Hey everyone, it's chapter six! Man, so I've watched the fight between Winter and Qrow, like, three times, all I can say is that Qrow is a fucking bad ass. That being said, there are some... significant differences in this story to the canon story, mainly the fact that I've named him Qrow Xiao Long (which I originally believed it to be) but he's actually called Qrow Branwen, which would mean David is David Branwen, not Xiao Long. Now, real life mistake due to a lack of knowledge. In this story, the reasoning behind the inconsistencies will be explained at a later date, especially the events of 'Life on Remnant' which is now mostly wrong to canon. Don't worry, this story isn't AU now, it still follows Canon! Right, now that that's off my chest, let chapter six begin!

Chapter Six - Three's a Crowd

I shot at a dozen more robots, ripping mechanical limbs from them as they continued towards me and Team RWBY. Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang all hid behind a upturned table, unable to fight the army of robots, as I tried to keep them away, but the numbers was overwhelming. A few robots rained their arms and started shooting dust powered projectiles at me, which I could only block with my body, my aura completely drained, as flesh was ripped from my body. The robots continued to approach, walking over the dead bodies of the future hunters and huntresses from Beacon and the other kingdoms, all too slow to escape the unexpected attack. Weiss and Blake were leaning against the wall away from the table, visibly shaking in fear, while Yang cradled Ruby as she cried in fear of death. Yang looked around the table to see me fall to my knees, most of the skin torn off my body, leaving an undamaged metallic shell.

The shooting stopped. Every single robot stopped shooting as their weapons went back into their arms, being replaced with hands again. I pushed myself up to my feet, looking at the robots, confused. The robots moved to the side, creating a single path, where a seven foot tall robot walked towards me, the exposed innards glowing red along with it's eyes.

"Good to see you again, brother. You miss me?" Ultramega taunted. I gritted my teeth and lunged at him, which he blocked by simply slamming me back onto the ground, cracking the floor. He just chuckled and looked at the upturned table. He raised his arm and forced the table away from the wall, exposing Team RWBY. "Ahh, the infamous Team RWBY, supposedly the greatest fighters in Beacon, reduced to hiding behind a table while you're slave does all the work." He huffed. "Pathetic." He turned and walked away, and briefly glanced back at the girls. "Kill them."

"No!" I yelled, as hundreds of robots all simultaneously shot at Team RWBY, tearing them to shreds in an instant. Fuelled by pure anger, I took out the right dagger from my wrist and jumped at Ultramega. He turned around and caught me, wrapping his large hand around my skull, when I was mere inches away from him. Instead of taunting me, he simply clenched his fist, ending my life.

30 Seconds Earlier...

Yang opened her eyes, briefly looked for the source of a noise before turning to me. Her face softened at the sight of me, as I was moving uncomfortably in my sleep, my face strained. She shook my shoulder. "Epsilon." She whispered. "Epsilon, wake up. Wake up. Epsilon!" My eyes shot open as I quickly leaned up, knocking Yang back slightly as I took out the pistol from my wrist and aimed it, quickly looking around the room for the threat. After a few seconds of breathing heavily, I calmed down and put the gun away. I turned to Yang, as she looked at me sympathetically.

"Same nightmare. Worse than ever." I said to her, lying back down. She lay back down too and rested her head on the pillow, directly across to mine.

"How so?" She asked quietly.

"It was more detailed, more bloody, more... real." I say to her, looking up at the ceiling. Yang grabbed my head and turned it towards her.

"Epsilon, nightmare's are scary, I think they are too. But, I've never seen someone so afraid of one. Why are you so scared?"

"... I don't want to loose you." I say, sadly looking in her eyes. She gives me a sad smile and pulls me into a hug, not a breathtaking one, a loving, caring one. I relaxed slightly and accepted it.

"We could just leave. Me, you, Ruby, Blake, Weiss. Just leave, so you're nightmare never comes true." Yang suggested.

"I can't. I can't just leave everyone else to a hopeless fate. If we left Beacon and everyone else, our friends, died, you just couldn't live with it. We'd all become a David." I explain to her. We remain in silence for almost a minute before I speak up. "I can't cry, Yang. No matter how sad I get, how angry I get, no matter what happens. If everyone I know dies, I won't cry. If I'm beaten to near death, I won't cry. If I'm forced to watch you die, I won't cry." I bury my face in the pillow. "I'm nothing but a flaw." I felt Yang reach over and lightly rub my hair.

"No, you won't cry because we need you to now cry. Tears are a sign of weakness, to both allies and enemies. You were made not to cry, so you would never loose hope, never cause everyone around you to loose hope. As long as you're standing, we'll all be standing with you." I sigh and lie on the pillow, again looking at the ceiling. "You're one of a kind, Epsilon, and nothing can make you loose hope." I widen my eyes and quickly shoot up, slightly shocking Yang.

