AN: Watch as I try to write a RWBY fic that isn't purely ships as well as retconning pre-established ships. This chapter starts off in the ruins of Beacon with team RWBY/NR off to retrieve the final relics, in the middle of the final battle, I'm not writing the whole thing. Another thing, I'm not using this chapter to explain and conclude every plot thread, like how they got the relics and what the deal is with the beacon one, or the stuff with Raven or any of that. I'm using this chapter to explain how they beat Salem and conclude the original story so I can move on and create my own stories.
Jaune ran through the rubble, waiting for his opponent to arrive. her heard the sound of movement rushing coming for his left. He looked over to that side to see nothing. The same occurrence on his right, only to be slammed against a half broken wall. He got up to see streams of black liquid that resembled ink combine together in front of him, eventually materialising and taking the form of Salem.
Surrounded by fire and debris, nothing stood between Jaune and Salem as they met face to face in what remained of the old CCT tower. With all of Salem's forces taken care of and the rest of the group fighting though hordes of grimm to locate the final relic in order to destroy Salem, Jaune stayed behind to hold off Salem. Jaune grabbed his weapons off his side and converted his sheath to it's shield form. "Hello Arc."
"You know my name?" He questioned.
"Of course, you and your friends have made names for yourselves, thats for certain." She stepped closer towards her foe, Jaune reacted by raising his shield. "And what kind of person would I be to not know the name of my own descendant."
"W-what?" Jaune's eye's widened, feeling both fear and shock as his body shook.
"Another of Ozpin's lies I presume." Salem readied a fireball behind her palm. "Now I believe your friends are retrieving that relic, so I ask this from distant family, get out of my way."
"I'm afraid you'll have to make me." Despite his fear, he planted his feet on the ground and readied his shield once again. Salem flung her fireball at Jaune which Jaune blocked, but not without getting knocked back. Salem followed her attack with a beam of red energy, which Jaune quickly blocked pushing back her attack with all his strength. She released the beam and boosted to the blonde grabbing him by the neck.
"I appreciate your determination, but I'll ask again to get out of my way." Salem's cold fingers went closer together as her grip on his throat tightened. Jaune responded by forcing his sword through her heart, causing her to let go of him. Despite her curse of immortality, she definitely felt all the pain that came with what would be a fatal wound, Jaune saw as black blood spilled out of the hole in her chest. Jaune hit her in the shin with his shield, knocking her off the ground. He continued his attack by raising the top edge of his shield and colliding it with her face.
"We're similar you and I, Arc" She rose up, all her injuries sealed.
"How am I similar to a crazy Grimm lady that helped with global genocide. And then tried to do it again!" He stood up to meet her.
"Think about it, you fight to honour her, all you want is her back... you and I have the same drive, both of us trying to make up for those wrongfully taken away" She explained. The use of the word "her", despite Jaune having moved on from Pyrrha's death, still messed with Jaune's head, especially with Salem using her death as of means to pull him to her side.
"You fight from spite, I fight for justice."
"No, you want revenge, and call it justice." She corrected. "Do you really think justice is what made you murder Cinder?"
"Your wrong!" Jaune yelled, beginning to be frustrated with her. Villains messing with him and making him very pissed was beginning to become a trend. "She was going to kill Ruby!"
"So you killed her instead of your silver eyed friend?"
"Ok to be fair Cinder was a b*tch."
Salem ignored his statement, partially because she wanted to get to her point and partially because he wasn't wrong. "Join me, and I can bring her back, along with others, humanity can be eternal and prosperous once again."
"..." Jaune looked behind him and remembered those he had now, Ruby, Ren, Nora, Yang, Weiss, he even held Sun, Neptune and Blake to a high regard after all the fighting they've gone through together. "No, everything happens for a reason, she died for a reason. I've moved on, I'm letting her rest, letting her be free. Please, can't you see all the pain and destruction you've caused!?" Jaune tried to talk some sense into her, but she was already blinded by her backwards morals centuries ago.
"Then you've made your choice." Salem knocked Jaune to the ground with her foot. Jaune combined his weapons and swung at Salem with all his longsword, which she dodged. She forcefully grabbed the blade out of his hands and disconnected it, splitting it back to the sword and shield. Jaune jerked downward to evade his own shield flown at him, the weapon only stopped when it lodged itself in the wall of debris that Jaune was flung at. Salem swung at him with his own blade, causing Jaune to channel his agility as he was forced to move faster than he ever had in his life. Salem plunged his blade in the ground, inches away from Jaune's foot. Jaune took back his blade only to be blasted to the wall where his shield was, the combination of his Aura and armour was able to ensure he wasn't greatly injured from the blast.
