THIS WILL BE IN FIRST PERSON ONCE I AM ABLE TO FINISH IT. IF YOU PREFER THE ORIGINAL 3RD PERSON, PLEASE MESSAGE ME.
"But perhaps victory is in the simpler things that you've long forgotten. Things that require a smaller, more honest soul."
Muffled screams of agony and pain reached Oscar's ears. At first, he wasn't exactly sure where it was coming from, or who was in pain either. All he knew was that someone was in pain, and it sounded like a girl. Normally, he would have winced and ran to figure out whoever was in pain, but Oscar couldn't move at all. The screams sounded so desperate, as if whoever was in pain was being tortured or something. However, for as desperate and heartbreaking as the shrieks where, they were almost no louder than a person normally would speak. That didn't mean much, though, since wherever he was it was almost silent anyway. In fact, it was dead silent, aside from the far away sounds of an all out war going on far, far above his head. The poor boy's heart skipped a beat, and he wanted to do something -anything- to stop whoever was currently screaming's pain.
This wasn't possible at all, since Oscar seemed to be frozen and unable to move. Well, that's not entirely true. It's true that Oscar was moving, however he was not moving of his own accord at all. It was as if he was possessed or watching a first-person movie. It was almost as if everything he was seeing and hearing had been programmed; even as if all of what was happening had already happened, been recorded with a fancy and expensive camera, then played back to him. As Oscar came to his other senses, he realized that he was yet again somewhere he had never been before. As much as Oscar wanted to find the source of the screaming, it seemed like he was being forced to look away. Instead of rushing to the girl's aid, he unwillingly gazed sadly up above where the scream came from, as if all he currently wanted to do was look away. When he was shifting, out of the corner of his eye, Oscar could tell that whatever was in front of him was some sort of dark gray machine. He could only tell this because there was a clear capsule that was barely in his field of vision that had some kind of glowing red thing in it. Well, that, and there was a big light blue hologram keyboard thing that seemed to be operating the machine.
Oscar felt the uncomfortable tickling sensation of chills run through his entire body. He wished he could be anywhere else, and wanted to curl up in a ball and go to sleep. However, that was clear to be not even a possibility. He couldn't even lift a finger to help a person in need, yet alone leave or go to sleep at all.
Another less-desperate, but worried scream rang out, but this one was much clearer and sounded more like a young man. "Pyrrha!"
Still, Oscar was forced to look away, and he avoided looking at either the boy or the girl. There were glowing tubes on the back of the wall next to the machine. They must have been powering it. The farmhand wanted to say or do anything in order to help, but he couldn't. He could hear the click of armor as someone, probably the boy who screamed, moved closer to Oscar and the machine. Then the boy's lips moved, but it wasn't his voice that came out. Instead of his regular voice, this voice was deeper and sadder. It's a very peculiar feeling to want to speak so badly, but someone else's voice comes out when you finally do.
"I'm... so sorry," the weird voice said.
A few seconds after Oscar had finished speaking, the boy could hear something flying through the air as if it was shot like an arrow. Then, there was a crash as whatever was shot collided with glass and something else. When either of the screams rang out, Oscar hadn't been able to look at all. However, he turned to the sound of glass shattering, and was unprepared for what he saw. For the first time since he heard the first scream, Oscar desperately wanted to look away. Inside the capsule was a glowing, pretty young lady with light brown skin and beautiful chocolate eyes and hair. The boy wanted to look away because of two things really: the girl was only wearing white underwear, and the thing that was flying was an arrow that pierced the girl's heart. Mr. Pine heard a soft, barely audible gasp before everything eerily became dead silent again. The girl struggled to keep her eyes open for a few seconds. Even though she must have been in an enormous amount of pain, she couldn't even gasp again. Her eyes fluttered to a close, the glowing light around her flickered, and she didn't move again.
