Weiss still blamed herself for the Slayer's escape. Doctor Oobleck has a brilliant mind, but his field of expertise was more so history rather than the specific technical aspects of technology and engineering. He lacked the careful eye and care that Weiss retained when it came to precision and accuracy. It was Weiss' responsibility to ensure the force field surrounding the Materia prototype was appropriately calibrated to not falter, to be inescapable, yet the Slayer had managed bypass it for one crucial second and had nearly killed Professor Ozpin.

The Slayer had nearly killed Professor Goodwitch, Ruby, Blake, and Yang, as well.

He had successfully killed the six veteran huntsmen that had been there to further deter the Slayer from resisting. Weiss had barely managed to blink before she had realized that it was six dead bodies that had fallen to the floor on her monitor. A speed Semblance of that incredibly velocity was incomparable to anything Weiss has ever seen in a hunter.

Doctor Oobleck's contingency – an Aura-shattering bomb, namely – had thankfully prevented the Slayer from beating Ruby to death, but the Slayer had still escaped with the Materia device in his possession.

So, today, with Yang and Blake going on another (unsanctioned) stakeout against the White Fang, and Ruby occupied with Ozpin's new tutoring lessons, Weiss saw fit to visit the laboratory where the trap for the Slayer had been set. All of the surviving equipment among the ruins sans the Materia prototype was still there, barely touched since the Slayer's escape. Now was a good a time as any to figure out exactly what went wrong.

As Weiss slid comfortably back into her element. Crunching numbers, correcting inconsistencies, and piecing together the streamlined route to a solution all came naturally to her. Her so-called father may have believed those skills to be better utilized in the Schnee Dust Company, Winter leaning towards the Atlas military, but there were plenty of fast-talkers and fighters in Remnant already.

Weiss was a superb fencer, her proficiency with her Semblance excellent, but her time was ultimately better spent on improving and innovating the weapons and tools essential to the advancement of the humanity's crusade for peace. Weiss hadn't quite recognized her potential until Ozpin had found her and nudged her onto the right path, and she hasn't looked back since.

For now, however, Weiss had to retrace her steps. The numbers simply didn't add up. The force field had been fully charged throughout the entire operation until Professor Goodwitch had manually deactivated it to save Ozpin from the Slayer. The fluctuations recorded on Weiss' remote program did not match the calculations recorded by the on-site program.

Perhaps the diluted Dust crystals' radiation interfered with the sensors? The Slayer's unique abilities somehow causing malfunctions? But Weiss had accounted for those potential errors. Doctor Oobleck had double-checked the calibrations, Weiss triple-checked them, Ozpin quadruple-checked –

Wait a minute. Weiss brightened the monitor of her computer and squinted her eyes to make sure she wasn't imagining things. There was another program implemented in the software, hidden under the layers of other programs.

Opening up metal panels, analyzing the complex innards, and sifting through all the various wires, conductors, and resistors, Weiss seemed to activate something.

Doctor Oobleck's bomb had went off outside the laboratory. While the damage did extend to inside the lab, the columns and platform that had generated the force field was still standing. The force field was active now, but when Weiss turned to look at it, she unconsciously pulled out her rapier and held it at the ready.

Through the transparent blue shield stood the Man in the Olive Coat, masked and all.

"Headmaster Ozpin," said the despicable man in that echoing, unnatural voice of his, "we meet at last."

Those were the exact words the Slayer had spoken that night. "What do you want with the Materia prototype?" Ozpin had asked him as he had wheeled into the room alongside Goodwitch and the other huntsmen.

"My goals are beyond your understanding."

This doesn't make sense. This was... a recording. A prerendered hologram of the Slayer being trapped in the force field. Was the Slayer even there that night? He had to have been. He killed those huntsmen, beaten Ruby again, dragged Ozpin into the force field and –

"Oh, I'm not like a Grimm at all. Grimm are mindless monsters who kill in accordance to motivations that have long been forgotten."

"I have the benefit of selecting those who I slay."

Weiss spun around, holding her blade in front of her. Ozpin was here. He was – He was standing on his own two feet, no wheelchair or crutches in sight.

She can't believe this. Weiss had thought Yang's completely unfounded suspicions on Ozpin being some co-conspirator with the Man in Olive were nothing but overly emotional misjudgments, but now...

