Schwartz was clearly an experienced desert rider, for only a few times did the shifting sands threaten to sink their ride.
Contrary to Vacuo's reputation, the terrain wasn't all impossibly high dunes of scathing grain, which would have made using such a ride nearly impossible.
The direction and route Schwartz was taking them is more of a wasteland, hard and dried land with rocky crags and distant plateaus.
Along the way, they had stopped to rest briefly to hydrate. During this time, Weiss asked about the lack of Grimm.
According to Schwartz, it was rare to encounter Grimm out in the desert wastes, especially without the proximity of an active settlement.
And even then, night and sandstorms were the conditions to really be wary of.
While the monsters seemed not to mind the cold nights, not even Grimm were immune to the devastating sunlight of the day.
Only Dromedon and Jackalopes seemed to be well adapted to the desert heat as other Grimm species appeared only in limited capacity.
After what felt like hours underneath the oppressive sun, their destination comes into view. Rocky canyons, laid ahead among these plains of sizzling stone with occasional dead shrubberies.
The canyon was formed by tall mesas of sandstone on all sides. Faint traces of buildings and large machinery were small on the horizon in the middle of them.
Schwartz stops the motorcycle hidden in the shadow of the mesa's walls, away from direct view of the canyon's activity.
Weiss takes off her helmet and grasps her long hair to her lap, brushing the sand off it.
“So, this is the place, huh?”
Schwartz unwinds the gray scarf around his neck and removes his helmet too.
“Yes. The mines.”
“Well… thanks for the ride. I don’t think I could have gone this far on my own...”
Weiss waits for a response before continuing but remembers it's futile to wait for any pleasantries or courteous manners from Schwartz.
She vaults out of the sidecar. “So, are we just going to waltz inside and take some dust or...?”
“We’re going to have to mine it ourselves, but yes, more or less.”
Schwartz unloads some stuff from the motorcycle’s various compartments and puts them into an over-the-shoulder satchel.
“Do you have a huntress license?”
“Umm… No. We never got to graduate from Beacon...”
“Right, you looked rather young to have one anyway. I’ll just loan a worker’s uniform for you so they’ll let you pass without any hassle as long as we lay low.”
“What, do we really need disguises? It’s not some sort of restricted area, is it?”
“It’s a dangerous mining area, only authorized, properly protected, personnel.”
Schwartz recites with a pointed and uncompromising routine.
“Also, you’re a Schnee.”
“Right...”
Wait here.” Schwartz walks off toward the mine.
“Sure! Let’s-” Weiss stops in her tracks. “Oh… yeah. I’ll wait, while... you’ll get on with it.”
Weiss chuckles abashed and retreats a few steps.
Schwartz just casts a glance at her and then crests the corner, disappearing behind it.
She proceeds to stand around, leaning against the motorcycle. Tapping her fingers against the seating cushion rhythmically and most of all, restlessly.
Only a few moments pass until Weiss’ curiosity gets the better of her, and she creeps forward almost hugging the orange-red cliff walls.
She peeks the corner and strong winds blanket her face, whistling in between the mesas. She recoils, swipes her face with her hand, and looks again, this time taking care to protect her eyes.
She sees the mining area further away, in the middle of a large open area between the cliffs.
Large trucks, vehicles that have massive drills, and bulldozers are spread around the area, along with temporary housing and facility buildings.
People walk around in protective equipment and exit and enter the massive gaping hole at the back, the mine no doubt.
From inside it, figures seem to push up minecarts of dust crystals and ore which end up inside another building.
At least he spoke the truth, the mine is actually here…
Maybe I won’t be captured again after all.
He doesn’t seem to be alerting them, or even talking to anyone...
Schwartz’s back soon disappears somewhere behind a building and Weiss backs away to wait before somebody spots her.
Hmm… would it really have been okay for me to go as I am if I had a huntress license? I guess I could have declared that some sort of a special operation required me to enter?
…
We will all become huntresses, one day...
It won't stay a dream or an impossible future.
I swear it, Ruby.
***
“Get up.”
“I-I wasn’t sleeping!” Weiss jumps awake from the sidecar and quickly finds Schwartz with her startled eyes.
A bundle of clothes is dropped onto her lap.
“Put those on and let's go.” Schwartz looks back to the way he came, and seems anxious to get going.
