What Once Was Lost [RWBY FanFiction] Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Welcome to Beacon II

After wandering around the academy grounds for what seemed like an eternity, the three of us managed to find the auditorium with only minutes to spare.
"Wooo... We made it." I was relieved that we weren't late for the welcome brief.
"That wasn't so hard." I looked over at Jaune who tried to play it off like he wasn't worried about being late for the last twenty minutes or so.
"Look who's talking." I retorted, jerking my thumb towards Ruby. "We'd still be wandering around the courtyard if Ruby didn't ask for directions."
Ruby just giggled. "You're both welcome by the way." I rolled my eyes as we walked through the double doors of the auditorium. The glass ceiling almost made it feel like we were still outside and the entire room was filled with students.
"Ruby! Hiro!" a  familiar voice rang out from the direction of the center of the room. We quickly spotted Yang, who was waving at us from the center of the room. "Over here! I saved you two spots!"
"Oh!" Ruby turned to Jaune,"Hey, we gotta go! See you after the ceremony!" and ran off to meet up with her sister, leaving Jaune to reach a hand out to her as she left.
"H-Hey! Wait!"
"See you later, Arc!" I gave the boy a small wave as I chased after her, not wanting to be left behind. Catching up, I noticed that Ruby had crossed her arms. Paying no mind, I turned my attention to Yang. "Hey, Yang. Fancy seeing you here."
"Oh you know, I get around." Yang just smiled at us. "So, how's you guys's first day going?"
"Well, I'm not doing so bad," I gestured to her sister, "but I think your sister may have exploded a bit ago." Yang shifted her gaze to Ruby, slightly concerned.
"Yikes, meltdown already?"
"No," Ruby waved her hand at her older sister, "I literally exploded a hole in front of the school! And there was some fire, and I-I think some ice...?"
Yang leaned closer to her with a smile on her face, clearly thinking that she was joking with her. "Are you being sarcastic?" Ruby scoffed at her as I rolled my eyes, noticing another student walking up behind her out of the corner of my eye.
The girl’s expression was about as cold as her outfit looked, which was completely white aside from the red lining of her jacket. Her snow-white hair was done up in an asymmetrical ponytail that hung off to her right side, and she was carrying what appeared to be a rapier of some kind.
Her appearance seemed to ring a few bells in my mind, but I was unable to recall why before I realized that Ruby had begun talking again, speaking quickly in her distress. "I wish! I tripped over some crabby girls luggage..."
The white-haired girl was now standing right behind Ruby, and something told me that it wasn't because she wanted to be friends. 'I should probably warn her...' "Ruby..."
"...and then she yelled at me! And then I sneezed, and then I exploded," Ruby went on, too absorbed in her recount.
"Ruby."
"...and then she yelled at me again and I felt really, REALLY bad and I just wanted her to stop yelling at me!"
The girl hovered next to Ruby’s ear and shouted, "YOU!" startling all of us. Ruby shrieked and jumped into her sister’s arms "Oh, god! It's happening again!"
"You're lucky we weren't blown off the side of the cliff!"
Yang looked at her sister with a simultaneously awed and horrified look on her face. "Oh my god, you really exploded."
Ruby got back on her feet, pleading to her sister and the white-haired girl, "It was an accident. It was an accident!" only to have a pamphlet shoved in her face entitled “Dust For Dummies”. "What's this?"
I watched as the “ice queen” took a deep breath before reciting what I can only imagine was a disclaimer of some kind.
"The Schnee Dust Company is not responsible for any injuries or damages sustained while operating a Schnee Dust Company product. AlthoughnotmandatorytheSchneefamilyhighlyencouragesourcustomerstoreadandfamiliarizethemselveswitthiseasytofollowguidetoDustapplicationsandpracticesinthefield."
...Was it me, or did the last half of that seem to go by, recited more quickly than even I could understand? I exchanged glances with Ruby, who seems to have had the same reaction.
"Um..."
The girl glared at Ruby before continuing. "Do you really want to start making things up to me?"
