Lifetimes of Mistakes
He failed again. Ozpin stared out through his office window at the now burning kingdom of Vale. Ozpin, Headmaster of Beacon academy, the man who had made more mistakes than any man, woman, and child now stood at the culmination of all his mistakes watching the same 'finale' he had witnessed countless times before. He set his now empty cup of tea down on the desk behind him. It was the White Fang's plot that he had failed to prevent this time. He had been too focused on the accumulation of grimm packs that had overwhelmed the kingdom during the last finale. The White Fang had been peaceful during that lifetime. In fact it had been many lifetimes since they had presented a threat even remotely close to 'the finale' as he had come to refer to the end of his life and his home kingdom. It made it easier to keep trying even after all his repeated failures.
"All of our huntsman have been sent out, sir. The youngest have been assigned to evacuations and escorting the civilians." Ozpin hadn't heard Glynda Goodwitch come in but he hid his surprise from her. She stopped next to him seeming to consider her next words carefully. He turned to face the white haired woman as she finally spoke. "Ozpin, are you sure this is the right call? I mean...abandoning the kingdom like this?"
"To be honest Glynda I don't think that there is a right call this time." He turned away from her grabbing his cane from atop his desk and began walking out of his office leaving her to hurry after him. "I've lived countless lifetimes like this one. It is the dream I've been reliving all these years that I would never discuss with you and it always ends the same way. It always ends with the destruction of Vale and myself with it."
"You don't know that will happen."
"Sadly, I do." He said as he swung open the heavy main doors to Beacon. This was it. He could always tell when the finale started. "That's why I want you to go with the children. It will be up to you to guide them forward to Atlas."
"No. I won't let you stay by yourself while you have me run." She forced out with every ounce of sternness she could muster from her thirty something years of teaching unruly students.
"I wont be alone. The other professors have already been sent out as well as the third and fourth years. Just listen to my orders. It is likely the last I will ever give you." He finally stopped walking as they reached the academy's launch pad with it's final Bullhead. "Please, Glynda do this for me. Please, keep them safe."
"Is this truly what you've dreamt of for all these years?" He didn't answer her as the both looked over the city as it was slowly being overtaken. "Fine, I'll do as you say this last time but promise me if you're able to you'll extract with the others. We will leave you an airship on the coast for as long as it's feasible. Will you be taking the last Bullhead into the city?"
"I do believe you'll need as many of the aircraft as possible. I have my own landing strategy in mind." He propped his cane on his shoulder and hurled himself over the cliff and towards his burning home.
It was some time later until he felt his eyes reopening. He was back in his office chair. Looking around he noticed his office was a mess, a rare occurrence. The sun was just rising through the large open windows of his office giving light to the panoramic view of Vale. The view calmed him reassuring this wasn't the last chance he would have to save it. He rose to stand at the window gazing at the kingdom to build himself back up to try once again. The machinations of what were happening to him were still a mystery. He wasn't sure if he was living through the future as he slept or waking up in the past. The one thing he did know is that what he saw would happen if he didn't take action to stop it.
"We'll do better this time." He whispered quietly as if making the promise to the kingdom itself.
He brewed a fresh pot of coffee, a departure from his usual tea and sat back at his deck. He shifted away a few papers, mostly reports from various huntsman tasked to track packs of grimm that he suspected to have cause the previous finale and activated the holographic screen to check the date before getting to work. He leaned back into his chair with a long sigh. Twenty years, six months, and sixteen days he was sent back this time. Without hesitation he began to write out events that would happen leading up to the finale and events he had caused that may have been a determining factor.
It was well into the early afternoon when he heard a knock at his office door pulling him out of his work and finally realized the time that had passed. He called for the person to enter his office as he took off his glasses and began rubbing his eyes. It was Glynda he knew. It almost always was before the new school year began. Glynda entered and let out a frustrated sigh before the doors even closed confirming his guess.
"I thought you had given up on this habit." She knew what he was working on. It was easy to tell by the half a dozen cups he had laying on top of a forgotten pile of huntsman's reports he himself had ordered and by the way he looked as if he had been working for days on end. She began to gather up his empty cups onto a tray for the staff to remove as he didn't say anything in response to her. Another of his bad habits one she was used to at this point.
Glynda hadn't noticed many of his habits in the first few years of them working together especially about his dreams. He took extra care to hide that one from people but after countless all-nighters and long term missions it was hard to miss. It was most obvious to her three years ago while they worked through the night grading their student's final exam. He had fallen asleep for only a few minutes but he awoke with an unexpected intensity immediately pulled out a specific team, one that would have barely passed, and held them back for another year at Beacon without an explanation. Then it had gotten even stranger. He stood and began making coffee a drink he claimed to hate and finished an entire cup before pouring another and sitting back at his desk. He asked her a few pointed questions then completely ignored the student's exams and began writing a report that had taken him hours.