Ozpin was smiling, looking as proud as the day he had congratulated Team RWBY for successfully passing initiation, stepping forward as he clapped. "You are incredibly clever, Miss Schnee," he said. "I've always said so."

"Stop!" Weiss commanded. Ozpin's smile and calm demeanor never wavered as he abided her. "You're him, aren't you? The Slayer."

"You and I have never been truly, properly introduced," Ozpin said easily, unthreatened by Weiss pulling out a Dust vial for Myrtenaster. "You may call me Oscar."

Such a mundane name. Oscar? That didn't sound too far off from Ozpin. Was there a connection there? Some hidden meaning? An inside joke? Was there... How far did this rabbit hole go? "The night we trapped the Slayer, you almost died. There were two of you." At one point, the Slayer had been trading blows with Ruby outside while Weiss and Goodwitch were attending to Ozpin's injuries.

Ozpin's form began vibrating, fading out before he disappeared completely. Not even a nanosecond later, there were two Ozpins standing before Weiss.

"It's an afterimage," one them said. "A 'speed mirage', if you will."

Moving so fast that he could appear in two places at once. He had the power to kill Weiss right now.

Ozpin had stood there for Weiss when her blood family hadn't. How could he be the same man who has slain so many people, ruined so many other families?

"You were there that night," Weiss muttered, trying to process this revelation, "ten years ago, in Ruby's and Yang's house. You killed Qrow Branwen and Summer Rose."

Strolling to Weiss' computer console nearby, Ozpin pressed a few buttons and deactivated the hologram of the Slayer. "It was never my intention to kill them. I was there to kill Ruby."

What?! "Why? You're her mentor. You planned for her and I to become combat partners. You've been teaching her how to –"

"Kill Grimm? Combat enemy and rogue huntsmen? Improve her Semblance? Harness her potential? All a means to an end."

"And what end is that, exactly?"

Ozpin began approaching her again. Weiss stepped back before deciding to stomp her feet and hold her ground. "An ending where I finally become free of my imprisonment in this place, after being marooned for these ten long years. The Reaper's powers, her silver eyes in particular, are the key to my returning to my world. To my time."

A sliver of green electricity flickered down Ozpin's arm. "And no one," he said, "is going to prevent that from happening."

A psychotic time traveler? Is that what the Slayer really was? What Ozpin really was? So, Ruby truly went by the moniker of "Reaper" in the future, and the Slayer has is her sworn enemy? "Don't be so confident," Weiss said... Why were there tears slipping down her face?

"Do you know," Ozpin said, his cool voice faintly breaking slightly, "how hard it has been to keep all of this from you, Miss Schnee – especially from you?"

"You... You taught me well. Our familiarity is the only reason I hadn't looked harder, seen you for what you really are sooner." Ozpin was... Ozpin was not the man Weiss had thought he was. Everything that he has given her? A place to call home? A loving, competent team? All a means to an end, to him, is what this has all been. All according to the Slayer's designs.

The Slayer was the enemy, and one must dispatch your enemy as quickly and cleanly as attainable. Winter had taught her that, and Ozpin had only reinforced the lesson.

So why couldn't Weiss make a move to go for the kill? Why was she crying?

"The undeniable truth is," Ozpin said, raising his hand, crackling with green energy, "I've grown quite fond of you."

Quite fond of her? What, like a pet? Like a trophy daughter meant to be molded into whatever role the Slayer required?

"And in many ways, you have shown me what it's like to be a father."

And Weiss had thought she had really learned what it's like to be a daughter loved by a father.

But the Slayer killed Ruby's mother. He has killed countless mothers, fathers, uncles – none of this can go unanswered and ignored!

Ozpin – The Slayer became a blur. Weiss thrust her rapier forward, but the Slayer deflected it with his glowing hand.

The Slayer shoved his other hand into Weiss' sternum, and she felt everything stop. Feeling, sound, breathing – it was all gone, numb. The only sense that was working was her sigh. Ozpin's face looked down at Weiss in sorrowful disappointment.

Then Weiss gasped. Was her heart still beating?

"Forgive me," the Slayer said, "but to me, you've been dead for decades..."