"Absolutely?" she squeaked.
"Read this and don't ever speak to me again," the girl responded, shoving the pamphlet into Ruby's hands before stepping back.
I wasn't sure what it was, but there was something oddly familiar about her... I scratched my chin thoughtfully, curious as to what it was.
"Weiss Schnee, right? Have we... met before?" I asked.
She crossed her arms, looking me up and down. "I don't know. I meet a lot of people I don't care about," she huffed haughtily.
I averted my gaze, slightly dispirited. "Oh... sorry." I rubbed my temples, trying to dispel the headache that only seemed to worsen the longer I was at Beacon.
At this point, Yang stepped forward next to Ruby, scratching the back of her head. "Look, uh, it sounds like you two just got off on the wrong foot." She brought her hand back down, resting it on her hip. "Why don't you start over and try to be friends, okay?"
I was skeptical that it would be that easy of a feat to accomplish. Ruby, on the other hand, seemed to light up at the idea. She passed me the pamphlet and turned around to face her new 'friend'.
"Yeah! Great idea, sis!" She cleared her throat and held out her hand. "Hello, Weiss, I'm Ruby. Wanna hang out? We can go shopping for school supplies!"
"Yeah, and we can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys, like... tall, blonde, and scraggly over there!" Weiss responded with sarcastic enthusiasm, pointing over her shoulder at Jaune.
"Wow, really?!" Ruby smiled, excited.
Weiss stared hard at her for a moment, then blinked and said flatly, "No."
Suddenly, the sound of a microphone being turned on caught everyone’s attention. Turning towards the stage, I recognized the figure of Professor Ozpin standing behind a microphone stand. He cleared his throat, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose before speaking.
"I'll... keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft, and acquire new skills, and when you have finished you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people." Ruby started to look between us with an enthusiastic smile on her face. I couldn't meet her gaze, knowing full well the differences in our attendance here. Instead I fixed my attention on the stage, following along with the headmaster's speech.
"But I look amongst you and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far." It might have been my imagination, but his eyes seemed to glance at me for a split second before returning to their original position.
"It is up to you to take the first step."A large portion of the audience seemed taken off guard by what he had said, but I paid them no mind as I turned over the meaning behind his words. I looked at the three girls around me, all of them seeming a bit uneasy from the speech. Ozpin began his walk off the stage as Professor Goodwitch took his place.
"You will gather in the ballroom tonight, tomorrow your initiation begins. Be ready, you are dismissed." I felt myself tense up a bit at the mention of the initiation. I was still unconfident in my ability to make it at this academy. I tried to shake the doubt from my mind, but I knew it would always be there.
I brought my attention back to the group, where Yang was the first to say anything.
"He seemed kind of… off."
Ruby nodded her head in response, looking over to where he had left the ballroom before responding.
"Almost like he wasn't even there."
I crossed my arms and was about to try to explain what Ozpin was trying to say, but I was cut off by Jaune, who had walked over to us with a somewhat cocky smile on his face.
He leaned up close to Weiss, pointing at his chest. "I'm a natural blonde, ya know?"
I let out a sigh. “Jaune… I don’t think-”
“Mr. Colton.”
I spun around to see Glynda Goodwitch, she had left the stage and was now standing before me. ‘How did she get down here so fast?!’
“If you would please follow me, we have a few matters to discuss about your… enrollment.”
I felt a little uneasy at the mention of my enrollment at Beacon. I wasn’t exactly a typical student here, so I doubted that this meeting was going to be routine. I looked back at Yang and Ruby, they seemed a bit curious as to why my attendance was different from others.
I gave them a reassuring smile and waved. “I’ll meet up with you guys later. Try not to blow up the school while I’m gone.” I teased.
Ruby glared at me and opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off by her sister who had wrapped her arm around her head with a playful smile.
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure this loose cannon plays nicely!”
Ruby struggled, unsuccessful in her attempts to free herself from her sisters grasp. I shook my head with a smile before turning back around and following after Goodwitch.

