Beta-ed by xenosaiyan and MasterPrince713
I need your help.
KilL!
cULl!
DEsTroY!
dEstROy ThE HUmAnS!
Those are Seram's words. His madness, His wrath. And he's made you his weapons. Maybe you agree with him. Maybe you don't. But I've felt what the mud does to someone. It was hell to withstand it just for minutes, hours. To live in it for centuries, millennia… I can't imagine ever wanting to do that.
DeSTrOY thE hUMaNs!
kILL The HUMAns!
CULL THEM ALL!
Maybe you did. Maybe I'm just naïve about how horrible beings can be. But maybe I'm not. Maybe you didn't ask for this. Maybe, if I can give you a chance, give you a choice, you won't choose to be a monster.
CULL!
DESTROY!
KILL THEM ALL!
I'll bear your madness. I don't know how long I can do it, but I'll bear it. You'll be able to think for the first time in eons. In that time, please…
Save my friend.
KILL THEm… all…?
Wha… save… what?
CUUUUULLLLLLLL!
RWBYRWBYRWBYRWBYFTFTFTFT
Yang had her. She had her. Her flaming fist was streaking straight for Weiss's defenseless skull, set to crash through her head and finish her once and for all.
Their eyes met in one final glance, her teammate's pale blue eye gleaming with tear-filled terror. Yang stared back with her own blood-red orbs, her churning, furious fire ravenously squelching any icy spear of regret that might have pierced her from Weiss's fearful, wordless plea.
She should have listened when Yang had begged her.
"I'll kill you," she'd said. No lies. No half-truths.
Her blazing claw shrieked forward—
-and was smacked back by a Deathstalker's tail.
Yang's teeth snapped against each other as she was thrown into the black obsidian wall, the stone shattering as she was smashed into the edge of the hall. Her aura was easily able to take it, let alone the increased toughness of her Full Demon Form, but it was more the realization of what the strike meant Blake had done that truly impacted her.
Sure enough, as Weiss clattered against the castle floor, a humanoid Deathstalker skittered in front of her, its movements animalistic and on-edge.
"Full-Body Takeover. I thought that wasn't a party trick," Yang growled, cracking her neck as she stomped forward. "You're willing to kill me to save her. Guess I'm as expendable to you as I am to them, huh, Blake."
Her partner's insectoid form twitched around the craggy floor, protectively encircling Weiss as the heiress staggered to her knees. The Grimm hybrid's head flickered back and forth down the hall.
"Bl… Blake?" she stuttered, as if speaking with her throat and lips for the first time. "Is… that… name?"
"What?" Yang replied, her eyes narrowing suspicion of a trap. "What are you playing at?!"
"No… not…" the creature ground out, its masked face falling on Yang. "… not Blake."
"Hell does that mean?!" Yang roared.
Weiss looked up at her protector, her fear growing in her widening eye. "You're not Blake. Are you… him?"
"No. Not my liege," the not-Blake spoke, its words somehow clear on the subject of whoever Weiss was talking about alone. "I am… a soldier… my lord… demands… soldiers… to win the war… but…"
The creature's claw rose to its face, gingerly, almost disbelievingly, touching its mask over Blake's head. "To hear… my own thoughts… after so long… Bl… ake… is not human… so kind… humans cannot be… kind."
"That what the mud tells you?" Yang huffed, throwing out her left hand and spawning a trio of Purple Flare arms. "What does it say about a demon?!"
The Golden Devil blitzed forward, pink flames erupting from her hair and sending her screaming towards her target like a cannonball. She didn't know what crazy trick Blake had pulled to put a Grimm in control of her body, but if it stood in-between her and Weiss, she'd kick its ass like any other bug.
Besides, this thing wasn't Blake, or the freakish combination of her and her absorbed Grimm that she'd unleashed back at Beacon. Just a Deathstalker, a mad beast in a body it had no experience with, and no access to Blake's semblance.
Meanwhile, Yang was more powerful than ever, her anger bringing her focus. Her Gatling, her Requiem Phoenix, even she didn't know what she'd bring out next.
The Deathstalker raised its pincers and thrust its stinger tail at the fiery bullet blonde. Yang's trio of Purple Flare claws burst out from her left stump, the fire writhing and growing to meet the insectoid appendages. The pincers were forced open, the tail held back, and the blazing talons closed around the black limbs, using them as handholds to wrench Yang in past the creature's defenses.
She raised her right arm, the arm of mighty demon muscle restored to her by her wrath, and felt as sharp black scales sprouted over her putrid flesh. She closed her hand into a fist and took a moment to bask in the searing heat that built within her body, hotter and fiercer than anything she'd felt since End. Her magic fed and thrived on hatred, on the feelings of abandonment and righteous indignation that had festered within her since she'd lost her mother the first time all those years ago. She was a demon at last, but with all the forests of kindling within her…
… how could that possibly be all she was?
Pink flames surged out from under her scales, pouring out behind her before twisting into a miniature tornado and engulfing her arm in fire, the blaze turning a shining, radiant gold.
"Fire Devil Queen's Volcanic Hammer!"
