Oscar sat heavily upon his bed, head in hands as he kneaded at his aching brow. He could see dark spots in his vision as he closed his eyes, and his lack of sleep had helped carry his ever-present headache into the evening hours. Seeing the halls of Beacon had only intensified the feeling, and with every new location he and Sage had visited throughout the day, he had grown more and more irritated. Finally, after hours of roaming the halls and grounds together, Oscar had had enough, and requested to return to their shared room for a break.
"Any better?" Sage asked as he balanced the tip of his sword into the floor and folded his arms atop the hilt, leaning slightly forward.
"…no. No, not yet," Oscar admitted as he continued to rub at his forehead. "Sorry."
"Don't apologize," Sage said with a shrug. "It was my idea to acclimate you with Beacon after the other three went out to talk to the professors. I didn't know it would do this to you."
"It… didn't," Oscar admitted as he finally looked up at the older boy.
"…come again?" Sage asked.
"I've had the headache since I woke up," Oscar explained as he braced his hands onto the mattress behind himself and began to lean back. "Well… since last night, actually. Or maybe… since we encountered that gigantic grimm…"
"And that won't be the last one," Sage reminded. "They've apparently got strike teams headed out to take those things down. Strike teams that I'm sure most of us will be placed on, before the end of the week."
"…I'll be joining you," Oscar asserted. "I need the field experience, and if those are the primary threat to Vale right now… then I need to learn how to deal with them."
"Suit yourself," Sage replied with a shrug before hefting his weapon and heading over to his own bed.
Oscar raised a brow as he watched Sage sit heavily upon the mattress and rest his sword down into the carpet. The green-haired huntsman said nothing as he began to remove his coat, showing off his muscles and myriad of dark tattoos.
"…you're… not going to try to stop me?" Oscar asked hesitantly.
"Why would I?" Sage asked as he swung his legs up over the mattress and reclined with his hands behind his head. "I'm not in charge of you, or in general, and if things get rough, Ozpin can bail you out. It's probably not a bad idea."
Oscar merely continued to stare for a moment, before lying back to mimic Sage's pose upon his own bed.
"You've been treating me differently than the others," Oscar pointed out as he narrowed his eyes at the ceiling. "Ever since we set out, you've been more… I'm not sure how to say it…"
"Blunt?" Sage offered. "To the point? Honest about what I'm thinking? Impartial? I've heard all of those."
"…they certainly fit," Oscar acknowledged. "I didn't mean it as a bad thing. The opposite, really. Even when you're calling me… or Ozpin, I guess… out on something, you seem entirely neutral. Ruby, Nora, and sometimes even Ren… less so."
"Because there's no sense getting everyone worked up," Sage explained as he crossed his legs. "This is rough enough as it is, and I've got a lot of things on my mind without worrying about team dynamics."
"What is on your mind?" Oscar asked. "You're hard to read. I don't think Ozpin even knows…"
Sage finally turned his head to look over at Oscar, his expression cold.
"…doesn't matter."
"I think it does," Oscar insisted. "Who knows how long we'll be here for? With things already tense between our group, keeping secrets is only going to make things more complicated." He paused, and then returned his eyes to the ceiling as Sage continued to look at him. "And… I am telling all of you anything that Ozpin tells me. I'm not k-"
"I know you're not," Sage interrupted as he joined Oscar in casting his eyes skyward. "That was never a question in my mind. As for the others… I can't tell you what they're thinking. You're right, though. I'll save it for when we're all together. I don't like repeating myself."
"Fair enough," Oscar agreed as he fished his buzzing scroll from his pocket. "They're on their way here. Apparently, they have a lot of information… as if my head didn't hurt enough already…"
"About that," Sage began. "Do you 'recognize' any of this place? Does it feel like you've been here at Beacon, before?"
Oscar wrinkled his nose at the question. Though he knew that it would be brought up at some point, he had secretly been hoping that it would be another time. With a sigh of resignation, he dropped his scroll down next to himself upon the mattress and closed his eyes.
