The prompt this week was "RWY/JNR and co. eavesdrop on Oscar's and Ozpin's conversation. They can't decide whether only hearing half of it makes it better or worse." I think I did something more serious than the person who suggested the prompt had in mind...

Ruby rushed downstairs at full speed, drawn by the smell of bacon and eggs wafting through the house in Mistral. It had been a day and a half since the battle of Haven, but everyone was still exhausted and Ruby was looking forward to a big breakfast. She turned the corner into the kitchen…

And found Jaune and Ren weren't done with the food yet. This may have been due to Nora's constant pestering for pancakes, but Ruby was still inclined to blame the boys. Grimacing, she plopped down into one of the chairs in the living room and groaned loudly.

"We're working on it, OK?" Jaune moaned.

"Well work faster!" Ruby shot back. "The leader of Team RNJR says so!"

"Excuse me?" Weiss scoffed as she came down the stairs, joining Ruby in the living room. "Did you abandon us for another team while we were away?"

"Of course not!" Ruby cried immediately. "I'll always be Team RWBY all the way!"

"That's not what you said when we were travelling," countered Jaune with a sly smile on his face. "You said RNJR was the best team you'd ever been on."

Weiss turned to Ruby with feigned hurt on her face.

"Yeah," continued Nora, picking up on the joke. "You said that you liked us a million times better than your old team."

At that moment Yang walked in, her mouth wide open in shock even while her eyes were laughing. She turned to her sister to demand an explanation.

"Lies!" protested Ruby. "Lies and slander!"

"I can't believe it," Yang said, managing to make her voice sound like she was about to break down into tears. "Betrayed by my own sister."

"It's not true!" insisted Ruby. "Ren, you'll tell them I never said that, right?"

"I'm staying out of this," Ren said, focusing on the pan of sizzling bacon in front of him.

"Ren knows the truth," trilled Nora. "You love us more."

"Guuuuys!" Ruby groaned loudly, but even she was starting to enjoy the joke. It would have been a lot less funny a week ago, but now Team RWBY was back together, even if Blake was with her parents at the moment.

"Hey," called Qrow as he stumbled down the stairs from his bedroom. "It's too early for you kids to be making so much noise."

"Well, it looks like most of us are here," Jaune pointed out. "And these eggs are almost done. Somebody wake up Oscar and then breakfast is served."

"Weiss, can you do it?" Ruby asked, too comfy to move from the chair she was in.

"I'm sorry, but the leader of Team RNJR can't order me to do a thing," Weiss replied smoothly.

Ruby gave her partner a hurt expression, but Weiss was ignored her. Yang and Qrow were similarly unfazed by her pleading look. Finally she groaned and dragged herself back upstairs to get Oscar.

She walked to the boy's room and found the door ajar. Through the crack she could see Oscar lying face-up in bed with his eyes still closed. She was about to knock when he spoke.

"Ozpin," he said softly. "What was that dream?"

Ruby paused. She wasn't sure if she should interrupt or let Oscar continue speaking with the professor. Either way she knew she shouldn't eavesdrop, but she felt rooted to the spot.

"It was horrible," Oscar whispered after a moment of silence. "Did Salem do that?"

Ruby winced sympathetically. Ozpin had been fighting Salem longer than she could imagine. He must have seen a lot of terrible things, and now Oscar was experiencing those memories.

Then the boy sat bolt upright in bed, a stunned look on his face.

"What?" he hissed. "You…"

Ruby's eyes widened. Ozpin had done whatever horrible thing Oscar dreamed about?

It was strange hearing half of a conversation like this. Even listening to someone talk on a scroll she could at least hear bits of what the other person said. But here it seemed like Oscar was just talking to himself.

"Why?" asked Oscar timidly. Ruby leaned closer to the door as if this would somehow let her hear the professor's answer. He perked up his head after a moment. "OK, and… they didn't believe you, did they?" His expression became somber again.

Didn't believe him about what? The Relics? Salem?

"A mistake?" cried Oscar. "Yeah, I guess that's one word for trying to take over the world!"

Ruby's eyes widened.

What?

"How did you even…?" Oscar began before pausing to listen. Then he sighed and lowered his head. "Great, you just went full on evil wizard."

Ruby wasn't sure whether or not she wanted to know what had prompted that remark. It was probably awesome… and also horrifying.

"So what finally ended your reign of terror?" muttered Oscar. After a moment he let out a humorless laugh. "Three? What was the fourth Maiden doing?" Then his face fell. "Of course you killed her. Why did I even bother asking?"

Oscar squeezed his eyes shut as he spoke again. He was nearly shaking.

"Yeah, I saw. You destroyed the entire city. Gods, there'd be five kingdoms right now if it weren't for you."

Ruby's breath caught in her throat. She thought that what she'd been imagining was bad, but that was on a whole other level.

Oscar frowned as he continued listening to Ozpin.

"Wait, this is starting to sound familiar…" he mumbled.

Ruby watched as realization slowly dawned on Oscar's face. He covered his mouth as his eyes became as wide as saucers. His voice was shaking as he managed to choke out one word.

"Ozymandias."

Ozymandias. The villain of a book so old that no one knew how much of it was supposed to be true. The story had been retold at least a hundred times since then, painting Ozymandias as everything from a deranged psychopath to a brooding anti-hero. But no matter the telling, his body count was always too high to guess.

And he had been Ruby's headmaster. She'd watched movies ranging from amazing to so bad they were good featuring him as the villain. He'd killed her favorite character in Ancient Evil 2. She'd killed him in video games. She'd given Jaune pointers on how to kill him in video games. That was the man leading them in the fight against Salem.

What kind of person does the world remember like that?

"Hey Ruby!" Yang suddenly called from downstairs. "You got him?"

Ruby jumped at the sudden interruption. Her hand hit the door and knocked it open.

Ruby and Oscar stared at each other for a second, neither one speaking. Finally Ruby managed to find her voice.

"Breakfast is ready,"

"How much of that did you hear?" Oscar asked softly.

"A lot," whispered Ruby in reply. She looked at her feet for a second, then back to the farm boy with the ancient wizard in his head. There were tears in his eyes.

"You're you… you know?" Ruby stated uncertainly. "Whoever he is, you're you."

Oscar continued to stare at her for a few seconds. Then he nodded.

"Come down when you're ready," Ruby said, turning towards the stairs. "I'll save you some food."

"Thanks," whispered Oscar as he watched her go.