What Once Was Lost

by HiroNinja

Memories. Stories scattered throughout the mind. Something so fragile that once lost, is not so easily returned. Waking up in a world he doesn't know with a past that he can't even remember, will he be able to survive the dangers of Remnant while trying to reclaim that which he treasures most? (Unverified Hiatus/Rewrite)

18. Chapter 18: School Days I

I do not own RWBY or any of its characters. Otherwise I would have seen the season 3 finale coming. ;_;

Chapter 18: School Days I

"Relax, Ema. I'll be just fine."

I waved my hands in a calming motion as I tried to get Ema stop worrying about me. It was actually a little embarrassing with her fretting while half of Team RWBY gathered around where I was laying.

After returning to Beacon, I was all but forced to go to the medical office and wake up a very tired and unhappy Doctor Night. After a verbal smackdown and several threats involving her calling Professor Goodwitch, she decided to let it slide this once.

I was, however, confined to monitored bed-rest for a MINIMUM of three days, which had left both me and Romulus with worried expressions. We only had two more days to find another teammate, from the time that Professor Ozpin had given us.

Thankfully, Doctor Night offered to speak to him and request extra time for us to search. It didn't seem like a for-sure deal, but it had helped. The next morning, she had informed me that we had been given two extra days, till the end of the weekend, to find our fourth teammate.

I was more than happy to inform Romulus the good news.

"D-Do you need me to get you anything from the cafeteria?" Ema leaned forward onto the bed slightly as she tried to ensure that I wasn't lying.

I shook my head, "Doctor Night has me on a pretty strict meal plan for the first couple of days while the dust works on my body." I waved my bandage-covered arm in display.

"Besides, you guys should be getting to class soon anyways. Lunch is almost over."

"Oh, okay." Ema muttered shyly, "I'll make sure to take enough notes for you, so you don't fall behind."

Ruby nodded, "Yeah, We'll help too! Right Weiss?"

The heiress just shrugged, "I suppose it wouldn't be proper to allow a fellow student to slack on their studies." She held up a finger, "But just this once."

I smiled, "Thanks you guys, I appreciate it."

The three girls nodded, "We'll be sure to come back and check with you after class!" Ruby waved as she made her way out the door.

"Make sure you get plenty of rest, Hiro." Ema said, leaving my bedside only after giving me a soft smile.

I waved as the two girls left the medical room before turning to a somewhat analytical looking Weiss.

I couldn't help but fidget under her serious gaze, "Uh… is something wrong?"

Weiss blinked and shook her head, "No. Not a thing." The girl spun on her heel and followed behind them.

I sighed as I was finally left to myself. Romulus had stopped by in the morning when I had messaged him about the extra time, but I didn't really expect him to stop by just to visit me much more while I was bedridden. Blake had stopped by to drop off a few books to read around breakfast, and the only person that I hadn't seen at all that day had been Yang, who was likely still upset with me after yesterday's lunch fiasco.

I reached over to the bedside table and picked up the first book, careful not to spill over the cup of water that was there.

The book was labelled, 'The Nightmare Explorers', and seemed to be a mystery/horror that she had picked out for me involving several people exploring the same haunted places together with their talking cat.

It wasn't a difficult read, but I simply smiled happily as he opened back to where I had stopped.

=||-{([O])}-||=

Ema almost didn't register that class was over when the bell finally rang at the end of the day. It had seemed to go by so quickly that she had to double check the clock just to be sure that it wasn't a mistake.

She had done her absolute best to copy down as many useful notes as she could from the story that Professor Port had given them, hoping that Hiro would be able to make sense of what she had written down.

Actually, even she was having a hard time deciphering the random scribbles of notes, or remembering what had been said at all that day.

Her mind had been elsewhere, as it usually was. Though today, she wasn't constantly thinking up new tinkering ideas or designing new ways to augment her Prototype.

Well, not the entire time anyways. Instead, she found herself thinking about Hiro and Romulus.

