Chapter 19
Teams RWBY, JNPR, CFVY, and what was left of STRQ gathered at the caves for their journey back to their present. Unfortunately, they soon found they had one last obstacle to deal with. "I believe that you have something, or rather someone, that belongs to me," an elderly Barmak declared, weapon in hand.
"Barmak," Yang growled, having already guessed that her rapist had predicted that they'd show up here. "Still spitting in the face of all Jasmine fought for, I see."
"Oh, no, I have nothing but respect for her desire to end the war between Doppelgangers and humans," he denied with a dark chuckle. "I even said as much before I killed her myself."
"You...how could you? She was your friend!" Pyrrha said with a sob.
"Friend?! Why would I ever be friends with a shisno like her!?" Barmak growled. "The moment I learned that she planned to try and make peace with murderers like you, I knew that she was a human disguised as a member of our glorious race. That said, I did appreciate her vision, so it's in her honor that I destroy the last humans on the planet."
"Oh, would you shut up already?" Blake remarked even as she went to stand proudly beside Yang and Holly, "You're sounding a bit too much like my ex for my tastes. You call us murderers, hypocrites for killing you Doppelgangers while preaching peace, and then go about plotting to stab your superiors in the back. You claim to appreciate Jasmine's vision, but it sounds more like you use it as an excuse to kill friend and foe indiscriminately. The truth of the matter is that you don't care about anything other than grabbing power for yourself. You call us shisnos, but what does that make you?"
"Say what you will," Barmak said with a scoff, "but like it or not, the Savior is my daughter, and therefore she will help me destroy you."
"No."
Needless to say, Barmak hadn't quite been ready for that word to have come out of Holly's mouth. "What...what did you say?! You would dare talk back to your father!?"
"Not Papa," Holly said with a glare, reaching out and grabbing Blake's sleeve. "Papa."
Barmak could not have looked more angry even if he tried even as he raised his weapon. "Not for long." He scoffed as Ruby stood in front of her two teammates and their daughter. "Don't even try it, 'Great Destroyer.' You wouldn't dare use your Grimm-destroying Silver Eyes around the Savior."
"Her name is Holly," Ruby declared, righteous rage in her eyes even as they started to glow, "and there's only one Grimm here. One who will NOT. TOUCH. MY. NIECE!" Barmak didn't even have time to scream before he found himself turned to stone.
After her eyes had powered down, Ruby looked towards Yang, worry in her eyes. "Please tell me my niece is okay."
As it turned out, she was, albeit with scarring resembling a slight sunburn that was already fading away. "Not Papa gone?" she squeaked out.
"For now," Yang declared with a nod. "We still have to deal with his younger self."
"Well, let's not waste any time." Penny said with a nod of her own as she transported them back to the present.
"It is good to be back." Jean declared soon after they arrived, before spotting the apple on the table from earlier. Grabbing it, she took a bite of it before smiling. "Huh, you can barely tell that it's technically over a thousand years old."
"That's actually not a bad idea." Taiyang said with a nod. "We should probably be properly fed and rested before telling Ozpin about what we found out… or will find out. I forget how this is supposed to work, exactly."
"Well, like a fellow A.I. once said, time travel can get pretty confusing sometimes." Penny declared, mentally reminding herself to talk to Luna/Pamela/whatever-her-name-was after everything had calmed down a bit.
The next morning, Ruby woke up in the comfort of her own bed. Unfortunately, the alarm clock startled Holly into crying, prompting Yang to slice the clock in half with her sword gauntlet. Now that everyone was awake, they made their way down the hall to meet up with Teams JNPR, CFVY, and CPPR. Once the four teams ate breakfast, they met the huntresses and huntsman outside to discuss their next move.
"Peut-être que notre objectif immédiat devrait être de parler au professeur Ozpin de notre voyage. (Perhaps our immediate objective should be talking to Professor Ozpin about our journey.)" Ciel suggested.
