Author's Notes
-Greetings my dear readers. The struggle is real. I meant to get this chapter out sooner. Among other things I have to do (such as chores), I have to crush any and all plot holes.
(smacks plot hole with a fly swatter)
Let's all pretend we didn't see that and move on with the story, shall we?
Oscar Pine was shown sitting on a red armchair, nervously looking at the members of Team AVNRR (Avenger) as they fawned over him.
Nora scratched her head. "Did he age backwards?"
"He's possessed!" Jaune cried out.
Pyrrha suggested, "Or maybe reincarnated?"
Ruby exclaimed, "Oh! Isn't it weird?"
"I think weird would be an understatement." Oscar told them.
With a steaming cup of tea, Qrow tried to calm them down. "Okay, okay. Let's all just take a second and remember that this is very overwhelming for everyone."
The teens all stepped back together and some nervously chuckled.
Oscar smiled. "Thank you."
Qrow took a seat on the couch closest to Oscar. Jaune and Pyrrha took seats on the couch perpendicular to Qrow's, while Ruby, Ren and Nora remained standing. Oscar shared a brief look with Ruby, who giggled, causing Oscar to blush.
"Sorry!" The farmhand looked away. "It's just I've never really met Huntsmen and Huntresses before."
Ruby stammered, "Well, uh... we've never met a person with two souls! So, first times all around."
Oscar smiled and chuckled at Ruby before Qrow cleared his throat.
"Not to break up the whole 'getting-to-know-you' game, but we need to have a talk. Mind showing us your little parlor trick?" Qrow asked, trying to speed things along.
I was dreaming of flying this morning when I really wasn't… But at least I found him… Qrow thought.
Oscar slightly groaned. "Okay. Just so you know, I'll still be here."
You ready? Oscar asked his predecessor.
Ready as I'll ever be. Ozpin responded.
The members of Team AVNRR looked at him in confusion. Oscar lowered his head and closed his eyes. Suddenly, a green and white aura shone from his body for a moment, Oscar opened up his eyes, now glowing, and he smiled. As he spoke, they heard a familiar voice overlapping with a bunch of other voices, including Oscar's.
"It is so very good to see you again, students." Ozpin told them.
All of Team AVNRR shared brief looks of confusion.
Ren blinked. "Professor... Ozpin? Is that really you?"
"Indeed it is. And though I may be the one speaking, Oscar is still present mentally. He's merely handed over the controls, so to speak."
Just don't make us do anything embarrassing… Oscar pleaded.
"I'm afraid this all must be very perplexing."
"And alarming, and bizarre, and just really kind of hard to believe overall!" Nora went on.
Ozpin chuckled. "It's good to see you children still have your sense of humor." His laugh and smile faded as he looked disappointed. "I know you've all been through tremendous hardship already. I'm sorry."
Ruby told him, "It's not your fault."
"I know you're trying to be reassuring, but it really is all my fault." Ren got up to get something as Ozpin continued, "I once told you that I have made more mistakes than any man, woman, and child on this planet, and I wasn't exaggerating."
"What do you mean?"
"To put it into simple terms, I'm... cursed. For thousands of years, I've walked the surface of Remnant, living, dying, and reincarnating in the body of a like-minded soul. The Professor Ozpin you all met was not my first form, and wasn't my last. It's... an extraordinarily strenuous process for all involved."
Jaune broke the tense silence. "So who are you? What... are you?"
"I am the combination of countless men who've spent their lives trying to protect the people of this world." Ren walked back into the room and handed him a cup of tea as Qrow looked at his broken arm. "With every reincarnation, my soul is eventually merged with another and in many ways changed, but my memories stay with me. This curse was bestowed upon me by the Gods, because I failed to stop Salem in the past. But we must stop her now."
Ruby asked, "How do we do that?"
"We start... by ensuring the safety of the Relic of Knowledge. And for that, we need the Spring Maiden."
Ren brought up the question, "But isn't the Spring Maiden missing?"
