Unknown Legends

by KTWizard

In a land he doesn't know, he is surrounded by things he can't understand. Rules, Government, Weapons, Schooling, even their Goals. They are all unknowns, but so is he to them. Link, and the memories of his friends. But there is one common rule between their world and his. The Unknown has the Advantage. So he will remain just that as long as he can. [Pre-Season 3, Min-Canon Change]

83. Condemned

Ruby ran with her Grandpa's legs, the air around them like blades against their shared Aura. She didn't stop though, Semblance pushing them even faster as they darted through the line of trees. Her mind was a whirlwind, thinking of the terror that was happening through Vale, and her Grandpa was swimming in memories, of Zelda, ands Salem, and the Fierce Deity. Neither of them were thinking about where to go.

'At the current velocity, we will encounter the last known coordinates of Blake Belladonna in forty-one seconds.' It was a bucket of ice to her turbulent mine.

'That's forty seconds too long.'

'It is now thirty-nine seconds.' Her Grandpa didn't let up their pace. Arm beat at the wind, and hands ripped past branches that got in their way. 'Velocity will have to be decreased when nearing the desired location.'

'Why?'

'Decrease the chances of being involved in the attacks of either the Fierce Deity or Salem.' The answer came with a rumble.

From the corner of their gaze, Ruby saw another wall of darkness rise, something akin to the how tall the highest buildings in Vale once were. It blotted out the stars in the way and let out another rumble across the ground. In the breath that followed, light ripped through it, turning the wall to chunks of darkness, then to a clouded mist that was taken in the silent breeze.

'Thirty seconds…' The reminder came. Then a request. 'Please hold.'

Ruby wanted to resist. Blake needed her. Her Grandpa, however, ground to a halt, feet sliding across the forest floor. Ruby was ready to yell in their mind that they had to hurry. That they had to find Blake, because that was where her dad and Raven were, then they would find Yang, then they could survive!

But that stopped when silver eyes rested on a trio of her friends, each of them staring at her.

"L-Link?" Pyrrha's voice shook with her eyes. Her jaw the same. "How you… oh… no," her voice fell with her gaze, tracing the red tunic she wore. "Ruby… that's you, isn't it?"

She wanted to speak, and scream that it was her, and then throw herself at them and be glad they were alive. But instead, with a curt nod from her Grandpa, she gave as much of an answer. Pyrrha gave another of her own.

"That's good… I-It's good you're alright." She looked over at Nora and Ren. They were both walking with shoulders hunched and… and Grandpa was noticing other things. Nora's eyes were red, Ren was holding her, or balancing her. Pyrrha was carrying the Mirror Shield and the Great Fairy Sword. Jaune was… Jaune…

Where is Jaune Arc?

The question from her Grandpa made the three flinch. Their reaction gave Ruby panic. It didn't help that her Grandpa thought of an old memory. Himself standing over the grave of a knight he had failed to save, buried among the dead. Sword in the ground and staring as rain pelted about him. It made Ruby scream in their mind.

'No! Not Jaune! Not him, too!' A flash of light from behind her wasn't even registered in her frazzled mind.

"It appears that Jaune Arc has been killed by Salem's attack. I off my sincerest apologies." The floating spirit bowed towards the group.

"Who… no, thank you." Ren shook his head with his words. "It is kind of you to say."

"It is, though I am trying to be sympathetic. He is not the only life that has been lost."

"Who else? Who… who else was killed?" The word made Ruby flinch now, even if Pyrrha said it like a husk.

"I have confirmed the death of Weiss Schnee, in the efforts of protecting Headmaster Ozpin." Nora let out a strangled noise, clinging tighter to Ren. Pyrrha was shaking, and Ruby felt like she was doing the same, but her Grandpa held them still. "I have high probabilities of other deaths, but we are currently enroute towards the last known location of Blake Belladonna."

"Blake? Why not… what about Yang?" The Invincible girl questioned. "I'm sorry, I know she's important but… Yang's your sister." Ruby knew the answer.

"Because Yang Xiao-Long is likely still alive, and was enroute towards the last known location of her father and mother. Blake was at this location, given her departure. Pursuing the latter ensures the union of all immediate parties."

"You mean you're… you're going back!?" Nora all but pushed off of Ren. The boy caught himself with the strength of it. "You're going back there?!"

"Incorrect. Going off of the 85% assumption there refers to the battle location of the Fierce Deity and Salem, we are not entering the grounds. The location of Blake Belladonna as significantly outside of their direct combat, but still within the range of possible danger."

A roar of darkness came up again, making the trees shiver. Pyrrha and Grandpa put up shields, on instinct, only to watch the imposing darkness curve through the air like tendrils. And in the next moment, light soared through the air, severing it again. Her real Grandpa, tearing it back down into mist.

"The likelihood of her being within combat range increases with each passing moment. Therefore, in order to prevent chances from dipping below 50%, we must begin pursuit again." They weren't the kindest words, but Ruby got it. Grandpa really got it. He leaned down, ready to push off.

"Wait! WAIT!" But Nora jumped in the way, Megaton Hammer almost swinging in their face. "You're going near there, right?! Isn't that close enough? We have to go back then!" Ruby felt the ball twist in her gut. Her Grandpa stood to relieve it.

"Nora-"

"NO!" The girl shoved him away, standing with cracked red eyes and shaking the heaviest weapon Grandpa had ever held. "Jaune's gone! Weiss's gone! A-And others... others are probably gone, too! We're supposed to stick together a-a-and help and... and we're not doing that!"

"We can't help, not against that. You know-"

"I know we're not kids anymore!" Her hammer swung down and blew away a tree, roots, and all. It didn't make Ruby flinch. "We're not going to run! We can't run! We have to help! I-I don't care if something happens to me, but-"

"I care if something happens to you!"

"And someone will care if something happens to them!" Nora swung her hand out. She motioned towards the ruins of darkness.

Light ripped up from it, tearing through the sky and shadows once more. Ruby felt her Grandpa set his teeth, and she could hear Pyrrha tightening her grip on the Great Fairy Sword. She could hear her... and she was doing the same to Fi.

"M-Maybe it's dangerous, a-a-and stupid! But it's what we should do!"

"It is not an intelligent decision to-"

"I don't care!" Nora roared back. Then she pointed at her Grandpa. "And I know you don't care either!" No... pointing at Ruby herself. She blinked; her Grandpa's silver eyes. "Jaune... Jaune told us about how your Semblance works! You feel bad things coming and you... you help them! That's how it works!"

It did, but Ruby didn't say a word. Her Grandpa didn't force her.

"So you know bad things are going to happen. You know that whatever happens, bad things are gonna happen! They're bad and… and we can't just run away now! That'll leave nothing good left!"

"It is not an intelligent-"

"I'm not trying to be smart! That's was J-Jaune's job!" The orange-haired girl shrieked. Grandpa shut his eyes, and Ruby was thankful. Or else the bit of red would have shown about her silver gaze. "A-And he's gone. He was also smart, and he made things fun, and we fought better a-and… and if we run, we'll be throwing it all away!"

"How… How are we doing that?" Pyrrha's voice shook.

"Because this will all be gone!" The hammer swung with her voice. "All of it! Even I know it! Just look! LOOK!" She pointed to the city's ruined horizon.

The rips of light that silently flew into the air cut through the roar of darkness. Darkness that was rising, growing, and stretching beyond the city's limits now. It was becoming larger… and her real Grandpa wasn't fighting it all back. Why… why wasn't he doing that?

"Whatever bad stuff is happening, it's not going to stop. It's going to spread and fall from the sky again and… just swallow it all over again!" The ground shook as she slammed her hammer down. Her Grandpa didn't blink, even if Ruby wanted to bend their knees. "So we can't run! Not again!"

"In comparison to the strength shown by the Salem and the Fierce Deity, we-"

"I know! I know we're not strong enough! But if we run now, then… then there will be no chance! Am I wrong?" Fi did not answer. "Tell me!?"

"I am curious as well," Ren asked, stepping next to his partner. "What are the chances of us succeeding in a future battle, if the Fierce Deity were to fall." Ruby's silver eyes looked at Fi. Her Grandpa blinked in thought as well.

"… … If Salem succeeds in extracting the power of Destruction from the Fierce Deity, there is a 0% chance of survival in the future."

"And if we fight now?" Pyrrha was leaning forward.

"… … … … 0.001%."

No chance in either direction. That was what Ruby heard. So small a chance that she knew it would be like firing a thousand bullets just to have a 1% chance of hitting the target, and a hundred thousand to have a good chance of hitting it. She thought she was going to imagine a bullet flying through the air, a hundred thousand of them.

Instead, her Grandpa remembered an event from his past. Standing before Majora, that mask on the face of a Skull Child, and in the body of a wooden creature. The Deku Scrub, so weak that it could only spit. He had no chance of beating him. But if he ran, the moon would fall.

'It's the same as back then.' She thought of a hand waving, and knew it was her Grandpa's thought. 'It is the same.' A confirmation of a thumb in her head.

"So either we run and are guaranteed to die sometime later, or we fight now… and very likely die." Ren nodded slowly, adjusting the monocle. "I suppose that makes our choice obvious, doesn't it?" His grin was somber. Pyrrha reflected.

"It does." The Invincible girl, looking so much like her namesake with the Great Fairy Sword and Mirror Shield, looked to Ruby. "Sorry, but we are going back. Even if the chances are small, they're our chances."

Ruby looked at them all and smiled. Her Grandpa joined her.

"This course of action is not the wisest. The probability of success Is low, and the risk of death is higher."

"That's true, but I know Jaune wouldn't run away from this." Pyrrha glowed with her response. "I might not be as brave as he was, but I can try to be." Now her Grandpa nodded, and Ruby followed the action.

"My disagreement with the current course of actions is known, but I will not intervene. Please follow my suggestions, and I will best guide us all safely towards the battle. Master Link, please gasp Pyrrha Nikos's hand." Grandpa nodded, holding out a hand for Pyrrha. The girl took it. "Pyrrha Nikos, please do the same for Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie." Ren and Nora took her other hand tightly. "Ruby Rose, you may now run to our previously determined destination."

"Previously? But we-"

"As previously stated, the last known location of Blake Belladonna is located significantly within the combat radius of the Fierce Deity and Salem. It is unlikely we will avoid direct confrontation."

Her Grandpa grinned, and she heard Ren chuckle behind her.

Then, with a flurry of petals, they were off.

---

He was starting to fail. It was faster than he thought. Time was meant to be on his side, but here he was facing the embodiment of Creation's Space. And what she desired was an end to all that she had made, and he had come to adore. She knew this, he knew she did, but there was nothing he could do.

And though it had only been scant hours since they had started to fight, it was following her creation running through the void of his person, and slowly taking him from the cycle of her creation. He was losing himself to the creation now, and his strength was beginning to wane.

