'Back to this hellhole' Jaune thought going through an old corridor of Beacon as he went to the command centre to check on any new developments
"Commander!" a voice shouted out
"Ms Schnee, what do you have for me?" Jaune asked
"Check this out, I examined the remains of that Cyber-Beowolf you brought in and I must say it is incredible" Weiss said shocked
"What is it?" Jaune asked looking nervous
"It's controlled by a wireless network, all originating from a single point, it transfers orders, data, information everything they use to attack us is flowing through a single network" Weiss explained excited
"Where is this network located?" Jaune asked becoming a commander again
"I don't know, it could be anywhere on Vytal, remember it's a big place, from Vale to Atlas it could be anywhere" Weiss said
"How's your folks going?" Jaune asked knowing Weiss parents lived in the Atlas region of Vytal.
"Good, I hope last time I heard from them they were moving to the northern kingdom, they tried to get me to come but by then we were already fighting for our lives, I miss them. I miss my family" Weiss said tearing up.
"I know" Jaune said comforting his advisor.
In Beacon's medical centre stood Nora Valkyrie, just staring off into the distance through an observational window. She had been like this for months now, barely speaking, moving or smiling. The only times she moved was health reasons such as food, showering, toilet and sleep. Most of the day she was there like a statue holding onto a golden chain around her neck just staring blankly. Her husband arrived to see her doing her usual activity; he knew what it was and how devastating it was to see the once energetic and bubbly Nora Valkyrie become this stoic and distant Nora.
"Nora, come on it isn't healthy for you to be here all day" Ren said holding his wife
"Easy for you to say, you have a position" Nora said blankly
"So do you, it's not here just looking at that room through this window"
"NO you're right, I shouldn't be watching her, I should be holding her, talking to her PLAYING WITH HER! But I can't because of that damn Bastard. I've had enough Ren, I want to be able to hear her laughing, crying babbling" Nora said breaking down "I just want to hold my baby girl and have her respond!" Nora cried as Ren just hugged her observing his daughter Rosie Valkyrie, who was in a deep coma thanks to the Cyber Grimm.
"Rosie" he whispered tears worming their way out of their duct.
Jaune was now in the command centre drinking a cup of hot sludge the future called coffee and sighed, he had lost track of how many friends he had buried. The first casualties in this war was Velvet and her team. Velvet suffered the worse death. She was bloodied and had lost her legs and her right arm using the left to pull herself along. Next came Dove and Sky they were guarding the civilian escorts when a pair of Cyber Ursa came down upon them and tore them to pieces as they valiantly fought back he could still hear the haunting words.
"Did we do good?" Dove coughed as he looked over at his leader and Jaune
"Yeah you did good Dove" Cardin said smiling
"I'm sorry about Sky sir, I couldn't get to him in time" Dove smiled
"Just rest up, we'll get you back to fighting shape. WHERE'S THAT DAMN MEDIC!" Cardin shouted as he held Dove's hand
"Come on Dove you can do this" Russel said
"Hey Russ, do me a solid" Dove said
"What's that?" Russel said kneeling down
"Don't leave the boss behind or alone" Dove said exhaling one last time
"Dove Bronzewing gave his life so that other's could be given more time" Jaune said
"I'll kill each and every one of those bastards!" Cardin wept
"Not alone Cardin, we'll get revenge for those guys" Russel said crying as well
"I'm sorry Cardin" Jaune said walking away, but not before denting the nearest metallic object with his fist "No more! I don't want to lose anyone anymore"
Jaune was snapped to alert by a soft hand on his own, he looked up to see two pools of bright emerald staring into the abyss his eyes have become
"Jaune, are you okay?" Pyrrha asked
"No...I was thinking about Dove" Jaune said
"Well don't; you know you can't change anything" Pyrrha pleaded
"I know, now what's up?" Jaune asked pulling Pyrrha onto his lap
"It was about that cargo we lost, apparently it was a Schnee shipment of blank dust which we were to make into electric dust to power the generators" Pyrrha said
"What happened?" Jaune asked
"Something that shocked us, we were able to locate a camera five kilometres from the sight which showed us something we're not ready for" Pyrrha said bringing the image up
"Is that what I think it is!" Jaune exclaimed
"Yes sir, this appears to be a humanoid Cyber-Grimm" Pyrrha said
"Shit alright, try and get a network reading from one of these things next time you encounter them"
"Network signals?" Ren asked walking in
"Weiss have deduced that these things have a wireless network like an insect's hive mind" Jaune said
"So you want to see if they have the wireless network access" Ren said
"Yeah, now any word on Yang?" Jaune asked
"Last we checked she was still in the bar" Ren said as Yang ordered another shot of tequila, before downing it in one shot. She had been here since the lost of Ruby and the disappearance of Blake
"Another one?" Junior asked as he was tending to the bar
"No, whisky this time" Yang sighed.
