Beyond the black

by Dgreen20

The multiverse; a near endless collection of worlds. Many so similar, yet different. The vast void between right and wrong couldn't be more blurred. When a young explorer finds himself trapped, who can fully predict the consequences until its' too late. For his past is coming back to hunt him. What scars will this leave on the innocent world. (Massive Crossover, Halo and RVB heavy)

15. Pushing it to the limit

Chapter 19

Pushing it to the limit

Week 4: Day 28

(Warning! Going to get dark and depressing. Trigger warning, I think.)

(Johnathan's POV)

"Johnathan don't do this. They are way beyond your skill level, you can't take them all." Serena warned.

"Elaia if you're listening, I want you to listen to everyone down there, they'll keep you safe. Velvet I might not get another chance to tell you this, but I lo..." the elevator shook violently. I got nothing but static from their end. I took a deep breath as I pumped the Forerunner shotgun and chambered in a shell. Today is a good day to die, and there is no better way I would want to go out then protecting my friends and family.

"Monty protect them." I softly prayed. Normally I am not religious, not in the slightest. If there is a God here, couldn't hurt to pray for the others protection. Mu popped up beside my shoulder with a glum look.

"You know what you're doing is suicide right? No possible way you can come out of this alive, even with luck on your side." She asked. Mu, Alpha's humanity and mercy. Fought tooth and nail to keep her when the Director recalled all the AI fragments, after Tex and Carolina's fight. One of my best friends and closest ally, never failed a mission with her at my side. She runs the equipment and monitors my modifications. I wouldn't be alive today without her.

"I know. It's been a honor Mu, you've been a good friend to me." I answered.

"As it has been a honor have been your AI and friend." She replied. "Now let's go show those sons-of-bitches what an insane Freelancer and his AI can do. Show no mercy as we will not get any in return." Easy to tell it is a suicide mission when the fragment for Mercy tells me to, in my own words, 'completely and utterly, fuck their shit up'. Normally she tries to talk me into sparing their lives or finding ways to avoid them. But on rare occasions she tells me to kill everything in sight and to show no mercy. Like when Michigan and Kentucky died, man that battle field was bloodier than a vampire dinner party when I was done on it. Still fuzzy on what exactly happened that day. One second I was hiding behind a Pelican holding Rhode's critically injured body, next I was standing on a rather tall mountain of Covenant bodies strangling a Elite Zealot with it's own guts.

I took a deep breath as the elevator doors opened up, as soon as I got out I shot the buttons to be sure they won't get in the kill zone. I activated the Promethean Vision with trigger finger ready. The halls slowly turned blue as the humans and Faunus behind them turned green. So far nothing popped up red, they're hiding. Waiting for me to fall into their trap. I need to be on my 'A' game for this fight.

Fun fact about my armor ability. It is a upgrade from the stranded Promethean Vision used by the Spartan IV's on Requiem. Without Mu, it works just like it normally would. But with Mu, I can see sort of 'sense' cloaked enemies close by (ten feet or less if they don't have mean to counter it), see people through walls and solid objects ten feet thick, find other Promethean items (Found a bowl with it once), even tracks people if their unique signature is still 'warm'.

How it works, it scans the area I'm looking at for sentient being's natural electro signature, the electrical signals naturally produced by the nervous system in our bodies. We all have a distinct electro-print that varies, like DNA or a fingerprint. With the right equipment and know how, you can track that signature for miles. Helped me find Elaia after she got lost in a cave to find a salmon pond. Girl really loves her fish.

I wasn't looking forward to fighting these guys. These Elites have been broken to their core from day one of training, molded to be the perfect assassins, they hold no honor and will fight dirty to win. They are not above using cheap tactics normal Elites would never even consider. They don't feel pity or mercy, they will not hesitate to slice me apart. They actually laugh while slicing Spartan III's and Freelancers apart, very slowly and as painfully as possible. All while they left one alive to watch as they carved the poor bastard's friend apart. Their leader is capable of going toe to toe with a Spartan II to a standstill, might even be able to beat one. That right there says more then enough.

I rounded the corner and kept my eyes peeled on everything. Every nook and cranny they can use to ambush me from, because they can and will use them. In close quarters situations like this, with a lot of twists and turns, a shotgun is always a good gun to have at your back. I took a quick look at my motion tracker. Red dots everywhere, jammed. They're close, very close, I can feel it in my bones.

"I smell a trap." Mu whispered disappearing from my shoulder.

"And you think it is anything but?" I replied rounding another corner so far nothing red popped up yet on my visor.

"No, just worried. These guys haven't showed themselves yet or spotted on the P-Vision. Just be careful." She warned. I smiled as I quickly turned around just in time to block the downward strike of a energy sword with the gun.

"Nice try big guy." I taunted.

The Elite uncloaked and showed up bright red on my screen. I quickly tightened my grip on the gun and started pushing it to one side. The sword slid down the side as the barrel pointed directly at it's head. I didn't waste any time pulling the trigger, unleashing a hailstorm of ionized particles to slam into it's face from point blank, the shields went down and the body fell back slowly burning away. I ducked under another sword swipe and rolled away. Two more Elites uncloaked and started advancing. I shut off the Promethean Vision and readied my weapon, now the nightmare begins.

"You guys want to play dirty, alright 'click clack' Let's go." I taunted rushing toward them.

---

(Velvet's POV)

'Boom!'

A violent explosion roared through walls of the armory as Yang and Nora were starting to get frustrated trying to open the elevator doors while breaking our eardrums, now Yang was hammering away at the door with Ember Celica, which she was almost out of rounds for. Nora used a fire axe she grabbed from the wall. Her hammer ran out of ammo few minutes ago and now she had to resort to whatever is down here.

"Why. Won't. This. Open!" Yang yelled punching the door with every syllable. She hasn't even dented it yet. Dang that is one tough door. Elaia was trying to sleep in my lap. Poor girl is exhausted, she threw quite a fit when Johnathan locked us down here. Tired herself out and curled up to me for comfort. Don't know why but I won't question.

"Why did he leave us here, we have no means to escape?" Weiss asked holding an open trauma kit Serena brought down. A bloody red jagged cut ran up the right side of her face,barely missing her eye by a fraction of a millimeter, around the edges looked burnt. Rhode was knelt down beside her with an alcohol soaked cotton ball in hand.

"Trust me Weiss, you don't want to face those things up there. You're extremely lucky Ohio diverted that strike in time or you'd be missing an eye." She explained cleaning out the wound some more. "As for why he left us down here. . . . Serena you want to explain that bit. He's your brother, you know more of his fragile mental integrity a lot more than I do."

"What is she talking about? He seemed perfectly fine every time any of us talked to him." Pyrrha asked passing Rhode a sewing kit. I know a bit about what he's been through, well I remember the few bits he told me. Having to hand his father a nuke to sacrifice himself, seeing friends die around him, painful surgeries, how much more could he really have seen? Is the multiverse really that hostile?

"How do I explain this carefully with young ears around?" Serena mused to herself. "How well do you guys know the Multiverse theory?"

"Not too much." Ruby replied

"Nada" Yang followed

"Zilch" Weiss replied.

"Heard of it from a comic book, but never really looked into it." Jaune replied.

"I never heard of it. What's a multiverse?" Nora asked. You were there when he explained a bit Nora, how can you not remember?

"Mainly you described from the weird hologram thing." I replied flattening my ears against my head.

"Okay, I'll start from the beginning." She whispered sitting down on a chair. "You guys ever made a decision and wondered how it would turn out if you picked a different outcome, or what life would be like if so and so was different? Like picking to wear a orange sweater vest instead of a jacket, or everyone was a tad nicer to each other. Well in a bare basics nutshell, that is the multiverse to those who heard of it and what they think anyway." She explained. Yang stopped banging on the door to listen. "Me, my brother, Elaia, Rhode Island, and Cole over there. . . are not from around here, not exactly in the way you're thinking. We come from another universe. Everything that happens, everything that can change or have a different outcome. There is a universe for it somewhere. This entire world for example, is actually the brainchild of a genius animator named Monty Oum, may he rest in peace. I done my research after Johnathan stranded himself here. Elaia is from a universe where dragon roam the skies, many different types of intelligent races co-exist with humanity on the same world, yet a majority of humanity still can't seem to get along with each other or anyone. Created by a video game company. Cole, I have no idea where he is from. Rhody is from a web series called 'Red vs Blue' which in turn is sort of a parody of a first person shooter game called Halo, don't even get me started there. Me and Johnathan are from the main universe, where every is connected to, one way or another.

