And by one vote, the fan-favorite fight of the first half of 'Fairies of the Shattered Moon' is... ERZA, PYRRHA, & RAVEN vs. CINDER!
Had a feeling it'd that one. It was a blast to write Erza's first present-day battle and it serves as a crucial point in not just hers, but all four characters' arcs. Pyrrha is given a brutal showcase that trying to put defeating the enemy entirely on herself will not work, Raven is inspired to truly take the first step towards trying to redeem herself, and Cinder is confronted head-on with the fact that no matter how much power she hoards, Fairy Tail will always be able to find a way to overcome her if she is alone. Meanwhile, Erza gets a glorious return to action and a showcase of the admirable strengths of her greatest virtues... setting up for the unavoidable downsides of those virtues to lead her to her tragic battle with End in the next arc.
Shout-out to the runner-ups in the poll BLAKE, LUCY, LOKE, SUN, & ILIA vs. TYRIAN and LUCY vs. END! The latter I expected to do well due to the recency and sheer spectacle and stakes at its core, but I admit I did not expect the former to do so well, kicking the butts of a lot of heavyweights throughout the poll. I suppose the only conclusion I can draw from this is that you, my beloved readers, LOVE Lucy. Which means you have EXCELLENT taste! What a shocking plot twist!
And after that transparent lead-in, the next poll is for the fan-favorite PLOT TWIST so far! You've got until the next chapter updates to vote for your Top 3! Remember to let me know your favorite in a guest review if you choose 'Other'!
Beta-ed by xenosaiyan and MasterPrince713
Salem had been alive for literal eons. Centuries and millennia and further years blurred together after a while, mixing into a single drudgery of interchanging disappointment and exhaustion. But even within that endless abyss of time, there were brief periods that stood out like stars amidst the night sky. Growing up in the Celestial Spirit World, her marriage with Ozma and their time with their children, her meetings with Team RWBY and Fairy Tail, and quiet evenings with End, Summer, and the rest of her friends, so many of those moments were oases of peace and joy in the harsh desert of her life. But there were also moments that separated themselves from the night sky in another way. Black holes of sheer absolute terror and despair.
Her Ophiuchus's roaring incantation splitting the air as she and her father's duel ground to a halt was the newest of their number.
"Fire Devil Emperor Secret Art! THE END!"
"No!" Salem shouted, but it was too late. Her titanic Eclipse Etherious Form turned far too slowly, End's words echoing across the Grimmlands. And following them from The Ophiuchus's maw was a beam, a single simple pillar of concentrated heat.
And as soon as it touched air, the world burned.
The sky turned a blinding white and even The Queen had to shield her many eyes from the hellish shine. A few moments later, the glow faded and the world could be seen again. At least, what was left of it.
Every Grimm of the perimeter's west and south side was gone, every titanic Umbral Spirit that could each topple a kingdom obliterated, not even ash left behind. The constant layer of dark clouds that haunted the firmament of the continent had been sliced in half, twin banks of black nimbuses set billowing away from the new towering crevice revealing the deep purple sky above.
And below?
The ground the Grimm had once stood upon, fields upon fields of black earth, had been wiped away, the flat plain inflicted with a new steep mountain valley with a basin of molten magma churning at its final resting place. And at the center of it all, directly beneath where the beam had streaked through the sky, was a mile-deep canyon, a decisive cut into the planet's crust that went on farther than the eye could see.
"Terrifying," the Celestial Spirit King muttered. "What a truly terrifying creature Zeref forged."
Salem immediately whipped back around to face her father, prevent him from encasing her in stone, but she needn't have bothered with such ferocious caution. Already, her fearsome guardian stood back, his sword brought to a resting stance as his body began to twinkle away to stardust.
"Lucy can no longer support your presence," Salem observed. "And as I am still free, I win."
"Do you?" her father queried, his imperious eyes gazing out towards the scorched ruin of the Grimmlands. "Your stronghold is rubble. Your circle is dead or unbalanced. And the friends you sought for centuries…" His mustache flattened as the tips of a frown peeked out from its lower edge at the sight of the canyon End had created. "If you claim another victory such as this one, your cause is truly lost."
Salem's face faltered, her twelve hydra heads withdrawing to curl around her center in worry. "They're not dead. They're not dead."
"I hope so. I truly hope so, my dear daughter," her father warned, all but his head returned home, his solid red eyes narrowed in discontent. "For your sake."
With those ominous parting words, the Celestial Spirit King faded away to golden dust, probably already taking a seat on his throne back home.
As soon as he'd fully departed, Salem nearly keeled over, the volcanic heat bombarding her flesh nothing compared to the emotional whiplash of her sudden reunion and equally as sudden separation with her father. All of her heads, humanoid and hydra heaved and gagged, tears pricking from her eyes only to sizzle and evaporate against her scales.
