A/N: Well, currently it's 4-28-15, two days into the poll; and so far Soap is winning, and I am currently very bored.

imma start writing.

On another note:

OVER 2K VIEWS!

Edit; 5-1-15: The poll has closed and the results are in.

The winner is...

Soap!

Thnkx to the three people that voted and I hope you all enjoy your choice for more confusion.

Story Time!

Chapter 29: if we do not

~Soap

A second, or at least what felt like a second, after the world faded back to black, I found myself returning to the world of the living...

Or so I thought.

As I began to come to, I opened my eyes.

Doing so revealed Sarah and Blake carrying me out of the White Fang base with all of SLVR, BNTY, and RWBY leading the way; presumably heading towards Bucky and the Bullhead.

I looked to see who was carrying me. Sarah, walking backwards, was holding my legs and Blake had her arms wrapped around my shoulders and, judging by the way that her muscles were both relaxed and tense at the same time along with the way that she was confidently gripping me; she was both happy and concerned with the events that were currently transpiring.

I knew that Blake had taken a liking to me, courtesy of Bucky and his ability to be able to read the emotions of others like a book - not his semblance but rather just a trick he somehow picked up during the 11 years that he disappeared from the face of the planet; something that I found that he doesn't want to talk about. But I still didn't know what I wanted to do about it. Honestly, I wanted to see how the events of the next few days played out with her before I did anything; then again I guess Sarah and her could...No.

That's not a possibility, or was it? Oh well, decisions to be made later.

Still not yet able to move anything other than my eyes, I did a quick once over to everybody that I was able to see. As far as I could tell, everybody walked away from the mission relatively unscathed.

Weiss had a limp in her left leg; Drake looked like he broke his right prosthetic hand, again; Yang looked like she broke her actual left hand; Sam looked like she broke her foot; Sebastian reopened a few old scars; and it looked like Larry broke a few ribs, judging by the way he was holding his side and the pained expression on his face, and the bayonet on his M1 carbine.

Nothing that I didn't expect, if anything we pulled away a little better than I originally thought.

All were injuries that could be fixed, or healed, and recovered from quickly.

As far as Larry's weapon went, now he would be able to make the bayonet stronger; something that I sense that Sam and I would more than likely have a part of.

My eyes wandered over to Sarah.

Or next to her, rather.

Next to Sarah was a girl with a lute across her back and a sight for sore eyes.

She was about 5'6", looked to be about 18 years of age, human, and had long, silky, brown hair that reached her mid back. She was actually pretty attractive, just don't let Sarah know. She had an hourglass figure, a damn nice set of hips, a sexy as hell ass, and a good looking pair of legs. I couldn't see the front of her, but hot damn, I wanted to.

She was wearing a blue shirt, purple pants, an anklet on her left side, and white shoes.

I honestly had no idea who she was. SLVR was an all male team, so it couldn't have been one of them. Not even Ivory looked that good dressed as a girl, plus I had already seen him walking next to Victor.

I opened my mouth to speak but felt my consciousness start to drift as soon as I tried.

"Fuck! Here we go again." I managed to mumble as the world began to fade again.

Instantly, I felt my legs hit the floors and I heard a voice scream, "Chris!"

I had to assume that it was either Blake or Sarah as they were the only two that knew my name. Great, now Yang will remember my name from before. I silently thought to myself.

I tried to respond but my voice wasn't working and my mouth wasn't moving. As something of a last ditch attempt to try and communicate before I collapsed, I pushed as much of what I had seen as I could to Sarah hoping that she would be able to piece together what I was experiencing.

I finished pushing what I could to Sarah just as I saw another white flash and the world went black.

When I was able to see again, I found that I was in another frozen, black and white version of the world with Private Gunnel and his Sergent Major Hayes.

I looked around and found that I was right where I left off when I left this...this...whatever the hell this was. Sergent Major Hayes about to shoot his bow at an unknown enemy approaching him from behind and Gunnel (I'm just going to call this version of the General "Gunnel" and the version that Soap can talk to "the General" or "General Gunnel" for distinguishablity (I had to make a new word for that) sake.) against the remains of a wall, holding his side in pain, watching a Beowolf approach him.

But something was different this time.

In this black and white version of time, there was another person of color there with me. It was the ghost of the General, the General I knew, standing next to me.

(I'm not being racist or saying that Soap or the General are black. I'm saying that they are literally colorful in a world that's currently frozen in the colors: black and white.)

"Where the hell am I?" I asked him.

"You're reliving my life, as I said you would." He replied.

"You said that to me over a month ago. That was a bit delayed, don't you think?"

"It was, but I wouldn't complain if I were you."

"And why's that?"