"Me and my brother, are tasked to explore as many worlds as we can. I do the Geeky stuff like run computers, look through the data he brings back, kick his butt when he doesn't bring me back something. He does the more dangerous stuff like fighting ten foot aliens, collect medical samples if he wants, getting injured more times the the nurses can handle or even count. We work for a rather annoying company called 'M.E.R.C', stands for 'Multiverse Exploration and Research Center'."

"That's interesting in all, but what exactly is wrong with him mentally?" Yang asked pulling up a crate to sit on. Serena and Rhode's eyes hardened to a deep look of sorrow. They looked at each other for a bit and nodded.

"I won't go into too much detail about what he's been through." Serena explained. "But try imagining that every day, you wake up in a different universe. Nothing is ever the same, nowhere is safe, you're constantly on the run, getting shot at for being different or not knowing that worlds customs. Now add in some peace when you find someone who can be considered a friend, in Johnathan's case a few times a love interest. You go through a few worlds together, you've both seen what hell is like and why it's feared, and you both sacrifice everything to keep the other alive. Now have that person painfully die, in your arms or in front of your eyes, while you're powerless to do anything to save them to help them. And every night, to the point where you get scared to fall asleep at times, you can hear their disemboweled voices calling out to you, asking why you didn't save them. You go home to try to forget everything that happened. Now repeat that cycle, for three years non-stop with no end in sight.

"For three years, he's been slowly losing himself. For three years, he's been losing hope for a better tomorrow. For three years he's been shot, stabbed, sliced open, blown up, impaled, bit, chewed on, backstabbed, betrayed by his girlfriend, electrocuted, burned, had to cut his own arm off, poisoned, boiled alive, limb ripped off horrifically, beaten to the brink of death only to be revived just to be beaten some more, forced to see his best friend raped and killed in front of him, and worse repeatedly. Plus countless other things that would make anyone go insane just thinking about it.

"You guys have any idea what that does to someone mentally, to see your friends and loved ones die over and over again? I've talked him out of committing suicide more times then I can count or admit to. I've stopped him from going on a murder spree when our co-workers started trying to hurt Elaia when she was first brought to our world. I've seen him broken beyond all reason and yet he manages to pick himself up to keep doing his job to keep us safe. He values every one of our lives ten times more than his own. He would rather die fighting for us to live then to see anymore friends suffer because of he intervened with their normal everyday lives. He pushes himself to his absolute limit and then some to be sure his friends and family safe. He was willingly accepted extremely painful, not to mention equally deadly, surgeries so he can have the power to protect his family. Now he's willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to keep us from harm. Now anyone have any questions." She explained wiping a few tears from her eyes.

"Don't even get me started on his time at Freelancer." Rhode chipped in. "We've been trained to deal with high-reward/high-danger missions like you wouldn't believe, most of which were near suicide. Johnathan volunteered to do anything he could to prove himself to us, being the newbie in all. He took more bullets meant for me then I can count, jumped on multiple grenades to save his allies from harm, had his robot arm blown off completely to save me from a volley of plasma grenades. He cares very deeply about his friends and allies. He doesn't fear death, not in the least, he once told me that 'if he's going out, it will be on his own terms doing what he loves'. I caught him crying himself to sleep after a night terror more than once. I've had to let him cry into my shoulder. He blamed himself for every Freelancer who died beside him. For not being strong enough to protect them. "

The room was dead silent, even Nora didn't dare speak a word. I had no idea how truly tragic his life had been, and this is only the bits they were willing to say with Ruby in the room. I hate to hear the uncensored version.

"Wow, that is a lot heavy stuff to have to live with. Can't imagine the feeling of having all that guilt eating away at you." Blake said breaking the silence.

"I also know for a fact that he has fallen in love with someone here. The one over there, Elaia is using her like a pillow." Serena explained. My ears perked up. "What was your name again. . . Velvet right? Like the cake or fabric" I nodded in response. She sat beside me and set her helmet down, thinking of what exactly to say next. "I've seen the way he looked at you, he cares for you deeply. Be very glad you managed to capture my brother's heart. Not a easy thing to do after his ex tried to kill him last year."

I looked down to the pair of dog tags in my hand. I can't stop thinking about him since he handed me them. Now I know why he gave them to me. He wanted to give me something I'd remember him by, he knows that his plan is suicide but he went anyway, to protect us. I clenched the tags in my hands a bit tighter. Why didn't I tell him earlier?

"What exactly is he up against?" I asked.

---

(Johnathan's POV)

I was flung across the room and slammed into the metal shutter over the window. Everywhere was covered in either my blood or purple blood. Halls were decorated in debris and cracks in the everything. Scattershot was destroyed, light rifle was missing down the hall somewhere. I freaking hate my luck. My everything hurt like a bitch, I was beyond exhausted, and still bleeding out horribly. I picked myself up, wincing in pain the whole way. I was staring down three Elites, all with red energy swords. Just how many of these bastards are there?

"The human still has some will to fight." The front Elite spoke igniting his sword. "I'll enjoy ripping it out of you." I ignited one of my energy swords and stood in a front guard. I wasn't as good in close quarters as these guys are, not injured. But I'll be damned if I'm going to let them get anywhere near my family.

"Mu, disable the motion restrictors by 25% Divert power from nonessential functions to the Force-Multiplying Circuits whenever possible." I ordered as the Elites advanced toward me with their swords ignited. Red vs Blue, age old fight since the dawn of computer games. The Force-Multiplying Circuits are standard issue with every set of Mjolnir armor from IV up. They force the user's body to move faster and hit harder. Bad part is only augmented beings can wield the armor, like SPARTANS. Anyone else would die a painful, agonizing death. The motion restrictors control how much of the Force-Multiplying Circuits output to your body. They prevent the SPARTANS from injuring themselves by going too fast or hitting too hard. (A/N Yes this is all Halo canon. The restrictors are mentioned in the Halo armor abilities Wiki page. Mark IV didn't have them because it was a relatively new development. I assume Mark V and up has the restrictors after humanity learned more technology wise. Plus we have an AI in his armor that monitors everything. Mu is like Cortana and Johnathan is like the Chief a bit to make things less confusing to non-halo nerds) Very dangerous to disable them for long periods of time. Gave a whole new meaning to 'kicking your own ass' when Mu didn't re-enable them one time. Long story short, half my bones broke and I needed to take a whole LOT of painkillers. Starting to think my body is addicted to them.

"You know if I disabled those given your current state, the odds of you servery injuring yourself or a painful death are..." She warned

"Never tell me the odds Mu." I said blocking a incoming energy sword. I pushing my blade down and deflecting the second Elite. I pushed them back and slicing one of their guts wide open. I felt a huge surge of power all over. I didn't waste a single second as I send a elbow flying into the third Elite's gut behind me. The force of the punch broke it's shields and made it stagger. Quick pivot and I sliced its head in half. I kicked the first Elite in the head as the second one punched me hard in the chest and forced me through the window.

I started falling through the air, I raised my arm and activated my grappling hook. It latched on the side as I came to a sudden jerking stop. I kept my feet flat on one of the metal shutters and activated the Grav-boots. Again standard issue in every set of Mjolnir armor. Basically it is a series of powerful electromagnets in my boots that help keep me clamped down on almost any metal surfaces. I ignited my swords and got ready for the worst. This was going to be a difficult vertical battle.

I stood in a right stance and deflected the plasma blade. The Elites both activated their magnetic boots and the duel began. Dodge left, dodge right, duck, deflect, front guard, push forward and repeat. Okay Johathan, remember what Thel 'Vadam taught you about facing opponents equal or greater than myself.

First rule: Use their strengths against them. Okay what do these guys have over me that can be a strength? Shields, badass swords, fighting rather brute like with no regard to honor. Pretty much screwed there.

Second Rule: Use my environment to my advantage. Let's see. I'm currently on a window with nothing around me to. . . Wait a second. Below me. Open flat ground. Plenty of room to maneuver and work with, but more likely to be over run. Out of time and options. Perfect place to make my final stand, perfect place to blow up at. I just hope the blast will get them all.

I quickly jumped down and rolled to the ground and started sprinting toward the farthest area away from the school. I look at my motion tracker to see that they were still after me. Plus more decided to join in. perfect.

"Enemy opposition still engaged. Blood loss is at critical levels, adrenaline levels through the roof, heart rate is way past danger levels. Bio-foam injectors ran dry, Painkiller injectors are at minimal levels. I suggest you take a more tactical approach to this." Mu warned appearing on my HUD.

"Throw up my last stand playlist. Blast it through the speakers through the school. Hack Velvet's device and send zip file twenty-three to her. Best I come clean with everything now. Broadcast my final stand to everywhere and anywhere you possibly can away from the bunker." I ordered deflecting another energy sword. Just as I started fighting again, 'Blood Gulch blues' started blasting through the school's PA system. No finer song I rather die to then this. So many good memories.

