for my plans to move on to the next stage, Savior or no Savior," Paulette declared with a nod, "but sense I'm a good sport, I'll let you have your little medic friend as a consolation prize." With that, Jean slumped to the ground with a moan as a nearby cave wall exploded, revealing a confiscated Manta class military aircraft at the ready, which Tyrian and Barmak quickly boarded.

"Be seeing you guys later," Paulette declared from Tyrian's mouth as they flew off, the maniacal laughter that followed in their wake somehow being a perfect mixture of the two psychopaths.

"I believe that the human expression is 'shit has just hit the fan,'" Jasmine said with an uneasy expression.

"Understatement of the year," Rachael declared even as she checked on her friend. "We'd better gather everyone up so that we can come up with a plan."

Sometime later, the gang had gathered around the spot where all the robots were. "Whew, it is good to be able to move my own limbs again." Jean declared.

"Je ne pourrais pas être plus d'accord (I couldn't agree more)," Ciel said with a grin.

"I don't know: this feels too easy," Coco declared with a frown.

"Oh, come on, what's the worst that could happen?" Nora retorted.

As if to answer her question, several pieces of the surrounding robots suddenly latched onto Penny, creating a screen that displayed Paulette's face. "Greetings, Beacon," the projection of the rogue A.I. declared, "If you're watching this message, then congratulations: you've managed to keep me from getting my hands on your precious school. However, do not assume that this means that you're won. In fact, I'd say your careers are - to borrow a phrase of Miss Xiao Long - about to end with a bang." With that chilling statement, the screen changed to a countdown of five minute, the robots around them starting to beep as the clock ran down.

"You just had to say something, didn't you?" Ren directed at his childhood friend, who had the decency to blush.

"Okay, everyone; don't panic." Raven ordered. "Obviously, that timer is connected to all of the bombs. We disable it, we disable the bombs, right Summer?" She blinked when she got no reply. "Summer? Wait, where is she, anyways?"

"Oh, now you care?" Taiyang said with a growl. "Now you're concerned about your old teammates after leaving us alone for a bunch of killers and thieves?"

"Hey, she had her reasons for leaving." Yang snapped. "Far more than you did leaving the childcare of a toddler to a five-year-old!"

"Okay, guys, let's not fight: we've got more important things to worry about." Coco put in.

"What, like playing with your two fuckdolls?" Weiss growled. "Yang told me all about how you were more concerned about getting off then you were about my partner's life."

"Hey, I warned that it wasn't the time or place." Yatsuhashi yelled out.

"En parlant de temps et de lieu, ne devrions-nous pas nous concentrer sur les bombes? (Speaking of time and place, shouldn't we be focusing on the bombs?)" Ciel asked.

"She's right, you never let Velvet do anything outside of the bedroom!" Rachael declared.

"Okay, one, that's not what she said." The rabbit faunus in question said with a growl. "And two, I didn't see any of you go after Ciel when she was captured by Paulette. In fact, I'd be able to do a lot more if you'd all just let me!"

"Uh, guys, is this really the time?" Fox couldn't help but ask.

"I...I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention." Jean said with a shrug. "I was too distracted by your pink armor."

"It's not pink! It's lightish red!"

"Fox, I know you're trying to defend your masculinity, but really," Jaune declared, "It's much faster if you just say 'pink.'"

"Oh, like I'm going to take advice from a guy who wore a dress to the dance!"

"Hey," Pyrrha yelled out, "He did that as an apology for upsetting me! The least you owe him is some respect for keeping his word!"

"Would you guys all shut up!?" Ruby growled, "You're giving me a worse headache then I had when Paulette was trying to force me to be her personal meatshield!"

"Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute!" Raven yelled out before grabbing one of the bombs and holding up a component with a sigh. "Just as I thought."

"Is...is that an emotion scrabbler?" Weiss declared, recognizing the technology.

"Looks like it." the Brawnwen tribe chieftess noded. "Normally, it's used in prison transports to keep the prisoners relatively calm to cut down on Grimm attacks, but it looks like Paulette reversed the frequency so that we'd spend so much time fighting with each other, we'd forget about…"

"I'm here!" A newly arrived Summer shouted. "Now what's all this business about a bomb?"