But it was not reason to stop fighting.

A cry ripped out of him as he swung his helical sword down, the soundless slash tearing through the roars of her creation and sending them to nothingness once more. Silver eyes scanned the mist he had created, looking for her red eyes, but found nothing in return.

"The light is fading, but my darkness is growing." The void was easier to hear. "If it continues, it will swallow up all that is in this world, then nothing will be able to exist. Nothing can be created when there is no room to grow. It must be destroyed for the things to begin again."

He had no need to breath, but the arrow punctured through him forced creation to leave him in gasps. The growth of it was so minor no human eye would likely be able to detect it, but for a being that was purely nothing, anything that overcame him was obvious. His strength kept him from being swallowed, unlike the countless others his former love had killed, but that did not make him immune.

For now, his strength was fading, and Salem was beginning to capitalize.

TWANG! It was obvious when arrows started to fly at him with radical speeds. No longer flinging themselves into the air to fall randomly but delivered with purpose. His blade caught them as they flew, but each one came closer than the next, and they were spread out through Time, making their prediction solely dependent upon what he felt. Feeling that was slowly being lost.

"It isn't too late. It never is between you and I." Salem's voice flowed like molasses from the void. "I am here for you, and I have always adored you. Even now I act only to ensure there is new creation to correct my mistakes. I have made this clear. It isn't your fault you lack Wisdom, you who are nothing but destruction. Can you not see the inevitability?"

He could. He could see the certainty of his end.

BAM! His blade flung out towards a pocket of darkness, hosting more arrows. He saw the flash of red vanish into more pits of shadows. Salem's voice hummed in response.

"Perhaps you do not still."

"I do." He countered breathlessly. "But why does that matter?" The question made the shadows shiver.

"Why does your sure death matter? Are you saying you wish to die?"

"No." He stared coldly into the still darkness, hoping for even a speck of red. "I am saying it has nothing to do with surrendering." Out of the corner of his silver eyes, behind the glow of his sword, he saw it.

TWAAAANG! The blade screamed as he ripped it, only to be swallowed by a vacuum of silence just after. He paid it no mind. All his attention was on the empty corpse the arc of light had bisected. It, and the flow of robes that dove out of the way. He moved as nothing would allow.

Foot in front of Salem, hand still to his own chest, he slammed the hilt against, finally making impact with her body. The Goddess of Creation let out a noise of pain as she stumbled back, light rippling through her. His heel spun, longsword shredding the air towards her. But like eggshells in water, she flowed around the blade as it neared.

Her body fell to the ground, rising behind his arc. Memories of his avatar were in him, and he spun around again, letting out a cry as the light of the blade grew heavier. Once more he struck out at her, this time hitting the ground. He missed her, the Queen of the Grimm already jumping into the shadows and flying away. The ground did not survive.

His light sailed through it cleaner than water through pipes. The darkness was evaporated and the charred and beaten earth ripped upward. No sound came from the swing, but the groan as the earth fell the inches deep, he made forced the earth to rumble. Not just feet in front of him, but from the edge of the field they fought on to the surrounding forest. It was enough to ruin an army.

It didn't matter, because he missed.

"Nothing… knowing you will lose does not mean to give up to you? Is this the foolishness that is born of courage?"

"No, it's the strength you do not see." He did not look for her now. "I watched them, Salem. I watched them struggle against the impossible even when they would die. I watched them rage against fires you made and storms you sowed. I watched them fight against demons you marked and climb canyons you dug. I watched them fight against the impossible, and I watched them fail."

"I am not a fool, my love. Evidenced by my love for you. You do not love them for failing, nor for being weak."

"No. I adore them for creating what broke impossibilities. I love them for failing, then succeeding. The sureness of failure encouraged them, it did not stop them." The Blade of Destruction glowed in his hand. The breeze around him fell to nothing as it tried to drift over his blade. "And it will not stop me."

"I did not think it would." Arrows flew again. He struck them down just as quickly. "But I did not imagine that was how your mind thought. I will confess, I thought you only unable to dream up a new action aside from confronting me. The hatred of voids and space, as these humans say." Her laughter was filled with mirth, and it was muffled by the swinging of his blade. "But I cannot pretend to know all of your thoughts, only the most obvious."

The Fierce Deity took a step back as darkness churned beneath him. Spears and spires rose, and the casual tracing through the opaque shadows cut them off at their roots. They tumbled into mist, and more arrows of darkness struck through their collapsing frames. He stabbed forward past one, attempting to trace the flight of the tool. He was rewarded with an empty eyeless set of robes on the other end, falling away to the same nothingness as all the others.

"I have heard tales of many stories about the limits of my creation. Did you know the humans think that I have limits? That I cannot create all, and the proof is the space between the stars?" She laughed even as he searched for red eyes. "A fallacy of trying to put to their level that which they cannot understand. Those who lack power, who lack wisdom, and most of all, courage."

"They are not lacking."

"No, I suppose not. They only dream up what they do not have. Pretending they have power with tools, pretending they have wisdom through stories, and imagining they have courage by fabricating trials. Your examples are things they were never meant to fight."

"They were also never meant to die."

"But they were, my love. It was why we created them together." In that moment, he took a breath.

In the miniscule fraction of a second that followed, a moment of time so small that the passing of light through a speck of dust would be considered slow, another arrow flew.

It slammed through his palm, stopping as it impacted the hilt of his blade.

A hoarse choke erupted form his lips, silver eyes staring hatefully down at the protruding shaft. Much smaller than the one jutting through him, smaller than even an average arrow, but already staining his tan gauntlets black. His hand already being lost to the pillars of creation.

"Not the prime target, but any goal requires taking a few extra steps. I suppose I just have to walk my way there." He felt the arrows coming again, and he swung out his blade.

It was heavy, vapid, slow, and only flickering with his light. The arrows were beaten away, but not ripped apart. They flew past his torso, vanishing into the same darkness that surrounded him. Laughter came with their departure. More arrows flew after them, and he twisted, beating them away again. All but one.

One that managed to strike at his leg. A cry of annoyance ripped through his sharp teeth. The darkness howled like a monsoon. There was no reprieve as arrows began to fly again.

This time, the Fierce Deity screamed back at them, staring, and letting the silver of his gaze swallow them up. They vanished with the darkness into the void, only his voice remaining. The twinkle of stars was all that was left as he let his power flourish.

BUNK! The dull sound of another arrow, another bolt, slamming into his back, was the first reminder that it was enough. The sight and sensation of the same dark arrow ripping out next to the first, scratching his hand and leaving him done through twice, showed the sorely coming defeat. The darkness continued to cheer around him.

His leg, darkness of creation consuming it, offered no strength. He fell, blade slipping from his consuming hand. Nothing broke his fall as he hit the dark laden dirt and rubble, gritting his teeth as creation poisoned him. His hand pulled at the bolt in his chest, only feeling it scrape against the other. Tendrils of creation pulled against his cuirass. Air was hard to suck in.

The darkness of Salem lifted up around him, ready to bare down on him like a monsoon. Once more he stared up at it, prone on the ground, and yelled. Light ripped silently through the air, taking the shadows with it. Not even mist fell away from the blow, and the portals of dark were filled with the emptiness of air. His head fell back, the destruction of his vision began to fill.

An arrow of darkness flew over his head. He hadn't known it was there before hand.

"I was aiming for your head. You fell faster than I would have thought." With a push against the arrows jutting from himself, he looked up to see Salem standing before him. Bow drawn, arrow dripping, red eyes peering down at him. "A pity, but I suppose now I can watch the last of your light leave your gaze."

She said nothing more. The bow string was loosened, and the arrow started to fly.

His own tool flew towards him, the product of his promise to help her, ready to take his own life. His eyes flickered with creation as he tried to stare it down, unable to focus on it. Unable to forget the creation that flowed through him now. His end was approaching.

THUNK! It struck home.

Against a suddenly raise shoot of wood.

"Hmm? I must say, the timing was impressive." Salem let out curiously, looking up into the sky. "I suppose I should not be surprised, with Time on your side. It was possible that you would confront me, just not as likely." The Fierce Deity, leaning on a punctured arm and with a broken body, followed her gaze.

He thought for a moment that Din had descended, against divine law, to confront her mother.

Instead, he was able to witness the flame ridden punch of Yang Xiao-Long beat away the shadows of creation.

---

"Get away from him!" Yang howled as she dove for Salem. Fiery fists made to burn her pale skin black.

Instead she hit a sudden wall of darkness, painting her fire in darkness. Teeth grit, she let the Maiden power burn through her, wood exploding from beneath her feet. It churned at the darkness, cutting it off, and severing the mush of mass that tried to swallow her. It fell apart against the bark, unable to stop her. The blonde made for Salem again.

Red eyes dispassionately watched her as she let infernos rage. The woman literally snapped her pale fingers. Darkness roared to life in front of her, pushing away the warmth of fire and flames. It would have smothered her.

But her eyes were also red, with rage.

"I said, get back!" She slammed her foot down. Fire flew from it like a volcano.

And from the charred earth came a forest of trees.

The darkness slammed against them, falling apart like slime thrown at the wall, then lit up like cinders. Yang charged through the bonfire of her own making, looking for red to match her eyes. She found it easily, settled above a short smile.

"Well, a young Sage has come to challenge a goddess of her own creation. Amusing as always."

"You've made nothing about me!" Yang wasn't about to hear it. She spun, cocking her elbow, and lighting up the ends of her fists. The end of her humerus slammed into the Queen of the Grimm, or what would have been her. Instead, she hit only darkness. "GRAAAGH!" She let her powers flow.

The wall of shadows was coated in flames, giving her time to jump back with the branches and trees.

"Clever, or lucky. It's always hard to tell which of the two in the midst of a fight. My love would have so much more luck with it then I would." The calm voice spoke out, even as Yang yelled. It didn't do much, as the darkness just about literally swallowed up her tree branches, flames and all, good thing she was so far away. And she was pissed.

"Don't need luck! Need you to take a step back and roast!" Yang threw her hands down. Fire erupted from the ground. Fire, spurned and fueled by branches and timber she was dragging up. It was like a literal bomb, something she'd been warned about lighting things on fire before.

It should have been hot enough to make things catch on fire with flash over.

This damned thing just let more of that dark water shit wash over it and burned them both away.

"No, you need far more than luck. A pity that this is what comes of those who are thrusted with power, and not offered a branch of wisdom to follow." Her pale hand reached out, red eyes staring over it. "It is one of the many things I intend to correct." Her finger snapped.

Darkness shot up from under Yang. She cursed, jumping, and literally shooting fire out from under her boots. She would've called it flying if she wasn't plummeting back towards the ground seconds later, but dozens of meters away. The woman turned torturously slow to regard her, grinning.

