Ch.10: The Dive
For a week, Ozpin kept possession of me. All the while I was trapped and forced to watch him do everything better than me. He slew Grimm, but not one or two like I did on my best day, several of them, even more than Arlsan did. He talked to the townspeople to get more info on the investigation whereas I was too shy to ever say a word. I think even Lily is getting along better with him since she keeps helping him. Even though I see Ozpin move slower each day, he is still doing things better than I ever could. I'm useless in my own body. Maybe it would be better for us to merge. Ozpin could do the world more good than I ever could.
Eventually, I stopped trying to seize control or talk him into giving my body back. During all of this time, I started to remember my past. The time spent training with Ruby and them and writing my letter to Aunt Nettie. I miss her. Her and all of the animals I made friends with. Pigsly, Theodore the bird, Oxford the mountain cub and so many more. I wonder what they're doing.
I imagine Aunt Nettie at her farm; expansive, hot, and a plethora of vegetables. She's at a corn box, digging her nails into a kernel to see if the juices are creamy or not. Rushing over to her. I almost reach for one to help her, but it is snagged away from me.
"Nettie, you're going to turn your hand yellow if you do all of this by yourself."
"Once all these corns are picked, I don't care if my whole body turns yellow. It'll be worth it for that sweet buttery taste."
Cousin George and Aunt Nettie both laugh together. There is more family here too. Uncle Russle and all seven of his kids are at the pumpkin patch having a race to see who could pick more. Beatrice and her twin sister are fixing the tractor and there are even people from the nearby town helping pick cotton. That's right, Aunt Nettie is so charming that she could get anyone to help her out. I knew she would be fine when I left but it hurts to see her doing this good. It makes me question how much she really needed me. All around me everyone is smiling and laughing. Everyone.
Except me.
My arms phase through Aunt Nettie when I try to hold her. I can't touch the corn either; I'm a phantom at my own home. Turning away, I walk over to the forest that makes my heart ache to see.
People were always hard for me to talk to, heck, even now they still are. Conversations float above my head like an airplane; I have no idea how it got there. Then there's all of the things you have to keep up with in order to know what people are talking about. News, technology, sports teams and fashion. Everyone expects you to know this stuff while on the other hand, animals are much simpler. If they're hungry, they eat. If they're tired, they sleep. If they're angry, they roar. There's no guessing or figuring out what someone's eyes mean. That's why I spent so much time in this forest as a kid.
Stepping into here is like opening up an old toy chest, and all of my favorites are here. The little stick men I made sit at the base of a large tree. Their pine smells reminds me of all the times I would dress them up as Captain Canada, or pictured them as myself as an adult fighting Grimm or as chew toys since they smelt so good. Aunt Nettie really didn't like that.
I giggle when Dorothy and Theo chirp and fly. Their tiny bird bodies still haven't grown much since they were little. Pigsly comes charging through the bushes racing with Superpoweredmcredfur the fox. Totallynotamaninafursuit the bear is sleeping by a grove, reminding me how ridiculous I made some of their names. I whistle for Dorothy and Theo to fly to my arm like they always did but I get no response. I try again and still nothing. My fox and boar friends phase through me too. I don't belong here either. I used to feed them but they can get by on their own. That's why I left. I wouldn't have done that if I knew that they needed me. But I really wish they did. I shift my attention from all of that to something that feels familiar but oddly distanced.
At the edge of the forest, I see a battlefield with a gray sky, boot trodden sand, and bodies littered everywhere. Mantle and Mistral soldiers fight against Vale and Vacuo combatants with Grimm attacking anyone they can. People are shouting, Lightning falls down like rain, swords clash against shields, and arrows and bullets pierce through the air. One arrow comes directly towards me. I flinch, but as soon as it passed the threshold separating my farm from the Vacuo's sands, it disappeared. I haven't witnessed a battle this intense since the battle at Haven but there were not nearly this many people. Definitely not this many casualties either. I've only read about the Great War in books but now to see the final battle in my own memories is a lot more terrifying and real. No, Ozpin memories. These are his, not mine. My memories are…Taking a look back at the forest, I sigh. My own memories are too painful to watch now. Maybe it'll be better to get lost in someone else's head other than mine.
