Beta-ed by xenosaiyan and MasterPrince713
Jaune appreciated that Salem's group had never attempted to mislead him about how painful the ascension process was. That did not mean he enjoyed how agonizingly excruciating it turned out to be.
"I'm so sorry."
The cute ram faunus girl was an unexpected plus though.
Jaune was stranded in his own mind, a swirling mass of darkness surrounding his tiny floating island of sanity. The raging winds buffeted his body, a billion tiny knives ripping across his skin. The only solace was the aforementioned cute ram faunus girl, the dainty woman hunkering down with the blond huntsman, constantly spawning walls of bright pink wool to shield him from the gale. They were torn to shreds every other second leaving them exposed once more, but the effort was appreciated.
The young man staggered over to the pink-haired girl, grabbing her arm in an attempt to lend her some support. "Don't worry about it. I'm Jaune Arc, but the way. Short, sweet, ladies… well, my mom and my girlfriend like it."
The ram faunus managed a smile of thanks. "Aries."
"You're a Celestial Spirit?" Jaune guessed. "Nice to meet you."
Which meant the other one was the demon.
"Tracking me down and stuffing me back in my book! How much for this insult?! How much?"
Jaune's gaze flickered over the bulbous glob of sickly yellow flesh staggering towards him and Aries. The wretched creature stabbed its limbs into the ground, more sprouting out to increase its hold. Bit by bit, it crawled forward, a single cyclops eye seemingly laughing at those it could see.
"Ten billion souls!" the slime cackled with fury. "Lashing my glorious demonic essence to a pathetic human! How much will this cost? How much?! How much will you pay for power?!"
Jaune groaned at the obnoxiously squeaky voice. "You know, after End, I was expecting my hellspawn to be less… annoying."
"Don't underestimate him," Aries warned. "I've faced him before. Franmalth may seem goofy, but he is as dangerous as any Etherious."
The huntsman's eyes narrowed. "Should we be worried?"
Aries shook her head, pointing to the demon's arms. Each time a new one spawned, a thin length of shimmering golden rope appeared around it, tightening around the squelching muscles.
"Dr. Watts's improvement of the chamber," the Celestial Spirit explained. "Before, the demon would try to overpower our minds and take control. The machine's safeties wouldn't allow that to happen, but the very attempt caused agony that would drive most mad. If it didn't kill them outright."
"But not now, right?"
"How much is it worth to survive?!" Franmalth cackled, reaching the pair and taking hold of both Jaune and Aries's hands. "How much? How much?! How much will you pay to live another day?"
Jaune scowled. He shifted the grip to take hold of the demon's wrist. "It's not about me."
He was going to live for his friends. He was going to become an Eclipse Etherious and gain the power to help them all make whatever choice they needed to make. Pyrrha, Ruby, Ren, Nora, Wendy, everyone would be able to do whatever they saw as right once he was there to back them up.
A shining white glow began to build within his hands, Aries's, and Franmalth's. One way or another, there was no way to turn back. He had to look for the light.
After all, if he looked for the dark, it would be all he ever saw.
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"YYYAAAAAHHHHAAAAA!"
Pyrrha's spine shot up straight when she heard that familiar girlish scream. The other members of her group displayed similar expressions of shock before panic and rage took over their faces.
"That's Jaune!" Nora exclaimed. "Ren, how close are we?"
"Close enough!" Ren bit out, his eyes narrowed as he traced the aura. "This way!"
Pyrrha's teammates pushed onwards into the depths of the castle. She ran after them… or at least, she tried to.
She couldn't move. She was frozen, the memory of the Vault at Haven slipping through her mind and running down her back like ice water. She saw Cinder, bearing down on her in her monstrous Eclipse Etherious form. She saw her desperate counter attacks rendered useless. She saw her enemy light up with green sparks send her whip talons flying for the champion's throat, so fast, too fast, she was gonna die—
"Pyrrha."
Gray's calm, smooth voice cut through her vision of terror. Pyrrha wiped a bead of sweat from her brow and took a shaky breath. She turned towards her mother's guildmate, a soft look of concern lighting his face in the darkness of the castle.
"I'm fine," she said, kicking herself right after. That wasn't even convincing to her.
"You're not. But that's alright," Gray assured her. "There's nothing wrong with feeling fear. It's how we know where we are weak. From there, we can understand what we need to do to become stronger."
Pyrrha gulped, staring after Ren and Nora as they charged ahead. "I can't protect them. So, we need to protect each other."
Gray smiled and clapped her on the back. "Exactly. Don't worry. When it comes down to what you need to do, you won't hesitate. Now come on! Let's stop these assholes from torturing your boyfriend!"
"Ri… right!"
Pyrrha wished she could erase the tremble in her voice, but Gray's encouragement had, ironically, allowed her to unfreeze, running side-by-side with him as they raced after Ren and Nora.
Still, even as she readied herself for the fight of her life with whoever was torturing her boyfriend, she couldn't help the tinge of disappointment that polluted her mind. She'd hoped, partially out of a desire to never receive the kind of beatdown she'd suffered at Haven again, that Salem's faction would really be the well-intentioned types they'd claimed to be. She should have known they were going to try something.
Monsters always tried something.
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"How do you know she's not going to try something?" Yang demanded. "You haven't known her for years."
Summer sighed. "I've done my best to keep tabs on Raven since I became ESR. I know what she's been up to, at least beyond that clever Spring Maiden ruse of hers."
"Then you know what she's done," Yang said.
"Yes. And you know what I've done," Summer countered. "I do not begrudge your anger against her, firecracker, but how can you expect me to hate her when I've done so much worse?"
Yang frowned. "You had good reason."
"Weiss wouldn't agree with that. No more than you agree with this," Summer pointed out. "But there is a difference between what Weiss has seen of me and what you have seen of Raven."
"And that would be?"
"Exactly what I said before. You've never seen Raven at her best. Only broken by despair," Summer frowned. "Despair brought about by the hope I gave her."
Yang shrugged. "You're not responsible for her abandoning everyone to go slaughter half of Mistral."