But there was no time for such emotions, no time for grief, not yet. End may have been floating in the air by the melted pile of slag that was once the western tower, but the rest of her circle was likely scattered as far as they could go, knowing all too well the dangers of being close by when the Ophiuchus entered his Etherious Form. If they were to gather again, she'd need to cool the area back down to a manageable temperature.
Her hydra heads let out a mournful wail, each reptilian maw letting out blizzards and tsunamis that filled the sky. Without End's active resistance, it was enough to force the remaining lava back to solid form, the largest sauna in history rising from the renewed rock in the face of its rapid freezing.
Her humanoid form glared to End across the way, the fearsome demon wilting under her gaze. His Etherious Form may have been necessary, but his ultimate attack?
"They're not dead," Salem muttered, desperately trying to will her words into reality. "They're not dead…"
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Qrow had been given a simple directive. Fly away from the castle, as far and as fast as he possibly could. With the motivation of knowing exactly what he had to do for the first time since he'd learned the truth about Oz, the avian huntsman had booked it through the skies of the Grimmlands as fast as he could possibly go. And just as the robot girl had calculated, with aura and magic bolstering his desperate conviction, that was pretty damn fast.
He'd made it to the coast when the portal he'd been waiting for finally appeared, a crackling, unstable vortex of crimson and black. A dark airship he recalled from the castle landing pad, its engines and sides melted and warped from their former sleekness, shot out of the gateway like a rocket, an eruption of flames blasting the shuttle into a wild spinout as the portal instantly closed behind them. The craft plummeted over the edge of the cliffside and into the sea.
Panicked, Qrow dove for the crash site, the broken, smoldering remains of the airship somehow not sinking into the ocean, a bowl of glowing water forming under it to keep afloat.
"Ruby! Yang!" Qrow yelled, transforming back to human form and dashing inside, his feet splashing over the entrance ramp. "Tai! Tai!"
"Urgh…" his blond partner groaned, the muscular man laid out on the floor in a tangled mess with the others, only Carla and Penny slumped over in the cockpit's seats. "Present, barely."
"But present," Ruby added, staggering to her knees beside her father.
Qrow sank down and engulfed both of them in a desperate bone-breaking hug, barely noticing another familial figure rising next to them.
"Ugh," Raven groused, rubbing her head from injury or another. "I know this is a bit picky, but couldn't you have found a softer landing zone, brother?"
"Shut up, Raven," Qrow responded, before dragging her into the hug as well. Forgiveness was complicated, and she certainly didn't have his yet, but at that moment he didn't give a damn.
They were alive. They were alright. He'd left them to help them and they were okay. His family was okay. Tai, Raven, Ruby, and… and…
"Where's Yang?" Qrow suddenly inquired, his eyes widening with panic. He looked at Raven and realized the full ramifications of her being awake. "Where's Summer?"
All three of his family members looked away, unable to meet his gaze.
"Summer is dead," a blue-haired woman helping Weiss and Gray up revealed. "Yang is… she's alive but…"
"She's what?!" Qrow demanded, pushing aside his complicated grief at the news that his team leader was dead once more out of sheer concern for her daughter. "And who the hell are you anyway!?"
"That's Juvia. She's a friend and currently the one keeping us afloat," Ruby cut in, before turning to the cockpit. "I don't know how much of a head start we've got, but we need to book it back to Vale. Penny, can this thing still fly?!"
"Ough… negative," Penny responded, even she winded by whatever went down during the escape. "Lucy's spell kept End's attack from hitting up long enough to get through the portal, but the ambient heat melted the engines."
"Great. Hard way then," Ruby groused. "Juvia, Raven, the three of us have to pour every ounce of water and wind magic we've got into getting us back."
Juvia nodded. "From what you've told me of maiden powers, together with my magic, that should be doable."
"Wait!" Qrow protested, grabbing hold of Ruby's cloak. "Ruby, where is your sister?!"
"She's with Salem!" Ruby answered, her eyes flaring with the familiar glow of a maiden.
Qrow recoiled as if he'd been slapped.
Ruby let out a long sigh. "Uncle Qrow, there is a lot I still need to explain. About Yang, about Wendy and Oscar, about my plan for the Umbral Spirit King. And I will. But we have to get home first. Otherwise, Lucy will have risked everything for nothing."
"Lucy?" Qrow said, noticing for the first time that Tai really was the only blonde present. "What happened to her?"
Ruby frowned. "I trusted her not to die. That trust was not misplaced."
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"Where are they?!"
Happy gulped as Salem's demand reverberated across the ashen plains. The Queen's fury was always present, visible just beneath her carefully restrained surface, but that never made it any less terrifying when unleashed.
The demonic Exceed, Wendy, Oscar, and the unconscious Jaune had huddled within the underground chamber in order to hide from Salem and the Celestial Spirit King's titanic brawl, the roof shuddering and threatening to collapse atop them every moment. Eventually, Ozpin had taken control and used his magic to freeze the ceiling in time to keep them safe, conjuring the Shield of Memory around them when the cavern had turned to lava due to End.