---

(Ozpin's POV)

This was interesting, Johnathan has decided to engage his opponents on a open ground. Even more interesting the PA system started blasting a song I never heard of before in my life. I was in my office watching everything through the cameras throughout the school. I must say these new beings are very brutal, almost makes me wish that Grimm were attacking instead. Those my students are more than qualified to kill, these things I am not so sure the teachers can handle them.

I knew from first glance the tall alien looking figures were bad news. The fact that they attacked Johnathan and Velvet on sight was evidence enough for me to lock down the entire facility, to keep the students from getting in the crossfire. Glynda wasn't too happy to be trapped up here with me, talking about what we're going to do about the bully problem we have. Port and Oobleck were a bit more understanding, considering the time and situation right now.

"Ozpin you know he can't take them all on alone." Glynda tried to reason with me. "He's already injured. No telling how bad, just by looking at the way he fight he is exhausted as well. You need to let us help, if not for him then the other students."

"He knows them a lot better then anyone here. He's the best candidate to take them out. We got no one else available who can fight like him or has the technology to even see them when they cloak. He looks like he knows what he is doing." I replied sipping my coffee.

"Then maybe we can send him someone else as back up." Oobleck suggested through Glynda's scroll from his dorm room. "He is outnumbered fifteen to one. Even if he is as well trained as you claim, he won't survive the fight with his present injuries. May I suggest we wake up Alice. Her strength and skill is unmatched, and her armor is a lot like Johnathan's so she might know him."

"I agree with him." Port agreed from the joined call. "He fights well but every Hunter has their limits. Johnathan is at his and beyond, he needs help. Would go myself but I am kind of trapped in my room."

I raised my eyebrow at him. Kind of forgot she was here. Alice showed up a while before Johnathan even set foot here. Brought here by Port when he saw her skill first hand while on vacation. I offered to give her a job here and a place to stay. She declined, instead bargained with me to install her Cryo-pod hidden in the bunker below. Her exact words were 'Wake me, when you need me'.

She's been down there for the past three months. Oobleck goes down every now and again to be sure we installed the pod right and to check for leaks or imperfections in the way we installed it. She is one of Beacon's closest guarded secrets. She took on a entire forest population of Grimm on her own to protect a child with minimal injury to him as well, barely a visible scratch on the kid. Took out a Deathstalker with nothing but her bare hands, Nevermore with only a single grenade, the list goes on. If Ironwood found out about her, he'd never stop asking for her to join the military. I promised her that the choice would be hers, she chose to be put in Cryo-sleep. I took a deep breath as I pulled out my scroll.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures." I replied pulling up her Cryo-pod with the Activate button flashing. "We're out of options. Unless you want me to call Ironwood for help? He'll be more then happy to send a few thousand troops over to. . ." Before I could finish my sentence Glynda swiftly reached over and hit the activate button.

"Don't call Ironwood unless it is necessary. Like to keep most of this place as intact as possible." She reasoned. I smiled as I as the pod on my screen started flashing. Time for things to get, interesting. I looked back at the screen showing his fight. He was bobbing and weaving all over the place to avoid the sword strikes, pairing as many as he could and striking where he can. Hopefully he can last a little longer, help is on the way.

---

(Velvet's POV)

"So let me get this straight." Ren interrupted. "Those things out there are highly trained, extremely deadly, and merciless group of rogue aliens. Who burned dozens of human worlds for no other reason than because their Prophets ordered them as it was 'the will of their Gods'?

Serena and Rhode nodded together in agreement. Most of us were too much in shock for what we're hearing to form any words. Elaia was still curled up in my arms. Yang and Nora were back to smacking the doors with whatever they can find. So far they made a reasonable sized dent, but not enough to get us out of here. I can faintly hear some music being blasted above ground, can't tell the song. Rosa and Rojo were laying down resting up.

"And to top it all off, Johnathan is emotionally unstable and can have an anger fit any moment now that can put a ticked off Yang to shame?" Weiss asked, another nod in agreement from the two "Great, just perfect. Anything else we need to know before we go out there again, running around like chickens with our heads cut off?"

"Too much to know where to start. To understand him you'd need to go to the beginning. Before our birth, when our parents meet, or how dad says they meet." Serena replied looking down sadly. "Long story short, our father was a multiverse explorer, one of the first to be exact. Don't understand too many details, our father wasn't one to share his past."

I was going to ask a question but my scroll went off making me jump. Everyone looked at me as I pulled it out from my pocket. Several unread messages, from Johnathan. How did he send me these if he's fighting? I clicked the button and a audio file popped up and started playing.

"Velvet." The file said. It was his voice, everyone gathered around and was eager to listen. "This is a prerecorded message, made before my field trip to the Forever forest tomorrow. If you're listening to this. It is because I am about to die soon or have died. I have more then likely pushed myself past my limits to keep our friends safe. I had my suit setup to automatically send you these files in the event I do die or pushed forward by myself manually. There is just so much I want to tell you yet so little time, so I sent you every audio file I made in this universe, to answer your questions as to what I was thinking while being trapped here. Hope this clears some confusion. Begin playing audio logs."

First one ended, second started playing. Everyone had a glum look on their face. I was curious as to what they said.

"Week one, day four." Johnathan's voice said quietly "Starting this up again, need something to do while waiting. No sign of Serena's rescue party. Not too worried, probably just a minor glitch in her system. Happened every now and again. Hope Elaia is okay, I know how she can be when I am away for too long. Who am I kidding, Mu and Serena would do anything to keep her happy. Fought off a squad of Prometheans the other day, saved a rather cute rabbit hybrid named Velvet, recently learned yesterday that the correct term for her species is Faunus. They are like humans but with animal traits, like furries from multiple anime universes only they are a LOT more human and less violent then the previous encounter with beings similar to her. Curious if the extra ears gives her better hearing or not? Then again, she might be curious what it is like to hear with only one set of ears. Would be hard for both of us to explain so I won't ask. I'll do some research on them to be sure I don't offend anyone. Don't need to form any romantically emotional attachments with anyone, love has given me nothing but pain and misery the past three years. Rhode Island showed up today, glad to have a friend I can count on that I know. Girl named Coco gifted us with some socially acceptable civilian clothes. Rather not walk around in my armor all the time, gets itchy in areas I can't scratch. Nothing else major happened. So I'll sign off here.

"Week one, Day five. Started going to school at this place today. Rather interesting in some fields. Velvet showed me around to my classes and how to pass then easy. Thankful to have a friend like her. Cardin and his team of idiots picked on Velvet, I'll kick their asses another time, like in combat class with a 4v1 match without holding back as much. T-Rex showed up, caused a large amount of trouble. Had to rely on Velvet's unique scent to keep the animal focused on us. We are currently in a Jurassic park sub-verse, Velvet is asleep beside me. As much as it pains me to admit it, I have fallen in love again. Think I would have learned not to after Emily's betrayal.

"It is with Velvet, fallen for the rabbit girl I saved day one, who is currently snuggled up beside me like I'm a pillow. I can't stop myself from thinking about her. She is beautiful, smart, compassionate, funny, little shy but I find that a bit cute, and is overall a perfect woman. Any man or woman would be lucky to be with her. I do admit one of her best features are her ears, her rabbit ears. They represent so much about her that normal people wouldn't think of, won't go into detail there to save battery power. I find it adorable when she flattens her ears against her head when she is scared. They even feel like real rabbit ears. Though I do find her fondness of rabbit like kind of funny, like her fluffy bunny slippers. Elaia would like her instantly. Someone who can relate to her more then I can.

"Who am I trying to fool, present myself or the poor soul who finds these recordings. I would have to leave her behind to continue my job to keep my family safe. Their safety is more important than my personal happiness. I can't take her home with me either, can't bare the thought of losing her like any of the others. I rather her be happy with someone from her own universe, like with Jaune. He seems like a good guy. She deserves a lot better then me, a lot better then a freak for a being like me. This is Johnathan Grey, signing off." He said. Sounding very sad near the end. I couldn't help but feel a but feel a bit joyful yet sad. Hearing his voice say he loves fills me with joy, hearing him talk about himself like that fills me with gloom. Does he really see himself like that? No way in heck is he a freak in any sense of the word. Curious on what else he has left. Yang and Nora were back to smashing away at the door, with Blake and Pyrrha joining in this time.

"Week two, Day Twelve. Haven't done the audio logs in a while, been busy trying to figure out how to fix my railgun. Raptors showed up, going to kick Owen's ass for dumping them on me. Me and Velvet have gotten closer, she took me to see some weird movie. I couldn't follow along but I didn't say anything about it because she loved it, that is what is important in the end right? And I'm just sitting here talking to myself. Fought the blonde wonder known as Yang today. Could have taken her easy but I don't want to kill her. Held back to account for my enhanced strength, big mistakes there. Cut off a tiny slither of her hair and ended up getting my ass handed to me on a silver platter, with butter and fries on the side. Times like that I wish I kept the energy shields. Rhode has started returning to her old self. We've pulled a few pranks on people, so far no one caught on it was us.