"Unfortunately so. Rosa Vernal disappeared years ago, through no fault of our own. And the fact that we were late to realize what had happened was a cruel joke from fate itself."
Jaune picked up his coffee mug. "So who is… or was Rosa Vernal?"
He took a sip as Ozpin answered, "Rosa Vernal, daughter of Rosetta Vernal, was next in line to be the Spring Maiden ten years ago. The Vernal family line had been keeping Spring's power safe for over a hundred years, but some of the women used their powers at risk of exposure. Rosetta Vernal was a solitary unofficial huntress, using her powers to take down the Grimm on her own. Me and my allies warned her several times that she was being reckless and needed to take precautions or stop fighting Grimm, but she never listened.
"We had an ally named Rain to check in on Rosa on a daily basis, partially for emotional support and partially to report back to us if anything changed. One day, Rain got terribly sick with Summer Anthrax, forcing her to stay home and lie low. By the time she recovered two weeks later, Rosa Vernal had disappeared and Rain found her diary entry that stated she inherited her mother's powers, meaning that Rosetta… had fallen.
"In the aftermath, Rain did some digging around, and found that Rosa had run away only three days after her friend fell ill. Judging from the flight ticket she found, Rosa flew away to Vita and presumably went further east. One of the many theories we had was that she went to Zephyros, the Village of Flowers, to start a new life. But by the time Qrow got there and examined the settlement, he was unable to find anything. We don't know where Rosa is, or if she still has her mother's powers. Which begs the question- if Rosa Vernal isn't the Spring Maiden, who is?"
Pyrrha suggested, "Professor Ozpin? Being that you appear to possess magic in some way, could you not use it to detect her?"
Ozpin lamented, "If only it were that simple, Ms. Nikos. Every time that I reincarnate, it takes me a while for me to re-learn all of the skills that I have accumulated over several centuries. And even if I did have the ability to detect magic right now, I can only detect magic sources in a certain range. It's possible that the Spring Maiden, whoever she is, may not be in this city, this kingdom, or this very continent. All we can hope for at this present moment is that she's on the side of good, or at least, willing to leave Haven alone."
All the while, the Spring Maiden and her decoy were shown within a tent. In silent sorrow, Vernal sat on a crate and held the pendant of the amulet around her neck. The metal charm had a storm cloud releasing a lightning bolt etched into it.
Raven, standing nearby, noticed her sorrow. "Is there something on your mind?"
"I can't help but think about what happened ten years ago. How Rosa's power was supposed to be mine. This is but a fraction of it. It feels like so much, even though I know it's so little." She removed her hand from the charm and curled up her legs. "But more importantly- the plan if the Witch or her agents confront us, are you sure that it will work?"
"It will work. It has to. Your amulet has a small fraction of my power. In the unlikely instance that it breaks, its power will come back to me. Between that, and the amulet I made concealing my powers, the ruse we display will be an effective one."
The woman once known as Malinda Warin unfurled her legs and looked at her weapons, two circular blades called Hunt and Kill. "I hope that you are right. I'd be caught dead if I said this to anyone else, but… I'm scared for what is to come."
"I understand, and I'm terrified. More than anyone else. I fear confrontation will be inevitable. The question is not if She will find us, but when."
Hopefully it will only be her agents… Vernal thought.
"I know what she can do to people." Raven confessed.
And what she has done… Raven dared not speak.
"It seems that only yesterday we created the web of lies…" Vernal admitted.
[January 1st, 70 AGW, 11:55pm]
Raven and Vernal had just returned to their base camp. A small group had formed, holding lanterns and standing at the gate.
"Lady Raven!" one of the female bandits exclaimed. "We were beginning to worry. We were about to send a search party to find you."
"What happened out there?" asked another.
"We were attacked… by the Grimm." Raven stated. "Rosa didn't make it… and instead, trusted the power of the Spring Maiden to her half sister, Marigold Vernal." She gestured to the woman now known as 'Vernal'.
