This story came from an idea that I had bouncing around in my head for a while. It's something I haven't seen done yet, so I'm interested to see what people think of it.

Chapter One: A Simple Mission

Ok, I should start at the beginning. Always the best place to start, right? Never understood why people start in the middle and then go back and explain what happened before. Seems counterproductive to me.

Oh, sorry. Got off track there. Anyways, the story.

It was late spring. I picked up a mission at the village notice board. It was supposed to be a quick job – I have two daughters, three and five, and I didn't want to stay away from them for too long – and it paid well. A simple clearing job. Someone wanted all the Grimm gone from that plateau outside of Vale. The one just south of the railroad through Forever Fall, if you're confused as to which one I'm talking about. Anyways, as I said, it was a quick good-paying job that was not too far away from home.

I told my family I would be gone a few days and headed out. I took a flight into Vale proper and hitched a ride on a train heading out until we hit Forever Fall, and then I walked the rest to the way to the plateau. I camped out on the top for a night before attempting to clear the area. No use trying to fight while exhausted, trust me. Never ends well.

The next day was pretty nice, weather-wise. The top of the plateau was pretty windy, but the breeze made the temperature just right. That, and the wind was perfect for what I was about to do. The Grimm are, as you undoubtedly know, attracted to feelings of negativity. However, a friend of mine from school discovered that they could be attracted by other means as well. I started a fire and stuck his Grimm-Bait in the flames, letting it burn and carry the scent all across the area. The Grimm would come, I would kill them, and then I'd head back home to my family with a good payday. That was the plan.

It turns out whoever put up that notice underestimated how many Grimm were in the area. By which I mean they really fucked up on the count. They had said two small packs of Beowolves, at most twelve young individuals each. In reality, there were at least four packs. Each one had a rather large Alpha at its head, and each one had at least sixteen older wolves. They scrambled up the cliff faces around the plateau like spiders up a wall. I readied my weapons, Breeze and Thorn – they're dagger-pistols, in case you were wondering – and dashed forward.

See, I've learned over time that when outnumbered, your best option is to take as many of the important ones out as possible as quick as possible, before they get a chance to react. The Grimm are hierarchical – or so I've been told – so killing the leader's a great way to disorient the entire pack. I rushed forward and stabbed down into the head of the closest Alpha, Breeze's dagger blade going right through the bone plating and the skull. As I was doing that, I unfurled Thorn into gun mode and fired, cutting down the next two down before they had a chance to react. The rest of the pack came at me, and that's when I activated my semblance.

A lot of people seem to think it's speed, that my body speeds up and my brain speeds up too. In actuality, it's time. I can slow down time itself for a while, as long as I have enough energy for it. I have to keep it down to under a minute per use, or I'll run out of energy too quickly and become little more than a nice snack for some Beowolf. I have to budget my bought time effectively.

Fifty-Five seconds.

I pull Breeze out of the Alpha and spin Thorn, returning it to blade form. I run past the slowly falling forms of the two Beowolves I had shot and slice into the three wolves slowly charging up behind them. Their heads start slowly falling to the ground.

Forty-Five seconds.

The other ten Beowolves in this pack start slowly turning towards me, and I charge forward. I spin both Breeze and Thorn into gun form, and fire at the first rank. The bullets come out slower than normal, but still much faster than they should. Never really understood why, but I'm not about to complain about something that gives me an edge. I rush in behind them, spinning both of my weapons back into knife form.

Thirty-five seconds.

The bullets hit the first few wolves, and they go down. I jump over one as it falls in slow-motion, and start carving into the rank behind it.

Twenty-five seconds.

More and more fall down, and I realize I've somehow ended up in the midst of another full pack. I stop and quickly search for the Alpha.

Fifteen seconds.

I suddenly feel a pain in my arm. Looking over, I discover a claw stuck straight into the upper part of my left arm. Somehow it had gotten lodged in there while my semblance was activated. I still don't have any idea when, looking back. I abandon my search and rush out of the pack.

Zero seconds.

Green and black flash around me as I skid out of the pack, making sure to keep my front facing the Grimm.