Salem angrily marched towards him as Jaune used his shield as a boost, jumping off it like a diving board in a devastating attack on his adversary. Only for Salem to catch the blade between her palms "We are similar, same bloodline, same goals, but we are different. For example, I'm immortal..." She redirects the force she absorbed from Jaune's strike, and shatters the blade, taking a large shard of Crocea Mors and forcing it in his left shoulder, piercing his armour and Aura. "While you aren't"
Jaune let out a scream of agony, as he fell to his knees. He took his broken sword, now cut down to the length of a machete or dagger, and stabbed her in the neck with it. Salem slowly pulled out the blade, grabbing his wrist and blasting it, burning his arm and melting the layer of armour. Jaune endured another blast onto the wall, he quickly retrieved his shield from the wall and used it to block a beam of crimson flame spinning his body to weave out of the path of her energy powered attack. As she sped toward him Jaune back handed her with his shield temporarily disorienting her, but not long enough for her to allow Jaune to follow up on his attack, punching Jaune down and pummelling his readied shield until it shattered in the same vain of his sword and throwing him away to reaching range of Crocea Mors.
He slowly got up to see her arm extend out and grab him, pulling him and releasing him so he flung in the other direction, before going up to him and beating on him and kicking him away. "Don't worry Jaune, you're only burnt and bruised and out of aura and... bleeding out, I'm so screwed!" He mumbled to himself, writhe with cuts and bruises, he reached and grabbed what little of the sword he had left and tried slashing at Salem with it, only for said sword to be robbed from his hand and impaled through his own stomach.
Jaune fell back on the ground, coughing up blood as Salem knelt down to his level. "How does it feel, to be so certain that victory is in sight and yet to fall so spectacularly. Your will is admirable Arc but honestly, how did you think that you could've stopped me, alone." She lost sight of her original goal, bas-conning in Jaune's defeat. "It's pathetic."
"Yeah..." He mustered the strength to speak up through the pain. "But it was one hell of a distraction..." Jaune forced a smirk as blood leaked out of the corner of his mouth, before Salem was blasted away by a silver light.
"Jaune!" Ruby, Ren and Nora rushed to his aid, placing the relics next to him. "Oh sh*t, are you ok!?" she helped him up, Jaune waved his arm and cried out in pain signalling for her to set him down. "I'm so sorry, I should've been faster..." she hid her face in his chest, tears coming from her silver eyes.
"No don't say that," Jaune accepted her embrace "It was all part of the plan."
"You have the worst plans..." she laughed through her sobbing.
"You have to go now, she's getting up, your team may have the relics. You need to use them!" Jaune urged her, laying a hand on her cheek. "You need to stop her!"
"We can stay with Jaune while you get to the others." Nora suggested. "Nurse Nora is on the case!"
She lightly nodded, wiping the tears away. "Jaune..."
"Yeah?" She answered him by locking her lips with his. Jaune returned the kiss and she interlocked her fingers in his messy and wavy blonde hair.
"Thank you, for everything." She reluctantly ended the kiss and sped away leaving JNR with a trail of petals.
Ruby joined with the others, namely her team along with FNKI, SSSN, CFVY, along with the remainder of STRQ and Ozpin. She was overjoyed to see the four relics in their possession. "Now we may have a way of stopping her." She later found confusion in the group aiming with the ranged configurations of their weapons behind her.
"I wouldn't get my hopes up..." Ruby heard the chilling voice as the Huntress' instincts kicked in and Ruby swiped her scythe at Salem only for Salem to catch it and break the weapon by forcing the blade part until the joint and the plating shattered and it disconnected from the rest of Crescent Rose. As Ruby fell from the impact, she was scratched in her side and blasted away. As the others ran to help they were stopped by a swarm of Grimm who ambushed them as Salem rushed away into the grey sky with Ruby so they could have a little 'chat'.
"Ruby!" Yang tried to reach out only to be pined by multiple Ursa.
Flying all the way to the Emerald Forest, Salem held Ruby mid-air by the neck "I'll give you the same chance to surrender I granted Ozpin, that I granted your friend and all of my victims."
"...I-It's too late..." She mustered enough air in her lungs to talk. "To stop now..." her vision began to haze as she began to loose conscienceness
"Very well." She let go allowing Ruby to fall and crash into nearby trees and the ground, depleting her aura.
"Is that them at the Emerald Forest." Weiss observed watching the airborne ordeal from afar.
"We have to go help her!" Blake cried out in a way that was more asking the others if team RWBY could go on ahead.
"Go. we've got these guys under control." Sun urged them. "Just uh promise you won't die ok?"
"Promise." Blake left with a heartfelt smile, as Yang and Weiss followed.
Jaune accessed his his scroll and contacted Weiss "Weiss, where the hell is Ruby!?"
"I should be asking you the same thing, where on remnant are you? Are you ok?" Weiss was first to answer.
