Chapter 14

Remnants of the Past

Brick woke up in his bed. But it wasn't his bed at Beacon, it was his bed at his home. He thought it was odd that he was at home so he decided to look around. He also noticed that he was fully dressed. He sat up on his bed and was surprised to see a little boy sitting at his desk and playing a game on Brick's old Xbox. The little boy was wearing a black t-shirt and had shorts. He had long black hair that covered his left eye.

"Didn't I sell my Xbox after the 360 came out?" Brick thought to himself.

"Brick! Come down for dinner!" He heard his mom call.

"Just a sec! I'm just finishing up a match!" The boy called out.

"Come down now please!" She shouted.

Brick put his controller down and sighed. "Coming!" The boy said. He switched off his game and went downstairs. Brick was extremely confused now. How was this happening? He decided to follow the boy downstairs.

When he got downstairs Brick was shocked to see younger versions of his family all seated around the table. Cherry sat with a baby in her arms next to a young Shayna. A young Byrne sat across from his mother and next to the boy who Brick now realized was his younger self. There was an empty seat at the head of the table. It was the seat for Bricks dad.

Brick noticed that his mom had looked directly at him, but had not noticed him in the slightest. Brick waved his hand to try and get her attention but it did nothing.

"Don't bother. They can't see you."

Brick turned to find a man standing behind him. The man was tall, about 6"4. He wore a red and white Hawaiian shirt with the top two buttons undone and a pair of white pants. He had sunglasses on his face. His hair was long and black, with streaks of gray throughout it.

"Dad?"

"Hello son." He said. "It's been too long."

"How are you here? What's going on?" Brick asked frantically.

"This Brick, is a memory. You were in an accident that has put you into critical condition. Right now you are in an ambulance, taking you to the nearest hospital."

"Why am I experiencing this?"

"You are having what is called a near death experience. This is the result of almost being killed."

"So why are you here? Or better yet, how are you here?"

"When your accident occurred, you were clinically dead for a few seconds. The paramedics were able to restart your heart and keep you alive, but during those few seconds, a part of your aura entered the afterlife."

"How do you know all this?"

"Unimportant. But what is important is that you watch what is about to happen at the front door."

Just as he said that, there was a knock at the front door. Cherry got up to answer it. When she opened the door, Mr. Schnee was standing outside with one of his employees. He had a dark expression on his face.

"Well, well. To what do we owe the pleasure?" Cherry asked.

Mr. Schnee motioned for his employee to come forward. The employee was holding something long that was wrapped up in cloth. The employee handed the object to Cherry who called young Brick over to take it.

"I remember now." Brick said.

Young Brick unwrapped the object and found a pair of maces. "Aren't these daddy's?" Young Brick asked.

"Honey, go put those away in the cupboard." Cherry instructed. Young Brick did as his mother asked and then sat back down at the dinner table.

Mr. Schnee pulled out a file and handed it to Cherry. "This was what Tom was working on." Mr. Schnee said. "I'm so sorry."

A tear appeared in Cherry's eye. She returned the file to Mr. Schnee. "Thank you. Your family has been kind to us for so long." She said.

"And so we will continue to be. If there is anything you ever need, don't hesitate to ask." Mr. Schnee turned around, but before he left he gave Cherry on last message. "He loved you very much."

"I know." Cherry said before finally closing the door.

She made her way back to the table and sat down. Her eyes were still red.

"Mommy, why are you crying?" Young Shayna asked.

"Kids. That was daddy's boss. He came here to tell me that daddy got really hurt." Cherry said.

"Is he okay?" Young Shayna asked.

"No, he's not. He won't ever be okay. Daddy's gone Shayna."

Tears started forming in Shayna's eyes. Brick ran up to his room. Byrne went over to comfort Shayna. The baby started crying.

"Why am I seeing this?" Brick asked.

"So that you don't forget your purpose. So that you have a reason to stay alive. So that you have a reason to wake up." His voice began to change into a more feminine voice as he said the words 'wake up'.

"Wait, What?"

"Wake up Brick! Wake up!" His voice had now completely changed. His new voice was very familiar.

Beacon Academy - Infirmary

"Wake up Brick! Wake up!" Yang shouted. She was hunched over Brick's sleeping form, crying. "Please wake up!"

"Ms. Xiao Long! I've have already told you. He just needs some time to recover!" Professor Ozpin said. He was standing behind the crying blonde, both coffee and cane in hand.

"But why won't he wake up?" Yang asked, choking on her sadness as she spoke.

"If anything, it is a good thing he hasn't woken up yet. His body can heal itself faster while he is resting. Also, if he were awake, he would most likely be in a large amount of pain." Ozpin explained. "Now please Ms. Xiao Long, go back to your dorm. I promise that when something changes, you will be the first to know."

Yang slowly got up. She wiped a few tears from her face before nodding and walking out. As Yang was walking towards the exit, she felt as though her insides were on fire. She knew that Brick would need time to heal, but she still felt terrible.

As she walked back to her dorm, Yang thought back to about a month ago when she went on her first date with Brick.

