Hello! First off, thank you for checking out my new story. I appreciate it! Not much to say in the beginning. This is a long time in the making, so I hope you enjoy.

0o0o0o0o0

They were running out of time. Jaune knew it, and he was sure his friends knew it, too.

The sound of his footsteps joined the others around him in a cacophony that might as well have been silent for all the noise around them. A veritable war raged furiously between Grimm and Huntsmen in pockets of small battles. In the distance, over the roofs of Vale's houses, the silhouette of a dragon frozen atop Beacon's tower served as a stark reminder to what fate would befall them should they fail here.

A pack of Beowolves, led by an Alpha, intercepted their path, but RWBY and JNPR made quick work of them. In the back of his mind, Jaune marveled at how much they had grown since the start of Beacon. But reality pulled him back as another group of enemies waylaid them, forcing them to stop and fight.

This is taking too long, Jaune thought desperately. We need more time!

Crocea Mors split through the skull of the last Grimm, and without another word they continued towards Beacon Academy. Their old home. In any other situation, Jaune would have felt nostalgic. He didn't have that luxury at the moment.

They had to get to the Vault before Cinder. Qrow had flown ahead to try and delay her, but she was bound to have reinforcements, and however strong he was, he was only one man. None of their other reinforcements had managed to punch through the sea of Grimm, though they were holding their own. For now.

"Ruby," he called as they ran. She turned her head without stopping. "You're the only one who can make it at this rate." Yang looked like she was about to argue but Ruby beat her to it.

"Got it," she said as Yang grumbled. "Give me a boost?"

The rest of our friends carved a path in front of us while Weiss brought Myrtenaster down to create a ramp of ice. Again, Jaune thought back to the beginning of their journey, how amateur their teamwork had been. Enough to pass initiation, but nowhere near the automatic and instinctual response it had now become.

Ruby positioned herself as Jaune lay his hand on her shoulder and activated his Semblance, pumping Aura into her. The boost to her own ability would only last a second, since he had to be within a few feet of her, but that second was all she needed. An instant later, Ruby rocketed off into the sky. From what Jaune could tell, she had cleared most of the distance to the Academy. Hopefully, she could reach Qrow and provide some backup.

Their immediate surroundings clear for the moment, Weiss, Blake, Yang, Oscar, Ren, and Nora all looked to him.

"Let's go," Jaune said with more confidence than he felt.

Please let her get there on time.

0o0o0o0o0

She was running out of time. Raven knew it, and she was sure her tribe knew it, too.

Their camp burned around them as Grimm poured in from every direction. Normally, that wouldn't have been an issue. Raven would just slaughter the beasts, with steel or magic, and call it a day. She would have loved nothing more than to do that, except for the lone person who stood against her.

"Come, little bird! Surely a scorpion should be easy prey, should it not?" Tyrian cackled madly as he became a whirlwind of blade and tail. Despite Raven's Maiden powers, the sheer insanity of the scorpion faunus' fighting style and his slippery nature proved enough to hold her busy, which seemed to be exactly what his plan was.

"Silence, fool," Raven growled. Around their deadly match of cat and mouse, her tribe fought as best they could. But it would not be enough.

This is taking too long, Raven thought desperately. I need more time!

Vernal dying at the hands of Cinder a year ago had been a major blow to the Branwen tribe's fighting power. She had been the second strongest, and anyone third and below was far beneath her. Still, they could hold their own against Grimm. But not this many. This was a targeted attack.

Raven ignored Tyrian's mad ramblings and focused on cutting him down as quickly as possible. If she could just land one solid blow, it would give her enough time to call down a storm, and that would give her tribe a fighting chance. But Tyrian knew that, of course, and fought defensively. When it even looked like she might take her attention off him, he struck.

There was a clear circle around the two as they fought. Any Grimm that went for Raven was cut down as an afterthought and any unlucky soul who tried to help their leader was silenced by Tyrian.

The acrid smell of the burning camp was a distant sensation. Raven put her whole attention on the fight, tuning out everything else. The fire didn't matter. The Grimm didn't matter. Even her tribe didn't, couldn't, matter. She had to become one with her blade to finish this.

Her eyes flickered once to the left and she twitched, as if to help a tribe member. Tyrian struck, intent on catching Raven's attention once more. But he had always had it.