"No, I'm not." I say to myself quietly, before jumping off the bed, grabbing my outfit and running into the bathroom.

"Epsilon, what are you doing?" Yang asked me, as I exited the bathroom, fully clothed in my combat outfit.

"I need to call someone in private. Sorry, Yang, even you can't hear it." I explain to her as I grabbed my scroll. I opened the window and jumped out of it, and flew to another part of Beacon, leaving a greatly confused Yang. I continued flying for a few more seconds until I reached the tallest part of Beacon: Ozpin's office. I flew to the top of his office and landed on the roof with a light thud. I pulled out my scroll and dialled a number.

"... it's Epsilon... look, I can't explain much right now, but I need a favour... yes, I'll owe you two... make sure you're at Beacon's cafeteria at exactly ten minutes past twelve... oh, and make sure you're combat ready, this will be a real challenge."

Beacon Cafeteria...

"We're in position to grab the Schnee. When is the distraction arriving?" Willow asked through the scroll.

"The 'distraction' should be here in a few minutes. Just grab the Schnee and get out of there as fast as you can." Ultramega instructed.

"Right, one more thing, those robots aren't going to accidentally attack us, are they?" Peter asked nervously.

"No, they are programmed not to harm Inhumans. I'll see you in a few minutes." Ultramega finished, and ended the call.

"Guess this is it." Peter said half-heartedly, and Willow just pulled him into a one armed hug.

"It's okay, Peter, once this over, we can do what we want." Willow tried to cheer him up. He sighed and moved out of her hug.

"Let's just do this thing." He said, as he secured the grey boots to his feet properly. "I still can't believe these fit me."

"You should be glad Mercury has a spare pair of those boots." Willow told him with a small nudge, putting on her gloves.

"Come on, they're too perfect to pass up."

Elsewhere in Beacon Cafeteria...

"12:01..." I thought to myself as I madly types on my scroll, almost completely oblivious to the conversation's between Team RWBY and Team JNPR. All I could really hear was Nora's 'inside voice' as she talked about a vivid dream she started recounting at breakfast, and was now continuing. Both Team RWBY and JNPR were eating in relative peace, though they were still slightly on edge after I had told them about my dreams, how it was to happen today. Jaune was literally shaking in fear at the thought of the dream, Pyrrha was quite shocked at the idea of a robot army, Nora simply bragged that her dreams were 'way better' than mine, and Ren was... Ren.

My train of thoughts stopped when Ruby tapped my shoulder.

"Yes, Ruby?" I asked, not looking away from my scroll. "12:02..."

"What... are you doing?" She asked me, as she tried to peek over my shoulder to my scroll.

"Hacking." I answered simply, still looking at the screen of the scroll.

"Isn't hacking illegal?" Weiss asked me.

"Yes, but you'll all thank me later for doing this." I explain, confusing the group sitting at the table.

"Why would we 'than you' for what you're doing. More to the point, what exactly are you doing?" Jaune questioned.

"What I'm doing is saving you're lives." I tell them.

"It this about you're dream?" Blake asked. "Look, I get you're afraid, but it's so unlikely it could even happe-"

"It wasn't a dream. And it will happen." I cut her off, briefly looking away from my scroll. "12:03..."

"OK, stop with the metaphors, just give us a straight answer." Yang told me. I pressed a few more buttons and closed my scroll.

"What I've done is illegally obtained access to you're scrolls, including the one's of everyone in this room, in order to steal a code I need within the next minute or two. I've successfully done it and entered the codes. Happy?" I asked them, getting a shocked expression from everyone but Yang, who gave me a small thumbs up.

"You stole our private information!? I should report you directly to Headmaster Ozpin for that!" Weiss yelled, pointing a finger at me.

"Jeez, Ice Queen, it's not that big of a deal. Also, what could you be hiding that is so important?" Yang asked.

"Important Schnee Dust Company information I previously obtained. Who knows what he could do with them." Weiss stated, glaring at me.

"Probably nothing." Blake said, reading her book.

"I don't even use dust, it would be of no importance to me." I remind her. "12:04..."

"What codes did you take?" Pyrrha asked cautiously.

"Finally, someone asks the right question. The codes for you're rocket propelled lockers, with you're weapon's inside." I told her.

"Why would we need our weapons?" Jaune asked.

"Ooh! Are we going to break someone's legs!" Nora yelled enthusiastically.

"No, Nora." Ren sighed.

"Then, why do we need our weapons?" Ruby asked.

"It's probably for the imminent attack of evil robots." Weiss said sarcastically. I sighed heavily.

