Chapter 66

'Great. This is just great.' Yang swore in exertion as she pulled her bike out from under the snow. Jaye rubbed his head as he searched for his bike, squinting at a little black handlebar buried under a mountain of snow, and for once cursed the fact that he owned nothing brightly colored enough to aid in his search. 'We're stranded, we lost half of our party, and we have gained a defenseless old lady!'

'My name is Maria Calavera!' The "defenseless old lady" declared. 'And I am not defenseless!'

'Waving a walking stick at a Grimm doesn't count as defending yourself lady.' Jaye said, and the "not defenseless old lady" ignored him.

'I'm just a little hard of hearing, and blind without my eyes.' She continued, prodding at the device strapped over her face. 'That are in desperate need of repair. Okay, I'm starting to see your point.'

'If you can see anything at all.' Jaye muttered, avoiding her gaze as the woman promptly turned her robot eyes on him. He trudged over to the mountain of snow he assumed was his bike, proceeding to attempt to unearth it from under the giant pile of half frozen crap. Swearing as he went, he finally gave up and used his semblance to turn the snow into water. He supposed he'd have to deal with having a wet seat instead, but it was better than trying to dig it out from the giant pile of dud cocaine it was buried under.

'Yang, knock it off will ya? If we lose our cool now we'll just be inviting more Grimm.' Qrow said, and Blake raised her hands in response.

'Does that even matter?' She asked. 'Apparently we've been attracting Grimm since we left Haven.'

'Oh and how could I forget about that?' Yang said sarcastically, turning to the farm boy. 'What happened to no more lies and half-truths?'

'Yeah, I think it's time we got an explanation.' Oscar/Ozpin said, flinching as his eyes glowed golden as Ozpin took over. Ozpin/Oscar made a face of annoyance. 'I did not lie to you.'

'Well you certainly didn't tell us everything about the relic.' Weiss said, and Jaye cheered his approval from behind the girl. Ozpin/Oscar raised his hands in a placating manner.

'Please, not is not the time.' He said, and Yang cut him off.

'No, we're past that. I wanna know why you're still not telling us everything.' Yang said, and the girls formed an unmoving line before the poor possessed boy. Ozpin/Oscar sighed, placing a hand behind his back.

'It is true that the Grimm are attracted to the relics. It's faint but undeniable; I believe it has to do with their origin but I'm not entirely sure.' He justified, and Jaye raised a skeptical eyebrow at the weak justification that was likely to follow. 'Regardless I felt that making you all aware would only add anxiety and negativity. It seemed like the safer option.'

'And it didn't occur to you at any point that letting US, the people keeping the relic safe, what with you unable to fight off hordes of Grimm on your own currently, would probably be a good idea?' Jaye scoffed, crossing his arms. 'If that thing was attracting Grimm already it wouldn't have changed a damned thing whether we were anxious or not, and if they were gonna show up in the first place it would have been better for us to be prepared than in the dark. Even if you still considered the rest of the group "kids" at this point for some messed up reason, the least you could have done was tell me. I'm an assassin, mate, I don't exactly spook easy.'

'And that, is an irrefutable point.' Weiss said, waving an appreciative hand at the raven-haired boy. 'I'm getting real tired of people choosing what's best for me.'

'For a wise old man, you sure seem really dumb sometimes.' Jaye added, and Yang stepped forward.

'Is that why you chose to lie to everyone about Lionheart too?' She accused, and Ozpin/Oscar's face began to rise with anger.

'Yes, as a matter of fact, I believed that the Kingdom of Mistral deserved better than the truth.' He said, pacing away from the group slowly. 'And I believed that Leonardo deserved to be remembered for his lifetime of service, and not the unfortunate missteps he made in his final years.'

'Missteps?!' Yang burst, and Ozpin raised his voice further.

'What professor Lionheart did was reprehensible; I am not here to argue differently. But does one lapse in judgement truly negate all of his good? Do we not all have regrets?' He said, not looking over his shoulder at the group that was still following him. 'You may have met professor Lionheart, but you never met the man he was before Salem found him.'

'Look, we're supposed to be in this together! You can trust us; we're not going to turn our backs on you!'

'DO YOU REALLY THINK LEO WAS THE FIRST?! Ozpin finally snapped, halting abruptly in his path through the snow. 'That he didn't say those exact same words to me?! I'm sorry, but you have to understand that my behaviors are backed by experience. I'm not saying I have reason to think you will betray me; I'm saying that I have reasons for the things that I do, the secrets I keep! The reason I-!' He glanced down at his waist, eyes widening in surprise as he began to search around him. 'Where's…the relic?'

'Right here.' A small voice spoke, and Ruby raised the lamp cradled in her hands. 'It got scattered in the crash.'

'Please, hand it over.' He asked, and Ruby shook her head slowly at their ex-headmaster.

'So all those times you talked about having faith in humanity, that was just for everyone else?' She asked, and Ozpin relented. He sighed deeply, casting his eyes to the snow below.

'That's not what I meant to suggest.' He said. 'Miss Rose, the relic is a powerful item and I simply feel as though it is my burden to bear.'

'But you said it couldn't do anything right now.' She said, and Blake stepped forward.

'Why does it matter who carries it?' She asked, and Ozpin's face tightened in repressed anger.

'I need you to listen to me-!' He halted abruptly, frozen with his hand extended to the group, and he trembled as he seemingly fought against himself for control. The group watched him curiously, and Jaye felt his hand creep to his sword.

'Oz?' Qrow started, and Oscar's voice escaped instead.

'Hurry-!' He strained; face screwed up in exertion. 'He's trying to stop you!'

