A/N: So nearly five years later, I am back on this side story. This will likely be published before my new work on the main story goes up. Lots of things have happened in the last few years so make sure to read the Author's Notes of the next chapter of the main story.

Chapter 5

~Daliah

It's been a few days since we last saw or heard anything from Soap or Sarah. The last thing we got from them was a video communication introducing us to the rest of his team.

Sam Krest. A hawk faunas and an heiress, or ex-heiress rather, of the world's largest shipping company. The name of the company sounded familiar to even me; Krestfield Shipping Inc. was a small start up company when I was in highschool, some 30 odd years ago.

Drake Hemington. An orphaned Huntsman's son and a prisoner of war. Seems he lost his arms when he was caught and tortured by the White Fang after their leadership changed. Has an obvious relationship with Sam. Not that it looked like he was trying to hide it, it just seemed important to mention.

Bucky. The oldest on the five man team and was apparently in some kind of cult for a couple of years before he left to get Soap to repay him his debt.

All in all, they're an odd bunch, but they seem like a family.

He also left us a mission to check out some sort of weird tree that he saw from the top of Delta base; we were just finishing up preparations.

"Rachel, you got the backup mags?" I asked her as I sheathed my broadsword.

"Yeah. So remind me, what are we supposed to be investigating again? Some kind of tree?"

"Yep. Didn't Soap say he was going to meet up with us at said tree?" Kevin added.

"If he's going there himself, why is it that we are going too?" Andy asked.

"I would imagine something along the lines of backup."

"Yep. Spot on, excellent deduction." Soap said, sitting on a chair on the side of the room, sarcastically clapping his hands.

Everybody froze and turned to look at our employer.

"When in the hell did you get here?" Rachel said, finishing up with her preparations.

"Oh, I've been here for about half an hour now." Our mysterious employer said.

Rachel starred at him incredulously, "You've been there for half an hour? Just sitting there? Watching us? Without saying a word?"

"Yes. Is it a problem for an employer to watch his employees work?" Soap asked.

I was unsure whether or not he was being serious.

"No, but when he just sits there quiet as can be, yes." Rachel responded.

"That's fair." Soap agreed, getting up from his chair. "You all ready?"

"As ready as ready could be." I said, approaching him.

"Perfect, all of you grab on." He said, sticking out his sheathed katana.

"Why are we grabbing your katana?" I asked him, giving him a puzzled look.

"You've seen me teleport, right?"

"Yes, but how does that have any relevance to this?" I asked him.

"I can teleport anything touching me as well. Just promise me that you will close your eyes when we do so."

"Why?" Andy asked him. "What if want to keep my eyes open?"

"If you want to know what the surface of the sun looks like up close, go right ahead and keep your eyes open."

"Ok, that's fair, but why are we grabbing your katana and not you?" I asked.

"Because, while we have proven that I am fine standing around you, we haven't tested if I am still fine after touching you all, and I really don't feel like testing that right now."

"Also fair." I looked back at my team, "Everybody grab hold. Let's go."

"So what's wrong with the tree?" Kevin asked after we finished warping there.

"Well for starters, it's the only living tree for miles." Soap said, gesturing to the forest of dead trees around us.

"True. All the trees around us are dead rusted oak trees." I said, knocking on one of the dead trees. "This one appears to be an off brand birch tree. Look at the way the bark bubbles." I said, gesturing to the bark.

"Bubbles?" Andy asked inquisitively.

"Yeah, bubbles. Like the bark is bubbly, I don't know how else to phrase it."

"Hey guys, look over here. There's sap running down the side of it, but something's wrong." Kevin said from the other side of the tree.

We all moved to the other side as he pointed with his rifle.

"What the hell?" Rachel said.

The sap in question seemed to be very viscous, running down from it's exit point to it's base in a matter of seconds before it seemed to suck up said sap and begin the process all over again.

"Ok. That's very odd." Andy said, watching the sap with puzzled expression.

"It's stuck in a time loop." Soap said confidently.

We all looked at him puzzled.

"How would you know that?" Rachel asked.

"I've seen this before."

"You know, an answer like that only raises more questions than answers." said Andy.

"A while back, I was experimenting with time travel tech as a sort of last minute 'oh shit' device. The device in question would have rewound time up to five minutes in the past. The idea being that if you really messed up, or something around you messed up, you could take yourself back to a time before the 'oh shit' event occurred allowing you to fix a problem before it ever technically happened." Soap explained.

"Did you ever get it working?" Rachel asked, stars in her eyes.

"Technically, yes. Practically, no. More specifically, the device worked, but because you were rewinding time, you were in essence recharging the battery as you used it causing the user to get stuck in said moments of time." Soap said. "Thankfully, we had contingencies in place for such an event."

"Oh my gods, what happened?" Rachel asked, disappointed.

"I got stuck in a two second time loop for the equivalent of half an hour. I was only freed when I was able to teleport the battery out of the device and when I was physically removed from the area with a student of mines' semblance."

"Explain it to me like I'm five." Andy said, almost ready for his brain to burst.

"Time paused, and I couldn't make it play again." Soap said, disappointedly. "Was I using too many big words or something? What was hard to understand about that?"

"Andy has an issue processing the passage of time as it is, you brought time travel into the mix." I said, chuckling to myself.

"The rest of you understood it, right?"

"Yes." Rachel, Kevin, and I said in unison.

"Ok, so it's a tree stuck in a time loop, what about it? We've seen and experienced stranger things like being cursed to send people to insanity with close proximity to us. But let's not forget the man that is somehow immune to said curse and is a multi-fucking-billionaire, a bounty hunter, and an instructor at Beacon no less. So yea, what's weird about this?" Kevin said, exasperated.

