Fusilier

Waking Nightmare

The moonlight shone through the window of the dorm casting the room in a pale glow.
In the corner sat a cot and on it lay the restless form of Donnie McManus. He tossed and turned beneath the blanket deep in a dream...
Donnie sat in the trench, his head drooping down to his chest. "Tired are ya?" Said a cheerful voice from the darkness. Following the voice emerged an equally cheerful man. His blonde hair white in the moonlight.
Donnie chuckled ,"I guess pulling sentry duty last night and tonight wasn't my best idea." They laughed and soon after faded into a content silence. This silence was broken when the blonde spoke. "Say Donnie. What are you going to do when this is all over?" The question took Donnie by surprise.
He shrugged,"I don't know. I have been meaning to become a baker though." He thought a moment. "What are you going to do John?" John scratched his chin and shrugged,"Might follow in my father's footsteps and become a-"  His sentence was interrupted by a high pitched SCREEEEEE Donnie and John's (along with everyone else's in the trenches) heads snapped up to the sky.
The sound disappeared as soon as it had begun. When no accompanying explosion came the soldiers grew confused. Out of the silence came a low hiss. Trailing before the hiss was cloud of a light green substance.
"GAS!" Came the shouts from all along the line. Soldiers secured their masks over their faces. As Donnie tightened the mask over his face he heard the panicked sounds of someone behind him. He turned to see his friend John struggling to untangle his gas mask from his pack. The cloud crept closer to the edge of the trench.
John finally managed to free his mask, but it was too late. The gas came crashing down on the two of them.
John clutched at his throat, having inhaled a mouthful. He let out a choked scream as he fell to his knees.
"This can't be happening!" Donnie was shouting without even realizing he was speaking. All throughout the trench he could hear screams similar to that of John's. "This isn't happening!" John writhed on the ground, slowly dying from the toxic gas. Donnie looked at what was once his friend and sobbed.
"I'm not supposed to be here!"
Donnie shot up with a yell. His eyes wet with tears and clothes soaked in sweat.
The rest of team RWBY awoke as well. Startled by Donnie's shout. Weiss was the first to react (this sort of thing had happened before). She slid out of bed and moved to the soldier's side. She rubbed back and muttered into his ear to calm him.
"What's wrong Donnie?" Yang groggily asked from the back of the group still half asleep. "J-Just a n-nightmare guys I-I'm fine. Really." He shakily replied. No one bought his nervous explanation. He looked up at their skeptical faces and continued to assure them he was fine.
After a few minutes Donnie managed to convince the girls to return to sleep. As they climbed into bed he laid back, face silently streaming with tears. He never returned to his sleep that night.
The next morning Donnie silently proceeded with his morning routine. The girls slowly began to wake up as he returned to the dorm from his morning cigarette. As the women of team RWBY lined to use the bathroom Donnie sat on his cot and thumbed through an old journal. It's brown cover was battered but the most defining detail was the fact that the bottom left corner was missing, almost like it was blown off. He continued to thumb through it until the girls finished getting ready and they left for breakfast.
He remained silent on the walk over, different from his normal joking attitude. When they entered the dining hall Donnie grabbed a tray and sat at their usual table. He kept his head down and poked around at his food.
"Are you ok Donnie?" A now concerned Pyrrah asked. "It's nothing. Nothing at all." He responded in a low voice. After a moment Donnie stood, dumped his tray into the trash can, and walked towards the exit saying he "was full".
Donnie stepped out into the cool morning air. He moved to a nearby bench and produced a cigarette from his pocket. At least that other one finally stopped he thought to himself.
From inside the dining hall both teams JNPR and RWBY could see the soldier hunched on the bench. "What's up with him?" Jaune asked while jabbing his thumb over his shoulder in his direction. "I believe it may have something to do with his 'nightmare' last night," Blake spoke up.
"Nightmare?" Ren asked from beside Nora. "Yes. Last night Donnie woke up shouting. It woke all of us up." Blake responded.
Weiss sighed, "It is the nightmare that's troubling him. He's had these before." This peaked everyone's interests. Yang pointed in the direction of Donnie. He sat hunched over with a small amount of smoke puffing from over his shoulder. "So he's done that before?" Weiss nodded.
"In the short time I've known him Donnie has had a number of these nightmares. From what he's said ,awake and asleep, they're... flashbacks or memories."
"Memories of what?" Juane asked.
"I think that war he was in before I brought him here." Weiss paused a moment,"Although... I've only seen it that bad once or twice."
The two teams sat and thought on what he could have possibly dreamt of to change him like this. After a few moments Donnie entered the dining hall and moved to the table. "Time to go guys." He muttered,"Don't wanna be late for class do we?" He waved a hand forward as a sign to follow him.

