Chapter 5: How I Met Your Sister

By the time I made it back to the cafe, it was already long past business hours. I eventually gave up on trying to wake Jack to let me in, and wound up sneaking in the window of my room via the fire escape. Thank god I left it unlocked. I closed the window behind me and dropped my bag and weapons at the foot of the bed. I didn't even bother changing into my new pajamas before flopping onto the bed, and was already sound asleep before my head hit the pillow.

The next morning came quickly enough, when the smell of freshly cooked sausage made its way to my room. Still half asleep, I stumbled downstairs to breakfast. Jack was in high spirits as always, as he prepared a meal for two (or in my case, one and a half).

"Good morning, Jack." I took my usual seat by the counter, watching Jack poke his head out through the serving window.

"Oh, so you did make it back last night. I didn't even see you come in."

"Yeah... Sorry about that." I scratched the back of my head. "Some things came up and I was out later than I had planned on."

"Really?" Jack walked out of the kitchen and sat next to me, placing a plate in front of both of us. "What kinds of things?"

"Heh... Where do I start..." Shaking my head I did my best to recount the events of the previous day, starting with the minute after I left the cafe. As we ate, I explained how I had spent the money he had given me, and even showed him the Dust canisters that were still in my jacket pocket. His face became rather serious as I told him about the robbery and being held at gunpoint, but he didn't say anything. I told him about Ruby and described the scene that had taken place on the rooftop, and the appearance of the Huntress that saved us. His expression seemed skeptical.

"A Huntress? That's quite the lucky coincidence that she came across you two." The seriousness of his voice sent a chill down my spine as he spoke. "So what happened after they escaped?"

"W-Well, she took us to speak with Professor Ozpin. He wanted to talk to me and Ruby about what happened." I shifted in my seat; the way that Jack was taking this situation was unsettling. "From what I understand, Ruby was accepted into Beacon Academy."

"Just like that, huh? How old did you say she was?"

I thought about it for a moment. "She's a bit younger than me if I had to guess... Why?"

He shook his head. "Nothing important. So what did he talk to you about then?"

"Well, I told him about the different people I've been remembering."

"People like Ruby?"

"Yeah." Jack picked up the now-empty breakfast plates and moved to the kitchen to wash them.

"And what did he say about it?" he asked, his head poking over the serving window.

"Well... apparently everyone I'm remembering has something to do with Beacon, one way or another. I'm not exactly sure why I remember them, but it's a lead, at least. So Ozpin said he was going to try and help-"

"He's taking you to the Academy, isn't he?"

The echo of running water filled the air of the cafe. Jack's eyes did not meet my own when he spoke. Shutting off the water, he removed the dish towel from his shoulder and placed it in the sink. I stared at him through the window, unable to speak.

"That's what you were going to say, isn't it?"

I hesitated a moment before nodding back to him. "Y-Yeah... He said that the key to unlocking my memories could be at Beacon, so... They're going to allow me to stay there until they come back. If I pass their Initiation, that is." I slowly stood up from my seat, trying to sound positive. "The shuttles to the Academy leave in a couple of hours, actually..."

"Hmph."

Jack shot me a glare that felt like knives before he slowly walked back into the dining hall, and it took everything I had not to wince as he stared at me.

"And how does someone who couldn't even remember his own name stand a chance in combat?" he demanded.

I was at a loss for words, I didn't expect a reaction quite like this coming from him. The way he was speaking scared me more than when I was being held hostage.

"You don't get it, do ya kid?" He kept his eyes on me as he shook his head. "Beacon is a combat school. It's one of the best, at that." He stood in front of me now. Being about a head taller than I was, he easily towered over me. "You said that girl Ruby got in, right? Do you even think you could stand up to someone like her in a fight?" The harsh, scrutinizing way he was looking at me felt like he was staring into my soul. It made me angry that I couldn't deny anything that he was saying; I knew I had no clue how to fight like Ruby. "People train a good portion of their lives to go to Beacon. You think you can stand up to them, too?" he continued.