Of course, when they came out to find the ground safe to walk on, but Cinder, Emerald, Mercury, Hazel, Sienna, and Yang surrounding Salem and End (thankfully back in their base forms) at the edge of a canyon that had not been there before? Happy was seriously missing the lava.
"They got away," End answered, his head lowered in shame. "Heartfilia stalled The End for a second, let them get through the portal."
"How's that possible?" Cinder inquired. "From what you told us, nothing can stand against your Secret Art."
"Yet they would have been incinerated otherwise," Salem snapped, making clear that such an outcome was not a favorable one to her. "But that begs the question: where is Lucy?! She wasn't in the ship and she couldn't have gotten away with them without letting the blast through. But she's not here–"
"She is here," Wendy revealed. "She survived."
Happy's head whipped towards his co-conspirator. Why had she revealed that? He had his Fairy Tail emblem just like she did, so he could sense the spell that had saved Lucy too, but letting Salem and the others know? End was still present, and if him going so far as to unleash his Secret Art despite knowing The Queen wanted Lucy alive was any indication, everyone else being there wouldn't stop him from taking a shot at her.
Sienna raised an eyebrow and searched around the area. "Where? I don't see her. Is she using some sort of stealth magic–"
"Fire Devil's Rage!" Yang suddenly proclaimed, a scorching pink breath attack screeching for the sky right where the shuttle had gotten through the portal.
The flame pillar suddenly slammed into an invisible object, a golden sphere with the emblem of Fairy Tail appearing in the sky. Save Wendy and Happy, everyone's eyes widened in awe.
"That's the same thing that was at Beacon Tower," Emerald gasped.
"Fairy Sphere. She blocked it with Fairy Sphere," Salem mused, notably impressed. "A Star Dress is made from the bond between spirit and summon. She must have cannibalized the remainder of father's power to power the sphere."
Happy cringed. Only those with a Fairy Tail guildmark could sense the presence of a Fairy Sphere. Yang may have lost the arm that bore hers, but she knew enough about the spell to deduce what Lucy had done from the little information Wendy had supplied.
The giant sphere shattered to pieces, a lithe figure dropping from above. Yang instantly spawned fire wings on her back and shot into the air, catching the unconscious Lucy in her arms bridal-style. The Devil Slayer gently floated back to the ground, lovingly caressing the Celestial Spirit Wizard's hair from her face. End began to approach, but the red-eyed huntress instantly glared at him with fire that would burn even him.
The Ophiuchus wilted back, his head lowered in chastisement. "She was knocked out."
"Your Secret Art is the ultimate manifestation of your power to destroy magic and divine curses," Happy pointed out. "Even Fairy Sphere can't nullify all that force."
"A fair assessment, Happy," Salem said. However, she soon turned around and pointed an accusatory finger at Oscar. "Would you care to provide your insight on this matter?!"
Ah, right. That.
"That is an etherious body," he replied.
"I can see that!" Salem shouted. "Why is Ozma in it? And for that matter, why did you have a secret chamber devoted to making an extra Etherious body?!"
Happy winced. Guess there was no way around it. He just had to tell enough of the truth to be believed while not telling enough to expose Wendy's plan.
"I made the body for Natsu," he revealed, hiding his dread as he saw End and Yang both perk up. "After the destruction of the castle, which we now know was caused by Jaune and Ren going out of control, Hazel assumed that Ozpin was responsible and did as he does. Oscar was put in critical condition, Wendy couldn't heal him–"
"So you had to waste a vital resource," Sienna surmised, glaring at Hazel.
She needn't have bothered. The Gate of the Bull already looked horrified at Happy's words. He turned to Oscar and Wendy. "I'm so sor—"
"Sorry? Great. Don't come swinging at me again, and I might believe you," Oscar snipped, whirling away from the larger man to face Salem. "You and Oz have a complicated history at best. Wendy can vouch for us all she wants, but if you still think he's against you in here, nothing I say is going to matter."
Salem cocked an eyebrow. "A fair assumption. Am I meant to believe he's finally come around to see sense?"
"More he's just too tired to keep fighting," Oscar replied. "You have to have wondered? All these millennia, all these battles, the heartbreak with no chance of victory, you have to have wondered why he kept coming back?"
"The thought did cross my mind."
"Well let's just this huge mess, seeing Leo and losing him and Summer, has zapped the last of his resilience," Oscar declared. "He just wants people to stop dying for him. He wants it to be over, one way or the other."
"And you?" Salem questioned, accusingly. "What of you? His 'liked-minded soul'?"
"Like-minded. Not a clone," Oscar answered. "I have no desire to just be another one of his lives. Get another body to throw him in before the merge finishes, and I'll do whatever you want."
Salem pursed her lips and glanced at Wendy. "You vouch for him?"
The Sky Dragon Slayer nodded. "I do."
"And is that supposed to matter?" Cinder challenged. "Are we supposed to take your word that–"
"Silence, Cinder," Salem growled, returning her gaze to Happy. "We were going to make a body for Natsu once Wendy joined us anyway. None of this explains why you kept the fact that you were creating this one a secret."