In one smooth motion, she turned around his blow and cut, severing his arm through his already low Aura. A sickening cry escaped Tyrian's lips as he fell to the floor and writhed in agony. Raven turned to cast magic, but froze. There was no one left to help.

What was left of the Grimm prowled about, searching for survivors. No doubt sensing the negativity of the few who clung onto life that were spread throughout the destroyed camp. Even with treatment, they wouldn't survive. Raven's fists clenched, and trickles of blood poured down her palms from where her nails bit into them.

"Why?" she asked through grit teeth.

Tyrian's shouts of pain melted into maniacal laughter. "Did you really think you could keep what belongs to my Goddess away from her? Both the power in you and the Relic it allowed you to access are hers by right!" He descended into a fit of giggles, right up until the moment Raven slit his throat.

The Relic of Knowledge? A sudden realization hit her like a punch to the face. Yang. The Relic was with her. They hadn't talked since she had opened the Vault. And now Salem was targeting her. If they were targeting Raven this aggressively, they must be making their move on all the Maidens and Relics.

The tribe was gone. And loathe as she was to admit it, all she had left was her daughter. And though a flood of mixed emotions ran through her at that thought, at the end of it all was the fear of losing anyone else. Despite the hypocrisy of it all, she couldn't lose Yang.

With a swipe of her sword, she opened up a portal. It was with bitter regret that she had to open it near Qrow. Without Yang's need to find her, Raven's bond with her daughter was just...not strong enough.

Please let me get there on time.

0o0o0o0o0

They were running out of time. Blake knew it, and she was sure her friends knew it, too.

They had made it onto Beacon's grounds, but the fighting was thicker here. Every foot gained was a struggle. They had all become so much stronger than their first year here, but the Grimm had the sheer numbers to hold them off. Close enough to help but far enough to give space to fight, their allies pushed into the waves of Grimm with them. At various points she had seen SSSN, CVFY, FNKI, and even CRDL. Everyone was here. This was a battle to take back Beacon, and after Atlas had fallen, they needed a major victory.

Gambol Shroud cut through a swathe of enemies as it flew back to her on it's ribbon. Blake left a clone in her place, imbuing it with Fire Dust, and rolled to her right. It exploded when the Beowolf who had tried to attack her from behind hit it. Another Grimm dead, but only a drop in the ocean.

This is taking too long, Blake thought desperately. We need more time!

Ruby needed their help. There was no doubt in Blake's mind that by now she had caught up to her uncle. Those two could delay Cinder and her reinforcements, but how long could they last on their own?

Blake and Ren slipped around each other with a deadly grace, scoring hit after hit on an Ursa who was too confused to decide on who to hit. The teamwork came naturally to them all at this point. But even with that, the push into the Academy was hard fought.

It took excruciating minutes, but they finally made their way inside the main tower and close to the elevator that would take them down to the Vault. That was surely where Ruby and Qrow were holding out.

"We need to cut through!" Jaune shouted from the front of their group. Yang and Nora, as the heavy hitters, moved up to him. Together, the three pushed forward. Blake stayed behind Yang and offered ranged support when she could, and she saw Oscar, Weiss, and Ren do the same to her sides.

They had almost made it to the elevator that would take them down to the Vault room when a Petra Gigas broke through the wall, sending Grimm and Huntsmen alike flying. Their group was scattered. Blake landed next to Jaune.

"Go!" yelled Weiss from across the massive Grimm. The rest of their friends were nowhere to be seen. "We'll catch up!"

After a moment of hesitation, they sprinted towards the elevator. They had to fight a few minor Grimm, but they ended them without too much effort. It took a moment for the doors to slide open, and when they closed an eerie silence fell upon them. Blake noticed Jaune's tight grip on his sword.

"They'll be fine," she said.

"I know. It's just that…" His grip tightened. "I know." She knew exactly how he felt. What if they had taken too long? What if Ruby…?

Please let us get there on time.

0o0o0o0o0

He was running out of time. Mercury knew it, and he was sure Emerald knew it, too.

Things had gotten out of hand. Mercury had known that for a while, the sheer enormity of it had only dawned on him recently. It hadn't come soon enough.