One Month Ago

Yang and Brick walked out of the movie theatre together.

"That may have been one of the dumbest movies I've ever seen in my whole life." Yang said. "Instead of using her new kickass powers to be awesome, she turns herself into a USB key."

"Yeah! A USB key containing all the knowledge in the universe. Imagine what you could do with something like that!" Brick exclaimed.

"I still think it was stupid. Wouldn't you rather use your powers to help the world and be a badass super hero? I mean, there was so much potential for that movie and it just went on one of the worst paths it could have taken." Yang said.

"Yeah, but all of the knowledge in the universe. With that, you could cure disease, stop famine! You could figure out why dudes have nipples!"

"Seriously? Of all the possible things, that's what you want to know?" Yang asked.

"You can't say you haven't wondered about it."

"I don't need to worry about that. I have my own chest to worry about. Now come on, let's go get dinner. I'm starving."

The couple got onto to Brick's bike and put on helmets before driving off. Yang tightly wrapped her arms around Brick as they rode. She wasn't used to riding a bike that she wasn't driving. It was somewhat unsettling to her for she was now able to understand why people thought motorcycles were metal death traps. This new point of view made Yang aware of all the dangers that she never acknowledged while driving. It wasn't enough to make her stop riding, but she now didn't take her riding skill for granted.

The place they were going to was the opposite of fancy. In fact, they weren't even going into the place. On the way to the place, Yang and Brick had agreed upon that they would just go through the drive through and eat back at the dorm.

The trip back to Beacon was quick. Yang and Brick were walking down the main path to the entrance of the academy, holding hands. It was starting to get dark and a few stars were visible along with the shattered moon. Occasionally, the two would look at each other and smile.

Once they got back to the dorm, they entered to find Ruby sitting, hunched over at the desk, with Weiss standing behind her.

Ruby handed Weiss a piece of paper that she was writing on. "How is it now?" Ruby asked, sitting up straight. Weiss quickly scanned the page before handing it back to Ruby.

"It's better than befo-"

"YES!" Ruby exclaimed, cutting Weiss off.

"I wasn't finished talking." Weiss said sternly. Weiss took a deep breath before continuing. "As I was saying, it's better than before, but you still have a lot of work to do before you can get a good grade."

Ruby looked down in disappointment. "Darn it. I really thought I had it this time."

"What are you two working on?" Yang asked.

"Weiss is helping me write my thesis for my History essay." Ruby answered.

"And I will not rest until she writes something that will earn at least an 85%." Weiss declared. "I'm going to brew some coffee. We have a long night ahead of us."

And a long night it was. By the time that Yang and Brick had finished eating, Ruby's thesis was only good enough to get a 74%.

"Weeiiiiisss…this is taking forever! Can we please just take a short break?" Ruby pleaded.

"If I let you take a break then I'll never get you to start working again. Try again, and think about what I have told you."

Yang and Brick thoroughly enjoyed their dinner entertainment perform by Ruby and Weiss. Yang was really glad knowing that her sister had someone who cared enough to put up with her and help her succeed.

Yang then propped her feet up onto the bed and lied down, resting her head on Brick's lap. "Tonight was really nice." Yang said. Brick began to run his fingers through Yang's hair.

"I thought so too. It was fun. It wasn't fancy."

"That's the thing." Yang said. "So many guys are too concerned with trying to be impressive that they don't even consider what I actually want to do. I don't need fancy. I just need good food and someone nice to talk with."

"Well, I was happy to oblige." Brick said with a smile.

"Speaking of obligations," Yang said as she sat up. "I believe it is time for my good night kiss." Yang said with a devilish tone.

"If you insist." Brick said before gently pushing Yang down onto her back and connecting his lips with hers.

But their joy was interrupted. "You do realize we're still here." Ruby said.

"Yeah." Weiss said. "Also, you're on Blake's bed."

By the time Yang had finished remembering, she was standing outside of her dorm room. She smiled, her sadness having been replaced with thoughts of Brick. She knew he would be ok. It would just take him a few days. Yang opened her the door to find Ruby standing over Weiss who was writing something. Weiss handed the page to Ruby.

"Can I see it now?" Ruby asked.

"No! Please leave me be, I need this finished for tomorrow." Weiss said with frustration.

"But I'm just trying to help. You only got an 83% last time and you seemed pretty upset. I just want to make sure you do better."

"I only got an 83% because I was too busy helping you!" Weiss exclaimed.

"I'll never get tired of watching you two."

Team CRDL's Dorm

"We need to decide what to do." Russell exclaimed.

"No we don't." Sky said. "We can just pretend like we never met him and move on with our lives."

"I think we should go." Dove said. "The guy seemed serious."

"Will you idiots shut up?" Cardin shouted, silencing his teammates. "It's obvious what we should do. The timing just isn't right yet. Once everything begins to fall apart, then we will act accordingly."

I would like to apologize for posting this chapter so late. School has been taking up so much of my time that I haven't had much time to focus on writing. I really hope you enjoy this chapter and I am happy to inform you that chapter 15 is already in progress and should be out in a few days.