Salem and Ozpin were soul mates.
At least, that's what people would call them today. They would be considered matched from birth, predestined for each other. Their destinies were as intertwined as the threads of fate that wove together the rest of the world.
That's not what they were though. Not quite.
There was a difference from being meant for someone and being made for someone. Most people wouldn't get the difference between the two.
Salem knew. Ozpin did too.
These things were just different for them. Salem was sure that neither of them would even prescribe to the idea of soul mates, just based on what they'd seen over the courses of their lives.
Normal people would go around with little to no control over their auras. They'd get close to people, and then that aura would reach out and start to blend with others. For the few that could see such a phenomenon, it was almost interesting.
For Salem, it was mostly just tiring to watch. She would watch people, day after day. Slowly, she'd see their auras beginning to bleed outwards from their bodies and mixing with those that they were close with. For the ones who suffered such phenomena, known to many as aura bleed, it was a good thing. It made them stronger when they were together. It bonded them closer. In some ways, it was a gift.
There were a lot of reasons for it. The feeling that two people could strengthen by the mere presence of the person that they were the closest to. There were other things about it- being able to sense the other when they got close. In all likelihood, there was even more, but as Aura was poorly understood even by herself and Ozpin most of the time, it was left as a mystery.
All that really mattered was that it was the soul acting to shield and empower the body. That was all that had ever mattered about aura.
Despite being so close to the creatures of grimm in some ways, Salem was well aware of her unique status amongst them. She possessed an aura, unlike the beasts. It made her unique. It made her alone.
She didn't mind that so much. What she minded was the slight possibility that one day her aura might reach out for another's. It had happened once or twice before, but Salem would have preferred it should she never suffer such a thing.
Mostly she was just content to watch the auras of others and hope that it wouldn't make her feel lonely.
Watts had an aura the color of bolts of electricity and equally volatile in combat. It never reached for another to hang on to- Salem suspected that the reason for this was that there was no one alive that could match Watts properly. They'd either get bowled over by his personality or they would get left behind.
Tyrian had an aura to match his name, violent purple that reached and reached for others. She'd seen his aura a thousand times, and she usually was able to sense him without so much as a thought. His aura always tended to reach for her, but she never let hers blend with it. That was too dangerous, for the both of them.
Tyrian's blind devotion as much a curse as a boon, on most days. He'd promised her his soul and body, and in his case it seemed literal. His aura forever reached out to hers. There were a lot of ways that people could be considered soul mates, Salem supposed. Tyrian would know no other, she was sure of it.
Cinder had an aura like fire that pulsed with magic. Salem had only seen its glow in combat, much like her other minions. Salem worried that one day it would start to reach out, but it was something that she didn't want to worry too much for. Cinder was young, and she seemed to be loyal.
She'd never seen a proper flare in Hazel's aura outside of battle. She knew it was a dark green so washed out that it was nearly grey. It never tried to reach out for another, but that was Hazel. Her dear, lone, big bad wolf. His strength was admirable- Salem supposed he didn't need for his aura to bond to another's.
There were also Cinder's posse, she supposed. Those were probably the two most active auras of the entire lot, strands of silver and green that constantly reached for each other and separated every time that the two fought. They truly were better off together, despite the fragility of their bonds. The two tended to mend things regularly enough, though. Salem was glad for it.
She could only see those auras when her minions were close to her, and that was something that Salem was glad for. Only when they were near enough, was she able to feel them close or see their auras. If it was something that was constant and unbound by space, Salem wasn't sure she would be able to manage. She was sure she'd get too frustrated by it.
But once in a great while, Salem would be able to go out into the world herself and see how people were doing. As long as she followed after bandit tribes and kept away from the cities, nobody ever gave her a second's more attention than she wanted.
It was best for that way. That way nobody would stare at her paper white skin, and the dark veins that crept over her features. That way she could move undetected by her enemies.