The crowd was shocked, but they all did not wish to contradict their leader or otherwise get on her bad side. So they took her words in silence.
The first woman nodded. "I see."
"And will this impact our operations?" Shay D. Man inquired.
"It shouldn't," Raven answered.
Far from the back of the crowd, Raven could see a glare; Lily Warin, Malinda's older sister. With her long, luscious locks of brown hair and piercing light blue eyes, she folded her arms, never taking her eyes off her leader. With her semi-revealing black cocktail dress and fine diamond earrings, she looked more like a lady at a cocktail party than a bandit, but her thievery and anger knew no bounds. She disappeared into the crowd.
"We move forward with our plans and raid Atrox." Raven declared. "Now get some rest. We ride at dawn."
The bandits dispersed, going back to their tents, and Raven lying down on a makeshift cot alone to try and sleep.
Her eyes were closed, appearing to be sleeping. Lily entered the tent. A few moments of silence passed.
"What do you want?" Raven, clearly irritated.
"So you truly aren't asleep." Raven opened her eyes, seeing Lily's glare as her arms were folded. "Just as I thought. Liars never sleep well at night."
The bandit tribe leader sat up, spitting back, "You're one to talk considering you and your sister's past."
"And speaking of, what has become of my sister? You introduced her under a false name."
"I had to."
"And why's that? Is it because you have no problem putting my little sister at risk? Or is it that you're trying to hide and hoard all that power for yourself?"
Raven was unable to stop herself from gasping, then threatened her subordinate. "You won't say a word."
"And why shouldn't I?"
"Because I can destroy you where you stand and make it look like an accident."
Lily sighed, knowing she was outmatched. "I won't say anything, but don't think that I'll be helping you any farther than that. You will regret this ruse, Raven Branwen."
She left the tent, with Raven feeling a hint of guilt.
Back in the present, Raven held onto her amulet tighter, hoping to avoid the hard feelings.
"So we're basically screwed." Jaune concluded.
"Maybe not." Nora gestured to Oscar. "We can just take little cute boy Ozpin to Lionheart and get some answers out of him!"
Ozpin sighed, "Please don't call me that."
"We're not sure that's the best idea on any account." Qrow stated.
Nora pouted and groaned before going back to sit down next to Ruby and Ren.
"I thought all of the Headmasters took their orders from you." Pyrrha told them.
"That was the intention. Four lieutenants I can trust, especially during times of reincarnation. But Qrow told me about your meeting with Leonardo." Ozpin began. "He isn't just behaving irrationally, he's disobeying specific instructions I had left him and the fact that he has bodyguards is equally concerning in some regards. Something's wrong. I don't want to jump to conclusions, but I don't want to rule out any possibilities, either. No one outside of this room knows that I've paired with Oscar, and I think it may be best to keep it that way. Now, we have two steps ahead of us. The first is enlisting the aid of more Huntsmen."
Ren posed, "Not counting Qrow or the brothers guarding Lionheart, are there even any huntsmen left in this kingdom?"
"I'm sure there are. I've been here enough times to know where we can find some more." Qrow responded.
"As long as they're trustworthy." Ozpin mentioned.
"You can trust them to put up a good fight. I'll throw together a list tonight."
Qrow put his foot on the table, but his Semblance caused one of the legs to break and spill his cup of tea.
He looked at his bad arm, grumbling, "Gosh damn it… Breaking arms and legs…"
Nora wryly smiled. "Good luck with that."
Qrow groaned as he slowly cleaned up the mess.
"After that, we can move on to step two; Getting you into fighting shape." Ozpin told them.
Team AVNRR once again exchanged looks of confusion.
"But we already know how to fight." Ruby claimed.