Now, Oscar wanted to scream. Anger boiled up inside of him, very quickly. No one tried to save her. No matter what that young girl had done, she didn't deserve to die. She seemed to be just barely an adult, maybe not even old enough to drink. The farmhand couldn't tell. No matter her age, no matter what she had done, no matter what anyone else had done; she didn't deserve to die. Still, Oscar was forced to keep quiet. He couldn't scream, couldn't cry, couldn't run away, and he couldn't even know who just passed away. He couldn't know if she had a family that would grieve over her. He couldn't know if she was a hero, or a villain, or even an innocent bystander.
Before Oscar could have the time to deal with what he just witnessed, he turned around to see a woman holding a bow. By most definitions, the woman would have been drop-dead gorgeous. She had jet black hair that fell in a little wave around her face and shoulders, which contrasted her bright golden eyes wonderfully. However, the menacing small smile that was on her face scared Oscar even more. She was wearing a scandalously short red dress with black and gold accents, a black and gold ankle bracelet, and dark gray high heels. Oscar didn't think she was remotely beautiful after what she'd done. She had just killed that girl, plain and simple. She was a murderer, and all he felt towards her was a horrible anger like he has never felt before in his entire life.
When Oscar turned around, he could not only see the murderer, but a blonde-haired boy as well to his left. The boy was wearing armor that covered his chest and arms. He was also carrying an old hand-me-down-looking sword and shield as well. He would have looked just like a knight in shining armor if he wasn't wearing a dark hoodie under the armor, blue jeans, and sneakers. He didn't have the big and strong build that one would expect a knight to have either. Whoever the boy was, he didn't seem to belong in such a grim situation. Then again, nobody did, really. The boy didn't seem as mad as Oscar was, but that could be because he was probably in a state of shock. Still, he held out his sword and shield, as if he could possibly do something to help.
Oscar turned to the blue holographic keyboard. He couldn't understand what exactly it did, much less how to control it. To the side of him, Oscar could hear a muffled pounding on the chamber's glass. If the girl who was in the first chamber was murdered, whoever was pounding on the glass door in the second chamber probably was a target as well. Oscar knew that he had to get her out as fast as possible, but he couldn't move and he wouldn't even understand how to work the controls even if he could. Still, Oscar struggled and tried his best to even move his finger without being forced to. Sadly, he couldn't no matter how hard he tried, and his efforts were futile.
Someone is still in there! Oscar thought, alarmed, Why can't I just open the door?! I just have to figure out how to open the door...
Before Oscar could manage to even twitch his finger, he was forced to turn around again. He turned just in time to see the young man getting ready to charge at the murderer. The murderer somehow had started magically glowing and hovering over the ground. Fiery flames danced around her body and her eyes, but her creepily confident expression didn't change or even waver. It was almost as if she knew this was going to happen -wanted it to, even. The boy was clearly scared and intimidated by this, but still, the young man ran at her, holding up his shield and sword as he did so. It was abundantly clear that the young man was running into a battle he was guaranteed to lose, maybe even die in. Yet again, Oscar was forced to move. Oscar jerked his hand out, as if the boy had eyes on the back of his head and could see him.
Oscar wished he could do something to help the kid. He probably wasn't that much older than Oscar, either. He could die at the hands of that murderer too, and the farmhand couldn't even lift a finger. In fact, for all the things that Oscar wanted to do, he was forced to pretty much do the opposite. Then again, he probably wouldn't be able to do much of anything if he wasn't forced to. He's never been a true combat situation before, and he's never had any proper training. He wasn't a student at Beacon or any of the other academies for huntsmen or huntresses. The closest to an emergency situation Oscar had been in was either one of the few times he had needed to fight off a small grimm, or one of the many times his mother had almost set something on fire while baking. Heck, he was just some kid who grew up on a farm. For all he knew, he in all honesty might have just screamed and cried like a child. He wasn't sure exactly what he would do when he thought about it, no matter how upset he was at that moment. Once Oscar realized this, he was able to empathize with the boy so much more. Both were just boys, but the young man was able to act on his emotions, no matter how distraught he was.