They sat in Profess- I'm sorry, Doctor Oobleck's class. He flitted about, rapidly making points and writing them down on his chalkboard. Donnie sat in the back row absently writing down his notes in a way he had had to teach himself to keep up. While he wrote his mind traveled elsewhere, to the blood drenched fields from which he was torn just over one year ago. He thought of his friends who he'd last seen engaged in a frantic melee for a beaten and worn stretch of the french countryside. He wondered who (if any) had managed to survive and either revel in a hard won victory or had been sent running back to the trenches to lick their wounds.
"Mr. McManus!" Oobleck shouted in an attempt to gain his attention. Donnie's head snapped to the doctor. "Sir,"He asked for the doctor to continue. Oobleck sipped from his coffee mug and cleared his throat. "Now, if you are done daydreaming then would you please tell me what fortress was subjected to a six month siege by General Folx Carius during the Great War?"
Donnie took a moment to glance at his notes to luckily find that he had written this information down the day before. He raised his eyes and replied,"Fort Amber sir." Dr. Oobleck flashed a small smile and again sipped from his thermos. "Very good Mr. McManus. But please do pay attention in class more often." Donnie nodded quickly and returned to silence. Weiss glanced back at the soldier. It wasn't like him to be so distant.
Class was slightly interrupted yet again when Jaune was called on to answer the question of what advantage the faunas had over human forces. Jaune of course answered incorrectly even with help from Pyrrha. This led to input from Cardin who said that faunas were easier to train because they were animals. As one would guess with blatant racism, the responses snowballed into the exchanging of insults.
"Enough!" Dr. Oobleck shouted. He pointed a finger at Cardin. "Mr. Winchester. Views such as the ones you have just shared are some of the greatest reasons why we even had a war. And I will not have this in my class." He then turned towards Jaune. "And you Mr. Arc. Over the course of the semester you have shown a constant lack of attention to your studies." This time he looked between the two of them. "Both of you. Remain after the bell. We have much to discuss."
Shortly after this the bell rang. All except the two unlucky boys rushed out the door to their next class. Donnie strode onward. Leaving the rest of team RWBY to catch up from their chat with Pyrrha. He continued with his steady pace until he had reached Professor Goodwitch's class.
He slumped onto his bench, shoulders sagging. Students who had already noticed his change from the usual mood were giving him even more confused looks. Blake resumed her place next to him. Professor Goodwitch walked to the front of the class. In her hand she held a tablet and with the other she was typing on said tablet.
After a moment she cleared her throat. "Today we shall begin with a match between..." she tapped on her tablet,"Mr. Winchester and Mr. McManus." Donnie stood up upon hearing his name and trudged out the door. Annoyed that his thoughts were distracted.

A few minutes later Cardin and Donnie stood in the arena. Facing each other with weapons at the ready. Cardin looked him over and sneered. "This oughta be easy." Donnie glared at him,"How so Winchester?" "Well you lost to a girl dude. That is weak!" He explained while tightening his grip on the large mace in his hand. Donnie let loose a small growl. He was not in the mood for this.
As soon as Professor Goodwitch marked the match to begin Cardin charged. Donnie easily dodged the broad downward swing he delivered. In response Donnie brought up his rifle and fired two rounds into Cardin's chest, dropping his aura a quarter of the way. A now enraged Cardin tried to catch Donnie off guard by spinning in a circle, his mace spinning like the side of some demented spinning top.
When Cardin finished Donnie was immediately in the now dizzy boys face. He drew his axe and brought it down on the arm holding the mace. The blade cutting into the metal armor. Cardin cried out and dropped his weapon. But he had time to bring his fist around to punch Donnie.
Donnie reeled back from the punch. When he recovered he noticed Cardin going for his mace. Donnie drew his pistol and shot Cardin the knee. Although it only struck the armor you can be assured it still hurt like hell. The boy dropped to his other knee. Donnie walked over to him and fired another bullet into his shoulder.
Donnie growled angrily,"Seems like you were wrong Winchester." He pulled back the hammer of his revolver. "You're the weak one." With that he pulled the trigger. The revolver roared in the now silent room.
Cardin jerked and tumbled over backwards as the bullet slammed into his chest. Denting the chest plate of his armor and depleting his aura at the same time. Signaling the end of the match.
As Donnie was walking out of the arena Cardin sat up and shouted,"You're gonna pay for this Donnie!"

Well that's that for chapter 9! So sorry about taking so long to update! But I hope you enjoyed. Remember to Vote. And also comment on what you think about my writing. Maybe suggestions. And maybe even your own OCs! If you do want an OC in this story then either Private Message me or just comment it in the story. Thanks for reading!