"Aren't I? She left to find a way to protect you from Salem. Then I tracked her down, didn't listen to the common sense she was trying to tell me, and ran off after Salem trying to prove the war was winnable." A small smile twinkled across Summer's lips, even as despair flickered through her eyes. "Even after that, she still came for me, still came to save me, even though she knew it was pointless."
"Yeah, and then she decided to abandon everyone. You know, before she abandoned me to End back at The Tribe's camp," Yang snorted. "What's she worth if she only tries to do the right thing when you're around?"
"It's not that she was without me. It was that she was alone with despair," Summer mused. "Despair turns us all into the things we dread."
Yang rolled her eyes. She knew that her mother still thought of Raven as 'part of the family', but she also thought of Cinder that way. Her infinite self-loathing paired with the desire to see the best in people made her far, far too willing to forgive.
There was an old fable about a farmer and a King Taijitu. With one head, it smiled and thanked the farmer for nursing it back to health, while the other came up behind and swallowed the poor man whole. The lesson? A Grimm was still a Grimm, no matter how you dressed it up. Despair didn't make people monsters and monsters didn't become people because you gave them more chances.
Yang was confident that Summer could survive whatever Raven tried, but she didn't know that for sure. If the Spring Maiden got in a good surprise shot under the Spirit Slayer's guard, she could kill her before the latter even had a chance to react. And she wouldn't risk losing her mother again if she could help it.
"Hey, firecracker?" Yang turned to spot a spritely smile on Summer's lips. "Race you there."
The Devil Slayer couldn't help the innocent joy that flared in her heart. A teasing smirk blossomed over her lips. "Think you can keep up, ya old lady?"
"Old lady?" the Eclipse Etherious chuckled. "Oh, you're on—"
Yang didn't even give her mother the chance to finish before she rocketed down the hall, blissful laughter echoing from her lips.
What was she being so paranoid about? Sure, Raven would doubtlessly try something, She might even get lucky and succeed in her treachery. But as long as Neo-Hell's Core was around, not even death could rob her mother from her again.
She was dealing with a monster, but she had bigger teeth.
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"Conquer?" Erza murmured. "Conquer the kingdoms?"
She glanced around the table, barely registering Ruby, Blake, Wendy, and Lucy's wide eyes and pale faces. She looked over End, Hazel, and Sienna, all of them nonplussed by Salem's announcement, obviously having already known. But the most notable of all were Loke and Ozma's resigned, but not unsurprised expressions.
'But turning humanity into the weapon you speak of will require bringing them to heel first. Have you thought of what that will entail?'
It seemed so obvious in hindsight, even without Loke's words from Jinn's visions. Salem wanted to turn all of humanity into an army. Not many armies of the kingdoms allied in a common cause, but a single army under her command. And why else would she have taken Atlas if it was not to be the cornerstone of her own kingdom? Hadn't Weiss and Gray talked about Eleanor Tremaine's ambitions to unite the world under Atlas's leadership.
Or rather, the Queen's leadership, whether they knew it or not.
Salem nodded from her throne, as if it was a minor detail like what flavor cake they'd get for the victory party. "With any luck, it shouldn't be too difficult. Summer's reputation as Esper Rosenflos is sterling on the international stage and she's gained a foothold in Mistral's Council with some of her agents' old contacts."
"Plus Lionheart," End added.
"Plus Lionheart," Salem concurred, almost as an afterthought. "Combined with the gratitude from 'stopping' the White Fang's attack on Haven, influence through Argus and the soon-to-launch Amity Communications Tower, an alliance with Mistral shouldn't be too difficult to facilitate. If you all can bring Glynda Goodwitch into our ranks, Vale can hopefully be obtained without excessive violence, or at least brought to heel more swiftly if military force is necessary—"
"Necessary?" Erza queried. "Why is it necessary at all? Do you want to rule the world?"
"What? No! Of course I don't. Who would want to rule the world?" Salem replied. "It's been hard enough trying to save it all these years. Actually holding power and having to manage everything, even from the shadows, even with help? Who in their right mind would want to do all that work?"
"Having run just a revolutionary movement, I can confirm it is exhausting," Sienna wearily nodded. "And that's when everyone within and without isn't after your head."
"Fair enough," Erza conceded. "Though, why do you then call yourself 'The Queen' and have everyone call you 'your grace'?"
Ozma coughed. "Um, that first part is actually my fault. As part of my… misinformation campaign, I addressed Salem by certain titles. Queen of the Grimm, Mother of Grimm, Dark Mistress of Hell, the Grimm Lady… among others."
Salem let out a tired sigh. "Admittedly, I was rather upset at them initially. But over time I took them for my own."
"And the 'your grace' thing?" Lucy tentatively inquired. "What's that about?"
"Respect for my lineage and my personage," Salem shrugged.
End chuckled. "The same reason Virgo called you 'princess'."
A flash of melancholy seeped over Salem's features. "She always blamed herself for what Mard Geer did to me, wanted to be punished for it. As if she could have stopped my asinine stupidity."
Loke glanced down, despair haunting his gaze. "It wasn't her fault."
"No, it wasn't," Salem agreed. "But no matter how many times I told her that… I don't think she ever believed me."
"But she was happy," Lucy insisted. "With us. With you. With her friends."
A spark of wistful happiness lit the face of both spirits, both Salem and Loke perking their lips up ever so slightly.
Ruby smiled at Lucy, nodding her thanks before she turned to The Queen.
"You don't want to rule the world," The Spirit Slayer said. "So don't. You don't have to."
"Yes, I do," Salem mused. "They'll never do what needs to be done on their own. After the Umbral Spirit King is dead and the world is saved, they can have it back, throw me in some hole and throw away the key or have End execute me, I don't care. Whatever they need to do to feel like I've been punished to the proper extent. Once the war is won, they can do with the world as they want. But the war has to be won. No principles of nationhood or democracy are more important than that."
Erza bit her lip, allowing a crack in her steely façade. She could hear the truth in Salem's voice, but she could also hear the broken resignation. The Queen truly didn't want to hurt anyone. But she had also been beaten down so much over the millennia that she simply saw world conquest as the only way, the only path that could possibly build the army she believed they needed.
