The ship was under construction, it seemed that the damage done to the engine couldn't be fixed as easily as she were told, it was slightly infuriating but with the extra time she could do a bit of searching around the rubble of her home, the blackened wood and seared stone, with a frown she walked over the rubble which began to stain her boots black as she kicked her way through the rubble eventually coming across a few melted statues of various types of grimm, looking around what remains of her room she frowned walking over to what would have been considered her bed she knelt down and began to dig through the charred remains eventually she came across what she was looking for a few preserved pages of her diary, they were barely legible but that didn't matter what mattered was that it was a small piece of her past... ever sense Mistral she couldn't get the fire and screams out of her mind, how Sephiroth could cause such destruction without batting an eye.
Separating the two pages she pulled free a small almost rectangular slip of paper, it was a photo of a woman that looked almost identical to her, her face could easily be made out her black and red hair could also be seen, the lower half of the photo was melted away and unfortunately couldn't be made out. With a frown she stood and began to make her way out of the rubble, back towards the cliff where the graves stood, she was quite unsettled by the fact that no Grimm showed up, she had gotten into contact with an old teacher Peter Port, he had passed a message to Glynda who requested her presence, but as things stood right now she left that to Yang and Weiss. Reaching the cliff face she frowned at the bird sitting on one of the graves she could recognize that it wasn't Raven and defiantly wasn't Qrow, coming to a stop she knelt down and placed the image on the center stone
"Goodbye mom, goodbye uncle Qrow, goodbye dad." she muttered her shoulders falling as she bowed her head "I know that whatever is going on you'll be by my side, and should whatever end comes for me, you'll walk beside me. So lets go." she finished and rose to her feet
(o)
Yang leaned by the door of the apartment, she was rather surprised that Glynda Goodwitch, scary, magical, sexy librarian-esque TILF, not that she'd ever say anything like that to her, after a moment the door opened and Weiss bowed
"It's good to see you again ...witch..." she trailed off, Yang leaned around the corner of the door and noted why she trailed off, Glynda Goodwitch was standing there her hair was hanging free and appeared similar to Ravens' in terms of spike, her glasses were missing from bottom to top she was covered armor, her feet and shins were covered in blacken steel her skirt was replaced with a pair of pants and her dress shirt was now full and had a breastplate covering her chest with a pair of shoulder pads, she looked like a biker from hell
"Wow... I think I've been awakened to something." Yang commented looking over the older woman who stared blankly at her her eyes then drifted back over to Weiss
"I assume Ruby sent you two." she said turning and walking back into her apartment and grabbed a bottle of brown liquid and leaned on the counter as the two entered the clean and well kept living room, hopping over the back of the couch she landed on something, quickly moving her boots she noted that she landed on someone, quickly jumping to her feet the boy rolled of the couch and held his nose muttering to himself
"Oops... sorry about that." she apologized as he shifted to sitting on the ground next to the couch
"No worries... best way to wake up." he muttered as he tilted his head forward and began to breath deeply through his mouth
"So... whos the kid?" Yang asked turning to Biker Goodwitch who looked a little worried at the boy but she quickly turned to Yang and spoke "His name is Oscar Pines, he is from a small farm outside of a few miles outside of Mistral." she answered as she took a deep swig from the bottle and let out a sigh "But you'd probably be more familiar with his other name, Ozpin." she answered causing the boy to wince a bit.
"Haha... so like his kid or..."
"No... shes right, I'm Ozpin the same man you knew from your time at Beacon... just a bit younger." he said with a goofy grin "And maybe... a little better looking?" he said sounding none to confident in himself, Weiss looked at the farmhand and then back to Glynda who returned the look with a neutral expression
"Is this... an excuse for-"
"First off, I feel no attraction towards men or woman, so no. Second of all why would you assume that first and foremost? Third no, this young man is the reincarnation of Ozpin, or the being that Ozpin is, he very well could be the key for stopping a great many threats to this world, primarily Sephiroth and whatever he as planned, after that I'm sure Salem will be our next target." Glynda spoke earning a surprised look from Yang as she walked over to Oscar and began to scrutinize his stance and what she would perceive as his combat experience, as she walked around him he seemed more than a little uncomfortable
"Alright, I guess he's got potential, but I don't see how he could be Ozpin." She said punching the boy in the shoulder causing him to stumble a bit and rub where she struck a moment later his demeanor shifted completely as he straightened himself and placed his hands behind his back giving off waves of experience and confidence
"I'm sure with a bit of time and effort he can very well fill the mantel in which you place upon him, but for now the process is still going, slowly but steadily." he said again this time sounding almost exactly like Ozpin as he gave Yang a knowing smile which was returned with pure confusion and shock, Weiss now walked up to him and stared him dead in the eyes after a few seconds of staring she turned to Yang and spoke
"I can't believe I'm saying this but I think what said is true." she finally said as Oscar or Ozpin now just smiled at her
"It's a bit of a complex process, but yes, what Glynda has said is correct." he said pacing towards the center of the room between the three "I have a plan to go after Sephiroth and defeat him, but Oscar isn't ready for this he needs to be trained, that's what we've been doing for the past week trying to get Oscar stronger, and more prepared." he explained "I can carry where he would fail but I can't do it forever, while my spirit and soul are both prepared and used to the strain of combat, Oscars' is not, so if I put too much strain on his body it's likely that he will end up comatose before the battle can be concluded, and if we can not defeat him in Vacuo we need the defenses around Beacon to be prepared." he finished turning to Glynda and spoke directly to her "Gather any and all huntsman and huntresses you need to prepare Beacon for an assault, we have a few weeks at most before he would come for the relic of choice but he will come for it, unless we stop him in Vacuo."
