Chapter 2: Days of Yesterday

Ryler was currently sitting on his hotel bed. It was a nice clean room, well worth the 70 Lien a night price tag. The room itself was pretty spacious. There was the queen sized bed of course as well as a 50 inch TV on a dresser sitting against the wall opposite to the bed. To the left of the TV was a desk pushed into the corner of the room. At the moment it was empty, most likely because it was there for people who brought a laptop or other such device with them. Along the adjacent wall was the large double owned window. The blinds were drawn giving Ryler some much needed privacy. At the next corner was the mini fridge, untouched since he first entered the room. A night stand came next, sitting directly beside the bed and then another identical nightstand on the opposite side of the bed. Continuing along to the next wall was the bathroom. The bathroom itself was nothing special a walk in shower and single mirror over a basic sink. At least the towels were fresh and clean. From there, instead of continuing into another corner to complete the room, the wall turned in the other direction, making a small hallway of sorts. It was an empty hallway with only the entrance to the room and a dresser occupying the space.

Despite all the various things in the room, there was still plenty of room to move around without feeling claustrophobic. Perhaps 70 Lien was a steal for such a good room. "Okay, something is wrong. There's no way a room this good can be so cheap. Maybe the shower is broken." Ryler said to himself. He then walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower, which was on the other end of the room from the door. The water came out only a second layer and when he changed the temperature in the dial the water changes as well. Shower: not broken. "Maybe had electrical wiring" Ryler continued to muse. He turned on all the lights and tested the TV and fridge by unplugging and replugging them both. Lights and electrical systems: check. Ryler proceeded to look around the room for the next 10 minutes trying to find something wrong with the room but ultimately found nothing. By all standards the room was perfect.

Ryler have up and decided to get some rest. He threw himself into the bed which then sank under his weight. It was like sleeping on a cloud, so soft and cool and comfortable. Ryler instantly began to doze off. His mind raced with memories about his journey through Vale and meeting the Ruby Rose. He started thinking about how he made it to Vale in the first place and of how he was even able to do the things he could.

X-X

Five years ago.

Earth.

A young boy, around the age of 12, is seen walking down a busy New York City sidewalk. He wore a light gray t-shirt, blue jeans and white backpack with gold trimmings slung over his left shoulder. His dirty blond hair and tan skin made him look like he just came back from vacation somewhere warm. He clearly stood out in the dreary fall streets of The Big Apple.

As he walked he didn't notice something happening behind him a block away. A taxi driver, who had been working for 30 hours straight without sleep, lost control of his cab and was now barreling straight towards the boy. Everyone who saw it, or saw someone reacting to the runaway cabbie, moved out of the way. The boy however failed to notice until it was too late. One person, a man, ran to push him out of the way but there wasn't enough time. Everyone who witnessed the horrific tragedy would tell you that the whole scene played out in bullet time. The cab crashed into a coffee shop but no one in the inside was hurt. The boy, however, was not so lucky. People gathered around the unconscious boy. After a few minutes there was a flurry of red and blue lights. A larger crowd had gathered around to see the incident.

The next day a news reporter would stand across the street with her crew. "Yesterday, at around 7:25 AM, a young boy was struck by a taxi cab as he was on his way to school. The authorities have not confirmed his identity but they did say that the boy was alive but in critical condition." The woman stated into a camera that was linked up to the news studio. She listened to the words coming through her ear piece and continued. "No, no one has confirmed whether or not the driver was under any influence of any drugs or alcohol but police have not ruled out the possibility. Right now there seems to be nothing else we can do for the boy. The only thing we can do is offer our prayers to the boy and his family and trust in the doctors taking care of him now. Back to you Danny".

X-X

Ryler opened his eyes, the memory was over five years old but he could still remember it as clear as day. He could feel the pain, see the world move in slow motion and then he could feel the nothingness that came after it all. He rolled over into his left side and picked up the small black alarm clock. The time was currently 5:07 in the morning. He always was an early riser. He sat up in his bed and looked around the room. The world outside was still dark, the sun had yet to rise. He decided to take a shower to get his day started.

He walked into the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror. The first thing he noticed was the snow white hair and eyes staring back at him. They were a far cry from gold and bronze locks he had long before. His skin, while not quite as pale as his hair and eyes, was a ghostly white as well. He remembered when he used to have pigment, now he was lucky if people didn't randomly ask if he was albino in the middle of a conversation. He pulled off his shirt and looked over the many scars adorning his body. So many scars all with just as many tales to go with them. One long slice, going from his left shoulder to his right waist, was a particularly brutal encounter with a sword and a not so friendly face. Three short but thick slashes running horizontally across his abs reminded him of an encounter with a giant lion.