"... for decades! I don't agree with how much he sits on the fence for Faunus civil rights, but that doesn't make him an accomplice to some crazy conspiracy, Yang."

"Blake, just listen to me. Ozpin has plenty of tenure as Headmaster, sure, but something is really off about him. Look. Ten years ago, Ruby and I lose our family, but he barely gives a second glance even when Glynda takes us in. It isn't until the Dust Accelerator explosion – that he knew could have exploded even after the safety crew looked it over – a few months ago when he starts seriously paying attention to me and Ruby, on our progress in the Signal and junk. I've talked with Glynda. Something about Ozpin changed not long after my mom and Uncle Qrow died. From everyone I asked that knew him back then, he got colder, harsher, getting more obsessed with tech and Aura/Dust experimentation –"

"Ozpin could have just been processing his own grief. Distancing himself from you two to not see reminders of his best students. Burying himself in his work. People work through tragedy differently. The loss of his legs after the explosion, and Ruby's own brief coma inadvertently caused by the explosion, must have caused him to realize that there was no use in wallowing in misery."

"But there's just too many things that don't add up: Cardin and his team falling off the face of the map after they dropped out, Doctor Merlot getting shanked almost immediately after getting pardoned of all his crimes, Caroline Cordovin disappearing not even a day after the Kingdom Summit. And Ozpin is still pushing for the Vytal Festival to go on, even with Torchwick and his hanger-on still running around and doing God knows what."

Weiss blinked. What was that unusual day dream she just had? Her mind rarely wanders off on a random tangent like that, but lately... and with such a cruel, heartbreaking dream that was more like a nightmare...

The chill through her shoulders and her rapid blinking made her feel incredibly uneasy. The window to RWBY's dorm room wasn't even open, and Weiss was naturally attuned to cool temperatures. It was just pent-up stress, frustration, an overactive imagination, on Weiss' part. Nothing more, nothing less...

Someone nudged her arm. "You doing okay, Weiss?" Ruby asked, concern in her eyes.

Forcing herself to slip back into the natural role of "preppy ice princess", as Yang liked to call it, Weiss rolled her eyes. "I'm fine, you dolt. What about you? I believe nearly anything is possible through testing and experimentation, but actually traveling through time would be quite the feat for someone whose Semblance has nothing to with time travel."

"I don't know exactly how I did it, but it happened," Ruby insisted. Blake and Yang broke off from their argument to focus on their team leader. "Ozpin said it had something to do with magic naturally attuned to my silver eyes and enhancing my – the specifics don't matter. What matters is that I think that Ozpin is hiding more than I think he should be."

"Headmaster Ozpin can be a private person," Weiss conceded, "but you have to admit, Ruby, and you, Yang, that it's a little hard to believe that he could possibly be an accomplice to the Slayer."

"I don't think he's just an accomplice," Ruby said nervously, ripe with hesitation. "I think he is the Slayer."

Weiss sharply sucked in a breath. "Excuse you?" She glanced at their other teammates. Blake maintained her composure under a poker face, but Yang's mouth was gaping with a crooked eyebrow. "Yang, just how much distrust have you implanted in Ruby towards Headmaster Ozpin?"

"What makes you say that, Ruby?" Yang asked patiently.

"During the special tutoring sessions, the way Ozpin talks about Aura and Semblance, my silver eyes, about destiny, about magic –"

"Magic?" Weiss cut in with disbelief. "And what do your silver eyes have to with anything?" she added, but Ruby pressed on.

"He knows more about my own powers than I do. It feels like Ozpin has done this before. I know he's Beacon's Headmaster, so he's done a lot of teaching, including for Team STRQ, but from how he talks, it's as if he knows what it's like to run the way I do. To run fast enough with your Aura drained dry, using magic as a replacement and an enhancer, and to use magic as a conduit for a whole bunch of things instead of using Aura and Dust –"

"Why do you keep bringing up magic?"

"Because when the Dust Accelerator exploded, there was magic energy that got spread across –"

The ringtone from Ruby's scroll cut her off. She quickly glanced at it, declaring, "It's Jaune! I was waiting for this. Hold on." She turned on the speaker and upped the volume, holding the scroll in the center between the small circle formed by Team RWBY.

