AN: Back and, in my opinion, better than ever! I think this storyline is really starting to find its footing now and hit its stride. Hopefully you guys think so! Remember to leave feedback. I would also like to hear theories from you guys as to what will happen in future stories. I love reading readers' theories.
Inside The Witch's Apple, Jasper and several of his Faunus disciples had Poma Gran and some of her employees on their knees with their hands behind their heads. Jasper clutched his bloody shovel and kept it over Poma's head.
"You support Faunus labor for your kitchen," he said.
"I don't call it labor," Poma insisted. Enraged, Jasper dropped the shovel at his feet and reached down and gripped Poma's hair.
"But that's how we see it, and we don't like it," he barked.
"Let her go, Jasper," Ozpin's voice spoke. Jasper straightened in attention and looked around. Ozpin was nowhere to be seen.
"You have me now, Jasper. Now let them go," Oz said. Jasper chuckled, tightening his grip on Poma who groaned in pain.
"I don't think that's possible just yet. I don't have you until I see you," he said. Without waiting for Oz to reply, Jasper picked up his shovel and swung it down upon Poma's head. Poma's body fell limp to the floor.
Ozpin finally stepped into the room through the double doors of the kitchen.
"Looking for me?" He asked. Jasper's eyes locked onto Oz and he grinned in a sadistic satisfaction.
"Hello, Oz," Jasper said.
"Let the hostages go Jasper. No one else needs to get hurt."
Jasper hesitated, continuing to stare at Oz without words instead.
"Tell everyone to leave so that we can settle this alone," Ozpin said. Jasper nodded. He turned to his Faunus disciples.
"All of you, get out. Let the hostages go. I have what I want," he ordered. The disciples nodded and filed out, shoving the hostages out with them.
"Thank you," Ozpin said, knowing that that wouldn't make Jasper change his mind about what he was doing.
"The time to say 'thank you' is too late in coming, Ozpin. You hurt me, and now I'm going to hurt you," Jasper replied.
"I'm sorry I lied back in that coffee shop. I was wrong," Oz tried. Jasper took several dangerous steps forward.
"You think that's all I'm mad about? You gave me a job as a slave to humans! Every lash I got from a whip was because of you," Jasper said. He turned around to show off the lashes on his naked back. Ozpin fidgeted uncomfortably at the sight. Remorse blossomed in Oz at the realization of how much pain Jasper had suffered.
"I didn't know, Jasper," he said. Jasper whirled around to face him again.
"I think you did! And now I'm going to kill you and then go after everyone you love!" He declared. Ozpin then thought of Glynda and Oobleck and Port. And Theodora. Jasper was too deep in his own anger and pain to listen to reason. Oz knew he had no choice.
"You're not going to kill anyone else," Ozpin said, reaching for his weapon.
"Don't try to stop me!" Jasper urged in a poisonous tone. He threw his shovel aside and got down on all fours. Nails like an Ursa's popped out from Jasper's fingertips. With an animal-like roar, he sprung himself at Ozpin. Oz pulled out his gun and fired off several rounds. Two of them missed and exploded against the window by the front door, shattering the glass and tossing shards everywhere. The third one hit Jasper's face. It barely affected him at all. After quickly shaking the pain off, Jasper continued coming to Oz and lunged at him with his hand out to strike him across the throat.
Ozpin dropped and rolled to the side. With a flick of his thumb, he switched the settings on his gun and fired a cable at Jasper. The cable wrapped itself around Jasper's arm. Jasper roared and his arm with the cable around it yanked back so hard the cable snapped.
"Uh oh not good," Oz groaned. Jasper grinned, revealing disjointed teeth. He turned and continued towards Oz, faster this time. Ozpin stood up and leaped back over the bar counter just as Jasper's hand swiped the very spot where Oz was a second ago. Lowering the impact setting on his gun, Oz stuck the barrel of his gun into the counter and pulled the trigger. Pieces of wood erupted off, creating a large hole. Jasper found his opportunity to start coming through the opening, but Ozpin knew he was going to do that. He picked up a long, thin strip of wood with a sharp end and began beating Jasper with it over and over in the face. Jasper screamed and threw himself back. Ozpin seized the opportunity and threw the piece of wood at Jasper like a spear.
Jasper swung his hand down across the piece of wood as it came hurtling towards him, splitting the wood into two halves.
"You're very clever Ozpin, but I will eventually break you," he mocked. Ozpin straightened his posture in the hopes that he looked tougher.
"It's going to take a lot to break me," he said. With another animal roar, Jasper launched himself off the ground and leaped after Oz. Oz fired more rounds of plasma at Jasper, then leaped out of the way. Jasper crashed against the shelf of wine bottles lined up. Bottles fell over, some completely shattered on the floor. Oz grabbed a bottle that rolled by him and came at Jasper with it. He swung to hit his neck, but Jasper managed to grab the bottle before it connected with him and dug his nails through it. The bottom half of the bottle fell to the floor. Jasper smiled. Ozpin smiled back.