Even Emerald, for all her worship of Cinder, had to know by now that their boss had gone off the deep end. The conflicted look on her face told Mercury that he was right, at least by some measure of the word.

It had started with Qrow getting in their way, and Cinder had told her two subordinates to back off. Mercury knew she just wanted to savor killing that brat's uncle. Revenge against Ruby Rose, in any form, had been Cinder's sole driving force for a while now.

Things had gotten more complicated when the brat herself popped herself out of nowhere, sending Cinder into a berserk state. Emerald had been ready to jump in right there, but Raven Branwen and Neo both appeared out of thin air almost at the same time, and things had become chaos after that.

A four way battle of monsters had started. It was a hectic free-for-all, save for Ruby and Qrow you had obviously teamed up, and Mercury wanted nothing to do with it. It wasn't that he was weak. He was confident he could beat most professional Huntsmen and Huntresses. But two Maidens, the best assassin in the four Kingdoms, possibly the strongest Huntsman in Vale, and his silver-eyed niece? No amount of 'loyalty' to Cinder could make him step in the middle of that.

Emerald had stayed behind one of the pillars with him, though he had to hold her by the shoulders to stop her from what was essentially a suicide mission.

"Emerald, we need to get out of here!" His tone was as close to pleading as it had ever gotten in his life. Mercury didn't care for much in this world, but Emerald Sustrai had somehow wiggled her way into his good graces. She was his first and only friend, though it had taken him a long time to come to that realization and he would be caught dead before he spoke it aloud. Especially to her. And now he stood there, trying his hardest to convince her to abandon a master who longer cared for them in the slightest.

This is taking too long, Mercury thought desperately. I need more time!

"Please, Em, just listen to me. I overheard Raven yelling about where her daughter is. Just disguise yourself as Yang with your Semblance, make me invisible, and she'll get us out of here!"

Emerald's face twisted in grief. "I can't! I can't leave her! You don't understand." She looked up at him with an unreadable expression with and a range of emotions overcame him. "I won't leave. But I'll disguise you, so you can."

His heart clenched. Mercury knew from her face that she wouldn't leave Cinder, no matter how cruel she was treated. But she would also let him leave, to escape that same horrible master. It was betrayal and loyalty all at once.

"Okay," he managed to say as his throat tightened. Emerald smiled once at him, beautifully, and then concentrated. They had worked long enough together for him to know that to everyone else, he now looked at sounded like Yang Xiao-Long.

Mercury rounded the pillar and ran. He knew if he looked back, he might not ever leave.

"I'm sorry, Em," he whispered. "Sorry I couldn't save you in time."

From the elevator, a group of two ran towards the melee. It was Ruby's friends, Jaune and Blake.

Great. Just what I needed, Mercury thought sarcastically. When they saw him as 'Yang', he could see their confusion, even across the room. He had to hurry, or else they might give him away.

"Raven!" he yelled. He saw her lock eyes with him and disengage Qrow with a fierce kick to the gut. With her Maiden powers, she flew directly at him. Jaune and Blake got to him first.

"Yang?" Jaune asked. Before he could respond, Raven reached them.

"We're getting out of here."

"You're not taking her anywhere!" shouted Blake. Raven growled a curse under her breath.

A quake rocked the room, throwing everyone off their feet. Parts of the ceiling fell in chunks. Mercury didn't have time to see if it was because of the nearby fight, but he felt Raven grip his arm tightly. From the corner of his eye, he saw Jaune's hands glow near Blake and two of her clones appeared behind them. To his disbelief, the clones grabbed them and tossed them at Mercury and Raven.

Everything slowed down.

Raven began her slash to open a portal, but Jaune tackled her from behind as Blake grabbed Mercury's other hand in the middle of her trajectory. With her forward momentum, Raven's slash completed on its own and a red vortex opened in front of them. A giant slab of the roof came crashing down towards them as they fell forward in a tangle of limbs and bodies.

Please let us get there on time!

They slipped into the portal, and all was dark.

0o0o0o0o0

Jaune Arc awoke, head pounding and a profound sense of wrongness permeating his entire body. He was on the floor of what looked like an dimly lit alleyway. Around him lay Blake, Mercury, and Raven, all still unconscious.

