XXXV - Ephemeral

Got offered a job at Yellowstone, the crown jewel of our parks system. Definitely gonna switch to them for this summer season. Hopefully I don't get attacked by an Elk or Bison.

~~~(XXXV)~~~

The tournament finally was about to begin and the first round would start tomorrow. Like most students, Oxon was nervous. Unlike everyone else, it was for drastically different reasons.

This is it, everything I've done for Cinder is about to bear fruit. Fuck…

If he knew he was going to be forced into this a year ago, he would have felt guilty about what he was doing for sure. Now though? Now it was worse. He had made friends, gotten close to those who were supposed to be targets of interest.

Worst of all was the girl who was at his side walking the fair grounds with him. There were many other students from all the other academies and civilians wandering as well. He had to admit, the atmosphere here was relaxing, something he enjoyed, despite his inner guilt.

"So this is the first time you've been to something like this?" Weiss Schnee, member of team RWBY, someone who he'd begun to like more than he should. "I admit, it's a fairly new experience for me as well. Father would never be seen or let us be seen in such a "plebeian" event."

"Of course, the guy sounds like a real chore, how on Remnant did someone like that raise someone as nice as you?" Seriously, from all the stories he'd heard, the man was colder than the harshest winter in Solitas. It seemed that only the man's daughters came out decent and well functioning.

The sudden compliment had her blushing and sputtering adorably. "Ah-well, I would say I was mostly inspired by my grandfather and sister. They have both challenged themselves to not be complacent in their situations. They could have had easy lives, but they put themselves in risky situations in order to help those around them."

"An admirable motivation, and in my opinion, I think you are doing fantastically well. It's clear that you put in a great amount of effort." Raised with a silver spoon in mouth, she decided to become someone who fought for the people. She really was an amazing person.

With each compliment, her blush deepend "I'm glad you think so… And I think you have come far as well. You're not "just a woodcutter" anymore."

He supposed that was true, he had learned a lot since he arrived in both Vale as well as Beacon. He had been forced to adapt to his situation at a dizzying speed. Honestly, Oxon probably used the training bots more than anyone else in their year.

"Not just a woodcutter is true, but I do feel nostalgia at the simple life it gave me." He glanced at the girl by his side. "Not that I'd want to go back to it, I'm comfortable here."

"Good to know you don't want to leave me behind for a particularly nice tree." That caused Oxon to let out a short laugh; she'd gotten better at cracking jokes at him recently. The two walked together in comfortable silence until a booth caught his eye.

"Oh, hey look, a few game stalls. Do you want to try any out?" There was a hammer strength game, though it seemed like there was a special one built for huntsmen.

"We should warn these people about Nora, or at least make sure JNPR keeps her away from it." The two laughed at the joke as they approached the game, truly the girl was a menace. The man running the stall noticed the uniforms and immediately went over to the industrial looking high striker.

Running up the side of the contraption we're different Grimm and a bell at the top. It ranged from a creep at the bottom, a beowolf in the middle, and a goliath right below the bell. Oxon rotated his shoulder to loosen up his muscles, he eyed the hammer that was available. It certainly looked like it would not break if he used it.

"Well hello there young man! Are you here to put your strength to the test?" Oxon nodded and handed the man the required lien. Once he had, he was given the hammer, the attendant had a bit of trouble lifting the thing. "Here you go! Now, if you hit the bell, you get a prize!"

The prizes ranged from small plastic toys, to larger stuffed animals. Some of them looked suspiciously like the sisters of RWBY's pet dog. Vicious little thing hated him for whatever reason. Twirling the hammer in one hand, he turned his head to the smaller girl.

"Hey, Weiss, there anything up there you want?" He was certain he could win the top prize, his entire combat method relied on strength. He might not be Nora, but he was still up there.

"You don't need to win me anything." Her resolve didn't last long however. "Though if you truly want to, that stuffed dog is very adorable."

"As my Snow Queen commands! So it shall be done!" Giving the girl a silly salute and earning a giggle, he walked over to the game with a confident smirk. He undid his uniform jacket's zipper that kept it closed, exposing the plain white undershirt. He wasn't in classes and didn't much care for the uniform regulations, but he had to at least pretend.

He observed the thing for a moment before raising the hammer above his head. Holding like he would his ax and about to chop a cord of firewood, he swung down, right hand sliding down the shaft and meeting his left at the hilt. The loud "bang" and the metal orb shot up the center towards the bell. Only it only went up about seventy five percent of the way up, missing the bell, where its momentum had it hover just below the manticore.

Oxon turned to see Weiss struggling to keep her laughter in check. "Uh… One more go?"

"Oh yes, brave knight, or else this Snow Queen will find another who can." A horrifying prospect, he definitely needed to succeed this time.

He handed the man the lien for another attempt and prepared himself. His last hit had been at almost maximum strength, so he would need to get a little… creative. This man knew how huntsmen were stronger than any civilian, so using the main tool of their profession seemed fair. For his second swing, he pushed as much aura into his upper body before it showed visibly.

"Raahhhhhh!" Like whatever force that shattered their moon, Oxon brought everything he could into that hit. With an even louder noise than the last hit, the steel orb rocketed up and slammed into the bell, giving him a satisfying ring.

Hefting the hammer over his shoulder, he looked back at Weiss and gave a victorious thumbs up. The stand attendant took the hammer back and gave him the large stuffed dog. Walking back to his date, he presented the gift to her.

"As requested, one stuffed animal for you!" The girl took it with a light giggle. It was fairly large, about half her size, and she needed both arms to keep it upright. The comical look made him chuckle, where would she even keep the thing?

They were Interrupted by the tell-tale sound of a scroll camera going off.

"Awwww, how adorable." Turning their heads, they saw a grinning Nora and passive Ren. Though there may have been a small smile on his face. "Are you two on a date~?"

Weiss gave him a nervous look. He hadn't exactly been clear in the times they had gotten together, he had been trying to come to terms with it himself. Though, this was as good a time as any.

"Yeah," Weiss perked up when he said that it was indeed a date. "I asked her if she wanted to explore the festival together. Thankfully she agreed, are the two of you on one as well?"

On que, the two denied the idea. The two of them may be walking the grounds together, they may be closer than "just friends" would be, and Ren was holding a stuffed sloth, but they weren't on a date. He wasn't sure what it would take to get them together, but he wasn't going to bother. They'll figure it out eventually, hopefully.

"Though, I did have a question for you, Oxon." That was rare, the silent male of team JNPR rarely spoke, least of all to him. "I'm sure we've all noticed that our leader has picked up some… interesting strategies."

"Yeah! He was super sneaky when he threw dust in Cardin's eyes!" That had been a memorable combat class. Jaune had used dust and debris from when Cardin shattered part of the floor on the taller mace wielder. That had led to a rare win for the blonde.

"He may have asked for a few pointers…" Oxon thought back on how it had gone down.