"Became allies with teams RWBY and JNPR, they seem reliable n helping me get home, won't tell them yet. Better they keep thinking I'm from this universe, to avoid any unnecessary confusion. CFVY I am still on good terms with. Coco uses me like a pack mule when she goes shopping. Got revenge when Rojo 'accidentally' found one of her designer boots. Hilarious seeing her run after him with only one boot on. Male members of CFVY I can't say either way. Fox seems like a nice guy. Yastu I can't say either way. We nod to each other in the halls and respect each other to a degree. I think Velvet has a crush on me. The way she blushes when I am close confirms that suspicion. I'm trying my best not to show a sigh for either way. As started in the previous log, She's better off with someone other than me. Someone less dangerous, more in control with their inner demons, less like the monster I am. This is Johnathan Grey, Signing off."

Now Jaune and Ruby were joining in, trying to pry open the doors. Dang those must be some tough doors.

"Week Three, Day twenty six. Still no sign of Serena. Slowly losing hope that she'll ever find me. So far only Coco and Velvet know where I am really from. Think that might change soon. Weiss is beginning to question and probe me for answers. So far I managed to keep her away from the truth, didn't entirely lie to her, just stretched the truth enough to satisfy her curiosity. Starting to doubt myself more. Getting harder and harder to keep the truth from everyone. Nora pretty much accepts any answer I give her as fact, I like her. She reminds me of Caboose a bit. Only she is smarter, a girl, has no blue Simulation trooper armor, and she knows when to stop talking.

"Velvet has become a great ally and friend. I protect her from bullies and racist assholes, and she doesn't judge me for my robotic appendage and lets me talk about my problems a bit. She understands me better than I thought. I hope Serena finds me soon. I can't bottle up my love for her any more than I already have. I'm afraid she'd get hurt by being my girlfriend. I am a trouble magnet and almost every girlfriend I had died horrifically. Can't get Lily's sacrifice out of my mind. She fell into 'The Black' to save my life, taking a rocket meant for me in the process. No idea if she is still alive, doubt it but I don't know. This is Johnathan Grey, signing off"

"Week three, Day twenty eight. This is my final Audio log. Recording this before I set foot into the bunker below, and before I make my final stand." Johnathan's voice explained full of guilt. "Serena found me, but so has something less desirable. Elites have as well, same group who killed Michigan and Kentucky. Little to no hope that everyone would get back alive. Mu did the calculations. Someone will die in every possible scenario she can think of. Only one option now, I'll have to take them on alone. No doubt in my mind that I'd die. But if the others can live, even a few minutes longer, then my sacrifice will not be in vain. I'll soften up as many as I can, kill as many as I can. But will be a matter of time before they overwhelm me and kill me. I prey it will be painless. Doubt it but a man can dream.

"I'm making this as a video will and final thoughts. Serena Grey will be Elaia's legal guardian, protect her and keep her happy. Elizabeth Locke will have the raptors, all three of them, keep Azula away from my body. Most of my armor and weapons are to be destroyed in the event of my death. RWBY and JNPR get whatever they like from my belongings within reason, Promethean weaponry and my weaponry is off limits. Velvet gets to keep my helmet. I know she'd want that to remember me by. Serena knows what music to play at my funeral. None of that depressing crap, I want to go out to some Rock and Metal. Light up my body viking style, only load the boat with as many third world fireworks as you can physically fit on it. Put some explosives on there if you can, I want everyone's last memory being me going out in a blaze of glory instead of being lowered into the ground. Velvet gets to fire the first shot. I want the video logs from my helmet kept private, this world isn't ready for the truth, not just yet.

"Velvet I know you're listening to this, I know that you love me. The signs have been obvious from the minute you got better after the troodon bite. I want to say that I love you too, without a doubt in my mind. This goes against every single rule I set for myself to protect you and myself but I don't care. I'd gladly lay down my life to insure you'll live. You're easily the most amazing woman I ever met, no offense to the others listening. I haven't felt this way about anyone else in the entire Multiverse. If I do somehow survive to see tomorrow, I'll ask you on a date.

"I can't bring myself to say goodbye, I hate goodbyes. If we don't say goodbye, it's like I never left. Learned that from Agent Texas, few things the woman taught me that wasn't very painful. Time for me to prepare for my final stand. Take care of Elaia for me, make sure she grows up to be the woman I imagine her to be. I love you Velvet, with every fiber of my being. Don't let my death stop you from moving on." He explained with his voice laced heavily with guilt and sorrow. "This is Agent Ohio, also known as Johnathan Grey. A loving son to John and Ander Grey, foster father to Elaia Kikar. Soldier and multiverse explorer. Horrible friend to many and brother to Serena Grey. Signing off one last time. See you in another lifetime Bunny."

That was the final audio log. This is everything he documented while in this universe. Rhode jumped from her spot and started smashing on the doors with the butt of her rifle. There has to be another way out of here, has to be. I gently lifted Elaia's furry head off me and placed it gently on Serena's lap. I got up and started looking around more.

"Keep going guys. I think we're almost there!" Nora yelled smashing the door with a fire axe. There had to be another way out. We're still breathing so there must be a vent in here, but there is probably a heavy filter in the way or large stationary oxygen tanks. I won't let Johnathan die on me, not today or every.

"You guys might want to stand back." A new female voice rang through the bunker. I look behind me to see a green armored giant close to as tall as Johnathan rounding a small corner toward us, gold visor with a pirate flag on her right shoulder piece. Twin SMG's on her sides, large machine gun that can rival Coco's. Her armor looked a like a downgraded version of Johnathan's but the way she carried herself told me she was even deadlier than he is. She emitted an air of pure badassery. Something tells me never to get on her bad side. "Headmaster Ozpin, this is SPARTAN Alice-130 reporting for duty. Tell me where these Elites are at?"

---

(Johnathan's POV)

Exhausted, broken, beaten, battered. These are a few words to describe me right now. I ducked under another sword and sent a horizontal strike at their gut, cutting them in half. Eight down in total, I think, still got eight more to go. I turned around and blocked another strike at me. I didn't anticipate one running up behind me and stabbed me through my back. Red prongs on the energy swords poked out from my chest. I didn't hesitant to turn around and slice the one's head off, only to get another energy sword through my side, I turned and stabbed that one through the midsection. Forgot these guys were trained to be suicide killers. The pain was unbearable, I fell to my knees with my hand over my wound. So this is how it ends. Just how I always pictured it. Surrounded on all sides, outnumbered, outmatched, protecting my friends and family.

NO! I won't die here, not this second, not while I still got some fight left in me. I pulling the one sword out of my chest. I forced myself back up and threw the as blade away as I pulled the second one out just as painfully. I readied my knives and stood my ground. I won't go down that easily, not when I got so many lives on my shoulders.

"Noble warrior you are, even in the face of certain death you still have the will tostand and fight. Foolish as it may be, you won't survive tonight." He taunted signaling for the others to advance.

"Mu fully disable the motion restrictors, inject what is left of the painkillers into my system. I don't care about the risks, don't let me hold anything back." I ordered paring strikes and blows with the Sangheili. "I die, activate the Fail-Safe detonation. use the delay to get yourself somewhere safe." Ah the Fail-safe detonation, capable of blowing up everything within ten yards around me in a hellfire inferno. It is a command programmed into every set of Mjolnir armor from, I think mark V up. In simple terms,it overloads the fission pack and caused the armor to self destruct, first setting everything around me on fire them exploding. Every SPARTAN knows the several digit code. I honestly don't know the code but Mu does. that is the important part. It is part of the Cole Protocol, to keep Mjolnir's secrets from falling into enemy hands. Failure to activate it when possible will result in a military court martial and/or stripping of rank. Man I really am a huge Halo nerd. I ducked under another blow and sent a few of my own.

Every strike, every parry, every punch hurt like no one would believe. Not even the waking up after my augmentation hurt this bad. I was past my limit and my body knows it. My body was begging me to stop and accept my fate. My vision was well past seeing red, my mind already slipped into a killer rage as I rapidly punched the closes Elite in the chest and face. I delivered a final uppercut and a satisfying snap let me know that it was now dead. I turned and ducked under a energy sword. I grabbed his arm and threw his body into another's energy sword. Every part was aching for me to stop. I must keep going.

"Ohio you really need to slow down, your bones can't handle this much stress in such a short period of time." Mu warned as I blocked another sword. I kicked this one in the universal male soft spot and threw him aside as he sang soprano, didn't know Elites could do that. Nice to know for like ten seconds from now.

