Oscar ran his life, dodging debris as the Grimm Ultralisk tore the abandoned barn serving as his hideout apart. He knew that the Beowolves and Zerglings could sense his fear, but Ozpin was claiming that there was a way out not far from here.
They had seemed so close to victory despite the panic caused by the reveal of the Grimm's queen, only for her to reveal that everything had been according to her design.
It had started a year ago. With the Zerg's help Vale had secured an area to construct a new CCT, and after a long pause the Zerg's representative had agreed to provide protection to a news crew broadcasting the liberation of Vale. The Queen said that her superior believed it was a bad idea, but if the sight would bring hope, so be it.
What people saw brought shock and horror.
Entire buildings were possessed by Geists, becoming lumbering horrors that it took multiple Ultralisks to bring down. Deathstalkers charged through the streets, carrying Beowolves on their backs and delivering them to the front lines. Griffins and Sea Dragons soared through the air, and Mutalisks and Corrupters dropped like colossal flies, crushing anything beneath them.
But only the Zerg left remains.
Normally the Zerg could consume the Grimm for biomass, but these dissipated into dark smoke the moment they suffered a killing blow. Oscar remembered being confused by that, and Ozpin expressing some concern.
But then the feed was hijacked.
At first there was nothing, but then there was a voice. Oscar couldn't remember the words they said, but they had frightened Ozpin. The camera panned up and revealed the frozen dragon, providing much of the world it's first view of such a large Grimm. But far more unsettling was the smoke. The remnants of fallen Grimm gathered and swirled around it, pressing and sliding off some intangible barrier only to try again.
More and more smoke accumulated as the sounds of battle drew closer and then the barrier shattered and the hulking monstrosity breathed.
It shrieked to the heavens and stretched its wings, the effort causing one drop of its darkness to fall to the rooftop and coalesced into a newborn Beowolf.
The bellowing and screeching of the Zerg and the yelps of dying Grimm drew closer. The dragon turned toward the sounds and snarled.
"No. Not this time."
The voice was now clear and smooth as an ice sculpture, and all the more unsettling because the dragon looked toward the speaker. The camera turned now as well, revealing her to the world for the first time.
"Salem." Ozpin had breathed.
Her skin was white as snow, but covered in veins black as night. Her hair was off-white bordering on gray and held in an ornate style with black ribbons. She wore a dress or perhaps a robe that was jet black with red trim. She appeared to have an onyx embedded in the center of her forehead. But most disturbing by far were her eyes: vertical pupils set within a red iris and black sclera. She looked like a demon.
She looked like a Grimm.
Ozpin said something at that point. Oscar didn't know what it was. He was too busy experiencing terror at the existence of a human Grimm. He wanted to deny it – he'd actually been well on his way to convincing himself that he was having a nightmare – but then the dragon lowered its head from off screen for her to pet like a dog and he just knew that his mind could not create such a moment.
"I must admit, I'm rather impressed with you humans and your kingdoms. I expected my Grimm to break you completely after I orchestrated the fall of Vale and the framing of Atlas. Instead you've gone and found an ally more ferocious than anything I've ever seen. I give credit where it is due: you are single minded in your pursuits and strong when united." She paused and looked outward, presumably at the battle. "And now it is my kingdom on the edge of oblivion. No matter. I will not skulk in the shadows to be hunted like an animal. If you truly want to end the long war, come to my domain. I will be waiting. Come Cinder!"
The camera turned briefly to reveal that the dragon was waiting, its wing held stiff like a ramp, allowing Salem and Cinder to climb astride it.
The feed cut out, and resumed as normal. The airborne Grimm were holding the line to cover their queen's escape, and the Grimm on the ground were retreating. Moments later an Overlord landed on the old CCT and a humanoid figure emerged, seemingly inspecting something etched into the ruined roof.
A map with an X marking a location on the forbidden northwestern continent.
"This is a trap," Ozpin said. "It must be. She would never reveal herself unless she had already won. We've got to warn someone, anyone, everyone!" By the end he was almost hysterical.
In the present, Oscar put some well-honed survival skills to the test, leaping from dead tree to dead tree to avoid Creep-saturated ground.
