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The white walls, illuminated by the light coming from the window, reverberate with the sounds of steps and the chattering of young voices.
They tell him he's born again.
The boy, books under his arms and a shy air to him, catches a reflection of himself in the window and stops his march through the corridor to examine what he, undoubtedly, thinks is a stranger's face staring at him where his should be.
The King can feel himself, or rather his spirit, grinning from ear to ear as the boy approaches, muttering something to himself about how the finals are stressing him out too much.
"Hello! I'm King Ozias, the Great and Powerful" he says and, when the boy falls on his ass with a loud gasp, a couple of other students turning their heads to him, he lets his soul erupt in a hearty laugh.
Oh, he's going to enjoy this.
*
Tippetarius, Tip for short, is the name they gave to the newborn that 20 years ago was dropped in front of the door to the orphanage in a cold, winter night.
All the cliches of the beginning of a great hero's story.
That very Tip doesn't seem to really want to be a great hero, he buries his bespectacled nose more in his book, ignoring the teasing about the silliness of his name and absolutely assuring to himself that he's not talking with the last King of Vale who died a few years prior and is now, somehow, residing inside his head.
"How many years, pray tell" he attempts to ask, before being ignored again. For him, it seemed a matter of seconds: one moment he was dead, and the other he's suddendly the reflection staring at this four-eyes with a funny name who doesn't seem to care about anything other than his grades and has no hopes of going outside of this orphanage at any point in his life.
Well, this has to change if they want to get anywhere.
*
In a few months, Tip's world expands.
He had never been good at combat lessons before this new... mind roommate came into his life and showed him the ropes like no teacher ever could. Almost like he was not just teaching him something he didn't knew, but helping him to remember he was able to fight all along. That he was a prodigy all along.
And just now Tip - no, Ozpin - signs with his new name, the name he chose for himself, the papers that will make him the new headmaster of Beacon Academy.
"Nice name" says the Voice. Ozpin smiles.
"If I'm really going to become you, I want a name that fits".
And Ozma isn't a name any longer.
It's a role that he has to fill, wether he wants it or not.
And he was always a perfectionist, so of course he's gonna go all out.
*
He journeys to Beacon by foot. The Voice wants him to see the world and, truth be told, he has always been curious himself.
He sees children playing, their laughs echoing in his ears and he starts to remember things he never witnessed.
Finds himself experiencing a warmth he never knew in his heart, where before there were only the empty days at the orphanage, nobody wanting him, only caring about his grades.
"You see, child" the King says "This is why we have to protect them and this world".
He's starting to agree
*
He's welcomed by his attendants.
Attendants that he placed himself, apparently.
The Voice insists they are trustworthy, but Ozpin still finds the stare of the current headmaster of Vacuo, an old man who looks like he could very well be over 100 and still, somehow, capable of standing, to be, frankly, quite creepy.
He's not seeing me. He's seeing Him.
They give him "his" cane and Ozpin looks at his reflection on its surface, feels the weight in his hands and, suddendly, he's not so sure anymore.
The Voice interrupts his line of thought: "Can I?" and so he gives him control.
He feels his lips form a smile without actually being the one who's smiling, as the King confidently raises the cane and makes a few rotations with his wrist.
"It's good to see you again, old friend!" he hears his voice say, but when the headmaster of Vacuo kneels in front of him, bellowing "Your Majesty!" there's a flash, a vision, and he feels his own muscles flinch and the King immediately returns to the back of his head.
"For the love of the Gods, tell him to raise".
"Uh... You can raise".
They show him how he can access his own private room from the office. A password under the desk and the gears all around start to move, to reveal a spiral staircase that goes way down.
They leave him to descend alone and see his new apartment by himself.
"I like the gear motif" he says.
"Right? This was my own idea!" the King comments.
*
The two Branwen kids are defiant and unsure, when they are sent yet again to be punished by a Headmaster that is barely older than them.
The Voice finds them too proud and stubborn for their own good and yet... yet Ozpin identifies with them.
"I was like them, before you" he explains later, when he's alone in his office "Feeling like I had no place in the world... Don't you remember?".
"Don't tell me that Qrow kid managed to move you, with his talk about how his Semblance ruins his life" the King says sternly, but he lives in his soul and he can't hide his own fondness for those two brats and yes, they do remind him of another brat that is now talking down on him.
"Don't get your newfound power go to your head, child. Pride is what killed me".