"Stay back!" the weird voice came out of boy's mouth again.
Instead of retreating or listening to the voice, the young man pressed on and through his fear. When he got about where he wanted to be, he held up his shield and his old sword and planted his feet in place. Terrified though he was, he held his ground. Even though he knew that his efforts would most likely be futile in the end, he still tried his best. That was truly something Oscar could respect at the very least. Still, regardless of his respect for the young man, he was still doomed to fail. That he did as the murderer threw up all the way back, almost to Oscar's feet with an explosion of fire and a simple swish and flick of her hand. He lay there for a little bit, winded. Then again, anyone would be after being thrown so far.
Then, the muffled girl's voice rang out quietly again,"Jaune!"
That must have been the boy's name. Since the girl both knew and was worried for Jaune, they must at least know each other. If that was the case, then Pyrrha must have been the girl's name, since the young man had called it out after she screamed in pain earlier. It was nice to at least know both of the other young adults' names, however it still weighed on his heart that he had absolutely no knowledge of the life that was lost right before his very eyes.
Pyrrha continued to pound on the door until she eventually managed to break the entirety of the door, pushing it out and into the air. It might have hit the murderer since she was still hovering several feet in midair, but she casually just flicked a few fingers, causing the door to fly and land somewhere to the side. The flames around the murderer had formed flickering circles around her that grew brighter and brighter, dancing around and illuminating the woman's body. The flames grew bigger and stronger as the woman slowly floated down and landed on the ground with a soft clink of her heels.
When Pyrrha saw that she had an opportunity to attack the murder and make her pay for what she'd done, Oscar could hear her run up behind him, getting ready to attack. He restrained her without even setting a finger on her body. The farm boy simply held out his arm to stop her from running into certain doom. In her panic, Pyrrha had misjudged how close his arm was, and he felt her shield collide with the back of his arm.
It was at that moment that Oscar saw Pyrhra for the first time. She, like all of the other people besides the murderer, seemed to be only a few years older than he was at most. A bronzish gold colored crown accented her strikingly red hair that was in a pony tail. She had emerald green eyes that somehow made her look serious and comforting at the same time. In fact, her whole demeanor, even in those horrible conditions seemed to give an air of strength, and light, and warmth. Clearly she was scared and had a worried expression on her face, but she made the boy feel like maybe things would be okay. Maybe it was the armor. Unlike Jaune who just had chest armor, she had boots that were completely made up of metal and went practically all the way up her legs as well. She also had metal armor to protect her neck, armor on her forearms, a matching shield, and an odd-looking sword as well. In her almost full armor, she looked as if she knew what she was doing, even though she clearly was scared and worried.
"Take Jaune, and get out of here!" the odd voice commanded,"Find Glinda! Ironwood! Qrow! Bring them here right away!" Oscar turned to look back at the woman with flames dancing around her. "The tower cannot fall."
"But I can help," Pyrrha responded meekly.
"You'd only get in the way."
Pyrrha looked sadly back at Oscar as she seemed to think for a few moments. When she was done, she hurried over to where Jaune was. Jaune was still getting up since all of these events had transpired so quickly, so Pyrrha helped him up from the ground. Together, they made their way past the murderer and down the hall. The horrible woman didn't even bother to attack them or follow them as they left, to Oscar's relief. It was almost as if she had no desire to hurt them, or maybe it was more that she didn't feel like wasting time or energy on them. There weren't any lights anymore besides the flickering light of the fire, and Oscar watched the teens until they were swallowed up by the believed Pyrrha. Maybe she really could do something to help the situation, but fighting the murderer probably wasn't the way to do that. The voice was right, she would only die in agony, either by bow or by being burned alive. You don't need to be the hero to be a hero, after all. The best way she could help was to run and get more help at that very moment. They needed that more than anything, and doing anything else would probably do more harm than good.
