A/N: I'm on a roll!
Chapter 18: cannot be done
The next day...
After I built myself a new scroll, I sent a message to Ozpin stating that we managed to find something, separate from what we found with Dr. Oobleck, and that we would be needing the Dr. to help us confirm our findings.
With in minutes of sending the message, I got a reply.
"I see no harm in this. Just be sure to return the Doctor in one piece. I will let him know you are coming, and since I know that you are probably going to teleport straight into his room rather than walking and using the door like a normal person, please give him about thirty minutes from the time that you receive this so that you do not scare him."
~Ozpin
Hehe. Good times. I had scared Ozpin twice during the few months that he had employed me. Both times I appeared in his office unannounced.
I checked the time. 8:00. I had a while to wait.
While I waited, I checked over my weapons and gear. Everything accounted for, I checked the time again. 8:28. Close enough, I thought.
'Hey Sarah, you ready to go?' I asked her telepathically.
'Yep, come get me?' She said in reply.
I rolled my eyes as I thought, I swear, my girlfriend is sometimes the laziest person on the planet.
'Sure.'
I teleported to our room and took her hand, "Let's go see what the General wanted us to see so badly." I said as I teleported to Beacon.
Now in the Doctor's room, I walked to the still occupied desk in the center of the room, "Doctor?" I asked him.
He looked up from his desk and saw me standing in front of him, "Oh. Hello Soap." He said, looking back down at a paper on his desk.
I rolled my eyes, "Are you ready to go?"
He looked up from the paper he was reading, "Just a moment, let me grab something and then I will be ready." He got up and went to a coat hanger. Reaching it, he grabbed what looked to be a safari hat.
I facepalmed. Of course he has a safari hat. To each their own I suppose, I thought. I heard Sarah snickering behind me. I turned and shot her a look at which she stopped laughing.
After he returned, he stated that he was ready.
I called to Sarah, "Sarah, let's go." She came over to us and grabbed my shoulder. Seeing this, Oobleck looked confused.
"We aren't taking your Bullhead?" He asked.
I shook my head, "No. In the time since we dropped you off the other day, well...let's just say that I found out that I have a LOT more aura than I thought I did. I should be able to teleport us very close to, if not inside of, Delta Base. If I don't make it, Sarah will be able to teleport us the rest of the way."
The professor seemed to accept this, "Alright. Only if you insist Soap." He grabbed hold of my shoulder and I teleported straight to the command center of Delta Base.
In the base, we took a moment to rest. Since nothing else was going to make sense when he found that video file, I told him everything that he might need to know to find the file.
After I was done explaining, he looked at me, "So let me get this straight. You are telling me that you are a descendant of General Gunnel?"
"Yes."
"And you, along with Sarah and Blake, have directly spoken with his ghost?"
"Yes."
"You also say that Gunnel was cursed by 'The Demon' to live until he found a way to kill it?"
"Yes." At this point I turned on autopilot with my responses.
"Along the way, he fell in love with an Amanda Silverlight who wanted him to stop so that they could live together forever..."
"Yes."
"...but he refused and continued searching anyways. In the end, his searching resulted him finding something that he shouldn't have and in turn, he got too close to a solution, thus he started running out of time."
"Yes."
"So as a less permanent solution, he infused himself, and his armor, with as much explosive, fire, and electric Dust as he could get his hands on, and charged The Demon..."
"Yes." I yawned.
"...and upon getting close enough, he detonated himself. Effectively, or ineffectively, we don't know, injuring and pissing off the beast, causing it to stay dormant for at least the last 100 years, which according to recorded history, is the longest period of peace Remnant has ever known?"
"Yes." I think he might be done soon, I'd better pay attention now, I thought to myself.
"..."
"Doctor?" I asked, slightly concerned I might have broken him.
"That's absolutely incredible!" He exclaimed excitedly. "You also said that Gunnel told you to start looking through the consoles in the room in which he died?" He turned, "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go find this file!" He started towards the elevator shafts, leaving the room.
I looked at Sarah, "He knows that the elevators are still broken, right?" I asked her.
She just shrugged her shoulders. Just then, the Doctor re-entered the room.
"I forgot that the elevators are broken. Do you mind taking me back to that room?"
I rolled my eyes at the professor's antics, "Sure thing. While you're looking for that file, I'm going to get the elevators fixed. I've waited long enough to do so."