~~~(XXXV)~~~

"Alrighty then, if ya want to come out on top, you gotta throw away the notion of fighting fair." Jaune and Oxon were together outside on one of the training fields at the blonde's request. He apparently wanted to learn a few things from someone who was a bit closer to himself.

"I get that, but how?"

"Depends mostly on the opponent, kinda hard to do with Grimm since they don't have the same intelligence and biology/ psychology as us, but for human foes? It can be complicated." He brought out a bright flashlight as a demonstration and flashed Jaune in the eyes briefly, much to his protest. "Bright lights hurt human eyes moderately, but using it against a faunus is different. They have natural night vision, so suddenly hitting them with a powerful light source may do a bit more to stun them."

"Are you sure? Have you tested that?" Oxon let out a snort at that.

"Course I haven't, I can't just walk up to Blake or any other faunus on campus and ask "hey, mind if I run an experiment on whether or not I can blind you so I can take advantage of that in a combat scenario?" Yeah, definitely not."

"Right makes sense, do you have anything else?"

"My preferred method of fighting is disarmament, I've done it to you twice, Blake once, and a few other times in combat class." He tended to sacrifice large chunks of his aura in order to grab a weapon and remove it from play; it had a fairly decent success rate. "Most huntsmen are fairly weak without a weapon. You, Ruby, Blake, and others rely too much on them. Me too to a certain degree, but I am at least moderate in unarmed fighting."

"There is one method I used back home against my father and other Guards, the secret sand trick." Picking up some soil from the ground, he threw the clump at the blonde's eyes, blinding him.

"Ahh! Why!?"

Because it was funny.

"Because now you know how effective it can be." He hooked the bearded head of Bulls Breath under Jaunes ankle and lifted, causing him to fall. "People can't fight at their full potential if they can't see."

"That's pretty dirty…" Jaune seemed to miss his own pun as he rubbed his eyes clear. "Is it really okay to fight like that?"

"You don't want to die, do you?"

"Well no-"

"Then throw away that mentality, we both know that there is more danger in this world than Grimm. White Fang, Torchwick, and other criminals don't fight like students in class. They fight with everything they have and use whatever nasty trick they can in order to win." He certainly did, he might be training at a breakneck pace, but he was still below far too many students. His only victories were from underhanded schemes and disarming his enemies. Jaune and the rest needed to be ready to fight dirty before the end of the tournament, hopefully that would help them.

