Black Scars

Something heavy dropped onto Blaze's head. "Ow!" he shouted, waking up. "What was that for?" He rubbed his head angrily as his new team mate, Nina, retrieved the book which had been used as a projectile to knock him awake.

"I've been trying to wake you up for like 10 minutes," Nina said, sounding exasperated. "I swear, you could sleep through a hurricane." Looking around the dorm, Blaze saw that all the other students had begun unpacking their various bags, all in their school uniforms. The girls wore pleated skirts, long sleeved black vests, and frilly white undershirts. Umbra wore the boy's uniform - a black suit with a white undershirt and red tie.

Rigel was covering her mouth, clearly trying not to laugh.

"Y…you okay?" she asked, trying to keep a straight face.

"I'm fine," Blaze muttered, still feeling annoyed as he rubbed his head.

After returning from the bathroom (to get dressed in his new school uniform, as well as nurse his wounded pride at his rough awakening), Blaze began unpacking his baggage into his under bed storage. The room was mostly silent as BURN unpacked; Rigel's music, which she had started playing after Blaze left the bathroom, making the silence feel comfortable.

Blaze reached into his bag to pull out another shirt, but his hand grabbed around a hard, wooden object. He tilted it up; smiling at the framed picture. It was a family picture his dad had taken a few years back, Blaze's favorite. In the picture Tai's arms were around Yang and Ruby with a goofy grin on his face, Blaze in the middle. The ground was white with snow, making it easy to pick out Qrow's red cape in the background as he leaned on tree with a slight smirk. He had actually made his visit known about an hour later, so no one had known he was in the picture until they looked back on it. Blaze loved it because it felt like his whole family was present. Qrow was rarely present in any of their family pictures, and whenever he was it was because Blaze, Ruby, and Yang practically begged Tai to let him join.

Standing up, Blaze tried to pull the picture out of the bag when his wrist caught on something. Annoyed, he yanked his arm out, reliving the pressure, and winced as pain flared in his shoulder. It was still sore from the fight yesterday. He stretched his arm out, trying to loosen the knot.

A pile of heavy books dropped to the floor.

Blaze looked over at Rigel in confusion, her arms still outstretched from the books she had been holding. Shock was written on her face - she starred at Blaze as if she had seen a ghost.

"Um…you okay?" Blaze asked, not sure how to respond, "You look kinda pale."

"Y…your…arm," she stammered, pointing. Blaze looked down in confusion, and froze. The bandage he had been using to cover the marking on his arm was gone, caught in the zipper of his bag and ripped off from his impatience.

"I… I can explain…" Blaze stammered. But before he could try to make up some kind of excuse for why he had a strange black tattoo on his arm, Rigel yanked off the silver gauntlet on her right hand and held it up. Gasping, Blaze stared at her arm. On her wrist, a black tattoo stood out, an eye inside of a pointed half and whole circle. The same mark on Blaze's arm.

The mark given to the children who had been used as experiments by creatures who came from far beyond Remnant.

"Y…you're…like me?" he stammered. Tears filled Rigel's eyes and she nodded. Hearing the ruffle of fabric, Blaze turned to see Nina roll up her right sleeve, revealing the same mark on her wrist. Umbra's jacket dropped to the floor and he held up held his right wrist, the marking a stark difference from his pale skin. Blaze stared in shock, not knowing what to say, what to think.

How?

Why?

Rigel body seemed to lose strength and she feel to her knees, covering her face as tears fell. Stumbling forward, Blaze grabbed his bed frame, shaking. Umbra was silent, unreadable emotions flashing across his face. Nina smiled sadly, hands shaking.

"This can't…I…I never thought," Blaze stammered. His knees gave way and he crumpled to the ground, body shaking, head spinning. Memories, flashes from nightmare, shot through his head. Stars, needles, pain, and a family he thought he would never see again. This was happening so fast, he never thought he would see any of the others again, but now he was in a room with three? How? It shouldn't be possible.

A hand grabbed his shoulder, Blaze looked up see Nina pulling him towards Rigel. Blaze let Nina pull him into a hug with Rigel, Umbra's hand landing on Blaze's shoulder.

Blaze closed his eyes and let emotions wash over him. Everything felt so familiar, but so distant. How could he have forgotten the feeling of Nina's arms around him, Rigel's gentle, but strong touch, or Umbra's hands, filled with strength, tight on his shoulders? Even their smell seemed almost familiar, like a dream he couldn't quite place.

Home.

Surrounded by people he had forgotten; only hazy, distant memories reminding him that he knew them. Tears streaming down his face, Blaze felt more at home than he ever had before.

An alarm sounded, breaking the calm. Nina looked up, and laughed slightly.

"That's the alarm for our first class," she said.

Blaze hesitated, then stood up, pulling away from the embrace. He smiled, "Well," he said, his voice rough, "then we should get ready to leave. We can't have the teachers waiting, can we? At least not on the first day."

Rigel laughed, "No." she said, "I guess that would be rude."