"Fast at least, though I can assume you possess less courage and more foolishness. It is the fine line my love defined, and you are mucking about over."

"Keep talking about your love, but I'm fighting for mine!" Yang had to keep her attention.

"Oh? I was not aware you had love for him as well." It was rage that kept the girl from blushing.

"Not him! My dad, my sister, and even my bitch of a mother! They're here and I'm not gonna let you're messed up attacks kill them!"

"If they were in my rain before, I dare to say they are already gone." Her gaze drifted away. "Though it is clear you are looking to keep my focus on you. A pity once more, than I have more knowledge and wisdom to know better than that." Her hand lifted. Yang cursed.

Neptune, for all of his luck and probably precognition, started running out of his hiding spot. Or more like carried as Winter basically flew them out. Too fast for him to hold onto his weapon. The darkness pooled up from where he was, swallowing his lance. That was bad.

But it had him running away from the Fierce Deity. That was worse, way worse. Yang cursed, heavily.

Winter was going to be pissed… as soon as she got out of range of the darkness chasing her.

"The dragon is fast, but I'm not without sight." Salem almost sang the words. "Carrying a boy so much as weight and knowing the pertinence of avoiding the tendrils of creation. The would not survive the crushing weight."

And winter must have known that, seeing as Yang watched her barrel and flip through the tendrils, chasing her through the air. Yang hated that the idea of a kid trying to swat a fly came to her. But that was what it looked like. Winter and Neptune, a literal god damn dragon woman, and a boy that was able to tower over her standing, looking like gnats next to the dark tendrils.

"Your plan was not without merit, girl. Be proud in that you acted with more rationality than many others who have faced me. Though rational or not, you cannot best me." Red eyes regarded her like her mother's gaze. "As I already said, this is but a delay. Carry him to wherever you wish, the nothingness of my love will become part of me."

"Screw you and your creepy plans." Yang lit her fists on fire. "I'm gonna delay you alright, if you consider me burning off a few layers of skin a set back!" Salem did not so much as blink. No, she did worse.

She smiled.

"It is a delay, and nothing more." Yang spat fire as she threw punches at the 'Goddess's' words.

Fists hit darkness and burned them both away, but leaving the woman grinning calmly beyond. She felt tendrils of the darkness wrapping about her feet, and she kicked out with near all her force, ripping them off with the roots of the world. She lit them on fire, making it a big ball of embers. And through it all, she kept trying to smack the grinning woman right across the jaw line.

She never got close, and Salem knew it.

"If you wish to hold onto some pride, know that I thought you would die amongst the rest. Caught in the rain. I did not think a Sage would be so capable. "

"Guess you're not all knowing then! Puts a damper on that whole guaranteed victory of yours!"

"Again, girl, a delay. Be it seconds, minutes, or even hours from now, the Fierce Deity will die, and I will live." Her hand raised and darkness swirled with it. Yang threw out her fist, letting root systems jump up and grab at it. She watched at the tendrils of darkness oozed out of the grip, like water from a sponger. "This is nothing but a last grasp of my failed creation. You, a speck in the curtain I'm trying to draw."

"Too early to pull that down!" Yang kicked the ground, making fire shoot from her boot and roar through the wood she'd made. The darkness was surrounded in the inferno, something that made her already glowing body radiate with heat. The dark woman's red eyes stared dispassionately at her. "I'm gonna keep beating at you and your stupid shadows till the sun comes up! Then I'm gonna really turn up the heat!"

"Burn all the time you can. It will only help me to tear this cycle away."

Yang's eyes blazed as she threw out punches, using her newfound Maidenhood as if Ember Cecilia were the conduits. Where bullets once flew, now roots of trees shot forth, with matching speed. They made to puncture and spear Salem, but the woman was as hard to wiry as her words. Darkness billowed out of thin air to guard against the wood, or reached up from the earth to grasp at the appearing foliage.

She didn't so much as adjust her posture, instead flicking her hands and sending torrents of darkness at the shoots of wood and gouts of fire. They hit one another, and if they did not crumble against each other, they burned up and smoked the night sky.

"I commend your loyalty. I do. It is what is necessary for any life. Be it this infinite cycle or the one I will form next, but loyalty to a dying thing only ensures your own death."

"Rather raging than sobbing!" Yang lifted her hands high above her head. "Think you can say the same!" She slammed into the ground.

A forest giant erupted behind her. Twice as big as anything she'd seen in the Emerald forest, like the ones she'd spied when Saria had transformed the Emerald forest months ago. Just enough to cast a shadow over her and make the red-eyed demon look up. Yang grinned.

"I got a lot behind me. Keeps me standing."

"You have much supporting you, but nothing eternal." Yang had enough time to see the woman draw back an arrow. From where the bow came from, she did not know. She only recognized the arrow before it flew. Dripping in darkness and screaming towards her. She lunged out of the way.

With a thunk, it hit the giant tree behind her. Yang watched as the darkness spread up and around it, faster than ran could fall or water flow. It consumed the tree, with heavy groans and cries. Her jaw fell as the forest giant was turned into a giant pillar of darkness.

And then, it fell to the ground, vanishing as it hit the earth.

"There are only two things eternal in this creation, the destruction of what has been, and the assuredness of its rebirth. I have the guarantee of life again, you do not." Yang saw the bow being aimed towards her. "And now, you have not even your life." The arrow flew.

Yang raised her fist, ready to beat it away. Fists of fire and ready to show that she wasn't about to die. She just had to make a shoot of wood and-

TWANG! The arrow was knocked off course, flipping through the air and hitting the ground with a splash. Yang followed it, letting go of the breath she held.

"A close call, but it appears you are nothing if not accurate, Penny." The blonde twisted with the voice. "And Ms. Xiao-Long, it is… an honest conflict of emotions to see you as a Maiden. But I'll settle for joy that you are among the few to survive the arrows."

"Headmaster," Yang let out, watching the old man walk up. He was grinning, like this was okay? No… tired and worn, she could feel how pissed off he was.

"I had my rest after the bought with the Hero's Shade. You take yours and leave this woman to me. I have spent the better part of a few millennia playing chess with her."

"Ozma. One of the two who I knew would survive the rain." Salem spoke easily, shadows lurking around her. "But there is a disconnect if you believe we are equal ground now. You chased me, but as soon as my future me returned, it was only ever a game of setting up pieces behind your back."

"And before my eyes. Don't pretend I didn't notice. You're too honest to give too little credit." He tapped the side of his head with his cane. "Though I'll admit, I did not know the purpose of many things until now. Division of the kingdoms, placing spies just out of sight, always leaving me wondering why you don't just attack. And now I see it was because you wished for an absolute victory, not a moment of joy."

"I am a Goddess of Creation. Absolutes are all I may deal in." The fact that she wasn't even joking about that made Yang hiss. In pain. Why in pain. She looked down at her leg.

Oh shit… when did she start bleeding? She reached down for it, ready to cauterize it. Maybe that wasn't a good idea, but better than bleeding out. That was before a metal hand grasped hers, holding her back.

"Please hold Maiden Yang Xiao-Long. I will apply medical gel and suture the laceration." Penny spoke, devoid of any charm. She could have used it when she held up a sharp thick tube, green eyes staring at her. "This will produce a reaction similar to needle punctures."

"Then... hurry it up." Yang's eyes looked back to Ozpin and Salem. "Don't know how long he can distract her for."

"I estimate another twenty-three seconds, regarding past history as a weighted variable." Of course she'd have a math function like that. "He is not distracting her for you."

"What? Oh." Yang got it, and she almost held her head to keep it from twisting.

"Absolutes, such as the absolute necessity to kill all life. It is more than evident, through the tales of the Fierce Deity and Link's memories, that you are trying to destroy everything."

"It is the consequence of what I am aiming for. I cannot end a cycle if any part of it survives. There have been enough rotations through the rivers and coils of time to show this. If but one piece survives the rest endure. So all must perish."

"I understand. But you must also know why then we are standing before you. Prepared to stop you."

"Delay me. I told the girl as well. You cannot stop me."

"I was able to for some years before."

"You delayed me for years, but you never stopped me. I never had my goal in sight before now." Red eyes turned, and Yang had to look at the Fierce Deity as well.

She'd seen him do a lot of crap. Maybe it was only glancing at him when he did it, but he did it. He was the one who basically tore the army of Grimm apart, stopped the dragon, and was all btu teleporting around the city with how fast he was running. And then, when this bitch showed up, he was the one who was literally chopping down the darkness like tree branches.

She had to let loose infernos just to burn it, and it swallowed up her branches like water, but he… he just eradicated it.

And now that super warrior was laying on the ground, arrows through him five different parts, and looking to be holding on to life with a burnt piece of string.

Dammit, if only Winter was back soon.

"Your goals have always been within reach; you were also just looking for assurances." Ozpin countered. "The relics were all you needed, but you wanted the powers that created them."

"Of course, because the cycles would have otherwise meant the heroes would appear to stop me. There is always a counter force to what tries to change the status quo."

"I would say the only sure force we'd seen of that left the words some millennia ago, and it wouldn't many more until they return. In this time in between, all we have are our excuses for not doing enough." Yang would give Ozpin this much credit.

Only the Headmaster of the most badass Hunter's School could casually throw down a line like that, after what the woman had done.

"So then what is your excuse for inaction?"

"Fear. Truthfully. Fear I would fail, and then you would rule all." Less badass, more terrifying.

"Then I am truly pitied to say I am about to make all your fears come true."

"Only if I let you do so. But for all my fear, I have never chosen in action. And from what I have heard, the man who becomes the Hero, is one of my incarnations near eons down this line." He was laughing, and Yang couldn't help but think that was almost stupidly cool, even if he was basically screwed. "I fear now what he would say, to know that his ancestor did not rage against the darkness."

"He never was, and never will be more."

"You're right, he won't." Ozpin raised his cane. "And neither will you."

At that moment, Yang thought he was about to start beating back the darkness like some kind of Master Swordsman cutting air or water or something like that. She thought he was about to surprise Salem and give them a fighting chance.

What she did not expect was Penny opening a literal arm cannon next to her, hold herself up by the strength of Yang's shoulder, and count down a shot.

---

The attack was akin to lightning generated by the Shiekah, through their ancient runes. A collection of light, the palest mockery and attempt to clone that of the Fierce Deity and coalesced into a single swift point.

It flew out at Salem with the speed of that damning light, and it bore into her with the force of a falling mountain. It was enough, just barely enough, to push her back. It forced her to take a whole step back.

For a creature created from scraps, it was an impressive feat.

The man who would one day wield the power of the Hero watched on, and Salem kept eyes on him. She smiled as she offered a word of appraisal.

"Adorable." She twisted her free hand.