And ultimately, that wasn't a path Fairy Tail could follow. They had gone against the Fiore government when Lucy had been unjustly arrested during the Grand Magic Games, but that had been to save their guildmate from a misguided attack on them. Now they were supposed to take the same kind of desperate actions that Princess Hisui and her retainers had? What made their cause now anymore of an excuse than theirs had been back then with the Eclipse Gate? Forcing others to follow them and unilaterally deciding that they knew what was right… that was not the Fairy Tail way.
No more innocents. That was what she'd told Raven back on Patch. She'd meant it.
Of course, even with that line she couldn't cross, Erza knew the matter was hardly clear cut. They needed Salem's help, that was fact. But after thousands of years set on conquest, who could possibly convince her—
"We don't need to conquer the world to rally it behind us," Ruby declared, rising from her seat. "If we tell them the truth, if we let them know what they're up against, we can bring them to our side without coups or conquest or any other violence."
Erza smiled. She shouldn't have needed to ask. If anyone could, it was the Scarlet Reaper.
Salem cocked an eyebrow. "Tell them… the truth?... ha… haha… hahahahaha… HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Erza's smile evaporated.
If anyone could.
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"Well, this place is just as terrifying as I remember," Raven quipped, unable to hide the quiver in her voice.
For once, Qrow couldn't blame his sister for being scared. Even knowing that they were hypothetically there as wanted guests instead of spies this time, the dim lighting, dark purple dust crystals, and the huntsman's knowledge of the many cameras, both Grimm and technological, hidden throughout the palace made it just as unnerving as ever. If Salem didn't get the message that they came in peace, or if she just didn't care, she'd be able to pick them off with ease. And that was putting aside the scythe-wielder's suspicions that she'd want to take out his Misfortune semblance under the table anyway.
Suspicions that were growing even stronger as the volcanic power of a maiden swiftly approached the group.
Penny's array of swords flushed out behind her back, emerald lasers building between the swirling blades. "I recognize that signature. It's her."
None of them needed to ask which 'her' the android girl was referring to. None of the trio who'd come from Atlas would refer to the wielder of the Fall Maiden's power with such vitriol.
Qrow deployed Harbinger into its scythe form. Raven drew Stalwart Stem while Carla fell into a fighting stance in her faunus form. For several long seconds, the quartet stood at the ready, feeling the Winter Maiden rush closer and closer every moment… until something else beat it there.
Yang crashed between the group in a rush of purple and pink flames, all of them leaping back from the impact. The blonde Devil Slayer looked up, a wide smile blooming over her face when her eyes landed on the scythe-wielder.
"Uncle Qrow!" she cheered, racing over to engulf him in a bone-crushing hug.
"Ya… Yang!" he gasped out, managing to loosen his niece's grip enough to both breathe and return the embrace. "You're alright… your hand."
Yang pulled away and smirked. She raised her left arm, her Purple Flare filling in the rest of the appendage.
"Incredible," Penny muttered in awe. "The general had ordered dad to make you a mechanical replacement for your right arm, but I never imagined magic could be used to circumvent the need for a prosthetic entirely."
"Purple Flare can be quite useful," Carla said, not dropping her combat stance. "Now if we could please get ready for our incoming—"
"Carla?" Yang queried. "Oh, wow. Didn't expect your faunus form to be so… cute."
"Yeah, it's adorable, but not exactly the time," Raven insisted, fidgeting as she fearfully glanced down the hall. "The maiden is close. Do you know where any of the others are?"
Yang smile vanished, a sentiment Qrow could completely understand when one had to interact with Raven. "The others are fine. I just came from them. Honestly, I'm surprised you came at all."
Raven couldn't hide her flinch at that condemnation, her gaze drifting towards the blonde. "Yang, when I left you at the camp—"
"You were trying to save your own skin. I get it, that's what you do," Yang derisively cut off. "Even if she thinks there's more to you."
Qrow cocked an eyebrow. "Salem?"
Yang's blissful expression returned the moment she turned back to the huntsman. "No, Uncle Qrow. She's better. Much better."
Carla scowled in impatient confusion. "The proper noun to conclude this pronoun game being?"
"Me."
Under normal circumstances, Qrow would have snarked that such a response literally answered nothing. But normal circumstances didn't include that voice. Not anymore. Not for years.
His spine rigid, his breath caught in his throat, his mind knowing that the thought that had immediately popped into his head was impossible, he turned towards the source of that voice. He pivoted his sight to gaze down the passage Yang had come from, where a figure that shouldn't have existed radiated the Winter Maiden's power.
Penny had her lasers set on the woman in an instant. "Esper Rosenflos."
Yang stepped into the path of her friend's weapons and gently shook her head. "Summer Rose, Penny."
"What?" the android girl gasped, her blades not lowered, but not willing to charge while Yang stood before her. "But I thought Summer Rose was dead."
She was dead. She'd been dead for years. Qrow remembered the day they'd finally accepted that she was gone, when he'd had to confront Tai in his darkened room and tell him that the light in their lives had died.
'Tai… she's not coming back…'
But she had. Here she stood, alive, arisen, in the bowels of hell itself. After so many years of staring at an empty grave praying to find some meaning in that insipid line of poetry, the leader who'd inspired him to be more, the friend who'd made him believe that he could be more, lived again.
Summer, golden-eyed instead of silver but still Summer, smiled at him. "Hey, Qrow. Sorry it's been so long."
That was all it took. All his self-loathing, all his collapsed self-worth, every terrible thought he'd had since he'd found out about Ozpin's lies, all of it melted away when those words came from that smile.
"Qrow?" Carla piqued, concern laced through her voice.
He barely heard her. Before he knew what was happening, Harbinger had already slipped from his grip and clattered onto the ground. Tears poured out of his blurry crimson eyes and he raced across the room, fully intending to engulf his lost friend in a hug so tight that he'd never lose her again.
Only for his sister's sword to bar his path.