"Are you kidding?!" Happy exclaimed, his paw furiously jutted towards Lucy and the canyon behind her. "This is what he did when he had no idea what I was up to and someone pressed the Natsu and Lucy button! You think telling him that I wanted to bring Natsu back would have caused anything better?!"
Salem looked back at End, whose face lowered until it was covered by the shadow of his horns. The fire demon walked away from the conversation, shuffling to Jaune's side. He knelt down and gently grazed his claw across the unconscious boy's face, the boy he'd encouraged, who he'd assured could trust them.
And who'd gone insane because they weren't able to keep that trust.
"Fair point," The Queen conceded, letting out an exhausted sigh. "With Summer… with Summer gone, we'll need all the help we can get. Fairy Tail will not be an easy opponent, especially if they're able to get the Vale council to listen to them. Capturing the others will be–"
"Capture? Capture?!"
Salem did not turn, but Happy and the others all looked to Cinder. The Gate of the Archer's face was as incredulous as her words, ignoring Emerald's subtle attempts to grab her back as she stomped into the center of the group.
"Teacher is dead. She is dead!" Cinder shouted, all present save Oscar and Mercury lowering their heads in mourning. "She is dead at the hands of Weiss Schnee, a Fairy Tail Wizard! You offered them peace and they attacked us without even trying to talk! And now, what?! You want us to go to war with one hand tied behind our backs?! We're not immortal like you! So, as Watts hasn't gotten the new Hell's Core up and running, we can die for good! And as they have plainly demonstrated with myself, Mercury, and Tyrian, they are perfectly capable and willing to kill us!"
"You will be in no danger," Salem spoke, still facing away from the younger woman, her voice measured, yet shivering with rage. Happy gulped as the black lines of Seram's Madness began to creep up the back of her neck. "Hell's Core will be repaired before you go into battle."
"And what will stop them from destroying it again and slaughtering us wholesale?!" Cinder demanded, either not noticing the danger or not caring in her grief for her mother. "You've spoken time and again of Fairy Tail's strength and bonds, but it seems like part of that is you would have us be weak! You value their lives more than ours! More than hers–"
Salem snapped around like a viper, her arm shooting out and grabbing Cinder by the throat. The Gate of the Archer barely had time to pale before she was lifted up and smashed into the ground.
"Cinder!" Emerald yelled, only for Mercury to hold her back even as he himself looked on in terror. Happy mimicked such sentiments, leaping back in shock along with Wendy and Oscar. Hazel, Sienna, and even End looked in astounded horror, The Queen's fury spilling forth to stun them all.
Only Yang was unaffected by the outburst, the Golden Fairy merely looking on impassively with her crimson eyes as her sister was whipped back and forth above Salem's head, repeatedly and mercilessly bashed into the newborn igneous rock. Dust and pebbles went flying as Cinder's body was used as a makeshift jackhammer before finally being planted into a cracked crater, her aura shattered and her golden eyes wide with terror.
"You think I do not value your life? If I did not, you would be long dead by now!" Salem snarled, Seram's Madness flooding her face as she bore down on the pinned Spirit Slayer. "You, who burned Beacon to the ground and killed hundreds when I gave you a straightforward mission! You, whose bloodthirst forced your beloved teacher to accelerate her plans and earn Weiss's ire! You, who made us the villains in Fairy Tail's eyes because you could not do even one simple task!"
"I did… as you asked… as she asked," Cinder choked, tears peeling down her bloody cheeks. "I didn't… attack them–"
"This time, perhaps, little Ella," Salem growled. "You wanted to be strong. You wanted to be feared. You wanted to be powerful. You wanted to be 'Cinder Fall'. And all you have done is feed on my patronage like a parasite. For Summer and her compassion, I allowed it."
She lifted the Gate of the Archer up until they were face-to-face, a bloody, teary mess brought up to stare into the face of hell, in the abyss.
What worried Happy most of all was that, just for a moment, he thought he saw Cinder's golden eyes harden.
"Enough!"
End's roar broke through the quivering wire of tension, her blue flames lashing in as he ripped Cinder from Salem's grip and tossed her back to Emerald and Mercury.
"Go! Head to Watts's server and cool off," he commanded. "Pick up the data while you're at it. Might come in handy. Her Scarab will keep the Grimm off your back."
"I am not done with her–"
"You asked me to be your Ophiuchus," End reminded Salem. "The guardian of your Gates. Even from you if necessary."
"RRRRrrrggggghhhhhh!" Salem howled.
For a brief moment, Happy feared they'd all need to run for their lives again as The Queen and The Ophiuchus did battle. Fortunately, in the face of her best friend, Salem was able to force the lines of Seram's Madness to rescind, inch by inch until fled down to her neck. With an explosion of fire, the Eclipse Etherious launched herself into the air, rocketing back towards the ruins of her castle.