Flames stopped circling around the killer who's hair was equally black as her heart was. When they stopped, they quickly faded away. Before Oscar knew it, they had disappeared completely. The boy could feel his heart racing. This was it. No one else was there to help him; he was going to die. Plain and simple. If he didn't, it would be nothing short of a miracle considering he hadn't even unlocked his semblance yet. There was no way that Oscar, the young farmhand could ever in a million years beat a cold-hearted killer with magic and fire powers. It simply was inevitable. Death always is inevitable, but Oscar had hoped that death would come to him in his old age instead of when he was barely fourteen. He had hoped that he would die in the arms of loved ones, maybe even watching the gorgeous the sunset he loved so very much.
"This whole time, right beneath our feet." The killer finally spoke. Her voice was cold with distrust, and she had an angered expression as she did so,"She was right about you.."
Oscar never wanted to fight anyone, and this woman was no exception. Despite his wishes, however, Oscar was forced to grab what looked like a white and gold cane that must have been put through one of his belt buckles. He flipped it around and poised for an attack.
"...such arrogance," the murderer finished.
The two of them stayed where they were for a moment. However, it wasn't long before Oscar was forced to start running toward the woman. This is truly how he was going to die. The boy didn't have time to think about everything he had wanted to accomplish, or people who cared about him like his mother, or even to think about dying and come to terms with it. Before he had realized what was going on, Oscar had sped up inhumanly fast and attacked the woman with his cane repeatedly. With every hit, a green light flashed, illuminating the darkened room for a second or two. It was almost like magic.
When the murderer recovered from the blows, she got up and started hovering over the ground once again. This time, it seemed as if the flames had almost engulfed her, rather than circling around her. With a blazing explosion of the horrible light, she grew brighter and more powerful than ever before. Oscar unwillingly became locked in combat with the evil woman. Flames fought against the green light of his new found magic, and they lit up the corridors together in a clash of brilliant light against the darkness. The farmhand's heart was pounding so hard that he thought he might faint, possibly even die from fear. With every step he was forced to make, Oscar's vision started swaying and darkness seeped into his vision. The world had almost become darkness, but then another green or fiery flame would brighten it again for a split second or more. It even got to the point where the boy couldn't even see the murderer's face anymore, much less actually do something to her. Suddenly, Oscar wasn't even awake enough to even be angry with her anymore. Even Oscar's thoughts were discombobulated and messed up. Oscar had somehow ended up on the ground for a little while, and he saw something in his last few seconds of consciousness.
In the reflection of the green light that was surrounding him, Oscar could see himself. Only, it wasn't himself. The man that stared past the reflection somehow looked vaguely familiar, as if the boy had maybe seen him in a picture one time. The man's white-gray hair was highlighted with the green light, and his dark spectacles were about to fall off his nose in the struggle. Then, as quickly as he had seen the reflection, Oscar couldn't see it anymore. The darkness crept up all around and consumed him.
Oscar woke up still panicking and panting. For a second, he thought he was back wherever he just was, about to die still. It took the boy a few moments to steady his breathing and calm down. Then, he looked at the beautiful golden sunrise outside and realized that it was nothing more than a dream. He sighed in relief. All of the anger, fear, and sadness wasn't real. He had no reason to feel scared anymore, but it didn't seem anything like a dream at all. In fact it felt like something that had actually happened, a memory even. Thank goodness it wasn't, because Oscar had no idea what he would do if it was real. For some reason, he found he still remembered everything he had seen.
Since the gold and pinks were still streaked across the sky, Oscar thought he might as well get up and go see it like usual. The sunrise always managed to cheer him up for some reason, silly as it was. Watching the sunrise every morning wasn't exactly the manliest thing he has ever done, but he really didn't care. It was beautiful, and Oscar loved it. If anyone had told him that watching the sunrise wasn't the kind of thing a fourteen-year-old boy should be doing, he probably would just ignore them.