"Raven, get out of my way right now, or I swear to every bastard god in the universe, I will beat you to death here and now," Qrow snarled, his fists clenching to follow through on his emotionally electrified threat.
Raven looked at him with more horror and heartbreak than he'd ever seen on her face, her cheeks red as the dim glow of the chamber reflected off the tears budding from her eyes. "It's not her, Qrow. It's some fake, an illusion, a clone, or something. She's gone, brother. She's dead."
"I'm not," Summer gently said, taking a step forward. "I'm here, Rae. I'm alive—"
"She's dead!" Raven cried, her tears exploding from her eyes as she turned Stalwart Stem on her own partner.
The nodachi had barely settled on its new target before Yang blitzed over and bashed her biological mother across the room, a demonic claw of pink and purple flames sending Raven flying into the wall. The obsidian shattered under the force of the Spring Maiden's impact, the huntress crumpling to her hands and knees as her sword fell to the floor.
"Yang!" Carla shouted in horror, Penny gazing confused between her friend and her fallen ally while Summer just sighed in disappointment at her daughter.
Yang noticed none of that, glaring at the downed Raven with scarlet eyes of utter fury, a stump of putrid black flesh pulsing out from the remnants of her right arm. "Point a weapon at my mother again, and I'll burn you to ash."
Qrow's breath caught in his throat, the sight of his sister getting launched across the room poisoning his previous euphoric joy. Sure, he'd made a threat to kill Raven only moments ago for similar reasons, but that was him. He was a piece of shit. Yang might have had a temper, but to strike so swiftly and so brutally before a fight had even broken out… it was unnerving to see his niece act with such ruthlessness when she'd been raving with joy only moments before.
It filled him with shame, but he took a fearful step back from the firecracker he'd once bounced on his knee.
Summer came up to her side and placed a comforting hand on Yang's shoulder, the Devil Slayer immediately calming at her presence. "It's alright, Yang. There is no need for threats. You know from experience that after all these years, the truth can be difficult to believe."
"Because it is a lie," Raven bit out, wincing as she managed to raise her tear-stained face. "Summer died! She died in this damned castle! I saw it! I felt it! I watched her… I watched… her… I couldn't… I couldn't save her…"
Qrow had lived half his life by Raven's side. He'd seen her in her lowest moments, both as victim and monster. But he wasn't sure he'd ever seen her so… broken.
And like an angel Summer knelt down to fix her.
"I did die that day, Raven, just as you felt in Kindred Link. Salem brought me back. She saved me," she spoke softly, approaching her best friend like a trainer calming a frightened animal. "You did everything you could that day. You warned me that it was impossible, but I didn't listen. You did not fail me."
"But… but I did. Then and after," Raven sobbed. "I should have gone home, I should have gone back, but I didn't. I killed… I killed… just so I wouldn't have to be afraid. I let you down."
Summer sighed. "I know. I let me down too. And you. But what's done is done. All we can do is move forward."
She grasped Raven's hands and guided her partner back to her feet, a few tears of joy trickling down her cheeks. "Move forward with me again, Raven. You too, Qrow. Like old times."
Raven sniveled, only to wrap her arms around Summer and pull her into a tight hug, finally allowing a waterfall of sobs to fall down.
"Like old times," Qrow muttered, looking on at the scene.
The coolest team to ever graduate Beacon. The golden age of Team STRQ was the best time of his life, and if they were reunited, if they could get that back and recapture even a fraction of that luster and purpose…
Well, they'd need to get the whole band back together for that.
"Rae," Summer said, pulling back and gulping with fear. "Please bring him. He deserves to know."
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Taiyang's head shot up when he saw the portal. He was on his feet when Raven staggered through into the living room, the swirling gateway left open behind her.
"What happened?" he demanded. "Raven, what happened? Where are Ruby and Yang?!"
His ex-wife just stood there, as if in a daze. Tai took hold of her shoulders and shook her. "Raven, what happened?!"
Raven looked up at him. "She's… she's…"
"She's what?!" Tai shouted. "Raven, what happened to my daughters?!"
"They're… they're alright. We found Yang," Raven murmured. "But, Tai… you need to see this."
Taiyang raised an eyebrow. "What about having an anchor out?"
"We won't need it," Raven declared, the light glinting off the tearstains on her cheeks as she smiled like she'd seen the face of heaven. "She's back."
Tai flinched back at that. He didn't think he'd ever heard Raven sound so awed, especially of this mysterious 'she'. The mention of being 'back' implied that it probably wasn't Salem and that it was someone he knew. Who could be so crucial that she'd advise him, and more importantly that the others would let her, to remove their only anchor out? Was the alliance with Salem decided on? If Raven was just abandoning them again, she would have just left, not asked him to join them?
He had to know. He had to make sure Ruby and Yang were safe.
To that end, he followed Raven through the portal.
They landed a decent distance from where the Spring Maiden had left from, but they'd been able to make their way towards the other maiden signature in only a few minutes, the other group approaching them from their end, Yang fortunately among its numbers.
When Tai saw who was at its head, his heart nearly stopped.
"It's her, dad," Yang assured him, looking just as euphoric as Raven had back on Patch. "It's her."
"How?" Tai muttered.
"The hell does it matter 'how'?" Qrow said, happier than his partner had seen him in ages. "She's back!"
Summer, his beloved Summer, shuffled in front of him, her face fearful and her breath skittish. "I know what I've done. I know what you've had to go through because of it, raising the girls alone. I had reasons, reasons to protect you all but… but they're not excuses. What I've done… I don't deserve your forgiveness… but I have to say I'm sorry."
Tai's spirit was torn in two. On one hand, he wasn't an idiot. He'd housed Weiss, Gray, and Penny for months, listened to the story of their time in Atlas, and he could see the golden eyes that had taken the place of the silver he'd known so long ago. Combined with Penny and Carla's wary combat stances towards the woman, and it wasn't hard to deduce that she had been Esper Rosenflos. Everything that had gone down in the City in the Sky had been her doing.
But at the same time, he'd dreamed of this moment for years. So many hundreds of sleepless nights, praying that his love was still out there somewhere trying to return to him. Praying that she hadn't wanted to abandon him as Raven did. With the despair plain to see on her face, he couldn't help his hand rising, instinctively planning to wipe away his lost wife's tears.
