AN:
Here it is: part one of the final battle for Remnant. Get hyped bois!
00000
Chapter 38
Salem knew what the Vex wished to attain on Remnant and as much as she despised this pitiful world and its denizens, she must not let them reach their goal or it will bring about her downfall as well. That old foolish Wizard did sacrifice himself to keep the artifact from falling into the wrong hands (namely hers) and sealed it away with the last of his powers after all.
With the many safeguards and locks that Monty Oum had placed on himself, Salem needed the power of the Four Maidens and the relic in Ozpin's possession to reach the artifact, which was why she needed Cinder Falls to be the Fall Maiden but the Vex had proven that they didn't need any of those when they effortlessly broke the tomb in a short period of time.
It pained the Grimm Witch to admit it but her nemesis, the White Rose was correct. The Vex was the more dangerous threat and they needed to be dealt with poste haste.
Salem couldn't help the twinge that resembled amusement blossoming in her chest. It was a twisted sense of irony that the fate of the world rested in her hands and for once, she wasn't trying to raze it to the ground but save it.
But her children were only delaying the Vex. If Salem didn't do anything soon to shift the tides, then all will be lost. She couldn't trust her human pawns to do this since they were preoccupied so it would have to be dealt with personally.
The black robes that covered her body dispersed into black mist, exposing her pale and veiny flesh to the world before the bug-shaped ring on her right index finger began to glow. Tar-like substance flowed from the ring and slowly covered her entire right arm but it didn't stop there as it spread to the rest of her body until it wrapped around her from head to toe.
Skeletal plates with red tribal eye designs emerged from the black substance around her torso, hands, forearms and shins and they formed into rudimentary armour that protected those parts of her body from harm much like the same armour that her children bore. To complete the look, a mask resembling the human skull was molded on her face and her white hair poured out behind her until it reached her ankles, giving it a cape-like appearance while six sharp black horns protruded from the back of her head, reminiscent to a crown.
Her transformation was complete.
Salem raised her hand and flexed her fingers. They too had changed for they were now long claws that were sharp enough to tear through any matter of armour. She was also much stronger and faster in this form. In spite of her lithe appearance, she could now endure almost any punishment and then quickly heal from the ones that managed to truly wound her.
The Grimm Witch had not used this form in over a decade back when the White Rose first challenged her and it would serve its purpose now as well.
Salem bent down in a crouch to gather strength before leaping tremendously high into the air, leaving a crater where she previously stood. Once she reached the apex of her ascent, one of her eldest children capable of flight swooped in and caught her upon its back. With a simple mental command from Salem, the massive Grimm that the humans called a Nevermore flew its mistress to the island where the four Kingdoms first declared their fragile peace as the rest of its brethen followed shortly after.
The Vex will learn that Salem was not one to be crossed with.
Upon the back of her creation, it didn't take long for Salem to arrive at the island that held much more history than humankind was aware of. The Vex immediately set their sights on her and her children the moment they arrived and the cyborgs wasted no time to fire upon the other race of Darkness.
Her mount was one of the first to die as it took the brunt of a purple energy bolt, detonating in its face. As it died, Salem absorbed its essence for her own and two protrusions bursted out of her back revealing themselves to be pitch black wings like the ones that her winged children possessed.
Falling through the air, Salem curled her newly formed wings around her to quicken her descent and to make her a smaller target. She twirled through the air before spreading her wings out to abruptly stop her fall and she began to soar over the Vex as her children tore into the cyborgs' frontlline.
Her wings were akin to the most honed blades of Huntsmen as they effortlessly sliced through waves of Vex. The only ones that could withstand her razor sharp appendages were the Minotaurs but her claws were not just for show as it rendered heavy infantry unit into scrap.
Salem raised her wings in front of her to act as a shield from the numerous plasma bolts heading towards her. Unlike her children, her wings were actually capable of withstanding a direct hit from the Vex's weapons but they could not last for long under such heavy fire. Eventually, her wings reached their limit and quickly fell apart but they still had some use left as she grabbed handfuls of the jet black feathers and threw them at a group of Goblins, skewering them in multiple places.
Nearby, the Grimm Witch sensed one of her boar-shaped children perish. Reaching out towards the Boarbatusk, she absorbed its essence and an additional layer of armour appeared on her back. She rolled into a ball and started to spin forward along her spine. She charged into Vex after Vex, smashing them into pieces until a Minotaur materialzed in her path and gave her spinning form a mighty backhand.