I step into the battlefield. Everyone fights around me and through me here too. I would rather be a ghost here then to risk getting an arrow in the knee, even if it is in my head. In the far distance, one person is battling a horde of people coming at him in all directions. He slices through foes with his sword and decimates the rest with blasts of green energy from his scepter. One soldier beside me sinks to his knees before this sight; eyes wide and breathing rapidly. Many others run away from this whirlwind of a soldier instead of fighting him. I thought I would be afraid of seeing all of this in person, but my fists are balled. I should be worried, but my eyebrows are furrowed. I should feel anything else but I'm completely livid. Why? Why does all of this death and destruction have me angry? This can't be my emotions. I look up to the dual-wielding soldier whose crown and cape has enough blood to dye it red. He looks as angry as I am.
"Ozpin?" I knew upon seeing his face. Even though he looks nothing like the Ozpin I knew, I had a connection to him regardless. I was the King of Vale in a previous life? No, Ozpin was. I'm not him. These are his emotions I'm feeling. Not mine.
"This is not me," I whisper; my voice is drowned out by the sounds of fighting all around me.
"This is you."
"No, it's not."
"Accept it, Oscar."
"This is not me!" Wait, no one in this memory should know my name. I look around myself and see a man with a white beanie and a green puffy vest standing behind me. "Who are you?"
'Isn't it obvious? I'm you just like that angry King is you."
"No no no. I'm Oscar, you're just some… I don't know. And him." I point to the King of Vale. "There's no way I'm him. How could someone feel so much hatred for people?"
"Well, take it from his point of view." Edward walks over to the King and lets his sword phase through him. I know his name without an introduction too? This is getting weird. "If your life mission is to unite everyone so that the Gods don't destroy you all again, which it is, wouldn't you be upset that you have to kill them? That after a millennium, you still have to resort to this." The King pierces through someone as if to punctuate his past life's statement.
"But still, he asked for this when he took on this mission from the Gods. He wanted to help save the world. If he didn't want to, then he should have never taken that mission in the first place."
"You think he decided to come back to life to help the world? Oh, you poor, dumb animal. Okay come on, we have more memories to see." A type of player appears in front of Edward. I vaguely remember what this thing is called...a VHS player? Aunt Nettie used to tell me all the time how her mom had to use these things and that we have things way easy are convenient, but complicated at the same time. "Aw poop, which tape was it again?"
"Wait, if you're going to start showing me Ozpin's past then I gotta tell you I already know it. Jinn showed all of us."
"You don't know Ozbourne."
"Oz-who?"
"See. exactly. You only know him by one name. I know him by all twenty. Ozbourne was the name he went by when I first met him. How much of Ozpin do you really know?"
"Umm…"
"What? You feel that knot in your stomach? The heat rising up to your throat? You want to say something don't you?"
"How do you know exactly what I'm feeling?"
"We share the same ever-growing soul now. I feel what you feel."
"Do you think what I think too?"
"No it doesn't get that weird."
I open my mouth to say something, but no those words aren't right. How can I express exactly what I feel about this whole, crazy situation? To my left, Edward groans.
"Just tell me already. I can't deal with these pent-up emotions. Makes me want to get a drink and I hate that."
"Sorry, sorry. I'm not that good at expressing myself. Really never had much of a chance too." After a moment, I sigh then let the words flow out. "Why should I merge with Ozpin? That won't help either of us. Just look at all he got done without me. This man lead nations and established schools. What could he do with a country bumpkin like me?"
"You poor animal, is that how little you think of yourself."
"He thinks the same thing. Just look at what he did to me. I'm a prisoner in my own mind. And only one person noticed that I'm gone. Goes to show how much of an impression I left."
"Oscar, you are needed way more than you think. In fact, I'll prove it to you using your own memory."
After putting in a tape called, "Oscar's Life (TBD)" the world gradually changes around us. Soldiers turn into citizens walking on the streets, the sand turns into unpaved roads, and the sounds of groups of people talking fill the street. We're back at the town that's a couple of miles away from Aunt's farm. I would always have to come here to get some supplies then carry them back on a rental carriage back to the farm. Sometimes, when we weren't doing so well financially, I would have to walk all the way back with a bag that was triple my weight. It was fun when I was a kid since Auntie called it huntsmen training but as I aged and going to Haven seemed more like a far-off dream, it started to feel more like work. I never thought the first time I arrived at Haven that it would be a battle to protect it and the rest of the city.
"Do you remember this?" Edward asks. I look over to see a younger me, eight years old, going into a hardware store. "Just going to stand there looking at the wall? Let's reminisce inside." I follow behind Edward and we phase through the walls of the store. We really are ghosts in these memories. Better that way than to have a building suddenly materialize and squish me. I'm not sure if I could die if that did happen, but I still rather be able to say I don't know how it feels to have a house dropped on me.
