Servants of Remnant
Chaldea is gone, but the memories remain. A world, filled with fairy tales, monsters and men. A history unlike any other. Sometimes… a hero is needed. From another world, from another time. Not all of them are great, not all of them are 'good'. But when the world needs a hero, these Servants answer the call. Perhaps only one, perhaps many do. These are the tales of many timelines. The 'Servants of Chaldea' who come to Remnant.
Salem
Salem was quiet, as she contemplated the past decade… looking out the window in her throne room with a concerned frown. All this had started, ten years ago, when Watts had found that woman in his lab, that red eyed mage had been their captive for all of three hours before that mysterious man had broken into her castle… and shot her with a weapon that actually felt like it had severed her connection to magic, and to life, twice, with only the curse upon her the only thing that ironically saved her as the man had made his escape with the woman, having left both her subordinates grievously wounded, Hazel far more than Watts, but it was still significant how easily the man had handled both her current subordinates.
Their successful escape actually left her very impressed. Whoever that man was, she knew instant he wasn't one of Ozpin's flunkies. He was a professional there for only one thing, the woman, and the moment her safety had been secured and an escape route available, he'd fled. He didn't even seem to recognize her, or the woman, which obviously meant Ozpin hadn't spilled her 'secret' existence to them. She was actually wondering how they'd gotten here in the first place for several years.
"My lady," Salem was drawn out of her thoughts and turned towards the table behind her, where one of her many 'answers' was sitting on her chair. A young girl with purple hair and a smile that while so innocent, was somehow the most sinister thing she'd ever seen on someone so young looking. A princess much like she had been. "We found another one," Medea said with a serene smile, Salem looking towards her… and smiling.
"Do you know who they are already?" she questioned. While this whole situation had started rather embarrassingly with a pair of these 'Servants' giving her the slip and one killing her temporarily, it had turned into an unexpected boon in… several ways. Some of which had added subordinates to her own table, or had gifted her other, human or faunus underlings with a great boon. There had been a few failures yes, but those with such a great moral upstanding and love for humanity and faunus alike weren't going to be much help anyway, even if she would have liked to use them for 'resources'.
"Why yes, she's-" Medea started, before going silent as both Salem, and her, turned towards the sound of clapping and a giggle. A woman with tainted silver hair was now sitting on Salem's own throne, and clapping. "Kama…" Medea finished as Salem raised an eyebrow towards the woman. She knew Servants could be rather… unpredictable, but there was an air about this one that felt far more familiar, similar to herself even, so she'd oblige this transgresion. Getting any allies she could was hard enough, best not to alienate.
"So, he wasn't kidding when he said you'd been summoned? Tell me, did you come here yourself, or did your 'husband' summon you?" Kama instantly shot at Medea, the Caster not obliging the other Servant with an answer that Salem knew… but she wasn't going to share either.
"Kama, was it not? Might I ask why you've come here?" She asked, and the Servant hummed for a second, before shrugging.
"Interest I suppose," she said bluntly, a bored look falling over her face as Salem remained stoic herself, but sent out a mental command to her own, personal, guard dog. He even responded, saying he'd been there soon as Salem spoke up.
"So what do you intend to do from here?" Salem asked calmly, and Kama just hummed, Medea remaining silent as the Servant snapped her fingers.
"Simple. I watch. I'm too lazy to really do anything unless a certain someone gets involved, and I haven't seen hide nor hair of her," Kama mused as Salem contemplated that, and shot a glance towards Medea… only for her to nod. She'd quiz her Caster on this woman after she'd left earshot…
Just as Salem was about to respond, the doors to her throne room opened, and in walked her guard dog. Cu Chulainn, all clad in scales that made him far more grimm than faunus in her opinion, and he locked eyes, dead on, with Kama… and just growled.
"Oh, you're here as well?" Kama mused, as Cu spoke up.
"I am… Master, I'd suggest not letting this woman near shit," he said… something that actually surprised Salem quite a bit. Normally her personal Servant was quiet, and never voiced his own opinion, and was, honestly, her most loyal supporter besides perhaps Medea. That actually gave her some cause for concern.
"My, already so hostile, are you annoyed about the-" Everyone went silent as Kama had to tilt her head away from the thrown spear that impaled the throne, not breaking it thankfully, but definitely cracking it. The amount of hostility from the normally very calm man actually had Salem… worried. What was this woman if she caused such a reaction from her guardian and from her witch.