Weiss gets up holding the clothes, looking over them in disbelief. Schwartz appears to already be wearing the same outfit she just received.
Blue full-body overalls, a visored yellow hard hat, and a yellow-white reflective vest.
“You’re kidding, right? I’m supposed to wear this?”
Schwartz faces away and crosses his arms but doesn’t say anything. He taps his foot onto the ground and frequently glances at his wrist.
“Urgh…” Weiss starts putting on the worst outfit she’d ever seen with conflicted feelings.
She is ashamed of having to wear something like this, but also ashamed of herself, that something so miniscule in the grand scheme of things made her complain.
She had already been through so many more difficult things than just wearing clothes unbefitting an heiress.
An ex-heiress…
As she starts putting on the safety gear and uniform on top of her existing clothes, she reminisces on the past shenanigans with her team at the academy.
Mainly, the ridiculous pajamas Ruby and Yang wore, and Blake’s wasn’t much better either…
None of them had thought they’d be showing their sleepwear to other people, despite knowing that they’d be staying in a shared room.
It’s surprisingly easy to overlook such things, taking matters like privacy... or friendship and safety, for granted.
Weiss could still lucidly remember their smiles, the chorus of laughter... and how she had contemplated getting pajamas with a matching funny theme to fit in.
She had had her eyes on a fabric with silly black bears on a blue background from a clothing store.
Clothes might make a woman, but matching clothes, especially those born from inside jokes, made the best of friends.
If I have time from this time travel... I should buy those this time, I’m going back into the past after all. To a time, when the store hadn’t been burned down by the attack.
Weiss is now clad in the working outfit, her long hair tucked away inside the overalls, the large hardhat working to conceal her identity quite well.
The clothes set even has large working boots, but those seemed way too big for her, and indeed, they clonk around her feet as she walks.
Maybe she should have put them on while still wearing her wedge heels, perhaps they could have fit inside them too.
“Alright, I’m ready.” Weiss plops down the helmet's translucent visor and poses with hands on her hips.
“Then let’s go. We don’t have time to waste.” Schwartz doesn't even look at her.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean... since you said the mine would be destroyed, we must be... fast in investigating it. Who knows when that might happen.” He glances at Weiss with creased eyebrows.
“I... I don’t remember the exact date for it from the report... sorry.”
“You didn’t write it down in your scroll?”
“Well, I wasn’t exactly 100% ready to travel back in time when it happened, I just... well, didn’t think it would work at first... I was just going to try it.”
Schwartz doesn’t say anything, but that tells Weiss plenty.
“Come on, how could I have known? And even the very concept of Time Travel is like way beyond even fantasy or magic.”
“Fine, fine, and leave your weapon here, we aren’t going in for a fight. No worker carries a weird weapon like that.”
“Leave Myrtenaster behind? You’re joking.”
“Oh great, a weapon namer.” Schwartz shakes his head.
“What?! It’s completely normal! Everyone does it!”
Weiss vehemently defends her own and the honor of her friends with waving hands.
“You seriously haven't named your gorgeous greatsword?”
Weiss looks around.
“Wait... where is it?”
“I left it back at the garage, of course, and it’s not named.”
Not by me anyway...
“Unless you count ‘crowbar’ as a nickname.”
“Really now? I...”
“Wouldn’t have guessed? Believe it or not... I’m not a fighter. My aura is weak. The sword is just a tool for emergencies, the few times I’ve had to defend myself or my home.”
“But you’re so… big and tough.”
“I have to be if I am to work in the mines, or even survive in the world of Semblances when mine is so useless. A detriment, even.”
“But not everyone even has a Semblance, much less have unlocked their Aura-”
“It doesn’t do much to shift the balance of power, even if there are people weaker than me, the gap to the top is higher than the sky from both perspectives.”
“Come on now, it’s not that bad-”
“You smashed through my house without even trying, wielding some sort of massive conjured sword, and came out of it totally unharmed.
Meanwhile, I fell over my table onto my pint and immediately started bleeding from a mere shard of glass.”
“I mean... you can do some terrible damage with you eyes?” Weiss says with a rising inclination.
“Yeah, let’s hope the one fighting me doesn’t have a single friend with him. Or manage to close their eyes, wear sunglasses, a mask...
Besides, both the user and the target are sitting ducks the whole time, hard to even call that one an upside.”
“Fine! Point taken.” Weiss crosses her arms. “Let’s just get on with it.”