Her fist came down with the force of a miniature jet engine, the Deathstalker's shell armor cracking as the beast was smashed into the floor. The dark stone crumbled and melted beneath the beast, the monstrous scorpion flailing as it fell towards the level below.
The Grimm threw out its limbs, the sharp appendages stabbing into the side of the floor to keep it from falling completely. But by that point, it was already out of position. Yang had carried the momentum of her brutal strike into a flip that carried her over the chasm.
Her fire turned pink once more and she took a clear aim at Weiss, her demonic arm cocked and loaded with flames. Golden light flared from behind her, illuminating the Schnee heiress final moments—
Wait. If her fire was glowing pink again, what was glowing gold—
"Water Lock!"
Yang's crimson eyes widened as a raging sphere of water suddenly burst into being around her, arresting her midair movement and freezing her in place before her attack could fire. The delay allowed the Deathstalker enough time to scramble back onto the upper floor, gathering Weiss up in its pincers and shuffling down the hall behind its enemy.
However, Weiss's eye wasn't focused on her eldritch defender. Instead, it was aimed behind Yang, from where the familiar voice had cast that crucial water spell.
"Impossible," Weiss breathed, fragile like she'd just seen a ghost. "You… can't be here."
"And yet, Juvia is! Ready to help!"
What?!
Yang twisted herself around within the water bubble, barely catching sight of a blue-haired figure soaring away within a streak of golden light. But the one that held her attention was right behind her.
Standing and smiling before them all was indeed a woman who should have been several thousand years long dead. The one and only Juvia Lockser.
RWBYRWBYRWBYRWBYFTFTFTFT
A black hole. Pyrrha had conjured a black hole. Cinder would be impressed if she wasn't so utterly terrified.
Her enemy's spell had broken down a little more than halfway to the Gate of the Archer, its gravitational force only growing as the void suddenly became stationary, ripping up the ground and drawing in every speck of dust and loose stone in a quarter-mile radius. Cinder knelt down and jammed her hoofs and claws into the dirt, unable to keep from being dragged towards the deadly abyss despite the emerald enhancement coating her muscles. Even Pyrrha herself struggled to keep from being pulled into her creation, her polarity straining to pin her to the ground as her three swords were yanked away and crushed by the relentless vortex.
But Cinder was closer to the void and thus felt the gravitational pull all the harder. She held on as hard as she could, with all her will, but with her muscles sore and spasming from the earlier use of her curse and with the black hole's tug so unyielding, it was not enough. Not forever.
The very ground she held onto was ripped out from under her and the former Fall Maiden was sent hurtling towards the dark vortex.
She was going to die.
She was going to die.
She was going… to die.
Everything she'd gone through, everything she'd suffered and survived, Eleanor, Ana, Drizzella, Godmother's Haven, Salem's training, her duels with Ozpin, Wendy, and Erza Scarlet, and this was how she died. To a spell her opponent hadn't even cast properly, unable to even begin to avenge her mother.
Perhaps that was fitting. After all, what was she but a failure? She'd failed to save her father, Jack, Mary, and Gus from the Tremaines. Her efforts at Beacon had only made Teacher's tasks more difficult. She'd ruined End's plans at Haven and fallen to Erza Scarlet. And as Emerald had so eloquently pointed out, she was completely incapable of changing for the better, of forging real friendships and claiming the power that came with them. There was no one in the world as broken as her.
Maybe she should just give in to the despair, let the void take her. Let her mediocre self be swept away and join Teacher in the peace of oblivion.
It would be so nice to rest. To just finally lay down and rest…
"I most certainly will not allow you to make yourself mediocre."
Rest… and let Weiss Schnee outlive her.
"I want to be strong."
"Then BE strong. And don't whine and falter when you meet resistance. Adapt. Learn."
"Be better," Cinder whispered, her face steeling itself as her despair was crushed and thrown away. Summer's voice filled her ears as she envisioned her graceful smile in her mind's eye.
"That's my girl."
She would not die. Not to Pyrrha, not to her mother, not to anyone. She was not scared, whimpering little Ella anymore. She was Cinder Fall! She'd sworn to be strong, to be feared, to be powerful, to never be beaten again! Teacher had believed she could be more, even when she had shot herself in the foot over and over again, even when she was less than nothing. She would not allow that faith to go unrewarded! She would adapt. She would learn. She would grow!
And she knew exactly where she needed to start.
"If you want to be strong, you must acknowledge all parts of yourself."
She looked down to the ground beneath the black hole and lit her eyes with golden light.
"Golden Spirit Wail!"
The power she had shunned since childhood, that she had crippled herself by not using, burst forth from her gaze and into her maw, a shining golden beam erupting out from her mouth. The radiant pillar slammed into the ground at the precise angle Cinder had intended, striking with such force that the Gate was shoved back through the air even within the pull of the black hole.
She would not give in. She would not give up! However exhausted she was, however beaten down, she would use everything at her disposal to survive. She would keep moving forward.
Something that her opponent apparently could not match.