Ozpin pointed to Ruby. "You can only fight so long as you have Crescent Rose, but you're still lacking in hand-to-hand combat." Ruby looked down in shame. Then poked at Jaune. "Mr. Arc, I'm glad to hear you've improved, and have unlocked your semblance, but I'm pretty sure everyone knows that you forged your transcripts to get in." Jaune looked down in shame, not saying a word. "Me and Qrow won't say anything else, and I'm sure your allies won't either, but you have a long way to go. And while Pyrrha has always been a cut above the rest, she will need to continue improving her combat as well. Especially if she should have her aura partially or completely poisoned again."
Pyrrha stood there, frozen and motionless as memories of her being poisoned by Tyrian's hands, being struck with the dart and having to fight Alva flashed through her mind.
"All of you still have a long way to go before you're ready to pose any real threat against Salem and her forces." Ozpin continued. "And though Oscar can give me temporary control, he'll need to strengthen his body and his aura."
Wait, what? Oscar asked nervously.
"He'll inherit my muscle memory in time, but practice will expedite the process."
"But if Qrow's out looking for Huntsmen, then who's going to teach us?" Ruby asked.
Ozpin propelled himself into the air with his cane, spinning counterclockwise into a barrel roll before landing onto the seat of the armchair, twirling his cane.
"Well, I believe I was the Headmaster of Beacon Academy." At this, he stopped twirling his cane, staring at something. "With Lionheart having dismissed the school's students for the foreseeable future, there's no telling when Salem will strike, so we'll need to be ready for anything. Just don't expect me to go easy on you. Prepare yourselves, because we will be starting in three hours time."
He glowed green and white again, switching control back to Oscar. He had a hard time keeping his balance on the armchair before falling backwards.
Oscar groaned, "You've gotta be kidding me."
The others looked on with various expressions, Jaune being the most apprehensive.
Oh dear God… Jaune thought. This is going to be difficult…
Ilia was shown in her room, the coffee cups empty and lids taken off, all resting on a desk. Scattered about her desk were multiple papers, including the papers she looked at nearly two months ago while trying to figure out the secrets she knew now.
Directly in front of her was a paper reading as she wrote at the last line;
Plan to stop Adam Taurus
His Goals;
1. Destroy Haven Academy (Why?)
2. Capture Blake (Why? For revenge)
3. Conquer the world and destroy and/or enslave humanity (Why? Thinks humans and their ways of governing are horrible)
What you know;
-Adam is a horrible person for multiple reasons
-Where Blake is (they don't seem to know YET)
-639 White Fang members present in the hotel fort (not counting myself), including four different leaders (Basically; you're highly outnumbered and alone)
What you don't know;
-Why Adam hates humanity or if humanity is truly as bad as he says it is
-Why the invasion has been
At that moment, her writing was interrupted with a knock at the door. She scrambled to put the papers away into a separate drawer.
"Ilia, I know you're in there! Don't make me barge down this door!" Ares called out.
"Don't come in!" Ilia pleaded. "I'm not wearing any pants!"
"Oh. Then get dressed quickly!"
She quickly shoved the remaining papers into a portfolio and put it in the drawer with her scattered notes.
"Alright Ares, I found my pants! I'll be right there!"
She went to the door and found Ares standing there. "Sister Ilia, your presence has been ordered at the training dojo. You are to come down there in ten minutes to fight an opponent of your choice to prove you haven't neglected your combat training. Gather your weapons, do what you must, and meet me down there."
Ilia nodded her head quickly. "Yes Lord Ares. I'll be right there."
At this, Ares left, leaving her door open. She turned away, facing the window and mirror.
Oh crap. They're onto me! What if they think I'm about to betray them? (Which they wouldn't be wrong about.) But how do I keep it secret, without making them think that I have neglected my training and wavered in my devotion to the Fang? Both of these are true. Whenever I haven't been paralyzed by guilt or thinking of Blake, I've been trying to sleep, eating food, drinking coffee or reading those lesbian/queer romance novels that Ares got me.
She looked at a stack of books;
The Fiancée Farce
Can't Spell Treason Without Tea
The Dark Prophecy
Infinite Skin
The Power of Invisibility
She sighed, both happily and unhappily.
And while those novels have been helpful to some degree, I've only been mentally running away from my problems.