“I couldn’t agree more. We’ve wasted enough time as is.”
Schwartz starts walking away, and Weiss catches up to him, keeping her weapon close to her side, partly concealing it with her arm.
As they close in on the mining site, Weiss can make out Schnee Dust Company logos in the trucks and machinery, as well as the minecarts.
The ones pushing them are Faunus who are… chained to the carts themselves. They don’t seem to be doing all that well.
“W-what-?”
“Shh-!” Schwartz shushes her as they arrive at the main area.
Their heads downcast, with ragged clothes, the slaves pass them, without looking up at the free workers, or at the two of them.
A wolf Faunus with missing patches of fur, a rabbit who was limping his leg, but still valiantly pushed the cart…
They didn’t seem exactly well cared for.
Weiss looks around, but to everyone, it’s business as usual. Nobody questions their presence, nor the morality of keeping these slaves.
“This is horrible…” She mouths nearly silently underneath her breath and averts her eyes.
“They’re Faunus, why do you care?” Schwartz whispers.
“-!” Weiss couldn’t speak a word, nor utter a sound. It cut her deep into her heart, deep into her being. It was… something she could have said, not that long ago.
The realization made her woozy, light in the head. Would she have not batted an eye, and happily kept up the status quo if she saw this back then?
How could she have ever thought like so?
She stares daggers at Schwartz, who doesn’t bother with a further comment.
He couldn't know Blake was also a Faunus, and Weiss had trouble determining if he didn’t care for Faunus himself, or if he was just calling her out on Schnee hypocrisy.
As they walk deeper in, the red and yellow sandstone cave turns into slightly damp bedrock, with the cavern walls changing color accordingly to darker shades.
All the way, the cave remains large, big enough for two massive trucks to drive down next to each other, no doubt. And yet... they still used slaves to transport the dust and ore itself?
As they reach a location with no other personnel nearby, Weiss whispers: “So, what’s the plan? How much further?”
Schwartz looks at his wristwatch, a black metallic one, with cracked glass. Wordlessly, he directs them to a side path.
“In ten minutes, the workers in the area with the time dust will have a break.”
Schwartz hands Weiss a heavy shovel, with a sturdy wooden handle, from his belt where it had been hanging.
“Use this to prop the door so that they cannot leave the breakroom. It’s the small container-looking house inside, with only one exit.”
“H-huh?”
“We don’t want them coming to interrupt us, is that clear?”
“Okay, I can do that. But why the secrecy... you do work here, right? Can’t you just do it normally?”
She looks at him dubious. “Like, isn’t that the whole point of our disguises that we blend in and can do whatever here?”
Schwartz looks around to the main path from their hiding place, and then finally turns to Weiss to answer.
“Time dust is a new groundbreaking discovery, largely still unknown dust type, discovered just yesterday.
So, only authorized personnel are allowed in its vicinity. Which neither of us are.”
It irritated her to no end, how she is unable to read Schwartz at all. He nearly always spoke in the same way, the same tone. Meaning every single word with full confidence and conviction.
Every second word he said could have been a lie, and she would have been none the wiser.
Each question she asked, felt like it was answered with a rehearsed performance, a show that would always convince anyone who heard it.
But... his logic was sound, Weiss doesn’t know any better about how the SDC’s mines really operated, so she’d just have to take his word for it.
They stay out of sight in their hiding place for a time, until Schwartz speaks up.
“It’s almost time, come.”
They quickly make their way to the entrance to the chamber of the promised time dust.
Peeking across the corner, they see people leaving the machines, digging sites, and all other equipment behind, entering the breakroom, the only cozy safe haven in this depth.
“Prop the door shut and wait there for me to return, I’ll come get you once it’s done.”
“Okay.” They enter the large cavernous space, and she catches a glimpse of an exposed vein in the cavern wall, that seems to have only been hand dug so far for how small it was.
In it, the pearlescent dust shone. Schwartz goes towards it, while Weiss continues towards the building. A large drill vehicle between them soon blocks their vision of each other.
There were also a few minecarts in the direction Schwartz went, she wonders if those would have had already mined time dust inside.
However, there are no tracks laid here, so perhaps they’re still preparing the transportation network for it.
Weiss arrives at the door of the break building, it says “Pull” and has a large handle on it.
