Experiment V

Hey everybody, hope you're all enjoying the story but I'm like writing it. I don't own RWBY, Rooster Teeth does.

Chapter 24

15 Minutes Earlier

"I think that's our que to start the plan" Mercury said, in nonchalance, as he heard the fighting ensue outside. He glanced over at his partener, Emerald, who seemed to be staring at something that either wasn't there or trying to use her semblance on someone that was fighting.

"Emerald" Mercury said calmly as he touched her shoulder, causing the illusionist to flinch before looking at him. "Huh? What?" she asked the man, snapping out of her trance "We should get going now" he said, this time a bit more cautiously, to her which made her nod in agreement before following him down a long hallway.

"Do you even know where we're going?" Emerald asked after they had come to their third intersection in the hallway. Mercury pulled out his scroll and looked over the blueprints that Cinder had sent them "Yeah I do. It's to the left but from there we'll need to search the other cells" he said, pocketing his scroll before rushing down the left path.

The two soon came to a door that looked to be sealed with a keypad, Emerald let out an exasperated breath as they looked at the surrounding area "We're lost, you moron" she said before folding her arms over her chest, annoyance evident in her demeanour.

"Hey, hey, hey, no need to take your frustration out on me" Mercury said calmly, raising his hands in defense causing the young woman to let out a deep sigh before shaking her head.

Suddenly they heard a grimm roar followed by what sounded like an explosion, coming from the direction they had come from "Should we?" Mercury asked, raising his eyebrow slightly, Emerald simply nodded before they both ran towards the direction.

In An Unknown Area

"Fuck off already!" I shouted at the Taurus, its crimson eyes staring down at me as it shrugged off the explosive round I had fired at it.

It raised its fist over its head, an attack I anticipated and avoided by combat rolling out of the range of the attack.

Checking the ammo in one of my pistols, I noticed that there was only two explosive rounds left in it. "Damn it..." I mutter to myself before the Taurus roared again and began to rush towards me, dipping its head in an attempt to impale me on its horns. I began to ready myself to jump over it, when suddenly two armoured boots planted themselves into the side of its head. The monstrous grimm was then derailed in its charge towards to now crashing into the wall.

"What was that?" I asked aloud, turning to see the owner of the boots. A man with silver hair and a smug grin, wearing what looked to be a tracksuit and gauntlets on his boots "Hey, I guess you're James" he said to me "Who are you?" I asked but just as he opened his mouth to say it, a female voice interrupted him "Mercury! I thought we were doing a pincer attack on the grimm" the voice said.

I turned around and saw the owner of the voice, a younger looking version of Jade, was standing there with dual revolvers at her side. She quickly jogged up to us before giving me a side glance, anger very clear in her eyes to which I easily returned the favor due to my hatred towards Jade.

"Emerald, maybe instead of making faces at the person we're supposed to rescue" I heard Mercury say, inciting a low growl from the dark-skinned woman. She turned away from me, a gesture that I had to bite down my boiling anger to not unload my remaining explosive rounds into the back of her head.

Soon the Taurus clambered back to its hooved feet, tilting its head towards us as a growl began to rise from its throat. Releasing a roar, it took its stance and I decided to combine my pistols into their rifle form to increase their firepower and range. "If you wanna rescue me, then you both are gonna need to take this thing down first" I said, cocking the newly formed rifle.

The grimm rushed us and, without a word spoken, we scattered. I saw Mercury slide between its legs while Emerald changed her revolvers into kusarigamas and launched one out and around a hoof of the grimm, causing her to fly towards it but she corrected in mid-air, and landed on the back of it holding on tight to it as the grimm came to a halt. I took my window of opportunity to run towards it and unloaded an explosive round into an exposed area of its back, coincidentally was around the area Emerald had planted herself.

Emeralds grip loosed on it but she was thrown off completely by the Taurus, one of her weapons lodged in its back. She slammed into the wall on the far side of the room, from what I saw, her aura flared for a bit but before I could linger on if she's getting back up or not, Mercury dashed past me and fired off a couple of rounds to get himself into the air as the Taurus turned around and took a swipe at Mercury.

The silver haired man simply kicked the hand away and I rushed in, throwing my rifle away and delivering a full aura-infused punch to its knee on the same side that the hand Mercury kicked away was on. I felt my fist make contact with its target and the Taurus roared in pain as it lost balance and dropped to its non-damaged knee, causing the room to shake from its sudden weight.

Mercury landed next to me and let out a chuckle "I thought a Taurus was supposed to be one of the scary grimm" that statement actually alarmed me, "Don't get too ahead of yourself, Mercury" I said and in that moment, the Taurus raised its fist and quickly brought it down.

