Ugh, I feel like I've been hit by a train. Where am I? I pick myself up from the snow, wincing at the pain in my,well, everything. All around me are snow covered trees and the sounds of birds calling for each other, but nowhere in sight are Ruby and the gang.
"Ozpin, where did everyone go? What happened?"
I...we were about to be crushed so I teleported us away.
"You can do that?" I look at my grubby gloves. "I can do that?"
Only I can, but as we are now it will come at the cost of us passing out again. We were out for three days it seems. We were lucky this time, but who knows if that same luck would ever come to us again.
"So I guess I'm legging it."
Yes, and fast. The cold is only going to get worse.
I've already started to shiver so I begin to move.
The weather is getting warmer the further south I move. Unfortunately, the sun is setting so it won't make a difference. The wind is still cold so I have to hold myself for warmth. Too bad my clothes aren't made for this weather; they are only good on aunt's farm. I should really look for new ones since the knee patches are beginning to tear again. In this weather, I could really go for aunt's hot cocoa right now. She made the best.
I could go for that as well.
"Stop that Ozpin. I don't want you in my thoughts."
He hesitates. Oscar, we need to talk about what happened.
"How about we start with how far you teleported me from everyone. We've been walking for an hour now and I'm still not in signal range." I say as I look at my scroll. At least, I think I'm not in range. I used to know how to use this but now it's a total blank.
I think you're losing access to my memories.
"Losing access? I thought you said I would naturally learn all of them."
Yes, that's what should happen. But during that fight something happened that made you forget everything. It's like there's a barrier between our two souls. Even now, you should know how to use a scroll. I know how and we are definitely out of range.
There he goes in my thoughts again. I hope he can see me rolling my eyes in my head and in person. "And you couldn't take me over." I say. A thought comes to me and I voice it before Ozpin got the chance to say anything. "I think we're starting to split." I smile.
Impossible. In all of my many lives this has never happened before. Ozpin pauses, then slowly says, Even if it did, where would that leave me?
"I don't know." I look away at the snow-covered ground, even though he's in my head so I can't actually do that. Force of habit. "Maybe this is happening because no one ever resisted this much. If I can get rid of your memories, maybe I can get you out of my head entirely."
Oscar. He says in a scolding voice.
"Nope, not listening. This is step 1 of getting the wizard out of my head, don't listen."
Then I suspect you don't want a place to stay.
"Huh?" I look around for the place he is talking about. To my left between two trees I see a cave. "I didn't see that before."
But I did
I walk into the cave. It's still cold, but at least it isn't freezing. Inside, there's a small room to the side that can protect me from the icy wind. Even further ahead, I can smell the oddly nostalgic scent of a dead animal. A bear lays dead at the end of the cave; Its blood is pooled around it.
"I wonder how it died?"
Grimm most likely.
"Is it still here?" I hold onto my cane, ready to strike.
No, they must have killed each other. That's why only its body remains.
"Good." Suddenly feeling lightheaded, I lower my guard. My stomach growls and hunger pains come up causing me to scowl.
We could fix us up some bear meat. I promise it will taste better than it sounds.
"As long as it tastes better than Grimm meat."
How on Remnant did you ever taste that?
"It was during a family reunion. A stray Beowolf wandered onto the farm and we all attacked it. I was four at the time so I thought my teeth were my best weapon. It tasted like dirty ash."
Funny, I thought they tasted like sewage chunks.
We both laugh, then I think of how he's slowly taking me over. Sharing moments like this will only make it easier for me to lose myself. That thought quickly wipes the smile from me.
Do you need help skinning this?
"I've done it before, I can do it myself."
Hours later, I'm sitting in the small room next to a fire with a fur pelt around for added warmth. The bear meat is kind of sweet, but not much else flavor. This makes me miss my aunt's cooking even more. I always teased her about it, but now I wished I thanked her more than just on the letter I left. With Ozpin in my head, will I ever be able to taste her food again? Will I be able to see her? The thought makes me clutch my wet eyes. No, I can see her. All I have to do is make this split happen. And to do that, I should gather clues.
"Ozpin, what was the last guy like?"
You mean when I was professor Ozpin? He was certainly different from you.
"How so?"
When I first came to him, he was not in a good stage in his life. Drunk, homeless and worst of all, gambling debts. I had a lot I had to fix about him before I could meet anyone I met in my previous life. No one would believe me when I was like that. The man, Ozpin however, didn't care when I took over his body. In fact, he embraced it. He saw it as an easy way to clean up his life. But once I was done with that, he didn't care to come back.
"I thought you went to people who were like minded. He doesn't sound like you at all."
Most of the time yes. But at that moment... Ozpin pauses, like he's trying to catch the right word. "It was fate that brought us together. He needed help turning his life around and I did that."
"But at that point it wasn't his life." I say in a low voice. "It was yours."
I certainly tried to get him to live his life before we merged but all of my efforts failed.
"Sounds like you didn't have trouble merging with him. What about the others? Was there anyone you had trouble merging with?"
"There was a time I wasn't proud of. Suffice it to say we had a lot of fights."
"About what? Did you actually fight? Like in your head?" I tap on my head as I say this.
Oscar, I know what you're doing. Splitting isn't possible. You're going up against Godly magic.
"That didn't seem to stop you." I scowl and take an angry bite into my bear meat. "You still led us to fight someone unkillable."
That has to be done. The fate of the world depends on it. You saw, didn't you? if I don't do anything then the world will be destroyed.
"Maybe it can be saved without you."
He is quiet after settled in me, but eventually goes away as night comes in. For the first time in a while, I go to sleep feeling completely alone.
Author's Note: Thanks for reading. It's been interesting to write Oscar these past two chapters since I had to write him angry, given the situation. In the show though, there aren't many times when he does get mad, so I had to speculate. It was definitely fun thinking of Ozma's past lives. Hopefully we get to see some of them in the show. Anyway, please leave a review if you enjoyed it. I stack them all up so I can reach the cereal at the top part of my pantry.