"How'd you know he'd be in Vacuo? Some kind of... magical RADAR. MADAR?" Yang asked earning a quick chuckle from Ozpin as he turned on his heel towards the door
"No, I do not have a MADAR... would've made life easier though. No from what I saw, Mistral and Atlas have both had their relics destroyed, that means that he was unable to find the vault entrance in Beacon, now it comes down to Vacuo and Vale, Vacuo being the one location he was already familiar with due to his previous infiltration, so the one issue he will have is opening the vault, and considering if who I entrusted the summer maiden's powers to still has them he won't find them for a good long time, giving us time to track him down and kill him." he explained with a small sigh then turned away from them and his demeanor shifted completely as he seemingly returned to being Oscar as he awkwardly turned and faced them with an awkward smile
(o)
Vernal watched as life steadily became more and more peaceful for the people of Vale but she was surprised when Goodwitch showed up at their bookshop, asking for her, Victoria was a fast friend with the huntress given their mutual interest in books, and book related accessories. So it was surprising when she came looking for her instead of Victoria who seemed excited at the idea of her and Goodwitch talking.
"Goodwitch... why are you here? What do you want?" Vernal asked as the two of them cound their way into a more solitary location away from Victoria who was cooking dinner
"I know that you're ready to start a normal life, and with what you made defending Vale no one would blame you but, I have to ask for one favor, Beacon needs become a fortress and you're one of the few that I can rely on to be effective when it come to this." she said crossing her arms as she shifted her position on the couch look at her, Vernal was a bit frustrated, she wanted to relax and not deal with any more combat, but if she was getting paid then it was probably worth it
"Okay but why, if we're gonna make a crumbling ruin into a fortress then I gotta know what we're defending against." she finally said after going over the womans' words in her mind
"A former student from Beacon, Sephiroth." she answered causing her to pale a bit as her stomach dropped, the mere mention of his name frightened her
"I... I don't think I can help." she muttered earning a look from Glynda, it was mainly a surprise that she was so quick to drop her willingness for combat, she stared down a whole horde of Grimm without a shred of fear but the mere mention of Sephiroth scared her... that's probably why she was here
"He destroyed your homes, didn't he?" she finally asked earning a slow nod from the girl, after a few moments Vernal spoke
"He killed everyone in my home, he carved a swath of destruction through our camp and tortured everyone to get at our leader, who fled to keep... keep safe that which is important." she answered with a frown her vision glazing over as memories assaulted her mind, visions of fire and screams, she couldn't seem to shake the visions that engulfed everything around her, quickly shaking her head she attempted to remove the vision but found that it was impossible, with a groan she smacked the side of her head roughly causing the flames and screams to fade, blinking a few times she looked to Glynda who placed a hand on her shoulder and sat down next to her
"I can understand your fear, he manipulated me and burned everything I had to dust, you are lucky to have someone to care for... I lost everyone I wanted to care for, my students, my husband, and my closest friend, but now we have a chance to protect what we have left, those waves of energy that came from Mistral and Atlas were proof of his attacks on both, we are running out of people do protect out world, and with how much damage he has caused we need to stand against our fears now, more than anything." she spoke in an attempt to inspire her, but it didn't seem to have much of an effect, she just stared at the floor for a few moments before letting out a sigh
"Alright... fine... but if he... but if he starts to torture people again... I'm taking my first chance to book it." she finally said earning a clap on the shoulder from the older woman who gave her a reassuring smile "Thank you, I have some people attempting to cut him off in Vacuo, so our preparations might not be needed, but it's better to be prepared. Right?" Glynda reassured earning a grimace from the girl as she rubbed one of her hands which was clearly shaking a bit
(o)
Ruby and Ozpin spoke for hours, planing on just how they were going to combat the madman, going over his powers and strategies, eventually coming up with a simple plan on Ozpins' part, he wanted her and her team to hold him in place and he said that he would take care of the rest, so that would be the plan, at least this time, she wanted very much to kill him herself but after he leveled a city she wasn't willing to take any chances on him leveling another.
A/N Maybe it'll end in Vacuo, maybe it'll end in Vale... I genuinely don't know... nah I got a bit of a plan but nothing too cement but apart from that we'll see what we can squeeze out. In my next story I might make the updates every 2 weeks or monthly, mainly due to life being a bit of an ass and I wanna spend more than a collective six hours a week of free time to do with as I pleased like write, play video games, spend time with the fam, try new things, probably masturbate, cook some sweets and treats that cant be beat, ETC.