My temper flared as I slammed my left hand on the counter next to me, splintering the wood slightly.

"SO WHAT IF I CAN'T?!"

Jack was unfazed by my sudden outburst, but I wasn't stopping. I placed a hand to my chest. "Who cares if I'm not a great fighter?! This is a chance for me to find out who I am, and I can't just pass it up because of that! It's not like I have much of a choice in this matter, right?!" I angrily swung my arm out to the side, awaiting his response.

"So," he said, raising his voice, "you're perfectly fine with risking your life to chase after the white rabbit, huh? Is that It?!" He took another step towards me, causing me to take a step back in response. "Well, let me tell you something, Colton! You're just chasin' a fairytale if you think that Beacon holds all the answers!" His fists clenched up as his voice continued to become increasingly agitated. "That rabbit hole isn't some place you want to go!"

I jerked my thumb towards my chest. "If it leads to my lost memories, then it's definitely somewhere I want to go! I can handle myself!" I yelled in response, frustrated.

Bashing his own fist onto the counter, he retorted, "Chasing your dreams to Beacon is only going to get someone like you killed!"

It was my turn to take a step forward. "Someone like me?! You don't know anything about me!"

Jack pointed a finger at me, I stood my ground trying not to flinch. "I know enough! This wonderland of yours is going to cause you nothing but trouble!"

"Well, if I have to go to 'Wonderland' to find out who I am, then so be it!"

"Going to that Academy is nothing but a waste of time! Now, you listen to me, Allison-"

Jack's stubbornly angry expression changed quickly to one of pained shock as he realized what he had just said. He took a step back from me before turning around and resigning himself to silence, leaving me staring at the back of his head. My anger still fresh in my mind, it took me a few seconds to process what his words had implied. I forced myself to relax my fists and calm down.

"Jack-"

"Just go." He sighed without looking at me.

As much as I willed it to, my body refused to move. I was rooted to the spot after everything that was said. The clock on the wall chimed, signaling the start of business for the cafe. Jack turned to look at me for a second, before walking back into the kitchen without another word.

After he had disappeared from view, I made my way upstairs to my room, slamming the door behind me. There was nothing left for me here, and it was clear that I wasn't welcome any more. I loaded my bag with all my belongings and made sure that my knife was secured to my belt before opening the window.

I stood there for a moment, letting the cool morning breeze brush against my face. Then, taking a deep breath, I hopped through the window and made my way down the fire escape to the alley below.

Slinging my bag across my back, I walked out onto the sidewalk. I turned and took one last look at the once-welcoming front entrance of The Dusty Spoon, before turning and heading towards the shuttles, leaving the cafe and its owner behind me.

Memories are not always things that want to be remembered. Many people go most of their lives trying to forget their past and the pain that it holds.

Jack Greene sat in the kitchen, holding a frame in his hands. Memories of a time better left forgotten were now flowing back unbidden through his mind; an old, throbbing pain from a past that he still remembered all too well.

He would not cry. Could not cry. Not again. No, his tears had dried up long ago.

Those who knew wished that he'd only move on. But one does not so easily forget the past, especially when it is the very past that has made you who you are.

"I'm sorry, Allison..."

He stared at the image in his hands, the familiar smiles looking back up at him. "Maybe this time..." He hung his memory back on the wall. "Maybe this time I'll be wrong..."

Jack Greene walked away from the frame, leaving the photo inside behind, but not forgotten.

I had arrived at the shuttles long before anyone else. They weren't scheduled to leave for a couple more hours, so it was unsurprising that I would be alone. The inside of the shuttle itself was spacious, with long couches and windows lining the sides, the perfect place for a nap.

"I guess I just wait, then." I sat on one of the benches for a moment before kicking my feet up and leaning my head against my bag,

"This is actually pretty comfortable…" I stuck my hands behind my head and closed my eyes to try to sleep, wanting to forget what had transpired at the cafe for at least a while.