Pyrrha may have faked her aura breaking before, but she'd certainly taken a savage beating from Cinder's earlier onslaught. And with the dark vortex's ruthless gravity showing no mercy even to its creator, it wasn't long before the manifestation of the girl's soul shattered.
The Invincible Girl's polarity fizzled out without its fuel. With a look of absolute terror in her emerald gaze, the redheaded champion was lifted into the air and torn towards her doom.
A grin of relief and victory cut itself onto Cinder's lips. Pyrrha was truly a warrior with an iron resolve, a worthy heir to the monster that was Erza Scarlet. But she had pushed the Gate with everything she had and in turn, forced the archer to go beyond what she'd thought to be her own limits. Now, the first intentional use of her Spirit Slayer magic in years had bought the Eclipse Etherious enough time and distance for the huntress's gambit to backfire on her.
She had won. After so many unending defeats, after failing to reach her mother in time, she had finally gotten a win—
A flare of golden light streaked past her back, her black hair blown up by the backdraft as it dove straight for the black hole.
Somehow, the flare froze right before hitting the swirling vortex, revealing itself to be a cloaked figure bathed in radiant light seemingly unaffected by the void's gravitational pull. The mysterious man swiftly raised his hands to the anomaly, shining yellow magic circles spawning from his fingers and flying about the crushing death. Once about twenty of the brilliant sigils had spread amidst the inky darkness, he clapped his hands together like a holy man at prayer, a wire of starlight springing to life between each of the glyphs and stymying the gravity entirely.
Cinder and Pyrrha plummeted to the ground, each of them rolling to their knees in time for the new wizard to spread out his arms from their central position, prompting his web of starlight to constrict and slice the black hole to pieces.
The fragments of the celestial vortex dissipated into nothingness as the cloaked figure descended to the ground next to Pyrrha, throwing off his hood to reveal a mop of sapphire hair over a handsome face with an intricate red birthmark as both of the other combatants stared at him with mystified awe, a single question on both their lips that Cinder just happened to voice first.
"Who the hell are you?"
RWBYRWBYRWBYRWBYFTFTFTFT
Pyrrha was glad Cinder had asked that question of the new wizard because otherwise, she would have. Though she wouldn't say she would be complaining about his fortuitous arrival.
She had been finished. She'd tried her best, used every ounce of her skill and strategy, and she'd still been outfoxed by her enemy's sudden use of her golden eyes, a power she'd actually forgotten Cinder had even had. Her misfired Altairis had spawned a black hole that had nearly swallowed her whole, a scourge of unstable sorcery that only a master of Heavenly Body Magic would have been able to rectify. Something that her mysterious savior obviously was given that he'd unraveled the vortex's imperfect construction in moments.
Which just made the enigma of his identity even more confounding. The Grimmlands weren't a locale just anyone would stumble upon, especially with the perimeter of ancient Grimm surrounding the castle. It was not impossible, if ludicrously improbable, that there were other magic users on Remnant that they didn't know about, but to have one show up in the nick of time to save her skin? There had to be something more to this man, and since Pyrrha couldn't find a Fairy Tail emblem on him, she was at a loss for what that could be.
Though, the red mark on his face, it almost looked like her…
Pyrrha glanced down at her arm, slack and immobile without her semblance to manipulate the armor around it. Her gambit to wait for a nonlethal blow from Cinder had worked, but even that had crippled her limb for the time being. But through the gap of her torn mesh suit, she glimpsed her own red birthmark.
"Pyrrha Nikos?"
"Huh?!" Pyrrha exclaimed, her face shooting back up at the sound of the blue-haired man's soft voice. "Um… yes?"
It was strange. She'd been looked upon in many ways by many people in her life. Friends thrilled just to see her, her mother and aunt excited to hear about her day, and even reporters and fans who looked up at her as an idol they could never reach. But this wizard, once he'd confirmed her identity, the way he looked at her was a weird amalgamation of all three. He loved and revered her… when he'd just met her?
At least he did for a moment, before looking away in… shame? Why shame? He'd just saved her life!
"I'm your… I'm Jellal Fernandez," he informed her. "I'm a friend of your mother. Ruby sent me."
"Ruby… sent you?" Pyrrha queried. The last time she saw Ruby, she hadn't been in any shape to send anyone anywhere.
"A friend of Erza Scarlet?" Cinder scowled, rising into a combat stance. "Where do you fairies keep crawling out from?"
Jellal turned towards the Gate of the Archer, his gaze darkening as his eyes narrowed. Despite knowing that he was an ally, Pyrrha couldn't help but inch back from the sheer, elemental fury boiling from his face.
"Cinder Fall, I presume," he said, his voice stony and cold as a vein pulsed over his forehead. "I suppose I should see just how impressive a real Eclipse Etherious truly is."
A tremor rang through the air when his words finished, the dark clouds above them all shifting and spinning. The blue-haired wizard bowed down, his hands pointed to the ground before slowly twisting his right arm upwards to the heavens. The firmament parted at his command, yet it did not reveal the purple sky of the Grimmlands.
Just a deep blue night filled with beautiful shining stars.
"May the seven stars cast judgment upon you," Jellal pronounced, wrathful and venomous. "Sema!"