Ozpin kicked the half of the bottle on the floor and watched it slide and cut Jasper's foot. Jasper hollered like a wounded wolf and staggered, giving Oz the opportunity to fire a round of plasma at Jasper's throat. Jasper was flung backwards, crashing through the double doors of the kitchen. Ozpin went after him.
The kitchen looked normal enough. Cooking tables were stretched out in a perfect line in the middle, with pots and pans hanging on the low ceiling. Several large sinks lined one side of the room while ovens and fryers lined the other side. Oz spotted Jasper struggling to get back up. Smoke curled up from his throat where he had been hit.
"Given up yet?" Ozpin asked. Jasper shook his head.
"You are strong, but you can't go on forever," he replied. He got back onto his feet, and snatched a dangling pan. Ozpin grabbed his own pan and a ringing sound exploded through his ears when Jasper's pan connected with his own. The two of them continued going at it with their pans, until finally Jasper took one large, violent swing that decapitated the head of Ozpin's pan from the handle. Oz stumbled back in shock, staring in disbelief at the broken end of the handle where the rest of the pan used to be.
"Like I said, you can't go on forever," Jasper said. Ozpin threw the handle in a way that spun in the air like a boomerang. Jasper swung his pan so that it knocked the handle aside. Oz leaped over one of the tables in the middle to get to the other side.
"Yes I can!" He yelled. He had to go on. If he stopped, he would die. Only one of them was walking away from this fight. Oz grabbed two more pans from the ceiling and threw them at Jasper who batted them both away but Oz was able to tell that he was growing tired. Realizing he had a few seconds to come up with a plan, his gaze searched the kitchen until it locked on the walk-in fridge.
"Perhaps you are the one that can't go on forever," Oz teased.
"Try me!" Jasper warned. He sprang over the line of tables in the middle and swung at Oz with his pan again. Ozpin ducked, feeling the whoosh of air directly above as the pan passed over him. Jasper was in front of him in the way of the fridge, which was on the other side of the room where they had been fighting with pans minutes ago. Oz spotted the severed pan head on the floor and had an idea. He leaped, connecting one foot with one of the sinks against the wall and let go, landing both feet on the floor so that he was on the other side of Jasper. Jasper attempted to knock Oz out by swinging his pan again while turning around to face him. Ozpin dropped and rolled underneath the line of tables and grabbed the head of his pan. Leaping back up, his eyes widened in shock when he realized that Jasper had his gun.
"Oh," he said.
"Clumsy move, Ozpin," Jasper replied. Jasper aimed and fired multiple rounds of plasma. Oz held up the pan head like a shield and felt the blasts smash against the pan and toss him backwards. His back hit one of the ovens and bounced him onto the floor near the fridge. A sharp pain shot up the side he fell on. Grunting, he scrambled back onto his feet and fell forward against the door of the fridge. His breathing was heavy and sweat streamed down his face.
"You're tired," Jasper said with the tone of a seducing lover.
Don't screw this up Ozpin.
Jasper got to Oz's side of the room and ran at him with the gun and pan. Oz fumbled with the door handle, his hand shaking.
Stop it! Be still!
Oz finally managed to open the door wide and leap out of the way just as Jasper got to him and slid into the fridge. Jasper slipped on the ice and fell onto his back, letting go of Oz's gun. Seeing his opening, Oz rolled into the fridge, grabbed his gun, and rolled out. When Jasper barely got his footing back and started to lunge after Oz, Ozpin switched the setting of his gun so that it was at the highest level and fired.
"No—!" Jasper screamed. The plasma blast exploded when it collided with Jasper. A ball of fire exploded, hurling intense cold from the fridge and intense heat. Oz felt himself get projected backwards like a rag doll. His head hit something concrete and everything went black.
When Ozpin woke up, he immediately groaned because of the pounding headache in his temples. He was laying in a bed and he found himself staring up at a blank white ceiling. He was back in his room. It reminded him of when he had climbed up one of the tallest trees in the Emerald Forest not long after he brought Glynda and Theodora home and he had slipped and fallen off, hitting his head and getting knocked out cold. When he woke up later he found himself lying on his bed with Glynda sleeping in a chair beside him.
This time, Glynda wasn't the one sitting beside his bed. He saw Theodora's eyes flutter open.
"Oz? You feeling alright?" Theodora asked. She stood up and walked over to Oz's side gazing down at him. Now there was another odd thing. He was used to seeing Glynda, not Theodora, gazing down at him when she wanted to go to their "happy place".
"Where's Glynda? Are the others safe?" Ozpin asked.