"No, not when I got others lives on my shoulders." I replied ducking under another sword and baseball sliding under his legs. I sliced through the ground, using the force created to pivot and kicking another in the face. I threw myself up and stomped my boot on it's head. Guess a Elite skull can't handle a thousand pounds of pressure at once.

"You don't understand you really need to slow down. . . ."

"No Mu, I can do this." I interrupted slamming my elbow into one's face and kicking him in the chest. Everything felt like it was on fire, my bones ached in agonizing pain as I threw punch after punch. Eventually it became too much for my body to handle, the final straw.

I sent a punch into another head and my right arm bent at an awkward angle with a very loud and painful snap. I yelled as I held my arm and fell to the ground screaming in pain. My body finally snapped, finally had enough. I looked up to see the Elites all surrounded me. I threw a punch with my other arm toward their face, only to be caught and punched in my chest, with more bones cracking. I fell to the ground and spit up a bit of blood all over my visor. The leader laughed some more as he picked me up by my head and forced me to look into his deep yellow eyes, filled with hatred and the desire to kill me.

"I was beginning to wonder what was going to break first, your spirit or your body." He pandered throwing me to a brick wall with all his might. My body crashed through the wall violently. My visor cracked a bit and my HUD went fuzzy for a bit. I was in a student's dorm room, with the frightened students to boot. "Like the rest of your pathetic species. You're weak, undisciplined, thinking everything belongs to you simplify because you exist. Soiling sacred artifacts to further your desire to conquer and destroy." He said pulling me out from the wall by my leg and threw across the yard like I was nothing more than a rag doll. Skidding across the ground like a skipping stone only to be caught by four more, they picked me up and spread me out by my limbs. "You spit in the face of all our ancestors by knowing our way with the sword. You must pay in blood for this act of heresy to the entire Sangheili race, slowly and as painfully as possible." He growled igniting his energy dagger getting closer to me. I look back to see the frightened students look out of the hole I made.

"Run you fools, forget about me save yourselves." I ordered struggling to break free. Only five left, five possible beings to kill my friends or family. I failed them. I failed to protect them. The Leader slowly drug the plasma blade down my chest plate and impaled it deep into my side. I bit my tongue to stop myself from screaming in pain as he slowly cut me. I looked past my tormentor to see the students running like hell away.

"I am going to enjoy every second of this." He said taking the blade out and stabbed my leg.

---

(Velvet's POV)

I was slowly climbing up the elevator shaft. Few of us stayed down in the bunker. Alice apparently was strong enough to just punch the metal doors and force them apart, where almost everyone else took almost forever to make a freaking dent in it. Her turret was on her as she was way ahead of us. Next came Rhode Island, then Yang, then Nora, then Ren, and Pyrrha, Me, and finally Ruby. Jaune, Weiss, and Serena stayed down. Because they either were wounded or needed to keep protect Elaia and the raptors. All I heard climbing up was the pain filled screams of Johnathan, and we still had a ways to go.

"We need to move, double time. I don't think your friend would last too much longer." Alice explained climbing faster. I couldn't stand hearing his cry in pain, not even for a second. I can't imagine the horrific tortures they are putting him through.

"When I get up there, I'll break their legs. Sever their heads from their spines, and beat their friend to death with it." Nora warned climbing faster.

"Little dark but I agree with her. Save me something to break." Ruby called from so far below.

"First we need to get up there." Ren said being the voice of reason. "Then you can break their legs all you like Nora."

Serena gave me her weapon to use, she calls it a Honey badger, some type of internally suppressed assault rifle or carbine or something. No idea how to use it, never used any type of gun bigger than a pistol in my life. Can't be too hard to figure out, simply point and shoot right? No. . . focus Velvet. Save Johnathan first, worry about how to shoot later. Right now I need to focus on saving Johnathan.

"Hang in there a little bit longer Johnathan, Calvary is coming." I whispered to myself as we climbed higher up the shaft.

---

(Jaune's POV)

I'll admit, Elaia was a cute little kitten. . . Faunus. . . kid. . . whatever she is, I don't care. Stuck down here tasked with the mission of protecting her and the raptors. Not so scared of them as I was when they first got here. Rosa was affectionately snuggling Elaia while Rojo was keeping his eyes on the door out of here. Blake was here as well, reason being is she is back up, me as well. Alice's orders. Don't think anyone is willing to argue with a seven foot, green giant with a turret as big as I am. Plus she knows those things a lot better than anyone else down here can understand. Weiss stayed here because she is wounded, much to her demise. Serena was holding Elaia while keeping her calm. Normal situations, any guy would be thrilled to be alone with three teenage girls in a bunker. But I'm too worried about what is going to happen to my friends to be celebrating. Want to be out there helping, but what realistic purpose would I serve. Sword and shield against super heated plasma swords, yeah I wouldn't survive ten seconds out there. At least the others have ranged options and won't have to get close, well Nora only has a fire axe but now she has something sharp. She is deadly enough with a hammer, hate to see her with a axe, or be on the wrong end of the axe.

"Aunt Serena? Why did the nice people leave?" Elaia asked Serena. She barely got in a nap and looked tired. Then again, I doubt anyone could have been able to sleep with Yang and Nora banging on the door to get out of here.

"They are going to save daddy Elaia." She responded. Weiss was looking bored out of her mind, yet still worried for the others. Blake was keeping a sharp eye on the only door.

"Not to be rude or anything, but what species is Elaia exactly?" Weiss asked surprisingly. "I'm curious more then anything. I know you explained that she is from another world, but what is her kind like exactly?"

"Khajiit, humanoid feline race, she is only six years old. Mostly found in her homeland of Elsweyr. They are mostly agile and light on their feet. Most get a bad Rep from the actions from a bad few." Serena explained. "Much like the Faunus in your universe on some levels. They both have animal like features as well as human, both are discriminated against in their own universe, Khajiit more so because people are less civil and accepting to new things. They both can see in the dark very well, both have human levels of intelligence. That is pretty much where the similarities end without going into too much detail."

"How do you know all this stuff, you haven't been here more then an hour?" I asked.

"I do a lot of research on the world Johnathan gets stuck in. Not much to go on with your world in general being so young and full of opportunity." SHe explained. Makes sense, I won't even ask what she means by 'our in general world being so young'. probably won't like the answer.

Weiss nodded, satisfied with the answer she got. "If you guys started exploring three years ago, then how is she Johnathan's. . ."

"Does it even matter? She is here now, happy and alive, that is all that matters to me. Don't care if she is adopted or blood related, family can be more then just blood related you know. She is my niece, I will do anything and everything I can to spoil and protect her like she is my own flesh in blood." Serena interrupted hugging Elaia tighter. "Anyone tries to hurt her, they better pray I get to them first. Johnathan would rip apart and feed their limbs to a pack of rabid wolves."

"World needs more people like you. Willing to accept another's differences." Blake chimed in keeping an eye on the door.

"Your world maybe, mine needs a huge wake up call and a real hard smack upside the head." She replied shaking her head.

"Why?" I asked.

"I'll answer that when young ears are not in the room. I try to keep my swearing to a minimum." She answered.

"Ooogh my head." A new voice rang. We all looked back to see the knocked out guy stand up. "Note to self: never force a portal connection again on low energy. Feels like the hangover I got from Aritrix's special dwarven recipe of ale." He blinked as he looked at up and started counting. "Where's Johnny and who are these guys?"

"He's fighting the aliens that followed you guys. The others left to save his jolly ass. . ." Weiss explained.

"LANGUAGE!" Me, Blake and Serena scolded. Don't want Johnathan's ghost haunting my butt if his daughter learns that word. I rather not be haunted for all eternity, and then some.

"Sorry, Butt; not too long ago with a seven foot girl in green armor." She finished.

"Wait a minute. He was actually dumb enough to fight a group of Elites, well known for killing Freelancers and Spartans, by his dumb self!" He yelled stressing the last word. We didn't get a word in before he created a swirling blue portal on the floor. Wonder where it leads to? "Making a quick pit stop to get a few things. Come on blondie, I need a gunner. Bowtie, you can get shotgun." He ordered swan diving through. Me and Blake looked at each other and shook our heads. No way I'm jumping through that. Just as we started walking away, a pair of arms popped through and pulled us through.

---

(Cole's POV)

What's up internet! ya'll don't know me but i'm way too familiar with you guys. Yeah that's right, I know about the fourth wall… or what's gonna be left of it after I'm through with it. Anyway back on track. My old buddy Jonathan Grey is in some seriously deep crap right now due to him trying to be a heroic bad-abs, so I kidnap- err, "borrowed" a couple of beacon students and headed back to my home dimension to grab some stuff. I've heard some pretty bad things about those Elites Johnny decided to tango with.