Suddenly, it was no longer night. A meteor plunged down from the starry sky, glowing and radiant like a second sun. The air churned and raged as the comet descended, a miniature hurricane falling beneath its titanic presence and trapping Cinder within the swirling gale-force winds. Pyrrha threw up her only usable arm in an attempt to shield her face from the tornado's runoff but was still nearly blown away by the sheer force of the gusts.
Fortunately, Jellal snatched her wrist just as she was sent flying, pulling her into his arms before blasting away on a streak of Meteor.
"Are you alright?" he asked, all icy fervor evaporated to be replaced with terrified concern somehow still audible over the typhoon's howl. "I'm sorry, I should have accounted for your injuries—"
"No, no, it's fine! Everything's fine!" Pyrrha assured him, glancing back at the plummeting meteor, Cinder trapped under it like a guillotine's blade. Yet, she found no solace in her enemy's impending doom.
She'd nearly done it again. All her effort not to let her fear drive her as it had at Haven, and she'd nearly thrown her life away again! She hadn't meant to lose control of Altairis, but she still would have sacrificed herself in an asinine gambit to stop Cinder if the other Heavenly Body Wizard hadn't arrived with his ridiculous skill and power. She would have left her mother alone after everything she'd gone through to save her in Mistral, she would have abandoned Nora to her despair, destroyed any help she might be able to give Jaune and Ren in escaping their nightmarish fate—
"Are you sure?" Jellal spoke up. "You don't look—"
"I'm fine," Pyrrha insisted, taking a deep breath and wiping her fearful tears from her face. "You said Ruby sent you? What's next in her plan?"
Jellal cringed but allowed her the space. "Depending on how her talk with Salem goes, that might be the end of it. But we need to find the others just in case. Juvia is handling the rest of Team RWBY. Do you know where everyone else is?"
Pyrrha glanced up to the horizon, pointing along the sky. "I have a theory."
Flying out from the edge of the western tower was a sleek black airship. It was camouflaged so well against the wall of titanic Grimm surrounding the castle, that Pyrrha might have missed it. If not for the enormous fluorescent pink Fairy Tail emblem flashing above it.
Heh. You'd think after all this time, she would have learned not to underestimate Nora Valkyrie.
RWBYRWBYRWBYRWBYFTFTFTFT
"Ice Devil Zeroth Destruction Fist!"
"Zap—"
Gray's pink ice-covered fist caught Hazel under his chin, interrupting the Gate's calamity attack as he was sent tumbling through the spikes of the Zero Impalement Hell. The errant bolt of lightning streaked wide past the Fairy Tail wizard, his cold gaze focused on his foe.
His strategy had continued to pay dividends. Every piece of devil slayer ice Hazel had been hit with, from Gray's gauntlets to the spikes he'd formed over the battlefield, had spread more and more frostbite over the four-armed bull until his fists were almost entirely pink, with his knee and neck not much farther behind. His hampered movements had allowed Fairy Tail's premier ice wizard to dive in and out of his grasp, landing blow after blow that only sundered the Eclipse Etherious further. If it weren't for his overcharged aura surging ungodly amounts of energy through his muscles, he would have fallen long ago.
Yet, even as Gray beat his enemy down over the lower edge of the eastern tower, he found his eyes drawn southward, a dangerous sapphire glow still radiating up from the courtyard past the ruins. The glow of End's distant flames had been a constant throughout his battle with Hazel, an ominous warning that the most powerful demon of them all was still waiting in the wings. However, a few moments before, that light had suddenly turned a brilliant white, a terrifying second sun shining through the sky.
Then, there had been nothing. Just a rush of ambient heat and the glow from the already crackling fires.
Something was wrong. Gray could feel it in his bones. He needed to finish up Hazel now!
Easier said than done. While he certainly had the definitive upper hand, the Gate of the Bull's endurance was still substantial. Gray kept hitting him, but even as he was worn down, he just didn't fall.
The Devil Slayer didn't know how much aura he still had left after the hits he'd taken and the discovery of his semblance, but he couldn't afford to let this be a drag-out fight if he was going to encounter The Ophiuchus afterward. He'd seen the flames that had engulfed Haven. He needed to finish this!
"Ice-Make Cold Excalibur—"
"Gravity Change!"
"Waaaaahhh!" Gray wobbled, suddenly sucked up into the sky. He looked up to find a swirling black vortex above him, lifting him up and causing him to float high in midair.
"I leave you alone for five minutes," a new woman groaned, a dark-haired tiger faunus balancing atop a hovering but wobbling boulder as she glared at Hazel. "Why in the world are you fighting at a time like this?"
"Sienna…" Hazel panted, finally given a moment to catch his breath. "Thank you."
Gray frowned. So, this was Sienna Khan? Wasn't that just great. She didn't look like her Atlas Intelligence recon photos, but he'd heard enough from them and Blake to have a decent idea of what to expect.
Two-on-one was hardly optimum odds but given how crippled Hazel already was and how green Sienna seemed to be at handling her magic, he didn't think it was outside his wheelhouse, especially if he could figure out his new semblance. This was still a fight he could win.
