Robert sat on a bench, looking at the debris in front of him that used to be Beacon’s Art Wing, one of the few areas that hadn’t been replaced or repaired. Very few of the survivors of the Order of Grimm’s attack could say they got out physically unharmed, even fewer could say they got out mentally unharmed. For once, luck had been on Robert’s side, for no one he knew well was killed in the attack. The teen let out a sigh as he rose from his seat, disappointed that all of his friends were busy with their different extra curricular activities, leaving him alone for the rest of the day. “Maybe I’ll go to the cafeteria and get something to snack on in the meantime?” he thought aloud. Little did Robert know though that his day would soon take a turn for the weird.
Robert reached for the handle of the door, when he heard two voices behind him say something in unison, “Dad?” Ignoring it, he continued to open the door before he was suddenly grabbed from behind by two figures, one of the voices, a female one, saying, “It worked. I can’t believe it worked. I can’t believe it’s really you.” Confused, he turned to see who was so excited to see him.
“Um, I think you have me confused for someone else,” Robert replied to the
boy and
girl who were hugging him. The boy backed off first and then pulled the girl off of Robert.
“Uh, sorry. We have some explaining to do. You see, we’re from the future… and we’re your kids, too,” the boy said. “I’m Robert Jr., you can just call me Junior though, and this is-”
“I’m Lilly,” the girl blurted out, interrupting her brother.
“‘My kids?’ Is this some kind of prank? Did Daniel put you two up to this?” Robert asked in disbelief.
“No, we can prove it,” Junior blurted in. “Who knows what happened what happened the day you found Grandpa, Grandma, and Aunt Scarlet’s killers?”
“How do you know about that?! Priscilla and I were the only ones who were there! How did you find out?!” Robert screamed. He thought back to that day with regret and sorrow. It was the one time, the only time, that he broke his rule. The one rule he had when in combat. ‘Don’t kill.’
“Mom told us everything,” Lilly said, holding out her scroll which had a picture pulled up. Robert took the scroll from her hand and looked at the photo with shock. There was no mistaking the three figures in the picture, there stood Junior, Lilly, and a middle-aged Priscilla. A thought suddenly struck the surprised parent, though.
“Why am I not in the picture?” he asked, fearing the worst. Junior and Lilly both turned to look at each other with a worried look on both of their faces, only making Robert fear the answer more.
“You died,” the children answered their parent together. “Today, actually,” Junior added. Lilly punched him in the shoulder as soon as the words left his mouth. Obviously that wasn’t a detail they were supposed to share with Robert.
“T-today? But that means…” Robert pulled a small wrapper out of his pocket and skimmed through the label before finding the sentence that interested him. “This product does not completely eliminate the risks of preg-”
“What are you reading?” Lilly asked, trying to look over Robert’s shoulder to see what it was.
“Nothing! Ignore it. So, what are you doing here then? Are you trying to save me or something?” Robert asked, trying to figure out why his kids from the future were here.
Both Junior and Lilly looked down to the ground with guilt plastered all over their faces. Lilly spoke first. “Actually, the thing that kills you, the
Reaper, comes back in our time to kill everyone in Vale, and it ends up it can only be killed by your bracers. Grandpa made them out of some unknown metal and they seem to be the only thing that can pierce its hide. You defeat the Reaper and it escapes, but you later die to your injuries and your weapons are lost. We were supposed to travel to the exact moment after you died and take them, that way we don’t mess up the timestream too badly. I guess I wasn’t accurate enough,” she explained. “Not that I’m not happy to see you Dad,” she added when she thought of how her words might be interpreted.
Robert felt like the world was spinning. Just too much information to process all at once. His kids just came from the future to tell him he would die from a horrible Grimm he’d never heard of and they needed his weapons to kill it because it’s become such a problem in the future that they would risk completely destroying the space-time-continuum to stop it. “Alright, just a few questions. One, can you tell me more about this ‘Reaper?’ Two, how did you time travel? And three, what are we going to do now?”