Her eyes shifted to her left, eyeing the wolf faunus as he slowly stood to his feet and began to make his way out of the classroom.

It was strange how different they were, yet could somehow get along so well as to be capable teammates in a fight. Romulus was definitely the stronger of the two, and it showed with the way his muscles were toned, which see saw plenty of on their way back to Beacon last night. Ema shook her head clear of the thought as her face began to heat up

Hiro, on the other hand, rarely showed signs of strength on that scale. When he had first appeared in the park, he was thrown around pretty easily. The only exceptions being the few times she witnessed while fighting with him.

Then there was the way they both acted. While the school year had barely started - this only being their second day - she had yet to see Romulus even pick up a pencil, let alone take notes or open a textbook. He just sat there and stared towards the front of the class or even nodded off to sleep every now and then. She would have to talk to him about it, lest she risk letting him fail his classes.

Hiro didn't seem to have the same trouble. At least, it didn't seem like he did. His eyes practically lit up when Blake had given him some books to read that morning, and it seemed like he was more than willing to keep up with his studies using the notes she would be providing.

Ema let out a sigh and collected her bag as she left her seat, making her way out the door and towards the medical wing to drop off the notes.

"Hey! Ema, wait up!"

Ema stopped and turned as a smiling Ruby jogged up next to her. She smiled back, "Hello Ruby, did you need something?"

Ruby shook her head, "I was wondering if you saw where Romulus went. I was sort of hoping to talk to him about… stuff." Ruby hesitated at the end but kept her smile.

Ema rose an eyebrow, "Does this have to do with yesterday's lunch?" Her only response was a nervous chuckle from the red garbed leader as she rubbed the back of her head.

Ema's shook her head and giggled, "I think he was planning on going to the forge this afternoon. Honestly, I think he should be working on the assignment for today, but I can talk to him about it tomorrow."

Ema was glad that Ruby was there. She didn't seem to stutter as often when she was speaking to her, especially when they discussed equipment and weapon designs.

"Thanks, Ema." Ruby breathed, "I just don't want anyone from our teams fighting when it's only the first week, so I was going to try and get to know him better." Ruby's eyes seemed to fall towards the floor as she spoke, a detail that did not go unnoticed by the mouse faunus.

Ema closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them before speaking, "If you would like, m-maybe I could talk to Yang as well?" Ema cringed as she caught herself stuttering again, but continued, "I really haven't gotten to know much about your team personally either. It might help."

Ruby's lifted her head back up, "Really? That'd be great!" Ruby smiled.

Ema turned back towards the dorms, "I'll speak to her tomorrow morning. Have a good night, Ruby."

Ruby waved as she walked off towards her room.

Ema was certainly nervous about confronting Yang, especially after seeing just what she was capable of when she was upset. Like Ruby, though, she didn't want any bad blood between the two teams.

Her hope was to convince Yang to go with her to visit Hiro in the morning, have them speak and patch things up. Hiro didn't seem to display any distrust towards her, none that Ema could see anyways.

For now, she needed to bring the notes and homework assignment back to the infirmary for Hiro, and maybe she could even stay and go over it with him for a while.

=||-{([O])}-||=

*Clang* *Clang* *Clang*

Wiping the sweat from his brow, Romulus leaned over his anvil and inspected his latest piece of work. It looked rather simple at first glance, resembling a very large playing dart. However, Romulus' people used these darts, filled them with explosive fire dust, and made them weapons of war. Plumbatae, they were called. Glancing up, Romulus was pleased to see that the forge room large and grand as it was, was mostly empty. It was good, as he was quickly growing weary of having people stare at him for not wearing his shirt. Did these damn wall-dwellers never see one another without clothing before?!

"A strange people…" Romulus muttered to himself, hammering out a slight crook in this dart's tip before setting it beside the two others. His work done, Romulus hung up his hammer, set the forge to cool, and took a small rest. His sister, Aurelia, had told him stories of how the humans forged their own weapons, and Romulus could see how. All of the strange gadgets and tools the wall-dwellers had was impressive, to say the least. However, they could only be put to use with someone experienced enough to use them and, thankfully, Romulus had a good deal of forge practice.