However, with the height now gained from Sienna's gravity change, he was able to glance back over the castle ruins and actually see what was going on in the southern courtyard. And it was not good.
"Erza," Gray whispered in horror, The Ophiuchus towering over his guildmate as she laid on the ground. For some reason, The Queen of the Fairies wasn't moving, just broken down in the dirt.
All of the Devil Slayer's concern for Hazel and Sienna immediately evaporated. His sister needed his help. Beating the other two Gates didn't matter, he just needed to get through them so that he could get to their protector—
Wait. What was he thinking? The fight wasn't important. He didn't need to go through them. At least, not if he could pull off what he was thinking of.
Time to see what his semblance could really do.
Twisting his half-made but still body-length Cold Excalibur around until it was parallel with him, Gray took advantage of the altered gravity to tug himself through the air until he was perpendicular to the giant sword, catching his reflection in the flat of the blade.
"Here goes something," the Ice Mage mused. "Mirror Bounce!"
Sienna cocked an eyebrow. "What did he say—"
Gray kicked out his feet and struck his reflection in the sword, shattering the weapon as his semblance shot him off as a blur of light.
Though, he did wish that he'd had a bit more time to learn how to aim.
RWBYRWBYRWBYRWBYFTFTFTFT
Erza flinched as the ground beside her erupted with smog and dust, a sound like a cannon shot battering her eardrum as she shut her eyes from the debris.
End leaned over her, using his one-armed body to shield the downed redhead. His scaled arm easily withstood the buffeting of dirt, while his eyes narrowed trying to see what had caused the impact.
"Mirror… bounce…" he muttered, as if repeating something he'd heard with his enhanced hearing. "What in the—"
The Ophiuchus didn't have time for anything else before an enormous hammer of pink ice swung out of the dust cloud. He raised his left arm and summoned a storm of blue flames that cushioned the blow, but unlike almost everything else, they didn't melt the ice. End was thrown off Erza and sent tumbling over the dirt.
"Ice Devil Zero Impalement Hell!"
A thick sheet of pink ice surged out from the dust cloud, coating the black ground as it chased after End. The fire demon spawned a pair of giant Purple Flare arms from his back to shove down on the dirt and lift him into the air just ahead of the numerous frozen spikes that sprouted up from the new environment.
Erza couldn't help the tiny smile that mingled with her tears. "Gray?"
Gray staggered out of the smog, clutching at his hip and he made his way to kneel beside her. "I'm here Erza. Rough landing, but aura's useful for those."
"That it is," Erza chuckled.
Gray shared her brief mirth for a moment before his eyes went dead serious. He glanced over her blackened limbs. "Can you…"
"No. I can't feel them," Erza confessed, unable to stop her fearful tears dripping down to the dirt. "My arms and legs… Gray, I can't feel them."
Her body was in agony, her skin hot and excruciatingly ravaged. She suspected that if she didn't already have her maddening tolerance for pain, she could have already fallen unconscious, a desire only her plummeting adrenaline was truly keeping at bay at this point. But from her fingers to her elbows, her toes to her knees, there was just… nothing.
She'd been a fighter long enough to know what that meant. And only her focus on the problem at hand kept her from sinking into the depths of her failure.
"Fullbuster," End called out, drawing the Fairy Tail wizards' attention. "I see you've discovered your semblance."
"All the better to kick your ass with," Gray growled.
End's eyes narrowed. "I played no part in your parents' fate or your mentor's."
"Yeah, and for blaming you for them, I really should say sorry," Gray sarcastically replied, falling into a combat stance. "But since you seem to have crippled my sister, I think I'll just go with the original plan."
That prompted something from End, the demon's face softening with regret. "That… that was a mistake. I am sorry."
Erza ground her teeth at The Ophiuchus. The fire demon sighed, unable to dispute her reaction any more than he could his own anger.
"Ascension can restore your body entirely," he reminded her once again. "Or if you'd prefer, Atlas science can furnish you with mechanical replacements. Say what you will about the city in the sky, its science is the best in the world."
"Been there. Seen it," Gray snarled. "Can't say I'm a fan of what goes with it."
Erza scowled with him but couldn't stop herself from glancing forlornly at her ruined arms. She'd been on Remnant for years, kept up to date on arena fighting and the related huntsmen and military fields. She knew that only Atlas had the technology, production facilities, and experts to craft the high-quality prosthetics she'd need, especially if they were to be made for combat. If she did not submit to Salem, Summer would not allow her to acquire such new limbs.
Maybe Wendy could heal her? Healing magic had limits, Erza honestly didn't know if her wounds were within them or not, but maybe Irene could find a way if she got to her fast enough—
The Titania's eyes suddenly whipped skyward, towards the western tower. North of it, the clouds were twisting and pulling away over a massive circle of firmament, revealing a beautiful nighttime atmosphere. From within its boundless starry majesty, fell a meteor, bright and dazzling as hurricane-force winds billowed around the castle ruins.
"Sema?" Erza muttered. "Pyrrha doesn't know Sema."
