Chapter 20: Child of Burning Time

"I won't become your hero..."

Spectacular. Magnificent. Brilliant.

His brain spat out the words while he fingered the piece of wood in his pants.

The sun pierced through the horizon, his legs dangling over the edge. A window sat open behind, the loud, grating snores drifting through.

Beacon's wide ballroom was cramped with students wrapped in sleeping bags, roughing it out on the floor. But his partner got the royal treatment. She was lucky he brought his tent with him.

And well, every possible essential from his flat.

Just in case.

His baggage included their robot dog. It sat beside him, a few nuts and bolts lying on the marble. Dust and other tools sat beside his crossed legs. He was twisting the corgi into something else, modifying the thrusters on its legs and even the cannons hidden in its frame.

Being accustomed to a nocturnal life did wonders to one's sleep schedule. It was impossible to get some shut-eye, so he gave his tent away and found something else to work on.

Barring the rope hanging from the balcony, there was nothing about the scene that could have attracted the faculty's night watch.

Nexus Shade just so happened to be a student getting some fresh air.

Nothing wrong with that.

Right?

Definitely.

Nex squinted at the wire between his index and his thumb, channelling some lightning dust. It sparked. "Got it. Now I just need a little bit of this..."

Nex reached for a shard of gravity, putting it into the robot's centre. He attached the wire into the terminal, closing the gap with some screw and his trusty screwdriver.

It barely resembled a dog anymore.

Aside from the triangular face plate on the front, meant to cut through drag force, nothing remained of the corgi.

Weiss would have to forgive him. But seeing as she was currently asleep, it was better to ask for forgiveness, rather than permission. That is, if she would even raise a fuss. They did win the dust fair. It was doubtful she cared about what happened to their project afterwards.

But still, if she wanted a pet dog, then he could simply make her another one. Or well, buy her another one. But she could probably do that one herself.

Nex chucked the sleek board into the air, grinning as the slab of titanium hummed and gravity failed to work as nature intended.

There was something poetic about this—man defying the laws of nature through innovation.

But he had to grab his clothes and change, instead of letting his brain wax lyrical poetry. Right now, he was still in his silver onesie, a golden wolf reaching for the moon printed on his chest.

Definitely not ready for the initiation.

But to be fair, it was cuter than the wolf on Winter's dashboard.

Nex swiped at his bracer. His little inspiration barked, settling on the tiles.

Well, he did manage to fiddle with the tech so it could interface with other things. Things like his scroll and other machinery. It could be handy if he ever needed to hack something on the field.

He looked up, staring at the orange clouds.

Fuck.

Beautiful.

Nex fell, his back resting on the warm tiles.

It was a rare sunrise—strokes of yellow splashed with orange and red. The breeze stroked his extra pair of ears, even as he shivered, the wind whispering words no longer there.

Remnant could wait a while longer.

There was no need to rush. The day was already secured. He only needed to secure his partner. She would probably wake up after thirty minutes or so, judging from their hospital routine. Practically every day for the past few weeks, even.

Something whooshed, skidding to a stop.

Ruby Rose leaned over, blinking. "Nex? What are you doing here?"

Black pyjamas.

Well, to each their own.

"Enjoying the sunrise," Nex said, offering her a smile. "Rigging the initiation. You take your pick."

Ruby's wooden slippers poked his impromptu project. She glanced at the rope, her eyebrows furrowing. Probably confused. Most of their fellow students were probably not as crazy as him.

"What's this?" Ruby said. "This won't get anyone in trouble, will it?"

Nex closed his eyes. "Nope. Maybe. It depends on how well they can dodge Grimm."

"What?" Ruby said, her voice rising. Well, more than usual. "But they didn't do anything to you, did they?"

"Nope. They didn't. But think about it," Nex said, his eyes snapping open. "There's enough of us to cramp the ballroom. There's also an initiation. Some sort of test."

Ruby twiddled her fingers. "I uh... don't get it. Sorry."

So that was why most of his fellow students slept the night away.

They did not understand Beacon could not cater to all of them—that half of them would most likely fail the initiation. The boisterous, moustached professor talking to the one with the glasses confirmed everything.

Thank the gods for his extra pair of ears.

There was definitely no way that he was going to risk their slot in Beacon. And if the other students had an inkling of what was in store for them, then they would be out on the balcony as well.