"Listen Blondie you're here from sun up to sun down sampling my collection. Isn't it about time to move on?" he asked cleaning a glass.
"What's the point?" Yang asked
"How about your sister's memory isn't tarnished by your lovely relationship with the whisky you just ordered" a voice said
"Piss off Bri" Yang said indicating a masked huntress who dress in mauve and black
"Oh but it's so much fun teasing the once great Yang Xiao Long" Bri taunted
"I'm still great" Yang growled standing up. "And I can take of anything you want me to!"
"Alright then, there has been sighting of a Humanoid class Cyber-Grimm we're giving it the code name Sentinel" Bri smirked
"Yang wait!" Junior said before looking over to Bri "You are not seriously suggesting that she goes up against a Sentinel?!" Junior said
"Why not?" Yang asked getting up
"Firstly, you're beyond drunk, and secondly we have never encountered them before beside minor details, like oh don't know how they came about!" Junior snapped.
"I'll be fine" Yang slurred
"I don't think you should be going" Junior said
"Too bad, I need her out there" Jaune said entering the bar
"Commander Arc?" the three asked
"Hello, nice place you have down here Junior, and I'm sorry you lost the twins" Jaune said
"Thank you sir, now what to drink?" Junior replied
"Save that drink for the after the mission!" Jaune said
"So what's up" Yang smirked
"I need you in the field, and I'm not taking no for an answer, Bri I want you to take Ren's watch" Jaune instructed
"Yes sir" Bri said waltzing off
"Come on Major Long" Jaune said
"Yes sir" Yang said reaching for her whisky
"And leave that damn drink" Jaune shouted back
"Damn it" Yang growled.
In the courtyard Jaune's team was assembling them. The team consisted of Ren, Weiss, Cardin and Sun were waiting for their leader
"Where is he? Doesn't he knows that is mission could save our assess?" Sun asked twirling his staff around in boredom
"Be patient, we left the command centre at the same time and if he isn't here then he must have a good reason" Ren said polishing his Storm Dragons while maintaining Maghild on his back.
"You're taking Nora's Hammer?" Weiss asked
"Yeah I am, I feel like it's about time they felt the Valkyrie's wrath" Ren said smiling
"I hope that it can wait, because a certain dragon wants her turn" a voice shouted out making the group turn around in shock.
"Yang?" Weiss asked
"What up Snow Angel" Yang laughed acting like herself almost
"You're on this mission?" Ren asked.
"I ordered her to" Jaune said striding out into the courtyard
"Alright what we got?" Jaune asked
"A Sentinel class Cyber Grimm in the Emerald Forest, Weiss needs it for her research into the CG Network" Ren said
"well then let's go." Jaune said leading his team into the forest
"Ruby's Hollow" Yang sighed as she saw all the red and black roses.
"She did love roses, so it shouldn't be a surprise that they're growing here" Weiss said
"I Know, I just miss her so much; you can't understand how much I miss her Weiss" Yang said hugging Weiss
"I think I have a vague feeling" Weiss said before spotting the red-yellow bicoloured Rose "But I think Ruby is still with you"
"What do you mean?" Yang asked seeing the rose that Weiss pointed to
"Red and yellow roses?" Yang said spotting several more
"That's odd, I came here yesterday' Jaune said 'could that have been from me?'
"What do you think they mean?" Yang asked
"The love between you and Ruby" Ren said as the heard footsteps from the west
"The Sentinel?" Yang asked.
"The Sentinel" Jaune nodded.
Standing there towering over the forest as a massive sleek looking android, being composed of plates of Titanium and a Dust like alloy, it could shape shift to take down any opponent, mainly foolish hunters; And right now the Beacon team was in its area.
"How are we supposed to defeat that THING!" Sun gasped.