I dozed off, only waking once or twice when the first set of passengers had started to board, before dozing off again. I did my best to ignore everyone around me as the shuttle filled with students on their way to Beacon. I wasn't quite sure how I felt about flying, so I planned on trying to sleep through the whole thing. The hum of the crowd somewhat dampened the sound of the engines enough that I could almost say that-

"HEEEEY!"

"WAHH!" I fell off the side of the bench and landed face-first on the hard floor. "Urgh..." I pushed myself up onto my knees and rubbed my head. 'That's the first headache I've gotten that didn't involve my memories at least.' I thought, grimacing.

"Sorry..." I looked up at the causer of my pain to find none other than Ruby standing there with an apologetic look on her face, poking her index fingers together.

I let out a sigh. "Don't worry, it's just my everything."

She held out a hand and helped me back to my feet. "Are you okay?"

I smiled. "That fall may have knocked a few more screws loose, but I'll be fine." My response brought a smile of relief to the girl's face. "So what's with the wake-up call?" I continued, and her expression was replaced with a look of slight embarrassment.

"I just wanted to know what your name was, actually..." 'So she really doesn't know who I am...' I let out a small sigh.

"Well, I assume it's only appropriate, after last night." I gave a somewhat dramatic-looking bow. "Hiro Colton, at your service." 'Might as well have some fun while I can here.' Ruby seemed taken aback by my gesture.

"W-Well, nice to meet you, Hiro." A slight blush found its way to her face, and I decided to keep up the act.

"Madame Rose, it is an honor to be so abruptly woken by such an outstanding hero as yourself!" I fell to one knee, as a knight would do to his king. "Your ray of courage outshines even the brightest of stars! How, pray tell, do you do it?!" Ruby's expression became a wide smile, trying her best to contain her laughter as she played along.

"Your allegiance to me will not go by unnoticed, brave warrior!" She pulled out her weapon and extended it to rifle mode. While holding it as though it was a sword, she proceeded to knight me. "I hereby knight thee as, Sir Falloffalot!" It was at this point the pair of us bursted out laughing. It took both of us a minute to calm down before we could talk again.

"Seriously? Falloffalot?" It was hard not to laugh at the ridiculousness of the name.

"I'm sorry, I thought it was appropriate!" Ruby was doing her best to quell her laughter. "So, about last night-"

"Ruby!" Another voice caused both of us to turn.

"Yang?" Apparently Ruby knew who was quickly approaching. I swiftly stepped out of the way as the newcomer immediately wrapped the young girl in a hug that, honestly, kinda looked like it hurt.

"Oh, I can't believe my baby sister is going to Beacon with me! This is the best day ever!"

"Please... stop..." I could almost hear the sound of Ruby's lungs being squeezed to death.

The blonde sister released her grip on her captive and hopped backwards a couple feet. "But I'm so proud of you!"

Now that she was done unintentionally strangling Ruby, I could finally get a good look at her. She had on a set of tall brown boots that nearly reached her knees, and wore a pair of black short-shorts with a unique miniskirt-tail-thing that attached to her belt. Her cropped brown jacket exposed a bit of her midriff as well as her, *ahem* 'assets'. Around her neck she wore an orange scarf, and around her wrists she had some type of bulky yellow bracelets over her black gloves. Her long blonde hair almost seemed to burn in the light, enough that it could probably blind someone if they stared at it long enough.

Ruby took a breath of fresh air before responding, "Really sis, it was nothing."

"What do you mean? It was incredible!" She opened her mouth like she was about to say something else, but it was at this point that I was finally noticed. "Who's this guy?" I looked at Ruby as she began to gesture between us.

"Yang, this is Hiro. Hiro, this is my older sister Yang." Yang then proceeded to look me up and down before her eyes rested on mine.

She smiled. "Nice hair."