Darkness roared as it flew through and above the cannon fire, swallowing the power that was thrown at it. The girl and droid on the other side of the wall made a noise of distress, before Salem felt the power of burning flames and watched the pair avoid the wall of darkness falling on them. It tumbled and swallowed more of the decaying land, but it failed to squash the children. A pity.

TWANG! Mores that Ozma thought he was not on her mind. She looked at her arm, raised as it carried a dark shield, fastened like the Hero's smelted steel. The cane of the old man was baring against it. Sweat poured down his face.

"The Mortal Draw. A fine technique you made many many centuries ago. Did you think I would forget it?"

"You have forgotten much else." She never let her smile dip.

"Ozma, I forget nothing. I only grow." She reached forward, watching as he debated between pushing on or retreating. "What else can my creation do, if I am robbed of the ability to let it reduce?" She twisted her palm with the words.

From beneath Ozma, the tendrils rose and split like the twigs of a branch. The reborn hero made to jump back, but the hand of Salem acted as a proper limb, grasping his cane and holding him still. It rooted him like iron and kept him from moving. A moment of panic flashed over his eyes, and Salem savored it.

It was because of that she failed to see the flash of the Fierce Deity's silver eyes, not until she felt her creations being burned. Wisdom as her guide, she released Ozma and let a copy of herself be eradicated by the nothingness of destruction. The man jerked, moving his cane to defend himself, only to realize the glare of the god had destroyed them. Salem breathed softly in the darkness.

"A pity. Macabre as it may sound, I always did find myself fond of the idea of literally crushing you." The man spun on his feet, dancing his way towards the Fierce Deity. "But of course you keep yourself close to roots of power and strength. It is the only way to resist me."

"If I am meant to be insulted by that, please do better. You are, after all, doing much the same."

"You are correct, I am trying to grasp that power. But not for ensuring a cycle of pain, but ending it." Within the darkness, she drew arrows. "If only you had the courage of your descendant to do the same."

"I am not so senile as to forget that Link died fighting you."

"True as well, but I believe you are more intelligent than him." Ozma's face didn't betray any emotion. "It matters not. The seed of destruction is being buried behind you. And each more he struggles, the further he sinks." Red eyes glanced at her lover, the giant made flesh.

The darkness of her bolts having spread with his effort to defend an immortal soul. Silver eyes traced her darkness, as Ozma circled him. She watched them, training an arrow for the slot between. Just one more arrow, just one, and she'd be able to take away from the God of Destruction the source of his power. And then, she could hold it for herself. Just one careful arrow, and it would be all.

"THERE! Twenty meters ahead!" The shout was an honest surprise to her.

Not as much as the flash of light that the Fierce Deity gave off with another cry, screaming as it washed over her darkness. Salem abandoned her weapon and let a shell of her body get decimated by the power. She emerged some distance away, red eyes searching the plains again, looking for the voice. She found it quickly.

A boy with long hair and pink strip, wearing in his eye the symbol of the Shiekah, lavender in color, looking through the darkness. Salem had to smile.

"Ever a clever one, Link. With or without the aid of my children."

"He was strong, too!" The announcement was unnecessary. Salem had already produced a whip of darkness on the voice's approach. She twisted around, raising it, and hardening it to catch the blade coming down upon her. Red eyes stared into the furrowed gaze of emerald orbs.

That, and the lavender sword of the Great Fairy, held in hands coated in silver. There was much power behind the blade, more than a little of it attributable to the red head holding it. It was why she was prepared to slide back amongst her darkness, but clearly from the angry noise the girl let out, she was hoping for more.

"Such a fierce fire. You would make a grand warrior among the Gerudo," Salem pointed out lightly. "I am sure Ganondorf would say much the same."

"News flash, big green is dead!" The flamboyant cry of the fiery blonde echoed behind her. The heat reached the Goddess of Creation, but her eyes didn't track the girl. "You wanna take a wild guess on what that means for you!?"

"Less opposition for my power, fewer targets for you to focus on, and no concern for betrayal," her return made the girl snarl. "But I can create a bit of pride for you, knowing that I do have to be careful, despite the gap between our capabilities."

"Finally gonna admit your afraid of us?!" The red head remained stoic beside the blonde.

"No, just against the idea of waiting years for the opportunity to grasp what I have earned." Her hand twisted, and a maelstrom formed beneath her. "I'd rather reap what I've sowed then await for the next season."

"Then I am glad Time waits for no one." The stern reply of the Gerudo woman was well-timed, and well spoken. Enough to earn a soft bout of laughter from Salem, the darkness beneath her rippling like winded sea waves.

"Indeed she does not. But more than once, she bowed to my commands." Her arm raised, and the current beneath her rose like the great tidal wave it was meant to be. The look of stern shock on each of the girls' faces was appropriate, and enjoyable. She ignored the cries of the flies behind them. "There are few who cannot." She lowered her hand. The wave began to fall.

SHINK! SHINK! And it was Courage that bade her to fall back into shadows. A moment later, blades of light ripped past her, through her torrent of darkness, and crossing the girls as well. Red eyes looked back, bow in hand, to see if her love was standing against her once more.

Her guess was, humorously, only partially correct.

"Returned again, and so swiftly after Cia was meant to send you away. I'll have to reprimand the witch when she shows herself again." Salem stared fearlessly into the silver eyes of Link, blade held up and glowing. "Unless you dared to strike her down yourself? No, you did not. Your blade is too clean to have taken her life."

A cry ripped from him as she slammed the sword down. Fast as the light that flew from it. Salem dipped out of the way, letting the attack sail uselessly past her. Her bow was raised, prepared to take another meaningful, but likely only distracting, strike at the hero. Her smile pulled with the string.

"GRAAGH!" Then a cry of pain ripped from her, just as light rippled down her back. Her mind flew into a wild panic for a moment, Wisdom running through what had caused it.

If the Fierce Deity were responsible, she'd be gone. Link and her grand daughter were the only owner of silver eyes, and they were before her. Ozma had no capabilities. Then… then… She twisted her gaze, already sinking into darkness. She stared back at her reflection.

Of course, the damned Mirror Shield. The Gerudo held it up with furious emerald gaze.

She was truly a warrior befitting the race of thieves and murderers. But now was not the time for heavy though. Creation worked along her back, swallowing up the destruction that nearly tore through her.

"THERE! Over there!" The boy shouted again, and Salem jumped like a dove from a tree out of the darkness. A moment later, light ripped through the ground and separated her darkness. This time, she heard boots shuffle behind her, and twisted to avoid the angling of the girl behind her. Light sailed again, this time missing her.

"My turn!" But it allowed a trio of string-strung blades to fly at her, two swiping at her darkness and another nearly catching her face. Nearly, but Salem was far from dependent upon her darkness. A dark crystalline weapon rose from her hand, catching and beating back the blade as she had practiced for centuries before in previous lives. But with this life, she swept her hand up, commanding the darkness again.

SHINK! The Hero was quick to tear through it, spinning like a bladed leaf. It left him exposed, only in the sense that he had to defend. But the others had less means to protect themselves. Salem raised bow and loosened another bolt, this time at the boy that was using the Lens of Truth.

TWANG! It was beaten off by Ozma, of all people. His arm rippled with the attack, and Salem knew it was a move of desperation. He could only do so much. She could do far more. Another arrow would prove it.

But Courage bad her to take a step back.

In the moment that followed, the Master Sword slid through the air she previously occupied, crashing to the ground. Wisdom spoke of an opportunity, with the Power to make it so. Her blade struck out at the head of the Hero, watching silver eyes widen as her blade was ready to scratch at him.

"NOPE!" But a simple dagger stopped her, held by a boy with unusual hair. "Cutting in quick!" Was all the more he said as another dagger attempted to tear at her. Attempted, but with arms and blade's length so shallow she needed only to step back. "You're up!" the boy then shouted as he ran out, out of range of her blade, but not her churning darkness.

However, the person he was speaking towards struck out. This time, a lance came at her. Her blade locked in its prongs, the navy-haired youth on the other end powering through his fear with anger. Commendable, but foolish. At least there was another fool to defend him.

Salem released her blade and let the boy fling it away, all so she could skid under the swipe of the Hero. His blade twisted and fell, leading her to all but pirouette out of the way. Darkness swirled in her hand, reaching out like a claw to scratch at him, but the deftness of the hero showed itself with a flip, almost kicking off of her to do it. It was enough though, suspended in the air again. She summoned back her rapier, ready to stab forward.

"BURN!" The cry was a warning for her. She threw up darkness and abandoned her weapon twice.

An inferno of red scorched her shield, and she could feel the creation burning away under the intensity of the heat. It was only when she had to shift the shield, spreading it, that she realized it was not one source striking her, but two. They were just as obvious about who they were.

To her left, she dropped her shield and twisted a blade, catching the lance of the draconic woman. To her right, she lifted a handed, coated like a maleficent gauntlet, grabbing the first of the blonde. Both snarled at her, just as she bade her darkness to swallow them. A sigh left her as she had to let her attacks go.

The Master Sword plunged through her, or rather, the copy of herself she left. She was already through the darkness, and she knew where she was going to have to appear next. The boy with the pink strip was looking at her.

"HERE!" He was wise enough to yell and raise his weapons, but Salem raised stakes of darkness to skewer him.

"Not him!" But the girl holding the Megaton Hammer was quick to hit them, decimating them, and forcing even the air to ripple. Too slow to hit Salem, but quick enough to stop her attack. Salem clicked her tongue, disappointed in herself. Perhaps she was being too cautious. Wisdom told her otherwise, just as Power allowed her to force a wave of darkness to appear beneath her, surrounding the chipped and decayed land.

Then the draconic woman flew in again, weaponless. Salem knew not the purpose, but Wisdom told her to surround the woman. She did so.

SHINK! Only to have the Master Sword's light swallow the darkness in turn. The goddess cursed, even as the red gauntlets grasped at her, hotter than a forge's fire. It bothered her, but little else. The wings on the woman's back beat, but the darkness beneath Salem held her like stone.

This warrior lacked wisdom, unlike her love. She was a shield to the light, and a prime target for her now. She twisted a hand in front of her, ready to gouge the woman from her gut outward.

"Penny! I got another Air Dust! Golden Girl, you better shoot it!"

"Understood Teammate Russel!" The scream came from beside her, just as she saw the odd-haired boy throw the alabaster crystal at her. A shot cracked out, from the Gerudo born from a lance she didn't recognize. The explosion of air forced her to blink, but to so much as move. The woman behind her, draconic wings unfurled, at her flying into the air and out of the grasp of her darkness. Her eyes turned towards the Hero, seeing his blade raised.

FWOOOOO- But before she could run, the energy beam of the robotic girl shot at her again, trying to swallow her. Wisdom told her, perhaps needlessly, that this was how Impa had met her end. It was not enough to end the Goddess of Creation. Still, it was enough to force her to raise her rapier.