"Just had to jinx it, didn't you?" I asked, rubbing my forehead. "12:05..."

Every single window facing towards Vale inside the cafeteria smashed as hundreds of Ultramega's robots flew into the room, quickly landing on the ground and aiming at the defenceless Beacon and other academy students. At that moment, dozens of rocket propelled lockers crashed through the roof of the cafeteria, landing next to their respective hunter or huntress and opened, revealing their weapon. I stood up on the table and summoned both of my pistols. "Damn it, these robots are here early. Good thing they arrived early." I said to myself, looking at a group of weapon lockers. "Everyone! These robots are here to kill us all! Grab your weapons and fight back, keep them out of Beacon!" I yelled to everyone as I started shooting at robots, ripping them to pieces. All the hunters and huntresses in the room grabbed their weapons from their lockers and started fighting back against the robots, killing them before they could kill. "12:06..."

Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose and shot herself towards a group of robots, easily getting past them with her speed. She swung the scythe around and sliced limb from limb from all the robots, leaving them to fall to the ground in useless pieces of metal. She swung her scythe into the ground and fired sniper rounds at the robots, tearing clean through their metallic bodies. Weiss activated the ice dust in Myrtenaster and stabbed it into the ground, freezing the robots in place. She then activated the fire dust and superheated the robots, causing them to shatter and explode on the spot, the shrapnel causing damage to surrounding robots.

Blake took out Gambol Shroud, took the katana out of the sheath and used her shadow semblance to get around the robots, slicing off multiple heads at a time. She stopped herself, turned the katana into the pistol form and shot multiple robots in the head. Yang activated Ember Celica and punched dozens of robots, exploding them and sending them to the ground in shards of metal. I shot at multiple robots, taking their heads off from their bodies as more approached. I turned my pistols into the daggers and sliced through the robots like it was nothing, barely giving the robots time to react to their imminent deconstructions. "12:07..."

I looked around the room, seeing all the students, all the teams work together to defeat the army of robots. This was nothing like my dream, there were no dead students, no unstoppable army of robots and most importantly: no Ultramega.

"Damn, I never anticipated you outsmarting me."

I turned my head towards the source of the sound, and saw Ultramega hovering just inside the room, looking down at me with a rather annoyed expression. I completely turned towards him and walked to him. "Sorry I couldn't just let you kill my friends and get away with it."

"Such a shame, I was going to give you the chance of live." He said, and quickly flew towards me. He landed and skidded up to me, grabbed me by my shirt and threw me into the wall, me clean crashing through it. "Not anymore." He ran through the crowds of hunters and robots into the hole I created in pursuit of me. At this point, Willow and Peter got up from their hiding spot and turned towards Weiss. "12:08..."

"Now's are chance. Let's go." Willow instructed, and they crossed through the battle of man vs machine. After several seconds of passing through the two factions, they reached Team RWBY. Willow's eyes glowed as she pulled part of the wall towards her, crimson energy wrapping around the wall, smashing dozens of robots in the process, catching Team RWBY's attention briefly. She flicked her hand to Weiss and the crimson coloured telekinetic energy caused her to pass out. Peter sped towards her before she fell and caught her. They both wasted no time getting out of the hall.

"Wow, that was so awesome! Who did that?" Ruby asked her sister, Blake and Wei- "Weiss?" She asked, looking around the room quickly. She spotted Weiss being dragged out the hall by Willow, with Peter next to her, just before they got out of view. Ruby narrowed her eyes and ran after them, evading any robots or hunters in the way. Once she exited the hall, she found the siblings with Weiss. "Hey!" They stopped and looked at Ruby, who unfolded her scythe again. "What are you doing with my team mate?" Willow and Peter nervously looked at each other.

"Ruby, you don't understand. We have to take Weiss, or someone very dangerous will kill us. She won't be harmed, we'll bring her back as soon as we can." Willow tried to calm her down.

"What are you talking about?" Ruby demanded, aiming her sniper-scythe at the Inhumans.

"There's... a scientist who... changed us. He's forcing us to kidnap Weiss for the White Fang. He will kill us both if we fail, and might kill you and your team if we fail." Peter explained hastily. Ruby narrowed her eyes and adjusted her aim.

"You are not taking my team mate." She stated. Willow briefly looked at her brother knowingly.

"... I'm sorry." Peter said to Ruby, confusing her. He activated his semblance, raced towards her and kicked her away with the projectile boots, sending her flying across the room and slamming her head on the wall, causing her to bleed a little. Peter remained frozen at what he had done.

"Peter. Peter!" Willow called for him. "We have to go, now." Reluctantly, he followed his sister and they both continued out of the school.

Elsewhere in Beacon...