"It's like this," Nex said, his brain preparing another angle of attack. "If Beacon could cater to everyone, then there would be no need for an entrance screening.

"It's a school that accepts only the best trainees. The cream of the crop. What better way is there to pick out the strong from the weak than a live situation in Grimm territory?"

Ruby gasped, her eyes widening. "They're going to throw us down?"

Now she gets it.

The Emerald Forest stood beneath the cliff, a long drop from the balcony. No light escaped from its shadows, but the red eyes of Grimm glimmered between the trees. There was the growling of Beowolves and the cackling of Nevermores. The howling of Ursai, even.

Well, the monsters—the Grimm were agitated. Probably his fault, but the faculty should have accounted for pre-gaming.

It was a wonder why no one else was doing it. The faculty did not stop him. The cameras in the trees should have alerted them to his presence.

The fact that he was allowed to accomplish his goal meant pre-gaming was part of their test. Something the staff just so happened to forget to tell them, baiting them with sleep instead.

What Ozpin said was true. Knowledge without taking the first step was useless. Blind trust in that knowledge could only get them so far.

"Yep. Don't act so surprised," Nex said. "Pros probably eat this stuff for breakfast."

His stomach groaned.

Ugh.

Well, it was a friendly reminder.

"Right. Do you—do you want to get breakfast with me?" Ruby said, bending. Practically over him. "With Yang, I mean. I mean, after we get changed."

If today was yesterday, then he might have refused. But the present was a gift—according to that one saying.

No takers though.

"Alright. I'll just get Weiss," Nex said. "Then we can continue where we left off."

Ruby smiled. Upside down, but it was definitely due to their orientation. "Really? That's awesome."

Nex shrugged, but it was kinda difficult while lying on the floor. "No prob. We're cool about what happened, right?"

"Yep. It's kinda my fault," Ruby said. "I didn't mean it. I promise. I was aiming at her sword and she kinda moved a bit—"

"Ruby. It's fine. Don't worry about it," Nex said, rubbing his forehead. The ice dust was heavenly on his lids, freezing away the bags hanging from his eyes. "Don't worry about what's in the past. Let's just focus on the future."

Ruby stepped back.

Nex hauled himself to his feet, grabbing his board as he returned his tools to the box.

By the time he was done, the balcony looked like as if no one had been there at all. All the better, since he was just a simple, inconspicuous student getting some fresh air.

Right?

"Try not to tell anyone," Nex said. "We don't need people overhearing."

Left unsaid was the fact that he would tell his partner via scroll. That was expected—they were a pair, a unit.

Nex unhooked the rope from the railing. It fell into the forest, enjoying a small sample of their initiation.

"I can tell Yang, right?" Ruby said. "And Jaune. They need to know."

Nex nodded. "Yep. Send them a message. And tell them to not breathe a word of it. Not even to us."

Ruby held out her left hand, her palm facing up. "Come on. Let's go."

"What?" Nex said, raising an eyebrow.

"My semblance," Ruby said, grinning. "I'll just take you along."

That was kind of her.

Nex glanced at her pale hand, before he placed his arm in her calloused grasp. The world shattered in one fluid, crystallizing motion. Rose petals rushed around them, the sounds, the smells, and the sights, compressing into a tube of glass.

Was that a hint of blood?

And sulphur, even.

But maybe it was just his sleep-deprived brain talking.

Reality caught up, and they were standing inside the ballroom. His board and his toolkit were intact, as well as his effects. No motion sickness. It was surprisingly nice, similar to Neo's semblance. Like being turned into warm fluid and pressed to perfection.

"Thanks," Nex said. "Can't believe I just experienced time travel."

It was definitely a thing.

Neopolitan manipulated space with her semblance, using it to create localized illusions and cross the gap between two points instantly.

On the other hand, Ruby Rose manipulated time, using it to accelerate herself ahead of the world.

It was unlike how the books depicted it. Her semblance was simply dilation between two points of time. But it was still time travel, since she went faster and further ahead before the other parts of the world caught up with her.

Maybe the reverse could be achieved.

If Ruby could use her semblance to go slower than the rest of the world. It was something that could add another dimension to her combat capabilities—principles of uncertainty and all.