---

I followed the professor through the empty halls of the school without much conversation. After a few minutes we arrived at the school’s medical ward, which was written above a set of double doors on a plaque.
A young man behind the main counter look up from his desk as I entered the waiting room. He had a calm smile on his face as he stood up to address me.
“Mr. Colton I presume, we’ve been expecting you.”
I raised an eyebrow at this. “Have you now?” I wasn’t sure how to take being the talk of the school staff with it only being the first day.
The nurse gave me a nod in return as he began collecting pages onto a nearby clipboard. “I trust that your first few hours here at Beacon have been eventful?”
“Eventful is… one way of putting it I guess.” Even though I had no recollection of previous schooling, this school definitely didn’t feel normal, that’s for sure. “Soooo… what exactly am I doing here?”
Pushing her glasses closer to her face, professor Goodwitch began to explain. “Well due to the... dilemma concerning your background, or rather the lack thereof,” I noticed a hint of irritation in her voice as she spoke. “we have no choice but to create fresh documents for your enrollment records here at Beacon Academy. Luckily, our medical department is provided with everything we need for full physical examinations and aura analysis.” The Huntress gestured her hand towards a nearby door. “Dr. Night is waiting for you in the examination room. It’s best not to keep her waiting.”
Her piercing gaze hurried me into the exam room, and I quickly closed the door behind me.
“Why, hello! You must be Hiro.”
I looked over to the side of the room and saw a woman with long, purple hair in what appeared to be a white labcoat. She had a smile on her face as she stood up from the desk at the wall to greet me.
I reached out and shook her hand. “Good evening. You’re Dr. Night then?”
She nodded. “Yep! Dr. Night, best medical professional in all of Remnant, at your service.” She waved her arms to the side with a slight bow.
I smiled back at her. “Well I should be in good hands then.” Dr. Night’s demeanor was almost in direct contrast with Professor Goodwitch’s. It was somewhat relieving.
She stood up straight and nodded. “That’s right!” She gestured to a nearby chair. “Go ahead and take a seat. We’ll get started right away.”

---

I followed Dr. Night’s instructions as she proceeded to perform a variety of medical examinations. My sight, hearing, and dental profiles were examined and documented among other general things. I found myself a little uneasy when it came to drawing blood for my DNA test, I held my arm out to the side and refused to look at the needle. It didn’t hurt at all, but the idea of forcibly removing blood from my body bothered me. After what seemed like hours I was finally brought into another room for my final test.
“We’re just about done here Mr. Colton, all that’s left is the full body scan.” Doctor Night winked at me and smiled. “Gotta make sure nothing’s broken right?”
I chuckled slightly. “Y-yeah, that would be good to know.” Following the doctor, I was led into a room where I was instructed to change out of my normal clothes and into a medical gown. Leaving me alone to change, I put on the bland grey and light blue colored garb. I left my clothes folded on top of my bag along with my knife and walked back out to receive the test.
The scanner was more or less a giant cylinder on its side that filled a good portion of the room. Laying down on the table by the opening, I watched as Dr. Night input a few things onto the nearby terminal before moving to the adjacent room that was separated by a window.
Once the table started to move I laid my head down and waited as the machine slowly pulled it back to begin the test.
“Please remain still as the scanner does its job and we’ll be all done!” I could hear her voice over a set of nearby speakers as the machine began to spin slowly around me. After about a minute the spinning stopped and the table began to remove itself from the cylinder.
Once out, I sat up and looked over to the window and smiled at the doc. “That wasn’t so bad.” I called over to her. I felt my smile fade as I saw the serious look on her face, it made me worry. ‘Was there something broken after all? I don’t feel any pain.’
Before I could ask I watched as she picked up a nearby phone and begin speaking to whoever was on the other end of the line. I couldn’t hear anything as she spoke, occasionally taking a glance or two in my direction. I began to tense up, something was definitely wrong.