TWANG! TWANG! TWANG-TWANG! Because the beam had her pinned, while the Hero, fearless has his legend, struck at her with a glowing blade. Any one attack would deliver damage unto her, and while the beam behind her would only be a nuisance, it would be a form of foolishness on her part to think she could bare the assault and know where the hero would strike.

Light always did blind her.

Thankfully, as her love had proven, it was fleeting.

The beam she repelled against died out in her hand, and she was quick to summon back the darkness behind her, sending it forth so much like cavalry that the Hero had to retreat and strike them down. It gave her room to move again, and her first action was to abandon her blade and draw the bow again. With a twist, opposite of the hero, she took aim at the android and boy beside her. They're eyes just opened as her arrow flew at them.

"NO WAY!" But growing roots of fire caught them, choking, and swallowing the heat, but leaving the two souls behind unharmed. The blonde girl flew with feet of inferno at her. "You're not going to take anyone else!"

"You are correct, I'll take nothing." Salem easily avoided the girl's blow, letting the child throw fists of fire at darkness instead. "I am going to destroy all that is left in this world. There will be nothing left to claim."

"You cannot!" The voice of Ozma yelled, and Salem avoided his cane again. Too slow, too uneasy. He was nearing the end of his strength, yet still, true to his ancient title, he struck out. "Not so long as we face you."

"Then I am fortuned to be immortal." Her blade came back, swinging for his neck. "And the only one here who is." She was the sole individual. Not even the Hero of Time was immortal, not once she received her wish, and not while the Fierce Deity lay dying. They would no longer live forever.

TWANG! Let alone the draconic woman blocking her blade. Salem breathed, and a heavy mist of darkness flew out.

Instinct or not, the red-armored woman spat her on fire back, wings beating and dragging her body away. Salem let the darkness wipe away the sweat and fatigue, leaving her to drag out her bow amongst the crowd of children.

"How the hell is she so strong!? Wasn't Super Link able to keep up with this bitch?"

"You mean the literal god currently dying?" The pair of boys exchanged, to Salem's utter and unvoiced hilarity. However, it was also a reminder.

This wasn't a battle to prolong. Wisdom would be disappointed if she delayed any further.

She shot arrows out, sending the Hero and his kin back as they batted them away, forcing him to run back to defend the undefendable. It gave her the seconds that Time could not strip from her. Bow pulled back, she aimed a new arrow at her old love.

But found that the giant body of the Fierce Deity was nowhere to be seen.

"What?" He was nowhere in her darkness. "Where… how?"

"Where'd he… aw, who cares! If the big man needs time to catch his breath, that's time we gotta give 'em! I got the Lien to buy a few seconds!" An inferno raged about the girl, long blonde hair flipping up and over with her power unleashed. Her friends, wisely, retreated. "Worked up a sweat earning 'em."

"Your flame burns with a rage stocked in loss," the draconic woman stepped next to her, either ignorant or immunized from the heat. Immunized, Salem reasoned swiftly, Wisdom on her side. The spirit of Volvagia would bathe in magma. The heat of a furious child was embers comparatively. "Allow me to throw upon this pyre my own kindling." Her lance aimed down, the woman took a position of battle. Her wings unfurled, and the air rippled with the increase in temperature.

Salem watched on, utterly unimpressed.

"I admire your admission of your needing of my love, but by what means do you believe you have to hold me back from finding him?"

"Last half-hour," the blonde sneered with her grin. Blood trickled down her lip. "Pretty sure we were doin' a damn good job holding you back. Unless you're just enjoying yourself as much as I am." Her gauntlets twisted, flaming root coming out around her.

"Enjoyment is the incorrect word. So would be admire," Salem honestly spoke. "I suppose the best descriptor would be patient, as patience is necessary for any plan to come to fruition. However, and I will offer a congratulations in this note, you seem to me robbing me of that. And I will confess further. Of all that creation is capable of crafting, I have the most issue with patience."

"You mean after common sense or good will." She would not be goaded.

"Yes, far after that." Without another word, she loosened her arrow.

TWANG! And like the light that her love used to scour the earth, the Hero of Time was there. Blade out, batting away more of her bolts. Just the sight of him, downed in red and silver eyes filled with fury, was a welcome out. It complimented the other children well.

"And the Hero of Time returns, gowned with the Tunic of the Gorons." Eyes shifted, doubtlessly her granddaughter within admiring her own attire for the first time. "What else do you bring to face me now? Whatever it may be, you know it will not be enough. You have moved the sole individual capable of ending me."

"So you admit it!" The girl shouted. "He can kill you!"

"End me, as in end this form. But he is the one dying. I will be reborn, and then his power will be mine." She fastened another arrow. "You do not have the same luxury. If you wish to avoid that coils of my darkness, then I encourage you, once more, return to me the Fierce Deity. I may find him, but I'd rather not search for him like a child for her toy."

Toy?

The simple word, quiet at that, struck like thunder through the roar of the flaming women. Salem smiled at the hero's twisted lips.

"Do not take the word harshly, you know how I mean it. A child looking for the object they obsess over, pouring their time and patience into protecting, using, and worshipping. A precious toy, for sure, but just a toy." She twisted the arrow back at the man she once loved. "And I would like him back."

He growled in return, and his blade bloomed with light. Enough to halo him before the pair of girls. Salem shifted her feet, Wisdom telling her to be ready, but Power ensuring he would need to be much closer and much stronger to have a chance of truly destroying her. He knew that, too. Just as he knew that her arrows were more than capable of handling the children behind him.

"You may simply tell me where my love is. More than a toy, I do wish to hold him."

"You want to suck the power of out of him, like a ten-Lien ho-"

TWANG! Link beat the arrow from striking Yang.

"There is no reason to be so crass, child." Salem admonished. To the girl's credit, she showed far more anger than fear at death's quick pass over her. The former hero behind them, hands twisting on his cane, appeared far more worried. "And if you are so worried for them, speak of where you moved the Fierce Deity to." His head was as rigid as the blade he grasped. "So determined to keep me from him?"

"He's keeping you from victory," the Gerudo like girl spoke again, carrying most of Link's tools. She bored the heat of the blonde through effort alone. The beads of sweat told all. "We all are, no matter how 'assured' your victory is."

"You realize then there is no wisdom in that action. Choosing to lay down your life to only delay a certainty."

"I'd lose a lot more if I just gave up." Her stance was perfect, Courage reminded her. This girl… she was capable. "I lost one friend today, and I'm not about to help you take another."

"You will lose much more, I assure you, but it is the man beside you who I care for the answers of. He knows where the Fierce Deity is, and he will tell me where he is." The silver eyes stared at as if they were blades of light themselves. "Won't you?"

He shook his head back and forth, denying her the answer. Salem was unsurprised. She prepared her answer and action. Except… Wisdom spoke.

It was not a denial of her answer, but a denial of knowledge. He didn't know where her love had gone. He had not moved him. The Fierce Deity was incapable of motion alone, not with her bolts of darkness overtaking him. He'd be dead with the effort. But someone else moved him, and in such a way she could not find him.

No one here was capable of such a thing. Wisdom was clear on it. Too flamboyant, or simply not strong enough. There was another player she was not yet given eyes too, someone that was between the light of destruction and cradle of creation. Who was it? Who… No, where.

As in, where did they go. And further, Salem noted as her eyes looked about the group of children and warriors, the draconic woman was missing. With the heat being given off by the girl carrying Spring and Summer, it was easy to miss. But the red shrapnel like armor was hard to misplace. She was somewhere, but not here.

But Salem had to pay attention to immediate threats. Even differences of a few seconds were a difference in priority, and the Hero of Time, rushing at her with a guttural cry and shining blade, was more immediate. She moved back, allowing her Courage to guide her, keeping her out of the path of the blade. It struck precisely, missing her to scorch the ground and rip apart her darkness. Red eyes followed it, her tendrils beating forth only to be beaten down by the same blade.

A few steps back, a lowered stance to allow the blade to sing over her head, and she positioned herself for a shot at the hero again. Enough that he would have to retreat. But Courage spoke to her, and she twisted her gaze.

She saw a flutter of red. And then, an explosion of it. Through the immense heat, however, she noticed the more important detail, hiding like her shadows from the light.

The Twili jumping out and away from her.

---

Ruby watched as Blake appeared out of nowhere, like a literal explosion out of thin air! The explosion, she quickly found out, wasn't her teammate, but Weiss's elder sister, roaring as she slammed into Salem. The fire that spewed off of her made her step back with a hint of pain. Her Grandpa bared it well, keeping them planted.

Salem handed it best, pushing the draconic woman off of her and lifting her hand up. Her Grandpa heard her speak.

"Begone." He gripped the Master Sword and dashed forward. Ruby watched through his silver eyes.

Tendrils of darkness wrapped around Winter's wings and pulled them apart, just as more reached up to claw at her face. The fire she screamed with beat it off, but like a rock in a river, being swallowed by it. The metaphor made too much sense to Ruby.

Until her Grandpa swung forward with the Master Sword, and the light ripped through the darkness like it had before. Winter let out a sound of angry relief, before kicking off the ground and flying into the air. Ruby looked quickly for Blake but couldn't find her.

"It appears that there is another Sage here," Salem's words took her Grandpa's attention. "It would have to be Impa, especially if the girl is here. A pity she died, but within the scope of reason."

'Impa's dead? She's gone?' Ruby didn't feel bad about it. 'But then… if Blake has her powers.'

'Blake Belladonna is unlikely to have sufficient mastery of the Sage's powers,' Fi whispered through their head. 'She is likely going to remain focused on using the magical reserves to make use of the Magic Cape for longer periods of time, and larger masses.' That made sense, and Blake was smart enough to do that.

SHINK! Grandpa cut through another pool of darkness, sending the shadows into a writhing mess as they vanished. Just opposite was Salem, staring down with a bow drawn. He saw her, but Ruby saw Blake standing behind her, eyes glowing and all.

Then her body shifted, like it was made of static, and there were two of her. Of course her Semblance!

Except… her Semblance just made one of her. Now there was three, then four… six…

'I retract my previous hypothesis. Blake Belladonna is copying the abilities of Impa.' That was a good mistake then. 'There is a 95% likelihood Blake Belladonna is able to reproduce this power by mimicry through her natural semblance.' And that made sense, too. It was good news!

What wasn't good news was Salem turning red eyes towards her friend, smile still present.

"I was correct it was Impa. Though I am sorry to say you lack her training, or her discipline." The woman's pale hand twisted above the shadows. Her Grandpa reacted first.

"MOVE!" Someone, probably Pyrrha, shouted overhead. It came as arrows shot up from the darkness, arching in the air before twisting about and falling back towards the Earth. Her Grandpa was already swinging.