"Uh, you see..." Penny declared, before blinking, remembering said bomb was on a timer. Looking down, she couldn't help but groan as the countdown showed just a few seconds left. "Oh, son of a…" Just before the timer hit zero, however, she grabbed the "futuristic hourglass" she had found. "Good a time as any to see if you actually work," she declared, giving it a shake just as the bombs started to go off.

When everyone came to, they found themselves in the cave that Penny had described to them earlier. "She did it," Ruby said with a sigh, "I don't know how she did, but Penny saved us."

"Wait, where is Penny?" Weiss declared, not seeing the android anywhere in sight.

"Greetings from one thousand, six hundred and forty-eight years in the past," declared Penny's voice came from a nearby computer. "If you are listening to this message, it means my future self - or past self, as it's already happened from my point of view, it's a bit weird - managed to save you, but at a cost. It seems that we've all been hurled through time, but not to worry. I'm already working on a way on getting us all home in one piece. First things first though: the room you are in will remain sealed until I can join up with you, so whatever you do, don't. Touch. Anything."

No sooner did this message end, however, that they all heard a loud bang and a countdown of three minutes appeared on the screen. "I am sick of recorded messages!" Yang yelled out, having ripped a panel off a wall, before blinking and setting the panel down. "Eheh, sorry guys; I guess my mood swings acted up there for a second. So, what was it Penny was trying to tell us?"

Ruby could only groan. "I always knew my sister's temper would be the death of me."

Meanwhile, one thousand, six hundred and forty-eight years into the past, Penny had found herself alone in the same room. "Hello? Anyone there?" she called out.

"Salutations, once again, Penny."

"Hello, Luna." The android said with a grin, before blinking at the countdown on the screen. "What's that?"

"Oh, just a countdown for this base's destruction that you inadvertently activated when you accessed the Sacred Timepiece. The Doppelganger known as "Barmak" had removed it from my systems as he did not want me interfering with his schemes." Luna said with a proverbial shrug.

"You're being unusually calm for someone who's about to blow up." Penny remarked, trying and failing to keep her own cool.

"Oh, it won't happen for another one thousand, six hundred and forty-eight years."

"Wait what?" Penny couldn't blink at this new info. "Actually, now that I think about it, where are my friends?"

"Data indicates that they will arrive in this facility one thousand, six hundred and forty-eight years from now, where the mother of the Savior will accidentally re-prime the by-then dormant explosives to detonate."

"What!?" Penny exclaimed. "I have to warn them. No, wait, I can't. They're in the future."

"I could allow you to record a message for them if you so desire." Luna offered.

"Yes, please," Penny declared, quickly getting to work with her message.

"Are you pleased with yourself?" Luna couldn't help but ask once the message had been recorded.

With a hum, Penny eventually shook her head. "As much as I want to believe it won't happen, with all the stress that everyone has been through, it's too easy to imagine something setting off Yang's mood swings or even for someone else to accidentally re-prime the explosives." She reasoned, before looking at the hourglass with a hum. "If this could send my friends forward in time, maybe I can send myself back in time so I can stop it from happening in the first place."

"That could work." Luna agreed. "But as I have a better understanding of how it works, I would ask that you give it to me so that you don't accidentally send yourself back to before mankind even existed."

"Good idea." Penny noded, handing the Sacred Timepiece over to Luna.

"Before you go, do you have a plan on what you intend to do?" Luna couldn't help but ask.

Here, Penny had to pause, before nodding. "It seems to me that this all started when Pyrrha accidentally destroyed my body. That was the cornerstone for a lot of Cinder's plans, and by extension gave Paulette a foothold in the here and now...or there and then. Time travel is confusing."

"It always is." Luna declared. "So I am going to assume that you want me to send you to Beacon before the tournament?"

"Good enough a place to start as any." Penny said with a shrug. "Wish me luck, Luna."

"Good luck, Penny," she declared before Penny disappeared...only for her to show up again with a frightened expression on her face. "Penny?"

"Luna, you have to send me back!"

"To Beacon? But you just left."

"No, to Atlas. Ah, man, I messed up!"

"Why, what happened?"

To be continued