The extra layer of armour on her back shattered into pieces as she was sent flying only to be caught by a Beringuel. Not waiting for it to die, she took the gorilla-shaped Grimm's essence for her own and fell to her knees with no visible changes to her form. The same Minotaur that knocked her back materialized next to her and attempted to punch her but she easily caught it, creating a shockwave that broke the ground. Cracking her neck, Salem pulled back her other fist and punched the Minotaur, shattering it in one blow.
Humans were not the only ones that could be resourceful.
Feeling her temporary augmented strength leave her, Salem let out a vicious smile from under her mask. It had been so long since she had felt the thrill of battle. To feel your enemies crumble beneath you and watch the light fade from their eyes. Not since Summer Rose, did she ever had such stimulation. It almost made Salem regret the White Rose's death but necessity won out in the end.
The Vex didn't give her the same ecstasy as slaughtering humans did but she was going to enjoy every moment as she vanquished every last cyborg.
00000
The trip to the island of Vytal was quick and yet very uncomfortable. The inside of the Cloud Errant may have been bigger than what the exterior would suggest but it was still designed for one person, two at most to be comfortable. With four fully grown people cramped together, it was not a pleasant situation to be in.
At least for the three passengers since they were forced to hold onto the walls while the one piloting the jumpship sat snugly in the only chair. It didn't help that Summer did flips and barrel rolls manuevers just for the sake of annoying the Branwen twins.
The Guardian still hadn't forgiven Qrow for talking smack about her piloting skills and Raven became her most hated nemesis when the masked woman told her that she preferred raisin cookies over chocolate chip cookies (that monster!). Taiyang Xiao Long was just an unfortunate casualty in the Hunter's vengeance.
They also couldn't do a thing to her since she was the only one capable of piloting the ship.
Taking pity on the Xiao Long patriarch, Summer eventually decided to stop torturing the Branwen twins and made straight for Vytal. She had her Ghost find a good spot that's far away from Vex surveillance and yet close enough to drop off Team STRQ near their destination.
"Sweet merciful ground!" Taiyang rejoiced as he laid down on solid earth, more than glad to be off the ship. Watching her former lover kissing the ground, the Guardian wanted to say that the Branwen twins were more dignified than the old yellow dragon but she would have been lying.
Qrow was bent over with his hand pressed against a tree, expelling the contents of his stomach while Raven tore her mask off and did the same. Even though they have long been estranged, they still shared a synchronization that most twins were borned with as shown when they threw their guts out in the same manner and at the exact same time, notwithstanding the fraction of a second that it took for Raven to remove her mask.
"I swear to god that you're five years old," the black haired woman glared at the Guardian with utmost loathing after wiping the trace bits of vomit from her mouth.
"Seven and a half years old actually," Summer corrected absentmindedly as she pulled out Patience and Time to survey the area. Team STRQ was set down on a particularly high vantage point.
"Seven and a half?" Raven repeated vacantly before her eyes widened at what her leader said when the words finally sunk in, "Seven and a half!?"
The red eyed woman wasn't the only one who was surprised as the other two members of Team STRQ incrudelously stared at the reddish black haired Guardian. Suddenly, her lack of knowledge about the inner workings of sex finally made sense but they still had a few questions as why Summer said she was around seven years old.
"Guardians don't count the age that they had in their past lives because they hardly have any memory of them," the Ghost deemed it appropriate to explain as he spoke through their earsets, "The same goes for the time that they spent dead since it's difficult to discern how long that time period was especially when only bones remained."
"So that means Summer spent over two years rotting until you found her and brought her back to life," Qrow surmised before washing out the taste of puke with his most favorite drink in the world: booze.
"And she spent the next years as a so-called Guardian," Raven concluded as she placed the Nevermore mask back over her face, "Thus making her by your standards, seven years old."
"And making Taiyang here a pedophile if he tries to make a move on Summer," the scythe-master added in his head as he spared the shellshocked man in question a glance.
"It also doesn't help that she has the mental maturity of one," Drei rolled his lone eye, "If it wasn't for her many accomplishments over the years, then no one would have taken her seriously."
Taiyang wanted to ask what Summer accomplished during her time away from Remnant but Summer interrupted their line of thought with a report.
"I can see the Vex spire up ahead," the Guardian informed them as she zoomed in on the massive Vex structure, "Whatever they're here for must be pretty important with the forces they have stationed here."