Jaune stumbled onto his feet, still groggy from...whatever had just happened. A haze blocked his memory. The last thing he remembered was that he had needed to get to the Vault to stop Cinder.

With great effort, he put one foot in front of the other until he was next to Blake. A few shakes did nothing to stir her.

We were separated, Jaune remembered. It was just me and Blake and we were…going down the elevator at Beacon.

He tried waking Blake up again and heard a groan. When she refused to get up, he realized she wasn't the one who had made a noise. Mercury was up.

He's still in a daze, I should grab Blake and get out of here. A feeble attempt at lifting her up yielded no results. Jaune wasn't at full capacity yet. Whatever happened had taken out his Aura and energy reserves. With luck, it would be the same for Mercury and Raven.

The former was finally getting his bearings, but seemed to be in a similar state to Jaune.

"Hey, blondie, what the hell happened?"

"Your guess is as good as mine." Another frantic shake rewarded him with a moan.

"Five more minutes," Blake mumbled.

"Blake, get up," he said under his breath. "We need to get out of here."

Mercury was stretching, though his expression told Jaune it wasn't a pleasant experience by any means. Raven began to stir, positioned on all fours and looking like she was about to vomit.

"Blake!"

She awoke with a sudden jolt and an immediate moan of pain. A quick once-over told him that she had no obvious injuries.

"Jaune?"

"Are you okay?"

She nodded, and he helped her to her feet. Jaune just barely managed to stop them both from tumbling to the ground through monumental effort.

"What happened to Yang?" Blake asked.

"She was never there," said Mercury. "Emerald disguised me as her. So she would get me out of there." He pointed to Raven with a grin, though it looked a bit forced. "And it seems like it worked."

Jaune felt some of his strength returning, and strode to the still kneeling Raven. He grabbed her by the collar and hauled her to her feet.

"Where are we?" he said through grit teeth.

Her hands squeezed his wrists in a weak attempt to break his grip, but it was apparent she had taken the brunt of whatever had sapped their strength.

"I don't know, brat."

"Don't give me that crap. You had to make the portal go somewhere. Spill it!" Jaune felt Blake put a comforting hand on his shoulder. He sighed, releasing some of his frustration. Letting go of Raven was difficult, but he took a step back. She still looked a bit unsteady on her feet, but the shock of Jaune's anger must have given her enough strength to stand on her own.

"Like I was saying, you idiot, I have no idea what happened. We should have ended up somewhere near Taiyang but this isn't-" Raven stopped abruptly with a shocked look on her face.

Jaune glanced worriedly at Blake. "What?"

"I...I can't sense them," Raven said dazedly.

Jaune furrowed his brows. "Who?"

"Anyone. I can't sense anyone with my Semblance."

Jaune didn't know how to respond to that. Yang had told them a while ago how she had traveled with Weiss using her mother's Semblance, so he knew the basics of what Raven meant. But what could it mean?

"Freeze!" That voiced didn't belong to anyone Jaune knew. They all turned to the mouth of the alley to see a group of armed men in full tactical gear advancing slowly, guns pointed towards them. "You're under arrest for suspicious activity after curfew!"

Mercury shifted his foot, but before he could bolt, Jaune held his arm out to stop him. "As much as I don't want to, we should stick together until we figure out what's going on," he said under his breath. Blake spun her head to him with an incredulous expression. He gave her a meaningful look. They couldn't let two potential enemies roam free. And Raven's portals could be their only way back to their friends.

"Fine," Mercury growled, "but you all follow my lead." Raven seemed on the verge of arguing so Jaune cut in.

"Fine." She gave him a dirty look but didn't say anything.

There was a pause as the armed men continued their advance.

"Now!" Mercury roared and sprinted towards them. Raven was there right next to him, and Jaune and Blake just a moment behind.

"Open fire!" yelled one of the soldiers, but by the time they had gotten a few shots off that meant little to four people with Aura, Jaune and the others were upon them. It was over in an instant. It couldn't even be called a fight. The now unconscious men lay on the dirty ground, guns knocked out from their hands.

Now that Jaune could see them closer, the dim light of the alley revealed their uniforms and logos as law enforcement, though Jaune had never heard of any 'CPD'.