While plumbatae were easy to make, the mere act of creating something always put Romulus' mind at ease. The past few days had, to sum them up, been a nonstop shit-fest. First he gets paired up with Hiro after the bastard fell down a cliff and somehow DIDN'T die, then he had to fight a Deathstalker and crush it with a conveniently placed pillar, go to ANOTHER fighting academy to recruit a shy mouse faunus into the team… and THEN they had to run into a forest to save her when she ran into it for an unexplained reason. All the while, Hiro had neglected to tell anyone about his lack of aura. Growling, Romulus felt a slight sense of betrayal wash over him.

In all fairness, he and Hiro were not officially a team, and so he had no obligation to tell anybody about his condition. Going by that thinking, Romulus had no cause to be angry. However, something about the situation just left a bad taste in his mouth, and refused to leave him in peace. Dismissing the thoughts with a growl, Romulus put his shirt back on, gathered his three fresh plumbatae, and went to the weapons testing room to see how they performed. However, upon leaving the forge room, he ran into a familiar face… literally.

"Oof… Uhm… Hi, Romulus!" The girl greeted, giving Romulus a small wave after stumbling back a bit. Pausing, Romulus took a quick sniff of the air and immediately recognized the scent.

"Ruby," He greeted with a nod. "Did you need me for something?"

"Hm? Oh! No, not really!" Ruby sputtered. "It's just… uh… I heard that I could find you in the forge room."

"And you have found me," Romulus finished. "But why did you come looking for me, if not for something you needed?"

"Well it… I just thought maybe we could talk, a little," Ruby said, fidgeting slightly. Romulus, completely dumbstruck, merely stared at the girl for several moments.

"… Why?"

"You mean why would I wanna talk to you?" Ruby asked, not waiting for an answer before continuing. "Well it's just, uh… Blake, Weiss, and I were visiting Hiro in the Nurse's office a earlier, but Yang kinda… is still mad at Hiro, for some reason. And… she can get a little grumpy."

"I've noticed," Romulus replied, remembering how Yang had thrown him to the ground, and vowing for the hundredth that he wouldn't ever be so careless again. "But, why do you wish to speak to me, specifically? I don't recall you ever wanting to speak to me before now."

"Well… I don't really know you that well…" Ruby replied, making it sound somewhat like a question as opposed to a statement. "So I thought maybe we could chat a little and become friends!" Finishing, Ruby stuck her hand out and smiled.

"I already have my pack," Romulus flatly replied, walking past the outstretched hand. "So leave me be. I'm not here to make friends."

"W-wait!" Ruby called, jogging until she could fall in step with Romulus' brisk walk. "Aren't we both in the same class? And… that means we should learn to work together and get along, right?" Staying silent, Romulus pondered the girl's words. She DID have a point, but Romulus stood firm. He was here to learn how to fight, not make friends.

"I just told you. I have my pack to fight with. Leave me be," Romulus growled, quickly growing annoyed.

"But…" Ruby argued, stopping in place. Unbothered, Romulus continued to walk. "We could help one another!" Stopping, Romulus couldn't help but laugh.

"And what could YOU possibly help me with?" He asked, looking over his shoulder. "You're as small as Ema is."

"But Ema's on your team!" Ruby huffed. "That's not fair!"

"Ema…" Romulus growled, turning completely around now. "Has a weapon that more than makes up for her small size. She has also more than proven her worth in our fights together, something I've yet to see you do!"

"But I—"

"ENOUGH!" Romulus snapped, silencing the girl. "Unless your next words are 'I'll leave you alone now', then save it! I'm busy right now, so piss off!" With an annoyed "Hmpf" Romulus turned back around and left for the weapon testing room, leaving a very downtrodden Ruby behind him.

=||-{([O])}-||=

Ema wandered into the infirmary and headed straight into the room Hiro was in. In her hands she gripped his copy of the notes that she had made for him.