Schwartz really knows the facility well, huh? It's just wide enough to slip the shovel’s handle through it.
As Weiss is about to put the shovel through it, she wonders.
If I’m just temporarily blockading it, wouldn’t it be much more convenient to use my glyph for it…? I can just dispel it remotely if need be, too.
She sets the glyph on the door, spreading it on the surface, keeping ahold of the shovel instead.
There, that’s much better.
Can’t really blame Schwartz, it’s not like he knows the ins and outs of my wonderful abilities.
Weiss waits next to the door, hearing the workers chat inside, unable to make out any words.
Then, the door rattles. First gently, and then more fiercely.
“W-what’s with this-! I can’t open the door?” A male voice speaks from inside.
“What do you mean you can’t open it?” Somebody shouts at him.
“Are you pulling it again, you gotta push it from this side!” A feminine voice laughs.
“I-I am!” The man groans audibly, straining against the door.
Weiss hears steps, and Schwartz appears.
“Hey, how’d it go?” She asks.
Schwartz looks between Weiss and the door and sighs loudly.
With stunning speed, he swipes the shovel from her hands, and puts it in between the handle and the doorway, barring the door.
“Come on, let’s hurry on out.”
“H-huh!? B-but what about-”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got your dust, a large chunk of it.”
“That’s not what I-” Weiss looks back to the double-barred door as she’s pulled away by Schwartz.
Wait... what is... that?
She spots something placed on the time dust vein, some sort of package, consisting of clumped up sticks or tubes of... something?
They’re taped onto the crystal with wires coming off it that combine into one smaller rectangular box that hangs loosely in the air, a faint red light blinking on it periodically.
“S-Schwartz? W-what did you leave behind? It wasn’t there when we came-”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, now hurry. Or do you want to get caught?”
“What did you put on the vein?!”
Weiss breaks his hold on her arm with a sudden yank and stops.
“That’s a dust bomb? Isn’t it? What were you thinking-!?”
“You told me the mine was going to be destroyed, so I don’t see how it’s a problem.”
“Didn’t you say you were here to stop the accident or, well- whatever that led to this mine’s destruction?”
Schwartz doesn’t say anything but just looks bothered.
“Are you going to blow this place up with all these people still inside? Even the workers here are still trapped inside! By us, no less!”
“So what? They’ve already died once. They are fated to die here.”
“What? How do you know that?” Weiss’ hand shakes as she pulls out her Myrtenaster and bites her teeth together.
“How can somebody be so heartless? So stubborn, so... stupid! That’s no reason for them to die!”
Weiss lifts her gaze, to directly look at him, with a glint in her eyes.
With one elegant swish of her blade, the glyph activates, and the break room's door explodes out, flying off its hinges and hitting the cavern walls, splitting the shovel’s handle in two in the process.
Schwartz stares back at her, his black eyes swirling dangerously as his large hands curl into fists.
But despite the implication of danger, Weiss doesn’t look away but faces him head-on.
Bring it on, you deceitful prick, see if I care.
Do it, I dare you! Show me your true colors!
A slight smirk emerges on her lips.
During their stand-off, the confused people stream out of the break room.
“Huh? And now we’re free?”
“What happened, it’s like the door exploded!?”
Without breaking eye contact with Schwartz, Weiss announces: “This mine is unsafe, have everyone evacuate immediately!”
“Huh? What?”
“On who’s orders? Who are you?”
Weiss throws off her helmet and pulls out her long hair from underneath her overalls.
“I am Weiss Schnee, the heiress to The Schnee Dust Company, this mine is about to collapse! Get everyone out!”
“What?!”
“Okay, do as the Schnee lady says! Everyone, get out of here, and I’ll announce the evacuation through the mine’s intercom!”
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
The young man’s voice gives Weiss pause and causes her to look backward. She catches a glimpse of the owner of the voice as he’s about to leave.
Weiss looks back at Schwartz, with a slacked jaw.
Schwartz averts his gaze and begins to walk away, his posture visibly slumped.
Weiss catches up to him. “You’ve got some explaining to do…”
She threatens him with her rapier’s blade, but it doesn’t even make him flinch, and he continues as normal.
“Why do you want to blow this place up? Did you do so in the past too?”
Schwartz ignores Weiss, but she doesn’t stop pestering him.
“That was you—the younger you—back there, wasn’t it? Why did you try to kill the past you!?”
