The Knights of Grimm - Act 2 - Captured

Chapter 32 - The Last Traveller

Oscar

"What is this place?" Oscar inquires fearfully; taking a few steps backwards in the realm that looks real but does not feel it. Seconds do not seem to pass at any point; there is no sound, no howling winds. Even the snow does not move. The only moving beings here are the two people stood in the Charred Forest. Oscar stares at the Man of Cogs, the Man of Time. He holds his staff in his hand, light trailing from the head of the weapon, the cogs ticking silently as it moves.

"This is our future...the event that we shall all succumb to." Time explains, holding his hand out to the frozen landscape. Oscar walks towards the frozen Beowulf that was fleeing from whatever was behind it. He touches the ice and it is not even cold like it should be...it is not ice...it is some sort of form of dust. Dust which has caused time to end...he looks at the man as he holds the staff where the snow has stopped around him. "Time is going to end." He tells Oscar, a statement that would give anyone nightmares.

"What do you mean? How can time just end?" Oscar questions as he takes steps towards the Man of Cogs. The cogs that make up his head shift round, like his eyes are blinking. His voice is that of nightmares, extremely distorted and monstrous. If this is what happens to Travellers...what would happen to Oscar?

"The Knights of Grimm." He tells him, looking up at the Beacon Tower that is encased in this form of ice. "Death will use the Relics of Remnant to end all life, including the Grimm." He explains to Oscar, his eyes widen with disbelief at this. "The Relics would transform every form of dust on the planet and cause it to rupture, tearing the planet apart and causing time to stop forever. Only the souls of the fallen and the Travellers can move amongst this realm. Only those unbound by time itself." He explains, walking through the land. He looks at the frozen figures, some people looking back with terror in their eyes as they flee. The way they look back also shows how the dominion was formed from some kind of wave. One that is extremely dangerous, one that might be able to kill everything that lives on Remnant.

Oscar looks at Time, and he decides to ask the question that has been lingering in his mind for a while now. He has had a theory, that it could be one person in particular. He has been bound to his soul and he is very secretive...so he has to ask it. "Are you Ozpin?" Oscar asks nervously, and the being slowly turns to face him, the green eyes focusing on him.

"No." Time answers. "Ozpin died long before I was born." He explains to him, making Oscar's eyes widen. "My first memories as a child were of being the only living thing that moved. My home completely encased in ice, all life unmoving for eternity, unable to speak. Only my voice echoed in this vast continuum of nothingness. My own mother frozen in time before me, my brother frozen, my father frozen. All of them were frozen...but me. I was chosen." He explains, causing Oscar to tilt his head.

"Chosen?" Oscar asks.

"Travellers are not formed from the loving intercourse of partners, Oscar...no...We are generated." He explains, his eyes widen in disbelief, taking steps back.

"What about your mother?" He inquires.

"We are adopted children; we are never given the love of true parents. My brother was a step-brother, my parents were guardians. But they did not live long enough for me to know them." He explains, and then he looks at Oscar. "You too were formed, not born." He explains, and Oscar's eyes widen with horror. His entire life...he thought his mother was a Huntress, or that she was killed or that she just went missing one night. He even thought that she ditched him, told that she was his Aunt. But she must have been his guardian and called herself that so then he would have a relatively normal life. Oscar looks the being in the eyes, horrified to learn that he was created not born. "That is why Ozpin has connected his aura to yours, because he found out that another Traveller has been created. Why? For this very moment." Time explains, holding his metal hand outwards to the frozen landscape.