I grabbed his shoulder and looked at Sarah, "I'll be right back."
A few hours later...
I got a message from the professor telling me to meet him where I left him hours earlier.
"What is it?" I asked entering the room. "What did you find?"
"To be honest Soap, I don't know. Nor do I want to know, the answer is yours to know and those who you choose to share it with. I'd best be leaving." the Doctor said as he swiftly left the the room, leaving me alone.
I turned around to look at the screen, "Well, time to find out why the General sent us here." I pushed play on the screen and watched.
VIDEO START
A woman could be seen making her way through some rubble. She was wearing Army Fatigues that were anything but standard. Her outfit was had a standard camo design but was comprised of Silver, White, and Black. On her shoulders, she bore the symbol that signified the rank of Colonel, and on the back of her shirt was, what I assumed to be, her sigil. A lock that was broken in half. She wore her silver hair neck length and had bright blue irises. From the angle that I could see her, she was human and about 4'11". At first glance, I didn't see any weapons on her. But upon closer inspection, I saw 10 dark blue throwing knives strapped to the white belt on her waist.
"Why?" She asked a disfigured person lying on the ground, pieces of his lower body thrown all across the room.
"Why what, Colonel?" The man asked.
"You gave up your life to save us; why General?" The woman asked.
The man on the ground sighed, "Amanda, please address me by my name."
The woman, Amanda, looked confused and angry at the same time, "Dammit Chris! You're dying! Why would you possibly care about what I call you?"
The man on the ground said nothing.
Amanda sighed, "We could have spent the rest of time together; we could have lived forever. Now, neither of us can."
Chris let out a sigh. "Even if only for a little while, this war had to end one way or another; I chose another."
The woman knelt beside Chris, grabbed what was left of his right hand and looked him in the eyes, "I do not resent you for what you did. If anything, I am jealous that you acted instead of I. But you still have not explained your reasoning."
Chris let out a soft chuckle, "For 10 generations I have lived; during that time, I have seen victory and I have seen defeat. I have experienced happiness, joy, sorrow, anger, sadness, hate,..." he turned his head in the direction of Amanda, "...and love. I have seen my men slaughtered before me. Thousands of men and women that served under me, lost their life fighting to try and end this war. Each and every one of those soldiers thought of me as a father; just as I considered them my children. I watched as they ran to their deaths'; but ultimately their deaths were to of no avail and amounted to nothing. I was tired of watching needless death."
"So you did something about it."
"Exactly." Chris said with a smile.
"For what?"
He laughed again, this time bringing up some blood in doing so, "I have seen both sides of the grave, multiple times. Life and Death. I have gained lifetimes of wisdom during these cycles, knowledge that I refuse to let be wasted." Chris coughed up some more blood, it wouldn't be long before he was gone and he knew it. Amanda gripped his hand tighter. "This knowledge must be passed on through the generations." He reached up to his neck and grabbed his necklace, yanking it off. His hand was shaking now. He grabbed his loved one's hand and placed the necklace inside. "This war is far from over. Give this to our children, and tell them to pass it on to their children. Let it serve as reminder that this war is far from over. When the time comes and it enters the hands of he who is able; he will end this war, once and for all. Promise me," He coughed again, "Promise me that you will do that."
"I promise." She said as she planted a kiss on his lips.
With all that was needed to be said, said; His strength began to fail him. He went limp and let go of Amanda's hand. Before all of his life left him, he uttered one last phrase, "I love you Amanda."
"I love you too Chris, and I always will." The woman broke down into tears as the video ended.
VIDEO END
I was left speechless. This was the General's last moments. I was amazed that such a video existed. I thought about what he had said when a thought hit me. I re-wound the video to just before the General finally bled out. I reached the spot and paused the video. Searching the screen, I found what I was looking for. Seeing it, a chill went down my spine.
Around the woman's neck was a necklace. Engraved in the center of the necklace were two hearts intertwined. The exact same sigil that Sarah's necklace bore.
"What the hell?" I inspected the frozen video again.
In the background, I saw two people walking toward the woman, one a girl, the other a guy, hand in hand. The girl couldn't be any older than 14 or 15. The guy looked to be about 18 or 19.