“It was a mistake ever taking you with me... I don’t know why I bother...
Now it’s all ruined.”
Schwartz looks at his watch.
“The mine was supposed to blow up already... who knows what’ll happen now…”
“I knew it... you must be from the future too, right? The way you coordinated all this, you’ve lived this day before, haven’t you?
But how... this mine was destroyed right?”
There’s no way he deliberately destroyed it in the past too... right?
He’s not some... terrorist?
“That’s... I’ll... explain it later if you so wish to hear it, but now, we must leave and blow this place up as soon as possible.”
“No. We’re not doing that until everyone has evacuated. You have a detonator for those bombs, right? Give it to me.”
Schwartz sighs. “No. You’ll destroy it.”
“I cannot trust you with it. Give it here now, or else!”
“Or what? You’ll kill me?”
“I- I will! You’d be wise not to test me.”
Weiss rolls the cartridge of Myrtenaster to fire dust and takes a fighting stance in front of him, set on blocking his way.
“Give me the detonator, and I will evacuate the mine myself if I have to.”
“Settle down now,” Schwartz says uninterested, and keeps walking towards Weiss.
“I promise not to blow the mine until you’re out. And what more do you want, past me is going to diligently alert everyone to escape anyway.”
“What about the Faunus? Are they going to be set free?”
Schwartz keeps on walking toward her on a direct collision course, seemingly not intending to dodge or step aside.
“Fine then.” Weiss conjures a glyph at his feet, it instantly halts his steps like powerful adhesive.
He sighs, as he cannot free himself.
“Fine, I'll play your game.” He looks at her eyes, but surprisingly there is no seeping darkness.
“Tell me what good will freeing the Faunus do? What difference will it make?
They’ll just continue to be enslaved and exploited by the SDC, until the end of time—or their lives.”
“How can you say that?”
“After you’ve liberated them, what will you do?
Are you going to care for them? Take them into your house you don’t have? Transport them out of this middle of bumfuck nowhere desert?
Set them free, and they’ll only perish in the desert heat or be captured again to continue their servitude.
Some of them were born slaves, they don’t know what it is to act independently, they don’t have any supporting networks, no close ones to help them.”
“I…”
“Your effort won’t change anything. Whether they live or die, they’ll do it as a slave. At least in death, they’ll get a break.”
“No! I... We’ll get them out and one day... I’m sure SDC will mend its ways, and they’ll taste freedom with dividends.
I will make sure of that personally.
There’s plenty of vehicles around- and- and supplies, they’ll be fine to flee!”
“What if the workers obstruct them and a fight breaks out? What’s the plan then, hero?
Can you make it all right with the snap of your fingers? Make the malice and grudges between them disappear like that?”
“I-It’ll be fine! Because- because!” Weiss' eyes light up, and her posture straightens.
“I get it now, it’s so simple!
This future—it doesn't matter! Why didn’t I realize it sooner?
Give me the time dust, and I’ll go back to the past, that’ll solve everything!”
Schwartz is taken aback and purses his lips.
“First you’re adamant about saving them and now you’re freely abandoning them?
Weren’t you supposed to be a hero?”
“...”
“And, most of all, saying that straight to the person's face whose future and world you have just done your best to ruin, is quite bold of you.”
“Huh? What do you mean by ruin? It’s not that bad, all I did is save them, and your past self...”
Weiss continues after a pause:
“And... if I leave here, to the past, I’ll change the future, right? So, how’s your ‘ruined future’ still going to exist?”
“What? You’ll think that just because you leave this time, it’ll cease to exist? Are you delusional?
Even if this won’t split into another timeline, because who the fuck knows how time even works, what makes you think your past would be any more worthy than my future to exist?”
“I don’t know… because it’s the past? Perhaps the time dust makes me the deciding factor. Or maybe it’ll split time in two every time it’s used...”
Weiss looks at the rocky ground hesitantly but lifts her head up again.
“R-regardless! I’ve made my decision. It may sound cold of me, but give me the time dust, I don’t care about the detonator anymore, you can do whatever you wish with it once I’m gone.
Or... do I need to freeze your entire body to claim it for myself?”
Schwartz, still restrained in his steps, closes his eyes. “Very well. But on one condition...
Take me with you. I can go back to the past too, and try again.”
“Only if you give me a thorough explanation first about why you must destroy this mine. I don’t want you coming with me if you’re going to blow it up again in my future for no reason.”
