It was an unusual breezy day of Spring in Salerno. The sun was high in the sky and the inhabitants were doing their usual activities: Some workers going to the few, existing factories, others to the various fertile camps that made up most of the southern italian economy; Children of various ages were sent to school by their parents, enjoying the very few years of their innocence.
In a small workshop just few blocks away from the heart of the city, a middle-aged man was finishing one of the last comissions he had been paid to complete. It was an Harley-Davidson with some interesting tweakings: The bike, that had been sent in a shameful and ruined condition, now seemed good as new; some details were added like the classic and common 'flames' were re-made of a neon red color.
The client looked in awe at the results.
When he had first received the bike from his grandfather's last will, he had thought that the easiest way to gain something from the fossil was to sell it to a dumpster and get paid for the recoverable materials.
When he first heard of the 'wizard mechanic', he had decided to contact him just for the sake of knowing all the possibilities for his bike.
The man he had talked with, the same one that was repairing the motorbike, seemed to give a positive impression with some sort of restrained tone. The prices offered by the deal was incredibly affordable and, interested by the mysterious man, he decided to offer him the restoration work.
Once he noticed that the mechanic had finished his job, the client clapped his hands. "Fantastic! An impressive result as I had been told."
The mechanic gave him a tired smile and nodded at the compliment.
After paying the 'wizard' and taking the bike to his car, the client quickly went home, his mind still unable to conceive how such a masterpiece had been done in so little time and with a low price.
Meanwhile at the workshop, the mechanic had closed all doors and had started to prepare his bed to sleep. Enrico 'Henry' Lors sighed tiredly, starting to feel his now tired bones aching. He looked at a photo of his youth he had decided to keep close.
Five figures were present, all dressed in a school uniform: A white hood partly hide the young face of the shortest of the group, a girl, and the only notable details being the few red strands of hair that were visible from her hood, her silver eyes and her loving smile;
'Summer...'
He could still remember the echo of her laugher...
Next to her, a boy with red cap. Black hairs and red eyes. His smile seemed to hide a massive amount of mischievousness and youth.
'Qrow...'
Following close to him, a blond boy with a ribbon in his arm. Blue eyes shown happiness yet his smile was shy at best.
'Taiyang...'
A bit farther, the last girl. She had long, unruly hairs and the same red eyes of her brother. Her left arm was resting in the last figure's back, an hug, and a genuine smile crossed her face.
'...' Henry couldn't even think of her name, knowing the pain it always brought to him.
The last figure was a boy with glasses. His yellow hairs and lack of distinct qualities made him unique compared to his teammates. His eyes were a dark cerulean that seemed to show life and reason to live.
An awkward smile was present on his face, yet Henry remembered the positively warm sensation he felt in that particular moment of time.
Turning away his attention from the framed photo, he felt tears falling and, sighing, tried to forget the past.
When they first met...
Their first lunch together...
Their first mission and success...
The... Bloody CRYSTAL!
His fist hit the wall and almost broke it. Blood was flowing out of his hand but he couldn't care any less.
He had been a teenager, maybe 15-16 years old, when he had found a weird crystal in the forest nearby the town. He felt pulled to grasp it and, after doing so, he found himself in another forest.
At first he had panicked, seeing himself in a different place, but what truly made him determined to find as fast as possible an exit, was the presence of various red eyes looking, staring hungrily at him.
Luckily he found himself out of the forest before getting attacked by one of those creatures.
Grimm...
A migraine began to make itself present and his trail of thought was lost.
Only some words were still there, making everything more confusing.
Signal..
Beacon..
Raven..
Summer and her silver eyes..
The source...
Even though it had been 20 years ever since his return to earth, he could still remember that mission in particular.
Ozpin, the greatest strategist of their generation, had presented to all new hunter teams a long-term plan to deal against 'the Queen' and because of problems relative to Atlas, the mission that was supposed to be prepared with much more time and logistic was anticipated by two years and the battle...
He frowned a bit, unable to fully remember what truly happened in the endgame.
Screams and pain masked what had happened and the last thing he could remember was an ambulance getting him to St. John Hospital of Salerno.
Some police officers had asked his whereabouts of the 5 years of being missing.
Henry stated that he had found himself abroad and that he had found a good job.
After a week of recovering, the former specialist was buying an old building that would become his home and workplace for the next twenty years.
Turning off the light of the near lamp, he attempted to find comfort in sleep.
But as many times he had tried, he would just found painful memories, mixed and mold in a horrific collage. This time something was different. The darkness that would overcome those who close their eyes was repelled by a white light. He heard the sound of a cape and scrunching his eyes, he found the responsible of such noise.
A woman was giving him her behind, a white cape and hood hiding her identity.
But he felt she was familiar somehow... he felt himself standing up and before Henry would question it, he was following the now running figure.
Then, after reaching the end of the snowy cliff, the white figure turned to him. Henry's eyes widened, having recognized her. A smile graced her features and two silver lights came from her eyes.
Before he could attempt to talk to her, red and white roses covered his vision, making his eyes close once more.
He woke up at the sound of something crashing on the ground. The noise seemed to have originated by the small kitchen.
He put an hand under his pillow and pulled out his registered Beretta M9. Salerno was one of the major places where crime rates were average at best.
