Unexpected Incarnate (RWBY Ozpin Incarnate SI)

Zack POV

It has been an hour since Oz and Qrow talked about AWOR. And honestly, I'm glad that both of them agreed that something was off about the whole thing. As yet, I have the remaining afternoon to prepare for my trip tomorrow. Since without my word in it, Qrow and Oz agreed that we should head out at five in the morning.

Roughly close to the time I wake up for morning pain training.

Anyway, all of us were having lunch, and I admit, I'm still pretty bitter about what Yang did to me. Sure, I can tell it wasn't intentional, but the spiteful part of me demands payback for doing that to me. And I'm willing to indulge in it. The question is, how can I mess with Yang without her trying to murder me…

Another thing was that everyone at the table was asking for more details about the trip and who AWOR was, which I tried to answer the best I could. If I could summarise the whole thing, it ranged from AWOR being a stalker to outright insane, like some interdimensional entity that had me in their crosshairs.

None of which made me feel comfortable. Thanks, Nora, for making me feel paranoid about tomorrow's trip.

Another thing that was brought to my attention was Yang's idea for my gauntlet/shield/grappling hook. She and Ruby figured out that having a grenade launcher on was risky with how many configurations I had on it and, as a whole, would make maintaining an even bigger issue.

This makes sense, but is also ironic since Dr Polendina would upgrade Ember Celica to be able to plant sticky grenades in the future. Yang suggested that I shouldn't cramp it all on one gauntlet but separate it into two. One will have the shield and grappling hook, and the other will have the grenade launcher and some other features of my choice when I get back.

I swear, the world of Remnant sometimes likes to go for the rule of cool instead of practicality. But that would be hypocritical of me. I mean, a grappling gun gauntlet does sound cool, but it took too many tries to get it right with the calibration and stuff.

Eh, Whatever.

Ultimately, I got an excellent manoeuvring tool that even Oz was impressed that it even worked in the first place.

"Hey, Zack." My thoughts were interrupted as my attention was turned towards Yang, who now looked regretful. As if to make the atmosphere even more severe, even Nora wasn't playing around.

"Something on your mind, Yang?" I asked as I drank some water.

"Yea, I want to apologise for what Nora and I did earlier."

"Oh. Okay." I muttered.

Wait, what?!

"Hold up!" Eyes wide open, I stared at Yang with shock from the bombshell she dropped on me. Her. Yang apologised to me for what she did earlier. "Who are you, and what did you do to Yang?" I asked out as Weiss gave me a dumbfounded look on her face as chuckles went by.

"I wanted to apologise for touching your tail, Zack. It was… rude of us, and we did not take your consent into it." Yang spoke again as I raised my hand.

"Okay, okay. It sounds like you're reading off a damn apology script." I shared my thoughts as Jaune chuckled.

"Yeah, kind of does, Yang."

"Hey!" Yang whined. "Ice queen here kept bugging me to apologise to you, Zack." Wait, Weiss wants Yang to give me an actual apology? That's… nice of her.

"Oh… I guess all it takes was for someone to bug you to apologise." I chuckled for a second as Yang pouted at me. Roughly at the same time, I felt a flutter in my chest, much to my confusion. "If I may ask, did any of you try petting your other Faunus teammates' ears back before the fall? Sorry if it's a sour topic."

Team RW_Y looked at each other uneasily for a while as they knew who exactly I was referring to. Yang then sighed. "No. She'd always forbid us from petting her ears. Even if I tried, she would prevent that from happening." Yang gave a small smile at the fond memories that were likely going through her head.

"I see," I mumbled. Relaying back to my memories of my younger days. What was it… If I recall correctly, my mother did say that our Faunus traits are reserved for our lovers or people who we trust heavily. I remember it. I would occasionally see Dad pat her ears when they were still with me. And I would want him to give me head pats too.

I… missed those days…

"According to my mother, we only allow those we love or care deeply about to touch our animal traits with consent. It reminds me of why I let a friend of mine hug my tail when we were young. I dearly trusted her and allowed her to do it." I took a breath in as Weiss raised a curious eyebrow simultaneously.

No doubt she now knows that Celeste actually hugged my fluffy tail with permission. I wonder if my tail could be more fluffy, it would be much better to embrace it for comfort if I'm stressed.