There I am with ten boxes of nails above me on the checkout counter. The man there though, I feel so bad about forgetting his name, especially since I always had to do business with him whenever Auntie wanted to do something with the house. All I remember was that he had this gray mustache that was so big that it looked like it was about to eat his own mouth. So I called him Stachemouth. Only in my head though; I would never tell that to his face. Mostly because I was afraid his mustache would eat me.
"What's the total Mr?" Young me says.
"40 Lien. You sure you don't need more than that? We have more on sale."
"Sorry, but Auntie told me to only buy what we need. She always said that sales are like Deathstalkers; they lure you in with something dazzling then get ya when you least expect it."
"I can't argue on the sale thing. Well, except for now when I really need more people to buy. We're going out of business young boy."
"What? But you're like the only hardware store in the town."
Stachemouth squints his eyes at my younger self. "You must not go uptown."
"No. Auntie said that uptown is full of pigs. But not the fun ones, only the ones that want to eat all the time."
"Seems like your Auntie is full of wisdom," Stachemouth says, handing a plastic bag full of purchased screws over to young me. "She has any wisdom for failing businesses?"
"What about going on the CCT."
"Your Auntie said that?"
"No, I did." After saying that, I smiled. "I don't know what it is but I always hear older people talking about it when I come here." I still remember the pride I felt telling Stachemouth that. That would have been my first, 'feeling like an adult' moment. If it wasn't for what followed after.
"Don't you have more shopping to do young boy?"
"Yea...you're right. Sorry, I should go." My smile quickly fades as I make my way out of the store.
"I already remember this. Why did you have to show me it again?" I say.
"Hold up, I'm not done proving my point yet. Now, where is that button again?" After pressing a button on the remote, we go back to someone being born, "Woops." then fast forward to when I'm on a train going to Mistral for the first time. My past self is on a plush, red seat whispering to Ozpin in my head and trying to make sure no one sees me talking to myself, even though the only person in the compartment with me is an attendant with a cart of beverages. The hum of the train as it rides on the hard-light dust drowns out my mumbling.
"Here it is, oh, crap. Hold up, need to rewind." The whole memory froze and inch by inch everyone was rewinded back. The attendant did her stutter-step back into the previous compartment and my past self went to look out of the window. That is where Edward stopped. "Look at that." Outside of the window, Edward points at a passing digital message. I squint to look at a faraway digital sign.
"Need a fix? Go to for the best hardware in Mistral. Our tools are solutions." Confused, I look over to Edward for an answer. All he has for me is a smug grin on his face.
"Come on, I'm sure you can get it." Edward says.
"Are you saying I did this? I caused him to move somewhere else?"
"You caused his business to succeed."
"No way, how is my telling him to put his business on the CCT responsible for him succeeding."
"I'm not going to answer the question of a dumb animal."
He really believes the answer is that obvious? Maybe it is and I'm just being too hard on myself. Stachemouth did leave town a year later but I never thought it was because his business did that well. But still, that leaves one doubt in my mind.
"Even if he took my word, I can't be the sole reason that he succeeded."
"Of course not. If you were then you should become a businessman, not a huntsman. Stachemouth took the advice from all of his fellow acquaintances. But you planted the seed for him to go on the CCT. You Oscar. You have your youthful energy that can help the old and tired Ozpin. This man has been through so much that now he's stuck in more habits than a soldier with a full mag can shoot at."
"But how would that help Ozpin. He's been a king, a headmaster and so much more. How can my youth help him? He already has all the answers."
"Another question, another memory to prove you wrong." The tape sticks out of the VHS player and is replaced by another one titled, "Life of Ozias."
My past self-vanishes beside me while all the walls of the train crumble into a busy street. Carriages trollop down the street as passersby carry on with their groceries in hand.
"Just what I meant to do. What we are about to see is Ozpin coming into his third life as Ozias. Prepare yourself."
I immediately knew the person in the crowd that Ozpin was reincarnated as. It was obvious since he suddenly stopped. I too froze in place, my body bursting into quick perspiration.
"Edward, what's happening?" I say as I wipe at my sweaty brow.
"Focus on your breath. You're about to remember this memory as if you're in it." While Edward's breathing is slow and steady, I can't help but hyperventilate. Edward holds onto my hand but the comfort isn't enough. This heat is too intense.