"Hey, Rubes," Jaune's nervous voice called out. "So, I convinced my team to help snoop around Beacon Tower like you asked. Was harder than we thought with all the upped security after the White Fang riot, but we made it in okay. Turns out that there are floors that go further down past the basement. Pyrrha had to use her Semblance on one of the elevators to get us down there, but when we got back to the first floor and left the Tower, Professor Port caught us crossing the yellow tape. Don't know whether he's in on what Ozpin's scheming in the basement, so we're causing a – well, Nora's causing a big distraction, so if you want to see what Ozpin's hiding under Beacon, you should head there now. Pyrrha will be there to work the elevator, but it won't be long until Port or another professor finds us.

"Trust me, Ruby, you and your team are going to need to see what was down there..."

X

Ruby couldn't believe her eyes.

There was the Slayer's suit – olive coat, green scarf, expressionless mask – being worn by a mannequin encased in glass. Almost like a sacred shrine.

Everything Ozpin has done to help her, to prepare her to become a huntress and defeat the Slayer... all the bad things he's done... the people he's killed, the lives he's ruined...

Behind Ruby, down the long, wide, dark corridor, people were still knocking on the glass walls of their cage, never stopping ever since Team RWBY had entered the Vault.

"You can't just leave us in here!" yelled a tall, tough Faunus in a White Fang uniform. "Belladonna, we were comrades once. Please, unlock this door. I've already lost too many brothers and sisters to that madman's experiments. I will not share their fate!"

"Blondie," pleaded Junior, the low-level mobster boss Yang had occasionally brawled with before, "tell me that my girls are safe. That they got out of town before Ozpin could get his hands on them. Please!"

"Miss Schnee," greeted a smirking Mercury Black, who was sitting on a stool in his cage with his prosthetic legs detached and missing, "about time you and your friends figured out that Ozpin was as crooked as the rest of us. I'd thought he could have made for a pretty good surrogate father, too. Just goes to show what suckers we really are."

"He killed my team," Cardin Winchester hissed distastefully. "They were jerks – I'm a jerk, too. I admit it – but they didn't deserve to die! You, Arc, Goodwitch – we tried to warn you all, but none of you listened! Everyone who's died in this godforsaken place; their deaths are all on you!"

A small earthquake accompanied by an echoing yell spread across the Vault. Ruby heard Yang give a short sigh. "Shut. Up," she growled. Absolute silence followed.

Everything Ozpin has done... What has it all been for?

A hand was placed on Ruby's shoulder, breaking her train of thought. To her small surprise, it was Blake giving her a reassuring, understanding look. Blake was rarely one for physical contact. She never liked the group hugs Ruby or Yang dragged the team into, but now, she was giving Ruby a one-armed embrace just as easily as Yang or Weiss would have done. At the moment, Yang was still simmering with rage, and Weiss was pretty busy staring absently into space.

"I know what it's like to realize someone you trust isn't at all who you thought he was," Blake said. Her words didn't make Ruby feel much better, but it did remind her that she wasn't alone. "We're here for you. We'll figure out our next steps together, Ruby. As friends –"

"Friend Ruby?" suddenly said a young, feminine voice. A holographic image of a head appeared above some control console-looking thing beside the Slayer's costume case. Surprised, Ruby jumped back. She could hear her teammates automatically draw out their weapons, but the blue, transparent hologram hardly looked threatening. In fact, the bow on the back of her head along with that wide smile actually looked pretty cute. "Oh, Ruby! And Team RWBY! How neat it is to see you all again!"

Ruby's mind went blank. "Uh... hi. You..." What was this, exactly? "... You know who we are?"

"Of course!" The hologram happily began listing things off with few pauses in between. "Ruby Rose: Headmaster of Beacon Academy. Also known as the Reaper. Weiss Schnee: Chief Executive Officer of the Schnee Dust Company. Blake Belladonna: Alpha of the White Fang. Also known as the Black Beast. Yang Xiao-Long: Veteran Huntress of Beacon Academy. Also known as the Punkelman. Community manager for entertainment company Roo–"

"What are you?" Weiss cut the talking head off.

"Oh, you haven't met the original me yet? Sensational! Well, I am Penny, an interactive artificial consciousness."

Ruby didn't know anyone named Penny. "Are we... friends... in the future, maybe?"

