The Devil of Remnant (RWBY x DMC OC)

Mission 18- A team meeting

Oscar Pine 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?" There is finally a brief moment of silence before Oscar speaks. "It is very weird, yes." "Okay, okay. Give Oscar some space everyone." Aruka spoke as he and Qrow emerge from the kitchen with Qrow holding a cup in his hand. "Let's all just take a second and remember that this is very overwhelming for everyone." Qrow said.

Team RNJR all step back together and nervously chuckle. "Thanks" Oscar smiled to Qrow and Aruka. Qrow then takes a seat on the couch next to Oscar. Aruka sits in between Ruby and Nora, on the couch perpendicular to Qrow's while Jaune and Ren remain standing. Oscar then shares a brief look with Ruby, who giggles, causing Oscar to blush. Aruka merely narrows his eyes at him which causes a nervous chuckle from Oscar.

"Ah, sorry! It's just I've never really met Huntsmen and Huntresses before." Oscar says. "Well, uh... we've never met a person with two souls! So, first times all around." Ruby said happily. Oscar smiles and chuckles at Ruby and Aruka gave him a look telling Oscar that he was a little annoyed, so he looks away again nervously.

They then hear 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?" Oscar then groaned slightly, "Yeah, okay. Just so you know, I'll still be here." The members of Team RNJR and Aruka look at him in confusion. Oscar 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, everyone hears a familiar voice overlapping with a bunch of other voices, including Oscar's. "It is so very good to see you again, students." The one known as Professor Ozpin was back. "Now that is freaky." Aruka commented. "Wait, what just happened?" Jaune asks. "Professor... Ozpin?" Ren questioned. "Correct. And though I may be the one speaking, Oscar is still present mentally. He's merely handed over the control, so to speak." Ozpin said. "I'm afraid this all must be very perplexing."

"And alarming, and bizarre, and just really kind of hard to believe overall!" Nora added. "Yeah... and I'm a guy who can take a goddamn sword through the chest, and yet this is still causing brain farts for me." Aruka said which caused a giggle from Ruby and chuckle from Ozpin. "It's good to see you all still have your sense of humor. I know you've all been through tremendous hardship already. I'm sorry." Ozpin said. "I mean, it's not your fault." Ruby told him trying to make him feel better.

"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. I'm... cursed. For thousands of year, 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." Ozpin said. "So who... what... are you?" Jaune asked.

"I am a 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." Ozpin tells them. He looks down at the cup of tea he just received from Qrow. "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?" Ruby asks. "We start... by ensuring the safety of the Relic of Knowledge." Ozpin says.

Unspecified short timeskip

"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 said excitedly. "Please don't call me that." Ozpin told her. "We're not sure that the best idea." Qrow told her. Nora pouts and goes to sit back down next to Aruka and Ruby. "But I thought the headmasters all took their orders from you." Ren said.

"That was the intention. Four lieutenants I can trust, especially during times of reincarnation. But Qrow told me about your meeting with Leonardo. He isn't just behaving irrationally, he's disobeying specific instructions I had left him. 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." Ozpin states. "Play things close to the chest until we get a better hand." Qrow said.

"Precisely. Now, we have two steps ahead of us. The first is enlisting the aid of more Huntsmen." Ozpin said. "But the Mistral council-" Ren started to speak but was cut off by Qrow. "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." Ozpin told him. "You can trust them to put up a good fight. I'll throw together a list tonight." Qrow puts his foot on the table, but his Semblance causes one of the legs to break and spill his cup of tea. "Good luck with that." Nora told him. Qrow groans as he cleans up his mess.

"After that, we can move on to step two." Ozpin said. "And step two being...?" Aruka questioned. Suddenly, Ozpin has his Cane in his hand. "Getting you five into fighting shape." Ozpin said. The teens once again exchange looks of confusion while Aruka merely frowned. "But, uh, we already know how to fight." Ruby stated. "And I can take on like three fully trained huntsmen before going Devil Trigger." Aruka added. 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."

He then points to Jaune, "Mr. Arc, I'm glad to hear you've improved, but sorry to say, you've yet to unlock your Semblance." He then turns to Aruka. "You may be able to take on three fully trained huntsmen. But our enemies are powerful and you still pose no threat to your brother. All of you 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." Ozpin said.

"But if Qrow's out looking for Huntsmen, then who's going to teach us?" Ruby asked. 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." All the teens had various looks on their faces, whether it be surprise or confusion. Aruka merely growls and walks off to his room. 

Ruby noticed and was about to head to him when Ozpin continued speaking, "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 prior to 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. Oscar has a hard time keeping his balance on the armchair before falling backwards. "You've gotta be kidding me." He groaned in pain. Ruby then turned and followed after Aruka.

"Aruka?" Ruby called out from his doorway. She knocked on his door and heard no response. She slowly opened the door and saw him sitting on the edge of his bed glaring at the floor. "Aruka, what's wrong?" He looks up and shakes his head and puts on a smile. "Nothing, I'm just thinking to myself." "Is it something that Ozpin said?" Ruby asked as she sat next to him. He looked down and nodded.

"All my life I have been fighting to get strong. I have been aiming for strength. Strength that I don't have. But the more I think about it, I haven't been striving for a strength I don't have because I feel weak. It's because I want to protect those I love. People I care for, my Brother, my nephew, Weiss, Blake, Yang, and especially you. But hearing him tell me I pose no threat to my brother annoys me. We aren't just fighting to beat the other in strength, we are also fighting with our viewpoint of what strength is. He believes its all to make him stronger and to prevent any more traumatic experience from happening to him again. But for me... Strength is what allows you protect the ones you hold dear. It's a choice, and fighting like hell to protect what's important."

"I never wanted to be a threat to my brother, it's because of our opposing views that make me a threat to him. He doesn't want to believe that I am right and believes that his viewpoint is superior, which is why he fights his hardest to prove he isn't wrong. I just wish he wasn't so stubborn sometimes." Aruka finished. Ruby smiled and hugged him. "No matter what happens, I believe in you Aruka. And I hope you can find a peaceful solution to this." Aruka hugs Ruby back and smiles. "So do I..."