Vol 5 Chapter 3

Oscar is now sitting on a red armchair, nervously looking at the members of Team RNJR as they fawn over him, "Did he age backwards?"
"He's possessed!"
"Or reincarnated!"
"Oh! Isn't it weird?"

"It is very weird, yes."

You walk from the kitchen, holding a tray of a few mugs handing one to Oscar and the other to Qrow, who was still laying down on the sofa. "Give Oscar some space; everything will be explained." Team RNJR all step back together and nervously chuckle, "Thanks." Oscar looks at you, as you make Qrow sit up for his mug. Ruby and Nora have taken a seat on the couch perpendicular to Qrow's, while Jaune and Ren remain standing. You hand them each a mug, which they thank you. Oscar then shares a brief look with you, causing Oscar to blush, "Ah, sorry!" He briefly looks away, "It's just I've never really met Huntsmen and Huntresses before."
"Well, there is a lot to discuss, you know me as Saint from Ozpin, yet you call me by my name. I believe Ozpin told you."
"Oh, umm, am I not supposed to?"
"It's fine; it makes it easier to know who I'm talking to."

Oscar smiles before he hears Qrow clear 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, kid?"

"Yeah, okay. Just so you know, I'll still be here."

The members of Team RNJR look at him in confusion. Oscar then lowers his head and closes his eyes. Suddenly, a green and white aura shines from his body for a moment, Oscar opens up his eyes, which are now glowing, and he smiles. When he speaks, they all hear a familiar voice overlapping with a bunch of other voices, including Oscar's, "It is so very good to see you again, students."

All of Team RNJR share brief looks of confusion, "Wait, what just happened?" Jaune turns to Ren then back at Oscar, "Professor... Ozpin?"

"Correct. And though I may be the one speaking, Oscar is still present mentally. He's merely handed over the control, so to speak." 'Just don't make us do anything embarrassing...' Oscar's voice echoed in his head. "I'm afraid this all must be very perplexing."

"And alarming, and bizarre, and just really kind of hard to believe overall!" Nora waves her hands around.

Ozpin chuckles, "It's good to see you children still have your sense of humor. I know you've all been through tremendous hardship already. I'm sorry." He frowns at his last sentence."
"I mean, it's not your fault."

"It's all my fault. I told you once that I made more mistakes than any man, woman, and child on this planet, and I wasn't exaggerating. Saint knows of my mistakes, which I am thankful for having someone to be by my side. 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 clearly wasn't my last. It's... an extraordinarily strenuous process on everyone involved."

"So who... what... are you?" Jaune questions.

"I am the combination of countless men who've spent their lives trying to protect the people of Remnant. With every rebirth, my soul is eventually merged with another, and I am 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."
"And how do we do that?"

"We start... by ensuring the safety of the Relic of Knowledge."
"This is perfect! We were stuck at a dead end, but now, we can just take little cute boy Ozpin to Lionheart and have him set things straight!" Nora shouts.

"Please don't call me that." Ozpin states as you giggle, "It has a nice tone to it." You then take a seat next to Qrow.

"We're not sure that's the best idea." Nora pouts and groans and goes back to sit down next to Ruby and Ren, "But I thought the headmasters all took their orders from you."

"That was the intention. Four lieutenants, I can trust, especially during times of reincarnation. But Qrow told me about your meeting with Leonardo." He gets up and walks towards a painting of Mistral then turns to you, "Saint, how was he behaving?"
"Lionheart has known me for a long time; however, it seems that he's scared of me if I walked close to him; he seemed to back away. He isn't just behaving irrationally; he's disobeying specific instructions you had left him. Something's wrong." You place your hands on the side of your head, "I don't want to jump to conclusions, but I don't want to rule out any possibilities, either. Ajin was very wary of him; I felt him trying to pull me away from Lionheart." Ozpin looks down for a moment then continued to talk, "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."

"Playthings close to the chest until we get a better hand."
"Precisely. Now, we have two steps ahead of us. The first is enlisting the aid of more Huntsmen." Ozpin turns around to face the rest of the group
"But the Mistral council-"

"Doesn't own every Huntsman in the Kingdom, and I've been here enough times to know where we can find some more."

"So long as they're trustworthy." You state.
"You can trust them to put up a good fight. I'll throw together a list tonight. Most, you know, I'll even let you see which ones I'm speaking of."

Qrow puts his foot on the table, but his Semblance causes one of the legs to break before the cup hit the ground you caught it, "Good luck with that." Qrow groans as he tries to fix the table.
"After that, we can move on to step two."

"What's step two?" Nora questions.