"You're right, Ciel; that milk did taste sour." Jean replied. "I think it was expired."
The blue French girl slapped her forehead so hard it left a bright red handprint on her skin. "Je commence vraiment à te détester, Jean. (I'm really starting to hate you, Jean.)"
"No time to think about breakfast, Ciel." Weiss declared. "It's obvious that the first thing we need to do is talk to Ozpin about what we went through during our trip to the future."
Ciel glared at the heiress. "Je le reprend. Je vous déteste tous. (I take it back. I hate you all.)"
"Honestly, I think we should try to find Paulette, first." Blake argued. "We have no idea what kind of damage she and Tyrian did after we were sent away."
"Maybe they didn't do anything." Ruby thought out loud. "I mean, when she was inside my head she didn't really act up unless someone I cared about was in trouble."
"As much as I wish we could be that optimistic, Ruby, Tyrian isn't like you." Blake sighed. "He's a maniac. An A.I. like Paulette was tailored for people like him."
"That's not quite true." Raven interrupted. "I've been doing a lot of thinking, and I think Paulette may have once been inside my head, too. A lot of those side effects Ruby mentioned having sound very similar to what I experienced ever since I killed Carla. And ever since her little outburst against that green girl and gray boy, they've stopped. Maybe Carla was possessed by Paulette and she came along with the Spring Maiden."
"Maybe." Taiyang agreed. "Summer? You know a lot about these A.I.s. Was Carla part of Project Guardsman?"
"No..." Summer sighed, clenching her fists. "The truth is… I planted Paulette into Carla."
A collective gasp filled the room. "Why would you do that?!" Raven demanded.
"It was an accident!" Summer continued. "You see, Paulette isn't a virus; she's an A.I. A program based off of the brainwaves of a human being. Project Guardsman paired her up with me because I was best suited to keep her rage in check. But after Project Guardsman collapsed, they wanted to scrap her. So I tried to hide her by finding someone else with the patience to deal with Paulette. But I guess I just chose poorly."
"...I can't be mad at you," Raven declared, even as tears poured from her eyes. "You were always thinking of everyone except yourself. And besides, Ruby said it herself: Paulette wouldn't have been able to affect Carla the way she did if she didn't already have that kind of anger within her somewhere, you know? Truth is, there's a good chance that she would've died in my arms with or without what was an honest-to-goodness mistake on your part. I still want to punch you in the face for it, though."
"Go ahead," Summer said with a sigh. "I deserve it after…" ...and that was as far as she got before Yang gave her a good left jab in the stomach. After catching her breath, she couldn't help but give a bitter chuckle. "Nice punch, though I believe I was referring to Raven."
"Well, she already said she wasn't mad," Yang said with a shrug and a grunt, "but I am: you could have told us all of this earlier. You could have contacted us about this as soon as you escaped Jacques Schnee's clutches. You knew about all of this and yet you never said a thing!"
"Of course I knew: I was a Guardsman," Summer said with a nod and a huff, "and there inlay the problem: I got enrolled into the Project shortly after President Schnee had captured me and one of the first things we do once you sign up is sign a confidentiality agreement. Long story short, officially, Mr. Schnee was the head of the Project, and I had worn the Control Chip for so long one or two of his commands as my 'boss' became more-or-less permanent, such as the inability to speak with my family unless I saw them. I've only just recently managed to overcome that particular command. Between that and the stress of, well, everything, and there just wasn't a time I could've told you any of this. I...I'm sorry, Fire Lily."
"...I know," Yang finally said with a nod, "but you had the opportunity to come home and see us for years, I'm betting, but you never took it. At least Raven had the excuse that she had intended to protect us with her absence, so what's yours?" When she didn't get an answer, Yang could only sigh. "You were my mother for years, so I'll always love you, Summer Rose, but my trust? That's something you're going to have to earn back."
"That's fair," was the only thing Summer could think to say, even as a tear leaked from her eye.