SHING! Link slipped out of the Master Sword and barreled towards the dark arrows, hitting them, and cutting a clear path in the curtain. But it was just a path, and a multitude of the bolts were still falling. He raised his shield, even as Ruby tried to cry out.

The cry came out as one of pain when she saw the arrows strike Blake. Two of her, then three. The glowing eyes of her friend quivered lips bleeding as the darkness overtook them. She watched as she was swallowed and dragged into the darkness. Silver eyes were rattled, her mind trying to catch up! Blake wasn't dead! Blake wasn't dead!

And her Grandpa agreed that she wasn't. Rather than a memory, he just focused on the trio of remaining clones, literally jumping off of the rapidly decaying bodies of her former selves and jumping at Salem. One spun about and vanished behind a red cloak. Two others threw Gambol Shrouds at one another, attempting to wrap Salem up as they landed opposite of her. Shadows, however, rose and caught the ribbons, turning the confining knot into a loose cage.

"Good enough!" Someone… no, Nora shouted. "I can see where the nail is!" That was when her Grandpa saw the girl jumping into the air with the Megaton Hammer. So did Salem. "Time to put it down!"

The club swung and hit with a force equivalent to its namesake. Her Grandpa jumped back, and Ruby identified the dangerous ripples from a twist in her gut. The Master Sword sliced through them, leaving Russel to jump back as he beat off another. She caught the pair of Blake's clones dragging Nora away as well, all smiles.

"I got her! I got her!" The girl was happy for crushing a person to mush.

"No! She got away!" Ren corrected her. Her Grandpa knew he was right. Ruby did, too. Especially as she got a sense of DANGER.

It was enough to send her jumping forth, twisting, and cutting through a trio of dark arrows shooting towards Penny and Neptune. The pair blinked, with the boy falling back after realizing how close they were to death.

"Always the hero," Salem's voice verberated through the darkness. "It is why you are always my love. Perhaps the reason I am so tied to these cycles, a continuing sense of romance." The woman emerged with drawn bow and blood red eyes trained on her Grandpa. She kept their face stern. "At least I see the errors of my ways. The most crucial step to correct any problem. The next… removing it." Arrows flew again. Ruby felt the DANGER.

Her Grandpa beat each one out of the air, the glow of the Master Sword knocking them down. Her sense of Danger was still on, and she figured out why.

A pair of arrows shot up from the shadows and impaled the clones of Blake. The vanished like the first three, swallowing up in darkness and being pulled into the shadows. Rage and horror billowed up in her again, and silver eyes glowed as she stared at Salem's confident smile.

A hand on her shoulder stopped her. An invisible one.

"The Fierce Deity's in trouble. We need you, now." Blake's quiet tone earned a quick nod from Ruby's Grandpa. The hand was gone, and then Yang was in front of them.

"Burn you egotistical bitch!" On fire in words in spirit, her Grandpa thought. She beat against the darkness, and Pyrrha was circling around her, carrying the Great Fairy Sword. Penny was shooting laser cannons again, and against anyone else, Ruby just knew they would be toast.

But the DANGER was not only there, but it was also getting stronger. They really couldn't stop Salem.

But her real Grandpa could. Twisting on a heel, Ruby ran for him. She followed flashes of Blake's flaming hair, jumping around the little rubble that wasn't flattened or scoured. Leaning against a piece of rubble, head propped up, was the giant of a man that was her real Grandpa.

Him, and with arrows jutting out of him and darkness swallowing him. Ruby wanted to gasp and pull the arrows out. Her Grandpa kept her hands still. Then so did her dad.

"Link? No, Ruby and Link, right." Her dad gave an OK sign with his non-arm. Just a golden hand moving. "First time talking to you like this, not really normal. And this isn't normal. What's normal again?"

"Tai… dammit." Ruby twisted her Grandpa's head to see Raven lying not far away. A lot smaller than her Grandpa, and with a lot fewer arrows, but with also way more burns. "Focus on… him."

"Yeah, you're right. This guy, father-in-law. Nice… actually we met." The Fierce Deity did not shift his silver eyes towards Tai. Ruby somehow thought that was a good thing. Her Grandpa only realized he was holding his silence. "And Link, this is the other you, or first you, or some issue like that. I'm still trying to get my head wrapped around all these concepts of Time."

"The current application of Time towards the current events, while a part, are not necessary to understand in order to treat the Fierce Deity and combat Salem." Fi's voice rang out with the Spirit of the Sword all but popping into existence. "At the moment the power of Salem's Creation has overtaken approximately 44% of the Fierce Deity and increasing."

"Yeah, got that part figured out. Question we need answered is how to stop it!" Her dad yelled back. "It was pretty obvious from the light show earlier that he's the only one who is capable of fighting Salem now, and I'm not about to ask him to do it while he's imitating a pin-cushion."

"He would be unable to at this moment. Salem is gifted with Wisdom and Courage. She would be-"

"Don't need the play-by-play, I just needed to watch a girl get infused with Maiden powers fail to stop a bunch of arrows falling to figure out how out-classed we are. Thing is, the real kingpin over here is already on his last leg, and I'm talking about the fact that one of them is about surrounded in darkness!" Her Grandpa's silver eyes looked at the leg and saw that the darkness was swallowing down to nearly his boot. She gripped the Master Sword.

"But that's why you're here. You can fix him." Blake's statement earned hope from Ruby, and incredulity from her Grandpa. "Because that's creation overtaking him, and he can't get it out, but you can get it out, because you have that sword, and your eyes."

"It makes sense to me at least!" Her dad yelled out. "There's a reason everyone Salem ever sent out was afraid of your silver eyes, so being able to blow away her power follows."

'We can fix him?' The idea made the heart in her Grandpa's chest bounce. 'We can! Just stare at him and then-'

"That will not work." Fi dashed the hopes with a soulless ring. "I apologize, Suitor of Summer Rose, but the power of destruction from Ruby Rose and the Hero are unable to restore the existence of the Fierce Deity."

"Well I don't mean to just stare at him with silver eyes and make him whole again," her dad waved back. "But like… just tear out the darkness. Can't you use the sword for that? It is magic!"

"The form of my vessel is entrusted by Time and blessed by the three goddesses, but it will be unable to remake that which is lost in the Fierce Deity. By purpose of existence, he is being overtaken by creation."

"Speak English!"

"I am not conversing in English. My tongue is being translated through my analysis from Hylian to-"

"Fi, please, explain what you mean." Blake interrupted, glowing eyes on the opaque orbs of the Sword Spirit. "We don't understand. Why can't you, who are literally about destroying, destroy the evil infesting the Fierce Deity."

"Apologies. I will iterate in a more cohesive manner." The Spirit rang, and Ruby thought she was adjusting gears in her head. Her Grandpa thought it was like what Penny would do, and it was enough to get them both to smile.

The words that followed brought the cold reality of the situation back upon them.

"Elimination of the evil infesting the Fierce Deity does not predicate, nor induce, a growing sense of nothingness. It will only allow other forms of creation to further take over the filled gaps in the Fierce Deity. That is, reducing to a lower intellectual level, more positive forms of Creation will replace the negative aspects I may destroy." Ruby still didn't get it.

"And you… can't… create." Raven, of all people, did. "And you can't… destroy… destruction."

"You are correct, Raven Branwen. Upon inspection, I request you refrain from speaking. You have 2nd degree wounds covering 83% of your body. It is 33% likely there are 4th degree wounds beneath your bandages, and exertion of energy will only increase the likelihood of neuropathy."

"Don't… care… now." Neither did Ruby.

'We have to save him! There has to be a way.' The panic must have shown through her Grandpa's face, because her dad reacted.

"Link… you have an idea?" Just not to her. "No, wait… you should, right? I mean you were bonded to him, weren't you?"

"The Hero of Time and Fierce Deity were bonded, but that is only allowing a vessel for the nothingness within creation." It wasn't what she was expecting, but her Grandpa had an idea.

Ruby remembered him as a child, in Termina. He was playing on the Ocarina, and it was a soft magical tune. The same thing that played for a Goron Spirit, A Zora Musician, a dying general, a lost mother, and so many others. A song that healed corruption and restored what was to life. Ruby nearly flew with the idea. Her Grandpa got out the ocarina instead.

"That will not work." The mouthpiece of the ocarina held itself between Ruby's lips. "You are attempting to remove the corruption from the Fierce Deity, but you are forgetting the Ocarina of Time was a creation of Hylia, that being an object of creation. It is incapable of restoring nothingness or destruction." Ruby didn't like where this was going.

"So that wouldn't work, because you can't create nothing." Her dad cussed. Loudly. "The exact reason this is all happening! Are you… are you seriously telling me that there is no way to destroy creation?!"

"The sole individual capable of it lays before you, but he is unable to act anymore." The Fierce Deity's glowing eyes did not turn but stared into the dark sky above. "Upon his consumption, the power of destruction will be claimed by Salem, with a 99.99% of success."

"And that 0.01%. That's the magic formula for us to win?"

"Incorrect. That is us succeeding in destroying Salem. However, there is no way to allow the Fierce Deity to recover. Salem, in contrast, is ensured to be reborn through her creation. She will return."

"Wait she… she'll just come back." Blake let out breathlessly. "She's immortal?!"

"They are the cycles she loathes to live by, and desires to destroy." The ground rumbled as the Fierce Deity spoke. Ruby was beside him in a moment, her Grandpa's hands on his darkening chest. "It is all that she desires. The end of cycles."

"And that can only happen if… if you die." Blake's summary was wholly unappreciated.

"Or I do as she has wanted for millennia and destroy all that she dislikes." The breath he released felt heavier than his body. "But I refuse to destroy that which is beautiful."

"The goddess of creation wants to destroy, and the god of destruction wants to preserve creation, and it's tearing us all apart." Her dad scratched at his head. "This is just stupid."

"The irony of it is not lost on me."

"So glad to hear it. Hate for my first talk with God to be a logic test." Tai turned to her Grandpa. "So you have any ideas Link? Anything else?"

Ruby looked through her Grandpa's memories with him. She saw him scour his history with her beside him. Looking from the time he was a child in the forest until he was thrusted back through time. She even rewatched him carrying for her mother and baring with the animosity of being alone in a castle. He watched it all, and her with him.

But nothing came out of it. No idea or dream of how to make destruction, by removing creation. Majora, Ganondorf, Demise, the Triforce, all of it was the by the birth of Creation. He had nothing.

Ruby hated that.

"That's what I thought. Figures even with a god here, we still end up at a dead end." Ruby moved to kick her father. Her Grandpa held her back.

"If we can't… if we can't save you, then what can we do?"

"What I aimed to do." His silver eyes turned to them, slowly, carefully. "You must kill Salem."

"But we can't! She's literally immortal! It's what Ozpin has been doing since before I was born, and she's as strong as you are!"