He jumped into the room but found no one in there. Henry looked left and right but no living being was there. Sighing, he holstered his handgun. He moved to the counter but found that something shined at his feet.
His still tired eyes widened at the white crystal, noting the odd resemblance to the one that took him into Remnant twenty years ago...
He didn't hesitate. The crystal was within his grasp as soon as he had seen it.
Light empowered his vision and found himself once more somewhere else. This time not the same forest, a park. Silence fell in the bench he found now sitting. I... am back... I AM BACK!
Looking his surrounding, he noted the lack of people. It's kind of late to be around at a park...
Then he noticed that he still had his casual clothes on and sighed, feeling lucky enough for this little saving from embarrassing encounters. He decided to walk in the streets, trying to find some way of getting information of where he was and how much had changed.
Libraries of sort were excluded because of the late hour. His short musing was interrupted by loud music. He sighed. He hated those kind of bar with a passion. They were good only for those with money and in need of...
He stopped, his face now blank. Am I truly this much dumb?
He started to walk towards the loud building. Now, he just needed to get information without getting asked to pay. It's possible...maybe.
He entered the bar and found himself to glance to three particular beings.
Two of those were female twins, the first dressing red and the other dressing white.
Bah, I thought twins shared same colour set.
The last, and probably the most notable, was the huge man that was talking to another, well-dressed individual.
Sitting in one of the small chairs, Henry put his head on the counter, trying to come up with some plans.
Meanwhile, a young blonde paced into the bar, sitting as close as possible to the bar owner, now free from his guest, and sat on his right.
"Strawberry Sunrise, no ice... Oh! And one of those little umbrellas." She ordered at the bartender.
The big man now focused onto the young girl "Aren't you a little young to be in this bar, blondie?"
Henry silently nodded, the girl seemed too much young to be in such place.
She just chuckled "Aren't you a little too old to have a name like Junior?"
Henry had to force himself not to smile at the comeback. Cheeky brat.
The man seemed to understand that she seemed to know him. "So you know who I am?"
Then he asked "You got a name, sweetheart?" She walked closer to Junior "Heh. Yes, Junior, I've got several." Then she pointed a finger at him. "But, instead of sweetheart, you can just call me sir."
Henry was dying, trying to keep the laughter at bay. Bar Owner got Owned!
Suddenly she punched him in the nuts. Henry flinched after hearing that familiar, painful sound and felt like to protect his own modesty. The blonde then pulled out her phone, or what seemed to be one, and selected a photo. "Tell me where I can find her and I'll let you go."
Henry froze. SHE STILL IS HOLDING HIS STUFF?!
"I've never seen her before. I swear!" Junior's voice was reaching a new tone.
The girl seemed angered by his answer "Excuse me?!" She pulled 'what she was holding', provoking another pained sound from Junior. "I swear, sir!"
A group of men all wearing black with red glasses and red necktie were immediately behind the young girl, ready to help their boss.
Henry just shrugged. If the girl cannot keep with her own boasting, then she was wanting a beating.
He would just sit and wait for the outcome.
One epic massacre later...
She's good. VERY good.
Henry's eyes were wide open, staring at the level of destruction the young girl has caused.
Familiar was her kind of style. Too much familiar...
That was a variant of my CQC...
Shrugging it off as a coincidence. He finally spoke. "Hey, you, 'Blondie Sir'."
The aforementioned girl was surprised when she saw she was not alone. "Hello Mister."
Henry took one of the bottles of the now open bar. "You said you wanted a... Strawberry Sunrise, right?"
She silently nodded and walked closer to the strange man.
Henry put the drink in one of the empty glasses with a little umbrella and gave it to the blonde brawler.
The girl accepted it and took a sip. The man just took a soda and started to drink.
"You fight good, kid." He paused. "But I noticed that there are still flaws in your style."
The blonde teen gave him an annoyed glance "But I still got the job done, right?!"
Henry held his hands high in surrender, "That's not what I meant." He sighed and then continued "It's just that your style is not prepared to hold against certain type of fighters, an example being those who are skilled with kicks." Henry then gave her his own annoyed frown.
"And you are too much easy to anger and remember that that semblance of yours cannot save your ass if you get knocked unconscious." She had the decency of blushing at the lecture. Oddly enough she was being reminded of her father's stern reprimands. Then a panicked look crossed her face. "Oh god, I had to pick up my little sister!".
Once again Henry give her a stern glare and, before she had left the club, he gave her a warning.
"I am letting you go now because you seem to me a good person and kind of remind myself when I was young but if you are going to waste a bar every night, I'm personally going to get your parents."
The warning halted the girl that, unable now to make a comeback to the weird man, limited her answer to a single but visible nod.
Now alone, Henry could finally assess the damage inflicted to the bar. Junior and his little gang was still unconscious.
Hmmm... He left after taking some of the cash inside one of the counter of the bar with him and never looked back.
AN I finished a poll in twitter and decided the fate of some characters.
Expect some BIG differences from canon TL.
On another note: If there had been grammar error at the very beginning of the chapter, it was mostly because I used my not so good phone and it was midnight at the time.
Remember to Review/Comment if there are problems (so I may fix those) and if you want to change something from canon (I will see if those could be implemented or not, remember that it is an IF).