Mercury lead them out into the empty street. The lack of pedestrians was eerie, and no one seemed to recognize where they were. Every building seemed to tower into the sky many stories up. It felt strangely familiar, but Jaune couldn't put his finger on why.

There was no time to think about it, as they heard sirens in the distance. Jaune cursed under his breath. One of the officers must have called reinforcements before they had revealed themselves.

Mercury wasted no time. "Let's get out of here." They kept running for a solid half hour, taking twists and turns until they no longer heard the sirens. A few times they almost ran into more police roaming the streets on foot, but the moonless night was dark enough that they managed to catch themselves from being found. Mercury had experience sneaking around, and that let them roam relatively free.

Once he felt they were clear enough, Mercury led them to what seemed like an abandoned building. Jaune had noticed a fair amount of those, though not all of them were devoid of people. He had only caught glimpses and silhouettes of people, but he was confident the various ramshackle apartments were lived in.

The building Mercury led them into was completely empty, at least from what they had managed to gather. The complex was rather large, and they didn't search the whole thing before holing up in one of the apartments.

They sat in a circle, no one speaking. It seemed surreal, being there with Raven and Mercury. Jaune had camped out with Blake and their friends long enough that it felt natural, but these two had been enemies for the longest time.

Mercury was the first to break the silence. "So, does anyone have any goddamn idea what the hell is going on?"

There was no response. "I figured," he said with a sigh.

Jaune checked his scroll, but it wasn't connecting to any nearby towers. A small notification said to update the software so it could. He'd never had to do something like that just to use the net or call anybody, but as much as he fiddled with the settings, he couldn't get it to work. A quick survey of everyone else's scrolls told him that they had the same issue.

"Maybe we can find a shop or something to update our scrolls in the morning so we can call someone and figure out where we are." No one objected since it was the only course of action they could think of.

The air was still tense between everyone, but the strange turn of events had dampened their spirits. Jaune still felt a tiny bit drained from when they went through Raven's portal, and he could tell she also still felt whatever backlash had hit them. Blake and Mercury seemed fine, though, which was confusing.

None of them managed to sleep, and in a few hours the wan light of morning rose up. No one felt like talking much, whether due to past allegiances or their current predicament, which was fine with Jaune. Only he and Blake shared a few words, but even that felt like a pretense at normalcy.

When they cautiously left the abandoned building, the streets were now occupied by dozens of people. It wasn't quite crowded, but neither was it sparse. Mercury stopped a man passing by, who looked supremely annoyed at having been stopped.

"Excuse me, sir, can you tell us what city we're in?"

The man's expression turned from annoyed to incredulous. "Real funny, kid. Now get out of my way." The man brushed past Mercury and sauntered off.

Jaune looked to his companions, all of them with utter disbelief on their faces. "Uh, what was that about?" he asked.

Mercury stopped a woman this time and asked the same question.

She rolled her eyes. "Let me guess, you got lost in my eyes or something? Find a better pickup line." Mercury's mouth hung open as she walked off.

No matter who they asked, however, they got no meaningful response. Jaune noticed almost everyone gave their weapons odd looks.

Finally, Jaune changed the question. "Excuse me, ma'am, where can I update my scroll around here?" She still gave him a funny look, but gave them directions to a electronics store two blocks down.

An uneasy tension had settled over the unlikely group as they to the store. A little bell sounded as they pushed the doors open. It was a small store, with the walls lined with scrolls, chargers, headphones, and various other gadgets.

"Welcome," said a balding man behind the counter at the end of the store. "What can I help you with?" His tone said he would rather not be helping them at all. He was the only employee in the store, at least that they could see.

Mercury once again took the lead. "We're looking to update some scrolls." He set his down on the counter and motioned for them to do the same. Jaune put his down with the rest.

"Sure thing," the man said in his monotonous voice. He took four wires, which were all connected to a larger terminal next to him, and plugged one each into the scrolls.

As he was working, the man's brow started to furrow more and more. "What in the…?"

He looked at them with a hint of suspicion. "Where did you find these things?"

Mercury shared a confused look with the rest of them. "They're ours," he said succinctly, so as not to potentially reveal anything. "Why?"

The man shrugged. "Look, I ain't in the business of prying anyway, so I don't really care where you got them. You don't have to tell me. It's just weird, is all."