"Wait a minute…" Penny suddenly got an idea. "Ms. Rose, you said that Tyrian was once part of the same unit of Project Guardsman that was granted A.I., right?"
"Yes." Summer nodded. "He may have been insane, but he was still good enough to get himself an A.I. It's a shame that it wasn't until after he was granted the A.I. that we found out he worked for Salem. Why?"
"Excuse me. I have to go back to the caves." Penny grumbled bitterly before marching out of the school.
"Penny, wait! What's going on?" Ruby asked, following her best friend. The rest of her team close behind, they followed the android back into the caves until they came upon a familiar computer.
"Salutations, Luna." Penny crossed her arms as she greeted the computer. "Or should I say 'Pamela?' When were you planning on telling me that you worked with Tyrian?"
"Penny, please try to understand." Pamela defended herself with her usual monotone voice. "It was never anything personal, but my master and I have our own plans."
"Wait a minute; Pamela lied to us?" Ruby scratched her head in confusion. "But… she's a robot like Penny."
"... and your point is?" Weiss' eyebrow arched as she rested her hands on her hips.
"Well, whenever Penny tries to lie, she hiccups." Ruby reasoned. "I just kind of assumed robots can't lie."
"They can if they are programmed to lie." Pamela corrected.
"Oh… well, were you programmed to lie?"
"... no."
"Dammit!" Weiss cursed. "You're telling me you're the cause of all of our problems?!"
"NO!" Pamela declared, briefly losing her monotone. "I never lied about wanting to help you guys, but if I didn't help them, they were going to hand me over to Jacques Schnee."
Needless to say, the group seemed to understand her position, judging solely by their expressions. Unfortunately, Pamela didn't seem to notice, as evidenced by the mournful sigh she gave, even as she regained her monotone. "I wanted to help you, but it seems Priscilla was right all along; all I'll ever be is a liar. Thanks for trying to put up with me, I guess."
Here, Weiss' eyes widened, already knowing where this was going. "Wait!" Unfortunately, whatever she was going to say came too late, as Pamela had already vanished. "What have I done?" she couldn't help but gasp out, realizing that once again, her inability to contain her temper had come back to bite her in the butt. After all, no one could fake the level of fear and/or sincerity that had been in the A.I.'s voice.
"It's not too late," Ruby declared. "If we find her, we might be able to convince her that we don't hold this against her. After all, she doesn't let her ability to lie define who she is. She's not like Paulette or whoever this 'Priscilla' is, not really."
Weiss could only nod. "Right: there's a chance we can still save her, both from Paulette and Tyrian, and from herself. Of anyone, I understand her fear of my father the most, so I might be able to talk her down. First thing's first, though: where would she have gone?'
Here, Penny placed a finger to her chin, quickly trying to think of what she would do in Luna/Pamela's shoes...before freezing in fear as the answer came to her. "I, uh, I might have an idea," she declared.
Meanwhile, Tyrian couldn't help but raise an eyebrow as Pamela made an appearance on his computer screen. "Is there a problem?'
"...no: they suspect nothing," was the response Pamela gave.
"Excellent," the Mad Scorpion declared. "Let's move on then."
Back at Beacon, the Teams decided to split up and tackle the two objectives on a divided front. Teams RWBY, CPPR, Taiyang and Summer chose to search for Paulette while Teams JNPR, CFVY, and Raven went to inform Ozpin about what happened during their trip to the future. On their way to the headmaster's office, they happened upon a distraught Glynda Goodwitch. Nora couldn't react in time to avoid crashing into her teacher.
"Oh, my gods!" She stammered. "I-I-I'm sorry, Ms. Goodwitch! I didn't see you-"
"It's fine, Valkyrie." Glynda huffed as she used her telekinesis semblance to gather up her scattered papers. "I have far too much on my mind to deal with any of you. Ozpin went off to the cave, that damn tank is acting hostile towards anyone who tries to touch it, and soon I'll have to deal with Ironwood's ship coming in."