"I am stronger, she is wiser."

"In a fight like this, that isn't inspiring confidence." Her father let out a breathless laugh. "I know you have an easy time seeing the bright side, but the rest of us are being left in the dark." Ruby was ready to groan at her father's words.

Instead, her Grandpa tapped him on the back of the head.

"Sorry, the situation is getting to me."

"It is too early to despair. I have seen many men in more desperate times rage until they crafted victory." Her real Grandpa looked at them. "I am incapable of creating anything. You all, born from her hands, have this gift I do not. Make victory for yourselves."

"I'm going to call BS that there has been any moment in history as bad as this. Literal existence could end." Her dad, this time, had a point. "I mean, make victory from nothing? Sure, let's be gods ourselves."

Ruby wanted to call out to her dad. Her Grandpa just grabbed his shoulder.

"Sorry, sorry," her dad shook his head. "Just… just what do you think we can do?" He turned to Blake. "Do you have any ideas? Anything?"

"All I can think of is how to kill Salem." Blake responded. "I'm not… I-I'm not Weiss, but I can gather a lot. She's incredibly fast, but she's also smart enough to dodge attacks she can't defend. I'm willing to bet she just dipped into the shadows whenever you attacked." Her blue tinted hand rose and fell towards Ruby's Real Grandpa. "But I watched her brush off Yang and Winter attacking her."

"They cannot destroy faster than she can create. They must create flames."

"Right, but… that just leaves one person able to actually hurt her anymore." Glowing eyes turned to Ruby. "And I don't want to have you in there again."

Her Grandpa refused as well, even as Ruby was ready to scream, she could do it.

"Who say's you're not a smart girl. We're not putting Ruby in there. Silver eyes or not. Silver…" Her dad looked at her, then his own eyes widened. "Silver lining." She couldn't tell if that was a pun or not. "No there's… there's two people here. But one's just a memory."

But Grandpa wasn't going to be here unless she was wearing him. Ruby knew that, and so did everyone else. It was just like all his other friends. Someone had to be-

Grandpa had the idea, and Ruby recognized the thought. She hated it.

Her Grandpa saw dawning recognition in her dad's eyes. She hated that, too.

"Link… I need you to listen to me." Ruby refused to look at her dad, but her Grandpa was paying close attention. "I have an idea, and Ruby… you're not going to like it." It was enough to make her want to turn away, but her Grandpa denied her. "But I need you to trust me. Can you do that?"

She wanted to shake her head, to scream that now wasn't the time for it. But her Grandpa, mind of steel, nodded his head. She hated it, even more so when her dad grinned.

"Good. Then please, listen to me."

---

They were all strong in their own right, though far from anything worthy of the name crown of creation, and certainly far from being able to stop her.

They were, in the end, only delaying her. Time was on their side, but her time was running short.

"Die dammit!" The curse flew from the draconic woman, and Salem beat her away with a tendril of darkness. Her lance gored the creation, but it did little more than divert its path. The woman's life was spared, and Salem's was unaffected. "Burn!"

"Only if you fall." She snapped her fingers, whipping up a sheet of darkness. The woman's wings beat against it, only to be pulled to the ground. SHINK! A flash of lavender freed her, followed by a literal boulder being thrown her way. "Sticks and stones, I am sure there is a message in there." Her darkness shot through the air, thin as a hair's width. It bifurcated the block, sending it tumbling away from her in opposite directions. "But what does it mean when those cannot harm me?"

"The proper response is something heavier and harder!" Salem glanced over to see a much larger section of rock being held aloft in the air, five swords tied to strings supporting it, with a lone child beneath it. "As there are no harder materials, I will simply compensate with heavier!" She threw her hands down, the boulder falling after her.

"A fruitless assumption," Salem dryly noted, drawing forth a bow and arrow. "You have already forgotten what I am capable of." He arrow could not destroy the boulder, as it was not a corrupted form of life, and her power could not overtake something like a hunk of rock.

But her arrows were strong, large, and the bane of all who suffered them.

She proved it, with a single shot slipping through the boulder like a needle and ripping it asunder from the inside. She knew it would be so. Just as she knew that the boy flying past it, daggers raised with crushed Dust in his palms, was the product of the diversion.

In the span it took him to move but a breath's birth, she fastened, pulled, and loosed another arrow. She had time to appreciate the terror in the boy's eyes, arrow flying at him.

But the same girl who had thrown the boulder caught and pulled him. The agonizing yell he let out was proof enough he was not going to attempt it again. Not that it mattered to her.

"Even successful, your attack would only be a delay upon a delay. You will gather no ground against me." Salem addressed them all. The burning blonde and white-haired dragon did not simmer at her words. Neither did the red head, swinging about her the Great Fairy's Blade. "Is this how you chose to spend your last moments?"

"Making more, you bet it is!" An orange haired girl shouted now, lifting what was doubtlessly the Megaton hammer. It hit her shadows, plowing through them, and cratering the desolate earth beneath. Her ground would have shaken and sent her to her knees, if she was any mortal man.

Instead, with the girl vulnerable, Salem tilted her head and commanded a tidal wave of darkness to swallow her.

"NO!" But a matching wave of tree roots and flames came up to defend her. The screaming blonde beat them back with all her effort, leaving Salem time to admire the struggles she put up with. Her darkness was not destroyed, but held back long enough for her to escape, as well as the girl.

"A fine effort," Salem complimented. "Bu you will need-" She stopped.

THNK! Her arm held out, she caught the width of the Great Fairy's Sword, but inches from her neck. A glance showed her the perfect form the of the gilded girl who held the blade, and the Twili, pulling back the Magic Cloak. Clever girls.

"Let me finish before you strike. Otherwise, you may waste the little of your life that is left." They were words spoken to others. The girl had already wasted hers. Salem commanded shadows to raise, ready to swallow up the pair. Emerald eyes focused on her, and the child screamed.

The Silver Gauntlets glowed, and the blade was wrenched free of her grip. In a surprising display of athleticism, for a child who could not have been in a life-and-death situation before, she kicked off of Salem's shadows and flew through the air. The Twili, with the powers of a sage, reached out and grabbed her, both of them vanishing in the confines of the Magic Cape.

"Admirable, though futile," Salem noted with a solemn sigh. It was impressive, but impressive in that she had a benchmark. She had something to compare this desperate struggle to. It was not new.

It was all the same, though a bit harsher than what came before.

Perhaps this was the final whimper of this dying world. The last lives capable of being acknowledged by her struggling to stave her off. Soon to be swallowed in her darkness, twisted, and rewritten into a new being, with the power of destruction her hands, there was no reason to keep them as more than just that, a thought. But a thought was good enough for now.

"You are all commendably strong." Salem spoke honestly. "Know that when this world and universe and swallowed by light, and I am able to reshape the darkness, you will be among the few memories I take with me." It was high praise. Staying in the memory of creation.

"Can't say the same for you!" The blonde yelled back again. "After you're toast, I'm gonna forget you like yesterday's workout!"

"Only embers of your fire will remain, used to birth new flames." The draconic woman agreed. "We will not be smothered by the cold darkness."

"No, you won't." Salem agreed. "You will be suffocated by the blinding light." She only needed to grab it first. "It is a good thing I see where to find the source." It was impossible for her not to know where her injured love was.

Her shadows reached out for the fallen god, ready to swallow him and commit the deed. It was the Twili and the boy with the Lens of Truth who devised her intentions first, both of them shouting for others to move. But swift as they were, she was faster, and already charging wounded prey. Her shadows clung to the Fierce Deity.

SHINK!

And her red eyes blinked as they were batted away by another flash of light. No… that wasn't the right word.

They were destroyed. Few things left in this world could do that, and one was nearing the embrace of her creation. That left one other. It made her smile.

And turn to see the former visage of the Hero of Time, standing with Master Sword drawn and glowing.

"And so forth strides the Hero of Time, gowned in gold and carrying the blade of Evil's Bane." She smiled as she narrated the man before her. "The same as has been done for Ganondorf, for Demise, for Vaati, for Majora, and so many others who never had their names scrawled upon the legendary parchments of Hyrule's tomes."

The blonde across from her, wreathed in his crimson and gold armor, swung the Master Sword about him. The children stepped back, Ozma pulling Raven farther away. She gave them no more than a passive glance, staring at the man who she had bedded, and now waved a sword about like death's cane.

"You intend to kill me now Link? Or is it the child inside you that swears to take my life?" The legendary warrior did not speak. Drawn eyes stared at her with hatred. She stared back with mirth, a smile pulling upon her crimson lips. "You were the first I thought to challenge me, but perhaps you thought it wiser to see if I had a weakness to exploit. Perhaps you have found it." Her eyes glanced at the blade of her counterpart's creation. "But the question now is, can you use it?"

The ground erupted as he dashed forward. The light hat guided destruction wished it could be so swift. But as she said before, no matter how fast or far light may travel, it arrives only to find darkness waiting. She saw his attack coming, and she leaned away. Silver sliced the air, and silently took the darkness away.

From her torrents of darkness, she pulled out the rapier, jewel encrusted, and swung it forth. Shadows flew off of it like water, clashing with the hero's blade. Darkness attempting to be swallowed by light but going nowhere. Her darkness was powered by creation. He was fueled by rage. Only one was infinite.

"A fine first strike." She complimented the girl beneath. "But let Link lead. You will only slow him down." The Hero of Time grinned back at her.

Odd. It wasn't something to rest upon.

SHINK! CHING! GLANG! In the moment that followed proved it, as the blade struck out before Salem's eyes could follow. Wisdom, however, told her where to raise her arrows to block the blade, and Courage made it so. She had the Power to resist.

The Hero of Time swung out with the Master Sword, cleaving through the darkness she raised to grab at him, and forcing her to retreat once again. He was fearless in charging her, crying out as his blade ripped through the air. Weaker than the Fierce Deity's, but so much like her love that she could not bear to compare them evenly.

She was forced to hide in darkness, to take aim at him from behind, and weave her arrow through the openings in his armor. Her arrow loosed.

TWANG! But like the ploy he pretended to act on, he twisted around and literally beat the arrow back at her. The device plunged into her form, creation overtaking creation. It caused no harm to her. The Boots carrying to towards her, letting him plunge the blade into her chest, at least gave her a moment of panic. Forcing her to fall away into darkness and leave behind an empty shell.

"He did it! HE DID IT!" One of the children cried out. Salem was humored by the boy's cheer.

"No he didn't! Link! O-Or Ruby! She's still alive!" The boy wearing the Lens of Truth proved his first and second points of her survivability were not a fluke. "In the shadows, behind you!" He had already mastered the device of the Shiekah. And Link was trusting of him as well.

It was why she had to create a wall of darkness to stave off the blade of light he sent flying towards her. The collision made both of them disperse, just as they would for the Fierce Deity. The same, nearly, but the difference was clear to her.