He barely caught himself before his fingerprints touched her face. He pulled back and gulped, Summer nodding in understanding of his hesitance.
"Where is Ruby?" he asked. "I need to know both my… our girls are safe."
Summer smiled. "She is. She's with Salem."
Carla scowled. "I question your definition of 'safe'."
"Seems pretty sound," Qrow proposed. "I mean, she's your guys' friend, what reason does she have to hurt them?"
"The reason we had Taiyang stay back as an anchor out was because we did not know if that is truly still the case!" Carla protested. "I understand that this is far beyond what any of us expected to find, but I would like to remind you all that whether this is Summer Rose or not, she is still Esper Rosenflos."
"My father is dead because of you," Penny added, glaring at the Spirit Slayer. "Because he knew too much."
"That was Watts, Penny," Yang replied. "And she will face justice, but after we've saved the world."
"How exactly are you planning to do that?" Tai inquired to his wife, trying to keep the quiver from his voice. "Why did so many innocent people need to die in Atlas in order to save the world?"
Summer gazed back at him, despair shifting to hopeless resignation in her golden eyes. "Because in order to save the world, we first need to conquer it. And coups cost less lives than war."
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Of all the responses Ruby had considered Salem giving to her suggestion of revealing the full truth to the world instead of conquering it, laughter had not been one of them. The Queen had had to clutch at her belly to manage her chortles.
The other members of her circle didn't exactly give any more inspiring responses. End had chuckled at Ruby's words, not finding them hilarious as his mistress but still funny to some degree. Hazel had remained stoic throughout the entire thing, while Sienna had merely shaken her head at the young Spirit Slayer, as if pitying a child who asked why the sky couldn't be green and the grass blue.
After a few moments however, Salem noticed that Ruby wasn't laughing and calmed down, raising an eyebrow at the red hooded girl. "You're serious?"
"I am," Ruby confirmed. "I take it you think I shouldn't be? It seems like the simple solution. We have a plan. We have the resources. With Jinn and the other Relics, we even have proof. Why would they turn down a way to save themselves?"
Surprisingly, Salem turned to Ozpin. "Would you like to field this one?"
Ruby turned to her former headmaster. "Professor?"
Ozpin gulped. "It is… unlikely that such a proclamation would be positively received to the degree that we need it to. Trying to convince people to do the right thing, even something in their own best interest, is rarely so easy."
"The Grimm have menaced both human and faunus for all of Remnant's history," Sienna morosely noted. "Yet, the only way you were able to outlaw the enslavement of our people was by conquering the world in the Great War. At which point, you gave power back and they immediately attempted to roll back your reforms and force every faunus onto Menagerie, leading to the Faunus Rights Revolution. They cared nothing for creating an alliance that could help fight back their common enemy."
"Indeed," Ozpin sighed, looking at Ruby with regret-filled eyes. "Humanity is difficult at the best of times. Uniting them in harmony was Ankh's condition he and his brother's peaceful return, and that… that just isn't possible. We may not have any choice but to manipulate them."
"Manipulate them…" Ruby murmured. "We have to manipulate them into becoming strong enough to protect everything they care about?"
Salem shrugged. "Telling everyone to undergo a painful procedure to become a different species they've never heard of before isn't the simplest thing to sell under the best of circumstances. Trying to tell them the world is going to end unless they do only inclines them to bawk at the very concept."
"Then why involve them at all?" Wendy wondered. "If we can't get them to help willingly, then let's just do it ourselves. We're not going after the gods anymore after all. Mard Geer was able to force a draw with the Celestial Spirit King alone. If we can stop the Umbral Spirit King before he has time to summon his army—"
"The Celestial Spirit King did not have a physical body back then," End pointed out. He glanced at Lucy. "Not to mention he was… limited."
Lucy sighed. "A spirit is limited by the strength and condition of their summoner. I was already exhausted from surviving Tartaros when I called down the King and I wasn't the strongest wizard around to begin with back then."
"If the Umbral Spirit King is truly the Celestial Spirit King's counterpart, our band won't be enough to best him in traditional combat," Loke confirmed. "Even with Universe Omega weakening him, there is no chance we could win a straight fight before his army arrived and overwhelmed us with sheer numbers. A battle requires an army."
"An army only mankind can provide," Salem declared. "Unfortunately, over thousands upon thousands of years I have learned that there are only two things truly infinite in this universe. Mankind's stupidity, and their capacity to disappoint even that astronomically low bar."
"Then why do you trust us?!" Blake demanded, the former terrorist shooting to her feet.
Salem tilted her head in confusion. "You are my friends."
"But we're human! Or faunus, or spirits, or whatever! We're people!" Blake declared. "How can you have so much faith in us but none in… human decency?"
Salem sneered. "Because that very phrase is a lie. There is nothing 'decent' about being human. To submit to being human is to submit to casual cruelty, to enslavement masqueraded justice, to murder and torture for no other purpose than that it is easy. Those who embrace 'human decency' are Jacques Schnee and his ilk. It is you all, who have risen above your petty humanity and chosen to be better that I have faith in. You are not perfect. I am not perfect. But we are trying with all our hearts. We are moving forward."
The Queen sighed and leaned back into her chair. "I suppose I have lost faith in people as a whole. Every step onward they've made over the last several centuries has only been because I or Ozma has dragged them kicking and screaming into a better day. However, I do believe there are those among them, such as those in this castle, who can have the courage to rise above their base nature and do what is right."
"Unfortunately, the sheer need for numbers to face the coming crisis does not afford us the luxury of only seeking out and nurturing such potent individuals," End added. "We must unite humanity under our control, or all of them, good and evil, will die."
Ruby's lips opened and closed, mindlessly trying to conceive of a counter beyond her natural thought of 'waging a war of conquest on the entire planet is wrong'. After all, Mantle and Mistral had thought they were saving the world from the Grimm when they'd entered the Great War. There had been good and evil on both sides of almost every war in history, and everyone thought their war was justified. Even with all their knowledge, even with the best of intentions in their hearts, even to save the world, what right did they have to force their will on the rest of the world?