I glanced up at my red star-tuft before looking back at Yang. "Thanks. You too." I received a nod in return.

"Yeah, I know." She replied smugly. "So you know Ruby from somewhere?"

"Sort of..."

Luckily, Ruby was able to explain it for me. "We sort of met last night during the whole Dust robbery thing. He helped me fight off the bad guys and chase after Torchwick."

"I wasn't that much help." I said truthfully, placing hands behind my head in embarrassment. "I'm pretty sure you could have handled it by yourself even if I wasn't there."

"Don't be so humble, hot-shot." Yang slapped me on the back causing me to stumble a little before she gestured to- Wait... Did she just call me 'Hot-Shot'?

She continued, "Everyone at Beacon is going to think that you two are the bee's knees."

"I don't want to be the 'bee's knees', okay?" Ruby sounded nervous as she spoke, " I don't want to be any kind of knees! I just want to be a normal girl with normal knees."

"Do bee's have knees?" I questioned. (A/N: Seriously, I asked myself this here.)

Yang rolled her eyes at me before returning her attention to Ruby. "What's with you? Aren't you excited?"

"Of course I'm excited, I just..." Ruby sighed. "I got moved ahead two years... I don't want people to think I'm special or anything."

Yang walked up next to her sister before giving her a one-armed hug. "But you are special."

Ruby looked like she was about to say something else when our conversation was interrupted by a newscast playing nearby that immediately caught our attention.

"The robbery was led by nefarious criminal, Roman Torchwick, who continues to evade authorities." Roman's mugshot was displayed on the screen. He looked really strange without his hat. "If you have any information on his whereabouts, please contact the Vale Police Department. Back to you, Lisa."

"Thank you, Cyril." The image of Torchwick was replaced with the face of news anchor, Lisa Lavender, as captioned along the lower part of the screen. "In other news, this Saturday's Faunus Civil Rights protest turned dark when members of the White Fang disrupted the ceremony." A picture of a several Faunus protesters appeared on the left, then was replaced by a growling red wolf's head with scratch marks behind it. "The once-peaceful organization has now disrupted-"

The news feed was cut off and replaced with a hologram of the Huntress from the previous night.

"Hello, and welcome to Beacon."

"Who's that?" Yang looked between me and Ruby to see if we knew. I would have answered, but-

"My name is Glynda Goodwitch." It was almost as if she could hear Yang's question. It was creepy.

"Oh." Yang replied.

"You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy!" My stomach started tying itself into a knot as I listened to the welcome speech. "Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and training to protect our world."

The image faded, leaving me standing there thinking about what I was doing there. Jack's words finally started to hit me after hearing the announcement, and I started to feel dizzy. How would I ever last at Beacon? I didn't do anything to earn my place at this academy, I was just an amnesiac that got lucky during a robbery! I didn't pass any sort of tests or go to some other combat school, hell, I could barely wield a weapon! I ran my fingers through my hair as I tried to keep myself from feeling nauseous.

"*Gasp* Wow..." I looked over to see Ruby run up to one of the windows in amazement. Shaking the doubt from my mind, I made my way over to where she stood and looked through the glass. I exhaled deeply as I took in the breathtaking view. We passed right over Vale's rooftops, and I had to admit, it was pretty sweet.

"I love flying." I said to no one in particular.

"Look, you can see Signal from up here." I followed Ruby's gaze and smiled in awe. Signal looked more like a castle than a school. I could see students making their way around campus and training in the field with their different weapons. "I guess home isn't too far after all..." Ruby muttered.

Yang placed a hand on her sister's shoulder. "Beacon's our home now." I nodded at her and returned my gaze to the outside.

"Home... Right..." I guess I'd better get used to calling it that. I don't even remember my real home anyways...

"Uhhhrghhhhh-" The three of us looked towards the sound of what I could only describe as 'illness' to find a fellow passenger who looked a little too green in the face to be healthy. He hunched over as he began running to the back of the ship, making unpleasant sounds as he went.