Ozias drops his bag of apples to the ground then starts grasping at his skin. I wretch my hand free from Edward then beat at my arms as if lit aflame but nothing is there. A deep cry of agony escapes our lips as he falls to the floor rolling back and forth. Edward keeps me from falling but I want to so badly. Anything, anything, to get this fire off of me. Why do I feel this way? Ozias nor I are exposed to any flame. One woman comes over to him to ask if he's okay but he batts her hand away then runs into a nearby alley. Edward carries me over so we can follow. As we move, the heat passes over as shadows from the buildings cover us like a fire blanket. But as that leaves, something even worse takes it's place.
"What's happening?" Ozias says, sitting snug between a dumpster and a trashcan.
"Lizy, Mary, Rina, Elle." Ozpin says, voice cracking and tears dropping to the floor. That's where my own tears joined him. Even though I don't know for what he's crying, the deep depth of sadness is like a pitch-black, endless ocean.
"Who are you? How are you controlling my body?"
"Salem, why?"
"Why…" Ozias pauses. "What happened to you?"
Ozpin tells his story of his life. Ozias is surprisingly calm and attentive to everything he says, even when he got into unbelievable topics like meeting God, being a God, and the final fight he had with Salem. Over time, he calms himself and since he is, I am too. "That's quite a tale. I wouldn't believe any of it if I wasn't in an alley talking to myself."
Ozpin laughs. We have ourselves in quite the situation, don't we?
Now that he wasn't hysterical anymore, he went back to speaking in Ozias' head. I'm still able to hear him as if he's in mine.
"So why did you decide to come back? I would have stayed in the dirt if given that chance."
To save the world. That's what the righteous wizard does.
"Really? Is that what you were thinking when you made the deal with that light God guy?"
Yes...of course. That's my duty, but I'm starting to doubt that.
"How come?"
Salem, before she...you know, she had whole countries of people killing each other for her. I know she is to blame for part of that but no one put up a fight to her demands. They gave in so easily as if they only needed an excuse to kill each other. So now I'm stuck with the question: is the human race worth saving?
"Of course we are!" Ozias punctuates this by punching his fist into his palm. "I'll prove it. We're going to my house." Getting up, Ozias walks out of the alley and into the crowd of people.
"Fast forwarding a bit here." The memory picks up a fast pace with lines popping up occasionally. "Ozias went around the world with Ozpin helping him understand the good in humanity once again. Oh, there's one memory that shows this perfectly." He presses a button and immediately a whole slew of memories past us by at 100 miles an hour. "Woopsie daisy, wrong button."
He ends up stopping on a memory of Ozpin. Specifically, the white-haired Ozpin that was the headmaster of Beacon Academy. And he is in a bubble bath.
"Who's the Bubble Bath King?" Ozpin says in a babyish voice. "I'M the Bubble Bath King!" Grabbing a handful of bubbles he tosses them in the air while laughing maniacally as all of the denizens of his Bubble Bath Kingdom perish. All around his tub are cups of hot chocolate. Some are spilled; staining the ceramic tiles brown.
"Uhh..must have recorded over some of his memories, my mistake. You weren't supposed to see that." Edward says, mashing buttons.
"Glenda! More bubbles for the Bubble king!" Ozpin says. I laugh out loud, but then realize this is the same guy in charge of my body now. Thinking of the number of awkward situations he could get me in makes me cringe. I hope no one else knows about this.
Finally, Edward presses the right button and all of the previous memories rush past us in reverse. We're then flashbacked to Ozias and Ozpin traveling the world in a carriage with his family. I see them going from cities to towns and even kingdoms meeting all sorts of people. "During their lifetime they helped out plenty of people. Many times it was small favors." Before me, Ozias picks up grocery bags for an old lady. On the inside though, Ozpin was still skeptical about all of this. "Sometimes, it was a mission that took many months to accomplish." The next memory shows Ozias and his wife and kids helping build a house for a family. Ozpin was helping them too with his magic. "By the time they merged, Ozpin felt renewed on his mission to unite the world."
"So what you're saying is, Ozpin needs me like he did Ozias?"
"Yes. That's exactly it. Man, I'm glad to see these memories came to good use."
"But Ozpin is already dead set on his mission. I don't know how I could help him like Ozias did."
"You don't have to do it exactly like he did, but you have your youth to help guide him, like what we talked about earlier."
"I guess I can..."