And yet, what other option was there? She and Ozpin were speaking from thousands of years of experience, and it wasn't as if Ruby had any experience on stage of entire nations to contest their own. The frank depths of The Queen's cynicism were like a dark whirlpool, steadily pulling the young huntress further and further underwater, the air catching in her lungs as she struggled to breathe.
Fairy Tail did not believe in forcing their ideology on others. But if they didn't, everyone would die.
She had to find another way! But what if there was no other way?! On Earthland she could feel confident that Salem was wrong, that with the strength of the guild with her, she could convince the world to act. But on Remnant, was it all too far gone?! Was there no way to fix things!?
No! She could not accept that! She had to fix this! She had to… she had to…
Ruby's hands snagged the edge of the table, biting hard into the obsidian as her breath came out in shallow, panicked pants.
"Ruby?" Blake queried, cat faunus turning on her teammate.
"Is she alright?" Hazel asked, all eyes on the table turning on the Silver Spirit Slayer.
"I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine," Ruby insisted, but found herself unable to gain control of her breath.
Wendy leapt to her feet and took her friend's arm. "Ruby, what's wrong? I can heal you, but only if you let me know what's wrong?"
Ruby looked at her friend, completely concerned and focused on her. She gazed upon her friend that she'd promised to help, that she'd promised she'd allow to see the guild again. The friend who'd fulfilled her promise to get Team RWBY home, only to be sucked into a world bereft of hope.
She'd promised Wendy she'd fix things. She had to fix things!
She yanked away from the Sky Dragon Slayer, her panting tripling in speed as she stumbled back over her chair. Wendy made to follow but Ozpin jumped and pulled her back, shaking his head when the blue-haired girl glanced back. Hazel's eyes narrowed at the pair.
Ruby's eyes widened, her hands pressing into the sides of her head as her breath raced.
She had to fix things! She had to fix everything! She had to keep her promise!
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Cinder knew she'd promised Teacher that she'd complete Jaune Arc's ascension, but she'd forgotten how utterly boring it was to complete the process.
"He sure is screaming a lot," Mercury observed with a smirk. "You sure you're doing this right?"
Cinder gritted her teeth, but with titanic concentrated effort, she kept herself from lashing out. She could not be mediocre. She had to be better, let it wash over her like water down her back. Just focus on the ascension, just do your job. Do what you need to do before you do what you want to do.
"She's doing fine. We all screamed," Emerald insisted. She smirked at her partner. "You were wailing like a baby."
Mercury snorted. "Please. I've only wailed like a baby once."
Cinder couldn't help her chuckle. "When you were a baby?"
"Ha! Good guess, but no. I mean, probably. Dad used to complain about how I wouldn't shut the hell up, which means I was probably quiet as a mouse," Mercury said. "But no, the only time I ever wailed like a baby was when he threw me off a cliff."
Emerald's eyes widened. "He… what?"
"Obviously wasn't a very tall cliff," Cinder shrugged.
"Oh, it was. A solid thirty feet over a pit of Deathstalkers," Mercury elaborated. "If I hadn't unlocked my semblance, I would have fallen in and had quite the fight on my hands."
Cinder laughed. "You mean the great Mercury Black would have died? If your mental need was so great as to unlock your semblance, you must have known you wouldn't have survived."
Mercury leaned back against one of the Hell's Core tubes. "It would have been quite the fight. Should have used the chance to leave dad when I had the chance—"
The Gate of the Twin Fish's reminiscence was cut off as a familiar black glow suddenly coated the doors to the lab. Cinder's eyes widened as the gates were crushed inward and launched forward, smashing through a clear dozen of Hell's Core tubes.
"No, no, no, no, no, no…" Cinder panicked, half-grown Seers and Scarabs tossed about the floor in a flood of incubation liquid.
How the hell was she here?! Why did she have to be here now!? Cinder couldn't even turn away from her console without risking Arc's ascension, and if Nikos was here… then her mother wouldn't be far behind.
The Gate of the Archer felt sweat break out over her forehead, her breath racing over her lips. She couldn't fail this task. She'd promised Teacher that she'd do this! She'd promised that she'd see this blond idiot into an Eclipse Etherious and that's what she was going to do!
Even as his girlfriend and those other morons charged in to ruin everything.
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Pyrrha's breath flooded out of her body as she entered the dark laboratory, broken equipment sparking amidst shattered glass and stillborn abominations. But none of that nightmarish imagery terrified her more than the sight of Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury standing before a bulky machine holding a screaming…
"Jaune!" Nora yelled. Magnhild rising for a fight. "Let him go!"
Ren drew Stormflower and the pair charged forward. Pyrrha tried to follow them, wanted to follow them, but found herself hesitating. The sight of Cinder, the sight of the monster who'd haunted her dreams and brought her low, sparked a flash of fear through her, a flash that froze her still.
No! She would not allow her failure to cripple her! Her friends were leaping into the fray to save their leader and they would do it together! Just like Gray had told her, there was nothing wrong with fear, it let her know where she was weak. They would protect each other.
She raised her fists, ready to use her semblance to grab hold of the chamber's casing and rip her boyfriend free… when she paused. But not out of fear. It had begun from her moment of hesitation, the moment that allowed her to actually look at her surroundings, but she extended that moment when she spotted something… off.
Every time she'd faced off with Cinder before, The Fall Maiden had eagerly entered the combat, either with arrogant self-assuredness like at Beacon or relentless determination like at Haven. But now, she was panicked, terrified. And while Pyrrha could admit a bit of vengeful satisfaction at that revelation, she also noted that the Eclipse Etherious was desperately keeping her focus on Jaune in that torture chamber, madly working the device's controls. Even Emerald and Mercury, who she would have expected to be furiously guarding their mistress if she really was preoccupied, were instead throwing out their hands almost… placatingly? Emerald was even trying to say something that Pyrrha couldn't hear over Jaune's screams.
Something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong.