"Because if I hadn't chosen the timing that I did, you, and the rest of your friends, would be slaves to Carrie and he whom she served."

"You saying that tells me that while that was Carrie that we saw, that wasn't Carrie." I said.

"Since I still have my ability to see a little into the future, I know what you're going to say, but I want to hear and see the moment you understand yourself. Go on."

"Nobody should be able to look like that and still live which means that someone or something was possessing Carrie. When she spoke, she sounded like a teenage girl, a corpse, and a monster all at once. This leads me to think that Carrie never wanted to betray Sarah or kill her friends, she was forced to. What, or who, ever was controlling her, was keeping her soul as a prisoner within her own body; likely being tortured all the while. She was able to see anything and everything that she was being forced to do."

"How do you know this?" The General asked, knowing very well what the answer was.

"I had a similar experience when that...thing tried to posses me when I was 6. She was being controlled by the same power that tried to control me."

"You got that right on the nose." The General said, complementing me.

"Just what the hell are we going up against here?"

"You just answered your own question, in your question. I'm afraid I must go, enjoy what are able to see of my life today."

"What I'm able to see? I won't be able to see the whole thing?" I asked, not sure what he was trying to tell me.

"I lived for at least 10 generations; you probably won't get to see much. By the time that anything starts to pick up, Sarah will have forced her way into your mind and woken you up." He said as he started to disappear.

"Wait!" I yelled. "Once I am woken up, how do I return?" I asked quickly.

The apparition smiled as he responded, "By returning to the one place in your memory that you dread the most; Valhalla."

The world around me snapped into color and set back into motion.

I looked around from my spectral observation platform.

Hayes successfully killed his unknown attacker, now known to be a Death Stalker. 'Damn! That's no easy feat.' I thought to myself.

I turned my attention back to Gunnel. The Beowolf that was approaching him reached pouncing range and attacked.

Gunnel watched until the creature was almost right on top of him. Once the Grimm was within range, he threw his fist at the creature.

The Grimm froze in midair above Gunnel and, after a second, went limp and fell to the side of him.

He pulled his fist away from the dissolving corpse. Once his hand was clear, I saw the reason for the sudden death of the Beowolf; Gunnel had, one on each wrist, two gauntlets that resembled Yang's, however, there were quite a few differences between Yang's and Gunnel's.

Gunnel's gauntlets had, instead of a built-in firearm, what looked to be multiple sword and/or knife/dagger blades in various places on each. It had, what looked to be, a knife blade positioned on the underside ready to pop out upon the bending back of his wrist. Positioned almost immediately next to the knife blade was another except this one was facing the opposite direction, cutting edge and point facing his upper arm, and looked to be larger than the knife blade; almost as big as a short sword, or maybe a dagger, blade. When I looked closer, I saw that even this blade was facing the opposite direction that the knife blade was, it had the same mechanism as the knife which told me that it ejected the same direction as the smaller blade. The only use that I could think of for those would be that they were meant to be removed from the mechanism all together and used as an actual sword. Finally on top of the gauntlet was a third, even larger, collapsible blade; by the looks of it, this one was also spring loaded. It was also the same blade that he used to kill the Beowolf.

(Imagine a cross between Yang's shotgun gauntlets (minus the shotgun part) and the Assassin's Creed 2 Hidden Blades with an extra blade positioned on the top of it.)

The man that I now knew as Sergent Major Hayes, approached Gunnel cautiously.

"Think that's the last of them?" Gunnel asked as attempted to stand.

"There are always more; but if you're asking about right now. Yes, I think that's the last of them." Hayes replied as he helped Gunnel up.

Once he was standing, Hayes gave his wounds a quick once over and laughed. "How the hell did you survive Corporal?" He asked as Gunnel slung one of his arms over Hayes's shoulders and they began to walk out the destroyed village and out of my view.

"Corporal, sir? I'm only a private." Gunnel replied respectfully.

"Not after that display of skill in combat. That and the fact that you and I are the only two left from the company after an attack like that means that we're probably going to be getting decorated and promotions for that alone." Hayes responded.

"Speaking of the attack; who, or what really, do you think got the jump on us Sergent Major?" Gunnel asked before they faded from my vision.

Hayes sighed, "An old friend of mine; actually, you could say that we used to be brothers. He went by the name 'Rubrum' when we were 'friends'."

"I'm not sure I follow sir."

"Most people in this world are born. Myself and 19 others, Rubrum included, were created. We are the result of a secret government project codenamed: Sons Of Promethus. I was number 19, He was number 20. The other 18 were considered successful, but him and I were 'special'. Both of us were born without souls, however, once the personality programming in our DNA took hold, we created our own. Or at least I did." Hayes said somewhat remorsefully.