Junior stepped forward to answer the first question. “It’s a super powerful Grimm and the Order of Grimm have somehow found a way to mind control it. They send it to Beacon and you’re just unlucky enough to be it’s first target. It survives your battle and attacks again in our time, but nothing we have can even hurt it.”
For Robert’s second question, Lilly stepped forward to answer. “My semblance is to stop, reverse, and skip forward in time by ten seconds and Junior’s is that he can amplify other’s semblances. Combine the two and, well, I got us here.”
Both Junior and Lilly looked at each other as if they expected the other to answer the third question. When they both realized that wasn’t happening, they turned to Robert and said in unison, “We don’t know.”
“Hrrm,” Robert said as he tried to think. “I’m… assuming you don’t want to change anything in the past… so you don’t have some Butterfly Effect-thing happen.”
“That... would be preferable,” Junior responded.
Robert let out a sigh. “So I’ve got to die,” he said, sadness filling each word. Junior couldn’t bare to look at his dad, while Lilly, who was just barely keeping back tears, couldn’t take her eyes off of him. “Well, if that’s how it’s got to be. How much longer do I have?”
Junior and Lilly both looked up at him surprised and shocked. Junior spoke first, “You- you’re okay with this? We’re talking about your death here, dad.”
“Yeah, I know, I know. Now hurry up and tell me before the dang thing shows up,” Robert replied.
Lilly looked down at the time on her scroll. “In fifteen minutes,” she said. “On the other side of the school.”
“Well, let’s get on our way then. You probably want to stay close by so you can quickly grab my weapons and go,” Robert said before starting on his way, Junior and Lilliy trailing behind. As the three walked at a half-sprint towards, Robert began to notice several other students, specifically male students, looking at the group’s general direction. He followed their gaze to see what they were looking at and realized that it was Lilly. He slowed down his pace so he was now walking next to her, blocking the students’ gazes and turned to her. “Promise me that, when this over, you’ll throw away that outfit and any like it,” he told her.
“What?” she said before looking down at her clothes. “What’s wrong with it?”
“You mean besides the fact that it looks like your chest is going to fall out of your shirt?” Robert replied.
“Hrmph,” she said as she crossed her arms. “I’ll have you know that, in our time, all the girls wear this.”
“Do they, Junior?” Robert said, looking at his son. Lilly turned to her brother, giving him a death stare.
Junior looked between the two, realizing the definition of being ‘stuck between a rock and a hard place.’ “Fuck that, I’m not getting involved with this.”
Robert suddenly stopped and looked at Junior angrily. “Language, son!”
Junior looked defiantly at his dad. “I don’t have to listen to you. You’re 21 and I’m 22, I’m older.”
“I was born 21 years before you though, I think that makes me older,” Robert replied back. The sound of silence suddenly caught Robert’s attention and he looked around the courtyard to find the source of the lack of commotion, only to find no one there. “Where is everyone?”
“The Reaper specifically chose you because you were alone,” Junior said. “It just so happened that when you were over here, no one else was.”
“Well, I hope your old man’s luck didn’t rub off on you, son,” Robert said as he peered into the sky, expecting the Reaper. “So how much longer do we have?” he said before turning to see Junior and Lilly running to hide behind a group of nearby bushes. “Well, that can’t be good.”
Suddenly, the ground shook as Robert heard a loud crash behind him. He slowly turned to see the beast in front of him. “W-well hello there… sir. I, uh, hope you aren’t that Grimm that I’m supposed to fight, because if you are I might as well just kick my own ass and save you the trouble.” The reaper let out an ear-piercing roar and lunged at Robert. “Why does this always happen to me?” Robert said as he rolled out of the way of the attack.
Meanwhile, Junior and Lilly continue watching nearby. “I don’t think I can watch, not when I know how this all ends,” Lilly said.
“There’s nothing we can do to help? Nothing?” Junior asked.
“No, if we do we could change all of history. We could accidently make it so we never exist, which would create a paradox that could destroy the entire universe since we’re the ones that caused our own non-existence.”