The girl looked to be about 5'3". She was wearing military grade combat pants and bright purple and red colored combat boots. Her top was a sky-blue and red digital camo, sports shirt. On top of that, she wore a light-blue, sleeveless, jacket which also had a hood. On her right bicep, a violet bandanna was tied. It's purpose known to me, I had a pair of gloves that did the exact same thing. It was hiding her scars. On her left wrist, a tribal, butterfly, flower tattoo could seen. On each of the four pedals of the flower, initials could be seen. EC, RC, WC, and AC. On her bandanna, a black scope sigil could be seen. From the looks of it, she looked human. On her back was what appeared to be a bladed compound bow. I switched camera angles. From this angle, I could also see that the bow was missing it's string. I wonder if she used her aura as a string, I thought. I switched back to the other camera angle, I could also see that strapped to her waist was a highly custom Colt 1911 .42 pistol with runic letterings covering any place they could be put.
To her right was guy with a medium build that couldn't be any taller than 5'1". He was wearing standard military combat outfit in various shades of gray, dark blue, and white. His hair was brown, cut military style. Above his right eye was a scar that extended down to his jawline. I could see two tomahawks sticking up over his shoulder and on either side of his waist, was an eight cylinder bladed revolver holstered to his waist. On his chest, around where his heart would be, was what I assumed to be his sigil, a wolf.
"Who were these people?" I thought aloud.
I was in such deep thought, that I didn't notice myself being pulled into another ghostly meeting room like environment with Chris.
I remained deep in thought until I heard my name being called.
"Soap."
"How long ago did you pull me in?" I asked.
"30 seconds."
"Ok. Good."
Two chairs appeared beside us. Chris put out a hand, motioning me to take a seat. "Please, sit down."
I obeyed.
"Before you ask, the thing that you were looking for was Sarah's sigil on Amanda's necklace. To be honest, this isn't anything more than just a coincidence. Sarah's necklace holds no powers like yours."
"Ok. That answers one of my questions."
"What are the others?"
"I have two other questions, but one at a time. Who were those people that I saw in the background, holding hands?"
"Ah, that would be Claire Coleman and Mithos Paine. They were the other two people on my team. After everything settled down, they got married and had some kids. Three to be exact. Two of them stayed with their parents, while the oldest ran off when she turned 18."
"What was her name?" I asked, curious.
"Her name escapes me, however, when she ran off, she fell in love with a faunas."
"Why is that important?"
"It's important because if you follow that line of descendants, you will eventually find someone very valuable to you. Sarah Kirtsov."
My eyes went wide.
"Her parents raised her till she was four years old. Then they unlocked her aura and gave her weapons as a gift before they gave her to that orphanage. They did so to protect her from the white fang."
"That miserably failed." I said, disheartened.
"Not at all, she learned how to fight while she was there and if those events never happened, she never would have found you. And before you ask; yes, her parents are still alive."
"What are their names?" I asked, excited.
"Kelly and Frank Kirtsov. I do warn you though, they will be hard to find."
I laughed. "You do realize that you are talking to the world's best bounty hunter, right?
"Of the two that stayed with Claire and Mithos, only one survived beyond childhood. He died of a beowolf attack. For the one that survived childhood, that line of descendants, if followed, will lead you straight to a man by the name of Regal Paine. I task you to find this man, since Regal is actually a reincarnation of Mithos."
"Let me just chalk up one more onto my list of challenges."
"When you find and befriend him, say to him, 'Follow to the end, I shall. Forever loyal, I am. Eternally grateful, I will always be.' Once you say this to him, he will help you till the end. He will also be able to give you answers that I am forbidden to give you. That's one question down, what's the other?"
"Why did you have me find that video file?"
"Because you watching it unlocked the majority of my life on that necklace. In order for you to find the solution that I was so close to getting, you will have to re-live my life and find it." Just then an alarm sounded, "It seems that my time is up. Good luck."
A/N: Just saying, this was written 30 seconds after I wrote the last chapter. Also hey, Sarah's parents are still alive! Along with that Regal Paine guy. I will say this for the up coming chapters with Regal, he is going to be paired with one of the members of RWBY. I have an idea as to who I want him paired with, but I thought that maybe I should let you guys decide. Leave a review or send a PM entailing who of RWBY Regal should be paired with.
See you guys next time.
Soap out.
Also shout out to Lone Wolf of Shadows for agreeing to let me use his OC's!