“Can you release me first?”
Weiss hesitates for a second but dispels the glyph.
“Thank you…” Schwartz stretches his legs.
“I said I'd explain... but let’s leave this place first, we won’t be safe from prying ears, or eyes here. And...”
“I’d rather get away from the explosives too...”
“Exactly.”
With a heavy silence, they both leave the cave, Weiss has tucked her hair back in and tries to look nonchalant, despite missing her helmet.
Around them, confused mine personnel and Faunus, some freed, some chained to their minecarts still, linger around the entrance.
Seeing them still enslaved bothered her, but she couldn't find it in her to care.
To... truly care.
Sure, even after she leaves this time behind, going back to the past, they’d probably still be slaves, but... it’s not like it couldn't be changed in the future.
A cold sweat breaks on her brow and sticks her already hot clothes underneath the overalls to her back.
The creeping realization dawns; reality is losing its grip on her.
What was real to her anymore? She had left behind her reality and was fighting against it.
Couldn’t she in theory do anything with the time dust? Just stock up on enough of it and change, prevent anything that didn’t go to her liking...?
Had she been thinking too small? Reality could be nearly anything she wished it to be.
...
What is this, a game?
Even the thought of trying to evaluate what should or shouldn’t happen is enough to drive me crazy.
I... I shouldn’t—I won’t—play god.
After... after Blake is saved, I will never time travel again.
The surrounding chaos and the hurried conversations among the miners allow them to pass through the crowds without interruption.
It’s a grating walk to the motorcycle, they both keep an eye on the other, but without escalation of conflict.
They get away from the view of others, to their private nook, and Schwartz finally speaks.
“Okay…”
He leans to the cliff wall and looks at Weiss from underneath his downcast brow.
“As you guessed, I traveled to the past too.
Today is the day, when we started to mine out the new kind of dust in earnest, without knowing its full… dangers.”
Schwartz shakes his head.
“Yesterday, the small science team on site did some small-scale tests on it and dubbed it time dust.
After which they apparently sent a sample of it to Atlas, as you said that your father had it.
And today as one of our expert miners, I got to work on it for the first time with the big drill you must have seen before.
However, as I did, the dust turned out to be much more volatile than anyone could have guessed, and before I could fully comprehend what had happened, I was in the past.”
“I see...” Weiss ruminates on his words.
“Meeting you confirmed my suspicions, that the whole mine instead goes up with the explosion.
However, I was fairly certain that was the case...
As I have not been able to find anyone else of my co-workers who would have been sent to the past during these twenty-five years that I’ve been waiting for this day to come...
So, I must have been the only one to get sent, due to my proximity to the blast. I was planning on letting it happen naturally, but I couldn’t trust, that just my presence wouldn’t change something. Thus, the explosives.”
“But… why do you wish it to happen in the first place? Why does everyone at the mine have to die?”
“As I hurtled in the timestream uncontrollably, I saw… things. This pale-faced… ominous woman, with red streaks, like exposed veins on her face.
She was a recurring character, in glimpses of what seemed to be possible futures and some pasts too.
In many of them, she wielded the pearlescent dust, annihilating the whole world with ease each time.”
“…Who is she?”
“Those loyal to him called her with many names: Master, Mistress, Lady, Queen and once... Salem.
Now that I think about it, I probably saw you, and your friends fight against her too, and lose.
So overwhelming was the power to manipulate time, there was nothing to do at all.
So... I have to destroy the mine, time dust cannot be allowed to exist, it must be erased from existence.
I wanted the destruction to occur naturally, or well, as close to the same time as before, I couldn’t know if that would help anything, but it felt the safest option.”
Schwartz takes out the detonator, a small handheld object, with a safety in place, to not allow flicking the switch, until it has been disabled.
He looks at the device but doesn’t seem to want to activate it.
“And yet... despite all that, you still helped me...”
Schwartz puts his hand into the satchel and takes out a chunk of time dust in place of the detonator, that reflected all imaginable colors in different angles beautifully under the desert sun.
He hands it to Weiss, planting the fist-sized chunk on her hands.
“Don’t make me regret it, even more than I already do.”
Weiss looks upon this magnificent, even magical crystal. It holds the power to change the world. To modify and bend time and reality to its will.