Dr. Night hung up the phone and activated the intercom to speak to me. “Mr. Colton, please return to the dressing room, change, and wait there. The headmaster wishes to speak with you.”
The mention of Ozpin made me even more nervous, ‘Why would he want to talk to me?’ I wondered. I gave a nod to the doctor and returned to change as she had requested. I didn’t have to wait long after I had dressed, as Professor Ozpin seemed to arrive rather quickly holding a manilla folder and his coffee mug in hand.
He set the former down on the table beside us and pulled up a chair to face me. Sitting down, he took a sip from the mug and began to look over the contents of the folder saying nothing. We sat in silence for a while, neither of us saying anything. The only sound that could be heard was the occasional sip of coffee from his mug.
Finally I could stand it no longer. “Is there… something wrong professor?” I asked nervously, somewhat afraid of the answer.
He looked up from behind the folder to look at me. “Well it would depend on your outlook on what ‘wrong’ is,” he replied. He closed the folder and held it out towards me. I stared at it hesitantly before slowly taking it from him. I opened it up and began to scan through the stack of papers with all of the different test results on them, finding nothing out of the ordinary after a few pages. Unmoving,  Ozpin just watched me as I perused the folder.
After a few minutes I reached the last set of results from the full body scan and froze. I stared at the image of my body on the page and began to tremble nervously.
“So you didn’t know.” I shifted my eyes to the man in front of me as he spoke, he took another sip of his coffee, wearing an emotionless expression. My gaze darted between the pages in front of me and the professor, searching for answers to the questions multiplying inside my head yet again. The image detailed the various parts of my anatomy from head to toe, but my attention was drawn to what appeared along the left side of my body. Something that wasn’t normal by any means.
“...P-Professor… w-what am I looking at?” I managed to ask.
The headmaster brought his mug down and looked at me with a calm expression. “Well according to your test results, we have discovered an… anomaly. Apparently a majority of your left side is comprised of an unknown substance.” I did my best to keep my breathing under control as I listened to the explanation. “From what we can tell, it seems that a mixture of biological and mechanical components have replaced several portions of your body, including your left arm, left leg,” He paused and leaned closer to me. “and your heart.”
“...W-What...” My breath caught in my throat as I slowly placed a hand to my chest in a panic, searching for where my heart was.
I couldn’t find a heartbeat. Nothing. I racked my brain, trying to convince myself that I did, indeed, have a heart. But I realized that since I woke up on that rooftop, I never did notice the absence of a pounding in my chest. From the very beginning, it was missing, and I didn’t even notice. Something so important to my own life had disappeared from my body… and my memory. My breath had begun to quicken its pace and I began to feel a strong sense of fear creep over me.
“Hiro, calm down.” Ozpin’s voice reached my ears and I stared up at him. I had been clutching the papers in front of my so tight that they were starting to tear slightly in my hand.
I relaxed my grip slightly but was far from being calm. “Calm down?” I stood up, shaking. “H-How do you expect me to calm down?!” Ozpin didn’t flinch at my raised voice, simply choosing to watch as my anger started to rise. “You’ve just told me that I don’t even have a heart anymore, and you expect me to calm down?!” I slammed my left fist down onto the table, splintering it and causing a small chunk to fall off completely.
I opened my hand and stared at down at it with dismay, finally understanding where my strength was coming from. It wasn’t me, it was whatever was under the skin on my arm, which I was sure wasn’t even skin. My confusion only fed my anger, which in turn, only made me shake more as I dropped the folder and gripped my head in despair.
“Gah! What is wrong with me?!” I wanted to throw up. I wanted to scream. I wanted to go home.
Home. Did I have a home? Did I have a family? Why am I here? What was happening to me?
I was at the brink of insanity, there were too many unanswered questions that seemed to just keep coming. My breathing was sporadic now and I was shuddering uncontrollably. ‘What am I going to do?’
“Hiro.” I felt Ozpin’s hand grip my shoulder. “Relax. There is nothing wrong with you.”
I couldn’t bring myself to look up. “N-Nothing…. w-wrong…?” My voice was weak, I could barely speak.