So, Oscar pushed himself out of bed and made his way through the room, through the door, and to the ladder. He carefully went down the steps of the ladder, but he jumped the last few in his sleepy excitement. The old wood against his feet creaked as he walked, but he really didn't care. By now he had become so accustomed to the creaking that he could pretty much ignore it by now. When Oscar got to the door, he pushed it open with a lot of his strength so he could see as much of the sunrise as he could.
That day's sunrise was especially beautiful, however the golden light was so bright that it made it almost impossible for the farmhand to see at first. The boy stepped out of his barn and used his hand to shield his eyes. The brilliant light brought a small smile to his face, and his black hair waved a little in the wind as he watched the sunrise. It rarely ever failed to manage to bring a smile to the boy's face. After such a dark and horrible nightmare, the sunrise helped calm Oscar down a bit more. It was gorgeous, comforting even.
Oscar thought it was best to focus on his chores, rather than letting his mind eventually drift back and dwell on the memory of his terrifying nightmare. So, he grabbed the bucket that was just by the door and brought it over to the hand water pump a few feet from the barn. He set the bucket on the ground and began to put force on the handle of the pump. Cold water started splashing into the old bucket.
To the boy's dismay, his mind did begin to wander a little. In dreams you could only see people you've seen before, but Oscar has never seen either the girl who died before in his dream or the man who's reflection flashed for only a few seconds. He hadn't seen the other people either. Growing up on a farm, he hadn't seen a huge amount of people in his entire life. Every time someone had visited the farm, Oscar tried to get to know them during their visit because he might not have a chance to meet someone new in a while. And most of his books didn't even have pictures in them. When they did, they were always drawn and not actual photos. Mrs. Pine had never really gotten a television or computer, either since she was the kind of person who thought they would distract her and her son. It didn't really make sense for Oscar to see someone he didn't know in his dreams, since they were after all just his brain messing with information in his sleep. Oscar read about dreams in one of his books, and even they pointed out that it was impossible to dream about people he'd never seen before. Then, who were those people?
Oscar suddenly became aware that the water was flowing over the top of the old bucket. He stopped pumping the water and the last of the water splashed over the edge of the bucket. Oscar looked at it for a moment before sighing.
Carefully so that the least amount of water fell out of the bucket, he picked it up and made his way to the old, green compost tumbler. After he poured the water in, he closed the door. The old rusty handle wouldn't budge very easily, and there was a lot of stuff in the tumbler, so it took most of the boy's strength to make a full circle. He would grunt a little bit when gravity was against him, then he would take a second to get ready for the next full circle. When he figured he had turned it enough, Oscar took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a second.
By the time he had gotten to his other chores, the sky was already mostly blue, and he had been not really paying attention to what he was doing anymore. He looked up at the sky, but he couldn't get his nightmare out of his mind. Flashes of green, orange, and red danced before his eyes instead of the now almost blue sky before him. Memories of screams echoed through Oscar's head, and he saw Pyrrha, Jaune, and the murdered victim whenever he blinked or closed his eyes. Oscar didn't want to remember everything, after all he didn't need to. It was just a nightmare, and there was no point stressing out over it. Oscar, like everyone, had nightmares sometimes. That's just a fact of life. Still, every time something from his dream came back to the boy, he felt as if something was off.
He shook his head as if that would help his thoughts go away. At least he had breakfast to look forward to. Speaking of, Oscar figured his mom was just about finished making breakfast. He was done with his morning chores, anyway. He decided that he would go wash up and get ready before heading to the farm house to get food. He picked up the pitchfork he had been using and walked back towards his small little barn. He had left the door open, so it was easy to just walk in. After he leaned the pitchfork against some hay, he went over to the sink to wash his hands.
Oscar stopped. He wasn't sure exactly what compelled him to do it, but he looked at the mirror before even taking off his gloves. Maybe it was the flashes of the man in his dream. For a second, he thought he saw the man in the reflection of the mirror above the sink as well. It was too fast to be able to recognize the man's features, but his gray, almost white hair and weird spectacles would stand out practically anywhere. Just as quickly as it as come, the image was gone from the mirror and Oscar couldn't see the man anymore. There's no way he could disappear though, since he hadn't been able to do that in the farm boy's dream. How could Oscar even think that a person from a dream even really existed in the first place? The idea in itself was absurd. There was no way that the man in Oscar's dream was a real person.