"I feel a but coming."
I look at him for the longest time. His face a bundle of nerves like mines. It's like I'm looking in a wacky mirror.
"I'm not sure but it was so easy to speak my mind around Ozpin."
"That's because you felt your life was in danger. Any cornered animal would do everything they could to get out of that. But go on, tell me what's your next argument."
"I didn't ask for this. I don't want any of this. Why do I have to suddenly have an old wizard in my head along with so many other people saying I have to save the world?"
"You think he asked for any of this?"
"He did. He wanted to take on the responsibility of saving the world."
"No." Edward smacks his fist on the VHS player in frustration, and makes it spit out a tape. "He—forget it. I'll, show you instead." He grabs another tape, this time I can't see what the title is, and the scenery changes before I could ask what he's planning. "Make sure to focus on your breathing. This is going to be another painful one." We go from the countryside to an office that's cold and dark with tossed over furniture and liquor bottles all over the place. Another Edward, this one wearing a disheveled suit, is propped up on a wall with a bottle squeezed in his fists. His muscles are strained, trying to fight against himself. I know who he is really trying to fight against.
"Ozpin." I utter with contempt. Like before, their emotions flood into mines but for the life of me, I can't say what it is. I want to punch everything around me but also I wish so badly that auntie was here. I'm able to handle it better this time since I did what Edward said. My breathing slows as I return my heart pace back to normal.
"Stop drinking Ozbourne. This is the fifth bottle of toxic you forced down my throat." Edward says, speaking through clenched teeth.
"Just give me one more, please."
"No. You say that every time. Every freaking time. You know how frustrating it is to have someone in your head forcing you to do things you don't want to do? I never asked for this."
"I never asked for any of this either."
"Then why did you accept the mission from the light god? You knew the consequences and yet you still did it." Edward raises the bottle away from his left hand. In response, Ozpin punches his own self in the gut, causing him to lower it. Right when the bottle gets close to his face Edward moves his head away. But with both of them in control, they end up shaking their head back and forth at a neck break speed. Looking at this makes me grab my own neck in response; that must really hurt. "Don't you want to save the world?"
"The whole world can burn down for all I care. I want my life back." Ozpin says, voice breaking and tears streaming down the left side of his voice. "Why Salem…" Because Ozpin froze, Edward used the chance to throw the bottle to the wall. The sharp sound of glass cracking pierces the room as the liquid slides, down the wall. "Nooooo!"
"Don't bring me into your sappy love story. Give me my body back."
Right when Ozpin stands up to get the smashed bottle, Edward trips himself with his right foot. Their chin collides with the floor at a sickening speed. "Ouch!" They both yell. I didn't know they could combine their voice like that.
"This is my body too." As soon as Ozpin says that, his left hand glows green. Oh no.
"You're not listening to me. This is—wait Ozbourne what are you doing?" With magic in one hand and nothing in the other, Edward could barely hold off Ozpin from conducting the spell.
"I'm sorry Edward but this world is becoming too hard to live in. I need to forget." The green glow fills the room then suddenly Ozpin falls back to the ground. Immediately he crawls over to the spilled alcohol and licks it up.
"This is painful to see." I say.
"It was even more painful to go through." The memory fades away at the press of a button on the remote. Looking over to Edward, his hand is trembling. "Seeing it again feels like living through it all over. That smell of liquor is burned into my mind. But I'm sure all of that sparked a few feelings in you."
"More than just a few."
"Feels terrible huh?"
"Yes. Yes, it does. Why can't he realize what he's doing to us?"
"And how is he supposed to do that?"
"By listening to me. Me and you told him loud and clear that we want to keep our bodies. But yet he goes and does this spell on both of us."
"I agree. He didn't have to use that spell on us. It's incredibly forceful and invasive. So let me ask you this, how is he supposed to give us full control of our bodies when our merging is inevitable?"
"He...he has to...wait. Wait until it's our time to merge."
"Yes he definitely can do that. But what if this happens."
All of the blackness around us turns into another memory, another battlefield. This time it is soldiers in heavy armor battling Grimm. The number of Grimm was overwhelming to all of the forces and some were retreating to the town they're defending. Except for Ozpin. In this life he was a young man, smiling, as he battled Grimm after Grimm and slaying more than any of the other soldiers could. But then the ground started to shake. Giant footsteps shook all of the soldiers' armor and once they saw the Grimm, it sunk all of their hearts.
"Ultra-liath! Retreat!"