"You're almost there Oscar. There are powerful concealment spells on the hideout, her forces cannot have discovered it."
And then a shadow moved through the air and knocked him to the ground face first. Creep added some cushion, but it was still painful, to say nothing of the horrible taste.
Oscar started pushing himself to his feet, aware that he needed to get moving, only for the area around him to suddenly illuminate. He turned slightly, only catching a glimpse of flaming blonde hair and crimson eyes before a sudden pain and darkness.
Oscar groaned as he stirred. His head throbbed harder than it ever had in his life.
"Awake now, Ozpin? I must apologize for Yang. Even though I know otherwise, sometimes I think she doesn't know her own strength."
His eyes opened – well, one of them, the other was apparently swollen shut – but he could see now, and more importantly feel.
He was in some kind of dark fleshy room, bound, there was some kind of illumination he could not place, but there was truly only one thing to see as his chin was grabbed and his head angled upward.
Salem, queen of the Grimm and the Zerg.
"P-please, my name's not Ozpin, it's–"
"Quiet! It doesn't matter who you are, because I can see and hear the other soul hiding behind your eyes. You are a hard soul to track down Ozpin."
Ozpin said nothing, not that Oscar could hear, and apparently nothing that Salem could either.
"You're probably wondering why you're still alive – why I'm delaying my journey to the stars. After all, I've already won. Remnant is mine and mine alone, the Maidens serve me, as does your last silver-eyed warrior, and even your precious relics belong to me."
She paused, basking in an imagined response.
"There is no sense in keeping secrets from the dead, so I'll let you in on one: no matter your form, I have always wanted to see the look on your face when you experience true despair."
Oscar could not stop himself from trembling as the ruler of Remnant took his head in her hands: "I want you to get a first-hand look at this."
Oscar screamed as memories began rushing into his mind, and moments later Ozpin's voice joined him, Salem's laughter accompanying him into the abyss as the seeds of Remnant's destruction took shape in their mind's eye.
Their first memory was of taking a bite out of a Grimm and knowing immediately that something was wrong, but being overcome by a compulsion to continue eating it. In the background they could hear the sounds of people murmuring and asking questions, only to be silenced by a roar before resuming one at a time.
In a detached way, Oscar experienced a strange feeling of familiarity as Ozpin recognized the voice of Nora Valkyrie, shortly followed by Ruby Rose.
Soon after, he heard the name of the creature whose eyes and ears they were experiencing: Ruhtaba.
They heard the voice of Jaune Arc command the creature, apparently a Zerg Evolution Master, to study the nature of Grimm, but from that moment the Arc Brood was the Salem Brood and they both knew it.
They now saw a different perspective, a Seer's, as the jellyfish-like Grimm reported to Salem not just of Ruhtaba's corruption, but of the steady trickle of knowledge about the Zerg and their leader coming from the Evolution Master. They watched as the Grimm queen digested this information and concocted a new plan.
Directing Ruhtaba personally through her Seers, Salem commanded him to subtly subvert Jaune Arc's campaign. The Evolution Master found what parts of the Grimm' essence controlled their link to the Seers and placed them in all Zerg from that point. As Zerg of every form spawned, the network of spies grew until Salem knew everything there was to know about team RWBY, team JNPR, and the newly formed team RNJR.
Jaune wanted revenge on Cinder Fall – justice for Pyrrha Nikos – and Ruby Rose was Ozpin's long awaited "simple soul" and silver-eyed warrior. The path to victory had always been clear to Salem, but this information provided her the means with which to truly make Ozpin burn.
It was one of the new Seer-bound Queens that suggested the liberation of Vale, with Ruhtaba providing support, saying that the dragon would have powerful essence.
Salem elected to be there to unite the four kingdoms. Once she would have feared such an alliance, but here the perfect trap had fallen into her lap. Her appearance would sow terror and desperation even as it fostered unity among her enemies.
But Jaune Arc's brilliantly strategic mind had more input than Salem would have ever dreamed. He remembered the Evolution Master's claim that Auras were related to psionics and commanded Ruhtaba to create a serum that would not infect anyone, but could boost the Auras and Semblances of Hunters and Huntresses.