"Well, I can see when my presence isn't wanted…" Kama noted, before leaping away from the throne and on top of it with a backflip, before summoning some sort of strange tube like device to float behind her, Medea summoning her staff as Cu's spear ripped itself from the throne, flying back into his hand as Salem stepped away from the three Servants. She was fairly sure it was going to erupt into a fight, and was about to call for some Grimm, when the sound of a harp strummed, and Kama seized up, twisting oddly to avoid the invisible strings that tried to restrain her, and almost instantly, without even a snarky comment, she chucked her device before her, smashed the window behind Salem's throne, and leapt out, and started jumping away.
Salem sighed in annoyance as she walked over to her throne, taking a seat as Cu walked up beside her, but kept his eyes on the horizon, Salem laying her cheek on a knuckle as one of her more recent acquisition, Tristan, stood in the doorway to the throne room.
"How sad… it seems I missed her…" The Archer stated quietly before walking completely into the room, his very presence causing the air to become even more tense. Salem closed her eyes as neither Medea or Cu made any sudden moves around the Archer… quite frankly, if it wasn't for the fact he was useful, he would have regarded her experiment upon him to unlock those 'hidden powers' a complete failure to be disposed of… and even then she wasn't sure if it would stick.
In the end, it fell to her to ask the question. "Sir Tristan, why did you come here?"
"I came because my presence was required. There was to be a meeting, was there not?" he stated calmly. Well he wasn't wrong, so she wasn't about to admonish him for it, quite frankly, his presence had just stopped her throne room from becoming a complete mess in what was likely to be a very bloody battle. So she settled for silence and to wait for the rest to arrive.
Watts was first, the 'good' doctor walking in, and pausing for a moment at both Tristan and Cu's presences and then staring at the broken window behind her. She understood the reaction, Cu was rarely here, and every knew to be wary around the 'knight', since almost anything could set him off. And following quickly behind him was one of their other 'Casters'. Avicebron stepped behind Watts, and while she didn't see anything or feel anything behind his ever present mask, she knew he'd stopped for a very similar to Watts. Both the Doctor and the magus actually seemed to share a 'glance' at each other before walking into the room and taking their respective seats at her table, silently waiting.
That silence remained as Cinder came in, the woman instantly scoffing at the sight before her and moving to her own seat right beside Tristan, the Archer sparing her not a single moment of sight… honestly it was more likely he'd fallen asleep rather than pay attention to the meeting, so she elected to ignore him and sort of pretend he wasn't there for the moment. Cinder's red cloak spilled out of her chair, something she'd adopted after her recent mission for whatever reason, but Salem paid it like mind, Hazel had picked some odd quirks after a similar mission himself.
Speaking a Hazel, he was next to arrive, alongside Atalanta, the other Archer frowning at the contents of the room as Hazel, his blond hair slightly frazzled for some reason, silver armored pants gleaming in the light of the throne room, his hair even shining a bit itself as he took his seat, Atalanta sitting between him and Medea, which put Hazel across from Tristan, and Atlanta across from Cinder. Silence reigned still, mostly because everyone was waiting for her to reveal why the window was missing and likely the rest of the group to arrive. Quite frankly, she understood it was also likely because most of them knew who was most likely to set Tristan off, so they all sort of avoided stepping on that landmine themselves.
Then the last four arrived, heralded by… well the absolutely thundering steps, and the reason she had to install a door so big it took up almost the entire wall. Ivan pushed the door open with a single hand, the monster she'd recovered from the bottom of the sea silent as he stood opposite her in silence at the end of the table… the 'Rider' as she'd learned was very much one for silence, and only ever listen to her, or to the pink haired faunus who'd joined the proceedings, thankfully he listened to her more than the faunus. Tyrian was giggling, as he was want to do, clutching that colorful book to his chest like he did normally, and he took his seat next to Avicebron and just kept giggling as the pink haired faunus, Tamamo, took hers opposite Medea. Then there was the last, and most recent member of the circle… the Servant Ruler, Amakusa Shirou Tokisada, who sat opposite Tyrian.
With all of her… sentient 'Servants', in both senses of the word, here for the meeting, surprisingly if she was to be completely honest, she began quietly. "Is everyone ready to begin?" she asked, and was met mostly with nods, and Tyrian belting out one of his insane rambling.
"Why yes my wicked witch!" he cackled, still clutching that book to his chest… she really shouldn't have bound that Servant to him… it had driven him even more insane that he had been… or maybe it had just given him some strange tics, always referring to children's tales and singing childishly when he had the chance… or holding tea parties with those he could get to join him. Surprisingly, he'd only tried to poison the occupants once, but after a stern telling off and a threat from Tristan, he immediately stopped with the poison, settling on just having tea parties anyway… she had to admit, he was actually quite good at it.
She then waved to them all, allowing everyone to speak as needed, Cu finally deciding to not stare out into the Grimmlands through the open window, and turning to watch the proceedings as Tristan decided to speak first.