Suddenly, Ozpin has The Long Memory in hand, "Getting you four into fighting shape." Team RNJR once again exchange looks of confusion, "But, uh, we already know how to fight."

Ozpin points to Ruby, "You can only fight so long as you have Crescent Rose, but you're still lacking in hand-to-hand combat. I thought Saint taught you better." Ozpin turns to you, "I tried, but she loves her weapon."
"Well, uh, yeah."

Ozpin points to Jaune, "Mr. Arc, I'm glad to hear you've improved, but sorry to say, you've yet to unlock your Semblance. All of you still have a-ways to go before you're ready to pose any real threat against Salem and her forces. And though Oscar can give me temporary control, he'll need to strengthen his body and his Aura. He'll inherit my muscle memory in time, but practice will expedite the process."

"But if there are four of us and (Y/n), who else would help training?" Ozpin then propels 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."

"We have approximately one month before classes resume at Haven. If Salem were to plan an attack, it would make sense that it would occur before students' return. It's not much time, but it's better than nothing. Just don't expect me to go easy on you." Suddenly, he glows green and white again, switching control back to Oscar. He has a hard time keeping his balance on the armchair before falling backwards, you grab his hand, preventing him from dropping, "Thanks." Qrow and Team RNJR look on with various expressions. You help Oscar off the chair keeping his balance, "Now, let's go to the table and have dinner." Nora jumps in excitement, "About time!"

You place all of the mugs placing back on the tray "(Y/n), let me help." Qrow takes the tray from you, "Thanks."
After dinner, you showed Oscar his room, "You'll be staying here; my room is at the end off the hall." Oscar nods, "Umm, (Y/n) I have a question." You turn to face him, "Ask away."
"Before coming here, I was having something similar to visions or flashbacks about you. Are you okay?"
"Okay?"
"I mean, the thoughts of you seemed sad, and I was wondering if you were okay. I know it's strange for me to ask since we just met but-" Oscar froze as he took a glance at your eyes, tears seemed to fill them, "I'm sorry, I don't mean to-"
"It's alright, Ozpin asked me the same thing long ago." You cover your eyes, "I've been with all of the souls for centuries, most have experienced me through what I call a phase. My best moments happen to be when Ozpin is comforting me through them."
You remove your hand from your face as Oscar took notice of your eyes changing color, "They are pretty." Oscar, now with a flushed face, "I mean-" You laugh, "You are very unique, Oscar. Have a good night." Your eyes return to their original color as you take your leave, "Right, good night."
Oscar enters his room; he crouches to the floor, "Why did I say that?!"
"Good to know that you are getting along with Saint."
Oscar groans.

At night, Weiss awakens to find herself trapped in a cage and her wrists bound by rope. She looks around and notices the bandits from earlier that took her. One of them is drinking, while the other sees Weiss waking up, "Well, well, well, look who's awake."
"Wha... what's going on? Where am I?"

"You know... I never thought I'd see a Schnee in this camp." Vernal emerges from her tent.

"Vernal!?" The two bandits suddenly stand at attention. Vernal walks over to Weiss' cage, holding Myrtenaster in her hand. Weiss stands up, while her captor admires her weapon, "What do you want?"

"Straight to the point. I like it. We don't normally deal with trafficking people - not worth our time. But, once we realized we had a Schnee, that changed."
"You're going to ransom me back to my father, is that it?"
"It's a shame you're a Schnee. You'd probably do quite well around here."
"I would never sink to your level." Vernal's expression then changes to a frown. "Keep quiet and cooperate, and you'll be back in your mansion before you know it. Don't make this complicated." She starts walking away from Weiss' cage.

"What's going to make this complicated is when my sister finds out I didn't make it to Mistral. You know my sister, don't you? Winter Schnee? Special Operative of the Atlas Military? She's in Mistral now, and when she hears I'm missing, it won't take her long to find me - and you."

Suddenly, the bandits start laughing, much to Weiss' surprise, "What's so funny?"

Vernal turns back around, "Oh, I don't know if it's more funny or sad, but you're clearly out of the loop. Your sister isn't in Mistral anymore. No Atlas personnel are in Mistral anymore. General Ironwood closed the borders and recalled all his little troops and tin cans. No one is coming to rescue you." The bandits are once again laughing as Vernal walks away from Weiss, who closes her eyes forlornly.

Later that night, the two bandits have fallen asleep. Weiss notices this, and silently uses her Semblance to create a small summoning Glyph. A small Arma Gigas appears in her hands, sword at the ready. Weiss smiles before nodding at it before the screen cuts to black.

End of Vol 5 Chapter 3
More to come!
Michaelis~