"Oh, yes we are! Or rather, we were. Or perhaps, will be. Time travel can result in so many different timelines unfolding! After Headmaster Ozpin's and friend Ruby's most recent time travel escapades –"

"You know who Ozpin is," Yang said, stepping forward. "Who he really is."

"Yes."

"What does he want? Is he really the Slayer? From the future?"

"Yes, on both counts!"

"Why did he come here?"

Penny looked at Ruby. "Originally, to kill friend Ruby."

Weiss sucked in a breath and stiffened.

Steeling her nerves, Ruby stared at Penny and asked, "Why did he try to kill me? Why did he kill my mom and uncle?"

"He hates you, and he was very angry about you interfering and escaping that night."

"Escape? But how did I – with his speed he could have – why do you mean by inter–" Ruby shook her head. "I'm still alive. What does he want from me now, then?"

"For you to become the Reaper."

Weiss stepped in front of Ruby, almost blocking her view of the hologram. "How do we know that anything you have told us is true?"

"I would never not tell the truth to my friends!" Penny said, seemingly aghast. "I may not be the original Penny Polendina – not even the second or third – but friend Weiss, it was you and friend Ruby who programmed me! I may be obligated to give Headmaster Ozpin a hand and advice on some things, but I could never lie to any of Team RWBY!"

Ruby's head was starting to spin. Too much information. Too much confusion. Magic was a real power that went beyond Dust and Aura. You can time travel with magic. The Slayer time traveled from the future. He did horrible things. He's also Headmaster Ozpin. And apparently Ruby befriends someone named Penny Polendina in the future, who becomes a computer program that Ruby and Weiss end up making, a program that Ozpin seems to be making use of.

To clear her head, Ruby began focusing on one thought: Ozpin almost completely destroyed her family, and he's going to pay for it.

X

The plan was perfect. Weiss baits Ozpin by discovering his sabotage with the force field. Ozpin gives an evil monologue confessing to his crimes. Ozpin is caged in the repaired force field, the confession gets dad out of jail, and Ozpin goes to trial for all that he's done.

Except the Ozpin that came to the lab wasn't him. It was one of the criminals Ruby had captured as the Reaper during Ozpin's "field evaluations". It was someone with a shapeshifting Semblance. By the time RWBY had figured it out, the criminal was already dead. His Aura was depleted even though his Semblance was still, so Blake's bullets killed him instead of knocking him out.

Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang stood over the body.

"I told you this before," said a familiar voice on the intercom. "I am always one step ahead... Reaper."

Putting the bloody back to the back of her mind, Ruby let the anger, the frustration, the resentment flood every corner of her body. "You've been using all of us from the start! You ruined my life! All of our lives!"

"I can see how this must be difficult for you to understand," Ozpin's voice said calmly, "but trust me, your lives now are so much better because of all that I have done for you."

Blake scoffed. "You don't have to hide anymore, 'Headmaster'. We know you're not Ozpin. Tell us who you really are."

"A confession..." Ozpin's voice became deeper, less and less like the self-respecting Headmaster, more and more like the arrogant, cold Slayer. "... will get you nowhere. You've seen who I am. You know what I can do."

Yeah, Ruby has. "If you want to kill me, then do it!"

"No!" Yang immediately objected. Ruby ran ahead of her to avoid getting clomped in a protective hug.

"I won't fight you. Do what you want, but just tell everyone what you did! Get my dad out of prison!"

"I have no desire to kill you, Ruby," the Slayer said in a mockingly offended tone. "I need you. And, I must admit, I did not at all anticipate, as difficult as the past ten years have been for me, how much I would come to love working with you. With all of you. Not quite like old times, but the memories I have accrued during my time as Headmaster, I will honestly treasure for the rest of my life."

He sounded so genuine, actually hurt that his ruse was done. What kind of messed up mind that the Slayer have?

"And yet," he went on, "none of that, none of my nostalgia, can change what needs to happen."

Ruby knew what has to happen. Ozpin and the Slayer have always told her what to expect. "Then show yourself!" she demanded. "Face me now!"

"Oh, we will face each other again." No more sadness, no more regret in Ozpin's voice. Only excitement, anticipation for what's to come. "I promise you, soon. Very, very soon, there will be a reckoning."