A Remnant of Lost Time

Chapter 12

The Truth of the Matter

Note: If you haven't checked out my profile, I'll let you know about it now. Be sure to mark down March 15th of this month for I will be uploading a special story for a special occasion. I hope you guys enjoy this update and the ones to come.

The night was long and stressful. My eyes were closed, but I just couldn't sleep. I tossed and turned, hoping that it would help me find a comfortable position, but it didn't work. I smacked my face and got out of bed. For some reason, it was just too hard to find peace in this place. I went to the bathroom and splashed hot water on my face. I wasn't going to sleep tonight so might as well try to stay awake for as long as possible.

I then walked over to the window and stared at the city below us. Lights were shining on the streets and people were still out as if it was constantly daytime. I couldn't help but sigh. Being away from stuff like this for so long made everything seem like a dream. I've been in the danger zone for so long that this doesn't even seem possible.

As I continued to look down on the capital, I started to think back to when Ruby was in the hospital. I don't know why this memory came back to me, but I quickly threw it away. I didn't want to think about something like that. But then, out of nowhere, somebody came up behind me and wrapped their arms around me. I turned my head to see Ruby hugging me.

"Ruby, what are you doing up? You should be sleeping."

"I couldn't sleep. Something told me that you were feeling on-edge. I couldn't let that go unnoticed. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"That doesn't seem that way to me. You wanna tell me what's going through your head?" I couldn't bring myself to tell her. I just turned my head in fear.

"It's nothing. Just go back to sleep." She held my cheek and turned it back towards hers.

"I'm not going to sleep until you join me." She kissed me on the lips which immediately sold me. I took her hand and she led me back into bed where she cuddled up next to me.

…

In the morning, we all got up pretty early and got ready. Once when everyone was finished, a knock came from the door and Yang opened it up to see Dr. Oobleck standing outside of our room.

"Oh, Doctor, we were actually going to come visit you right now."

"Actually, I think it best for me to come here. May I come in?"

"Of course." He walked in rather strangely as if he had seen a ghost. Blake pulled up a chair next to the bed and he took the seat. We all gathered on the bed and opened up our ears. "So what brings you here Doctor?"

"I've come to complete my research." We all looked at each other with weird looks. "What Weiss did at the hospital was sensational. It was unlike anything this world has ever seen. I want to know how you did it. I want to know why you did it." All of a sudden, everyone turned their heads to look at me. "Ms. Schnee, if you would be so kind as to tell us what happened that day." I saw Ruby looking at me with big eyes. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

"What do you want to know?"

"The truth."

"I honestly don't know. It just came over; the motivation to save Ruby's life. If I let her die on that bed with me by her side, nothing would have been worse than that. That's the only thing that kept me going during that time."

"Ms. Schnee, I understand your desire to save your partner, but that's not why I'm here. I want to know how and why you did it. In all respects, you should be dead, along with Ruby. Doesn't that spark something inside of you?" I tightened my fists and took another deep breath.

"Of course it does. It's just that there are some things in this world that we can't understand. One of them being the fact that I saved Ruby's life. Why can't you understand that?"

"Because I'm a scientist. We strive towards solving equations that have been unsolved through time. I want to know how you did it." I couldn't take it anymore. I stood up, grabbed the table lap, and threw it across the landing, shattering it to pieces upon contact with the wall.

"I don't know, okay?! I followed my heart. The whole thing about sharing life force or whatever. That was it! Nothing went into it! All I knew was that I needed to save her life. If I didn't, I would throw down my life for as well. I've lost too many people in this disaster than I can even count. Don't think you can come in and force me to answer something that is beyond me, beyond all of us. I'm sorry, Doctor, but I can't… We can't help you. Let's get out of here." I turned around to head towards the door when my wrist was grabbed. I turned around slowly to see Oobleck grabbing my wrist and staring at the ground.

"Do you wanna know something about this place, about this city we call home?" The other three stood up from the bed in concern and walked near the other side of the room.

"What are you talking about?" He didn't respond. He just continued to stare at the ground.

"Doctor, what are you saying?" He started to chuckle softly to himself.

"Heh, this is all funny. It's even fake when you think about it really." We looked at each other with confusion continually growing in our heads.

"What are you talking about?!" Yang grabbed him off the bed and pinned him against the wall. "You better start talking if you value your precious little life."

"Alright, alright. I'll talk. You want the truth. I'll give you it all. My theory of connecting life forces is all true. Nothing else can withstand the effects of Grimm existence. However, before I figured out the solution, the capital was already busy at work doing something else. Look outside. You guys see that tower in the middle of the capital. That is the secret of this place. That's what keeps people living for so long. It's energy source that allows people to feed off of it and in return, their life spans are uninterrupted. That's all I know. Because of my occupation, they don't let me near it or give me any information on it. I'm sorry. That's all I can give you right now. I hope you understand. I'm on your side." Yang let go of him and he returned to his feet.

On the other hand, we couldn't believe it. To these people, we were outsiders; completely unaware of the technology that they've created. I turned back towards the Doctor.

"So who knows the truth of all of this? Who knows about your theory?"

"Not many people. Just a couple of people who work at the hospital. That's it. I've tried to broadcast it to the citizens of the capital, but they won't listen to me. They're too caught up in the success of the capital to listen to what I have to say."

"So what happens if that tower's destroyed?" We all looked at Blake who was staring at the tower. She then turned around with a weird look on her face. "What would happen if Grimm were to infiltrate the city?"

"That's impossible. This city has never been breached in all of history. If they were too, they wouldn't get far." She walked closer to Oobleck with the same look on her face.

"Have you ever been outside of the walls?" He shook his head. "I wouldn't underestimate our enemy. We've seen things that don't make sense. We've been through countless hardships that these people would never be able to handle. You're telling us that this capital hangs by the thread of that tower?" He nodded his head. She then looked at the three of us. "We can't stay here."

"Wait, what are you talking about?" Even Yang was starting to get a little worried about what was happening.

"It's not safe to linger here."

"Blake, you're scaring me. What are you saying?" She sighed.

"When we were outside of the walls, did you ever feel something during our days of traveling? A feeling of trouble or fear." We slowly nodded our heads. "Grimm are attracted to us… humans. It may not seem like it, but we also irradiate something outwards and that's what they can sense. That's why we were never really safe out there. We were constantly being hunted. It was just their sense of pace which gave us the upper hand. But now that you told us about that tower, it's only a matter of time before this city is taken over."

"You're being hysterical. I just said that this city has never been breached and if it will, nothing get far within these walls."

"And I just said to not underestimate our enemies. We need to leave." We all looked at Blake and saw how serious she was. Her eyes told us the entire story and we had to believe it. Everything she said was true and we weren't going to stick around for the worst part. We grabbed whatever we brought with us and headed down stairs to the lobby.

Right as we exited the elevator, we saw the entire lobby crowded with people. Everyone had bags and supplies and worried looks on their faces. What was going on? We weaved through the crowd of people and made our way outside where we heard a loud siren blaring through the streets.

"The city has been breached. Please find shelter as fast as possible." We immediately looked at Blake who was staring at the wall.

"It's too late."

End of Entry 12