Still, Oscar found himself drawn to the mirror. When he saw another image of the man for a second, the boy became even more confused. Anyone would be. It wasn't often that people saw people that weren't there; only crazy people did that. Maybe Oscar was going crazy. Or maybe he really had hit his head yesterday morning when he fell off the bed and gotten serious brain damage or something. In his mind, that could be a possibility too. He leaned forward, closer to the mirror before scratching his head in confusion.
Am I going insane? Is my mom going to have to lock me up in some sort of mental hospital for the rest of my life? the poor farm boy worried.
He still had no idea why he did it, but he leaned even closer to the mirror, and even rested his hands on the old sink. Chills ran through Oscar's body as he looked at where the images of the man had been mere moments ago.
"H-hello?" he asked the mirror. He wasn't exactly sure whether he wanted to or would get a response, but he asked nonetheless.
When nothing happened at first, he waited a few moments before letting out a relieved sigh. Maybe he was just tired and needed to go back to sleep. Though if he had indeed severely injured his brain yesterday, it was probably best to tell his mom. If he did that, though, he probably would be sent to a regular hospital or a mental hospital for the rest of his life. Oscar could imagine his small mother's stressing over him trying to figure out where he had bumped his head. Or maybe he could just ignore seeing this weird man from his dream and move on with his life. He thought that was probably the best, after Oscar sighed, a voice responded, nearly giving him, a heart attack.
"Hello..." the voice started.
He screamed and started to walk backwards in panic and confusion. He definitely did not expect someone to respond. In fact, he wasn't even sure what he did expect. He was so startled that instead of moving back, the boy tripped and started falling backward.
"...I'm Professor Ozpin." the voice continued as Oscar crashed to the ground, landing in a pile of hay unable to catch his breath.
From somewhere in the distance, Mrs. Pine must have heard the crash or Oscar's scream because she called out worriedly,"Oscar, you be careful with those tools!"
Hi! UnitedPikachu here! Thanks for reading again! I promised that I'd be back, didn't I? I'm having so much fun with this! It really starts getting interesting next week. Next week will mark the first time that Ozpin takes over for Oscar. Let's just say that will be more than just thoughts. It's going to be way more interesting and creative than that. I'm not the type to either brag or act confident, but here in the internet, anyone can be anything! Haha.
I also have a question. I want to put quotes from RWBY that relate to the chapter in the beginning of each chapter, as you can probably already tell. Would you rather I tell you who and when the quote is from, or shall I just keep it a secret? If you care to do so, please answer by either pming me or including it in your review of this chapter. I'll update these two chapters that are already out if you guys want to change them. It's up to you. I also would like to know which chapter you liked better so far. Thank you so much!
HazelEyesIsOut1234 sent this to me last week,"I see the potential! I'd like to see where this goes, but one note of housekeeping- doesn't Oscar live with his aunt? Or will that be addressed later?"
So I thought I'd like to address that now. First of all, thank you so much for reading my story! It makes me so happy that you liked what you read and want to see more! And thank you for telling me that Oscar lives with his aunt. I genuinely did not know about that, so I'm glad you brought that up. However, I will not go back and change the prologue. I know you didn't suggest I do that or anything, but still. The reason I wrote the prologue in the first place is to give Oscar something he truly cares about. I really think that we truly need something to take away from Oscar so that he will feel more strongly about things when things start happening. I won't spoil anything, but I have plans for things along those lines. If Oscar simply lives with his aunt, Oscar can't feel as strongly as if he was living with his mother. So, I'm going to stick with my choice, and I believe that it will help the story in the future. I guess that would mean that this is technically an AU, but what the heck. Again, thank you so much for reading and reviewing. I hope I can live up to your expectations and even surpass them, Hazel!