"Yeah, you're right, alright! Let's continue!" It seemed he'd resolved himself to learning a few off color moves.

"Good, now come at me and watch my hands." Oxon crouched slightly in preparation. He had his left hand in front of him and his right by his hip.

The blonde charged in, clearly wary about the gun near Oxon's hand. That was mostly misdirection, he waited for Jaune to attack. Oxon blocked and deflected a few strikes with Virginiana before his right arm struck forward, grabbing Crocea Mors in his hand. The pain from gripping the blade stung, but his armor and aura made it bearable, if by just barely.

"Now, you don't have the ability to use your sword, what can you do-" His gloating/ instructing was interrupted when he felt his face flatten against Jaune's shield. Stunned by the sudden hit, he released his grip on the weapon and stumbled back slightly.

"Brother gods!" Holding his nose, Oxon was glad he had his aura up, otherwise that blow might have broken it. "Well, it seems that Nikos already taught you the shield bash... Ow!"

"Yeah, it's one of the things she taught me after we fought for the second time. I didn't want to be caught off guard a third time."

"And you never used it in fights until now? The hell not!?"

"Well, I wanted to use it as a surprise in the tournament."

"Great, cool, that makes the exercise I had planned completely useless if you already know how to fucking do it." Wiggling his face and nose muscles got rid of most of the lingering pain. Again, Oxon realized he could use a helmet.

"Well, I guess we'll need to move on to more creative tactics, thankfully I can use you to demonstrate." The glare directed at the apologetic blonde promised pain. Jaune was going to learn a few dirty moves today, that was for sure, but he'd learn by experiencing them.