"What's weird about it is that from on top of Delta base, it looked like there was a person stuck in it." Soap explained.

"I take it back, this one takes the cake." Andy said, his face in his hands.

A few seconds passed before anyone spoke again.

"Alright, now that we have investigated said tree, what do you want us to do about it? I would imagine touching this thing would be a bad idea?" Kevin asked, looking to Soap for confirmation.

"A very bad thing. You would also become trapped in said time loop with our mystery person here; on the other hand, you would be able to communicate with him."

"Do you think that he can even hear us right now?" I asked.

"Yes, I know he can. You know, with me having been stuck in a time loop myself." Soap said.

"Also, if he is stuck in a time loop, why are we still able to discover it? Wouldn't we be unable to discover it if it really is a time loop?" Rachel asked.

"Unlike what I was trying to do with the technology I was developing, he was likely trying to fast forward time. And by the looks of it, just a little too fast." Soap said.

"Or at least fast enough that the battery hasn't run out yet." Rachel said.

A moment passed before she gasped excitedly, "Wait, is it possible that he is someone from the General's time? Some couple hundred years ago?"

"Since we are seeing it here around the remains of Delta base, it certainly is a possibility." Soap said, obviously thinking.

"Wait a sec, what general are we referring to?" Andy asked.

"You know, The General. The man responsible for ending the last Grimm war? Or at least so the legends go." Kevin said.

"I think the legends are confirmed considering the giant plaque in one of the barracks we found, but I digress." I said.

Another moment passed before Andy spoke again.

"Getting back to the original topic at hand, what do we do? It's not like this thing is hurting anybody or anyone is going to mess with it." Andy asked.

"We free him. Being stuck in a time loop like that sucks for any amount of time, be it five seconds or five years. Being stuck like that allows you to see and hear everything that happens around you, just not able to interact with it." Soap said, obviously still thinking.

"How would we even go about freeing him? We don't even know if he's good or bad or even if this person wants to be freed." Kevin asked.

"Trust me. He does."

"Also, why are we assuming it's a 'he'? It could be a 'she' for all you know." I asked.

"I'll give you that one. I was simply assuming for simplicity's sake. As for for freeing them, we dig up the roots and make sure this tree can't draw any more nutrients from the earth. That should stop it."

"If you say so boss." Andy said picking up a shovel.

"Why. Does. This. Tree. Have. Such. Long. Roots?" Andy exclaimed with every swing of his shovel; each swing carrying up more dirt.

He finally stuck his shovel in the dirt to wipe the sweat from his brow before he picked up his shovel again. "It's so damn weird! This things roots are twice as big as it is tall."

"Why is that important?" Soap asked him.

"Oh come on! As smart as you are, you don't know basic biology?" Andy exclaimed, throwing his shovel across the dead forest.

"No actually. Biology is one of the few things I don't really know much about." Soap said, slightly surprised at the giant of a man moving as quick as he did.

"You know what, that's probably for the best." Andy panted, walking to pick up his shovel again.

"Why's that?" I asked.

"Because if he did, I imagine he would be the first person to really get into genetic engineering and create some kind of sentiment strawberry or something." He replied walking back with his shovel over his shoulder.

"Out of curiosity, why do you know so much about biology?" Soap asked him, as he motioned for us to all stop for a minute. He then pulled out five water bottles out seemingly nowhere and tossed one to each of us.

"Yeah Andy, why do you know so much about it? Also, getting back to the question Soap asked you, why is it weird that this tree's roots are twice as big as it is tall?" I asked.

"Is it really that strange that I know biology? Especially with how much I like food?" He responded.

"Ahh, that makes sense." The rest of us responded in unison.

"Oh shut up!" He yelled, his face slightly flushed.

"Anyways, why is it weird?" Soap asked after taking a sip from his own water bottle.

"Look around us, it's nothing but rocks and snow. The roots on this thing are twenty feet across and 8 inches deep; roots like that indicate that this thing grew where it was very moist and humid." Andy said confidently.

"So a swamp?" I concluded.

"Exactly. Trees that are native to this area usually have roots that go very, very deep. Like ten feet deep."

"Damn." Soap responded.

"Yeah, something like this shouldn't be able to live here, nonetheless thrive."

"So what are you saying Andy? That this area was different 100 years ago?" I asked.

"Not quite. I've seen ecological data on this area from back when this continent had an active kingdom; no swamp ever existed here. Not to mention that the last swamp was drained many years before the founding of said kingdom, but that would have been on a different continent."

"So this tree came from a different universe then."

"Exactly what I was thinking! That's the only reason I can come up with for it being so out of place!" Andy stated triumphantly.

Soap rolled his eyes before tuning his attention to me, "Does he always have this active of an imagination?"

"Yes."

"Just making sure." Soap responded before getting back to work. "Come on guys, the roots are almost out."

The rest of us grunted before standing up and picking up our shovels to follow suit.

And as it turned out, Soap was right, all it took was one more shovelful for the roots to be disconnected and when they finally were, something unexpected happened.

A/N: The amount of digging that I had to do to find my old writing binders was astounding. And yes, I have physical binders with research, character sheets, sketches, weapon designs, potential plot ideas...the whole works.

Each binder is a 6inch, 3 ring binder. I have 5 total, 1 for exiles, 4 for the main story. Every single one is filled end to end with material.

Also, now that I have seemed to gotten over my writers block, expect more of these. Especially exiles, I am writing the next chapter with my wife as we speak.

See ya in the next chapter.