"No…" Ozpin groaned. "No…"
At Salem's command, Ruhtaba succeeded beyond either Jaune or Salem's wildest dreams. The serum would indeed boost an Aura and a Semblance… but it would also bind them the Seers, and through them Salem herself, and the Zerg's infectious nature was so rapid when ingested that no one was any wiser. The drinkers were infested and commanded to act normally too quickly for any Atlesian scientist to uncover the truth.
The prospect of a future without Grimm – a happy ending for the entire world – was a siren song too strong for most to ignore. Even Hunters in training answered the call to arms and drank the serum.
Finally, a combined fleet of all of Remnant's militaries led by Hunters and Zerg landed on the continent.
Grimm died in droves but were instantly replaced by ten more of their kind. Salem knew that reinforcements were waiting to deploy at the first sign of trouble. This entire battle was an act, but it needed to look convincing.
"Please, make it stop!"
Hours and millions of Grimm, Zerg, human, and Faunus lives later every single one of Salem's enemies was in combat. The losses of Tyrian, Hazel, Watts, Cinder, Mercury, and Emerald were regrettable, but acceptable. Cinder's death at the hammer of Nora Valkyrie actually saved Salem some time.
Regardless, at that moment she sprang her trap.
The Zerg formed dark cocoons and emerged seconds later wearing the colors of Grimm, and they began tearing apart the Paladins and airships they had previously been fighting alongside. Hunters and Huntresses suddenly switched sides, ripping, crushing, and generally massacring their former allies.
The play-battle had taken hours. The massacre had taken minutes.
Jaune Arc had been murdered by his own infested friends. His essence was already catalogued in the Zerg's genetic memory, and he had played his part.
Her enemies now dead, Salem had moved into phase two of her new plan. Collecting the Maidens' powers.
Nora Valkyrie was infested, and as Cinder's killer she had become the Fall Maiden. By luck, the Winter Maiden had been in the battle, but unaware of her powers. Salem had her killed by the infested Weiss Schnee. That meant that the Spring and Summer maidens were unaware civilians, and Ozpin was out there hiding among them as well.
Salem set the unified Grimm Zerg loose upon Remnant as Ruhtaba – now black with white pustules and red eyes – set about changing Salem into a proper Zerg queen.
With the Overseer upgrades from Jaune, finding the Spring and Summer maidens had been trivially easy. Yang Xiao Long became the Summer Maiden by snapping her predecessor's neck, and Blake Belladonna became the Spring Maiden by garroting hers.
Through these choices, Salem rubbed salt into Ozpin's wounds. The team he'd hoped would be lead to victory by his "simple soul" all served her now. Ruby Rose had no maiden powers, but she had silver-eyes, and as someone with a soul she could wield the relics once they were found. All other Hunters and Huntresses were trophies – spoils of war and elite soldiers for the day that the Grimm ventured into the heavens.
"And that is the expression I have been dying to see."
Oscar snapped back to awareness and immediately wished that he hadn't. Rather than Salem, he was now face to face with the Grimm Ruhtaba, and he had an inkling that he knew what was coming next.
"I don't care what happens to the boy one way or the other, but he must be kept alive until you've assured me that Ozpin has been expunged, do you understand Ruhtaba?"
"Organism Salem's instructions clear. Destroy entity Ozpin, mind and soul."
"Very good. Let me know if you're certain that you're about to eradicate him. If possible I'd like his last sight to be my first Leviathan."
The queen of the Grimm Zerg and destroyer of Remnant strode out, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, and Nora trailing behind her, leaving Oscar alone in the belly of the beast with Ruhtaba.
Author's Note: Please hold the torches and pitchforks for a moment and let me explain! Yes, this was dark, and yes, it is a bad ending for Remnant, but there is a method to my madness. I have been chatting with other authors and they have convinced me that Swarming the Multiverse has potential for an overarching plot. What you have just witnessed is the first piece of the board being set for a future story arc involving multiple Zerg Broods. And for those of you that really want to send me hate mail now, team RWBY didn't die – they just got brainwashed and forced to commit murder while assisting with planetary genocide. It may be dark, and possibly unsatisfying, but that is because this is not the end. Every ending carries the potential for a new beginning now.
Regardless of your reaction, I am pleased to announce the next chapter's candidate: Smaug!