He was finite, she was infinite.

"Continue on, Hero of Time. Continue to struggle in the endless cycle you love." She flipped her hand around. The darkness swirled about, earning the panic of the children around them. She saw more than a few pick up their compatriots and run, the blonde Sage and Twili grabbing teammates and running, Ozma picking up a woman and jumping away, and the draconic woman dragging the cyborg and boys with her.

Their cries of anger were ignored. She cared only for the man who stared her down, blade glowing and eyes alight. They were so much like his ancestors. And yet, she was the one who stared on with a smile.

Because she was not sweating.

Especially not as she clutched her hand and send the tirade of darkness to envelope the Hero of Time. He, predictably, fought back.

SHINK! SHINK! SHINK! SHINK! The Blade of Evil's Bane tore through the darkness like air in trees, whipping past them and with a speed unseen. From a distance, Salem watched as Link, using the form given to him by their grandchild, scoured the creation's shadows.

Flipping over himself to avoid the tendrils from grabbing his feet, burying the blade in the ground to send forth a stream of destruction, ripping it out with a twirl on his feet to rend all the darkness about him. The blade sang as it dipped into the shadows, ripping even the cries of creation from it. The Hero screamed as he cut through it, the few tendrils of darkness that snaked through his blows glancing off of his golden armor, only to be cut down like grass beneath his blade's stance.

Salem watched on, admiring the man. The man who could stand before a Goddess of Creation and pull what was victory from defeat. She had seen him do it, and were she any other time, he may do it again. As he danced through the darkness, he could throw out a relic of her former Time to force her to appear and stab her. He could call upon her daughters to have her creation subside and show her place. He could even reform the Master Sword to be like the Helical Blade of the Fierce Deity.

Link the Hero of Time could be so much. But not this time. This Time, she was prepared.

And so, forming a layer of darkness over her rapier, she stepped forward, readying the blow to take him. Wisdom taught her how to, and Courage made it so. Power would keep her safe.

Safe as she revealed herself before him, letting him take aim at her. The Master Sword stabbed forth with a cry from Link.

It gutted her, shoving through her chest with the force of mountain's falling. For a brief moment, she saw hope flash across his silver eyes. The desire to destroy kept her from letting it stay.

SHNK! And so Salem pushed her own blade, coated in darkness, into the underside of Link. His armor protected nothing, and a wet gasp of surprise was all he let out. Her hand raised, holding him, as she let Power keep her still, enduring the pain that laced through her.

"You have harmed me, and it more than most others today have accomplished." Salem spoke honestly to the silver eyes. "Any other Time, you may take victory from this. But this, is this is what I have spent the eons preparing for." She pushed Creation through her blade. "And you, my love, are no longer able to stop me." Her hand traced his arm, stopping as it cupped his cheek.

No tears ran down his face, and red eyes watched as he darkness crept over him. Light swallowed by darkness. She never looked away.

"I love you, Link. You were not first no last to fall. But you will be the one I remember most fondly from these unending cycles."

Salem watched as the Hero of Time vanished in his golden armor, slipping away into the darkness. The sword in her gut was an annoyance, but the light of destruction was already beginning to wear through her. Annoyance struck her at the lapse in her judgement, but that was all it was, a momentarily lapse.

She reached out and pulled the blade from her chest, letting the darkness drip from her like blood, falling into the miasma that surrounded her. For that brief moment, she held the blade out, marveling at the device of her own creation, in an imperfect future. Now, it was here in the ripe past, standing over the owner that no longer was.

Red eyes bore her love, the darkness of creation swallowing the last of destruction.

"You never had a chance against me, my love. This was always meant to be." Silver eyes, losing their glimmer, did not shake or shiver as they stared up at him. If they had, it would have been the only thing this day to truly shock her. "Your power will be mine, just as I chose for it to be, so that my goal may be realized."

All but his head was fallen to darkness, and she resisted the urge to reach out and stroke it. The last of him she would ever see, and ever would be.

"May you find peace in your lonesome eternity."

Those were the last words of her love. That of her own sanity.

It made Salem sigh, mournful, as he finally vanished into her darkness.

The world was silent at his passing, but she was not careless to leave her lax. Her hand reached out into the abyss he had fallen into, searching for that which was his. It was difficult, searching for a pocket of nothing in the vastness of her space, but it had to be done. Wounded, a bit of his nothingness within her, but she would find it.

The blade, by the machinations of her choice, and the immenseness of her wisdom, lead her to it. She grasped at the emptiness within her, and slowly pulled it out. It was something wonderful to experience as she did so. The efforts beyond ten thousand years.

Holding in her hand, a glowing light beyond the power of her dark arrows, her own darkness dripping from it like moldy clay, and so bright that her eyes had to blink upon it. The sun was envious of it, and she held the power like a thin vase, able to shatter with too forceful a breeze. She knew it was far from delicate, but there was something to be said for holding an eternal prize.

"Time has made a fool of all of us, but only I know how to chart her rivers," Salem spoke, her voice booming above her churning darkness. "You have all fought to stop me from this moment, but I know now you realize the fruitlessness of your deeds." She looked over those who had fought against her.

Blake Belladonna, Link's Magic Cape discarded before her, glowing eyes staring, shaking, beneath a curtain of flaming hair. Blue skin shook as she settled on her knees. The curse of Ganondorf unable to be washed away, even as she stared at the darkness of her creation. Perhaps it was a pity then, proof of how her creation could not be undone, and yet fought for the means that had rended her flesh.

Penny Polendina, shaking with broken swords in her hands, strings cut and staring with thin lips, looked to be fighting her own mind. It was not a wise thing, but computers were, commonly spoke by the former scientist Watts, to be the most unintelligent smart device in her creation. And here now proof was shown. Perhaps that was why the boy at her side, Russel Thrush with his hair cut into a single line, had the most sense as he stared on in horror. Wisdom meant fearing the powerful.

Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren showed that fear, with one crying next to the other. The boy stood as men should, but with Nora whimpering as she fell back in his arms. She kicked weakly, despite holding one of the heaviest tools Link had ever held. The hero was strong, and yet he struggled to lift the weapon she did easily, even in her whimpering lethargic state. The boy, masculinized by his desire to hold up his love, still shook at the knees.

The sole partner remaining, a golden girl, Pyrrha Nikos looked about madly, always returning to her and the silver nothingness of destruction Salem held. Though pale hands held the power with rapture, she knew the girl was holding so much on the opposite end. A shield made of the molten sand, a pair of gauntlets named after the annihilating powers the goddess held, and a blade formed of the other realm she had thought into being, and now rested like glue around them. Her face was a representation of horror.

For all the power the girl held, a woman with even more looked more beaten then her. Raven Branwen, the woman who had stolen power and fled like a thief, naming herself as such, couldn't even rise without pain. Tears fell from her red gaze, a dull reflection of Salem's own crimson gaze, and doubtlessly now of fear. Perhaps some sorrow, tinged and tempered far beneath, but the woman had made a life of showing her fears. Now, she was about to see her nightmares reveal themselves, under the cloak of Salem's realized dream.

"No... no... it..." but for the broken woman's horror showed another man's sorrow. The man who would one day become her love, to the broken ruler she would one day be seen as. Ozpin, Ozma, and a man who was linked to her. Past, Present, and Eternal Future. Well, once eternal. Now the emerald man gazed on in dawning realization for what was before him. Salem would not hide it from him. He was the one how tried to avert his gaze, but the blinding light of eternity's end was hard to avoid.

Some sympathies were not beyond her. She knew it was not wise, but she chose to show her power.

"Be at ease, Ozma. This was destined long ago. The appearance of your future self only allowed me to hasten my goals. Power... being offered by another means. Offering a gate to this true beacon of destruction." The light in her hand was enough to make the darkness around her shiver, but she commanded them all now.

Salem only had to wait for her grasp about the destruction to set in. To let creation integrate, not conquer, nothingness.

"You will feel nothing. Of this I promise. It is the mercy I can only offer you now that I have this power." She looked longingly at the silver in her hands. "More so than gnashing teeth, ripping claws, or endless flames, I can instead use the destruction that is truly complete. Your pain will be obliterated with you."

A spout of fire lit up next to her again, but next to an ocean of darkness and skyway of light.

For the first time, Salem used the powers of destruction to swallow the flames, letting it billow out like wind from her grasp. A test that used her power, tempered by her wisdom.

The joy she felt as the silver light of destruction swept away the flames could not be put to any text or tome. She could only imagine what would be created through her creation when the power of eternity's end took away more.

Not his power, but hers. Finally hers and shown now to be capable of used by her.

No wonder the Fierce Deity was so enamored with the bit of life they had made. To hold what was opposite of her was as intoxicating as the most distilled drink among the humans' debauch lives.

Red eyes stared past the light, to see the red armored form of Winter. It was an ironic choice of Time, that a woman made of ice and spoken coldly, would be chosen by the Forever Fires of Death Mountain's ruler. Taken from her future to this past, and then survived to this present. Ironic, but non-interfering now. She had no power to harm her before, and she had none now. Be it with wings, tail, fire, and flames. It was all beneath her.

"You... cold bitch..." The flaming girl spoke, next to the draconic woman wood curling at her feet. Yang Xiao Long was the fire brand her father was, and much the opposite of her dark mother. Neptune Vasilias, a brave if meek boy, held her up. His rage was as visible as the girl's, but her terror unseen beneath her flames. His terror, however, showed only brighter to her Sagehood powers. "You fucking... think that's a mercy? Threatening us... me, after killing my dad!"

Salem tipped her head at the comment. The statement was confusing her.

She likely killed her father, but she made no mention of it before. She would not hold off on it now, not when she slew her sister wearing the face of the Hero. But...

Salem realized it then.

She focused on the destruction her hands, trying to find where else it existed. Searching her creation for it. She felt it then, far away from here. Did she run away? It would make sense. She was no hero, as even the Spirit of the Blade, birthed by her counterpart, had declared it so.

They all knew she had won. And yet... and yet... there was something missing.

"You killed them all."

Salem, short of breath, turned her gaze.

Red eyes saw a red cloak, carrying a red scythe, shining with silver.

"Now I'll kill you."

Time was not on her side, but it permitted the Goddess of Creation that one moment.

A moment to realize, through her wisdom, she felt not Ruby Rose so far away. She did not feel her because she did not see her own creation. A moment to comprehend that Ruby was not as strong as her forefathers, but she was far faster. That same moment to see the glowing silver eyes of her granddaughter, staring down at her.

And the scythe, not the blade, that encircled her neck. Nowhere for her to run.

"My-" SHIIINK!

And no time to speak.

---

Author's Note:

I hope this isn't considered anti-climactic. I assure you, there is an aftermath, then Epilogue.