To those that are reading this for the first time, know that this fanfic started out as a one-shot. Therefore, there's a lot of telling instead of showing that occurs for the first two chapters. I may rewrite them at some point in the future.

For an uncountable number of years, Salem had kept a close watch on the Silver-Eyed Warriors and their ability to destroy the soulless creatures of Grimm with a single glance, so she did what she normally does with her enemies.

"Never underestimate the usefulness of others."

Rather than have this incredible power eliminated altogether, she thought of how to turn it to her side. One such idea was...Grimm corruption. It seemed fitting to her. The gift of the God of Light, turned into something vile; a petty insult to the gods that made her immortal. Like any new concept, this one started on the alpha stage. Salem had many Silver-Eyed Warriors abducted to use for her vile experiments.

Her first attempt was to simply have one of these warriors dunked in a Pool of Destruction. Salem herself had been made immortal by the Fountain of Life; one of the God of Light's creations, so she survived falling in the Pool of Destruction. There was a certain logic to doing the same to someone blessed by the same god. However, the result was a failure. The Silver-Eyed Warrior simply died from contact with the pool, and left Salem with nothing. A waste, but one step closer, nonetheless...

The second attempt was to rip out a Silver-Eyed Warrior's soul with magic and encase it within the shapeless body of a Grimm in its preconception stage. Again, this went nowhere. The Grimm body's negativity rejected the pure soul's positivity and released it to its proper place in death. The power of the Silver-Eyes is one and the same with the soul; the Warrior's body was useless without it.

The third attempt involved copying the Warrior's soul to circumvent this issue. Salem would then rewrite this copied soul as she saw fit and put that within a shapeless Grimm's body. This, however, had its own complications. For one, Salem couldn't leave even a single spark of light in the copied soul, lest a similar result from the last attempt occurs. Secondly, as careful and intelligent as Salem was, she was not omniscient. She couldn't know absolutely every aspect of a person's soul without knowing how a person lived and perceived the world. Sure enough, a few sparks slipped through the cracks; the soul was rejected. Another failure...

Ever since Ruby displayed her power at the Fall of Beacon for the first time, Salem had her eye on her. She commanded Tyrian to abduct her alive; a dead Ruby would be useless. The abduction failed, of course, with the timely intervention of Qrow Branwen, but Salem was far from done. She concocted more schemes to claim Ruby. The attacks on the other academies were among such schemes, as Silver-Eyed Warriors were naturally drawn to the suffering of others. Ironic, as this made them similar to the Grimm to a certain extent.

It didn't really matter how many times these schemes failed. Losing hired hands meant little to Salem; there were always more she could use. She only had to succeed once, and she had all the time in the world. Finally, after years of this ceaseless struggle, it was done. Ruby was taken alive; Salem had everything she needed for her fourth attempt.

This time, she would make sure her light was snuffed out before the copy is made. Salem had vile Grimm tentacles dig deep into Ruby's subconscious through her brain. She would force Ruby to relive the worst parts of her life, over and over, until her mind and spirit were broken from the emotional torture. Only then, would Salem copy her soul into the Grimm's body. The experiment appeared successful; at least, the Grimm didn't reject the anguished and painful feelings. It took form in one similar to the original, but with eyes as red as blood and skin as white as a Grimm's face.

Salem's reason for doing all of this? It wasn't to use the copy to oppose the original Ruby, or any Silver-Eyed Warrior for that matter. She had already abducted several of them; they were clearly no match for her in a straight-forward fight, and Salem herself could always waltz in Remnant and handle things if the need arose. Her immortality and knowledge of magic made her a god among mortals, after all. That wasn't the point. That wouldn't get her what she wanted: Ozma.

The immortal wizard and former lover she struggled with since time immemorial, Ozma, is just as immortal as she is, in his own way. No matter the method, each death would only force Ozma to inherit a different identity. As petty and twisted as Salem is, even she could recognize the futility of a direct battle under these circumstances.

Enter the Reaper; the ultimate Grimm and Salem's magnum opus. A single Grimm with a body physically reinforced with the anger, sorrow, and suffering of countless people over centuries of evil and blessed with magical wards that would turn away any Semblance used against it. Most importantly, this was the first Grimm to possess a soul, and with it, a perverted form of Aura.