"What are we up against?" Taiyang inquired as he switched to explosive rounds for his dual-ranged shotgun. From what Summer had told them of, the Vex preferred to keep their distance and his standard shotgun shells just weren't going to cut it so the added range and power of his explosive rounds were the most suited against the Vex.
"Let's see…there's the standard Goblin and Hobgoblin units with dozens of Minotaurs," she began to list down before letting out a low whistle, "And several Cyclopes posted around the perimeter. Damn, they're not messing around."
"Oh," a certain scene caught her eye, "It looks like we're not the only ones here to fight the Vex."
Peering through Patience and Time's scope, Summer watched the many creatures of Grimm tear into the ranks of Goblins and Minotaurs before they were cut down by Solar and Void bolts. The Grimm would have been a disadvantage but they made it up by dozens of times more numerous than the Vex that were here.
"I didn't think there's enough space on this island for this many Grimm to show but this could actually be used to our advantage if we play our cards right," Summer noted to herself before something else caught her attention, "Is that a…Grimm? I didn't know there were human shaped ones."
The Branwen twins froze at what the Guardian said. They both knew that there was only one human shaped Grimm in existence and her presence was definitely not a good thing for anyone.
"Salem," Qrow muttered under his breath as he reflexively reached for his recently-repaired scythe.
"Who's Salem?" Summer asked, pulling her gaze away from the battle occurring below. From a trained warrior's perspective (namely hers), the Grimm and the Vex were locked in a stalemate that only needed one more push to shift the scale to either side.
The dusty old crow was not sure if he should tell his leader who Salem was since he didn't know how Summer would react. Unfortunately for him, his twin sister saw it fit to inform the Guardian to Salem's identity while he was still busy mulling it over.
"We suspect that Salem's the one controlling the Grimm and maybe even created them," Raven said, focusing on the young Hunter's face to see how she would take this new information, "She's also the one that killed you."
Taiyang and Qrow tensed at that last statement, although for different reasons. Taiyang was beyond furious to learn the identity of the one responsible for Summer's death and he was ready to pay this 'Salem' back in kind. Qrow, on the other hand, was pissed at his sister for handling such a delicate situation so bluntly. That was supposed to be his thing!
Summer for her part, simply said nothing but peered through the scope of her sniper rifle once more to observe her supposed murderer. She gave no clear indication of reacting to this revelation and one who was not familiar with her would assume that she was indifferent to it but it was far from the case.
The Guardian had an idea on how she died from all the nightmares that she had about the Grimm but she had assumed that it was just another case of someone finally running out of luck before their demise. As it turned out though, her life was never so simple even before her induction into the ranks of Guardians.
Finger now resting on the trigger of her gun, Summer watched this Salem character plunge her claws into a Minotaur's chest before spreading her arms wide, ripping the Vex heavy unit in half. The human-like Grimm spun on her heel and cleaved a Goblin into two. She grabbed the remains of the Minotaur that she had killed earlier and used its dead body to block a round from a Hobgoblin before hurling it towards the sniper. The body was thrown so hard that it pulverised any caught in its path before it finally smashed into its target so violently.
From her perch, the young Hunter could tell that this Salem was very dangerous but sheer amount of Vex was beginning to overwhelm the Grimm Witch. A small lapse in attention could mean the death of this being of Darkness. Like a high caliber round from a sniper rifle that was designed to hunt and kill beings several magnitudes more dangerous than the Grimm.
The distance between her and the target was great but it was still a shot that she could make. It was only a matter of if she should take the shot and potentially eliminate a threat that had plagued Remnant for decades, possibly centuries.
Then there was the fact that this was personal.
Summer wasn't mad at Salem for killing her. No, she had learned to accept her first death for a long time now so she held no grudges for being killed by the Grimm Witch. What the Guardian was actually mad at Salem for was that she took away a loving mother from the two sweet girls she had come to care for.
But this Salem was doing her best to stop the Vex. Her intentions may not be pure but Remnant needed all of the help that they could get.
Was revenge really worth more than the fate of her former homeworld?
Making her decision, Summer cocked PT, set her sights and squeezed the trigger. In an instant, the bullet burrowed into the torso of her target, making it explode with its life fluid splashing out everywhere. It wasn't long after till it was upon by the enemy, reducing any chance of survival to zero.
There were a lot of things that she came to regret in her life. Hopefully, this won't be one of them.
00000
Well, that was an anti-climatic end for the main villain of RWBY. Or was it?