There was silence after that, several seconds of quiet processing. Emerald and Mercury wisely used it to take Cinder and shuffle away, heading off as they'd been told. No one really noticed, all of their gazes looked on Salem's trail through the sky.
"Well, that was… juvenile," Sienna shivered. "If terrifying."
"It's been a long day," End argued, looking off mournfully where the western tower had once stood, where Summer had breathed her last. "A day of loss."
"And what will we answer with tomorrow?" Yang queried, a low growl in her voice like a wild beast. "Weiss murdered mom. She would have killed Ruby too if mom hadn't sacrificed herself for her. Cinder is Cinder, but in this case, she isn't wrong."
End sighed, in a manner Happy recognized as reluctant agreement.
Truthfully, the demonic Exceed was torn himself. He obviously hoped that Salem would continue to insist on capturing and not killing for all Fairy Tail members, but he could understand the others' preference for otherwise. Even without the dangers of having to fight with one hand tied behind their backs against opponents that could very well win with such a handicap… Summer was his friend. He remembered the kind woman he'd met so many years ago, who he'd comforted at her own grave. Knowing Weiss had taken her life, even knowing intellectually that the huntress had had ample reason to go for her head, it took a great deal of effort to bind that instinctive grief and rage in his rational reasoning.
Perhaps it was that internal struggle that stole his attention long enough for End to appear in front of him, his claw outstretched. Happy immediately leapt back, Wendy and Oscar rushing to his side.
"Touch him, and I break you," Yang threatened to the Ophiuchus's back.
She needn't have bothered. As soon as he saw Happy retreat, End pulled back his claw, a look of hurt passing over his face. Fortunately, it was swiftly followed by an expression of understanding… and shame.
"I'm sorry. I should have never made you afraid to speak. Even about… him," End said, looking away from the Exceed. "I'm powerful, but I'm… broken. But that shouldn't be your problem. You're my friend, Happy. I will protect you. I'll fix this. I'll fix… me."
With those words, the fire demon conjured a pair of Purple Flare wings on his back and flew off after Salem.
Happy could only gape after him. He'd been expecting to have to hide from hellfire behind Salem when End found out about his secret efforts to revive Natsu. It was sometimes easy for him to forget, amidst all his fear, that they were friends.
Fifty years together, even if they had begun as just a method for Happy to make sure his best friend remained safe within the Ophiuchus, had not passed completely unpleasantly. Nights around the fire grilling fish, telling jokes and riddles, taking out scumbags who Ozpin was blackmailing into actually being productive to society and useful to his agenda but were still scumbags in the end… there was no shortage of good times between them. There was a reason he'd immediately discarded the idea of using the Book of E.N.D. to switch his position in his body consciousness with Natsu, even before he'd learned that End had altered his tome to make that impossible.
Now, he'd fought against his trauma for Happy, a factor the Exceed had never expected him to truly triumph against, and he had won.
What was it he'd said back at Haven? 'Who could be angry when something so stupendous is before them?'
Happy had certainly witnessed something stupendous and he certainly wasn't angry. He would be lying if he said he wasn't a bit afraid of what End had in mind for "fixing" himself.
But he'd also be lying if he said there wasn't a spark of hope in his chest. Even if for what, he did not know.
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He'd lost control of himself. He'd lost control of himself again, just like at Haven and just like with Erza. Heartfilia had gone after Salem to set him off and like a rank amateur he'd fallen for it hook, line, and sinker. He'd used The End on her! The End! If Mavis hadn't designed the greatest defensive spell of all time (and that was the only reason Heartfilia had survived his ultimate attack), he would have incinerated Lucy, Ruby, and everyone else on that airship. Summer's spirit would have returned to tear him limb from limb if she learned her daughter died because of his weakness, and they'd have had to waste time seeking out the Relic of Knowledge if the Celestial Spirit Wizard hadn't pulled off the miracle she had.
In which case, none of his friends would have ever forgiven him. And he couldn't blame them. Happy, Summer, Yang, and, of course…
End found her at the ruins of the western tower, kneeling at the feet of the mountain of slag. However, he doubted the sorrowful mourning on her face was for the lost architecture. He knew his own was for the body buried somewhere within it.
"You would have killed Cinder if I hadn't stepped in," he pointed out. "She would not have wanted that."
"There were a great many things that Summer wanted that I was unable to provide," Salem glumly commiserated. "But she would not have approved of total war with Fairy Tail. Do you suggest that I disregard that last wish to indulge her daughters' vengeance?"
"I think that if it was against anyone else, you already would have," End replied. "And disregarding Cinder and Yang's thirst for justice, they do have a point."
"And you would just love it if they did!" Salem growled, whirling to her feet and snarling in his face. "You, who seem unable to keep from trying to kill Lucy despite my explicit orders not to!"
End felt the urge to glance away in shame, but forced himself to hold The Queen's gaze. He was her second. It was his duty to make sure she knew when he thought she was incorrect, and he could not allow his own emotional vulnerability to weaken his message.
