Taking a deep breath Summer began to speak "God, Arthur… We were speaking, and he made a joke about being 'happy' about being injured and not having to go to Glynda's lesson" this caused Ruby's eyes to wide, while Yang on the other side gave a short chortle at the thought. Glynda's eye twitched at this as well, specifically targeting the laughing Yang, causing her to freeze up before quieting down.
"He asked me what I saw when I looked at him. I told him, I saw a broken man, yet I also saw hope. He agreed with me on the broken part. He-he watched his entire family die, by the time he was eight he was all alone." The room turned silent once again as everyone turned to Arthur in shock. None of them noticing that his eye's had been opened slightly, but not saying anything.
"Then, then he was kidnapped by an organization he called 'Parallel'" Gasps filed the air as everyone turned back to Summer. "He- They tortured him; Oz. hey tortured a ten year old child! Who would do something like that!?" Summer yelled as she turned her head up to Ozpin whose eyes had now opened wider than she had ever seen before "They didn't even want anything from him! He didn't have any information they needed! They just wanted to break him!" Summer began to sob once again, turning the room silent apart from the tears, that could be seen in Summer's and Ruby's eyes.
The rest of the room was a mixture of shock, disgust and anger. "Oz, I-I am not like him, the five years I dealt with? Nothing, compared to the pain Arthur felt. The pain he still feels, he-Arthur has an eidetic memory" hearing this Ozpin clenched tightly onto his cane, while Weiss, Blake, Yang and Kardia gasped, as they realized the curse that had been placed on Arthur.
"Eid-what now, memory?" Ruby asked a sullen question.
"Eidetic memory… he remembers everything, he remembers each sensation, and can recall them perfectly… Normally it is an amazing gift, but it cuts both ways, such as in Arthurs case then." Ozpin explained.
"Th-that, he-he remembers all of that?" Ruby asked, silently hoping that it was all just a morbid joke.
"I do. I remember everything" Arthur announced that he had awoken.
"Arthur!" Ruby yelled as she ran to his side, hugging him tightly.
"That didn't happen!? Did it!? It couldn't have! You are so kind, you-you couldn't have gone through that!" Ruby pleaded, begging him to tell her that none of that had happened to him.
"Ruby…" Arthur softly said as he raised his hand and began to softly stroke her hair "We, we all have our demons, mine are just a lot darker." Arthur said "Ruby, do you remember when we were in the amphitheatre and I went catatonic?" he asked, getting a nod in return.
"Parallel is the reason for that. I… have always had an affinity with death. It always follow's m wherever I go. No matter what I do, it will always follow me, or it might not? I don't know, ever since I disintegrated back home, Things have been different, it feels safer. Even in a Grimm infested forest I felt a strange sense of relief. Almost like death has decided to let me go. I feel more, Alive. It's a strange feeling. I felt that, for once, I could actually rest, I felt I could do more than just bring death." Arthur said with a smile that gradually got bigger as he spoke.
"My, past is something I don't think I will ever be able to forget, I doubt I even want to forget it"
"Why? why would you want to remember that!?" Ruby yelled
"Because, if I forget what I was, then who would I be now? If I forgot would I still be the same Arthur Fielder you see now? I doubt it, I have, seen the dredges of humanity, it broke me, and it will always be there with me. But, over the last three years, I have been getting better." Arthur turned to the Tome where Ashe was and gave a heartfelt, loving smile.
"My time in Parallel took all of two years to come to a conclusion before they were wiped out and I was rescued. After which I spent a year getting treatment for the numerous maladies that I had accrued with those two years, surprising everyone there at just how fast I healed."
"After that I spent the next two years, torturing myself, I locked myself in my room at the orphanage wallowing in my grief, barely eating, trapped behind a computer screen watching stories of hope that I could only dream of. And then one day someone appeared, a persistent brat who just couldn't leave me alone." Emphasizing the words 'someone', 'Persistent' and 'Brat' while staring at Ashe, who had crossed her arms and looked proud of herself.
"And you already saw what happened after that. Ashe took sick, almost passed away, I saved her and ended up evaporating and finding myself on Remnant. And that was almost… two weeks by now. I guess." Arthur finished.