If he had her semblance, then he would have simply slowed himself down during class, so it could go faster and he could sleep even more.

But that was probably just his laziness speaking.

What could he possibly say?

Maybe his semblance was laziness instead of precognitive analysis.

Ugh.

Well, it did provide a lot of shortcuts.

Or maybe efficiency was simply a by-product of laziness.

It was definitely debatable.

"What? My semblance is speed," Ruby said. "Not time travel. But that'd be so awesome."

Nex shrugged. The other students were just starting to wake up. They better hurry—initiation started at eight.

"Have you ever wondered how it works?" Nex said.

They walked towards the tent at the corner. And of course, it housed a sleeping Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long was curled up outside, her hair tussled over her white blanket. Jaune Arc was sprawled over her legs, dressed in a blue onesie similar to his.

Apparently, they had a little get together some time during the night. Probably while he was off doing some pre-gaming.

"Nope. Not really," Ruby said. "I just turn it on, run, and go somewhere else."

Nex shrugged, stepping over the two blondes. "Well, it's hard to explain. Maybe during breakfast. Let's wake them up."

Their group composed of one him, one Ruby, one Weiss, and two zombies hobbled towards the cafeteria. That the two zombies were blondes was just a coincidence.

All of them were decked out in their combat uniforms, but it was doubtful any of them were ready for a fight.

Free food was served to a line of students—a line composed of the early-wakers.

Nex shoved a metric fuckton of bagels into his plate, along with some eggs, topping it off with a tall mug of coffee—the strongest brew the cafeteria had. He definitely needed it. There was no way he was falling asleep in the Emerald Forest.

They sat at a long table. Minutes passed in silence, broken only by the sounds of metal utensils on ceramic plates. Evidently, no one was in the mood to talk. Probably because they were hungry.

"So, Nex," Ruby said, looking up from her plate of cookies. She held a glass of milk in her left hand. Apparently, he was wrong. "What did you want to say about my semblance?"

Nex took a sip of the sludge they called coffee. The black, soulless gelatine stuck to the walls of his white mug—the one emblazoned with two axes crossed over a wreath. "Your semblance isn't speed. It's time manipulation."

Weiss looked up from her eggs, coughing. Almost next to his ear. "That's impossible. Are you saying that Ruby's semblance allows her to time travel?"

"Yeah, Broody Face. This isn't one of her comics," Yang said. "Ruby doesn't exactly go all Back To The Past when she uses her semblance."

Seriously.

Where did people get the idea that time manipulation equated to time travel?

Time travel did not exist, because time itself was a human construct. It was just something they used to quantify the progression of events. Definitely not a place they could enter or leave.

"I don't know," Jaune said, prodding a piece of bacon with his fork. "Maybe it's possible."

Nex shrugged. "Not time travel. Time manipulation. Think of time as the progression between different states of reality. When Ruby uses her semblance, she doesn't actually go faster in the physical sense. No sudden, inhuman change in velocity—inertia, air resistance and G-forces would kill her if that was the case. Instead, she accelerates her progression between these states. In layman's terms, she experiences time faster than the rest of the world. The world catches up to her when she stops using her semblance. That also explains why she can use her semblance on others without killing them with said physical forces. She can alter their relative time through touch, although I hypothesize that she can channel her semblance through air particles, since she's technically touching those."

Yang dropped her fork. The poor thing landed on her plate with a resounding clang.

Weiss stared at him, definitely missing the unforgivable faux pas.

Jaune paused halfway, a long piece of bacon almost through his gaping lips.

Ruby sputtered, spilling milk and cookies over her gothic dress.

"Broody Face," Yang whispered, her eyes wide. "That's the most you've ever said."

To be fair, it was probably true.

"I have two more," Nex said, drawing a deep breath. "Things I don't think Ruby's ever considered."

Ruby leaned into the table, pressing her palms into the cloth. "That sounds so cool. Tell me. Please?"

Nex sighed. No sugar-coating, then. "One, accelerating your progression through time makes you age faster. Every time you use your semblance, you age a little bit more than other people. It will shorten your lifespan, no question about that. Using it a lot will definitely let you overtake Yang in terms of physical age. Abusing it will probably make you older than your parents."

None of them so much as twitched.

"What's the other one?" Jaune said, frowning. "It can't be all bad, right?"