There were some things about mankind that she hated though- she hated the way that the auras of the untrained seemed to pulse outward constantly. She hated the way that people would start to look at each other when their souls finally met.
She didn't want to put a name on the particular emotions that she felt.
Mostly, she tried not to think about the color green.
It was Ozpin's color. If they were close enough, she was sure that both of their auras would ignite and stretch for each other, even if it was only for a second before control was regained and they'd flicker back out.
She didn't want to find out what would happen for sure if that happened. She supposed that the fallout of it would be greater than anyone would have ever suspected.
They'd only clashed a few times face to face in the past.
Every time Salem couldn't help but notice how strange they were compared to others. For a second, she'd think that she saw a spark of green reaching out before disappearing back to Ozpin's body. Salem wondered if she saw the same from her, but only in red.
Every time she saw Ozpin's aura or felt her own struggling to reach out, Salem would push the feeling back and make every effort not to think about it. The last thing she needed to be thinking about was what such things meant.
The two of them were diametrically opposed, even in their creation.
They were not soul mates in the way that most people would consider them- Salem had long since accepted that fact. Those moments where their auras would ignite in bursts of color were nothing more than flukes. Nothing more than reminders that they had always been meant to clash as they did.
Or at least, that was what Salem had to tell herself in order to get by without getting emotionally involved in the situation. If she ignored the facts which dictated her and Ozpin's original purposes, then it made it easier for her to avoid the feelings that would arise as a result of it.
The two of them were just too different- predestined and created with each other in mind, but at the end, they were meant to meet only in conflict.
Salem was darkness, Ozpin was light.
While Salem's main purpose was to destroy, Ozpin's purpose was to protect.
They were children of opposing gods, with different purposes that would permanently keep them apart.
When mankind had been created, the two of them had been mere prototypes for what was to come. They were both wrong for the task that they had been given. Salem was created with a part in her that strayed too closely to the god of darkness' beasts. Ozpin was created, but they were equally flawed, with powers that were too unpredictable and dangerous for what the average man would end up being.
Once upon a time, the two of them had been close. Once upon a time, there had been something between the two of them that had almost been akin to love. Salem wasn't sure that it was what she would call it. It had never felt like love- not the way that it was supposed to feel.
Not that Salem supposed she would know what that was like. Affection was one thing. Love was another thing entirely.
The world had been different back when she and Ozpin had been connected in such ways. Humankind and faunus alike had been new and unused to the world that they had been placed on. Back then Salem and Ozpin had stuck together because they were ultimately the only ones that could understand each other.
They'd both always had that understanding that they were drastically different from everyone else, aside from that presence of aura that mankind also shared. .
That difference was their bond, though. It was the thing that had made them feel like they were actually able to work in the times that they were together. At the beginning of the world, it had been the two of them, Salem and Ozpin.
Intended as progenitors.
Nothing like true progenitors.
That sort of status that they'd been given was a gift in a way. It meant that at the end of the day, Salem knew that she was never completely alone. There were a lot of things that were always going to make things hard on her. Ozpin didn't have the same paper white skin as she did, nor did Ozpin have black and red veins which stretched over them.
But they had each other. Their auras could bleed together from time to time and they could both take comfort in that, for the time being. Back then, Salem hadn't regretted it. She hadn't regretted her appearance or the fact that she and Ozpin would never truly blend in with the rest that inhabited Remnant.
It had just meant that she and Ozpin had to find their humanity in other places. In emotions and in intent.
The thing that always ended up mattering most to her was intent. As long as she didn't let herself drift too close to the creatures that she was so lucky to be able to create, Salem never had a thing to fear. She had her intelligence, she even had emotions. That wasn't enough to make her feel like a true human, but it was enough. A bare minimum for humanity.
Even now in her castle, she wasn't completely alone. She had different people that she kept close to her. She could take comfort in things about them.
Tyrian's smile and the constant violet glow of his aura always managed to make her feel just a little bit warmer.