I blocked the blows from Ultramega as we both fought in a narrow corridor near the dorms. As Ultramega lunched again, I ducked under him, grabbed him by the chest, slammed him into a wall, slammed him into the opposite wall and threw him up, breaking through the ceiling. I jumped up to find all the lights were out and I Ultramega couldn't be seen. I used my night vision to look around the empty corridor, attempting to search for the other AI. "12:09..."

Ultramega released himself from the ceiling, landing on top of me and temporarily pinning me. He grabbed me by the back of the neck and slammed my face into the wall multiple times, creating face sized holes in the wall. Ultramega grabbed me by my hair, forced my head back and aimed his glowing hand at me. "Any last words, brother?" I just chuckled.

"12:10." Ultramega narrowed his eyes, confused, until a sword plunged clean through his chest, releasing his grip on me. He turned around and saw a ginger haired girl with a pink bow standing at the end of the corridor, about a dozen swords hovering around her.

"Do not hurt my friend." All of the swords flew towards Ultramega, burying themselves in his arms, legs and chest. The swords pulled out of the damaged body and summoned back to her. They spun around, creating a green glow, and the beam blasted straight into Ultramega, destroying him. I went over to the wall and turned on the light, revealing his saviour.

"Hello, Penny." I said to her with a smile.

"Salutations, Epsilon!" Penny said slightly louder with a large grin. She looked over at the burning metal pile which used to be Ultramega. "I didn't hurt you're friend, did I?"

"He's definitely not my friend, and I'm sure he's okay." I told her. "Where have you been? I called you, asking for help against the robot army and you turn up right as it ended."

"You told me to come at ten past twelve, and I did, exactly on time!" She declared happily. "Plus, I defeated the leader, so the robots should retreat if they're not destroyed."

"Let's go find out." I tell her, and we walked back towards the cafeteria.

"Umm... when I said you were my friend, was I right? You never said you were my friend." Penny asked hopefully.

"Penny, I'm you're best friend." I told her, and she pulled me into a strong hug with a large grin as I chuckled.

"Finally, a best friend. She released me and we kept walking towards the cafeteria.

Beacon Cafeteria...

Me and Penny entered the cafeteria, seeing a fair amount of students getting medical attention. We both looked at each other nervously until Ozpin and Ironwood approached.

"Penny, what are you doing here?" Ironwood asked, noticeably shocked.

"Epsilon called me last night to come to Beacon at exactly ten minutes past twelve to help him fight the robot army. Even if they did arrive earlier than I did, I destroyed their leader!" Penny told Ironwood gleefully.

"Well, I'm very proud of you, Penny. You've done well today." Ironwood complimented her, causing her to grin. "Any you, Epsilon, you have my thanks for protecting the hunters and huntresses at this academy. Were it not for you're planning, people could have died today."

"So, nobody died?" I asked.

"Some people got injured, required surgery, but yes: nobody died." Ozpin reassured me. I sighed happily and sat onto the ground with a smile on my face. Penny giggled a little copied, sitting down next to me with a bigger smile.

"They make quite a team, don't they?" Ironwood asked.

"I believe they do. Indeed they do." Ozpin agreed, taking a sip of his coffee. After the two adults walked away, a sudden thought came to my mind.

"My team!" I said, quickly getting up from the ground. "I'll see you later Penny!" I called as she waved happily at me. After briefly searching, I found Blake and Yang sitting next to Ruby, who had a bandage wrapped around her forehead. "Oh, thank god you're alive." I say to them, but notice something is off. "Where's Weiss?" Ruby sniffled away her possible tears and looked at me with sad, silver eyes.

"She was taken. Weiss is gone."

End of Chapter Six

Ooh, end it on a cliffhanger! Of course I do, t wouldn't be as fun if I didn't. So, Epsilon, Ultramega and Penny have all met up at once for the first time. That's three out of four. But who is the fourth AI Sarah May spoke of? Will you ever meet them!?

Yes.

So, this pre-volume 3 story arc ends in maybe three more chapters, possibly a fourth, but after that, the story will follow the canon where we get to meet drunk Uncle Qrow and the elder Ice Queen. Winter is Coming... (That was a stupid fucking joke.) Now, onto the story review:

Name: Of Vale Blood

Author: Zeroan (Yet again, still an awesome author)

General Synopsis: Winter has arrived once again to the city of Vale, bringing darkness and fear with it. But unbeknownst to all, the greatest dangers lurks not outside the walls. The destiny of Vale rests on the hands of a young heroine, a lost princess, an escaped slave, and a cursed beauty. (Set in Renaissance-era Vale. Rating might change as the story progresses.)

And as always, remember to follow, favourite and leave a review, and keep one eye constantly open for chapter seven, it'll be here as soon as it can. See ya!