"Ozpin at the caves?" Jaune asked.
"Tank acting hostile?" Pyrrha added.
"Incoming ship?" Coco tilted her sunglasses down.
"Don't you all have homework to finish, or something?" Glynda spluttered; it was quite obvious she hadn't noticed their absence. The co-headmistress walked off with her paperwork, leaving the students to process the information.
"If Sheila is acting hostile, it's possible she's been possessed by Paulette." Pyrrha deduced. "Someone should warn Ruby!"
"Oh, I'll text her!" Jaune offered, taking out his scroll.
"Well, we know where Ozpin is!" Fox declared. "Let's go meet him at the caves!"
"Fox, wait!" Raven shouted as the young man rushed into the courtyard. "Don't go outside, yet! That ship could land anywhere!"
"Oh, don't worry, Ms. Branwen!" Fox turned around to face the source of the voice. "If it's General Ironwood's ship, that means it's coming all the way from Atlas. It could take days or weeks or even months to get here-"
Fox was cut off as the ship in question suddenly landed on top of him.
Raven sighed. "I tried to warn him."
Velvet just nodded. "Looks like we've got even more of a reason to head down to the caves."
"Whatever it is you're discussing, could you maybe discuss it somewhere else?" Glynda declared with a roll of her eyes.
"Wow, you really sound stressed. When was the last time you let yourself take a break?"
"With everything that's been going on, I haven't had time to…" That was as far as Glynda got before she froze in her tracks. "Wait, that voice. Phoebe?!"
An Atleisan Knight walked off of the Manta-class aircraft, a digital feminine face showcasing itself where the face-plate was located, a smile on her face. "I'm sorry if you didn't recognize me, but it was the only way I could sneak out.." She giggled. "I've always wanted to have a body of my own."
"...and I've always wanted to do this." That was all the warning Glynda gave before she brought the Atlesian Knight into a hug. "We've got a lot to catch up on, Sweetie."
"It's good to see you too, Mom." Phoebe replied even as she and Glynda shared their first hug ever.
"I...have so many questions." Yatsuhashi remarked.
"Ditto, but for now, why not let them have their moment?" Velvet said with a shrug and a smile.
Meanwhile, Ruby had just gotten Ren's text message about Sheila and informed the rest of her group. "Oh, great!" Blake grumbled. "Paulette was bad enough while she was inside a person, now she's in control of a tank?!"
"Well, there's a chance we can disable the tank." Summer suggested. "If we shut down the computer she's in control of, she'd go into a kind of 'sleep mode,' if you will. But we'll need a distraction."
Yang looked at her younger sister; an idea forming in her head. "Hey, how about we get Ruby to flirt with Sheila?" She suggested against her better judgement. "We all know how well she gets along with machines."
"Yang, I don't know about you, but I have had just about all of the mixed-race babies I can take for a while." Weiss cut in. "The last thing I need is a Ruby Junior running around with scythes for arms and an eight-milimeter cannon for a head."
Ruby blushed bright red. "Besides, I don't know how to flirt." She said. "I mean, Sheila's great, but she doesn't like me like that."
"Oh, it'll be easy!" Yang promised. "All you gotta do is touch up your makeup a little. And maybe do some quick practice with Weiss."
Now, it was Weiss' turn to blush. "W-well… yes, Ruby. You can, um, practice with me…"
"Okay, uh…" Ruby shuffled her feet against the grass, her face growing redder still. "Weiss, uh… I think that you are… very pretty… and, uh, it has been a long time since you've yelled at me. So, I was thinking… it would be nice if you and I went out to buy Dust together… and maybe… someday… you could be my waifu."
Weiss groaned. Even when Ruby was being annoying, she was somehow still cute. "I think that would be… wonderful, Ruby."
"Okay!" Ruby rubbed her hands together. "Let's do this, mom!"