"…it does. Certain rooms, certain stairwells. Obviously, I can feel a little… almost like a mental 'pull' of familiarity from Ozpin in certain areas, but even just my own mind… I feel like I've been here already. It's all starting to run together. It's getting harder and harder to tell what's coming from Ozpin, and wh-"
"Hey."
Oscar opened his eyes and looked over to Sage, who was once again giving him a serious look.
"You're not him. Not yet… and hopefully not ever. You wanna know why I don't verbally spar with Ozpin? It's because you're your own man, even if you are still just a kid. I know you don't deserve the flak from what he says and does, so I just say the facts plainly and leave it there. You can still make your own decisions that he can't outright control… and you should do it as often as you can. Fight him. Go against the grain, and keep your mind as split from his as possible. You want to come hunt chimera with us? Then follow along, and we'll show you the ropes. If he's screaming at you not to do something… scream right back and make your own decisions. That's how we got to Beacon, isn't it?"
Oscar opened his mouth to speak, only for a series of quick knocks to echo throughout the room. Shortly thereafter, an exhausted looking Ruby Rose stepped into the boys' dorm, Ren and Nora looking equally tired behind her.
"Hey, guys," Ruby began as she strode toward the center of the room. "We met with Professor Goodwitch and Professor Oobleck, and… the situation is both better and worse than we thought."
"Figures," Sage replied as he sat up and folded his hands in his lap. "Oscar and I took a little tour of Beacon. He's somewhat familiar with the buildings, now, so there's that."
"Unfortunately… that might not help much," Ruby said with a sheepish look.
"Why not?" Oscar asked as he copied Sage's motions.
Ruby sucked in a deep breath before running a hand through her messy hair.
"…have any of you ever heard of Mountain Glenn?"
"Stay on him!"
Sun planted his foot on the side of a hovercar and launched himself up and over the city street, flying over two rows of vehicles as he watched Yuma disappear around the corner of a block. He landed into a quick roll upon the sidewalk between two pedestrians, eliciting a pair of frightened screams as the two women in fancy clothing dropped their shopping bags and stepped aside.
"Sorry, sorry!" Sun apologized as he broke into a sprint. "Everything's fine, huntsmen at work!"
"We're not… I mean, I guess we are!" Ilia called as she swung along above Sun, her shock whip wrapped around a lamppost. With a graceful flip, she detached her weapon and slung it out for a nearby overhead traffic light before reeling it in to zip herself forward through the air. "Can you use your semblance while moving!?"
"I…" Sun began before sucking in a hiss as he began to sprint down the sidewalk ahead of himself. "No, not really! Not unless I'm falling, or something! I'm still working on that!"
"Shit!" Ilia cursed as she, too, descended to street level and broke into a sprint. "Let's split up and box him in! When we see him, I'm gonna cave in his fucking f-"
As Sun passed an alleyway on his left, he suddenly skidded to a stop and reached an arm out to grab Ilia's chain-linked shoulder cape. He yanked the girl back to him and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, only for Ilia to slam a fist into his chest in return.
"Sun, what the f-"
Sun said nothing, and instead nodded toward the dimly lit alley. There in the semidarkness stood Yuma, his wings spread out to the sides as he curled a finger toward himself and stepped farther back into the shadows and around a corner.
"This is a trap," Sun pointed out. "I mean, obviously."
"But we're not letting him get away," Ilia insisted as she dusted off her arm. She quickly glanced up to Sun's face with a guilty look, before returning her eyes to the alleyway. "Sorry…"
"It's cool," Sun reassured as he gave Ilia's shoulder a pat. After letting her go, he drew his guns from the back of his belt and began to walk into the alley. "You good? We're not trying to kill him…"
"Of course not," Ilia agreed as she snapped her weapon into its swordlike form and moved to follow her friend. "I'm good. I'm fine. Everything's fine."