"Hiro, I have the notes from Professor Port's class here for you-" Ema began before finding that the boy was currently fast asleep in his bed, the book he was reading laying open on his lap.

Ema smiled and moved over beside the bed, Hiro's face almost peaceful as he slept. She placed the small stack of notes down on the bedside table and picked up the book, marking the page with a slip of paper. She took note that it was the second book in the series, and was surprisingly almost finished.

'He's a quick reader.' She thought, setting the book alongside the rest. He had started the first book earlier that day, so it was amazing how quick he was able to read through them, considering their length.

'I suppose I could go over the notes with him tomorrow at lunch.' She turned to look at the sleeping boy.

"Here to visit your 'Prince Charming' again, kiddo?"

Ema jumped, covering her mouth to keep from waking Hiro as Doctor Night chuckled from the doorway.

Ema looked between the doctor an Hiro before waving her hands defensively, "N-No! It's nothing like that I-"

Doctor Night held a finger to her lips, silencing the young faunus who was now turning a distinct shade of red. "At least convince yourself before trying to convince me." She smiled. Ema just stared at the floor, embarrassed.

Night shook her head, "At least he has people looking after him now. Maybe he'll actually stop showing up at my door every day."

Ema looked up at her surprised, "How many times has he been in here?"

"Oh let's see," Doctor Night crossed her arms, "this is about the third or fourth time I've dealt with him this week now." She smiled as Ema seemed shocked at the answer.

"Don't worry," she assured Ema, "he might not seem like it, but he's definitely tougher than he looks."

Ema looked over at Hiro as the doctor walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder, "Go ahead and take off. I'll let him know that you stopped by once he wakes up."

Ema nodded, "Thank you."

"No problem, kiddo." Doctor Night said as she left the room.

Ema watched her leave, turning back to look at Hiro once more before following her out with a smile.

=||-{([O])}-||=

Taking a few steps back, Romulus inspected his makeshift targets. He had found some bags, filled them with sand, and set up some posts to place the now sand-filled bags on to. As he only had three plumbatae, three bags were all he needed, so it took little time. Walking back to his small pile, Romulus grabbed a plumbata and took aim. Reeling back, Romulus was just about to throw when an annoyingly familiar voice echoed throughout the testing hall.

"Oh Romuluuuuuus~" Ruby called, running in with a wave. She also appeared to be carrying her weapon which was, if Romulus remembered correctly, a scythe. However, it was collapsed right now. "I'm here to help you!"

"By the blessed light of the moon…" Romulus cursed, clutching a tuft of hair in anger before addressing the girl. "Ruby I just told you—"

"Are we here for target practice?" Ruby interrupted, looking over at the crude targets. "I can join you, then!"

"Listen! I'm here for—" Romulus began, only to be cut off as Ruby unfolded her weapon, braced it into the ground, and shot at the first target with a loud bang. Apparently proud of herself, Roby looked over at Romulus and grinned.

"See? We can take turns!" However, Ruby's face suddenly dropped as she finally heard the loud growl coming from Romulus, coupled by his fierce gaze and bared teeth.

"I'm here to test MY new weapons, you fool!" Romulus roared, stomping up to the girl and towering over her. "And now, thanks to you, I have to put THAT on pause and go set up a new target! So, thanks!" His point made, Romulus threw his plumbatae to the ground and stomped over to the pile of empty bags.

"I… I'm sorry…" Ruby whispered, her eyes welling with tears. "I just… I just thought we could be friends."

"And I told you I'm not here to make friends!" Romulus shot back, "Why would you come to me if you wanted friends, anyways! Go talk to Hiro or Ema!"

"It's… you… *sniff*… you seemed like you're not from around here," Ruby said. "So I thought we might have something in common." Romulus turned to round on the girl, but he suddenly paused himself. Ruby was right. He was from outside the walls, while she was from the same school as Ema. They were both like outsiders, thrust into the same scenario.