'Stop her from what?'

'He's afraid you'll find out what he's hiding!' Oscar collapsed to the ground as he finally managed to wrestle control from the reincarnating headmaster. 'Her name-is Jinn! Say her name to summon her!'

'Her name?' Jaye said, casting his eyes to the glowing relic. It continued to pulse in the girl's hands, slowly, constantly, like a heartbeat, and he was hit with that feeling of dread once more. His hand gripped the hilt of his sword tightly, and he eyed the boy on the floor quietly. Ruby watched the relic quietly, her voice barely a whisper as she spoke, more of a question than a summoning.

'Jinn?'

Tension rising to a fever pitch, the sounds around them seemed to entirely halt in an instant as the snow froze in mid-air. They glanced around incredulously as the entirety of the world seemed to have stopped around them, and Yang turned an eye to Jaye.

'What? I'm not doing that; even the wind stopped.' He said, gesturing at the floating snow around them, and Ruby let out a sound of surprise as the lamp floated out of her hands. It swirled behind them, spinning gently in mid-air as a blue mist poured out of the item. Jaye's hand went immediately to his sword, and he tensed himself for what would appear from the mist. The vague outline of a woman appeared in the mist, and Jaye raised an eyebrow at the relic plastered securely in the middle. Flowing navy-blue hair poured around glowing blue skin, and gold chains appeared around her wrists, ankles and waist. They clinked as she moved her pointy, elf-like ears, and she stretched delightfully as if just woken from slumber. Letting out a sultry moan, she eased the tension in her body (could mist bodies get stiff?) and sighed deeply as she found the freedom to move. She was considerably attractive, and Jaye reasoned that her creator(s) must have been male and very, very weird about genies and the color blue. She was objectively nude, though any erogenous regions had been made featureless, and the assassin found his eyes drifting to her ample bust before he managed to wrench his attention back to the present.

'Wonderful!' She exclaimed, spreading her arms in satisfaction. The onlookers continued to stare, amazed, except for Qrow, who had averted his eyes to the snow below. Jaye's hand remained firmly latched to his sword; though she didn't seem like much of a threat. She leaned forwards, crossing a hand under her bosom and leaning her chin on her palm. 'Tell me, what knowledge do you seek?'

Her question fell on deaf ears as the onlookers continued to stare in amazement, and she smoothly transitioned instead to introducing herself.

'I am Jinn. A being created by the God of Light to aid humanity in its pursuit of knowledge.' She said, her eyes drifting to the boy still in a ready stance. 'My combat ability is as close to zero as you can possible get, so rest assured I pose no threat to your physical wellbeing. You won't be needing that sword.'

The girls turned to the surly boy once more, and he reluctantly let his hand drop to his side. Jinn smiled at him, and he returned the look with a raised eyebrow, feeling his eyes magnetically attracted to her bust once more, and elected to stare at the ground instead. Jinn cleared her throat once more.

'I have been graced with the ability to answer three questions every 100 years.' She continued. 'You're in luck; as I am still able to answer–'

'THAT'S ENOUGH!' Ozpin yelled, and the group turned to him slowly. Oscar was clearly still fighting him, keeping him tied down to the snowy floor, and Jinn raised an eyebrow at the interruption.

'–two questions this era.' She finished. The group grimaced slowly at the reincarnation, and the look of shock finally made its way to Qrow's face as he realized that he'd been lied to. Jaye shook his head, unsurprised at the revelation, as the despair radiated off the possessed boy's body. Jinn chuckled gently at the still groveling boy.

'It's a pleasure to see you again old man.'

'Ruby please. Don't.' Ozpin begged, still locked on his knees, and Qrow sighed at the group. He started forwards, flinching back in shock as the girls drew their weapons at him. He raised his hands in a gesture of non-commitment, stepping back from the group.

'Do whatever you think is right kiddo.' He said, and Ruby cast her eyes to the floor. Unsure of what to do, Jaye continued to stand quietly at the side as the girl pondered her choices, and Ruby eventually turned back to the floating woman/genie/non-compliant nudist.

'Jinn?' She said quietly, and the blue genie/wisdom provider raised an eyebrow at the still groveling boy as she surveyed the scene. 'What is Ozpin hiding from us?'

A scream erupted from the boy as he charged for the girl, hand outstretched as if to stop her, before he vanished in a blink of an eye. Jaye blinked several more times as his world turned literally white. The snow vanished, it was like he'd been thrust into a brightly lit loading screen, as if the genie lady was loading up her database. He jumped as her voice reverberated through his head, a blue mist flowing past his ankles as a scenery appeared around him.

'Once upon a time there stood a lonely tower.' Jinn's sultry voice rang out, echoing in the assassin's head as he focused on the materialized castle in the distance. It looked ancient, from a time far before his own, and his hand shot to his sword as the blue mist blew past him once more. 'That sheltered a lonely girl.'

A girl appeared from the mist (without blue skin this time), gently pinning her hair into a bun atop her delicate head. Dressed in white and blue garments, bronze bracelets adorned her wrists with a turquoise gem sewn into the dress above her bosom. A purple sash encircled her waist, tied down with a bronze belt that housed another turquoise gem, and her blonde hair cascaded gently around her shoulders as she turned around. She was breathtakingly beautiful, and Jaye was suddenly hit with a case of déjà vu. He'd seen her face before, somewhere, though it struck him as a little different from what he remembered, and Jinn's next sentence answered his unspoken question.

'Her name was Salem.'

Chapter 66 done! I think I'll be skipping over Ozpin's entire backstory since ya'll watched the show already, maybe a few key scenes here and there as I see necessary.