"Yes. They're back at the temple. You did it Oz, the Faunus is dead," Theodora said. Oz frowned and tried to remember. First it was just a vague thought. He remembered an Ursa's claws. Then it all came back to him. His fight with Jasper in The Witch's Apple.
"How do we know for sure that he's dead?" Ozpin asked.
"Some of his followers went back into the restaurant and came out with his body. One of them said he's not breathing," Theodora replied.
"They took the body?" Ozpin asked.
"Yes. Which means we don't have to worry about him when we set back out to deal with Collus. Mostly everyone knew that Jasper wanted you but after they learned that you killed him, they decided they're willing to let you off the hook. For now," Theodora pointed out. Ozpin's gaze darted away from Theodora for a moment as he processed this. Jasper was dead. Or at least, it sounded like he was. Theodora was right. Now they can get back to their task.
"Will I be alright?" Ozpin asked.
"Yes, just a nasty bump on the head. You can get up any time," Theodora said. Then she reached over and took Oz's hand. Her hand felt warm and and had the same odd tingling sensation in Ozpin's hand like it did on his cheek.
"You saved lives Ozpin. Remember that when I destroy Collus for you," Theodora said. She leaned down and planted a kiss on Oz's forehead. Then her expression changed to one that invoked sadness.
"There's something else. Peter Port's grandfather is dead," she said. Shock rattled up Ozpin's spine.
"Dead?"
"He was killed trying to defend some civilians during the Faunus attack," Theodora explained.
"How is Peter taking it?"
"Really hard. But after he told us what happened, he said that his allegiance is now with you completely," Theodora said. Sorrow for Peter enveloped Ozpin. This had to be rough for him.
"So what now then?" Theodora asked, moving on from the subject. That's when weak and confused Ozpin turned into confident and deep-thinking Ozpin. There was time to think about Jasper later.
"We have to train. To build an academy, we need good teachers, and my team will work hard to achieve that goal. And you," Ozpin said.
"Then I guess we better get started," Theodora urged.
Standing together in the temple, Ozpin made his announcement.
"We are going to build an academy here. This place we're standing in right now will be it. We need to train, and together, we can become an unstoppable force against any that conspire against this great kingdom. Soon we will take down Collus and any other threats like the White Fang should they come back with a new leader."
"And now we have someone new joining us to train," Ozpin said. He stepped aside to allow Theodora to step up. In response, Peter gave a flirty wink.
"Theodora here will be training with us. She says that she will be the one to lead us against Collus," Ozpin explained. Theodora spread her arms out as a way to get everyone's attention.
"My friends, I will do everything in my power to make sure we succeed. You won't be disappointed," Theodora said.
"Now, let's get started," Oz said, then finished by taking a deep breath. This was it. Everything was falling into place.
Screams echoed across the entire hospital, which was empty except for one room. Jasper lay in a bed screaming up at the ceiling. He clenched his fists so tight they were white. Blood rushed to Jasper's head as he continued screaming.
"Please! Just let me die! I don't want this anymore! I don't want this!" Jasper begged. Tears streamed down his cheeks and soaked his hospital gown.
"Put him under. We can't do it like this," a voice said in the dark room lit up only by a lightbulb directly above Jasper's bed. Something touched Jasper's shoulder. He flinched and almost raised his arm to lash out, but he felt a needle pierce the side of his neck. Everything became blurry until all the voices grew distant as if there were people speaking in the next room.
"It's okay Jasper, everything is going to be alright," someone said before Jasper went completely under. In the darkness, Jasper could hear things that were said to him not too long ago.
I don't hate you. You turning out to be a Faunus does not change my opinion of you.
Those were Ozpin's words. Before he betrayed Jasper.
Don't be afraid to show the world who you are.
Jasper had no idea it was possible to cry when unconscious but he could hear himself weeping as he endured the memory flashes.
Ozpin, my dear friend, please help me.
Do you know this guy? the shop owner had asked.
No. I don't know him.
Jasper felt fresh tears spill down his face. Ozpin, my dear friend…
Rage overtook him. How could you?
I hate you Ozpin. I always will.
When Jasper's eyes finally opened and he was back in the real world, he was able to look down and see the cybernetics that were now his legs. He tried moving one of the legs and it made an ominous whirring sound as it moved.
"You're fixed up. We'll be releasing you shortly," someone said. Jasper looked up at the person who was talking. He recognized him as one of the Faunus slaves in the mines.
"What are your orders?" The Faunus asked. Jasper looked away from him and stared up at the ceiling again. A crooked grin cracked through his face, revealing teeth more disjointed then they were before the incident in The Witch's Apple.
"I'm going to need some improvements," he said.
AN: Aw snap! Guys, you have no idea of the plans I have for this series! I have some awesome stuff for this series that I came up with just recently, so now I feel that this series has a definitive direction with an idea for how the ending will go.