"Those instances were my failures. I can fight most of Fairy Tail without going all out and survive. So can you. But the others are not us," he reminded her. "Summer was the best of the Gates, the most cunning and creative with a plethora of raw power. If even she can fall because she did not go for the kill when she needed to, do the others not have reason for concern?"
Salem looked away with a frown. "And that is without what Weiss may have used to kill her…"
End raised a curious eyebrow. "I believe I was distracted by another of my fits with Erza at the time. Did you sense something unusual?"
"Only for a moment. Something familiar, something… if Yang and Cinder's descriptions are accurate, then our timetable must accelerate…" Salem shook her head and strode back towards the tower ruins. "Hopefully Watts's server video will be able to confirm if we're in as much danger as I think we are."
"Oh," End said, quite scared by how concerned his friend suddenly was. "Well, Wendy has seen our point and we have Lucy for the ritual to find Acnologia's sphere. If we need to move faster, we can, even without me."
"Without–" Salem whipped around to face him in shock. "What do you mean 'without you'?"
End gestured towards the melted ruins of the castle and the surrounding plains. The Grimm mud pools were only just beginning to burn through the new layer of rock his attack had thrown over the courtyard, but the catastrophe was obvious to see.
"This should not have happened. I should have been able to control myself. Instead, I acted no better than Cinder at her worst. And just as it is unacceptable from her, it is unacceptable from me," he explained. "I thought I could control my… trauma. But I can't. And so long as I can't, I am just as dangerous a threat to our cause as our enemies."
"You are my friend," Salem insisted. "I don't need you to be some war machine, I just need you to be by my side–"
"I will be. I can't exactly go to therapy if I'm not in Atlas with the rest of you," End joked, trying to break the tension. "But, I also can't go to that therapy if I'm on the front lines. So… I must ask for some time away from my more direct duties–"
"Done," Salem immediately agreed.
Her hands rose to clamp onto his shoulders, an attempt at solidarity that quickly became somewhat awkward given the conversation only moments ago. The two stood there for several seconds, unsure what to say, him not knowing how to react to a more positive response than he was expecting and her not sure if she had responded the best way.
Eventually, Salem turned back to the slag pile of the western tower, her confusion taking over her face once more. "I never wanted this. I never wanted any of this. I thought I had averted Ruby and Yang's tragedy. And yet, now Summer is gone once more and so many of my friends feel they must stand against me. Even my father. And with the castle lost… if this is victory, is Ruby right? Will nothing be left even if we do stop the Umbral Spirit King, even if I do take control of Remnant personally? Is there just… no hope?"
"Of course there's no hope. Hope is an illusion. It isn't real. Its power is in what it pushes those who believe in it nonetheless to accomplish," End declared. "What's true will be true. All we can do is manage those circumstances to accomplish our purposes the best we can. Yours is, like Summer's was, to save this world, no matter what it takes."
He planted a comforting claw on her shoulder and smiled. "And mine is to help you."
A tear trickled from Salem's eye. She reached out and pulled him into a tight, desperate hug. Desperate for something to go remotely right. The least he could was return the embrace.
End would do more than the least. For her, for Happy, for Yang, for Jaune, for Summer, for all those he'd failed both living and dead, he would defeat every foe that stood in their way, both without and within.
Fortunately, he figured he himself would be the most difficult obstacle in that latter category.
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"So, this is little Ella Autumn, is it?"
Ella gulped. When Summer had offered to get her away from the Tremaines, send her on a mission that's true purpose would be to shuttle her to safety while faking her death, COMMAND ESR had been completely upfront about who her new guardian would be. Even so, being told of the shadowy Grimm Queen and seeing her for herself were starkly different experiences.
Salem looked exactly like Ella would expect someone who bore the title 'Queen of the Grimm' would look. Dark, hellish, elegant… and powerful.
With a wave of her hand, she'd parted the wall of ancient Grimm that had surrounded her castle, the demonic behemoths kneeling away even as they snarled at their overlord. They hated her, but they could do nothing but obey her commands.
For Ella, who'd been restrained and trapped since the death of her father, with only Summer's visits and kindness to soften the captivity, it was a transfixing sight. How long had she been forced into the Grimm's position, forced to scrap and serve Eleanor and her daughters despite how she longed to cut their throats? For all the fighting skill she'd gained, they still held power over her. Yet, Summer had held power over them, used it to whisk Ella away from them when it became clear Eleanor simply didn't know the meaning of 'going easy' in training.
And Salem held power over even her.
"Another Silver Spirit Slayer," Salem mused, leading her and Summer through the gateway and into the throne room. "Are you sure you wish to let such talent waste away?"
"Your grace, she's been through enough," Summer insisted. "This is the only place she'll be both safe and not be at risk of exposing the coverup–"
"So I'll just be shut up here?" Ella interjected, breaking through her fear to defiantly speak her mind. Simple soul or not, she wouldn't sit back, mute, while others decided her fate. This life was hers! "I'm just trapped here forever!"
