Chapter 2

As Oscar made his way to his teammates dorm rooms, his new sense was all over the place. As every now and then, when he passed the multitudes of rooms lining the near endless hallways, his sense would spike. As if it was emanating from something in one of the rooms. Confused by this, he decided to go check one of the rooms that emanated the most. He knocked on the door and waited for a response.

"hello, who is it?" said a male voice from inside the room

"uh, my names Oscar, I'm a little lost, I was wondering if you could help me"

After a few minutes passed of looking and asking for directions, Oscar found himself outside of team RWBY's dorm room. Still coming to terms with Ozpins departure, he felt uneasy, before opening the door.

"Oscar!" said the group of new students, with the leader making a beeline towards the farmboy

"oh-" was the last thing he said before being snagged

"are-you-ok, does-anything-hurt, what-happened?"

"slow down ruby, let oscar breath first" said Yang with a smile

Oscar sat down on one of the beds, and explained his encounter with the general, as well as his new predicament

"so this new feeling you have, can you explain it in a little more detail?" said Weiss

"well, when I was approaching the room with the person that led me here, the "sense" became clearer. And after the door opened, and he saw me, the feeling died down in intensity"

"what about now?" said Blake

"it still here somewhat, but it's faint. It was the same when I was walking through the school. Nothing significant but always there" said Oscar

"it seems your semblance has a passive quality to it, a bit like how certain animals can't turn of certain senses" said Blake

"do you think your semblance could do anything else" said Ruby excitedly

"I'm not sure. I might. If I'm able to do all of this without having to do anything… it's a possibility" said Oscar

"well we wont find out if we keep waiting around here, wanna go check out the rest of the school? Maybe your semblance might start doing some cool stuff" said Yang optimistically

"yeah, that would be nice" said Oscar before the two made their way out of the room and started making there way through the new school.

upon walking through the advanced Atlesian school, yang explained what had happened while he was gone. Most of it he already knew from the debrief from General ironwood, but he enjoyed Yang's explanation of certain events.

Atlas academy front courtyard – 11:23am

"so, what do you think?" asked yang, as oscar looked over the blue neon cyber city of atlas.

"its definitely different from the farm" said Oscar awkwardly

"I can imagine. Do you miss your Aunt?" said Yang

"yeah, at times. At least now we're here, she'll have an address to send her own letters back to me" said Oscar smiling

"oh-my-oum!" said Yang exploding with excitement, startling Oscar in the process

"What is it! is something wrong?" said Oscar worried

"no, sorry. Its just, there's someone me and ruby have been meaning to talk to for a while, and now we can. And finally with some good news" said Yang happily

"yeah… good news" said Oscar smiling, looking at the horizon

Mantle noodle stand – 7:45pm (many days later)

"Crap, I figured it out! its fear oscar! Thats what your sensing, you can sense people's fear" exclaimed Yang

"thought it might be that" said Blake as she ate her noodles

"hm… yeah… actually, your right, I guess its fear. huh" said Oscar slightly befuddled

"it still doesn't explain the decrease in Aura" said Ren

"yeah, I mean we saw it flicker and… yeah it was gone" said Jaune

"as much as its cool that Oscar is discovering his new semblance, I don't think I want what happened that day to happen again, it was… really scary" said Nora

"that's an understatement" said Blake bluntly

"oh come on, I'm sure the next time Oscar's semblance does something he'll be fine. I mean we'll be here to put him back on his feet in no time if something like that happens again right?" said Yang confidently

Many days after this event Team RWBY and JNR were sent on a mission with Oscar to an abandoned but essential mining outpost 125km from mantle, recently infested with Grimm. Be it the complex layout of the mine or the amateur team, after an hour of them being inside the mine, Oscar got separated from the group, and found himself at a dead end. upon realising this Oscar decided to try and retrace his steps only to be blocked by a Centinel.

Grimm infested mining outpost – 12:35pm

The battle between Oscar and the Centinel was reaching an end. The Centinel on its last legs from Oscars bludgeoning attacks, steady's itself to deliver a hopeful final strike towards the exhausted young huntsman. As this happened Oscar got into a defensive stance, his cane posed to deflect the oncoming attack. The two combatants were frozen in-place, the cold air between them stagnant and unflinching. Until, Whoosh. The Centinel launched forward in a spiralling motion, Oscar flinched before the Centinel made contact with his cane. The hard force pushing Oscar back before he parried the attack, lifting the Centinel into the air before it crashed onto the hard ice floor. Afterwards the Grimm fell silent. For the seconds that followed, all that could be heard was the heaving breaths of an exhausted farm boy turned huntsman, sadly this silence did not last for long as a small hoard of Centinels barrowed out of the walls. Their sights focused on Oscar.

Overcome with fear, tears started to flow from Oscars face. The Grimm only became more ferocious at the sight of this. Up until the farmboy's fear slowly turned to fury.

"I shouldn't… I shouldn't be here damn it!" yelled oscar to the new hoard, as he stood up behind the disintegrating body of the Grimm he just slayed, with a slight red glint appearing over his eye's.

The new hoard of Grimm ceased in movement mere moments after Oscar's outburst. Leaving only the heavy breathing of Oscar to be heard.

"I didn't ask for any of this! The… the cane, the fighting… i.." said Oscar starting to choke on his words, his fury now turning into sadness.

"i…" was the last thing oscar said before he finally caved in

The Grimm just stayed still, as if confused. Up until there focus was diverted behind them when they picked up a fairly large spike of fear somewhere else close by. And it was getting closer. And just as the Grimm decided to walk away from Oscar, Ruby burst through them in a flurry of petals. As Ruby reformed in front of Oscar she immediately fell into a state of worry as she saw the tears running down his face.

"Oscar?" said Ruby concerned and scared, the Centinels making there way towards her.

Ruby looked back at the Centinels with Scorn, quickly unsheathing her Scythe and pointing it towards the hoard. 30 seconds passed before only Oscar and Ruby remained. Ruby looked back at Oscar, now standing up, his face still slightly red but no tears remaining.

"thank you… I… um, don't know what got over me, sorry I should-" said Oscar until being abruptly stopped by Ruby sheathing her Scythe and clasping her arms around the farmboy

"I understand… *sigh* yeah, its not so fun without the adrenaline, we all go through it at some point" said Ruby smiling softly

A few seconds passed before they started to head back to their comrades, but not without a question lingering in their minds.

Why did the Grim not attack till someone else arrived?

author note: i hope you enjoyed this chapter, and i'm looking forward to writing the next one. if there are any specific things you want to see in future chapters please leave a message or comment.

thank you for reading