The two watched as Robert finally took the offensive, slashing at the Reaper’s arm after missing him. The Grimm howled in pain, pain that it had never felt before. It’s several tails whipped around violently, one of them hitting Robert and sending him flying towards a nearby tree. He hit it with so much force that, for a split second, he was unconscious. He quickly came to, only to see the Reaper charging at him. Robert tried to dodge, but it was too fast. The pain of one of the Grimm’s horns impaling his shoulder was the most intense pain he had ever felt.
Lilly gasped at the sight of Robert’s injury. Junior couldn’t watch any longer and jumped out of their hiding spot. “What are you doing!” Lilly shouted.
“I can’t stand by and be a spectator as Dad is killed by this thing. You know what Mom said Dad used to say, ‘Sometimes, standing up for what’s right means you have to walk into harm’s way, even when you know better.’” Junior said before running full speed at the Reaper. Lilly soon followed.
Junior attacked first with his
weapon by trying to slash the back of the Reaper. It did nothing more than make the Reaper look back to see what was annoying it. Luckily, this was just the distraction Robert needed to release himself from the monster’s horn. He stood up and looked to see Lilly approaching with her
weapon, ready to defend her brother and dad.
“Junior! Lilly! Get back! You’ll only get yourselves killed!” he shouted toward them. Robert then turned back towards the Reaper, one of its many tails coming straight for him. The redhaired teen swiped downward, completely severing the limb from the Reaper. The monster roared before making several swipes at him with its claws. Robert blocked all of the attacks except the last, which sent him flying across the courtyard. Junior and Lilly, who the Reaper was completely ignoring, helped Robert to his feet.
“You okay?” Junior asked.
Robert looked down at his chest to see his blood slowly staining his ripped shirt. “Yeah, I’ll live… well, actually I won’t if what you say is true.” Robert tried to laugh at his own dark humor, but the pain his chest made him stop. “Listen, you both just stay back while I get up close and personal. If you’ve got dust rounds, use them. Maybe those’ll get his attention more.” Without any warning, Robert lunged at the Reaper, trying to find any possible weak spots where he could do more damage. Meanwhile, Junior and Lilly surrounded the Grimm and were firing dust rounds at it.
Overwhelmed by Robert’s attacks and the different element rounds pounding against its almost unpierceable hide, the Reaper began to panic, no longer trying to aim for specific targets. When it finally got its bearings back though, Robert was its main focus again. The Grimm’s ugly head shot toward him and chomped down on his chest, lifting the hunter-in-training into the air. Junior and Lilly both shouted, “Dad!” in unison. Robert screamed in pain as teeth ripped through skin and bone. Using his free arm, he stabbed the Grimm in the face, causing it to reel in pain, release him, and finally fly away. Robert laid there bleeding in the crater caused by the Reaper when it first arrived.
Junior and Lilly kneeled down next to their dying father. Lilly hugged the body, crying into his shoulder, while Junior tried and failed to hold back tears. “C-come on. We…” Junior sniffled, “We need to take the… the weapons and go. We can’t s-stay.” Junior took the Robert’s bracers and slid them off Robert’s wrists, then helped his sister off the ground. “Beam us up, Scotty.” Junior said, trying to lighten the mood, right before the two of them disappeared back to their time.
Epilogue
Beep...Beep...Beep…“Whu-what’s going on?” Robert said as he sat up. His entire body ached and he felt a sharp pains where the Reaper had bit him, scratched him, and gored.
“Robert!” he heard Priscilla cry out before feeling her lock arms around him.
“Ahh!” Robert cried in pain as she squeezed his injuries.
“Sorry,” she said before backing away a bit.
“It’s fine. Wait, I’m alive? I thought I was dead for sure.”
“When I got out of class, I was going to head to the dorm and see if you were there, but I overheard some guys talking about seeing you hanging out with some slut, so I went running to find you and ask you who she was but I found you all injured and stuff. Who was that girl anyway!?”
“Ooh are you in for a story.”
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FaithfulMuse
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