"What happened sir?"

"I was able to take the impression that the personality programming left and generate a soul with it. So was Rubrum, or so we thought. Right at the moment that his soul would have been created and take hold, Lucifer took hold instead." Hayes said with a voice that sounded neutral, but I could tell that he was bitter.

"Lucifer sir? You mean the angel that betrayed God?" Gunnel asked.

As soon as soon as I heard Gunnel say this, I tensed. Ever since Summer rescued me from the hell I experienced; I put most everything that I had ever believed in, behind me. Believing in him and what his grace and mercy could do, made me a target. It made me a "monster" and a "demon".

I didn't want to live a life that left me to be remembered like that; so I left it.

"That would be correct. Lucifer took possession of Rubrum's soul and twisted it to his own corrupt desires. In time, Rubrum became the leading scientist on Grimm and how they creation came to be; 'offically'. What he was really doing was finding a way for him to fuse Grimm blood with his own faunas blood. I think it's needless to say now that he did. Doing so allowed the full extent of Lucifer's power to take hold. Rubrum became Lucifer." He took a deep breath, "I was in the room when it happened. Once the demon took hold, he attacked me and he could have killed me. Instead, he told me something; he told me, "You will be my messenger for the one who might really oppose me. He will be powerless against me. In the place of your short lifespan, he will be sentenced to live till he might find a way for my complete banishment to whence I came. Or till none of humanity, human or faunas, are left upon the scarred remains of this world. He will witness the destruction of the very family that he will create. Angel of Death, Guardian of Light, Hell Spite, Demon; You shall witness my splendor through the destruction of your world."

Out of nowhere, I felt a surge of information enter my head.

It was the profile of, who I now knew to be, Sergent Major Stevens Hayes; or at least part of it. It seemed to me that information was missing.

Hayes was 18 years old, human, 5'10", had short, messy, black hair that looked like it originated from a military buzz cut, and nearly pitch black eyes. For his size, he was very strong and definitely looked it. He, as he approached Gunnel earlier to help him up, was wearing a silver and blue suit of armor with the logo of the Vale Military and Armed Forces stamped into the right shoulder and his rank of Sergent Major stamped into the left.

As quickly as it came, it left just as quickly; taking the color and memory with it.

I was alone, standing in the dark. Nothing that I hadn't experienced before, but this time it felt heavier. Almost as if someone was trying...to force their way into my mind. Just as the General said would happen.

Slowly, the darkness around me started to lift.

The black of the dark started to turn a shade of red and, eventually, light pink. It was the part of me that was Sarah trying to get through to me to wake me.

As I waited for her to rescue me from the darkness of my mine, I thought I saw a third color underlying the red and pink that dominated my vision.

Purple, or violet really.

Why am I hallucinating as I'm leaving my own mind?

While I did think that I was imagining things, It did occur to me that this combination of colors would make for a very beautiful color pallet if it was applied to the sky at sunset or sunrise.

"Chris!" I heard a voice say all around me in my mind.

"Sarah! I'm here!" I yelled back, unsure if she heard me.

I felt her consciousness reach out to me her's. As soon as it was close enough, I grabbed on.

As soon as I grabbed hold, the darkness of my mind left my vision.

I opened my eyes to look around. Instantly I closed them and grimaced from the shock that the light gave me. Damn! You'd think that after teleporting so much and seeing things even brighter than this that I would be able to handle this level of light just fine.

"Soap! You're up!" I heard a voice that sounded like Blake's say. Though I honestly couldn't tell at the moment; the light was too blinding to see and my mind was too fogged to be able to remember what Blake's voice sound like.

"Yep." I responded. "Though I'm not happy about it."

"Don't go anywhere, I'll go get the others."

'Fuck! That's not very reassuring!' I thought to myself. 'Why the hell wouldn't they be near me, waiting for me to wake up, unless something bad happened or I was out for a while. This doesn't bode well.'

"Guys, he's awake!" I heard the feminine voice say as it entered a doorway and disappeared down a hall. "Guys!"

A/N: Damn that took way too long to write! Then again, I am essentially creating the following major events (don't worry, since everything I am about to say has already been mentioned in the story at some point in time; no spoilers will be mentioned here) : a war that lasted 1,000 years, the life of a man who lived for 10 generations, the downfall and destruction of two kingdoms not from the show (I haven't decided on the names yet), the abandonment of music, and an enemy worthy of both, the beginning of the story and General Gunnel's OPness.

Also, I did say that if Soap's perspective won that there would only be more questions than answers. I hope you got what you wanted.

Until next time,

I'm SoapiestAuto780 and I'm out.

See ya guys.