"Guys," Pyrrha stammered. "Wait—"
"Ice Devil's Laughter!"
What little of her shout might have been heard over Jaune's screams was drowned out by Gray's shout. A hundred shards of pink ice manifested in the air before the Devil Slayer and fired off like a machine gun. The volley shredded the remaining tubes flanking the central aisle of the laboratory, Mercury flying up and frantically kicking aside the projectiles that would have struck his comrades or broken the device holding Jaune.
Emerald was left to stand in Ren and Nora's path alone. Only when she made to bar their way, the huntsmen dissipated into mist.
Pyrrha wished she could appreciate the irony of Nora mastering her magic enough to trick Emerald with her illusions to its full extent. But with the growing pit in her stomach, it only filled her with dread.
Nora and Ren appeared out of their light refraction cloak behind the green-haired girl, dodging her flailing sickles and leaping for Cinder and the torture chamber. Once again, instead of fully turning to obliterate the two threats, the Gate of the Archer only dared to take one hand off the device, the other still desperately managing the controls. Her free palm began to glow a bright orange, streaking for Nora, the most obvious target with her giant hammer.
Pyrrha did not understand what she was missing from this scenario, but she would never allow Cinder to harm one of her friends. In that moment, she did not hesitate to do what she needed to do. Like her friends, fear did not keep her from acting.
Polarity blurred across Magnhild and arrested Nora's flight in midair, Cinder's hand sweeping harmlessly through where the orange-haired girl would have been had her momentum continued. Nora took that moment to glance back in surprise at Pyrrha, cocking her head in confusion at her teammate's choice to have her retreat instead of attack from a different angle.
However, Ren took that moment to reach the side of the chamber containing the screaming Jaune, planting his palm on the bulky metal surface. And he did not hesitate to take action.
"Crushing Evil: Seek the Truth!"
The rough hunk of metal was crisscrossed with a grid of glowing white light. As soon as she saw it, Cinder finally abandoned her post, snagging Emerald and then Mercury as she raced down the center aisle, her face filled with panic. Pyrrha had no love for the Eclipse Etherious, but she knew enough about her to know that anything that could terrify her was something to be avoided. She grabbed Ren and Nora by their weapons and pulled them back towards her through the air, Gray racing up to reinforce them.
He didn't reach them before the chamber holding Jaune exploded, sending them all flying back.
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Given how excoriating the ascension process was, the sudden spike in agony wasn't what told Jaune that something had gone seriously wrong.
No, that had been when the golden rope restraining Franmalth had suddenly disintegrated into nothingness. All three (all one?) of the beings, human, Celestial Spirit, and demon, stared at the vanished safeguard for a long moment of stupefaction.
Then Franmalth smirked, his goofy grin suddenly downright acidic. "Well, well, how much will this cost?"
His tentacled arms bloated and wrapped themselves around Jaune and Aries's limbs. The human and spirit thrashed against… with?… the demon's hold. Sickly yellow electricity ignited across all three… one?... of their bodies… body?... and drew all of them even closer together than the white light already had.
Jaune screamed, agony that dwarfed even the normal ascension process crashing into his mind in a single crushing wave. Aries and Franmalth… his?... voices boomed like thunder within his skull, threatening to tear his brain out from within.
"Stop! This won't work, demon!"
"How much? How much would you risk for control of your own body? I would risk everything!"
"Jaune, I'm sorry. Hold fast! His greed is powerful, but you can be stronger! Happy had his loyalty to Natsu. You can focus on something of your own!"
Happy didn't have a Tartaros Etherious sheering into his subconscious!
But it wasn't like he had any other ideas. Or that he didn't know exactly why he was doing this.
His friends. His friends needed this power boost, big guns either against Salem or the Gods, whichever they thought was best. His purpose was to protect people and they were the ones he wanted to protect most of all.
"Oh? Your friends? How much are they worth to you?! How much will you pay to save them!? How much?!"
Oh great! The demon can read his thoughts… their thoughts…
No. His thoughts.
"I will protect them!" Jaune roared, pushing back against the tsunami of pain in his mind, trying to keep it at bay with a shield of raw willpower and love. "I will protect them from everything that would hurt them! You won't touch them!"
"Gah!" Franmalth snarled, only for his cutting crimson smile to assert itself in Jaune's sight. "How much, human? The world is full of things that will hurt them. Everything has its price. How much are they worth to you? How much? How much?!"
"Not them," Jaune growled. "They're priceless!"
"How much?!"
"Priceless!"
"How much?! How much!?"
"Priceless! Priceless! Priceless!"
"How much—"
"PRICELESS!"
"HOW MUCH?!"
"PRICELESS!"
He didn't know how long they went back and forth like that. A minute? A year? A millennium? Crashing their sheer will and desperation to survive against each other over and over again, two sharks swimming in a sea of pure agony as they devoured the other's soul. They crashed into the walls of Jaune's mind, his psyche shuttering under their incessant battle cries, trembling as the surface was slowly sheared by the ambient clash.
He wasn't entirely sure what allowed him to win in the end, what allowed him to bring the demon to heel. Maybe Franmalth was out of practice from his extended period inside his book? Maybe Aries had given him a boost throughout the process? Whatever the case, three had become one. He had become Jaune… Arc?
That was his name, right? He was Jaune Arc, born from… born from… parents… of a family?
Something… something had cracked within him. He had won the battle, become… something… but he felt like he'd lost something as well. Something he needed to protect. Protect from all the horrors of the world.
'How much?"
Something… priceless.
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"Jaune!" Ren shouted, staggering to his feet amidst the dust and smog from the explosion. In the back of his mind, he wondered why his Crash Magic had triggered the combustion when it normally just split things apart without any regard for physics. But with his leader possibly caught in the middle of the blast, he couldn't find it in himself to care. "Jaune! Are you alright?!"
Beside him, Nora and Pyrrha managed to get to their knees, coughing within the cloud of smoke.
"I'm proud of you, Ren," Nora smirked. "You've gotten a lot better at blowing stuff up since you got your magic."