Yang rolled her eyes. "Well... I guess the view isn't for everyone."

I shook my head, letting a grin work its way onto my face. "He probably just needs a minute."

"It was a nice moment while it lasted!" Ruby added in, we all started laughing a little. "I wonder who we're gonna meet?"

"I just hope they're better than 'Vomit Boy.'" Yang replied.

Ruby continued chuckling as she looked downwards. "Oh, Yang! Gross! You have puke on your shoe!"

Yang immediately tensed up, her face giving off an almost horrified expression. I couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"Gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross-"

"Get-Get away! Get away from me! Get away from me! Get away from me! GET AWAY FROM ME!" My laughter filled the shuttle as I watched Ruby get chased around by her older sister. "Hiro! T-This isn't funny!"

"No, it kind of is!" I wiped a tear from my left eye as I tried to control myself. I closed my eyes and stood up straight as I took a few breaths to calm down. When I opened them, Ruby was right in front of me. She grabbed my shoulders and shoved me in front of her just in time for Yang to collide head-on with me, crashing the three of us to the ground. We all let out a simultaneous groan of pain.

"Yang... Can you please get off of us...?" Ruby struggled to speak from the bottom of the pile, Yang was rubbing her head which had collided with mine, and I watched the stars spin around my head as I tried not to think about the situation I was in... At least it wasn't a hard landing...

"Sorry about that..." Yang said as she removed herself from atop the pile. She looked at us as she stood before grinning. "Well, don't you two look comfortable~!" I rubbed the stars from my eyes and looked around before freezing up. The red hue that engulfed my face matched that of Ruby's cape. Due to the impact I had landed right on top of the embarrassed scythe-wielder with our faces inches apart. The two of us practically rocketed to our feet.

"I'M SORRY!"

"I'M SORRY!"

Yang just laughed at us. "Wow, Ruby, it looks like Hiro really FELL for you!"

Needless to say, Ruby and I couldn't talk to each other for a while. We did, however, chase after a certain blonde sister who was spitting out more puns. "I guess you can say he was quite the CATCH!" she laughed as she flitted away.

Man is it great to be home! I think I might have gone a bit crazy being out there for so long... At least I found somewhere that had wifi, even though it's about a 20-30 minute walk away.

Anyways, as for this chapter I started to try and "flesh- out" the story a bit as well as Hiro's personality. Since he's getting his memories back he should be acting more like himself. Or something. I don't know. Also, MOAR BAD PUNS~! *Confetti* Yang and Hiro aren't too different when it comes to humor it seems.

And what's going on with Jack, eh? I felt like I didn't really make much of a character out of him so I tried to give him a bit more back-story. You'll eventually find out what happened, but it's pretty obvious that he doesn't like the academy. And as for the name Allison...

...

...I didn't intend to rip it from RvB, it just sort of happened in the heat of the moment. When I realized what name I had used I already liked it to much to change so... *Tableflip* DEAL WITH IT *SunglassesOnFace*

Flamewing98- Hiro has a combat style? *Looks over shoulder at Hiro who just shrugs in response* Well then... Anyways, yeah, I'm doing the best I can to add detail to the characters without making it overly descriptive. I'm glad that you like it. ^^

BruceNadeauJr- I really enjoy the way it made his character turn out, but I often find myself doubling back to old chapters trying to remember what he had already remembered from the memories he had originally forgotten that he once remembered. Or something.

Jacklyn Frost- Thank you! I'm really glad people like this story so much, I have a lot planned for it. :)

SakuraNights01- I decided to make Hiro's story a little more isolated from the main series because, even though this is a RWBY fic, it's not the RWBY story. Team RWBY already has its story told in the series, and I want to focus on giving Hiro his own destiny, so to speak. (Hiro:) "And I still have nightmares about working at the cafe." *Shudders*

See you guys in the next chapter!

In Loving Memory of The Genie

"You ain't never had a friend like me."