This made Romulus remember how he first reacted to seeing the walls of Beacon from the inside for the first time, at least after he woke up from passing out from illness. Were it not for Olivia and her father, he may have died. Not only that, Olivia went out of her way to teach him many things about wall-dweller life. And now, in a similar scenario as he, Ruby had looked for help and Romulus had only offered indifference and insults. Needless to say, Romulus felt a bit like an ass.

"You're right…" Romulus replied, taking a deep breath as his anger melted away. Slowly, he walked back up to the girl and bowed his head. "I'm sorry."

"I-it's okay," Ruby replied with a dismissive wave. "I'll just leave you alone, now." Turning, Ruby made to leave only to stop as Romulus grabbed her wrist.

"Hold on!" He exclaimed.

"What is it?" Ruby asked, her eyes still shimmering with tears. "I thought you wanted me to just leave you alone."

"I… may have been mistaken," Romulus said, his ears flattening in shame. "You perhaps may be able to assist me, after all. Your weapon seems powerful, and you built it yourself?" Almost like magic, Ruby's face lit to as she opened her weapon again and held it aloft.

"Yup! I built Crescent Rose from scratch back at Signal! It's been with me ever since!"

"And the other part of the weapon…" Romulus continued. "A… gun, it is called, correct?"

"Hm?" Ruby asked. "Oh! Yeah! I built a high velocity, sniper rifle into the hilt! That's what I used to shoot the target with!"

"I see…" Romulus replied with a nod, looking the weapon over. Up front, Romulus could immediately tell that the girl's weapon was built to excel at medium to long range. The "sniper rifle" as Ruby put it, didn't seem too practical against someone who was bearing right down on you. Furthermore, the scythe, like all polearms, was not very effective in a close-ranged melee fight. It was long, heavy at the tip, and easy to grab once close. However, that was likely why Ruby's sister excelled at close-range combat: It covered her sister's weakness well.

"Alright," Romulus continued with a smirk. "Let me show you what I've made."

"Yay!" Ruby happily cheered, collapsing her weapon and following Romulus as he recollected his plumbatae.

"Here they are," Romulus boasted, holding them for Ruby to see. However, Romulus immediately lost his sense of pride upon seeing Ruby's… less than excited face.

"Um… they're… very big darts!" Ruby said uncertainly, trying her best to talk them up.

"They are not simply darts…" Romulus countered, unable to stop from sounding a little offended. "They are called plumbatae."

"Plum's what now?" Ruby asked, blinking at the odd word.

"It means 'war darts' in the ancient language of my people," Romulus explained.

"Whoooaaa…" Ruby gasped. "I didn't know you spoke another language! That's so cool!"

"Yes, well…" Romulus began, smirking proudly again. "given my people's history, I'm not surprised that you wall-dwellers know little of our ways."

"Where ARE you from, then?" Ruby asked, making Romulus pause. Imperator Augustus' orders forbade him from telling and outsider many things unless they became his Alpha. However, he COULD tell her a few things."

"I'm from a group called The Legion," Romulus said. "And, unlike you wall-dwellers, we defend ourselves with weapons alone."

"I was wondering why you kept calling us that…" Ruby muttered off-handedly, obviously forgetting about Romulus' enhanced hearing. "What was it like growing up out there?"

"I cannot tell you anything more…" Romulus replied with a shake of his head. "It is forbidden."

"Oh…" Ruby solemnly replied, instead focusing her attention on the new weapons." So, uh, what are these plumba… plimbye…. What are these for?"

"They are for airborne enemies, mostly," Romulus replied, smiling at the girl's attempt to speak Old Tongue. "My pilum, while they CAN shoot far, take time to return to me at great range. So I need something disposable if we come across more Grimm like that Nevermore that you made friends with during the forest trial.

"Ehehehehe…" Ruby laughed, blushing as she remembered that… performance. "But, wait! Aren't they a little small to take down a Grimm that big?"

"Oh? You think so, don't you?" Romulus scoffed. Not waiting, he took a plumbata and hurled it at the second target, smiling as it vanished in a sizable, fiery explosion. "And what about now?"