She glared at the man at the desk in front of her now as he continued writing one of those same reports and continued to pay her no mind. Ozpin always acted in the same contemplative and distant nature after one of his dreams. It was easy to tell he wouldn't respond until he was done, so she began organizing the disheveled reports. Since that first strange event she had noticed the behavior after he woke and any time he drank coffee instead of tea. Each time she had also found his odd report filled with strangely vague tasked to 'prevent' or oddly specific events that he tagged as necessary or detrimental. She had questioned his strange reports he had simply titled as 'Finale' and he had simply said it was intuition.
"It's been more than a month since you've had one of your dreams. I had hoped you would have given up on this particular bad habit of yours." Glynda scolded as he finished and closed the holographic screen to his desk.
"A month already?" Ozping said with surprise. It was odd when the dreams were a week apart let alone a whole month. He folded his hands infront of his mouth resting his elbows on the desk. He had given up hope hiding it from Glynda, she was too sharp and had too many opportunities that it wouldn't go unnoticed. That didn't mean he would talk about it directly. "I had hoped that would be the last one but anyhow you came to see me?"
"You can't avoid telling me forever." She paused to give the man another glare and he just smiled in return. Finally she gave in first holding out another report and continued. "The first year student's transcripts have been finalized. I still have my reservations about that Arc boy. I don't see how he could succeed here without any training."
"It's not his training I want, it's his mind. The new students this year are all very promising and unusually skilled for our normal first years. No matter which team he ends up on they will be able to compensate and I dare say even excel." He said off offhandedly taking the file and leafing through it. He didn't even have to see her glare this time. He could feel it and he couldn't very well explain that he knew the future Arc to have become a huntsman worthy of envy. "I understand your hesitance but to turn in false transcripts to one of the best combat schools shows a level of determination and bravery required of every huntsman."
"Or stupidity that will get any huntsman killed."
"Perhaps, but that is why we are here. To keep them from getting themselves killed. Feel free to be as harsh as you need to be but if we turn this boy away I am sure that wont stop him from trying to be a huntsman. You and I both know how that is guaranteed to end." He closed the file to meet her glare.
"Fine, but I will expel the boy if he proves to be incapable. I will not risk the chance of someone else getting hurt. I will take my leave now. There are still some travel arrangements to be made within the city proper." She turned to stride to the door leaving Ozpin with the transcripts.
"One more thing Glynda. If anything unusual happens today please contact me directly."
"On days like today I always do." She responded before leaving his office without missing a stride.
It was just after dark when she ran into just such an event. Ozpin was incredibly insufferable on days like today when he was right at every turn. When she had contacted him about a typical dust robbery being foiled in a most untypical way he had only irritated her further. A young girl no more than sixteen had dispatched the would be robbers with impressive skill and an even more impressively dangerous weapon. The type of weapon reserved for huntsman.
"If it were up to me, you'd be sent home with a pat on the back," Glynda continued scolding the girl, walking around the table she was sitting at, "and a slap on the wrist!"
Glynda punctuated her lecture by slappling her riding crop on the table causing the girl to jump back with a squeak, "But there's someone here who would like to meet you."
Ozpin walked into the room as if on cue, plate of cookies in one hand, cup of coffee in the other. "Ruby Rose. You...have silver eyes..."
He leaned in to examine her eyes and the girl seemed to shy away from his scrutiny. He straightened up and began interrogating her about her skills and motivations. He was surprised to find he really enjoyed the conversation with the young girl finding a striking difference from the Ruby Rose he had know in his last lifetime. That Ruby, the one he would have meet two years later upon applying for his school was much more subdued compared to this Ruby's seemingly endless enthusiasm and conviction.
"Do you know who I am?" He asked her now sitting at the table across from her.
"You're Professor Ozpin. You're the headmaster at Beacon." She answered without hesitating.
"Hello." Ozpin always found it entertaining to 'introduce' himself to people he had seemingly known for years.
"Nice to meet you." Ruby answered in all seriousness unaware of the joke playing through the professor's mind.
"You want to come to my school?" He asked mode suddenly shifting to seriousness.
"More than anything." He looked over to Glynda at the girl's response. Glynda rolled her eyes at the headmaster with a hmph knowing full well what he would say. Ozpin for once in a very long time felt hopeful about this lifetime. Perhaps it was time he made larger changes than he had previously. He decided moving a young and skillful aspiring huntress two years ahead and directly into his school could be just the sort of change needed.
"Well, okay."