"I'm fine, only a... flesh wound" Jaune responded moving his free hand out of the way to see the lesion in his lower left abdomen.
"A flesh wound!?" Weiss interjected.
"It doesn't matter right now, where is Ruby."
"Emerald forest. We're headed there now. We have the relics, no idea what they do, f*cking god Ozpin! Gotta go." Weiss answered. Jaune mouthed the word 'f*ck' as he hung up and looked to Ren and Nora.
"No Jaune, you aren't going there." Ren objected already knowing what Jaune was to suggest.
"Ren I have to." He took the piece of red cloth on his side covered his stomach wound with it.
"I won't let you, you've already been stabbed twice." Ren continued.
"Ren as team leader, I order you to let me leave."
"No." Nora stood next to Ren. "he's right, team RWBY are headed there and you are too hurt to fight, you are staying."
"You guys don't understa-"
"I won't let another part of my family die!" Ren shouted back before calming himself down. "You are not going, we are staying here."
"Y'know you've been a real thorn in my side miss Rose." Salem began dragging Ruby by her tattered cape. "So I'm going to make this a painful as possible." She dropped Ruby, her cape covering her head then taking a sharp rock cutting her across her back, then throwing Ruby by her cape at a tree and held her hand out to Ruby as the red energy electrified the poor girl as she squired and let out bone chilling screams as a result. As Salem began to relish in her agony the pain only stopping when she impaled by the blade of a knight summon courtesy of Weiss.
Weiss, Blake and Yang stood in their battle ready positions as Salem eliminated the knight with one swipe. As the trio ran at her they carelessly dropped the relics urgently rushing to help Ruby. Yang started punching at her, Blake hooked onto her arm and sliced Salem and Weiss used her glifs to move and shoot in the air. Salem managed get a hold of Blake and Gambol Shroud as she threw her on the ground, took the katana and stabbed Blake pinning her down at the arm. A shriek left her mouth as Weiss and Yang looked in horror of her agony as Salem kicked her, knocking Blake out cold.
Before either of them could continue to fight or rush to her aid Salem went behind the pair and forced them to the ground by their heads throwing Yang into a cluster of trees and rubbing Weiss further into the dirt. She released Weiss throwing her over to the ground as she stumbled to her feet and was subjected to several painful punches, her beatdown finally ending with an uppercut and one last two handed slam, Weiss was dealt with.
There was a light breeze that was swaying the trees, as Salem looked closer she could see what one could only assume as a fireball that blazed through the trees. As Yang boosted at Salem the momentum was able to let her metallic fist punch a hole straight through Salem and forced her away. Yang found a crack in her robotic arm as a result of the impact before having the block Salems fist. Yang used all her strength to block the impact that she didn't notice Salem's free hand electrifying Yang to the ground. Before Yang could get up Salem had forced her foot to shatter Yang's metal arm and then picked Yang up by her other arm and grabbed it so tightly that the bone broke. Yang was then subjected to falling on Salem's rising knee, knocking her out cold.
During the chaos Ruby was able to get up and blast Salem with a dose of her silver eyes, Salem rolling past the unattended relics before crashing into a tree. Now that Salem was down Ruby took the time to grab the relics, she was able to grab the first three, namely the Crown of choice, the Lamp of Knowledge and the Spear of Creation but the Sword of Destruction was nowhere to be found. "Summer Rose, your mother if I am correct." Salem said not changing her position or even turning to face Ruby.
Ruby's scurrying went to a halt when she heard Salem utter her name. "Yeah?" She began to shake and the relics in her hands began to make small cling and clang sounds as a result.
"I remember her... she was much like you..." Salem muttered her words muffled by her being on the ground facing the other way. "Heroic, skilled, brave, naive." Her praise began to fade to insults "Blind, stubborn, moronic, weak."
"SHUT THE F*CK UP!" Ruby shouted at her with droplets pouring across her cheeks. "HOW DARE YOU INSULT MY MOTHER LIKE THAT!"
"Sad thing is I probably know more about her than you ever did." Ruby clenched her fists in rage. "Would like to meet her, because I am more than happy to reunite the BOTH OF YOU!" and with that she flipped around and sliced at Ruby with the Sword of Destruction, due to her aura being depleted she was unable to dodge it and Salem managed to get a direct hit to Ruby's eye, blood spraying through the air as she fell back. Ruby's ears began to ring and a pool of blood began spilling from her eye, or what was left of it. "I remember you mother well, she wasn't as much fun to kill, she did indeed put up a fight, but once I stabbed her, that was it. No pay off, no dramatic sacrifice, nothing. It's odd to think that your armoured friend was able to withstand more than her. The fabled Summer Rose, out like a b*tch." Ruby eyes went into a haze before going to black and she went unconscious.