"Weiss, can you pick up the signal from here?" Jaune asked.
"Not, its way to faint for it to be picked up by my equipment" Weiss said
"Shit, okay where would the signal be coming from
"Either the torso or the Head so don't destroy them" Weiss said
"Understood" the group said as they moved out.
"Yang take up high, Weiss try and disable its legs" Jaune said drawing his new sword and Crimson Thorn
"Yang catch" Jaune said throwing the sniper rifle to Yang, who then connected it with Rose Cutter to recreate Crescent Rose.
"Good to see the connection's holding" Weiss said analysing it to make sure it was stable.
"I've got this" Yang said
"No you don't even though you have been acting sober I'm still picking up trace amount of intoxication from you Yang" Weiss said
"Geez princess I know you want to take these things down, but lighten up a bit will you?" Yang asked
"DO I need to remind you that I'm out here to make sure that we learn about the network they've set up" Weiss said glaring at Yang
"Whatever, I'm out for revenge either get behind me or out of my way" Yang said walking over to the sentinel.
"We better go with her" Jaune said leading his team away.
Once they arrived, the massive sentinel was throwing a hammer like fist at Yang who dodged and attacked with Crescent Rose.
"Ren, we need fire power" Jaune said using Edgequaker to attack the leg. "Weiss, teach it to chill"
"ON IT!" the two said as Ren opened fire with Maghild while Weiss moved into position to use her freezing dust
"Cardin, help me sweep the legs!" Sun said
"You got it bananas" Cardin said as the pair charged the legs only for them to harden
"Shit its adapting to our attacks before we can do anything" Sun said leaping back.
"So what are we going to do?" Cardin asked
"Beat's me" Sun said
"Its heating up its body to counter my ice" Weiss said
"I'll heat up its back" Yang said unleashing her semblance to attack its back, only for its back to be covered in a thick layer of frost.
"Shit its cooling its back, we'll have to pour more on!" Yang shouted increasing her flame's strength
"I guess it my time to turn up the chill factor!" Weiss said adding more aura to her ice powers. Jaune, Cardin and Sun were still attacking the legs which were not being damaged besides little flecks of metal
"This is useless!" Sun growled blasting away with his gunchaku.
"Keep trying!" Cardin shouted.
"We're getting nowhere with this" Weiss said as the superheated chest of the Sentinel resisted her ice powers.
"Weiss, trade places with me!" Weiss said
"Why?" Weiss asked
"JUST DO IT!" Yang said as she ran around to the front as Weiss ran around the back "Use your ice attacks now!" Yang said attacking the chest
"I got it" Weiss said unleashing a torrent of frost increasing the cold on the back, the Sentinel couldn't handle the change in temperature as quickly as it did first time and it was brought down
"TIMBER!" Yang shouted pulling Weiss out of the way
"Status report!" Jaune requested
"I'm down to my last sliver of Aura here" Cardin said as Sun, Yang and Weiss agreed.
"We're all borderline, another five minutes and we would have burnt our Aura out" Jaune said closing his scroll.
"Yang can you come here for a moment" Weiss asked
"Sure what's up?" Yang asked
"Amongst other thing I want to rip off this panel right here!" Weiss said getting her computer ready
"Got it" Yang said ripping the panel off.
"How have you been?" Weiss asked as she hooked her computer up
"Truthfully, I've been so far at into the bottle I forgot about everything I stood for and my friends. The last person that tried to get me to my senses left us and was never heard from again" Yang said "I've been the biggest bitch just thinking about myself and drowning my depression for five damn years" Yang said.
"Don't worry about it Yang, we under Whoa" Weiss said checking the data "Jaune"
"What is it?" Jaune asked.
"These things; the sentinels, you know that network I talked about, well you're looking at one of the towers" Weiss said
"Wait these things are generating the network!" Jaune said shocked.
"Yeah, but I'll need to head back to the lab, Yang" Weiss said as Yang ripped out the hard drive
"Alright we'll head back and rest up" Jaune said 'And I'll head to the past to see what I can do there'
That night Jaune laid down on his bed and gripped the Time Dust in his hand as started to doze off so he can travel back in time
"I just hope I don't wake up outside" Jaune said closing his eyes. 'See you tomorrow future world.'
"Jaune, come on man time for breakfast" Ren's distant voice said
'Good to be back'