"Damn cat always had a bad attitude, never liked her either." Ryler thought to himself as he reminisced about his past.

He didn't want to waste anymore time standing around so he stripped off the rest of his clothes and turned on the shower to a comfortable temperature. He washed himself clean and was about to get out until he felt the soothing effects the water had on his sore muscles. He decided that a couple more minutes of standing around wouldn't hurt. So he spent the next 20 minutes standing under the warm embrace of the shower. When he was done he stepped out but realized that there were no towels available. He shrugged and with a quick flash of blue light, materialized a clean towel into his hand. He dried himself off and hung up the towel to dry. With another flash of blue light he made his old clothes vanish from the floor and reappear onto his body. Instead of the smell of sweat and dirt from yesterday's adventure, there was a faint scent of lavender. He walked out of the bathroom and saw the time was still only 5:34. At least the sun was starting to peak over the horizon. He laid back enough on the bed but didn't fall asleep. He just wanted to lie there and relax.

X-X

Five years ago.

Earth

The scene at the hospital was as hectic as it usually was when something this horrible happened. Doctors crowded a single room around a young boy. Nurses did their very best to support the doctors, medical equipment of all types and functions were being implemented nonstop. It was utter chaos. Suddenly it calmed down, the once loud and active emergency room was changed to a normal one. Still active but all the doctors were scattered around attending other patients. In the bed that everyone was previously gathered around lay a young boy. He lay there in silence, no one seeming to have noticed him there.

Slowly he began to wake up. He sat up in his bed and looked around, again, no one noticed. He winced in pain and gripped his right arm. When he pulled his hand away from his arm he saw a small patch of blood. That wasn't all though, his head ached, lungs burned, and felt like he was one sudden turn away from painting the floor a very nasty shade of green. He called out for someone to help, "someone... can someone.. please help me?" Still no one moved in his direction. It was as if he wasn't even there. Like he didn't exist.

"Try not to move so much" a voice said from somewhere he couldn't make out. Researched for the person speaking to him but laid back down when a sudden wave of dizziness but him. "Told you" the voice, clearly female, said from their mysterious location.

"What happened to me? Why am I here? Why does everything hurt?" Ryler asked the voice with a great deal of effort. It hurt so much just from talking.

"You're in a hospital and, as of 30 seconds ago, dead" the voice told him. Ryler would've started freaking out if it weren't for the fact that everything hurt just from him thinking about moving. He thought this was some kind of weird prank, that all of his friends pulled their money together to scare him. If that we the case, however, then why did his whole body feel like it was falling apart? He was scared to sure and he wanted it all to stop.

"I want to go home. I want to see my mom and dad. Please take me home." Ryler pleaded at the voice to make everything stop.

" I can't, your home doesn't exist anymore" the voice said.

"P... please... I wanna go home" he curled into a ball, held his head in his hands and began to cry. The pain, the fear, the entire situation was incredibly intense. He just wanted everything to stop. Suddenly the pain was gone. He didn't feel anything, he wasn't hurt, he wasn't scared and he felt like everything was going to be okay. He sat back up in bed and looked around again, his nausea also mysteriously gone as well. Looking around the room he noticed two things. First was the mysterious woman standing at the end of his bed, and the second was that every had literally stopped. Doctors, patients, nurses, a security guard who was passing through, the custodian cleaning the bathroom, everything was still.

"Freaky, right?" The woman said, she had her arms crossed in front of her and just looked at the scene that was playing out. Or rather that was supposed to be playing out. Ryler finally got a good look at the person the mysterious voice belonged to. She was young, not as young as Ryler but still quite young. She looked to be in her late twenties at most. Her dark skin looked smooth to the touch. When she turned to look at the people behind her, he saw that her black hair reached to just under her shoulders. She turned back and just stared him in the eyes.

"Enjoying the view?" She said as a playful smile shown in her face. Ryler looked away from her, he felt a little embarrassed to have been caught looking at her. His mom always told him that it was impolite to stare at people.

He muttered a quiet, "sorry" and slowly got out of bed. He walked around the room for a while before he went back to stand beside the woman. They stood there just looking at the people frozen in place until the woman spoke up.

"Nice job kid, it took me nearly a week time stop but you got it in less than a day" she said as she patted him on the back.

X-X

Ryler opened his eyes to the sound of knocking on his room door. He looked at the clock and realized he had fallen asleep for about 30 minutes. He got up and went to the door. Looking through the peephole, he saw the one person he really didn't want to see at that moment. He opened the door and greeted the person at the door. "Hello, how may I help you today?"