"Why is it weird?"

The man pointed to the terminal, where a loading bar showed the slow progress of updating all four scrolls. "These damn things haven't been updated in thirty years. I'm not sure where you've been keeping them stored, or if you scrounged them up from somewhere, but it's a miracle they still work."

Jaune was speechless.

"W-What do you mean?" Blake stammered.

"Can't get more clear than that, missy. These are old models. I haven't seen them in decades. If it weren't for the software telling me how old I couldn't say precisely, but it says right here that the last time these things were connected to any significant network was almost exactly thirty years ago."

Mercury leaned forward on the counter. "I'm gonna ask you a question, and I don't care how stupid it sounds, you're going to answer it." The man nodded nervously.

"What city are we in?"

The man gulped audibly. "The City. What do you mean?"

Raven slid her sword out and rested it under the man's chin. "The name, you incompetent fool, what's the city's name!"

The man yelped. "Vale, but no one calls it that anymore! After the walls came up, everyone just calls it the City!"

Jaune heart pounded. It seemed he had asked himself this too many times in the past few hours, but what the hell was going on?

The man's terminal made a sound to indicate the update was done. Mercury grabbed the four scrolls and pushed them into their owners hands.

"We're getting out of here," he said as he turned around. Raven sheathed her blade in one smooth motion, and they all followed him out. The man didn't stop them to ask any questions.

Mercury grabbed a passerby roughly. "Which way to the closest wall?" The scared teen pointed, and without another word Mercury strode off. Jaune, still a bit in shock, followed him. He didn't want to think about the implications that had been thrown at him yet.

It only took them a little less than an hour of silent walking, but finally they came upon it. A giant wall towered over them at the edge of the city. There were no opening of any kind. It must have gone up almost half a mile, and went in each direction indefinitely, though there was a slight inward curve to them, likely wrapping around the whole city.

"Look at the sky," Raven said in awe.

It was hard to tell at first, but Jaune could see a wavering in the air, almost like you could see above asphalt on a hot day. It was so high up, he had to squint to catch a glimpse of it.

"It's a force field," Blake said. "The whole city is covered from the sides and the top."

"What are they keeping out?" Jaune asked.

"Grimm," Mercury said. He had his scroll open and was frantically searching through what looked to be an article.

"How do people get in and out then?"

"They don't." He showed them the article he had found on his scroll. The title read 'Council to build wall against Grimm after wave of refugees from rest of Remnant rush in'. Jaune only got through half the page before Mercury turned suddenly and walked away from the looming wall. It was almost a relief that he had been forced to stop reading.

Raven told them she'd scout around as a bird to confirm what they'd learned, and that she'd meet them at the complex. Jaune, Blake, and Mercury walked back to their abandoned apartment in tense silence. No one wanted to say what they were all thinking. To say it would make it real.

They got back to the apartment, where Raven greeted them with a glum look, only reinforcing what they knew. Jaune couldn't hold it in any longer.

He hit the wall with his fist, leaving a web of cracks in the old drywall, and stomped into one of the empty bedrooms. His back hit the wall and he slid down. He stared at the old carpet for what seemed like hours or minutes, he couldn't tell. Eventually a pair of boots came into his field of vision.

Blake said nothing as she sat down next to him. She leaned into him, and he into her. What else could they do in a time like this?

They were still in Vale, that much was sure. Except there was one huge problem. It was the Last City on Remnant that hadn't fallen to Salem and the Grimm.

And they had travelled thirty years into the future.

0o0o0o0o0

Who could've guessed!? Well, anyone who read the summary, really. I wish there was a way to hook people in without spoiling that little bit, but that's the nature of fanfiction I guess.

Took a few liberties with some stuff. Obviously this is after Season 7. I'm leaving the exact time after that ambiguous, because I do kinda want to allow it to still follow some of canon, depending on what they do for Season 8. Also the scroll stuff, just kinda made it up cause it was convenient. Again, I didn't think too hard about the little details, and neither should you. Cause y'know, this is fanfiction, who really cares.

Leaving a review, even one with critique, is greatly appreciated. I'd love to hear anything and everything that you have to say. Don't be shy. Anyway, I really hope you enjoyed it, and, again, thank you for reading!