"I know, but, if we're going to continue this war, we might need more allies, don't you think?" he smiles when he feels his other self roll his eyes at his tone.
"So... about this magic of yours. How does it work?".
*
Qrow calls him in the middle of the night. He's never heard him so anguished before.
"She's dead... I don't know what to do".
He has to stop the hand holding the scroll from shaking, both his souls feeling the hurt of a too familiar pain.
He doesn't attend the funeral.
He doesn't want to cause more problems.
But he does visit the grave, in another night, sadly looking at the inscription "Thus I kindly scatter" and remembering a pair of huge silver eyes watching him with so much hope and an admiration he doesn't deserve.
He bites his lips, attempting to stop the tears that are threatening to fall from his eyelids.
"Don't you have anything to say?" he asks the Voice, for empty comfort, but then a flash and he sees another time.
He's holding the Relic of Destruction and he's pondering with the Voice about what to do. His hands are already dirty enough, and after this he'll never be able to wash away the blood clenching them.
He watches with disgust as the remaining soldiers kneel to him. Kingdoms united through destruction, just like she wanted.
He returns to the present, nausea seizing him.
"All those peope I killed" he whispers, fingers pulling hair, tears now falling freely "No... You killed them! It wasn't me!".
"You are me" the Voice says, but his tone is sad, not chastising.
"The sooner you understand it, the better".
But then, they both stop talking.
Eyes are watching him from behind.
He takes the cane out and turns to face the Grimm.
A vile, jellyfish-like creature - if it's even alive, comes forward. There's a face, inside, a face he recognizes.
He mouths that name with pure disgust, Salem
He knows her. She recognizes him.
"How long are you going to continue this façade, Ozma? Oh, my apologies. You now call yourself Ozpin".
The Grimm jump on him. But he knows how to fight and win.
But the hours pass and more and more Grimm seemingly come from the shadows themselves, surrounding the lonely grave.
He's on his knees now, hatred burning deep inside, he feels like he's going to explode.
He wants to lash out at her, not even asking why she killed her, he just wants to tear those creature to pieces and wipe that damn smile off her face.
But then he's pushed in the back of his mind as the King forcefully takes control and rises, a stern yet calm air in his movements. In a couple of precise movements, ten Grimm or so fall and their ashes spread in the wind.
The Grimm stop attacking when Salem decides to speak again.
"Finally, you show yourself".
The King, with Ozpin's voice, responds.
"You have taken everything from me, again and agan. But, may the Gods be my witnesses, I will not let you kill this child".
She smiles, defiant. "How touching" she says "How you pretend to care about these children, even when you rob them of their lives".
Ozias strenghtens the grip on the cane.
"But don't worry" she continues "I don't want to kill you tonight. That won't satisfy me".
Just like they came, the Grimm and the weird creature start to leave.
"Let this be a warning. Remember this day when your Empire falls".
"This free world won't fall" Ozias says, countering the word 'empire' with his own definition "Mankind is stronger than your darkness".
She seems to be taken aback for a moment, but then offers more words as she leaves.
... So you may prepare your guardians, build your monuments to a so-called "free world", but take heed: there will be no victory in strength...
But then, the one who turns around to look mournfully at the grave, one last time, is not the King, but the boy. And he's the one who has the last word, as if that wonderful child that is now remembered there still inspires him from beyond the grave.
But, perhaps, victory is in the simpler things you've long forgotten.
Things that require a smaller,
more honest soul.
*
"I will regret this".
"Relax" the King says with Ozpin's voice "I've learned to mimick your way of talking well enough".
"It's not that I'm worried about".
And his dreadful speech to the new students confirm all his worries.
"What was that?! They're students, not soldiers!".
"Would you rather I offered them some cocoa and cookies? They need some motivation".
"I'm never letting you make a speech again".
It's strange how this man is capable of being a scary King one moment, and laugh at a dirty joke the next. Ozpin prides himself for at having a finer sense of humor.
There's one thing they agree on, however.
"This landing strategy... what is---" Jaune Arc doesn't get to finish the sentence.
"It never gets old" the Voice comments while Ozpin takes a sip of his cocoa, hiding his own amusement.
*
"I'll do it" says Pyrrha Nikos and Ozpin silently curses that honesty of intent and purity of soul that brings him back to a time that was never his, when another man faced a God with these exact words.