"You got spirit Red, but this is the real world! The real world is cold! The real world doesn't care about spirit! You wanna be a hero? Then play the part and die like every other Huntsman in history!"
It was destined to happen wasn't it?
"You are just like your mother."
Heh, it really was. So this is how my lights go out, in the emerald forrest, where it all began. we were so close too, we were right there and then...
No, I can't stop now, not when she is still in control.
"You didn't drag us along... You gave us the courage to follow you."
No, I can't I... I have people who believe in me and follow me I...
"Only if you promise you'll meet us there..."
"Promise."
I made a promise.
I'm not aloud to be a failure.
"Life is precious and it must be protected"
I have a job to do.
Ruby awoke squirming to try to get up despite the pain, as she lay in a push up position as every aspect of her body was pushed to the brink. She screamed out as her arms fully extended out and she got to knees. To Salem's surprise, Ruby was able to arise to meet her, last time this happened Summer fell back down and died then and there, but Ruby couldn't fail, she couldn't follow in her mothers footsteps, she had to for her team, her friends, her family, and everyone she held dear. Her right eye shining a bright, blinding silver light, a light that turned into a beam that blasted Salem away.
Ruby took this opportunity to seise the relics, all of them this time. As Ruby holstered the Lamp, wore the crown atop her head, and held the sword and spear Salem jumped out to attack but everything flashed to white.
Ruby saw nothing but a white void surrounding her, until a golden man with antlers and a purple man with horns materialised, ones she recognised from Jinn's story. "Who are you, and where is Ozma. His mission was to gather the relics and allow for our judgement of humanity." The God of Darkness asked.
"I am Ruby Rose, leader of team RWBY... and RNJR for a time... and professional badass." Ruby announced holding up the hand sign from a show she and Jaune watched called "Space Teckers"(star-trek). "I, along with many others followed Ozpin on his mission to unite humanity. In doing so we all fought against a common threat, Salem. I do not ask for you to walk among us as we run around with magic, but simply to restore Remnant to the lively place it was, without pregeduce and war."
"My child, we can not illiminate those things, to do that would be to destroy peace with it. The scales will tip both ways." The God of Light answered.
"But you are correct, humanity have shown a great deal of improvement and unity, enough to choose not to wipe out the planet for good. But what we can do is a light reboot if you will." The God of Darkness added.
"Reboot? Like Spider-Man?" Ruby scratched her head.
"No, allow me to elaborate, I mean that we can reset it, everyone except Salem would still exist, but the grimm state of the world will not remain so, we won't walk among you, but will watch over you." The God of Light said.
"Will anyone remember this reset?"
"While everything in history still occurs as it does here, only you and a few other people, of your choice will remember this reset." The God of Darkness said.
"Why."
"So as to not burden the entirety of the human race with the existential horrors we can only have a select number." The God of Light explained.
Ruby took a moment to ponder the implications of this. "Ok, I will accept this reset."
"Good." The God of Darkness said "Choose wisely."
The void suddenly faded back to where Ruby was before, but Salem was flaking away. "You... you finally did it." Salem looked at her disappearing hands, finally dying. "I never thought it would happen... thank you..." she closed her eyes, embracing death as she faded from existence. As Ruby looked around the world was crumbling around her.
"Ruby!" Weiss called out. "What is happening, did we win?"
"Yes, but I can't explain, just hold on ok?"
"Ok"
Ruby dialed her scroll "Jaune?"
"Ruby, thank gods!"
"Where are you?"
"Heading to you now." Jaune responded "What is going on."
"I'll explain just please hurry."
"Alright, heading as fast I can with multiple stab wounds."
Soon after that Jaune, Ren and Nora met with Ruby, who had gathered with Yang, Weiss and Blake (who's arm was free'd and bandaged up). "Ok guys, this is gonna be hard to explain, but the world is ending."
"What!" Nora exclaimed.
"It's ok, we'll be back, in a new world."
"But I..."Jaune started breathing heavy. Ruby reassured him by holding his hand, and wrapping her arm around Yang's shoulder. Weiss did the same, reaching for Blake's hand who grabbed Nora's, who held Ren's Ren's who grabbed Jaune's other hand. "So uh... I guess I'll see you soon right?"
"It's ok, it's all ok, we've won."
"But the world is literally bursting into flames!" Nora exclaimed grabbing Ren's hand tighter. "How on earth have we won?"
"Well when you have a chat with the literal gods, I guess you can negotiate a refresh."
"But guys... even if we are gonna wake up tomorrow all ok, I'm glad I got to spend my final moments with you guys... my family." Weiss said smiling through impending doom.
The group closed their eyes as the fire consumed them and the world was destroyed.
AN: Holy hell that was long, probably my longest singular chapter to date so, yay. Now to figure out how I'm gonna fix this mess that is my RWBY fic universe thing.