After we exited the portal I helped the blonde kid to his feet. I landed outside of the portal I made in a heap, the energy loss was getting to me from that last portal, now it was almost unbearable. The two kids by my side made it here with me. the chick in black seemed to be fending off some nausea from the jump, while the blonde dude looked ready to puke his breakfast lunch and dinner. I threw him a barf bag and passed by him into my pride and joy on this ship… oh yeah, welcome to the Avalon! My own little house on the prairie… except it's a two mile floating city slash battleship, It's usually only my buddies and I that inhabit this thing but it's had a couple of uses as a city since I stol- I mean liberated… don't look at me like that, this thing used to belong to an evil skypirate overlord until I came along. Now she's in much better hands. Anyway, this area we currently find ourselves in is the hangar-armory-wombo-combo where I kept some of my toys that I was okay with my friends using should they have to.

"What is this place? where are we?" the girl with the bow demanded. the blonde kid finally hurled into the bag.

"Welcome to my crib. This ain't the nicest or most cozy area of it, but we aren't here to get cozy are we." I finished as I reached over to a slot in the wall that held various boxes, I started searching through them for a moment before I found what I was looking for.

"Is that a pair of keys?" the girl questioned. I only nodded in response as I turned around to the massive assortment of vehicles, large small flying ground based, weaponized and non, slow and tough or weak and speedy before finding the one I was looking for. My favorite vehicle and my personal Ban Hammer, with the word 'banned' branded on the face.

"Hello gorgeous, did you miss me." I cooed to my pride and joy as I ushered the girl over towards its current resting place and helping the blonde guy to his feet. "Lady and Gentleman. It's time to kick some abs and take some names."

---

(Johnathan's POV)

Minutes later

Pain, that was all that I can feel coursing through my body, indescribable pain and agony. This bastard spend the past few minutes slowly slicing, burning, and stabbing me. Good news is that he cauterized a few old wounds. Bad news is he knows just where to stab for maximum pain yet not hitting too many vital areas to keep me alive. He just got done burning his plasma blade on my skin. His friends were too busy keeping my lips apart for me to do anything. Mu isn't responding, more then likely can't handle seeing me like this and moved, cleaver girl.

"Release him." The elite ordered. The others didn't question as they threw me to the ground hard. Everything felt broken and destroyed. My HUD was displaying multiple areas on me flashing red for injury. Blood pressure levels were extremely low, not sure how the heck I am even alive right now. Everything felt painful and woozy. I just want to die and have it over with already.

Just when I thought my agony was over he lifted me up by my neck, crushing my windpipe as he forced me to look into his eyes as he ignited his energy sword. I struggled to breath, felt like i was breathing though a straw underwater right now. For some reason I can hear the Red Army battle music. Wait a second, That isn't part of my final stand playlist. Only Red vs Blue fans or Red Army members blast that song. Oh shit this is not good. . . for him.

"Any last words filthy human?" He asked raising his blade to eye level with me.

"Yeah, you may. . . . want to take . . .a few steps . . . back jackass." I said as the music got a lot louder.

"Wait a second, THE HELL IS THAT MUSIC!" One of the Elites yelled. The other for Elites looked toward the direction of the music, huge mistake.

Turning around the corner was the best possible thing I could ask for right now. Cole driving a Warthog or other wises knows as a 'Puma' widely in Blood gulch. Poor Jaune on the gunner turret trying to keep still, with Blake in 'shotgun' also holding on while Cole wildly drive it.

"RED TEAM FOR THE WIN!" I can hear Cole yell.

"Scatter!" the leader Elite ordered as he threw me toward the moving vehicle.

"Duck." Cole said as I smashed through the windshield and into the back. "Nice of you to invite us to your party. Don't mind if we crash it." He joked sharply turning the vehicle right and started following an Elite. The Puma jolted up as a loud grunt and the satisfying sound of Elite bones breaking filled my eardrums. "How does my bumper taste, asshole!" He joked as he picked a new target. I tried saying something but just coughed up more blood. Damn Elite must have broke something in my throat, wouldn't be surprised.

"Damn it kid. Fire team Rose; cover fire. Fire team Valkyrie; advance and neutralize the target." A stern female ordered through the comms. I tried pushing myself up but my broken arm forced me to stay down in pain. Blake held me in her lap while trying to keep my from bouncing everywhere. Everything started getting really woozy for me. I can't stay away for much longer.

"Stay with us Ohio. Don't fall asleep, you'll never wake up." Rhode yelled with the distinct sound of gunfire on her end. Cole sharply turned the vehicle again and smacked the one Elite with the back of the vehicle. My vision started to fail, I couldn't see anything but fuzzy light. Like at the end of a tunnel. I can hear everything falling apart around me.

"Jaune, time to get blasting."

"I have no idea how to work this thing!"

"Point and shoot, spray and pray, controlled bursts. What ever works, I don't care! This thing never runs out of ammo so just pull the trigger and let 'er rip and shred them."

"We're going to die!"

"Ohio don't die one me! Don't go into the light."

"Pink girl! Catch this and get to banning their legs from working!"

"Johnathan!" Velvet's voice yelled as I slowly slipped into the dark. I am going to die, right here and now. Only regret I got is that I wasn't strong enough to protect them, and that I didn't live long enough to see Elaia grow up and have kids of her own.

---

(Velvet's POV)

"Ohio is out, repeat Ohio is out cold. Everyone move in for a final strike!" Rhode yelled from her comms. The schoolyard was a complete battlefield in front of me. Jaune was wildly shooting a turret on the back of a beefed up jeep, Nora was going ham on on the aliens with a giant glorified alien war hammer while Pyrrha was going toe to toe with one, and winning. Yang was no where to be found. Rhody and Ruby were on a broken window sill using it as sniping cover, the one called Cole was wildly driving the jeep while chasing the Head 'Elite' down, Blake looked ready to puke her guts out. Johnathan was in her lap and not responding or even moving. Everyone else I don't know where they are. I was behind Alice 'watching her six' from a door frame with Ren.

"Valkyrie, rush the enemy position and stomp them with your hammer. Rose and Rhode, I need you two to take out who you can and provide cover fire. Don't waste ammo if you don't think you can hit the target. Long and Pyrrha, assault the enemy position with Valkyrie and try to flank 'em, stand clear from her Gravity hammer and their energy swords. Attack at a distance, do not engage in close quarters, I repeat, do not engage in close quarters. Ren, Velvet, and I will drive 'em up the middle and spray down any stragglers, secure the wounded from the Warthog before he gets worse, and someone get the guy on the turret to stop shooting at us before I shoot him." Alice ordered keeping her turret ready. Times like this I wonder where Coco's at? She would be helpful in this fight, All of my team would. "On my mark, unleash hell and don't give them any mercy."

I readied the gun Serena gave me. Still have no idea how to use it right. Well if I want to live longer, I'll need to learn how to in the next three seconds. Let's see. Trigger is here, safety is here, deadly end is there, don't point it at anything i don't want to kill. Can't be that hard right? Who am i kidding. I'm a dust mage, not a soldier. Man I wish I didn't leave my box behind. These guys would be in deep trouble then.

"And. . . . ENGAGE!" Alice yelled firing her turret as she ran out the door. Ren and I followed shortly as whole area filled with gunfire from multiple angles. Rhode on the roof with a light rifle, Ruby with her Scythe, everything was all happening at once. I can swear I heard someone yell 'my legs', all while some weird song was playing.

Ren opened fire on the nearest Elite. His rounds seemed to only weaken the shields a bit. I took aim and went full auto. Big mistake on my part, I didn't know the recoil would throw my aim off and the rounds all went wide. I laid off the trigger in time to see the Elite made a swing at us with it's sword. Alice blocked it in time with her turret, sacrificing the front part of it as she slammed the heavy part into his gut and dropped it on him. She took her guns out, aimed it point blank at the face, and opened fire. Blue blood covered her as the Elite gurgled his own blood as it died.

"Try short controlled bursts next time. Never spray and pray unless you absolutely have to." She informed running toward her next target. Ren patted my back and ran back into the fray.

"Now this is what I call riding shotgun. YAHOO!" I can hear Yang yell as she fired round after round from Ember Celica toward the nearest Elite while hanging on from the side of the jeep. Why she is there I don;t know nor do I care

"Stop showing off Long, focus on the mission." Alice warned from the Comms we ran through our scrolls. I was about to say something but a loud crash made my forget. I looked back to see the 'warthog' fly through the air and skid close to the edge of the cliff face. Jaune, Blake, and Yang were all flying through the air and hit the ground, with poor Jaune acting as Blake's soft landing. One of the Elites was covered with some white energy shield as he was anchored into the ground.

