A/N:

Hi friends!

Welcome back to RWBY: The Selection! Team RWBY defeated the Sea Feilong, but Oscar is still nowhere to be found...

Once again, please review with any thoughts/comments/reactions/concerns/favorite RWBY soundtrack songs. Right now, I am THOROUGHLY jamming to some Vol. 1 soundtracks after revising that last chapter. Action scenes typically aren't my area of expertise -I never know if I'm doing them correctly (I feel much more comfortable with my dialogue, my irony, and my ANGST)- but they are just SO FUN to write.

This is the last chapter going up tonight, so without further ado, enjoy!

Chapter 61: Oscar

"Oscar,"

Oscar's head was swimming. His lungs were burning. His vision was black.

Oscar Pine was not meant to be a beach boy. He was a farm boy, having grown up as a farmhand in Mistral. His life on the farm was hard work, but it had been happy, and there were times when he missed it. He couldn't stay there though. He had a responsibility. At least, that was the voice in his head told him.

The voice in his head hadn't always been there. It had appeared a few years ago. He'd been tilling the soil, minding his own business, when the voice had come out of nowhere. One second, it had only been him in his head, and the next, there were two of them.

"We have to leave," the voice had ordered, and Oscar had followed.

"The Isle of Tenebris," the voice had directed, and Oscar had applied.

"Protect Prince Jaune," the voice had commanded, and Oscar had agreed.

"Stop Salem," the voice had pleaded, and that's when Oscar stopped.

Not only was stopping the Queen dangerous and controversial (as she was the Queen of all of Remnant), it was also borderline impossible. The Queen had teams of the strongest, elite Huntsmen and Huntresses working for her. The Queen had the people of Vale, Mistral, and Atlas ready to die for her cause. The Queen had magic. Whatever she was up to (and Oscar had refused to listen to any of the details the voice in his head tried to tell him about just what Salem was up to), it wasn't worth it to try to stop her. Especially not alone.

So, after being ignored and rejected time and time again, the voice had finally left Oscar alone, for (hopefully) forever, and Oscar could focus in peace on protecting the prince, and trying not to get killed by the Selection contestants.

Of course, at the moment, he seemed to be struggling to follow through with the second of those goals.

"Oscar,"

The voice roused him back to life.

"Oscar,"

He tried to tell it to leave him alone, but his lungs were burning. Was he underwater? The last thing he remembered was surfing with Reese, and then…

Something brushed against his foot.

"Oscar,"

Panicking, Oscar tried to spot the surface of the ocean. He kicked in a direction that he hoped was up, his legs aching, his mind fogging, his lungs on fire. Something brushed by him again, and Oscar looked down. The antenna of a Sulfur Fish was wrapped around his leg. Releasing a stream of terrified bubbles, Oscar tried to pull the tail off of him, but the Grimm was persistent, pulling him deeper and deeper into the ocean.

"Help!" he screamed, but his words were lost in the water, and no one could hear.

"I'm going to take control."

He tried to protest, but all that came out were bubbles, and then someone else had control of his body. With renewed strength, his body tore free of the Sulfur Fish. Angry, the Grimm spun around, lashing at Oscar with his fiery tail.

Oscar wanted to scream, but the voice that had control of his body had other ideas. Quickly, he established a defensive aura, grabbed the antenna of the Sulfur Fish, and flung it back through the water. It snarled and swam away, and Oscar's body, which he now had decided was much more effective when he didn't have control, kicked up to the surface.

"Oscar!"

He was vaguely aware of someone calling his name, vaguely aware of someone pulling him onto a shrinking iceberg, and vaguely aware of a pair of bright, silver eyes before the world faded away from him, slipping into blackness.

An indeterminant amount of time passed before Oscar awoke, and again, it was the voice that woke him.

"I'm sorry," the voice said. Oscar's world was still black. It hurt too much to attempt to open his eyes, but the sound of the waves was gone, so he assumed that they had left the beach. "I know you don't want me here anymore, but I had to take control. Our life was at stake."

"How-" Oscar coughed. His lungs still burned. "How did you do that?"

"As I told you before, our auras have combined. Whenever I need to take control, I can just-"

Oscar swallowed painfully. "No, not that. The Sulfur Fish. How did you do that?"

The voice chuckled. "Lifetimes of training. Don't feel bad. I'm afraid that level of quick thinking doesn't come naturally, even to the best of us."

Oscar forced his eyes open. He was back in his room at Beacon Castle, on the Isle of Tenebris. It was empty, which he supposed was a blessing, as it meant no one had heard him talking to himself.

"I know you wish that I wasn't a part of you," the voice said, "and I know that you cast me out when I last brought up defeating Salem, but I need you to listen to me this time."

Oscar inhaled slowly. Whoever this voice was, whatever his reason for being here, he had just saved Oscar's life. Did Oscar owe it to him to listen? Even when he didn't like what the voice proclaimed?

"I have a grave responsibility to uphold," the voice explained. "We both do."