Had Irene taken control of Wendy's body to call it? No, Wendy's origin didn't have the ludicrous raw power needed to use Sema via enchantment. The only 'cost-effective' way to call down a meteor was True Heavenly Body Magic and Jellal was the only wizard she'd ever known who was capable of using that. Perhaps Salem? She'd have the raw power and Celestial Magic was not without relation to the heavenly bodies.
That would truly be the worst-case scenario. If the Queen of the Grimm had decided to unleash such power upon them, then Fairy Tail had truly walked into a trap. And Erza was in no shape to save them.
So, she would have to have faith in her friends, in her guildmates. In Gray, and Lucy, and Wendy.
And Ruby.
RWBYRWBYRWBYRWBYFTFTFTFT
"Talk about the future?" Salem repeated, as if it were a bad joke. "You don armor to talk?"
"Not all of us can be immortal," Ruby shrugged. "And I think we've established that things around us tend to go wrong even when we both come looking for peace."
Salem glanced around the broken wreck that was once her castle. "Fair enough."
Lucy and Loke shuffled around the laboratory to Ruby's side, though their eyes still turned towards the western tower where their blue-haired compatriots had shot off to.
"Juvia and Jellal," Lucy whispered, muttering their names like incantations. The Celestial Spirit Wizard visibly put the pieces together as she looked at Ruby. "They weren't at the battle… because they came here. It's a time loop."
"Stable and closed, thanks to the guild. They talked sense into me, helped work some things out," Ruby explained. She bowed at her waist to her four conscious friends. "I owe you all an enormous apology."
"An apology?" Salem said, her eyebrow twitching in vexation. "For how much?"
"To everyone? For my use of the book. For attempting to take the decision of all onto my shoulders alone," Ruby explained, rising and looking at Salem. "To you? That I wasn't able to stop all this. That mom… that I couldn't save her."
Salem's eyes didn't budge from their hard, blood-colored gleam, but she did take a single calming breath. "She was my friend. I never meant to take her from you, but I cannot say I did not treasure every second she was by my side."
"I don't doubt it," Ruby said, a small smile of empathy on her lips. "And that's why I know you understand that she'd never want Weiss to die for her death."
"Her death?" The faintest lines of darkness, of madness, began to spasm up Salem's arms. "So clinical. Is it really so hard to say 'murder'?"
Ruby held her tongue for a moment, collecting her thoughts. She hadn't expected this conversation to be easy, Salem hadn't had the weeks she had to mentally recover from the whirlwind of hell that had broken out in the castle, but she was meeting far more resistance early on than she'd hoped. With any luck, that was only due to her addressing the rawest, most personal issue first, but if not…
The Scarlet Reaper lowered her right arm, subtly preparing the spell structure she'd need to fill.
"Not hard. But it feels like I'm saying it's unforgivable," she said. "And I want to forgive Weiss. I already have."
"For the death of your mother? So soon?" Salem queried disbelievingly. "Not even you have such a saintly disposition, Ruby."
"I'm no saint. I just… I'm tired. Too tired to hate my BFF for a bad choice she made while going through hell," Ruby explained. "Besides, I know mom would want me to forgive Weiss if I blamed her at all. And knowing that, helps me accept what mom did. Doesn't make it better, good intentions never do… but it makes it easier to understand."
Lucy came up behind her and put a supportive hand on her shoulder. Ruby shot her a grateful nod. The blonde heiress knew just as she did how much it hurt to lose a mother.
Salem pursed her lips, though if in concern or spite, Ruby could not tell. "I doubt your sisters will share your merciful disposition."
"They don't," Ruby replied matter-of-factly. "Which is why I need you to help me keep them in line."
"Ha! As I recall, you're not one for my enforcing order on others. Even when it is necessary," Salem laughed, a cruel, mocking thing as Seram's Madness slowly spread. "Have you come to your senses?"
"To a degree? Yes," Ruby said.
That got the Queen's attention, her eyes scrunching as she forced down the lines of her corruption, a hopeful gleam in her hellish gaze. "You… you agree?"
"Not with the plan as a whole. I may have been going through a mental breakdown, but I wasn't wrong when I pointed out its flaws before. Lie, conquer, transform, tell the truth, it'll only end in tragedy even if we do beat the Umbral Spirit King."
Salem snorted. "So you're still not willing to cross your lines."
"The most important? No. But I have reevaluated which ones are really that sacred," Ruby revealed. "Every lie that mom has told, every lie that got Atlas eating out of the palm of her hand… we keep them."
Lucy and Loke's eyes widened. Wendy's gaze narrowed with suspicion. "We… keep them?"
"What's done is done. Killing mom hasn't brought back anyone she's killed. Might as well use what power their deaths have bought us to do some good. The beloved First Citizen of Atlas, General Ironwood's coup attempt, every lie but the ones that made Weiss, Gray, and Winter terrorists, we keep," Ruby shrugged. "Let them become more things that history gets wrong, like the messages that caused Vacuo to side with Vale in the Great War."
"Even after everything's over? Ignore justice entirely instead of just suspending it?" Salem clarified, surprised decorating her face. "That is… quite the line. We can easily say that new evidence was discovered that Weiss and Gray were brainwashed by COMMAND ESR or some ridiculousness as we'd originally intended… though, what of the lies that come after?"