"Wait. You 'arrived' on Remnant? You make it sound like you're from another planet." Blake spoke up.
"Yeah, that's a story I am not going to talk about, I want to have at least a few secrets." He saw numerous faces of displeasure filling the room. "Hey, it's nothing dangerous, It's just something I want to keep to myself. It sort of breaks the logic of this world, so don't ask. Just know I was gifted this chance at a second life, and I fully intend to live it"
"That, is a tall tale, mr. Fielder, but it does explain some of the strange occurrences surrounding you." Ozpin said "Though you must know, this is a very unbelievable tale, even with your… Tome, as you have been calling it."
"That may be, but that is your own problem. I have no interest in squabbling about this, you can believe it or not, it doesn't affect me."
"Hmm. That may be." Ozpin announced "Now, I do believe Arthur here, requires rest. Team RWBY, you may take the rest of the day off. Glynda, you may also leave. Kardia, thank you once again. And Summer, I do believe you also require rest. As usual one of the spare staff rooms is open to you for the night. Arthur, I would like to speak more with you later. Have a good evening, and please, do try not to have another breakdown." Ozpin said as he took a sip from his mug and left the room, followed by Kardia and Glynda.
Silence reigned supreme in the Infirmary after the professors had left. "So, nice weather we're having?" Yang joked in an attempt to break the awkward atmosphere, the only thing she got was death stares from the others.
"I-I need to rest for a bit" Summer stood and quickly moved towards the door.
"Summer! Don't blame yourself, you couldn't have known." Arthur called out to her retreating figure who didn't look back.
"Haaa…" an awkward silence once again filled the room as Arthur let out a sigh.
"W-we should also go." Ruby said to the rest of her team.
"Yeah, let's let your husband rest for a while, he's going to need the energy if you go night crawling"
"Yang!" was the resounding shout of embarrassment from both Ruby and Arthur. One of which ended up throwing a pillow, hitting Yang sending her reeling backwards. Weiss's reaction was to start nursing the rising headache that the day was once again bringing to light. And Blake, Blake was just being her usual self and intently writing down in her note book, with a concerning smile.
"I thought you wanted to kill me?" Arthur asked
"Oh, trust me, I still do. And I probably will, if you so much as harm Ruby in any way. So yeah, don't mess up and you will be safe, mostly." Yang's smile turning dangerous by the minute.
"Don't worry, I don't intend to harm her, or anyone here for that matter. Now I am actually really tired so please, do leave. We can speak another time, my face hurts, my chest hurts and honestly, my mind is screaming at me. So maybe come back later if you want to talk some more." Arthur said as he lay back onto the bed."
Deciding that it was a good idea to give Arthur space Ruby, Yang, Blake and Weiss all left the room, Ruby being the last to leave as she turned back slightly showing a worried expression on her face. But was told off when Arthur waved her away to indicate he was fine.
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"I'm surprised you told them all that" Ashe spoke from her papery home.
Arthur respond as he rested his fore arm over his eyes, ignoring the stinging pain that it caused as he agitated the sensitive skin that had regrown over the wounds over the last hour. "I am as well. I never expected this to happen, especially so soon after getting here. But I feel lighter… I feel like a weight has been lifted, a lot like when I first told you."
"Well, that's to be expected. Those were things you always kept on you; you barely even told me about them, you were actually much more willing to speak about it just now than a year ago." Ashe said, faking an annoyed voice.
"Really? Haha, maybe I'm taking this 'Second life' more seriously than I thought" Arthur began lightly chuckling at the thought. As his eyes began to droop closed and he fell into slumber.
"Sleep well Arthur"
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So, I wasn't really happy with the previous versions of this chapter. So I decided to rewrite it. I felt that I added too much to Arthurs character, to suddenly, and I also felt I just let my mind wander to far into things and it ended up messing with things revealed in the previous chapters (Specifically the first chapter). So this was in an effort to fix those while also adding a bit more lore.
Did it work? I hope so. This chapter also took way to long to write, and now I am done with backstory for a bit, I might return to Arthur's backstory in the future to fix any issues I come across or you guys notice.
But seriously, I am done with this backstory, for now atleast.