"Quite sadly, we have an escapee… I failed the defeat that woman, but I will begin my hunt for her shortly," he said simply, his eyes still shut as he clutched Failnaught in one hand, and then fell silent… Watts coughing before speaking.
"Excuse me? An escapee?" he questioned, looking towards the window as Salem looked towards Medea, the little girl closing her eyes and speaking up.
"An Assassin class Servant, Kama, was here and then left," she stated simply, opening her eyes as Avicebron spoke up.
"Kama you say?" he questioned calmly, Salem barely giving the Caster a glance. He was relatively quiet, never got in the way, and was useful when it came to helping Watts with heavy lifting, he seemed to have some sort of big project in the works, but claimed that he didn't have the materials to complete it, and really, he was just very useful and pretty loyal. Never questioned his orders, just did his job and did it well enough. No field work though, he was a Caster, and as Medea and Atalanta had both helpfully supplied, especially Atalanta, he was useless in a fight on his own, so if he was going to try something, he was more likely to die trying than actually accomplish any goals. "Was it the one from?"
"Unknown," Medea added, answering Avicebron's question, leaving Salem to humm. She'd learned rather quickly that Servants seemed to fall into categories. Chaldean and 'Unbound' Servants. Atalanta, Medea, Tristan had all been former Chaldeans, Avicebron was quiet but he knew about Chaldea… granted every Servant, from it or not, seemed to, so that was no indicator. Ivan, Cu, Tamamo and Amakusa had all revealed themselves as unbound, while most of the other Servants that had been 'dealt with', and used had been Chaldeans… Seemed there were far more of those than wild ones.
"Unfortunate, then her loyalties are a mystery," Avicebron commented as Atalanta spoke up.
"Kama was a member of Chaldea… but there could be a second. How old was she?" Atalanta asked, and Cu decided to speak up at that point.
"She was a teenager," he responded, and Atalanta just nodded.
"Can't be Chaldea's then, she was just a little girl," she muttered, and then Cinder decided to speak up.
"What is she capable of?" the woman asked, crossing her arms over her chest as Medea spoke up.
"More than you'd be able to fight and take," Medea said calmly, and Cinder scoffed, but didn't press further. She was sated for now at least, and she still had her other mission anyway, as far as Salem knew she was about to enter the final stages of that plan, so she'd leave her too it.
"I'm starting to make progress myself, sadly my assistant isn't a computer person, so I'm still on my own," Watts admitted, while Hazel spoke up.
"I've yet to locate the girl," he admitted, crossing his arms over his chest, and Salem just nodded as Tyrian spoke up.
"Aww, is big brother trying to find his baby sister!?" Tyrian cackled, and the blonde man turned towards Tyrian with rage in his eyes as the insane faunus cackled again. "Aw, is wonderland not agreeing with you?" he spouted off… it seemed he was having one of his episodes again, so Salem just sort of tuned him out as Atalanta spoke up.
"The infiltration is going well enough… I'll be returning to the White Fang shortly," she stated as Amakusa spoke up.
"From what I understand Archer, a certain… homunculus is a part of the White Fang's leadership, yes?" the Ruler asked, and Atalanta nodded slowly, before speaking up.
"I'll deal with him… avoiding him won't be the hardest thing in the world, and when I get a chance I'll take out the Caster." she stated bluntly glaring at Amakusa, and a bit of anger seemed to drip into her voice… The fact that the White Fang has a Servant, and a Caster no less, had been a little troubling. But Atlas had that buffoon Jason and a small part of his 'posse', and from what she'd figured out, Ozpin didn't seem the have any Servants on his side… if anything, none of them seemed even inclined to aid Ozpin, never mentioning and most of them focused on one single goal. Locating 'the Master'. Someone who every Servant she ran into knew was just from reputation alone.
A bastion of humanity, a girl without equal in courage and ability. The stories she heard were almost too fantastical to be true. A killer of gods, savior of worlds, and even destroyer of them. If it wasn't for the fact that every single Servant she spoke to either hated the Master for defeating them, admired their bravery, respected their resolve, or had declared they still had to find them, she would have called liars.
But from what she knew, the girl was in Atlas, and no one even knew the truth about her. Last Atalanta and Medea knew, she was still in a coma… but that had been nearly ten years ago. Watts hadn't found anything through his hacking, and the only thing she knew about her existence was that… well she did exist and she was pretty much the ultimate goal of every single Servant, either to return to her, help her, just outright finding her… or in the case of nearly everyone aligned with her currently, to kill her. She wasn't sure about Avicebron, but Tamamo was quite livid whenever they were brought up, Ivan actually was instantly on board with whatever she wanted after being promised a chance at the girl, Medea had come to her and practically spilled everything, and then Atalanta had come later and joined Medea in that regard. Amakusa was in a similar unknown camp as Avicebron, but he had also admitted he only knew the Master by reputation, so he personally had nothing against them. It was the other 'Servants' she had access to that she knew would want to rip the Master apart if they got their hands on her.