"Shit. That one must be the leader. Change of plans guys, focus all attention on the head Elite, one covered in a white shield. Velvet and Ren, you two check the vehicle for survivors." She ordered running toward the Elite. Me and Ren followed orders and ran toward the crash. Cole was waddling out of the car looking dizzy before he looked back at it.

"Aww man, I had one more payment left on it, and it was my favorite car. Bet insurance won't cover this one." He joked running back. Yang and the others moaned as they got up. I ran past them and went to the jeep itself. Johnathan didn't look too good, blood everywhere, multiple burn marks, small stream of blood trickled out from his cracked helmet. I didn't waste any time getting it off and throwing it aside, large stream of crimson red blood trickled out of his mouth and onto the ground. I check for a pulse first and foremost.

"He's alive, but barely. Help me get him out." I said starting to try and pull him out. Yang snapped out of her temporary concussion and helped pull him out with me. Mu popped up from his shoulder with a grim face as we laid him in the grass. Okay whats is the bad news.

"Odds for his survival are slim. He is severely hurt with multiple places bleeding internally and externally, several fractured ribs, a shattered arm, leg bones nearly broken. Even if you had the greatest doctors on the planet working on him, hell in this universe. Still might not be enough to save him." Mu informed.

"DUCK!" Yang yelled as she pushed me out of the way of a incoming energy sword. The blade barely missed me by a inch, but not so lucky for the Elite, it cut off a large chunk of Yang's hair in the process, giving her a noticeable bald spot. It brought the sword back only to be stopped by a hard punch to the gut by a very pissed off flaming Yang and made it go flying in the air, then in the face toward a building on it's way down, then side, then other side, then she pretty much kept punching it without stopping for a minute, everything around her was on fire, even her. Note to self, never touch the hair.

"Holy hell, who brought the Super Saiyan to the fight? I don't remember Goku being apart of this universe, or even existing here?" Cole asked watching Yang demolish the Elite. Poor thing never stood a chance against the enraged blonde. I almost pity him, key word is almost.

"Velvet. . ." A weak voice said. I looked down to see Johnathan's eyes barely open up as he smiled. "What are. . . you guys. . . doing here?" He asked weakly and in a lot of pain as more blood gurgled from his throat.

"Save your strength Johnathan, don't talk." Mu said.

"I don't. . . need it Mu." He weakly said coughing. "No way. . . I'll live. . . through this. . . one. Not this . . . time."

"Don't say that. We'll find someone to fix you up. You saved my life. I'm saving yours." I promised trying to keep my tears at bay.

"Don't see. . . any way. . . I can. . . survive this." He said coughing up a lot more blood all over himself. I tried my best to clean it up and keep it away from his wounds.

"Internal injuries are making his condition worse. I strongly suggest you say goodbye." Mu informed. Can't end like this, not like this. There must be something I can do, anything. I don't have my dust to heal him and I can't transfer him au. . . that could work. He has a soul right? Aura is a manifestation of one's soul. Would unlocking it work if he wasn't born in this universe? Only one way to figure it out. I can't lose him, not like this.

"Johnathan I need you to close your eyes and concentrate real quick." I said as Ren held him up with all his might. Unlucky for him, Johnathan is over a ton in his armor so it wasn't that high. He knew what I was going to do.

"Velvet I . . . can't without . . ."

"Trust me, please." I said letting a single tear loose. " Can't lose you." I whispered. He nodded and closed his eyes. I laid a hand on his head and chest, closed my eyes as well, and concentrated hard on what is within him. I hope this works.

"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality, through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all." I chanted. He started glowing a very faint cobalt blue as I glowed coffee bean brown. It's working, he has a soul, it is barely holding in there but he has one. Please work. "Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee." I took my hand off his head and chest as I nearly fell down feeling very tired. I opened my eyes to see the light within him fade away, yet nothing is happening. Why wasn't he starting to heal? Did I do it wrong? Couldn't have, I memorized every word so I could get it right when the time came to unlock someone's aura. Maybe he is too weak right now for it to work. He barely opened his eyes and smiled at me.

"It was. . . a good try. But I'm. . . way too far. . . gone for. . . that to. . . work." He said even weaker then before. Growing paler by the minute "Come closer. . . . Want to. . . tell you. . . something... . before I pass."

I wiped my eyes and did as he said. He weak used his robotic arm with what was left of his strength to gently pull me down as our lips clashed together. I can feel every ounce of love he has for me in this single kiss. Unlike the one in the tree we had by accident, I kissed him back and closed my eyes. Everything else around us seemed irrelevant, i didn't even care about the blood getting on me. Millions of thoughts were flying through my head right now, yet I can't focus on anything other the two of us. We separated after a few seconds. He weakly smiled as he laid his head down on my lap.

"I love. . . you Velvet. With all. . . my heart." He weakly claimed wiping my tears away with is one good arm before passing out in my lap.

---

(Rhode Island's POV)

Ruby and I were behind a busted second story window, providing sniper support for Alice. Granted I am not a sniper but can be if the situation demands it. Right now it demands it big time. Most of the Elites are dead, well all but one that we found. Everyone but the SPARTAN was hulling Ohio's injured body away from the jeep. The lead Elite was going toe-to-toe with Alice. Me and Ruby were waiting for Alice to get clear before we opened fire. I didn't want to accidentally shoot Alice in the back with harden light bolts. Those things hurt like hell and can melt through armor.

I have a lot of experience with Promethean weaponry after our raid on a shield world for armor enhancements, like my undersuit's materiel. Works similar to Mjolnir's force-multiplying chips but on a much more manageable scale for non-augmented people. Main down side is when it starts tearing apart my mind if I use it for too long, that and it is about as bullet proof as a t-shirt. Didn't wear it today because I didn't think I would need it. Man was I wrong on many levels.

We were only able to get enough materiel to make a single small suit. It was meant for Carolina but there wasn't enough material, so I was next because I was the smallest. One point for us short people. Johnathan got his Promethean vision, Wyoming got his time distortion unit. No idea what practical use that would have, one of him is more then enough to annoy everyone with those damn knock knock jokes. I was about to take the shot before my HUD started beeping. Ohio's vitals started to slow down to the point of flat lining. Not good, defiantly not good at all!

"Ohio needs medical attention. His vitals are dropping past dangerous levels." I informed through the Comms. Alice noticed and side stepped the Elite and kicked him across the yard.

"We need a medical extraction ASAP Ozpin, bring the heavy lifting gear. Don't worry about the Elite, you leave him to me." Alice ordered throwing punches and blocking them. The two were on even terms, neither one giving or losing an inch of ground. It was like watching a beautiful and deadly dance, where one wrong step can get you killed. Like art in a sense.

"I already asked the local hospital to dispatch a Medical bullhead a few minutes ago. ETA, five minutes or less." Ozpin replied as a countdown showed up on my HUD for 5 minutes. He's dying now, no way he'll survive the wait. Nothing I can do to save him either, left the trauma kit in the bunker. Guess this requires a plan B.

"Ruby, let's go. Follow my lead." I ordered jumping over the window sill and rolled across the ground. I got on my feet and ran right toward the head Elite fighting Alice. If Ohio is going down, so is his killer. Ruby was running beside me with her Scythe/sniper ready to go.

The SPARTAN noticed us charging toward the Elite and aggressively fought it back toward us. He ducked under a punch and sidestepped her and kicked me in the gut before I got close, I went sliding across the ground, my light rifle flew of in another direction. Ruby disappeared in a fury of rose petals, only to reappear in front of the Elite. He quickly dodged it grabbed a hold of her Scythe by the rod. She fired but missed him as he forced the blade into the ground and jammed the barrel with the dirt as it went in.

"Insolent vermin, pathetic and weak." He growled yanking Crescent Rose forward and grabbed Ruby by her arm and threw her into the dirt still holding on. "Your race is not even worthy enough to lick the blood off of my boots." He threw poor Ruby across the yard into a charging Yang. "Humanity isn't more then a mere bug on the face of existence." He grabbed the scythe out of the dirt and held it in both hands. "You must be cleansed from existence, for it is the will of the Forerunners." He said as he snapped Ruby's weapon in half, just below the trigger, and threw it across the yard by her feet. "Your weaponry is too weak to make a dent in my armor. I am faster, stronger, and better then you pathetic humans in every way possible." He taunted. Ruby looked at her destroyed weapon with a horrified expression, Yang looked extremely pissed with her hair on fire in all. She shot herself forward and went in for a punch, he was faster and dodged her. He grabbed her by her hair and threw her across the yard into a building, taking a huge chunk of her hair out with a painful rip. That was the last straw, everyone who wasn't injured or trying to keep someone alive ran as fast as they could with their weapons drawn. He turned around fast to dodge a hammer strike from Nora.