"Yeah, but while you're dealing with that, I think we should go meet up with Team JNPR and CFVY." Rachael cut in. "Apparently General Ironwood sent us a ship from Atlas."
"Wait! You can't make me do this alone!" Ruby protested.
"Okay, uh… I'll talk to you on my scroll." Weiss offered. "But Ruby, the others may need help with the ship. It could be carrying equipment, or troops, or supplies, or-"
"Jaune's sister?!" Pyrrha shouted in disbelief.
"Wow." Ren rubbed his chin. "You know, a small part of me always believed Jaune was lying when he said he had seven sisters."
Amarilla just chuckled. "Oh, so you haven't forgotten about us, have ya, Squirt?"
"First off, hard to forget about the girls who made a habit of messing with me every chance they got." Jaune growled. "And secondly, I thought you said you weren't going to call me that anymore!"
"No, what I said was that I would try to refrain from using that nickname in public while we were still in Anima." Amarilla corrected with a raised eyebrow. "But we're not in Anima anymore, now are we?"
"...this is payback for not telling you and my other sisters that I was disobeying Mom and Dad and coming to Beacon, isn't it?"
"Damn straight." was Amarilla's immediate reply, before sighing. "Don't get me wrong: I'm proud of you for standing up for your beliefs like you did. We all were, but you didn't call, you didn't write, you didn't give us any indication that you were even alive until you showed up in footage showcasing the attack on Beacon."
Jaune's face paled considerably at that last part, but his sister just gave a light smile. "Don't worry: Saphron and the others are running interference with Mom and Dad, so you shouldn't get into too much trouble with them if you ever decide to come home. In the meantime, I'd love to get to know your little friends."
"We'd love to." Pyrrha declared, sliding up to her partner with a sly grin. "We can trade stories about our adorable little friend."
Amarilla couldn't help but chuckle. "Oh, you and I are going to get along just fine." she said with a wink that Pyrrha didn't quite know how to feel about, even as her cheeks suddenly became red, much to Jaune's embarrassment and jealousy.
Meanwhile, Ruby Rose finally mustered up the courage to initiate the plan. The young huntress adjusted her dress, checked her makeup, took a deep breath, and approached the tank with a meak smile. "U-uh, hi, Sheila." She whimpered as Summer snuck up behind the tank. "H-how are you?"
"Oh, hello, Ruby!" Sheila replied with her usual chipper tone. "To be honest, I am not feeling very well. One of my circuit boards feels as if it has been knocked loose. I am sorry to tell you that it has been making me act out while you were away."
"Oh… that's too bad."
"Keep it up, Ruby!" Weiss' voice whispered from Ruby's BlackFang earpiece. "Just a little bit longer until Summer can disable Sheila! The rest of us are going down to the caves. Good luck."
"No! Wait, don't leave!" Ruby cried.
"I am not leaving." Sheila declared, thinking Ruby was addressing her.
"Oh! Uh, sorry." Ruby felt weak at her knees. "Hey, Sheila? You know what I like to do? Not look behind me!"
"What?"
"Uh, I mean! We should both just keep looking forward! Yes! Forward is so much more interesting than behind! Especially right now!"
"Ruby, you are behaving rather strangely." Sheila stated. "If you continue to act this way, your friends might mistakenly believe that you have been possessed by the Paulette A.I."
"Oh. Well, we don't want that." Ruby shook her head as Summer finished removing the access panel to the tank's control board.
"No, we do not. Luckily, I know where Paulette is!" Sheila replied, happily. "Would you like me to tell you?"
"What - really?" Ruby's eyes widened. "Uh, yes! Yes, Sheila! That would be great!"
"Very well. Paulette has taken control of CPPRrrrrrrraahhhhhh…" Sheila shut down as Summer pulled the last wire to disable her higher functions.
"Sheila?" Ruby arched an eyebrow. "Who is 'Cpraaaaaaah?'"
To be continued
