Blake stood at the edge of time…
All around her was darkness, a hollow endless void. In this void is where time began. And where it ended.
Before her lay a crystalline pool; a vast ocean that appeared as glass, and within this body of radiant shards lay every memory ever created by every individual that had existed in time. Even the unborn had memories. Memories of the warmth of their mother's womb. Memories of her voice singing sweet, soft lullabies.
Blake's eyes rolled in their sockets as they darted from side to side, searching… searching for something. For someone. Her heart contracted painfully as she failed to find what she sought, and out of that failure doubt was born. Where are you?
Blake was once a Time Keeper, a respected Guardian of Life. Now she was a disgraced rogue hunted by beings so powerful, so terrible, that the mere thought of them brought a cold sweat to her brow. The rules of the Time Keepers had been simple: keep watch over your designated souls. Don't interfere. Easy enough. Except they did not account for one very important factor:
Love.
Blake had fallen victim to a trap as old as time itself.
It's not that she intended for this to happen. But she had come upon something awful that was about to take place, and she had to intervene. Wasn't she a guardian, after all? The other Keepers had complained before. They claimed she cared for her charges far beyond what her job required…
There was a particular soul Blake had taken an interest in. See, Keepers couldn't see human flesh. That is, they couldn't see the physical body that housed a soul, but they could see its color.
On the day it was conceived, this particular soul started out as a soft, lavender color. On the day it was given a physical body, the hues changed to a more striking, pale red. Red was the color of purity and passion and love. The soul remained that color for many years. It was beautiful. It was perfect.
And then came the black soul; a soul so foul that it anguished Black to even look at it. This rotten soul was not one of the ones under her watch, but she kept her eye on it all the same. Blake vividly recalled the moment when the dark soul met the light. In that instant, the dark soul had already begun to darken the light. Blake's own spirit had cried out in anguish because that beautiful, pure soul had become tainted.
At first it was push and go between the two souls. The light would chase the darkness, the darkness would come back and dim the light. The process repeated. She never believed the light could be snuffed out.
And then it happened. The soul she watched over began to fade. The dark soul grew stronger. As a Time Keeper, Blake was given the special privilege of seeing the future. She could see an entire lifetime play out before it even began. She knew the fate of the light soul if the course of its life continued without some form of intervention. This is why despite the potential ramifications of her actions, Blake refused to turn back from her course of action.
…A deep crease formed between her dark brows, a look of deep concentration on her soft features. The Keeper's unblinking amber eyes continued to search the ocean of memories.
Time (how ironic!) was of the essence. Blake didn't have time. Not anymore. Her very soul shuddered as it sensed the approach of her pursuers. One of them was none other than the Maker of time. The Time-Maker lived outside of time; time was a creation of his whim and therefore the rules of it did not apply to him. He had the power to end all existence because everything and everyone existed within the confines of time. He was in essence the Creator of All. And at this very moment, he was hunting Blake down.
She was trying very hard not to think about what would happen if he caught her...
"From the moment you were brought here, I knew you were going to cause trouble. I just never imagined how much."
Blake's ears twitched. She looked over her shoulder with a flat expression. Her oldest friend, and a Keeper of Souls, Weiss, pursed her lips and shrugged.
"What? It's true. The Time Maker should have known better than to make you a Time Keeper. You're far too passionate," She accused.
Blake returned her attention to the ocean. "You say it like it's a bad thing."
"It is if standing still for eternity is part of your job description."
"I didn't ask for this job." Blake muttered.
Weiss ignored that last comment and casually picked at her robe. Her face scrunched up in disgust. "You'd think we could afford better outfits."
Blake glanced at Weiss's brilliant white robe. It flowed past her ankles and had a golden sash and a hood with gold trimming. She looked down at her own. It was similar in fashion save for the color. Hers was black with dark purple trim.
A ghost of a smile touched upon Blake's cynical lips. She had always found the things that concerned Weiss rather amusing.
