Oz

Aegis walked through the pristine halls as he could see everyone preparing for the new school year, his reason of coming to Beacon academy was simple, yet he was there secretly as even if Weiss didn't probably have a problem with it, he wanted her to feel that she has done everything herself, without his help, and as such he chose to act now.

"Aegis?!"

"Ah, Glynda, beautiful and strict as ever I see."

Aegis said with a smile to the surprised woman who quickly sent handymen packing away with their new orders as she looked at Aegis, not knowing why he was there, especially without any forewarning.

"Aegis, what are you doing there, and why didn't you call me that you will come?"

"Why, I cant surprise my favorite teacher?"

"Yours? I don't remember ever teaching you Aegis."

"You don't need to teach me anything for being my favorite teacher."

Aegis said with a smile to scoffing Glynda who just sighed as she massaged her eyebrows.

"Please, just tell me your visit will not bring even more problems, already news and all other nosy ones wish to see or profit from the fact that your sisters would study there..."

Glynda said as she recently needed to upgrade security from all the pests who wished to get inside and get any information on Solitas royalty coming there to be taught to by huntsmen.

"Don't worry, just my pilot knows of this visit."

Aegis said with a smile as he didn't mention that his pilot was a proto-maid and thus under Album surveillance...

"Thank Oum for small mercies... You still didn't tell me why you came, and don't start with any of your lines, I know that if you wanted to get me, you would be acting differently."

Glynda said with a frown to smile at Aegis who seemed to sigh and nod his head.

"True, I would invite you to a diner, but I know that you still don't wish for such a relationship, maybe in the future?"

"Maybe in the future."

Glynda didn't accept or deny Aegis advancements, Aegis just smiled at the work and career-driven woman and looked at the tower from the window.

"Then in the future, but for now I came because I need to have words with your problematic boss."

Aegis said to Glynda who nodded her head.

"Yes, why else you would come, then why wait? I already sent a message to Ozpin of your visit, so he should already await your presence."

Aegis quirked an eyebrow and saw the scroll in Glynda's hands, yet he didn't know how she tipped Ozpin, but in truth, he didn't really care, still her loyalty to her boss was endearing...

"Well, Aegis, if you will follow me."

Glynda said and didn't wait on Aegis's reply as she started to walk in Beacon's tower way.

-----------------

"Ah, mister Schnee, a pleasure to meet you at last..."

"Headmaster Ozpin."

Aegis nodded to the man who stood up to meet him in the middle of his room to shake his hand.

"Interesting decor..."

Aegis said as he looked around the room, even if he already saw it, it was different to see it through the screen and in real life...

"Tell me, do you running from something?"

Aegis asked as he looked at the clocks all around so many times...

"Everyone run from something, mister Schnee, even I, or you."

Ozpin sat down as he took his mug into his hand and looked at the clocks Aegis was looking at.

"Glynda, please give us some privacy."

Glynda looked and Ozpin and Aegis and nodded with her head as she left.

"Then, if you excuse me, I still have work to do."

Ozpin waited until she left and looked at Aegis.

"She likes you, but she likes her work more."

"I know, and that is the reason I do not make her choose."

"..."

"..."

"How does my ex-wife fare?"

Aegis quirked an eyebrow and then smiled as he released a sigh.

"So, you know."

"Im old, old and sometimes too set in my path, but im not stupid, the Grimm activity was a giveaway, and your activity in Grimmlands is another piece of the puzzle..."

Ozpin said as he looked at Aegis who seemed to relax.

"Yes, hard to mask such thing from a man with such experience and when he knows on what to look out... And Salem is... Better I would say, at least she no longer wish to annihilate mankind out of spite..."

"That... Is good to hear... Very good..."

Ozpin said as he seemed to delve into his mind and Aegis let him as a short silence prevailed in the room outside of the clicks of the numerous clocks...

"...So, what do you wish, mister Schnee? If you wished me dead, you would already do it, and more secretly if your previous actions and motives were to speak about... "

"What I wish? I heard a story, a happy one turned tragic, and I wish to hear it once again, but from a different set of lips..."

Aegis said as he watched Ozpin deeply sigh in reminiscence combined with hidden pain...

"A story huh?... Yes, im good at stories... So let me tell you the story of the brave but naive man who saved princes from her tower and as such doomed entire world to end..."

Ozpin said as he spoke about his past, of how he met Salem, how they came to love each other, how they lived with each other, of how he died, just to be reborn to witness his love change, of his children, of his mistake, of one fateful night when his and Salem's emotions gone of rails, of death of his little girls, and of his numerous lives that were spent to stop the woman he once loved...

"And that is how I was made into this, but you already should know it, after all, now that I finally can look at you, I can see the similarity and difference in us..."

Ozpin said as his eyes traveled around Aegis, but what he saw made even the old soul slightly tremble, to think he could end up like that made Ozpin shiver...

"You can see them?"

"Yes... Or more likely feel them, when I first met you I didn't notice them, I think it was something to do with your wards in the home that hid them, but there? There I can see the difference between merge and host..."

Ozpin said as he knew how complicated merging of souls was, after all, he lived through it for so many times that he knew there was just a little of original Ozma present, but he was still glad for it, as the thought of having so many voices, so many souls in the soul would by... Crushing...

That made Ozpin's opinion of Aegis rise, even more, just the thought that the boy before him could hold his sanity with so many different opinions in his head...

"But to previous matter... You already know our sides of stories, so why don't you tell me on whose side you are on?"

Ozpin asked as he looked at Aegis, who looked at him.

"Whose side im?..."

Aegis asked himself until he sighed and looked into Ozpins eyes.

"On my side, like always... But... I can understand that both you and Salem did pay for any of the sins you could have numerous times... So im not on the eighter side, both of you are, or at least were, mere humans... And humans are prone to mistakes..."

Aegis said, and Ozpin's eyes widened until his face showed a faint smile...

"Yes, that we are, aren't we?"

Ozpin said, but to Aegis, it sounded as he seemed to tell it to himself that no matter how much time flew, at the core, he was still just human...

"Do you know mister Schnee?"

"Aegis, if we are to speak just call me Aegis."

"...Very well, then... As I wanted to say Aegis, do you know that semblances are, doors to your soul? A way your soul project to the material world?"

Ozpin asked and Aegis nodded with his head.

"Then do you know what semblance I have?"

"I suppose it is something with time."

"Yes... A time, more precisely a time manipulation, and do you know why I have such semblance? Let me tell you, for im sure the gods were very funny when they gave me such semblance, or even if they didn't, then my own soul like to taunt me."

Ozpin said as he took a gulp from his mug.

"I can slow, stop, or accelerate time, but I can't rewind it, I can go back, I who have so many regrets, I who made so many mistakes, was given semblance that could play with time but without means to go back to repay the things I had done, do you know how vexing, how annoying, or how enraging such fact is?"

Ozpin said as he gripped his mug with such strength.

"To by given power that should be able to help me, yet without means to help me?"

Ozpin said as he looked at Aegis.

"Of how painful is such irony of such power with such drawbacks? To be forever reminded that I can't take back my mistakes, even if I should be able to?..."