At once, all the soldiers retreated, leaving their weapons on the ground. Ozpin was a lone, tiny figure against the biggest Megagoliath I've ever seen. I've never heard Nadir talking about this and he knows everything there is to know about Grimm. This thing must be extinct.
Ozel, we should run away like our fellow brothers in arms.
"No way. Did you see how I destroyed all those other Grimm? This thing is nothing to me."
But…
"Don't worry Oz, I'll defend us and the town." Ozel charges towards the Grimm with a righteous battle-cry. What a brave man.
"Yea he didn't defend anyone that day. No need for you to see that grizzly scene." The memory fades away right before he gets into battle with the Ultragoliath. "So after going through that, can you see why he might be a bit forceful when it comes to dealing with his hosts?"
"Yes but I'm a different person. Listen Edward, I think I can split from Ozpin. I was able to fight off his control of me before, I just need more time."
"You don't have more time. Once he enters your life we all have the same amount of time left. We all only have five years until we are fully merged."
"Five years…?" That's unbelievable. At first, I feel numb; the sudden realization too shocking to take in. Then my heartbeat picks up pace, my eyes grow wide and it becomes harder to breathe. "I'll only be 19 by then. I'll barely be an adult. How can I make an identity of my own by then? All I'll be known as is Ozpin's reincarnation." I sunk to my knees without noticing. Looking up to Edward, he's hazy with my tears in the way. I plead with him. "You must know something. There has to be some way I can get my life back. Please Edward. I don't want to die."
He looks away then balls his hands up. Then, he crouches down to my level and hugs me. "I'm sorry Oscar. I wish this didn't have to happen to someone as young as you. Someone with so much to still prove." We break our embrace but he keeps his hands on my shoulders, staring me in the eyes. "After Ozpin used his spell to lock me away, I fought with him every day to get my body back. That only drove him further into his alcohol addiction. It wasn't until after months of this useless back and forth that I learned to accept my fate and try to listen to Ozpin. That's when I learned how stressed he is to take on the responsibility of uniting the world. How afraid he is that it could be his fault for it being destroyed if he doesn't. How guilty he feels for getting people like me dragged into this mission of his. And how much he wishes, every day, that he could reunite with the Salem in his first life. For the first time in my life, I saw Ozpin not as a monster trying to possess me but as a human being like me. But it was too late, we died from alcohol poisoning before we fully merged. Oscar, I don't want you to make the same mistake I did. You still have time to live. Don't waste it being stupid like I was."
Hearing that, I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to think. The depression of death was eased by the thought of a way out. Or at least, not a way out of death but of the pain and fear of it. Acceptance. Accepting that my body will eventually be Ozpin's. Accepting that I only have five years left to be able to be me. It's scary and gut-wrenching. I don't want to accept it since to do that is as if I'm dying early. But to go through what Ozel and Edward did is far scarier.
"But…" I say. "I've messed up with Ozpin so much already. How can I make it better?"
"Listen. Hear him out first before you even think of your needs. Just because he's an adult with almost a million years of experience doesn't mean he can solve everything. You can be the person to help him. Like right now for instance."
"Now? What do you mean?"
"Go back to the surface of your mind and you'll know real quick."
"How do I do that? It's not like there's a staircase in this blank space."
"Focus on your desires then you'll start floating back to your side of this massive mind space."
I do as he says and picture all of my favorite things. A warm smile from Auntie and the smell of buttered corn after a rewarding day of work on the farm. My feet leave the ground. Captain Canada defending earth from the moon aliens. My body starts to feel weightless. All of my forest friends running with me in the forest when I was a child. I move up slowly through the empty space. Lily. Suddenly I rocket up back to the surface of my mind.
The first thing that greets me is intense heat and the sound of screaming. My body feels heavy and completely out of stamina. Then I realize why Edward said I should go back now.
Ozpin is down.
Author's Note: Sorry this took so long to come out. Life has been busy lately and I had to make less time for fanfiction. I won't be able to do the weekly updates like I used to but I will see what kind of schedule that I'll be able to work with.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It was interesting to write about Ozpin's past. The lost fable episode of RWBY has always been my favorite so I wanted to try to do something like that to show Ozpin's past lives and his feelings regarding Salem and his mission to save the world.
Also the wonderful cover art was done by Aguiloart. If you want to check out more of his work you can go to his twitter, it's the same name. Over there he has destiny art, DnD artwork and is willing to do commissions for any fandom.