"You didn't sound fine," Sun replied as he reached the turn in the alleyway. Again, Yuma was standing there waiting, as though he had all the time in the world. The far end of the narrow tunnel was blocked off entirely, obscuring the path from view from all angles but straight up. "Be careful…"
As if in challenge, Yuma drew a curved sword from his belt and pointed it at the approaching teens. A row of rings along the back of the blade jingled as the weapon was raised, providing the only noise other than the muffled traffic on the other side of the buildings. He tipped his head upward in a confident nod, his cocky smirk barely visible beneath his white and red mask.
"Your name's Yuma, right?" Sun called as he gave his shotguns a spin. "Why are you here? What are you d-"
Before Sun could finish, Ilia launched herself forward with a frenzied yell and lashed out her whip in an overhead strike. The weapon curled around the blade of Yuma's sword, and she wrenched the blade toward herself as hard as she could. Curiously, the weapon came toward her with minimal effort, and Yuma was quickly disarmed as he began to walk backward with Ilia in hot pursuit. She lashed her whip out frantically, causing electrical sparks to ricochet off the walls as Sun moved to intercept her.
"Ilia! What did I just say ab-"
The sickening sound of a whip against bare flesh snapped and echoed throughout the alleyway as Ilia scored a hit on Yuma's outstretched arm. Despite the man's slow retreat, he seemed to make no effort whatsoever to prevent the blow, or the subsequent attack sent Ilia's weapon straight through his shoulder in a piercing thrust. Yuma cried out in pain and hissed as he grabbed at the extended whip, only for a jolt of electricity to ripple down the weapon and engulf him.
Within seconds, Sun had his hand upon Ilia's shoulder and wrenched her backward. He dropped one of his own guns and seized the whip from her before disengaging the electrical pulse and giving her an incredulous look.
"Sun!" Ilia warned as she tried to step forward again.
Sun looked back just in time to see a smoking Yuma charging at him with some sort of device clutched inside of a raised fist. On instinct, Sun lashed out one of his gunchucks into Yuma's hand, forcing his fingers open with the blow and causing the small tool to go flying into the nearby wall. Yuma hissed in pain and grabbed his fingers, only to back off and cradle his arm to his chest.
"Finally!" Yuma said as he flashed his teeth. "Now, we can talk!"
Ilia started to move forward once again as if to attack Yuma, but Sun held her back with a powerful grip.
"Sun, I swear to the gods if you stop me again…" Ilia threatened, her chest heaving as she stared at the injured man with a look of sheer hatred.
"Stop," Sun commanded in a furious tone. "He's barely fighting back, and if this was an ambush, we'd be knee-deep in Fang by now." With a deep breath, Sun turned his attention to Yuma and narrowed his eyes. "What's going on? What is this?"
"I'm glad you asked," Yuma answered through pained breaths as he moved toward the destroyed device and lifted it up. "I'm being tracked. We're all being tracked… so I needed you two to rough me up and break his link to us before we could talk openly."
Sun raised a brow as he looked over Yuma's ruined scroll, the device sparking and smoking in his palm.
"Who's tracking you?" Ilia demanded. "And you seriously expect us to trust you just because you let us get a few hits in?"
"You'd better," Yuma warned as he lifted his good hand and tore his mask from his face before letting it clatter to the floor of the alleyway. "I've got a message for both of you, from Cinnamon. She's in deep trouble, and she needs your help..."
Author's Note:
Blake will get some love next chapter, along with a continuation of this scene.
Also, just a heads up- the intent behind this story has obviously changed over time, at least somewhat… but now the way that I'm looking at the layout of this story has changed, as well. I'm no longer considering this to be the "Volume 7 adaptation" arc. After the election, which is still pretty far off, this story will diverge entirely from canon. Don't expect much at all from the rest of canon 7 to happen, and don't expect anything from the trainwreck that is Volume 8 other than maybe the hound, thus far. Post-election, I'll be going off entirely in my own direction for the rest of the series, with only very small bits and pieces of canon sprinkled in.
Additionally, post-election, this story may go on hiatus for a bit. I want to focus on Arboretum for a few weeks to really get Volume 2 of that going. If this story does go on break, it'll be for a month or two at most, and then pick right back up at full speed. We'll see what happens.
-RD