Back to the matter at hand, this fight. Who am I supposed to choose from? I can only assume the pool will be the leaders, and any of the specialists Athena has in her service. Should I pick the weakest? The strongest? Do they expect me to win? And how can I use this fight to my advantage?
She grabbed her whip. Even if I wanted to, or could kill one of Athena's specialists, doing it while several eyes will be upon me is a really bad idea. I need time to think…
Ilia looked at her alarm clock; five minutes had passed since Ares came to see her.
But I don't have much time to waste before Ares will presumably drag me down.
She sighed, regretting many of her life choices at that moment.
Let's go, traitor.
With this, the chameleon faunus shut the door to her room and made her way downstairs, trying to steady herself.
A few minutes later, she emerged at the entrance.
"There you are! I was beginning to fear you wouldn't show." Ares remarked.
Ilia did not respond, instead looking at who was there. Ares was in the middle of the room, with Athena on his right, Adam on his left, and distant from the rest of the party was Wungeng lounging and eating a leg of mutton.
My selection is limited. It's… only the leaders. They must really think I'm slacking.
"I believe your choices are clear. Pick a card, any card!" Ares almost sang out. He held up his hand, fake-whispering, "Pst, you should pick Wungeng and make him fight."
Wungeng, with his mouth full, responded. "Hey, I just got done with teaching Mata some defensive maneuvers. Do you want to wear me out?!"
Ilia took a few moments to look around, then started moving her index finger around, pointing at all the leaders at least twice before making her decision.
"I… choose… you."
Her index finger pointed squarely at Adam Taurus.
"Fighting our own High Leader? A bold move." Athena remarked.
Or possibly a foolish one. she thought.
The lovebird leaders cleared the way; Wungeng was already sitting off to the side, leaving plenty of room for Adam to fight Ilia.
"Rules are simple," Ares began. "Oh wait, there are none." He sneered. "Good luck."
Adam wasted no time charging towards Ilia, and she jumped back as she retrieved her weapon from her waist. She swung out the whip, coming in at ten, but Adam sidestepped to his right, the tail end being inches away from his shoulder. He swung at her, barely dodging most of his swings, and at the last one, she was actually struck in the upper right arm. In pain, she bit her tongue to prevent herself from screaming out.
Ilia thought, Still as fast as ever. Damn it…
She was not going to show weakness. Not now, and certainly not like this.
The chameleon cracked her whip, curling it around Wilt, and attempted to yank it away from him. Adam, however, expected this. Quickly shifting his left hand to the stilt of the blade, he pulled back, dragging Ilia forward and sliding her on the ground.
What is she trying to prove? Athena thought. He's mopping the floor with her!
But Ilia saw an opening, spinning her right leg through the air, attempting to trip him up. Instead of her ankle meeting his, or him jumping back, he got out his gun, Blush. Her eyes widened in terror as he shot at her, barely rolling out of the way in time.
I don't remember Adam having a gun! Damn… maybe it really has been too long.
With her back to the wall, she used Lightning Lash to cut through the bullets, trying to keep track of how many bullets he fired; she lost track after ten. As she sliced through them, they exploded in small bursts of energy, causing Athena and Ares to back farther away until they were at the wall. One of the bullets got too close to Wungeng, charing his mutton. Wungeng himself was unharmed with his aura but was not pleased.
"Hey, what's the big idea?!" Wungeng exclaimed.
Okay, Blush is auto-fire. Great…
The pig faunus shrugged, still eating the meat on the stick.
Adam advanced towards Ilia as she converted her whip to its blade form. From there, he lunged at her, his blade Wilt appearing to aim for her throat. As expected, she countered it, pressing her weight into the blade. Unfortunately, Adam was stronger and knocked her back, causing her to skid slightly before tumbling. As she fell, she was struck again, this time in the upper left arm.
With how she had been using her aura and these two strikes, she could feel that half her aura was already gone.
I need a plan.