"Woooooow~" Ruby gushed, her eyes full of stars. "That was such a big blast for such a little dart! What'd you fill it with?"

"Fire dust," Romulus revealed, quickly speaking again when Ruby was about to ask another question. "My people have other ways of purifying dust that differ from yours. We specialize in the fire kind, and so it is stronger."

"Huh…" Ruby mumbled, raising a finger to her chin in thought. "So… how far can you throw those?" Pausing, Romulus thought it over for a few moments.

"Probably close to one hundred meters," Romulus figured.

"That's all?" Ruby asked, making Romulus raise an eyebrow.

"And how far can that "gun" of yours shoot, then?"

"Probably close to 1500 meters…" Ruby mused, shocking Romulus into utter silence. Wall dwellers could kill something from so far away?! This…. This bore consideration.

"That… is quite some range…" Romulus commented, making Ruby smile.

"Aw, thanks! Oh! And I think I just got an idea on how to help you!"

"You have my attention…"

=||-{([O])}-||=

"Okay, Romulus! Just like we practiced!" Ruby called, standing several paces behind Romulus. Several hours had passed as the two had gone back and forth between the forge and weapon testing room. It was likely either late night, or very early morning by this point, but neither of them felt tired. Soon, it was revealed why.

"Open!" Romulus called, holding a plain, freshly forged weapon in his hands. Three barrels in the formation of a triangle extended from the end of it, each one about eighteen inches long. He raised it before him and gripped a small mechanism on the side that closely resembled Ruby's gun component on her scythe.

"Load!" Romulus called, pulling all three chambers open with a single bolt action before placing a modified plumbata bolt into the chamber and slamming it shut. The newly-forged plumbata were not made of wood, but steel. The front chamber, headed by a pointed tip, was full of fire dust, much like the back. However, the two chambers within the steel round were separated by a thick steel wall, stopping them from exploding as the back was ignited to propel the missile forwards.

"Fire!" Pressing the trigger, Romulus' arm was forced back by a mighty push of recoil as the bullet shot out with a very… VERY loud bang, hitting the target and exploding in a massive ball of fire mere milliseconds later.

"It works!" Ruby cheered, jumping for joy and clapping. "and it's so awesome!"

"It's very effective, I must admit!" Romulus replied, unable to stop himself from both grinning and wagging his tail.

"I'm glad you like it," Ruby said with a smile. "Thanks for letting me help you."

"You are most welcome," Romulus replied with a nod. Ignoring the expecting glance from Ruby, Romulus went to pick up as much as he could. "And you will receive a 'thanks' from me in a few days."

"What do you mean?" Ruby asked, having now come over to help.

"To my people, it is rude to thank someone with mere words alone if their deed was worth more than that," Romulus explained. "You helped me make a weapon which could save not only my life, but those of my pack-mates. Therefore, you deserve a better 'thank you' than the words alone."

"Aw… I don't know about that…" Ruby replied, blushing and swaying shyly. To be honest, she wasn't quite sure how to take Romulus' thanks, but it felt good nonetheless.

"Well I am. And, as I said, you will receive it in a few days." At that, the two finished cleaning up what they could and finally went their separate ways.

They had class to prepare for soon after all.

=||-{([O])}-||=

Weiss: Hey… are you alright?

HiroNinja: *Laying on the floor asleep*

Weiss: I guess it's up to me then… Sorry everyone, it seems that our dear author has finally succumbed to his exhaustion. While normally I would scold him for his negligence in giving you an excuse by himself, he has been rather busy as of late.

HiroNinja: Mmmm… Waffles…

Weiss: *Pinches bridge of her nose* Anyways… This chapter has been rewritten about four times and finally finished in collaboration with Flamewing98, who deserves many thanks for the assistance. I'm sure Romulus was glad that he could be written by you this time.

Weiss: The next chapter will hopefully start to wrap up the arc so we can move on with the story. Until then, everyone, Stay Gold.

HiroNinja: *Snore*