With controlled and decisive use, it could rule it. If she had enough of it, made plans, gathered information… she could prevent The Fall of Beacon, save Pyrrha, Penny... everyone.
Doubt plagues her mind, had she been too hasty to settle only for Blake?
Would it make her a bad person, or... evil, to not prevent the catastrophe when she is the only one who could do it?
...
But, if even one person possessed it, it was only a matter of time… before others would find out about it too… and seek it out...
Then, all of reality would likely become a jumbled mess of a race to change time to suit oneself.
Until nobody could make sense of the soup it had become.
Weiss grips the lightly throbbing and warm crystal in her hands with closed eyes.
I… I won’t be tempted!
But…
But…!
She sees Blake, lying on the ground, holding a hand over her slit-open stomach.
Her eyes were closed and mouth opened with blood trailing down it, she looked so distraught, her face full of regret. Remembering it twists Weiss’ chest, squeezes her heart.
Blood… so much blood.
And on top of Blake, a crying Yang, unable to help her friend, due to having no arms anymore. Flailing, crying hysterically at the injustice, the cruelty of her weakness.
How she looked back at Weiss and Ruby as they arrived at the scene, how Yang’s eyes were filled with terror.
She was a broken record of crying out how it wasn’t her fault. How Blake couldn't be gone.
...
It makes Weiss wonder if Yang was still in that sorry broken state if she ever could begin to overcome the experience.
“Are you going to use it?”
Schwartz’s comment brings her back to reality, the crystal’s surface now had extra droplets that shone in the light.
“What a foolish thing to ask.
This world… this time, no longer has Team RWBY, and I would do everything… I will do anything to fix that.
Of course, I’m going.”
“I suspected as much.”
Schwartz looks at her with an expectant expression. “Do you know how to use it? How exactly did you get here?”
“I... Well, I just slotted the small amount of dust I nicked back home into Myrtenaster, and tested if it could be incorporated into my Glyphs.
I practiced making a Glyph using a tiny speck of it, thinking that trying to recreate this sort of portal shape would be my best bet to make it happen.
And... well, in the middle of my practice, I accidentally used it all, turning the Glyph into a fully-fledged portal.
So, I had no choice but to quickly step through hoping for the best before it had a chance to disappear.”
Schwartz gets off the wall, “What a brash decision. Anything could have happened to you.”
“I… I’m not proud of it. It was reckless, I was desperate... but also... I would, and I will do it again.
Though next time I’d take some more stuff with me first...” Weiss rubs the back of her head.
“Also, I didn’t see any visions myself... perhaps it’s a difference between our traveling methods. Yours was more explosive and uncontrolled, while mine was refined and calculated.”
“That sounds plausible, but, how will we get back to the correct time?”
Weiss holds the time dust firmly in her grasp. “Do you think the amount is important in determining how far we’ll go? How much should we use?”
“Comparing our two stories, I was blown back to the past thirty years by a literal mountain-load of dust, but… we can’t know how much of it affected me per se.”
“Hmm… That’s true… Maybe there’s something else we should take into account too...”
Weiss thinks back on what she did, and what she experienced during the time of her time travel.
“Well, I also did think really hard about the time frame where I would want to end up.
Though, perhaps my uncertainty sent me just short of the timing...
I doubted if the amount was enough, so I thought that as long as I got sent far enough to get to the mine before its destruction, I’d be fine.”
“You really thought something so abstract instead of like a certain spot and date? Now you’re making me doubt your hypothesis…”
“W-well, how could I know if it would even affect anything!”
“Fair enough, I suppose. It's not like my own experiences even support that.
I had no destination in mind, though it could be due to me being literally blown away that it wouldn’t have even mattered.”
“Hmm... how about the location? When and where did you end up at?”
“I… I was blown back to the very moment I was born. Just outside the Vacuan hospital room’s window.
I saw myself... a young mother cradling a small child.
At least, I'm pretty sure it was me, as I was the eldest, but I didn’t stick around to find out.
I went into hiding, waiting for the day that our parents would pass, as soon after that, we’d all split among Remnant with Nerol and Tarrot’s fight, and leave our childhood home empty.”
“Really...? That’s... terrible. You’ve been here living again, alongside your past self for all this time?”
Though, I wonder if that can really be called living by the sound of it...
“No, it’s okay. I’ve had a long time to come to terms with it.”