She got up, quickly dodging the swings of the enemy's sword.
I need to last as long as I can if I'm going to have any chance at fighting him for real later!
She switched back to lash, the whip cracking at some of the mirrors behind Adam and small glass shards hurdled towards him. He soon noticed, spinning his sword to deflect them. The shards landed in a distant corner, far away enough to not be a true hazard to anyone (except possibly whoever was cleaning the dojo later.)
But Ilia thought little of this, focusing her attention on Adam as he released a wave of red energy towards her. With some effort, she spun her whip around in a circle, deflecting it away from her, bouncing off the walls, forcing Ares to put up an aura shield to protect him and Athena. Wungeng was also forced to get up to dodge the attack, abandoning what was left of his late afternoon snack.
"Hey, watch the friendly fire!" Wungeng complained.
Ilia, ignoring his comment, thought about Adam's semblance.
Aren't his Moonslices supposed to be stronger?
Adam advanced towards her.
Or he is only holding back because he believes me to be an ally? Completely unaware of all he has done…
She appeared to be unaware of his advances, only to spin around and strike him with the lightning dust in her whip… right in the chest. Electrically shocked, he screamed in agony, dropping his sword before folding his arms into an X and forming an aura shield. As the shield formed, the lightning stopped dancing on his chest, gradually dissipating until no sparks were left.
Everyone was shocked, knowing that under different circumstances, Adam would have been killed. Ilia was surprised as well, the lightning flashing in her eyes.
Oh no, did I go too far? Are they suspicious of…
Before Ilia could finish her thought, Adam picked up his blade and went towards Ilia. But she took a few steps back and found herself against the wall.
I wish I wasn't here…
She closed her eyes, unwillingly blending in with the wall. Adam immediately noticed and fired the remaining Moonslice energy at her, forcing her to drop her camouflage and run. She had escaped most of the explosive energy, but some of the backlash had gotten her. From where she had just been standing, part of the wall had been damaged.
"You can't hide forever, Amitola!" Athena taunted, as though she were Ilia's opponent.
He could have fired Moonslice at me earlier, but he didn't. Or… couldn't?
Ilia Amitola cracked her whip towards Adam, hoping to get another lucky shot, but luck was not on her side. He quickly jumped back, the tip of the whip barely missing his horns.
Is it possible… that the answer to Adam's power… has been right under my nose the entire time?
Adam switched from Wilt to Blush and fired at her. Once again, she made use of the bullet-slice strategy and prevented all of them from touching her for a solid twenty seconds.
Is he reliant on that sword? Or does it just make using Moonslice easier?
The secret traitor couldn't determine the answer as the gunshots came towards her, as she was worn out and tried to form an aura shield, but she was too slow and her green aura flickered as she was hit five times, breaking by the end of the barrage.
She slid and fell to the ground, unable (or unwilling) to get up.
"Ilia is unable to battle. Victory goes to our High Leader Adam Taurus." Ares announced.
"We're going to need a bigger dojo." Athena declared.
Slowly, Ilia pushed herself up before looking down and dropping to a submissive bow. "Forgive me, esteemed leaders, I fear that I have failed you."
"We weren't expecting you to win; we were testing your combat skills." Adam clarified.
Athena followed with, "Why did you choose to fight Adam? What were you hoping to gain?"
"I wanted to challenge myself, and see if I could learn anything from this fight."
"And what did you learn from this?"
Ilia briefly paused to consider her answer. "I learned that my whip can cut through bullets, which may aid me in fighting against the gun-chucks Sun possesses."
"Brother Wungeng did mention Sun having that feature as part of his weapon quite some time ago." Athena soon smiled at this. "I'm surprised you remembered. Excellent work, Sister Ilia. You are dismissed, but we expect you to be more diligent in your combat training going forward."
She respectfully bowed to her superiors. "Of course, Lady Bruna. High Leader Taurus."
With this, she took her leave. As she made it to the staircase and started to sprint, she smirked.
Now to write down what I have truly learned today.