The woman standing before him was tall, almost six and a half feet if he were to guess. She had blonde hair that was currently done up in a bun and striking green eyes behind a pair of thin rimmed glasses. Her stern expression gave off an air of unrivaled authority. She had on a white long-sleeved, pleated top that has a wide keyhole neckline and gauntlet cuffs that flare in pleats at the wrist. Below that was a black high waisted pencil skirt with bronze buttons going down the skirt. Overall her outfit showed off her curves in a manner.

Ryler stepped to the side and allowed her to enter the room. As she passed he noticed that she wore a short half cape. It was black on the outside but purple on the inside. He followed he back into the room and sat on the chair that was pushed into the desk beside the TV. He sat on the edge of his bed.

"So, you are the individual from last night." Her words weren't a question but just a statement of the facts. He just say there and nodded, confirming to be true. "You were present at the attempted robbery last evening, correct?" Again, he remained silent and simply nodded his head. "I have already spoken to someone else of the details of that attack but I would like to ask you the same questions to make sure they are correct."

" Sure, I'm willing to help in anyway I can." Ryler said. He was starting to relax now that he knew she wasn't here to arrest him. "Leaving the scene of a crime probably wasn't the best idea now that I think about it."

"Okay, we'll start simple, can you please tell me your name?" She had pulled out her scroll and was reading off a list she had on it.

"My name is Ryler. Just Ryler." He was never comfortable using his last name after the incident five years ago. He thought that keeping his last name would just be a reminder of the life he used to have. He had used other last names before when the situation had called for it, usually ones provided to him for some under cover mission. Nothing ever felt right for him to use for more than a week. Now, he's just Ryler.R

"Okay, what were you doing at that location at that time?

"I recently arrived in the city and I was exploring a bit through out the day. When it looked like it was getting late I started walking to this hotel. I was passing by the store when it was getting robbed."

Glynda types something into her scroll before nodding for him to continue. Which he did. He told her that he arrived through the South Gate, which wasn't an entire lie. When he made it to Remnant he found himself in the southern part of Vale. He told her about buying apples, Signal and eventually ending with the robbery from his perspective.

"So that's about it, I admit it was probably wrong of me to have left the crime scene without talking to the authorities first. I have nothing to do with the incident and I was just a bystander." Ryler thought that was the end of the interview until he heard a bother knocking at the door. Before he could stand up Glynda was already making her way to the door. She opened it and let the person in. Just as Ryler was thinking this day couldn't get any worse, in walked Ozpin himself. He quickly jumped to his feet to greet the headmaster.

"Good morning, you must be out missing person." Ozpin said as he walked further into the room and stood in front of the TV . It was very intimidating to have Ozpin standing in front of him like this. Ryler just extended his hand and shook Ozpin's. "Yeah, hi I'm Riley, i mean Ryler... My name's Ryler, it's an honor to meet you sir." Ryler held onto his hand a bit too long and took it back before he made the situation even more awkward. Oz made a motion that Ryler took to mean he could sit down.

"Likewise. Now Ryler, I have a very important question to ask of you." Oz's expression was one of serious curiosity. Like he was expecting a specific answer from Ryler and he would allow any other answer from him. Ryler just stared at him waiting for the question. "How did you get here?"

" Uh... what?" Ryler had expected a way different question. Maybe asking if he was in league with Roman, The Black Bear Gang of even the White Fang. He expected, "Why were you really there last night?", "Why didn't you help?" or maybe even "Want to join my school? " like he did with ruby. This he had not expected.

"There doesn't seem to be any record of you entering through any of the main gates. That's strange, considering that you told Glynda here that, "I came in through the South Gate around mid day yesterday", care to explain." Ozpin took the scroll from Glynda and showed him the highlighted quote.

Ryler didn't know what to say. He was caught in his lie. "Ah, well... " before he could say anything else he was interrupted by Glymda.

"We checked security footage from all across the city. We tracked your movements until we lost track of you in an alleyway. We checked the footage of the both sides of that alley and no one matching your description was seen entering. We also checked with the residents of both buildings and no one has ever seen you before." Glynda took back the scroll as she was talking and showed him all the footage of him walking through the city. They even caught his little accidental detour. The video kept changing angles until it ended with him walking backwards into an alley. As Glynda said it, there was a side by side time lapse video of both ends of the alley and he was nowhere to be

"Curious, it's as if you appeared there by magic." Ozpin said. Ryler looked at him but he noticed something. A small glint in his eyes. It was my bad but more... playful? He didn't see any malice, suspicion or even a hint of distrust in his eyes. It's as if this whole thing was a test of some kind. "He was already knows about me and just wants me to tell the truth. But how, how does he know about me and what does he really want with me?"

He had no choice no. Nothing he said would alleviate Oz's suspicions. He was caught and he had to come clean. "Okay, here's the truth."

In case you haven't put it together yet, these are rewrites with new chapters coming afterwards.