Blast from the Past

The smells of old textbooks and coffee filled the air as I walked down the long hallway to the classroom. The white of the halls has, strangely, never faded. The beautiful stone pillars, the beautiful maroon curtains and even the blue carpet in the center of the floor.

"Well, this is it." I said quietly to myself walking through the familiar halls of Beacon.

I stepped through the doorway to the classroom, seeing the white tile floor, the glow of the sun through tall windows, and seeing the students at the mahogany desks with the gold inlaid around the edges. Hearing the laughter of students brought back fond memories of my school time here. Friends poking fun at each other's expenses and the scribbling of pencils on paper as the class was about to begin.

"Good day class!" I announced my presence loudly enough to be heard over everything going on.

It suddenly grew silent and everyone looked to the door to the hall. There were pale faces and a mix of worried and excited looks from each of the students. As I walked to the front of the class, I heard whispers, some very laughable and some interesting as these Huntsman and Huntresses in training were being quite observant about my appearance.

Blake was listening to the whispers as this strange Professor, probably a substitute, casually made his way to the front of the classroom.

"…..His eye!"

"His head….."

Probably battle scars from years of being a huntsman.

"..White Fang…"

She froze and turned pale at this statement. Had someone from the white fang infiltrated beacon? Were they here to recruit, or corrupt, the Faunus Huntsman and Huntresses to be? Whatever the motivations they had to be here were currently unknown to Blake, but she would find them out.

She slowly turned to look at the Professor, something she almost regretted. He was a tall man, with broad shoulders and half of his head was shaven clean leaving his Jade hair hanging over the left side of his head and down to his neck. Two battle scars were on his head, one the right side of his head, a clearly visible scar from probably an Ursa or a Beowolf, and one on his left eye, leaving it looking a little paler than the right eye. Yet the eyes were the part that interested her the most. He had snake eyes, having the eyes of the animal was a very rare trait among Faunas, and also a small trail of bronze scales leading down into his shirt.

What gave it away that she should be worrying was the blue White Fang tattoo on the left side of his face. It was odd though the tattoo was of the older design of the White Fang, not the newer version. This worried Blake, she couldn't push away the thought that she was being tracked by the White Fang in her very school or, that this man in front of her, reminded her of an old friend she had long forgotten. As the color slowly but fully returned to her face, the Professor began the lecture.

As I got to the front of the class room I looked among the students and saw some pale faces, the one I arrived here to meet with, ones with curiosity, and others containing blind fury, particularly Ms. Schee's, maybe it was because of my very favorable choice of facial artistry.

"As I said, good morning class and welcome to the first day of your advanced combat training this semester. You might have noticed that Professor Port is not here, he is recovering from a mission and I am the substitute that will be filling in.

"As some of you may have guessed, I was once a member of the White Fang." I pointed to the tattoo on the left side of my face. "Now Miss Schnee I hope I have nothing to worry about, you wouldn't rat me out to the police would you?" I finished sarcastically, added in a wink for fun too, and one or two students chuckled.

"O-of course not sir!" she had been caught so off guard that a Beowolf pup could have easily killed her and the girl in red beside her almost busted a gut for some odd reason.

"Great, now those who have been keeping up with both past and current events know that I just made a joke. So pay attention to the news and in your history classes so you will be knowledgeable of my next one. You never know who'll be a target next.

"Also as you can plainly see, I have lost an eye fighting for Faunas rights." I pulled my hair back with my right hand so the students could get a good look. "I was at rally and a stone was thrown at my face when I was 15." I saw the looks of doubt crawl across their faces. "Since I fought for what some people believed wasn't right, I was subject to their scorn because of it."

That quelled some of the whispers, but not all.

"The other scar I will enlighten you about at a later date.

"Now enough about me, I have reviewed enough information about each individual and your respective teams to know what to expect from whom. So don't try to half ass it, I'll know."

As I heard a couple sighs of relief and saw a student leaned back in his seat, I smiled.

Perfect, time to take notice.

"You know what this means don't you?" Their concerned faces turned to meet mine.

"My lessons will teach you differently than Professor Port's would have taught. That being said all of the material will be covered for however long he is out.

"Now, beginning from where Mr. Port left off….."

During class it racked Blake's mind as to who this professor was, something about him brought back a feelings of both happiness and pain. These two very opposite feelings could only be brought on by two very profound individuals, one was an old friend who died protecting her, and the other she ran from.

The first person was someone who was about ten years older, she never firmly knew his age yet he was an older brother of sorts. Never knowing what really happened to him after his supposed death, she gave up a small search about three weeks later when the search party arrived back with his weapon Soaked in blood. If he hadn't wanted to be found, he would've done anything to keep it that way. If he had died he would've gone out fighting until the bitter end.

The second person was more of a brutal mentor, someone who would force the supposed right way on everyone. He was a sweet boy in the beginning but he ended up being a monster in the end because of how the goals were never being achieved, and a confrontation with his best friend left him feeling bitter and twisted. He then was lost in hate and rage, so she left the former friend and joined Beacon.

Why are these feelings coming back now, what does this mean? It bothered her for the rest of the class.

The bell had sounded and the students had begun to start closing their books and filing out of the class.

"I'm expecting a report on pages 100-160 by next week, class!" groans were met with this statement.

Spotting her before she could disappear into the wave of people and never be seen again I called to her.

"Miss Belladonna would you mind staying, I'd like to have a word with you."

The other members of her team were looking at each other concerned at this statement.

"Don't worry girls nothing terrible, just need to talk to her for a bit, catching up for old time's sake." I smiled genuinely in a way to reassure her friends.

Her friends seemed a little reassured and left, once the class was empty I shut the door and looked to Blake.

"How much has Adam changed?" I inquired, stone faced and emotionless.

"I-I beg your pardon?" Feigning ignorance which clearly didn't work. The pale colour of her skin gave it all away.

"Blake, I know you recognize me and I know who you were, who you are, kitten." I finished that sentence with a smile and a little sarcasm.

With that one sentence, the sudden clarity of a long forgotten friend and brother, whether he was blood related or not, was not even attempted to be hidden on her face.

"Xander? Is that you? I thought you died, we all did! What happened to you?" Tears were starting to form under her eyes, these tears were the cause of all the pain, suffering and happiness we shared over what felt like a lifetime ago.

"Surely you didn't forget the only one to defeat Adam to date, have you?" I boasted to her, with a big smile on my face.

"Well of course not, you wouldn't shut up about it." She laughed while wiping tears away from her face.

"Well what can I say, that fight was toughest I fought up until then. Also I come all this way to catch up and maybe get some info and I don't get no stinking hug, well thanks for that kitten." I laid the sarcasm on thick there, then turned away feigning sadness.

She had laughed at that, 'Well you never said you wanted one, so I didn't offer."

I turned around and Blake and I embraced each other for a minute, "It's good to see that my little sister is okay after all these years."

She broke form the hug and retorted quite factually, "Why do you still insist on calling me your little sister? We aren't even related."

"Because after what we went through together you'll always be my little sister, that's a fact." I was starting to cry at this point too.

"Alright, enough catching up." I slowly edged out of the hug and she backed off. "You know by now the real reason I came here kitten, don't you?" I became straight faced and almost cold once again.

"I believe so, yes. You're here to fight Adam again, aren't you?" She questioned, I nodded to confirm her suspicions.

"So," I sighed "How much has Adam changed since he took over The White Fang?" We were in for a long evening.