Having learned that he could only acknowledge his emotions, not truly suppress them, Ren didn't fight the loving smile that rose to his lips from his girlfriend's compliment despite the situation. "I've learned from the best."
"Aw. You're so sweet." Nora cooed, before she immediately started scanning the destroyed lab. "Do you sense Jaune in this?"
Did he sense Jaune? No, he hadn't. In his concern for his friend, he'd completely skipped over that obvious step. But of course Nora wouldn't have forgotten. She was amazing like that.
Ren grinned at his partner and spread out his semblance's detection abilities. A bit of a way from members of Team JNPR was a clump of three panicked and angry souls, likely Cinder and her lackeys. Closer, but still behind them, was someone concerned and determined, probably Gray trying to get his bearings and locate them. Which meant the soul a little way in front of the huntsman, filled with confusion and pain, was…
"Jaune!" Ren yelled, immediately taking action and running for his best friend. He didn't notice Pyrrha raising a cautious hand as he moved.
He found Jaune keeled over on the ground, moaning like someone had forced him onto an airship. His leader's skin had been dyed a leathery dark yellow, crimson tattoos running across his bare chest. A pair of golden ram's horns poked out from under his motley head of now pastel pink hair.
"What the hell did they do to you?" Ren mumbled. He reached down and gently helped his friends up, throwing the other boy's arm around his shoulders. "Come on, Jaune. Up you go. We're here."
Nora and Pyrrha arrived in visual range, gasping in shock at their leader's new appearance.
"Uh…" Jaune moaned, his eyes, now bright blood-red, flickering open. He glanced towards Ren, his gaze unfocused yet strained. "You…"
Despite viewing the other boy's new demonic appearance, Ren could not see Jaune's new eyes as anything other than the gentle, soft gaze he'd always known since he'd met his friend.
He smiled. "It's me, Jaune. We're getting you out of here."
"…Ren. Friend." Jaune replied, a caring smile splitting his lips. "Priceless."
Ren cocked an eyebrow, but he didn't have much time to give the stilted words much thought before Jaune pulled him into a loving hug.
"Jaune, I'm glad to see you too, but we really need to get out of… here…"
Ren's breath hitched into his throat. Not because of the pressure of the hug, but something else, something tugging at him on a metaphysical level, his magic pouring out of his origin and into his friend. He intensified his aura's shielding, but that only made things worse. Whatever Jaune was doing gripped the manifestation of his soul like a vice and ripped it straight off.
The last thing Ren saw was Jaune's loving smile. The last thing he heard was Nora's scream.
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"Ren!" Nora wailed, Pyrrha's eyes widening in horror beside her.
Ren's body transformed into golden light and rushed into Jaune, forming a boil that squirmed and skittered beneath the latter's yellow flesh.
"What the hell?" Pyrrha whimpered, horror seeping through her bones.
The wart managed to pause its tracks beneath within its host, pressing out into a warped visage of Ren's face made of Jaune's bloated skin, silently screaming as it attempted to escape its captor's body.
Jaune merely smiled like an innocent child, petting the warped face of his friend like it was some prized dog. "Protected. Friends must be protected"
"Ja… Jaune?" Pyrrha stammered. "Wha… what did you do?!"
Ren's twisted visage returned its mercurial boil state, skittering around Jaune's flesh as the boy stared at his other teammates.
"Pyrrha. Nora." He grinned. "Priceless."
He blurred forward, faster than Jaune had ever moved, and appeared right in front of Pyrrha. The champion stumbled back, fear and confusion at what her beloved partner had become dominating her mind. She tried to push through, tried to accept it as she had before and act, but… it was Jaune. Jaune was attacking her and she couldn't figure out why or what he'd done to Ren, or—
"Pyrrha, move!"
Nora's shout cracked through the mist of her mind, just as Magnhild swung up and cracked Jaune under the chin. The mutated, Eclipse Etherious, huntsman went screaming back through the air. His hands flew forward, a wall of pink, fluffy wool bursting out at the two huntresses.
Maybe because of her teammate's shout, maybe because of the added time, Pyrrha regained a flash of her senses. She grabbed both her armor and Nora's hammer with her semblance and yanked them both down to the floor, the wave of wool flying over their heads.
"Thanks, Nora," Pyrrha gasped, turning to her friend. "Nora?"
Nora Valkyrie, the personification of energy and will, had no response. The brave huntress was in tears, her mouth warping as if it wished to speak, but had no words to comprehend the nightmare they'd witnessed. Pyrrha immediately took hold of her teammate's arm, trying to convey some support as she'd received in turn many times before.
"Priceless… Priceless, priceless, priceless, PRICELESS!"
The huntresses' gazes whipped back to Jaune digging himself out of the wall. The pinkette clutched at his head, screaming and ranting like a madman with a migraine. His roving boil expanded into Ren's nightmarish face, the grotesque visage howling.
And as he screamed his wordless horror, the familiar white light of his magic appeared over Jaune's hands.
"Crash Magic," Nora murmured.
"With an Eclipse Etherious's power behind it," Pyrrha chimed, dread permeating her voice.
Nora gulped. "Fuck."
Pyrrha could not agree more.
Jaune's arms whipped around him, enormous waves of violent white lines scattering everywhere. Pyrrha and Nora rolled out of the way of the wide arcs, unable to do anything but dodge as the wrath of pure, raw power came screaming for their heads. And able to do less than nothing as the course of the energy arcs tore through the ceiling and every wall in the laboratory.
Salem's great castle shuddered before it exploded into a million pieces and began to collapse.
And on this week's edition of 'Every Single Character Has a Not-Fun Time'...
There were a lot of moments I've been waiting for a long time to write in this chapter: Oz and Salem's views on humanity, Raven, Qrow, and Tai's various reactions to Summer, Jaune's Ascension and loss of his sanity, the grand tragedy of the JNPR scenes in general, and finally the entire castle getting thrown about by that last Crash Magic attack. Safe to safe, none of the cast will be in the exact same position as next chapter as they are now. And with no one having any idea how the blast happened... well...
Tune in next time!
Thank you for Reading! I hope you enjoy what comes next!
Go Forth and Conquer!