"I can't find her…" Once stoic and unflinching, Blake couldn't quite hide the tremble in her voice borne out of fear.
"You're losing your Vision. If you don't leave soon, you'll be blind. You need to be able to fight. Getting you out of here will be no small task."
Weiss's entire demeamor changed. What they were about to do would taking nothing short of a miracle to pull off. Weiss, too, was all to aware of the consequences of her actions should the Creator discover she played a role in Blake's one woman rebellion.
"I can't leave without that memory. Otherwise this was all for nothing. What I saw hasn't happened. Not yet."
Blake's expression was all worry.
Weiss blew out an exasperated sigh. She casually walked over to Blake's side and peered over the edge of the pool. She set a hand on Blake's shoulder for support. Gazing into the ocean of memories had a dizzying effect. Its surface was clear and polished like glass. Beneath the surface swirled an infinite amount of memories. One only had to look to bear witness to Existence's history.
"Do you even remember what it's like to see as they do? Humans, I mean." Weiss asked conversationally, attempting to distract Blake if only for a moment. She could practically see the tension and fear radiating off the Keeper.
"Up until this point I didn't even remember I existed." Blake said darkly. The pain of that revelation was still fresh.
The two women exchanged a look. Blake bit her lip.
"What?" Blake asked, sensing from Weiss's lingering and loaded gaze that the Keeper of Souls had something to say.
Weiss hesitated, then shook her head. "It's not my place to tell you, but Winter will."
Blake's insides knotted up- and how strange it felt to experience that sensation after –what? Eons?—at the mention of Winter. Like her and Weiss, Winter was a guardian, but of a different variety. She had been given the power to move between dimensions and worlds. This was necessary in order to do her job, which was to hunt down and capture rogue guardians such as Blake.
Winter was Blake's ticket out of here. She was also Weiss's sister… Something they had both forgotten.
"I see her!" Weiss suddenly shouted, tearing Blake away from her thoughts.
"The soul belongs to a girl?" Blake asked, surprised and excited to have this new piece of information.
"Looks like," Weiss confirmed.
Blake's heart raced for an entirely different reason now. She gazed past Weiss's pointing finger and ice blue stare. She could not see the memory in the flesh, but she could see the color of her charge's soul when the memory formed. Within the blinding white orb lay every color the Time Keeper could conceive of. It was so pure, it burned Blake's eyes.
"Wow…" She said breathlessly.
"Can you see her?" Weiss asked, her voice tinged with excitement.
"No… But I can see her soul... Her colors... They're so bright. She's radiant."
A rare smile curved Weiss's pale lips then. Something warm flickered across her usually cold, stony expression. "There's no turning back once Winter arrives. Are you sure you want to do this?"
Blake hesitated only for a second. "I have to do this, Weiss. Trust me, this soul is worth it."
Weiss steadily held her gaze for a moment. She sensed no hesitance in Blake.
"Okay then." Weiss snapped her fingers twice. "Winter, huntress, I request an audience with you!"
Moments later, Blake was blinded as a fork of lightning struck the ground at her feet. A burst of air blasted her, nearly knocking her over. She dug in her heels and waited for the blindness to pass. No one except that Time Maker could make as flashy an entrance as Winter.
Blake's blood turned to ice in her veins as Winter's voice instructed her to reach out and touch the lightning. As Weiss pointed out, there was no turning back now.
Taking a deep breath, Blake reached forward.
This is it. This is the moment... I will meet you soon, Yang Xiao Long.
Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY. I do not make a profit from writing fanfiction. It's all in good fun! This disclaimer stands throughout the rest of the story.
Author's Note: What's up, guys? I'm back with something totally weird and totally new. I just wanted to post and see what you all think. Does this have the potential for something more? Would you like to see something more? So far, I have 2 chapters written, but this style of writing and story telling is new for me, so I would like to know if it's something worth pursing. If not, then yeah, I'll scrap it cuz writing is time consuming and I just started Grad school and time is oh so precious.
On another note, anyone going to RTX? It would be cool to meet up and say hi!