Hazel's gruffness and his willingness to act as confidant despite the fact that their relationship was an uneasy sort of friendship that didn't quite stray along the lines of partnership was a small comfort as well.
Watts had his moments of humanity where Salem didn't mind his usual snarking and cruelty that he would exhibit to the others in her orbit once a while.
Salem even supposed that if it weren't for the obvious differences, she could have considered dear Cinder a daughter of sorts.
But it was never quite enough.
Long nights would come and she would find herself thinking of nothing more than how much she missed dear Ozpin.
She'd have to wrap herself up in thoughts of a thousand other things, a thousand other times to be able find her comforts and distractions. She had to dream of battlefields and conversations, and momentary flashes of color that were just enough to bring her back to an easier time.
Salem never knew whether Ozpin felt the same things that she did- that crushing loneliness. Did Ozpin remember the flash of light at the end of the great war, when it had ended on a battlefield in Vacuo?
Nobody had seen that, Salem supposed. Even then, that conflict had been so long ago that she was rather sure that there wasn't anyone left alive that could possibly remember.
Aside from Ozpin, of course.
Immortality was a curse.
Spending it alone was the worst part of it.
Salem always wondered- could she go to Vale and meet Ozpin again in person? Would they fall into each other the ways that they used to, back at the beginning of Remnant? Would they be able to find common ground despite the fact that the two of them were never going to be able to coexist peacefully again? Would their auras try to wind into each other and once again strengthen their bond?
She doubted it. She would never stop doubting it. This was part of the price that the two of them had paid when they'd been created.
They were imperfect progenitors for what would become mankind. They'd been created in the images of gods that no longer had interest in the world and their creations. Salem acted as a proxy for a god of Darkness, while Ozpin played the role of the god of Light.
They weren't good at what they did, though. They were imperfect replacements.
Salem could never make Grimm on masse the way that the god had. While it may have been her purpose to do as her god would have wanted, to go ahead and roll back the clock on Remnant itself, she knew that she could never do it as well as she wanted.
Ozpin was meant to protect the world and create. Ozpin couldn't wave a hand and make plants and animals spawn seemingly from nothing. It was a role that couldn't be played by anyone without great magic or something much greater.
Forever, the two of them would remain diametrically opposed.
That alone made it more of an insult that the two of them were technically mean to be soul mates. They'd been made for each other, after all. Salem feared to know what could happen if they were to breed.
Not that it would ever happen.
When the world ended, Salem was sure that the two would continue to struggle onwards towards a future of sorts. If she ever fulfilled her goals and reset the world to its default state, then Salem was sure that their current conflict would switch.
Ozpin would go on the offense, trying to tear down the new world that she'd built in her image.
The men that they kept at their sides would one day perish. One day, Tyrian, Watts, and Hazel would pass on. One day, Cinder would die and the magic that now thrived within her would leave her body for someone else.
Salem didn't know where the maiden's power would go.
She supposed that in a way it wasn't going to matter. Perhaps it was best to let the power of the maidens become fair game once again. They were tools, after all.
The relics would hopefully remain in her control, until it was time to make things interesting again, in which case Salem wasn't opposed to watching things fall piece by piece.
Would she know when Ozpin got near for them? Would their auras blend together in ways that they traditionally weren't supposed to? Would they ignite into colors as they clashed?
Salem didn't know.
She supposed that in theory, it would be possible for her to take some comfort in the ability to sense Ozpin's aura. Whether or not she would feel it close to her again in a manner which wasn't based in conflict was a large question, but Salem had accepted that.
This was their fate.
Forever they would toil on, clashing endlessly in a war over a world that had no awareness of their greater struggle.
But for now, Salem supposed she could live with a stalemate, even if it had to be with her theoretical soulmate.
She and Ozpin had plenty of time to continue their fight, after all. They had eternities.
And perhaps, once or twice every couple hundred years or so, the two of them would be allowed to connect in aura, and possibly in something more.