The moment its fist hit the ground, the floor broke apart in chunks, causing Mercury and I to lose our footing and be thrown back. My head hitting the wall, dazing me for a moment.

Pathetic...

'Huh?' I thought as I heard the word in my head from a familiar voice, 'Ruby?' I thought, looking around to find the voice. Time seemed to stop as I looked, and before I could figure out where she came from, Ruby appeared before me.

"Yes, Ruby, your precious baby sister" she said, her head cracking into place from its lopsided position. I took in her appearance, she was a deathly pale and her eyes were dead. 'Y-you're not real!' I thought as my eyes widened in recognition.

This was the appearance Ruby had at the end of the video I had been shown earlier, where I had snapped her neck."Of course I'm real, silly!" the fake Ruby said, putting on a crooked, unsettling grin.

'No you're not! Ruby's alive!' I thought before another thought entered my head '...she has to be...' "You don't think I'm real? How could you say that?" Fake Ruby declared, tears welling up in her empty eyes before slapping me across that face.

It stung when she made contact, surprising me, I looked back at her, the tears now streaking down her face "Does that prove that I'm real? Or maybe this?" she asked, leaning down into my face before surprising me with her next sudden action, she kissed me on the lips.

I immediately pulled away from it, wiping my mouth in disgust before looking at her again. 'What the hell?!' I screamed in my head. The Fake Ruby now wiping her tears before scowling "Damn, I thought that'd work on you" she said, her form starting to shift and finally stopped when she turned into a more sinister version of me.

"Hey kid, long time no see" He said, smirking down at my confused state before dropping the smirk and saying "It's really pathetic y'know? You losing to something so...weak" I growled at that before he continued "You're more powerful than you know, James. Here, let me show you" and at that, I felt something claw its way into my mind before everything went dark.

The next images I saw was nothing but slashing, cutting, and eviscerating before finally I felt my own consciousness start to resurface as a voice started to breakthrough the darkness "James! James!" I heard.

My vision came back and standing before me with their weapons drawn were the Branwen twins, both of them showing signs of worry as they looked at me "Is that you, James?" Qrow, the voice that had been calling to me a moment ago. I slowly turned my head towards him, "I-I think so..." I say, looking down to find myself covered in splotches of blood and my hands being the most covered, a sight I hadn't seen in years.

"What happened to me?" I asked, starting to look around at the desecrated field that appeared to be where I had done battle with what I could tell was two of the other experiments, judging by how their bodies were slowly dissolving into black ash.

One and Walter.

I quickly got an image in my mind, the image of a defeated Six.

Looking around, I see her starting to be escorted away. "What happened?" I asked the Branwens, Raven shook her head at the question before saying "We'll brief you once we get to Beacon" she said simply before turning to walk towards Winter.

"Sir! You need to come see this!" I heard an Atlesian soldier say before I saw General James Ironwood make his way over to the soldier but stopped when he neared me "If there's anything in there that they want me to see, then I recommend you join me so I'll be informed as to what it is" the General said before resuming his walk, I quickly decide to follow him.

After a small series of twists and turns, the three of us came upon a door that seemed to be just off from the main labs. The door was made of Atlesian steel and seemed to have a number pad on it and the password was a four number code. "Interesting" Ironwood said, scratching his stubble "Mr Rose, do you by any chance know how to get in?" he asked, turning towards me.

"I might, I'll need to see it first" I said, walking up to the keypad. The door and the keypad look as though they haven't been tampered with in years "Hmm..." I mutter to myself as I inspect the keypad three times with each time being unsuccessful and with a heavy sigh I said "Fuck it" before rearing my fist back and punching the door.

After two heavy punches, the door finally gave way and fell off its hinges. "Well that worked quicker than I thought it would" I said, rubbing my slightly sore hand. We stepped inside and looked around the room, it looked as though this room was meant to keep something in but it was hard to tell due to the silence in it.

"Sir! Look over here!" I heard the soldier say, causing me to snap my head towards the direction his voice had come from before Ironwood and I made our way towards him before stumbling upon a sight that I wasn't expecting.

Floating inside of a large glass cylinder was a petite, feminine, silhouette. I walked up to it and cleared away some of the frost that had gathered on the glass and peered inside, and inside of this container was a woman. Not just any woman, a woman who looked to be middle aged version of Ruby.

"Uh...Ironwood..." I start, hesitantly before looking back at the man "...I think we've just found the real Summer Rose."

And there's where we'll stop for now, I hope you all are enjoying it thus far. Until next, stay tuned readers!