"There won't be any. No conquering either," Ruby declared, taking a deep breath. This would be the tough sell. "Once the CCT is back up, we tell the world the truth. About the Umbral Spirit King and the plan to fight him."
Salem's face instantly deflated. "This again? Bad humor to tell a joke twice to the same person, old friend. Do you really think the most self-destructive, idiotic species that has ever lived will agree to our plan?"
"Honestly? I have no idea. I talked it over with a lot of the guild. Mira, Master, Jellal, Levy, Lily… heh, Gajeel," Ruby admitted, a morose frown dipping her lips. "People, me included, can be pretty terrible. Cruel. Self-righteous. Infuriatingly blind to anything but the wellbeing of their loved ones to the point that they'll doom everything else. You weren't wrong. Human decency is a lie."
"Then why—"
"Because we're people," Ruby insisted, her face morphing into one of resolve. "We're not better than them. We have to give them a choice. We need to make sure they know exactly what's coming for them, what they're up against, and then we have to give them a choice. A chance, to be better."
"And when they fail?" Salem inquired. "Would you be willing to conquer them then?"
Ruby sighed. "No, I don't think I would. It's not exactly a choice if a god comes to smack you down if you don't pick what they want. Freedom, even the freedom to be wrong, is everyone's right."
"You're exercising it right now."
The Scarlet Reaper's armor fluttered, Lucy and Loke unconsciously falling into combat stances at the dark tremor in The Queen's voice.
"I'm not so sure," Ruby responded, doing her best to keep her voice even and calming. "While I was at the guild, I was able to come up with some ideas and, if I'm right, we may not need the entire world—"
"If you're right? We may not need?... ha. Ha. Ha! Hahahaha!"
Salem's laughter was not mirthful as it had been back at the original parley. It was cold, biting, mocking, with unnatural shadows shrouding over her eyes.
"Princess?" Loke worriedly murmured.
"Doesn't matter what anyone else says. Doesn't matter if the whole world is telling you something right is something wrong, that you have to move," Salem purred, gravely and demonic, yet somehow almost seductive. Her face rose, the lines of Seram's Madness crisscrossing her face in a web of darkness. "It is your duty to plant yourself beside the river of truth and say, 'No. You move'."
Ruby's heart broke. "Salem, please. You can't help people by reigning above them like a god. You know what gods do."
"I have seen what uncaring gods do," Salem hissed, her darkened face warped in consideration. "And maybe that's the problem. And the solution. Maybe a new pantheon is needed closer to earth."
Lucy paled. "What do you mean?"
"You spoke of how I couldn't swear anything if I leave the world to humanity. You were correct," Salem announced, her voice booming and resonating through the ruins. "I have no desire to live on and continue manhandling these people, but if the alternative is to leave my friends with no world, then I will make that sacrifice. I will live. I will move forward. And I will ensure Remnant does as well."
"How?" Lucy demanded. "You'll have given them the power of End and Acnologia, not even you could rule over a species like that!"
"What power I enchant into them, can also be removed by enchantment!" Salem roared. "The kingdom I once built with Ozma was a paradise. With my Gates by my side, I shall rule and bring about that sanctuary once more!"
"No…" Ruby whimpered, closing her eyes and breathing out as if she'd been punched in the gut.
She'd reassessed the lines she could cross. She'd tried to be as pragmatic as she could. She had tried to convince her old friend that they did not need to be monsters entirely to save the world. Instead, Salem's cynicism, brought about by so many centuries suffering alone with nothing but the ideals Ruby had given her, had ground her down… to this. One who took the wrong lesson from the reaper's hopeful words, who could not compromise on her despair. Something that Ruby could not condone.
"If you do this, I cannot help you," she warned, praying that would be enough but knowing it wouldn't be.
Salem bit her lip, the lines of her affliction receding just a fraction as she was struck with fearful hesitation. "That's fine. Just stay out of my way."
Ruby sighed. "You know I can't do that either."
Lucy nodded. "What kind of friends would we be if we didn't stand up to you when we thought you were wrong?"
"None at all. I am sorry that it has come to this," Salem concurred, regret tinging her voice before the dark lines of Seram's Madness completely engulfed her face. "However, that does meanI can't let you leave, little huntress."
Ruby bunched her knees and readied for battle, the weaves on her arm ready to be filled as her eyes misted with a soft silver glow. And a single tear.
Salem rocketed forward, a shriek of unholy doom cracking the air. Just as before, her speed turned her into a black blur to the eye, blitzing across the short distance with a golden star in each hand. Lucy and Loke threw up shields of Regulus to protect themselves, but the barriers crumbled apart under the weight of the attack, both wizard and spirit sent tumbling across the ruins and smashing against the broken machinery.
Ruby herself only escaped due to using her semblance in the single split second she'd had before the Metria struck, bursting into rose petals and reforming behind The Queen, closer to Wendy. A brief glance back confirmed that Seram's Madness had taken hold of Salem entirely, the Eclipse Etherious frantically whipping around like a rabid hound, her arms flailing about like wrecking balls craving up everything in their path as she searched for her target.