The confident man he is around his colleagues and students collapses at the end of the day, the very moment he enters his private room.
He throws the cane away, not even bothering to look where it lands.
"Damn it!".
"Stay calm" says the Voice "We gave her a choice".
"That's not a choice at all!" he yells, pacing around and gripping at his hair. He catches his reflection in the mirror of the nightstand near his bed and grimaces when he sees a face that's not his "Not for her! She's too honest, too... brave. She's going to want to help!".
"We have no other option" the reflection says.
"But what if she dies?!".
"And what if she doesn't".
"Like that's any better!" he chokes on a sob "This is sick. Even if she doesn't die, Gods know what's gonna happen to her. We are going to destroy her".
The reflection smiles with no humor.
"She could become like you. That wouldn't be so bad, wou-".
He gets interrupted by shards of the mirror flying everywhere. Blood drops on the sink.
"Is this what becoming you entails?! Am I supposed to be ok with children dying?!?".
"Either she dies or the world ends".
Blood and tears mixing, Ozpin bends on the sink in agony.
"You-- you coward! First you make me care for people and then you want me to kill them?!".
With a loud ENOUGH, the King takes control.
He wipes away the tears with the sane hand, sighs and stares down at the bloodied one.
"I can accept this rookie mistake from a kid" he activates his aura and then searches in the drawer something to wipe the blood off.
"32 years we've been together. I thought you had accepted your fate by now".
He looks down. Near the bed, amongst the pieces of glass there's a white-haired boy, younger than the day they met. He's weeping, and hugging his knees.
The King sighs once more, but his gaze softens. He shows the child the bandaged hand.
"See? All better now".
Then he takes him in his arms, shushing him to sleep.
*
He's going to die.
He knew from the moment that woman's voice hijacked the tournament.
He directs his subordinates to defend the city. He lingers a moment in his office to regain himself.
"Please" he whispers to himself "Don't leave me alone now".
"I'll be with you 'till the bitter end" the Voice assures him.
*
The fight with Cinder goes well.
Even when she activates her Maiden powers, they take turns fighting her, perfectly in sync.
But, as the walls around them begin to crumble, and a gap opens in the floor, she doesn't notice a big piece of ceiling falling, or maybe she does and doesn't care. Maybe her powers could easily prevent her from being crushed and yet-
Yet in her face he sees Pyrrha. He sees Penny. He sees Summer and Ruby and Raven, and Weiss and all his students and all his children and his first four children.
He doesn't know if it's Ozpin, or Ozias, or both, who leaps and pushes her away.
He lies, crushed under the weight, tasting blood and bile and tears.
"What a stupid way to die" he says but the Voice doesn't condemn him.
*
The next moment, he sees blinding light all around and he can feel himself returning a child again.
He sees the figure of a woman, reaching to him. He starts to run, he calls her "Mother!".
But she disappears and he's no longer a child. A calloused hand rests on his shoulder.
He turns around and sees that familiar face.
"Not yet, child" the King says "We can't go yet".
There's countless people surrounding them, both humans and faunuses, looking at him with regret. He knows all of them.
Among them, Ozma.
On his knees, crying.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry".
There's no hate in any of them for him. Only kinship. So he walks to him and offers him a hand to raise again.
He turns to Ozias again.
"So... What happens now?".
"Now" Ozias says "Now you become me".
He knows what he means. The merge is complete. He will be the Voice from now on.
"I won't... hear you again... will I".
Ozias raises his eyebrows, smiling.
"Thank the Gods for small mercies, eh?".
But Ozpin doesn't laugh. Instead he embraces him, burying his face in long golden hair.
"Goodbye... Father".
"It's going to be alright" Father says "I will always be with you. I promised you, didn't I? I'll be with you until the end".
All the faces fade away.
*
He blinks, or rather feels a new body blinking.
He feels sun and sweat on his skin. Before his eyes, there's nature all around. His muscles feel the satisfying pain of a day of honest work that provides sustenance.
The boy goes inside and something in the mirror catches his attention.
Ozpin looks at him from the other side of the mirror.
"Hello?" the boy says.
Ozpin feels a strange, warm laugh rising in his throat, but he catches it.
Grinning from ear to ear, he allows a moment to pass for the boy to calm himself.
Then
"Hello! I'm Professor Ozpin".
The boy falls backward with a yell and Ozpin laughs and laughs 'till he can feel tears streaming down his face.
Scared children, all of them.