"Not forever," Summer comforted her. "Just a bit longer until you've grown up and you won't be recognizable. And until then, you will want for nothing here."
"Including training if you wish it."
"Salem!"
"We must at least give her the option," the Queen teased her mother-henning associate, before turning back to the young girl. "Well, little Ella? What do you want?"
Summer frowned. "Your grace–"
"I want to be strong," Ella proclaimed. "I want to be feared. I want to be powerful."
Salem cocked a curious eyebrow, while Summer recoiled in sorrow and shame.
"I want to be like you two," Ella pleaded. "I don't want anyone to ever be able to hurt me ever again."
"No one will," Summer promised, getting down on one knee before the young girl. "The Queen and I will protect you, Ella."
"Not Ella," the silver-eyed girl said, seizing the chance to follow up on the other women's resulting confusion. "You said I couldn't leave until I was unrecognizable. I'll need a new name then."
She didn't want to be Ella Autumn anymore anyway. Ella hadn't been able to save her father, or Mary, had been betrayed by Jack and Gus's stupidity. Ella was weak, and for that, she'd died with the so-called friends who'd failed her.
"A tactical assumption," Salem complimented with a smile. "So what will it be, child? Names should be chosen by the one who will bear them."
A new name. A name to shape who she would be, who she wanted to be. The greatest warrior Remnant would ever know, with strength that none could match. Who no one could harm.
"Cinder," she declared. "My name is Cinder."
RWBYRWBYRWBYRWBYFTFTFTFT
Salem would have killed her.
It was all Cinder could think about as she, Emerald, and Mercury made the long journey to Watts's server, her wounds from The Queen throbbing throughout her body as her Scarab and healing factor worked to repair the damage. If End hadn't intervened, there was no doubt in her mind that Salem would have killed her right then and there. Yet, she was not willing to defend the rest of them by fighting with lethal force against Fairy Tail. Weiss Schnee had murdered Teacher and The Queen still valued her life more than The Gate of the Archer's.
"You were right," she told Mercury once the three of them finally arrived at the server, a short metal pillar with hardlight dust shielding both outside its walls and inside around its computer systems. With no people or negativity to draw the Grimm's attention, it was enough to prevent any outside tampering with maintenance checks every six months or so. "Salem doesn't care about us. She won't protect us. Only Teacher did that and she's… she's…"
"Yeah," Mercury said, not without sympathy. He went to the door and entered the entrance code they were given. "Sorry, but if she was Salem's queen, we're just pawns."
"We don't have to stay that way. Get to the end of the board and we level up, right?" Emerald pointed out. "There'll be chances. We prove our worth, and we–"
"Friendship isn't about worth. Teacher was always clear about that," Cinder sighed. "And if it is, I don't have a chance. After Beacon and Haven, and without Teacher, Salem will throw me to the void the second I'm no longer useful."
She'd made her errors, her trauma shaping her worldview and her choices in a way she was only starting to correct, but just because she'd realized that they were mistakes didn't change the fact that people were dead. And those deaths defined Fairy Tail's view of her and Salem's faction as a whole. She had kept her head down and done her job the best she could with Arc, never attacked her enemy without being attacked first, but it didn't matter. Her mistakes were all that would ever define her.
If Fairy Tail won, Erza Scarlet would see her dead. If Salem won, The Queen would see her dead as a peace offering once she'd outlived her usefulness. Summer would have protected her, she always had, but without her, Cinder was a goner no matter which side won the coming war.
At least, if any of the current sides won the war.
"If I stay a piece, I'm dead," Cinder mused, her eyes hardened to golden knives. "So… I'll be the hand that moves."
"You're being overdramatic again," Mercury quipped, the door to the server whooshing open. "What're you talking about?"
"I'm talking about becoming a player," Cinder bluntly stated. "Like Ruby. Like Erza. Like Ozpin."
"Like Salem?" Emerald gasped, her eyes wide with shock. "Against Salem?"
Mercury paused his entrance to the server room and turned around to face her, leaning back against the door frame with a skeptical eyebrow. "Truly one of your wackier ideas."
"Wacky? It's impossible!" Emerald shouted. She pointed out beyond the three of them, the edge of End's canyon still visible even so far out. "You can't fight that!"
The memory of encroaching lava, of Salem's Eclipse Etherious Form towering over the castle ruins, filled Cinder's mind with dread. Still, she made sure not to let her apprehension show on her face. "There are alternatives to fighting."
"Salem is immortal! You can't poison her or arrange an 'accident'! There's no elaborate cheating that's going to make your knife equal her gun!" Emerald insisted. "She has End. She has the rest of the Gates. You can't beat her."
Cinder stared the green-haired thief straight in the eyes. "I can't beat her alone."
Emerald reeled back as if she'd been slapped. Off to the side, Mercury let out a bark of laughter.
"Oh yeah," he mocked. "We're eager to jump on that sinking ship."