In response, Jaune gulped nervously.

~~~(XXXV)~~~

"It was good to see it actually work." The ginger bully had not expected a trick like that from the goodie two shoes Arc. It was incredibly satisfying watching the blonde boy whack the other team leader over the head with his shield and hold him at sword tip.

"You should have seen Pyr's face! It was incredible!" Nora seemed quite excited for her leader's victory, and for how well he'd been coming along. "She was shocked when he threw the dust, but then she had a massive smile on her face when it was declared Jaune's win. I think she would like you more if she knew it was partially your influence that helped him."

That was good, Cinder had narrowed down the potential candidates to just a few girls: Yang Xiao Long, Coco Adel, and Pyrrha Nikos. So hopefully letting the Mistrali girl in on his assistance could help him. He just hoped it was her or Xiao Long, he didn't know anything about the leader of team CFVY, other than she was a heartbreaker.

"If it helps build a bridge, then that'd be swell." Ren gave a slight nod while Nora put two thumbs up. Hopefully the two would tell the girl, she was the last member of their team that wasn't fond of him.

"Well, don't let us interrupt your time together, come on Nora."

"But I wanna see them in their daaaateeee!" Weiss and Oxon shared a nervous glance at the nosey girl. Thankfully Ren was there to the rescue and he tried to drag her away, much to her disappointment.

"Nora, if you behave, I'll make pancakes."

"Woooo! Okay, bye guys! Have fun~!" With that, the positions were reversed, and the ginger bodily dragged her partner away.

"Well, at least she won't be stalking us now. Anything else you want to do? Other games perhaps?" Instead of watching the retreating duo like Oxon, Weiss was looking at him. He looked over at her after she didn't respond.

"Weiss?"

She snapped out of her daze and looked up at him. "So, you told them this was a date."

"It is one right? Or was I not supposed to call it that?" He'd thought it was the right thing to say, but he did tend to be wrong.

In response, she snaked her arm around his. Oxon jumped slightly at the sudden contact. "If so, then you won't complain about this, will you?" Her smile was confident, but he could see a bit of uncertainty in her eyes. There wasn't a man in Remnant that would think so.

"O-of course not!" He was blushing up a storm since he wasn't used to physical contact with girls. "I definitely won't say no."

She giggled at his reaction and tightened her grip. She was being bold today, but he wasn't going to complain. With one arm around his, she tucked the large animal under her other arm, it was an amusing sight to be sure. The two walked around the campus together, and Weiss' Good mood had skyrocketed in the last few minutes, much to his own happiness.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'd love to see a few more stalls today." Oxon had nothing to disagree about, so he let her take the lead.

The two of them wandered the grounds arm in arm. There were a few games that they played, Weiss won him a small stuffed nevermore. It was nice, this festival, he wanted to enjoy it before Cinder ruined it. He just hoped he could pretend to be ignorant of their schemes.

Then I can leave that bitch behind and regain a bit more control.

They were Interrupted by a high pitched squeal from down the row of booths. There was a small child with orange hair rushing him. He wasn't sure why a child would be running at him, but he didn't think it was anything dangerous. His point was proven when the small child hugged his knees and looked up at his face with a bright smile.

She looks familiar… I wonder why?

"Uh, there something you need, little lady? Did you lose your parents?" It has happened a few times today, announcements had gone up on the intercom in order to reunite the family.

"It's you! Mister Ox!" The kid knew his name? He tried to place her face, but it wasn't as easy as he thought it might be.

"I am indeed, uh. Why are you hugging me?" He instinctively patted the excited kid's head in an effort to calm her.

It was then that two adults arrived on the scene. The woman had bright orange hair like the little kid, her blue eyes were full of tears as she came close, confusing him more. The man was fairly short, shorter than what must be his wife by a few inches. He had a fairly impressive mustache and a shaved head, and was fairly muscular. Like his wife, he too seemed fairly emotional.

"Are you Oxon Adhmad?" The woman came up to the two students and what must be their child. She laid a hand on her daughter's shoulder and looked happily at him.

"I, yes I am." One hand head patting the child, the other trapped by Weiss, he had no escape. "Though I'm curious about what is going on here. Do I, know you?"

"We have never met, no." The husband gently removed the girl from his leg and offered a firm handshake. "But we owe you everything."

"Oh, I thought they looked familiar." It seemed Weiss put things together faster than he could. He gave her a questioning look, hoping for an explanation. "It's the family that was in the news after The Breach, you unlocked the girl's aura."

That was it! Looking at the child he realized Weiss was right. She looked much better than she had been at the time, no blood or debris covered her now. Vaguely he remembered seeing a photo of the family in the paper, but he hadn't really looked at it too much. He was surprised they were on the Beacon fairgrounds though.

"Oh, right, you're the girl from the flower shop right?" The child nodded her head vigorously, shaking her orange locks.

"We've been trying to get in touch with you since that horrible day. So we could thank you. We feared the worst when we learned that Grimm had invaded, especially since our little Clem was on a field trip with her class that day." So that's why there were so many kids there. Then the dead adults must have been the teachers…

"It's fine ma'am, I was just doing what was right." Apparently the woman couldn't hold herself back any more and wrapped Oxon in a frantic and motherly hug. At this point Weiss released his arm in order not to get caught herself, leaving him awkwardly patting the back of the crying mom.

"We thought we had lost her! Our baby girl! I can't thank you enough for saving her life!" He could feel his shirt getting wet. He made no move to remove her though. "We heard the attack was where they were supposed to explore, so when we saw her in that awful state, we thought she was… And yet seeing her alive and in one piece? We knew something happened, and she told us what you did, the other children backed up the story as well."

"We owe you a great debt young man." Even the mustachioed man had tears in his eyes. "No parent should have to go through losing a child. Thanks to you, we and many other parents didn't have to."

"I, uh, I don't…" he didn't know what to do here, Weiss was watching with a conflicted smile on her face and didn't look like she wanted to interrupt this. "I'm just happy I was there in time to do something. I know what it's like to lose, so it was an easy decision to make in order to save your daughter."

That was the truth. He knew the pain of loss, while his loss had been his parents and brother, he didn't want to imagine it being a child of his or his brother. He knew it was a heavy price to unlock an aura, and not something to be done in combat. But seeing the girl in pain had made him easily abandon that notion. Oxon was just happy his father's words were correct, and that life threatening injury could be healed with a fresh unlock, even if it cost more arua than usual.

"We can imagine how to thank you enough. Our little Clem came back to us without even a scar." Once again, said child gripped onto his leg. She was giggling happily at his warmth and proximity. "I was wondering, could we take a picture of you and her? So that we can always remember what you did for us?"

He wasn't expecting them to want his photo, let alone with the kid. He didn't have any objections, especially since it clearly meant a lot to the family. Oxon crouched down onto one knee and the girl happily sat on his other, wrapping her arms around his neck. The kid had a large smile on her face, offsetting his awkward one. He gave a thumbs up as the father snapped the photo.

"Do you want me to take a photo of all of you?" It seemed Wiess was able to speak after all. The mother gave an enthusiastic yes, and soon he was flanked by the parents. This time he was standing up, the mother on his left, the father on the right, and the girl in front of him. He didn't know what to do with his hands, so he just looped his thumbs around his belt on either side of his silver belt buckle.

"Say cheese!"

He and the family smiled as the photo was taken. Oxon felt like no matter what happens, he knew he had at least done one thing right in this city. Hopefully he could stay this happy.