She had other plans however… quite a few involving this girl, and until she actually needed her, she'd let her Servant believe they were going to get that chance to kill the girl…
Finally coming out of her thoughts, she realizes she'd somewhat dozed off from the meeting, thinking about the situation. She'd done that a few times, but as Tamamo spoke. "I've located another Servant… in Mistral, so I'll be going after them myself, at least to figure out who they are." she said, all business at the moment as Salem nodded.
"Everyone knows what they are doing, correct?" Salem asked, and she got nods all around the table… except from Tyrian, who had apparently vanished at some point and was just re entering the room with his book under his arms, and a tea set on a tray, a goofy smile on his face as Ivan started to turn slowly and leave the room.
As Tyrian started giggling about some sort of teapot song, several others began to take their leave. Cinder left first, alongside Tamamo, the two girls discussing their trip to Mistral before they would split off from each other, while Salem held in a sigh. Medea and Atalanta left as well, and slowly the others filed out, all except for Tyrian and Cu… and finally Salem let out a sigh.
"Things were easier when I only had two underlings… nevermind eleven." she muttered, and Tyrian hummed, continuing to pour out tea for three as Cu huffed.
"At least they are competent," he admitted, even knowing that he was counted among that number… When she'd originally found him, and still had little idea how Servants worked, she'd forged a contract with him on the hope that it would give her some understanding… what it had given her was a loyal monster who did what he was told and gave her dreams of some sort of other world where a pink haired girl kept trying to lay her Servant in bed, and war was waged for a magical cup by machine men and magical soldiers. And given she didn't sleep often, those visions were quite vivid… and notably devoid of this 'Master' everyone spoke so highly of.
"Oh the great soldiers are cards! Ahahaha!" Tyrian cackled, even as he finished pouring out the tea, expertly sliding two cups down the table, both stopping before falling off the edge as he stopped his rambling and cackling to… rather strangely, drink in a somewhat refined manner for a moment.
Cu just sighed, and grabbed a cup, downed it, and set the porcelain down before walking away to go continue his guard duty, while Salem stood up, and walked down before picking up the cup of warm tea, and took a sip herself… she wasn't sure where Tyrian had gotten lemons or mistralian tea leaves… but at least it was a nice cup of tea.
Finishing off her cup of tea, she started to leave the throne room herself to go check on her most recent 'Servant' Project… It had been pure luck that this had fallen into her hands directly… almost directly. Cu had been the one to find her, and bring the Servant to her, and currently she was in a secret section of the castle. Flowing through the hallways, she made her way towards it, before opening the secret passage and closing it just as swiftly. She moved onwards, even as Cu was watching behind her… that loyal dog deciding to 'suddenly' patrol near where she had vanished to make sure no one would try to follow her, even if they didn't know about it. He shouldn't have either, but not much could be done when he had access to her thoughts, and her to his.
It took five minutes to reach the bottom and to the large pool of black, where a machine she'd had Watts build, an Atlas style stasis pod, had been partially sunk into the liquid. She'd had to move it herself with her magic, but it would be well worth it with this experiment. Slowly, she started to have a small smile form on her face. There was a connection, currently quite vague, but it was there. Raising her hand, she started to slowly raise the pod out of the black liquid, it was full of the stuff itself, but it was rapidly draining out. She set it on the ground near the pool, and forced it to open, all the liquid spilling out as she admired her handiwork, the connection there completely now that the creature had been released.
Snapping her fingers, the occupant of the pood slowly raised her head, formerly pink hair dripping black and turning white. Her fancy blue and red clothing ruining by her long stay in the liquid and the pod. Her skin was white, and black veins crossed it in many places, similar to her own… and on her hips lay no less than four swords, all magical in nature. At her command, the mindless monster opened its eyes, revealing black sclera… and silver pupils. The mindless, and soulless body of a Servant, refilled with energy, and under her direct control.
"Wake up, Saber… Musashi Miyamoto."
AN: Surprised? Two Servants of Remnant Chapters not from the points of view of our Main heroes. I'll inform all of you right away, this Chapter specifically takes place around a Year before RWBY is set to start. And to answer a few obvious questions, Cu Chulainn is obviously Cu Alter, and the Medea in this chapter is Medea Lily. Otherwise... well, there are a lot of hints here of things to come. Just try to see if you can spot all of them... almost all of them involve Salem's merry minions, so have fun with that. Also... Musashi... I'll leave all of you to write on TV tropes about that. Ta Ta for now, I hope to see your reviews shortly!