Why did I think of that?

"I accept your apology, Yang. As I said earlier, just refrain from doing that again." I gave Yang a comforting smile before it became mischievous. I haven't fully forgiven her just yet. "Even if, I cannot deny that I really want revenge for that."

"You're not going to get back at your friend, right? Right?"

Letting out a mischievous chuckle before assuring, Yang's worry. I respond. "Oh, perhaps Yang… Perhaps. Sleep tight tonight. For any time from now. You can expect a present from me before I leave tomorrow." The smile on my face became a grin before I picked up my plate and walked away from the table.

"Good luck Yang. I think Zacky's coming after ya tonight." Nora giggled as Yang quickly retorted.

"Hey! Then how come you're not on his hit list?!"

"Because Zacky likes me more than you! Right, Renny?"

Hearing the banter in the background made me chuckle as someone else decided to make their presence known.

"I hope whatever you're planning for Miss Xiao Long wouldn't have lingering consequences."

"Eh, I wouldn't worry about it. After all, it would be a harmless prank before we head out."

"Your words say one thing, but your thoughts say another." Ozpin deadpanned.

"I promise it won't be so bad. Have a little faith, will you?"

"That's what I'm afraid of."

That got a chuckle out of me.

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Hours later…

The rest of the day passed as Zack began to prepare for his trip to the location provided to him by AWOR. This also includes the preparation of necessities like sleeping bags, water bottles, medical supplies, among other things, and most importantly.

Food.

Zack will refuse to go without food supplies, and might as well prepare some for the trip ahead. Sandwiches came to mind thanks to Nora's abundance of bread in the house. Who bought entire loaves, much to the exasperation of everyone. So might as well put those bread slices to use before they expire.

Another thing was that Yang looked incredibly nervous.

Zack's 'threat' to her made her nervous about his plan. But to his amusement, he would only act once everyone was asleep at night. So, he might as well enjoy the moment before he put his plans into action.

Nora also bought at least two jars of peanut butter for some reason, and Zack intends to use one for his revenge prank later. But for now, he would keep his mouth shut to hide the surprise he would issue to Yang as thanks.

As Zack was in the midst of preparing sandwiches for tomorrow, he spotted Nora walking up to the fridge, opening it up and taking out a whipped cream canister. Without batting an eye at her surroundings, Nora dispensed some whipped cream into her mouth and walked off without a care. Much to Zack's astonishment at what he'd just seen.

"Oh…" Zack looks away from the fridge and back to it as a mischievous grin grows on his lips. "I think Nora's just gave me an idea." Zack then lets out a giggle as another idea pops into his head.

"You're making me concerned. Just how far are you planning this to be?"

"Oh… should be plenty enough to make Yang regret for touching me like that."

…

"For one calling me a sadist, you sure are enjoying this, are you?"

"What can I say? Revenge tastes sweet, after all. And I can be spiteful against those who wronged me, thank you very much." Zack nonchalantly admits as he resumes preparing sandwiches for the trip tomorrow.

"I… see… I admit, there are times when I wonder if this is from your personality from Earth or Remnant."

"Frankly, I don't even know any more, Oz." Zack softly sighed. "I mean, at times, I feel like a bunch of memories all cobbled together into one we call Zack Arakan. But, then, of course, I have my life on Earth, Remnant, and yours included. But frankly, as more time goes by, it'll only get worse."

"Even so, we got a job to do. And this shouldn't hold us back." Zack closed his eyes briefly as he placed the sandwiches into several plastic containers. "Since we have time, how about I share with you some fairy tales from my world, Oz? I think some of them would be nice to listen to pass the time. Though the German fairy tales tend to be quite dark."

"German fairy tales?"

"Yea, if I'm right, one of them ended with a little girl's face ripped off and her eyeballs devoured by an owl."

"Excuse me?" Zack could feel and imagine Ozpin giving him a ludicrous look in his head.

"Yup. That happened. I think. It has been a while since I read that story." Zack glanced to the side as he placed the plastic boxes with sandwiches in the fridge.

"Forgive me, but I'm sorry. What genre of fairy tale is this?" Ozpin could only ask ludicrously as Zack gave a shrug.