Sudden, white-hot pain came across my back, followed quickly by another flash from my right leg. I spin, shifting Breeze in my right hand into a backhanded grip, and stab it into the head of the Beowolf that had snuck up behind me. As I shove its now lifeless body onto the ground, I see even more Beowolves. The other two packs I mentioned. I started backing up, as fast as I could with all the tendons in my right leg cut out. I'd almost made it to the cliff face when one of the Alphas rushed forward and slammed me upwards. I tried to activate my Semblance, but I must have burned through my aura reserves because nothing happened. I got hit, and flew up and back.

That's when things got… odd.

After it threw me up into the air, suddenly everything went black. Not you-just-got-knocked-out black. It wasn't like I was unconscious, I know very well what that feels like. This was… like floating in water, only there wasn't any water. It was dark, like in a deep cave or starless night, but only without any of the physical markers you could use to orient yourself. It was just a trackless, dark waste. Which, for some reason had physics that were entirely OK with me floating there like I was submerged in water.

Looking back, I'm struck with the lack of pain. My leg was still torn up, my back had several large gashes in it and my left arm had a Beowolf claw stuck through it, but I felt good. Almost perfect, actually.

Anyways, that only lasted for a minute or two by my count. Then, next thing I know I'm slamming hard into a stone tablet of some kind that I swear wasn't there before and everything is covered in a good heavy coating of snow. My leg, arm, and back all start screaming in pain at the same time, and I'm pretty sure I did too. My vision's going you're-knocked-out black and two teenage girls are running towards me. I didn't really get a good look at them before I blacked out. All I can really tell you there is that one had long blonde hair and the other was dressed in black and red.

Beacon Academy

Present

"And… that's all I remember." She finished somewhat lamely, as the school nurse finished taking notes. "I fought some Grimm in the middle of spring and was somehow knocked all the way into winter. You probably know more about what happened after that, me being unconscious and all." The nurse smiled and got up to check the instruments, and her patient turned to look at the small woman in the corner of the room. "Who were those girls, anyways? I assume they were the ones who brought me here."

Professor Peach smiled. "Sorry, it's school policy not to reveal that information until we've had a chance to have you psychiatrically evaluated."

The woman laughed lightly, and then winced from the pain it sent through her stomach. "Sorry, had to try. They did save my life, after all."

Peach chuckled a little. "That is true." She glanced over at the nurse, who finished checking all the instruments they had hooked up to the woman and nodded. Professor Peach turned her gaze back to the woman currently lying on the bed in front of her. "Alright, miss. We've repaired most of the major damage to your tendons and back, but we're going to have to put you under anesthesia and let your aura do the rest of the work. Now, before you go under, we do have a little bit of housework to do." Peach pulled up her scroll and opened the patient's file. "For one, we don't have records of any job being posted for clearing out that plateau for a long time. One of our students has been doing it gratis for a few years now."

The patient tried to shrug, but found herself once again wincing in pain. "Don't know what to say. It was on the notice board, and I took the job." She gave a wry smile. "I wonder if whoever posted it would be willing to give me some back pay for this, considering that job literally sent me into the future."

Peach found herself laughing a bit again before continuing. The Nurse, however, had not been paying attention and, assuming Peach was done, had begun administering the anesthetics. Peach continued on, oblivious.

"Well, ma'am, I wouldn't know about that, but I can look into it. Now, we are missing one other vital piece of information on your file…"

"Woah…" Peach looked up as the patient groggily laid back down, her eyes struggling to keep open. She rushed forward to the side of the bed.

"Quickly, miss. What is your name? We need it if we are to contact your family."

The woman smiled sleepily. "Yea… my Husband's probably worried sick. I don't even want to think about what the kids…" her eyes slowly closed again, before snapping open once more. "Dust, that stuff is strong."

Peach looked imploringly. "Please, ma'am. What is your name?"

The woman's eyes started closing again, and this time she wasn't fighting it. "Sorry… It's Summer. Summer Rose."

As she drifted off into the dreamless oblivion the drugs granted, she didn't notice the Professor's jaw open, nor the frantic scramble that followed as the infirmary staff scurried to find the last medical records of a woman that had long been thought to be dead.