Weiss sighs a breath of relief. “Makes me real glad I ended up back in my bedroom, the same place I used it from, but at night. Just the day after I had returned from Beacon’s attack.
Even if it was really creepy seeing myself sleep in my bed, like having an out-of-body experience, looking at yourself in the third person.”
Schwartz brings a hand to his beard.
“So, at least, we both did end up near our previous selves, so perhaps we can only travel to places and times, where we have been alive.
I got blown away to my birth, as that was as far as I could go?”
“I guess that would make sense... Even if all of this might be conjecture, one thing’s for sure, it’s dreadfully difficult having to figure this all out ourselves...” Weiss sighs.
“With a sample size of two, and different methods of travel, we truly can’t be certain of anything...”
“I’ll say… I hope I didn’t cause some sort of trouble or paradoxes back home when I left.
I made hasty preparations to leave for Vacuo the same night with Klein, he’s our family butler, by the way, and really reliable too.
I bet he must have been beyond confused when the next morning he no doubt found the other me still there.”
Weiss organizes all this information in her head for a moment, trying to make sense of it all. Trying to figure out what they needed to watch out for, and how it all worked.
“Hmm, did you and the other you see each other in the mines? In all the fictional time travel stories I’ve read, some terrible thing happens when the past and future meet.”
“We probably don’t have to worry about that. I don’t think we locked eyes or anything, but he did definitely see me, didn’t seem to recognize though.”
“Well, no wonder, you’ve got a beard and a mustache now, and you’re way bulkier than you were back then.
If it wasn’t for your voice being so similar, I don’t think I would have recognized your past self either.”
“Glad to hear it, that was kind of the point of my appearance.”
Weiss sits on the edge of the bike’s passenger carriage, crosses her arms, and looks to the ground.
“So... to summarize, we’ll likely end up near past me, or perhaps we’ll get split when we travel through the same portal and end up near our own selves.
Additionally, we don’t have any sure way to control where we’ll end up, nor do we even know how time itself works or what will happen to this future.”
Weiss kicks a nearby pebble, it rolls and hits another, both of them flinging in different directions.
“So, time travel itself is still a mystery… no surprises there.”
Weiss and Schwartz fall silent, but suddenly a smile forms on Weiss’ lips.
“This is insane… what I’ve done and what we’re doing is simply put… mad.” Weiss laughs briefly.
“It’s surprisingly nice to finally speak about these things with somebody...”
Schwartz's voice has a degree of mild elation. “It’s been... a lonely twenty-five years.”
“You never spoke about this with anyone before? In all that time...?”
“No. How could I?
I would have either been assumed mad or caused calamitous consequences for the whole world if anyone found out. And-”
Schwartz falls silent, even though it seems he has something more to say.
Weiss places down the time dust crystal onto the motorcycle’s saddle, takes out her dust rapier, and pops out a dust cartridge from her weapon's revolver chamber.
She empties the blue dust inside onto the ground.
“Got anything to grind this dust crystal into... well, dust?”
Schwartz feels his toolbelt on the overalls, finding nothing suitable, and then accesses the bike’s storage compartment.
“Will a screwdriver do?”
“You don’t have a knife or anything better?”
“Why don’t you use your sword-thing?”
“Should I peel you an apple while I’m at it too? Ever tried to open a letter with that greatsword of yours?”
“Right, point taken.”
“Well... shall we get to it? It’s not going to explode if we scrape its surface?”
“Probably not, though I suggest being gentle with it...”
“Great...”
...
“Why’d you give me the crossheaded one?”
“My bad Miss Schnee, perhaps you’d like to use your sword then instead, or your plenty long fingernails instead to scrape some off?”
“Fine... Mr. Smartz, just keep to your side of the crystal and don’t get in my way.” Weiss says with a humorous smile.
...
“How long do you think this is going to take...?”
“Not to worry. Even if they say the future waits for no one, at this time, I quite disagree.”
Schwartz situates himself on the other side of the crystal placed on the motorcycle’s cushion and holds it still with Weiss.
“Right, at this moment, time itself is on our side.” Weiss grasps the screwdriver firmly in her other hand and looks into the crystal.
Its enchanting pearlescent glow is faintly see-through allowing her gaze to pierce inside. But there are no answers, no hidden glimpses of the past or the future to glean.
“The future and the past are the ones who have to wait for us.”
She smirks and strikes the crystal.