It was a sight that roused pity in the young Spirit Slayer, a stark contrast to both the kind and conflicted princess she'd met long ago and the foreboding yet indomitable queen she'd parlayed with when the castle was whole. If either of those two were facing Ruby, they would have computed where the reaper's evasion had taken her in an instant and chased her down before she had any time to form a counterattack even with her preparations.
But the beast of fear before her, further afflicted by a mad god's petty wrath? It took her a few moments to track her enemy down with her negativity sense. And by then, Ruby's eyes and the maiden's power surrounding had already streamed the necessary magic into the familiar glowing glyphs on her arm.
"I'm not a huntress," Ruby announced, gleaming yellow magic forming a wide circle around her and her target. "I'm not a monster. Not even a Fairy Tail wizard in the classic sense. But I am human. Nothing more. Nothing less. That means there are things I can't do."
Salem responded with a hellish screech, blitzing back towards Ruby with intent to annihilate her. Stalwart silver eyes met a blood-red glare that could have made the bravest huntsman or wildest Grimm wilt.
"But what I can do, I will, my dear friend," Ruby proclaimed, closing her fist. "Fairy Glitter!"
The circle of golden light snapped closed, slamming into Salem from all sides. The Queen howled in rage as her ashen skin smoked. Her razor-sharp claws were an inch from Ruby's eyes when she was engulfed in a blinding explosion brighter than any sun or stars.
The Scarlet Reaper requipped a new pair of heavy boots with grounding magic, pulling her armored wings and cloak over her face to weather the shockwave of her attack. When she was finally able to look back at the blast zone, Salem had been reduced to a bubbling black puddle within a sizable crater.
Across from her, Lucy and Loke staggered to their feet.
"Well, you were certainly busy back at the guild," Loke joked.
"I didn't have time for the full incantation. I don't know how long she'll be down," Ruby hurriedly informed them. "Grab Jaune, and get to the Western Tower—"
"I can't let you do that, Ruby."
"Huh—ah!"
Ruby turned around only to receive a painful haymaker to the face for her troubles. The Silver Spirit Slayer went flying back, crashing through rows of broken metal and glass before smacking up against the remains of the wool dome.
Giving a silent thank you to her aura, the young wizard scrambled back to her feet, only to face down Wendy, the Sky Dragon Slayer marching towards her with her pink hair wild with Dragonforce.
"Wendy?" Ruby queried, utterly confounded. "Why—"
"It's quite the story."
Ruby's eyes flickered to the side, drawn to the unfamiliar voice. Only to catch sight of a ghostly, older version of Erza in a cool classic wizard hat.
"Wh—"
"Don't speak. Don't react to my presence. Just keep your eyes on Wendy. Act like she's turning on you," the woman harshly commanded. "According to Happy, Dr. Watts filled this castle with cameras built to survive End at his worst. Even with all this chaos, there's no telling if they've all been destroyed or not."
Ruby wasn't sure why that translated to Wendy socking her in the face, but if she wanted answers, she'd have to play along. So, the Scarlet Reaper focused her gaze on her old friend instead of the spectral woman. "Wendy! What are you doing?!"
"Good. Now get ready to listen and fight. We'll need to make this look real," the redhead explained. "As for me, I am Irene Belserion. The shrimp used that punch to transfer my consciousness enchantment from herself to you. Pleasure to finally officially meet you, little flower. Let me catch you up on what you've missed."
For those of you who may be worried that this is a hard reset to the idea "Power of Friendship wins everything because it is Power of Friendship", I can assure you right now that it is not. While the Power of Friendship is a crucial element of this story as it is in RWBY and Fairy Tail proper, it alone is not enough to win an ideological or physical battle between the different factions, nor solve the actual overarching problem of the Umbral Spirit King. As Ruby discussed with many back at the guild, sometimes underhanded and ruthless actions ARE necessary for the greater good. However, relying entirely on such actions and jumping to them without first exploring other avenues or even giving such avenues a chance in the current circumstances ultimately leads to a philosophy of evil, even with the best of intentions.
Ruby and Salem's viewpoints here are both fueled by good intentions, simply from different ideological viewpoints. Ruby would love to wield the political power to make the world a better place and has come to view justice for the dead as less important than the crucial assets obtained. If she had to do the fight with Weiss and Summer over again, she would probably fight against Weiss, but also refuse to allow Summer to kill her. Whether that would lead to a better outcome or not is anyone's guess. However, she is also not willing to perpetrate such horrors if there is even the slightest sliver of a chance to avoid them. Similarly but on the other side of the dichotomy, Salem has precisely ZERO desire to rule the world. But faced with the flaws confronted in her plans, she has come to the conclusion that she must play the role of god she so despises for the good of all. She does not like it. She does not enjoy it. But if she has the power to help people, would it not be immoral to not use it? With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility and all.
Next up: Fairy Tail practices the Joestar Secret Technique.
Thank you for Reading! I hope you enjoy what comes next!
Go Forth and Conquer!