“That is correct. There is nothing wrong with who you are.” His voice was calm as he tried to ease the pain he could see I was in.
Still shivering, I slowly brought my head up just enough to look at the man across from me. He had set his mug down and had his full attention on me.
“So your body has a few distinct parts unique to it in comparison to the average person. That doesn’t make you any less human than anyone else here.” I listened to his words silently as my breathing slowly evened out. “Consider the changes to your body not as a hinderance or  defect, but as an asset that you can use to your benefit.”
I released my head and glanced  down at my left arm, taking hold of it gently with my right hand. What the professor had said calmed me down, but I was still uneasy about this new information.
“I will make sure that the documents pertaining to your medical variation are kept confidential to all who do not need to know.” He released my shoulder and grabbed his coffee mug, standing up to leave. “I apologise for having to cut this meeting short, but there are other matters I must attend to and you need your rest.” Ozpin walked over to the door before turning to me one last time. “If there is anything you wish to talk to me about, please do not hesitate to ask.”
I watched as the grey haired man walked out of the room. Leaving me alone with my thoughts and a broken table.

---

“It’s like a big slumber party!”
Ruby rolled her eyes at her sister who had flopped down next to her. They had set up in sleeping bags in the school ballroom along with the rest of the first year students and had decided to sleep next to each other.
“I don’t think dad would approve of all the boys though.” She said, not looking at the blonde.
Yang smiled deviously. “I know I do.” She looked up across the way where all of the boys were set up to sleep. She purred flirtatiously, watching several muscular, shirtless guys as they flexed towards them. They certainly held her attention. That is, until Jaune walked by wearing blue feetie-pajamas. He stopped as he caught her staring in his direction and smiled at her.
Yang groaned and returned her attention to her sister who was busy writing away beside her. “What’s that?” She asked.
Ruby looked up with a smile. “A letter to the gang back at signal. I promised to tell them all about beacon and how things are going.”
Yang grinned widely. “Aw, that’s so cuuuuute!” She teased, only to be knocked back by a pillow that was thrown at her face.
Ruby looked at her sister, unamused by her comment. “Shut up! I didn’t get to take my friends with me to school! It’s weird not knowing anyone here.” She retorted, looking away.
Yang removed the pillow from her face and looked at her. “What about Jaune? He’s… nice.” She struggled to force out a complement for him. “There you go! Plus one friend! That’s a hundred percent increase!”
Ruby sighed and flopped over onto her back. “I’m pretty sure Weiss counts as a negative friend. Back to zero.”
Yang lay in thought for a moment before trying to cheer her sister up again. “Well, what about Hiro? He seems pretty friendly!”
Ruby didn’t say anything. Hiro was nice, but they hadn’t seen him for hours and she was getting worried that something was wrong. She let out another sigh. “I hope he’s not in trouble or anything.”
Yang opened her mouth to say something but stopped when she noticed someone walk into the ballroom. She smiled and shook her head. “I’m pretty sure he’s doing just fine.” She said. Ruby looked over at Yang and followed her gaze.
“Oh! Hiro!” Ruby sat up and began to wave at the red haired boy. “Over here!” He hung his head down, preventing her from seeing his face.
Hiro didn’t seem to hear her as he walked over to the back of the room. As he passed by, Yang caught a glimpse of his face, causing her smile to fade instantly. They watched as he sat down against the far wall near the balcony on the boys side.
“Do you think something happened?” Ruby asked joylessly.
Yang looked at her younger sister with comforting eyes. “I’m sure he’s fine. Maybe he just had a long day and is tired, you know?” The young girl didn’t take her eyes off of the boy for a few seconds before laying back down.
“Yeah… You’re probably right…”
Yang let out a sigh and gazed over at where Hiro now sat, a cheerless look on her face. She wouldn’t say it in front of Ruby, but she was worried about him. The look on his face when he had walked in held a familiar expression on it.
It was the same expression her father had made all those years ago.