"You ravage whatever planet you settle and destroy it for your own personal gain. Slaughtering each other over piety reasons, not bothering to see the bigger picture in front of you." He dodged more strikes from the enraged hammer wielder, quickly grabbed her by the back of her shirt and threw her into a wall. I forced myself up and rushed to engage him head on. "The Forerunners have tasked my kind with the destruction of your entire race." He proclaimed, effortlessly blocking my strikes and delivering his own devastating strikes to key areas. "Their wish shall be carried out. I'll personally see that this world burns like every other human world." He kicked me hard in the gut and sent my flying into Blake. We tumbled together and slid across the ground by the Warthog.

Ren opened fire as well a Pyrrha viciously. He laughed as he charged them. They dodged out of the way, but barely. Pyrrha threw Akoúo̱ and fired Miló. The Elite caught the shield and used it to deflect the bullets from Ren. He didn't hesitate in slamming the shield full force into fire enraged Yang's face as she charged up behind him, spinning around and threw it toward Ren right in the gut. He grabbed Pyrrha by the legs and threw her at Ruby again, poor girl was trying to attack him with the blade half of her pride and joy. He grabbed Yang by her foot and started slamming her into the ground a few times as her gauntlets clicked empty. Then throwing her back into the same building, this time she went through the wall. He turned just in time to be stabbed in the chest by Jaune by a red energy sword. He shrugged it off and grabbed Jaune by his neck, squeezing hard enough to make the blonde wheeze for breath.

"I've defeated countless demons and Freelancers with little to no effort. What makes you all think a few weaklings stand a chance?" He taunted getting ready to strike. Nora jumped on his back and bit down hard on his neck, grabbing as much flesh as she could in her jaws and drawing a but of blood, growling like a dog as she did so and trashing around. He threw Jaune into a building as he slammed his back into one, making Nora fall. He grabbed her by the neck and threw her at the very pissed off Yang again. Damn she is not having a good day today.

I pulled myself up but winced in pain as I held my chest. This isn't good, I looked at the counter and saw it was down to a minute. Ohio's vitals were dropping fast. I forced myself up to see Alice back to fighting the Elite. He's too strong for us, we don't have the back up needed to kill him. Even with a SPARTAN we need something bigger.

"Obviously a forward assault isn't working. We need new plan." I informed Blake.

"What do you have in mind?" She asked. I looked back at the warthog and picked up the tow cable. She seemed to have connected the dots and nodded. "That could work but how will we get it on him or even be able to push this thing?" As if God was listening to our problem, Yang and Cole came flying by us. They shook their heads. Yang went running back but Cole seemed to know what we were up to.

"I call dibs." He said as I handed him the cable and running toward the Elite. He picked up my light rifle on the way there and fired a few rounds at the Elite's head. Alice seemed to figure out what we were up to and ran over to help. "Over here you big ugly lizard!" He insulted. The Elite turned around and noticed Cole shooting at him. He ripped the sword out of his chest and charged at him, before I could even blink he grabbed Cole by his neck, squeezed down hard enough to hear cracks in the windpipe, and lifted him up.

"What did you hope to accomplish by doing this suicide run?" He asked, not noticing Cole attach the cable to his combat harness. This all seems very familiar, must be my imagination.

"Alice. Help me push this." I asked as I started pushing the 'Hog' toward the cliff.

"I just wanted you to settle an argument for me." He answered smugly. "Does that thing look like a Puma or a Warthog to you?"

The Elite looked over and noticed me pushing the 'Hog'. Alice just kicked it and it went rolling over the edge. He looked down at his harness just as the two ton truck forced him down and to let go of Cole. He wildly flailed his arms as we jumped out of the way, he went tumbling over the cliff with his sword flying through the air, barely missing Jaune's groin by inches. The Blonde let out a nervous chuckle before passing out. It was over, we won.

"Ohio!" I remembered picking myself up and rand toward Velvet, who was trying her hardest to keep him alive with what she had. I quickly did a check on his vitals. Near death, no way he'll make it to the hospital in time at this rate. ETA timer was up. "Ozpin where is that med-evac! Ohio won't make if we wait another minute." I yelled detaching his breastplate and throwing it aside, his backplate fell off as Alice lifted him up and kicked the plate away. Multiple rips punctured through the skin, who knows how many internal injuries.

"They are just arriving now, and in the nick of time too." He replied as a massive Bullhead flew over the building. Unfortunately, Ohio's vitals started to flat line fast and erratically as the bullhead began to land. Everyone was silent as the paramedics showed up and hoisted him away as they tried to revive him.

I took off my helmet and laid it down at my feet. Alice did the same and laid it down at hers. Her blonde hair waved in the wind as her emerald green eyes were full of sorrow. Icy pale skin deeply reflected this moment as the morning sun rose over the horizon. Mu showed up on Alice's shoulder, head bowed low with the air of sorrow filling everything.

"Monty spare him." Velvet prayed holding his helmet. "Please don't let him die."

(Emily's POV)

I was standing on a ridge watching them airlift Johnathan out of here. Dyze 'Vralcamee has disappointed me so. He was given one simple job, and failed to do that. On the plus side to this. Johnathan is mentally a lot weaker after this fight. He'll be that much easier to destroy when the time is right. I want it to be as slow and painful as possible. What the Elites done to him is mere child's play compared to what i have in mind. Maine was growing impatient as the airship flew over head. Commander Riley was beside me with his rifle at the ready.

"Why didn't we jump in and finished him when we had the chance? Mu could have been in our grasp by now." Sigma asked as the AI popped up beside him.

"He has a SPARTAN II on his side, not good odds for you or me. Plus after what Dyze 'Vralcamee has done, an army would be there in minutes if we set foot on campus. With our main asset gone, we need to find someone else to do the grunt work."

"I think we can arrange that little problem." A new voice replied from behind. I ignited my lightsabers and turned around to a woman in red calmly walked out of the shadows. Maine growled and got his bruteshot ready.

"Who the devil are you? Another evil witch?" Omega asked as Commander Riley lowered his rifle on my command.

"Doesn't matter who I am. What matters is you have what I need." She mused. "You want someone dead, I got the White Fang around my finger tips to back you up. All I ask is for a little co-operation and teamwork for us to achieve our goals."

"Maine si..."

"No so fast Sigma." I interrupted. "Where you see a threat, I see opportunity." I informed deactivating my weapons and put them back on my waist. "I'm Emily. Let's talk Miss. . . ."

"Cinder. Call me Cinder for now." She introduced.

"Alright Cinder. What kind of co-operation we talking about?"

---

Holy. Freaking. Hell. This was a long chapter. Almost 14,000 words. Not including this or the Beta's bit. I'm being a nice guy and letting WetworkzNinja write a small portion of the story about his character for having to Beta this monster of a chapter. Other OC's will show up next chapter, Guaranteed.

Made it so long because it is a key point in the story. The plot thickens and the main character was thrown to his absolute limit. Alice-130 joins the insanity that is my story. Figured I need something to counter the Meta and a Indominus Rex. She is a lesser known Spartan II. Everyone knows the Chief, Blue team, Noble team so they were all out. That left me with few options. Grey team and Red team. Too many people didn't like Halo wars so I went with her. It is a good game in it's own right. Look at it from a RTS mindset instead of a FPS one, pretty good once you get use to the change. Cinematic cut scenes were amazing. Well, time to reply to a few Reviews.

Huntre101, Yoshtar, and Guest- Thank you guys for your support. I like to think that Great grandma Charlotte is in a better place now, smiling down upon me from Heaven. Rest in peace Grandma.

Seferos- No problem, hope this roller coaster of a chapter lives up to your expectations.

That is it for now. Hope you all enjoy. If you find something wrong with the story or got any ideas to share, please don't hesitate to let me know. I can fix it only if you let me know, other wise I think the story is going alright other wise. See you all late.

~Dgreen20

---

Dgreen20 here again. Beta forgot to include his notes here so I'll use this space. I did a bit of pre-publish editing after rereading it. Found a few areas that needed work and improved them. Fight seems a lot better without making the RWBY characters seem so generic. Included more detail which i always seem to forget. I tend to write the scene first and include the detail and better use of vocabulary in the editing. Will edit this a lot more as time goes on. But seems good for now. Edited Wetworkz part a bit to flow slightly better. Mostly just a few things computers mess up during transfer. Nothing too major. Well that is all i got to say. Hyped for Season 3. Might expand the story to 60+ chapters to cover season 3. Let me know what you guys think of that. Should i keep it at the 40+ I am heading toward to push for 60+. Your the ones reading this, I'm just here to provide decent an cheap entertainment.

~Dgreen20