The Infernal Aura; a destructive force that stands in contrast to the protective Aura of living things. Rather than directly shield the Reaper from attacks, the Infernal Aura is used as a source of power. First, it allows the Reaper to draw strength from the suffering of others; every death by its hands would mend what little damage others could inflict upon it. Like any Grimm, the Reaper can also sense the negativity of others even miles away and use that to mend itself, if necessary.

Second, the very influence of the Infernal Aura is similar to the Apathy; those around the Reaper are subjected to feelings contrary to their own. The difference is that instead of weakness and lethargy, those around the Reaper feel a deep hatred and anger within their hearts. Those that remain near the Reaper for too long ultimately succumb to such hatred and turn on those they love and care for. A foolproof way to force humanity to turn on one another, even in the event of the Reaper somehow being detained.

Third, the very air around the Reaper would combust when it ran or moved quickly, thereby unleashing destruction to the world around it. These flames are dark, unnatural, and hellish; very different from a Flame Dust Crystal. It also carries a unique property; it completely bypasses a living thing's Aura, allowing the Reaper to attack its victim's flesh at any stage in a fight.

The fourth and final ability is the most important one and the very reason that she created the Reaper: the Eyes of Destruction. Just as the power of the Silver-Eyed Warriors could kill the soulless creatures of Grimm with a glance, the power of the Reaper could inversely burn the very soul of its victims, circumventing any reincarnation attempts and killing that person once and for all.

With all of these traits, the Reaper would be an unstoppable scourge against any Huntsman or Huntress that mustered up the courage to face it, Ozma and his incarnations included.

Except...it wasn't.

Salem used the anguish and sadness of Ruby's soul very well; too well, in fact. Not only did the Reaper possess Ruby's negative feelings, it also possessed her personality, her memories, and...her moral sense of right and wrong. From the moment the Reaper first stepped from the Pool of Destruction and saw the original Ruby comatose and in extreme pain, the Reaper felt its own pain and connected with the fallen Huntress; to see an innocent like this was...wrong. The Reaper felt for Ruby and every single person whose anguish gave it form.

It looked upon its razor sharp fingers and blackened knees; a far cry from the gentle hands and normal knees it remembered. Looking upon its creator with boiling rage, the Reaper turned its destructive force toward the one responsible for so much pain.

The clash between immortal witch and unstoppable Grimm echoed throughout Salem's castle. No matter how many of its creator's limbs the Reaper would tear off, Salem's curse would restore her body; no matter how many spells Salem used to strike her creation down, the inherent negativity of the surrounding lands and Grimm would sustain the Reaper.

The conflict would go on until the entire castle was engulfed in the flames of Destruction. Clawing its way through the flaming debris, the Reaper tore Salem's arm off yet again. With its red gaze upon the immortal witch, the Reaper unleashed the power of Destruction upon her.

Salem's soul did not burn; the essence of Grimm that coated her flesh protected her, but the curse of light that sustained her for so long...weakened. The severed arm that regenerated had the index fingertip and thumb reduced to bone.

And from this moment, the Reaper felt a new emotion come from Salem; one that none have seen from her since ancient times. It was fear. The Grimm that surrounded the ruined castle charged to defend their master, but fell namelessly with bathos, one by one. Every Beowulf with its jaw torn off, every Beringel with its skull caved in, every Seer with its orb crushed under the Reaper's heel; they would only renew it and fuel its power.

Salem, and the followers that evacuated from the castle, could only flee from the unstoppable monster she'd created. Did the Brothers of Light and Darkness have a hand in this? Have they watched her all this time and waited until now to cause her grief? She cursed her creation. She cursed the universe. She cursed everything, everything but herself.

The truth was one that Salem could never understand. Ruby's heart wasn't easily swayed. It was that simple. And why should she understand? Salem had manipulated thousands of humans and Faunus that had deemed themselves "righteous". Why should Ozma's "smaller honest soul" be different? But it was.

The Reaper's sense of self may have manifested by the negativity in Ruby's soul, but...it was still Ruby Rose. Deep in its subconscious, the ultimate Grimm was still the embodiment of purity that Blake spoke of. It was for this reason that the Reaper didn't pursue Salem; for the innocent Ruby was still trapped in the ruins of Salem's castle, rendered comatose and helpless from the cruel ritual.

Ruby's copied personality, of course, compelled the Reaper to put this innocent soul's life before its innate desire for destruction. It carried her away to safety; its impulses forcefully locked away, never to be released upon the innocent. Without looking back, the Reaper walked toward the pool that leads to Remnant with Ruby in its arms as the castle behind it burned to ashes.