Nex glanced at his mug of coffee, the steam heating his nose. "It's possible that Ruby can do the opposite. Instead of accelerating her progression through time, she can decelerate. Reduce her rate of progression. Practical applications include slowing down her relative time, which should make her age slower. I think that it can allow her to pass through fast-moving objects like trains, but I don't really want to test out that hypothesis. You can try phasing through solid matter in a pinch, if you can't do anything else to avoid said train."

He bit into a bagel, just to let his friends process what he just said. They did ask for it. Far be it from him to deny those who wanted to hear another perspective.

"Well... That's just a theory, right? You're insane," Yang said, her lilac eyes fixed on him. "Crazy. My little sister isn't really dying. She can't."

Well, to be fair. She was definitely right on the crazy and the insane parts. But the other parts were debatable.

Weiss stabbed her boiled egg with her fork, heaving a sigh. She frowned. "My partner isn't the type of person to lie about this."

Gee. Thanks for the vote of confidence.

Now if only his semblance did not twitch.

Yang scowled and slammed her fist into the table, their plates shifting on the cloth. "Well, I'm sorry. Okay, Weiss-queen?"

"What did you just call me?" Weiss said, glaring at the blonde brawler. The one probably ready for some fisticuffs. "You take that back."

"Yang, Weiss, please don't fight!" Ruby said. "It's fine. Nex, are you sure about what you just said?"

"You're not dying. You're just aging faster," Nex said, breathing a sigh. There was a stark difference between the two processes, even if they tended to yield the same result. "But yeah. I'm sure. My semblance just confirmed it."

"Your semblance?" Ruby said, her eyebrows furrowing.

Weiss sank into her chair, breathing a sigh. "Nex can see the future. He denies it. But that is exactly what his semblance is."

Three pairs of eyes turned to him. Blinking. Probably at what seemed to be another crazy concept.

Well, not exactly.

"You know that's a gross oversimplification," Nex said. "Yeah, it does allow me to see the future. But that's just something I've learned how."

Nothing but the truth. His semblance was precognitive analysis first and foremost. It subconsciously analyzed stimulus or even data, feeding his brain the result and allowing him to predict and react to the events most likely to happen in the near future.

But tinkering with it enabled his brain to practically absorb knowledge, see what could happen in the far future, and detect imminent danger. The second one was unreliable. More data was needed the farther the event was—and more aura, even.

It was the reason why Roman gave him lots of it, increasing his chances. The chances of gleaning something useful from the ever-shifting possibilities. Semi-concrete stuff like the location and time of a mark, the security, and other things—which were all Roman asked.

But something like a weapon's physical form was enough to discern what it was capable of. Or a cursory look at a semblance to figure out how it worked. But still, every aspect of his semblance could be traced to a single, unifying concept.

Pareidolia.

It was like seeing the universe with an extra dimension—in realms of abstract ideas and possibilities rather than just concrete actualities.

Or at least, in theory.

No explanation for those dreams yet, if they were even a part of his semblance. Well, maybe they were just by-products of his overactive imagination.

Curse his brain.

"Nex learned how," Jaune said. "Can't Ruby do the same?"

Vomit Boy had a point, admittedly.

If he could do the same with his semblance, then it was possible Ruby could mess around with hers. Preferably while she was asleep so she did not move like a turtle. It would probably fuck up her sleep schedule, but that was a relatively small thing to pay for a longer lifespan.

In theory, it should offset her accelerated aging. Maybe even give her an extended life.

"Jaune's right," Ruby said. "If you can do it, then I can do it too. Teach me."

Nex shot her a glance, fingering a smooth, buttery bagel on his plate. "What?"

Ruby pressed her palms into the table, rising from her seat. "Teach me how to slow down my time or whatever you just said."

Ruby Rose was not the first person to ask. Jaune Arc did as well.

Fuck.

He was definitely on his way to becoming a professor, instead of a professional huntsman.

Mekel would be laughing his head off at Professor Shade.

Yuck.

"Yeah, sure," Nex said, killing a sigh. "I have a few ideas."

Helping a fifteen-year-old kid live longer.

Screw it.

It was definitely a lot better than helping some crook take over the Atlesian mechs.

At the end of the table, Yang smiled and shot him a look, mouthing some word or another.

Nex shrugged. No takers.