~~~(XXXV)~~~

Don't forget to review! It gives me a nice hit of the good chemicals. Also, I like seeing theories and thoughts on events people have.

~~~(XXXV)~~~

Omake: About as Bad as Its Bark.

The day after the end of the summer break, Oxon found himself outside the room of team RWBY. He had come here today to see if Weiss was free, he was bored and wanted to see if she wanted to hang out. He had embarrassed himself pretty strongly the night that the black and yellow pair showed up at his job.

Knocking his knuckles three times in the wooden door, he waited for a response. After a brief bit of noise behind the door, he hears his target speaking out.

"Nora, I swear on all my family's dust, if you're here to give advice on how to sedu-" the girl stopped her sentence immediately upon opening the door and seeing him standing there. "Oxon!? What are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to greet you now that we're both back in Beacon." He wondered what it was she was going to say if he were Nora, so he asked. "What was that about Valkyrie?"

Her face became bright red and she sent a glare across the hall. "Nothing."

"Are you sure? It sounded like it was something important if she keeps bringing it up."

Her eyes slid to his, not quite upset per say, but definitely not the usual look.

"It. Is. Nothing." Message received loud and clear.

"Ah, fair enough." There was some extra noise from the room. Though it didn't sound like the others. "So, how was your flight?"

Gods I'm so bad at this, it was so much easier when over text…

"It was pleasant, a perk of having our own fleet of ships. How about you, anything interesting happened at your job?"

Other than meeting with terrorists that want her dead a few times? Not much. "Eh, not really, only Yang and Blake surprised me. Definitely not doing that again." He shivered at the hangover he had the next day. It didn't help that they woke up the next morning in a pile in one of the private rooms. How they got there, he feared to know.

"Yes, that was… Quite the scroll call." Her light laugh made his embarrassment worth it. At least she enjoyed it, despite him likely waking her up.

Suddenly, the noise from the room approached the door. He looked past Weiss' head, but couldn't see anyone but a bark from the floor had him look down. On the floor was a very short dog.

"Awww, who's this little guy?" As he looked closer at the animal, he realized he'd seen it before. The dog looked at him with an almost cautious expression, though he was likely imagining it. "Wait, isn't this the dog Dr. Oobleck used as a projectile weapon?"

The Breach was one hell of a day.

"This absolute cutie patootie is Zwei, Ruby and Yang's dog from Patch." The dog woofed in affirmation. Oxon agreed, the dog was very cute. Weiss picked up the dog in order to show him off.

"What a good boy~ Say "hi" to Ox, Zwei!" Oxon went to pet the adorable creature but had to whip his hand back as the dog went to bite his fingers. "Zewi!?"

"Grrrrrrrrrrr…" The once playful looking dog had its hackles raised and was giving him an angry look.

"What was that? The dog almost bit me!" And it seemed ready to try again, snapping its jaws at him and trying to wiggle free.

"I'm not sure why? He's never acted like this with our team or team JNPR, though Blake is not exactly a fan of Zwei." Lovely, so it was just him then? "Did I do something wrong?"

Weiss looked like she wanted to put the squirming dog down, but knew it would go on the offensive if she did. "I'm not sure what's causing this, maybe you used some offensive smelling chemical on your wood carvings? Not that you smell! It's just that dogs are more sensitive about that stuff, right?" He knew he didn't, he had been at the club these last few weeks. Awkwardly, she went back inside the dorm and closed the door enough that only its snout could get through.

"Well, I can't say I have much experience with dogs, but I didn't think I was that offensive."

"It's definitely odd, Zwei is normally such an angel…" Said angel was growling through a crack in the door.

"Yeah, real sweet… I, uh, I should probably go?" He didn't get to ask the girl out, but he could probably do so when there wasn't a very angry corgi out to get him. "I'll see you at dinner?"

Her expression fell a bit at him leaving. "I suppose I shall.. I'll try to ask the others about what may have caused this, hopefully we can get him to like you."

She shut the door right after. It helped by muffling the sound of the angry dog, along with Wiess asking the thing why he was so violent. Rubbing behind his ear, he gave himself a sniff in case he had accidentally spilled one of his stains or varnishes on himself. He definitely didn't smell anything off about himself.

Why was Zewi so ready to attack me? It's not like it knows what I am doing here? Right? He shook his head at the absurdity of that. Dogs may be smart, but they aren't psychic. That's just absurd, there's no way a dog is onto me…

~~~(XXXV)~~~