"German fairy tales for children, Oz." Zack deadpanned.

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The next morning…

Everyone was at the dining table having breakfast, minus Yang and Zack, who wasn't present. As for Qrow, he was in the living room relaxing and taking sips of his canteen. "Where's Yang?" Ruby asked as Zack could be seen walking down the stairs with his backpack, Oathkeeper in his waist and his gauntlet on his arm.

His face was brimming with pride over something he'd done.

"Oh, her?" Zack chuckled. "She will be here soon."

"What did you do to Yang? Better question, what did you do?" Weiss raised an eyebrow at the resident fox Faunus. He was far too cheerful this morning that everyone could see it clearly on his face.

"Oh. Don't worry about that. You'll all find out in about…" Zack took out his scroll. "In about five seconds."

Five seconds later, there were multiple bangs of something going off upstairs. It was followed by Yang letting out a yelp and crashing into something, among other sounds as well.

There was a brief period of pure silence before Yang's scream could be heard. "ZACCKKK!" Everyone at the dining table winced at Yang's furious shrieking as Zack began laughing like a madman.

"Hahahaha! It worked! Just as it should be! Alright! Time to go, old man! Don't want to be around here any time soon with Yang like that. Take care, everyone!" Zack laughed as he sprinted out of the door, with Qrow rolling his eyes as he got off the sofa and followed him. His laughter echoing in the background the whole time.

…

"I'm kind of afraid of what Zack did to Yang. Judging from all that." Jaune muttered as everyone could only glance at each other before everyone could hear the sounds of footsteps coming down the stairs. Yang soon came down in her pyjamas. Her face and hair covered in whip cream, peanut butter, and confetti were all over her body. She also smelled of vinegar and baking soda for some reason.

"Whoa! Yang, what happened?" Ruby spoke first after being surprised by witnessing Yang in a state of absolute mess. Only to get a deadpanned response from the blondie.

"Zack happened. He ruined my hair." Yang grumbled as she began wiping some cream off her hair.

"We can tell Yang…" Weiss softly spoke up. After spending enough time with her partner's sister, Weiss can tell that Yang is livid at the moment. "Do you wish to tell us what happened?"

"No."

…

A deafening silence took over as everyone wondered what they should be doing since Zack left with Qrow. Yang sniffed her sleeve before her face crunched up in disgust. "Bleh. I'm going to need a shower or two to get rid of that smell."

Yang blanched as Weiss wondered. "Please don't tell me the room's a mess because of his prank." Only for Yang to chuckle softly.

"Oh, you have no idea Snow Angel, be glad that foxy bothered to cover your bed with plastic, so your side of the room is relatively fine." Yang explained with amusement as everyone's eyes widened with a hint of surprise.

"Huh. How kind of Zack to do that." Ren muttered as Jaune scratched his head.

"I think it's best we help clear up after Zack's prank. Then we can figure out what to do next."

Jaune's suggestion got nods from everyone, only for Nora to shoot her hand into the air as an idea struck her. "Oh! I have an idea!" She shouted as she took out her scroll and showed everyone that she had taken a photo of the map where Zack and Qrow were heading.

"Why don't we follow them, guys? It'll be boring if we just stay here while Zacky and Qrow have all the fun."

"That sounds way better than waiting for them to come back. I'm in." Yang gave a thumbs-up as confetti slowly fell off her body and onto the floor.

"Are you sure we should do that?" Weiss frowned. "I have full confidence that Mr Branwen and Arakan can handle it without us. I vote no."

"I concur." Ren closed his eyes as Nora looked dramatically heartbroken.

"What?! Renny, how could you?"

"Sure, that sounds fun. I wanna know more of what's going on." Ruby smiled as everyone looked at Jaune, who was unsure about the whole thing.

"I guess there shouldn't be any harm if we see where they are going…"

"Yes! Four to two! We're going! ~" Nora cheered as she began hopping on the spot, all while Weiss rolled her eyes.

"Guess we're after them, guys!" Ruby stood up and smiled. "But I think we should help clean up after Zack's prank first. Then we prepare and leave. Is it okay with everyone?"

Ruby got nods from everyone as they finished their breakfast and left to clear up after Zack's prank.