"You're bonded to two different water spirits. She's a maiden," Cinder countered. "We can handle it."
This was the greatest risk of her plan. Mercury could hardly be called fond of her, and, as she'd so often noted, Emerald was too smart to throw her chips onto a losing bet. Every single factor that they'd brought up to her was one hundred percent true. The safe thing to do was report her treason to The Queen, let her die, and reap the rewards of their loyalty. After all, the chances of the three of them going up against Salem, let alone her, her forces, and Fairy Tail to boot, and winning were slim to minuscule.
But the plan was already dead if she didn't take this risk. Because without their help, those slim to minuscule chances were completely nonexistent. And not just as minions and tools like at Beacon. She needed the power of friendship if this was going to work. She needed friends.
And that meant she needed to be a friend. As best as she possibly could.
"If you want to tell Salem about this, if you don't want to take this chance, then do it. I'll run, but I won't fight you," she declared. "But if we wait, she will turn on all of us in time. Our only chance is to play the game for ourselves. We can win if we pick this fight together! Whoever controls the power of Acnologia, can rival even her and End. If we play our cards right, we can get to it first."
"Salem is immortal," Emerald repeated.
"Immortal. Not invincible," Cinder replied. "No one is invincible. She never turned her back on her father and I can eat his kind and their power. He was a threat to her which means she can be threatened."
"We're not the size of skyscrapers," Emerald protested.
"And yet, we brought a kingdom to its knees when we could barely stand each other. As friends we can take each other even further," Cinder echoed from their chess lesson so many months ago, her old words filled with new, heartfelt passion. "I will care for you and you will care for me, and we will all sit atop the new world that we will build."
"A new world?" Mercury scoffed. "You realize that the two of us aren't megalomaniacs, right?"
"It's not megalomania. It's survival," Cinder declared. "You're either the one with the power, or you're powerless. In anyone else's world, what we've done is unforgivable. We were shaped by others, my stepfamily, your father, Emerald by the uncaring council of Vale, but that doesn't matter to those who mourn the innocent we've killed. Our mistakes will forever define us to them. There is no such thing as redemption. Not unless we win. Not unless we take the world and make it ours."
The blunt statement of fact clearly affected the both of them, their heads nervously dipping away. While Cinder was the mastermind of The Fall of Beacon, they'd gotten front row seats to how little that mattered to Fairy Tail in their judgment of her former minions. And if Salem had been willing to murder The Gate of the Archer on a whim, how long until it was their heads on the chopping block?
"How do we know this isn't a trick?" Emerald demanded. "You didn't take the maiden powers from me when you had the chance and you risked your life to save him from the Celestial Spirit King when you didn't have to, but how do we know you won't just kill us the moment we become inconvenient?"
Cinder gulped. "You don't. My past is one littered with failure in my responsibilities to you two and until I prove otherwise, you'd be wise not to take anything I say at face value. But, if nothing else, trust in what you know as fact: that my past is also littered with defeat. If I don't become better, if I mire myself in mediocrity as Teacher always feared, I will keep losing!"
She stepped forward and took Emerald's hands into her own, gentle, yet with all the force of her will. "And you know how much I hate to be beaten."
Emerald looked up at her, just a fraction of hope dusting her face. At that moment, Cinder knew she had her. She didn't know exactly how to be a friend, but if the Gate of the Twins gave her another chance, she would not waste it. Wasting it meant losing. And losing meant dying.
She would not die.
So she would win.
"Mercury?" she asked, glancing towards the silver-haired assassin. "What say you?"
He held her gaze for several long seconds before letting out a reluctant sigh.
"You raise some interesting points," he confessed. "But, even if all this is true, even if we really can make a genuine friend group out of a thief, an assassin, and a megalomaniac with a penchant for pyromania, even if we do by some miracle pull off some grand underhanded scheme to beat Salem and Fairy Tail both, that still leaves one apocalypse-sized Umbral Spirit King problem hanging over our heads. And if we get rid of the boss lady and her bestie, we can't use her plan of making the kingdoms into an army to stop him."
"For the best really," Cinder shrugged. "If we're to finally be safe in our new world, it'd be to our advantage if we and any other friends we make were the only Eclipse Etherious."
"Fantastic," Mercury rolled his eyes. "And the Umbral Spirit King?"
If he'd asked one day ago, Cinder would have been at a loss to answer that question. They'd just seen for themselves what a Spirit King could do when they were manifested on borrowed magic. If Salem's greatest fear came through with a physical body, his raw power would put even that to shame.
Fortunately, Cinder had learned many new things over the last twenty-four hours. Things that opened up new opportunities to be explored, new paths that might lead to victory or defeat. New paths forward.
And so, as Mercury and Emerald waited for an answer, The Gate of the Archer grinned.
"I have a plan."
Ending on Cinder saying one of Ruby's signature lines. I'm sure that's completely innocuous and not indicative of any character development whatsoever. ;)
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