Disclaimer I don't own RWBY.
Dark clouds, a purple sky, a chilling air, and thousands upon thousands of Grimm. All that was normal in the heart of the Grimmlands. No Mans Land as stablished by many renowned scientists and historians and a guaranteed resting place for any Huntsman and Huntress. This place holds no sentient life.
None but one.
Salem. Immortal Queen of the Grimm. And Humans and Faunus greatest (unknown) enemy.
Things were good for Salem. Just a week ago the news of Beacon and Vale's fall reached her ears, courtesy of Arthur Watts one of her four followers, this also meant that Cinder had accomplished her mission and completely stolen the power of the Fall Maiden.
Although Cinder appeared to have been greatly injured it didn't matter as long as she survived and could use the power of the Maiden to obtain the Relic of Choice… wherever Ozma hid it. But it was only a matter of time until it came out. And time wasn't something she was running out of anytime soon.
Such were the perks of being immortal, patience was something as natural as breathing once you've been alive for at least two thousand years.
With Vale gone, Haven's Headmaster working for her and Ozma in the process of reincarnation, Salem should have every right to feel happy, and she was, but she would never show it in front of her subordinates.
Speaking of whom, she had told Hazel and Tyrian to double their efforts in finding the Spring Maiden and Watts to find a way to restore Cinder to full health or as close as full health possible, while Cinder would lay low seeing as now her face was known all across Remnant.
'Possibly the only disadvantage of posing as students to infiltrate Beacon, as they had pictures of them' Salem thought while twirling a wine cup in her right hand while watching at the broken moon, a result of actions she will never regret 'It was only a matter of time before some humans revolted against the Gods, why not have the privilege for myself?'
Her musings of the past were interrupted when she heard something. With all the Grimm running and flying around the Grimmlands it should've been impossible to hear anyone or anything close by, as any and all things be it dead or alive would be destroyed by her Grimm, unless she ordered it not to.
'It's coming from the sky' Salem quickly looked to the sky and she would probably have missed it among the purple sky, but thanks to her magic she saw it in the distance as clear as day.
A… A… she didn't know what it was, it didn't look like a Bullhead or any other airship she knew of. Also, it was very high, to altitudes she was sure not even an Atlesian Airship could reach 'It looks like a cross it's very hard to make anything out of it with how far it is'.
Thanks to the light of the broken moon she caught a gleam of light come out of it before being obscured by a cloud, she waited until it came out the other side, but it never 'What?! Where did it go?!'
She tried looking for it and was even going to send a Nevermore to look after it, before she looked back at the spot where it had been and saw an object slowly descending towards her. The object in hand looked to be some kind of bomb attached to a big parachute that was slowing its descent.
'Is that a bomb?' she wondered, which upon closer inspection she confirmed it was 'Did Ozma ordered Ironwood to bomb this place in case he died? Is he that desperate?! He should know that I can't die'
A minute passed
The bomb continued its slow descent. Salem 'Why would they put a parachute to slow it down? Are they stupid or something? Or is tis some type of mockery as if they represented ribbons like if it was a present?' Salem started to question the reasoning for such flaw in a bomb.
Another minute passed.
'This is just ridiculous! It's probably been like five minutes and that damned thig is still on the air! Is this some joke Ozma! Make me lose my patience over something we know won't work! Waiting to be "killed" is something I never thought I would desire but if it gets done with this fucking waiting I'll gladly "di-'
[FFFFFFFFFFWWWWWWWSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHH]
Salem's mind rant was instantly interrupted by a blinding light originating from the bomb, she couldn't even widen her eyes a millimeter before she was turned into dust and that dust destroyed completely.
Everything that was consumed by the blinding light in the first second was destroyed. Grimms roaming around couldn't even turn to look at the light before disappearing. Grimm pools were evaporated in milliseconds and the ancient Castle of the Grimmlands was no more before across the world Colibri could even flap its wings.
[KRRRRAAKAAABOOOOOOOOOOOOM]
Incredible amounts of heat melted any Grimm not caught by the light. Ruble, rocks, and dust was being pushed back by a shockwave that killed any Grimm not killed by the light or the infernal heat. And said shockwave continued to expand, slowly losing its power but not fast enough.
Tyrian Callows was a simple man.
He dedicated all his time and efforts to please his Goddess. Anything she ordered him; he would follow to the letter. Kill a Huntsman or Huntress roaming close to the Grimmlands. Done. Kill an upcoming politician that could unite humanity and Faunus kind. Done. Kill an innocent child before it becomes a problem down the road. Done so. Drown a sack of cute little puppies. She has never ordered him that, but he would do it anyway.
A simple man.
Said simple man was grinning madly as he travelled through the forest near the Castle, he had found a lead on the Summer Maiden. He couldn't wait to tell his Goddess of his discoveries, he was sure he would be rewarded greatly, even though her mere presence was reward enough.
He was so excited he almost missed the giant mushroom fireball coming from the direction of the Castle. Almost. He stopped abruptly before his eyes widened "No no nonoNONONONONO" he started screaming and running wildly towards the giant fireball. If anything happened to his Goddess, he didn't know what he would do.
'MY GODDESS NEEDS ME, SHE'LL BE FINE, BUT I STILL NEED TO MAKE-' as Salem before him, his thoughts were interrupted when something stabbed him with great speed bypassing his aura. He looked down and saw a piece of random wood. He was confuse for a moment before hearing something nearing.
[KRRRRAAKAAABOOOOOOOOOOOOM]
The sound startled and shocked him. His eyes widened even further when a giant cloud of debris was approaching him at unbelievable speeds.
He didn't even have time to scream as the shockwave consumed him.
It was a normal day in the Xia Long residence… if having one crippled daughter and another one in a (hopefully) small coma normal. Taiyang was making sure his two daughters were comfortable, although he couldn't say much about Ruby, he tried to cheer up Yang, but it seemed that his efforts were not giving results.
Right now, he was outside tending to his garden, he could see Qrow standing in a tree branch near Ruby's window keeping an eye on her in case she woke up. He smiled at the scene, he was about to say something but suddenly he felt shaking, at first it was nothing but the it started to pick up.
"Whoa!" He stumbled while trying to get up and ran towards Yang's room
"Dad, what's going on?!" she looked at him with fearful eyes. He was scared too Patch never had any earthquakes in fact all of the four major cities were located where there couldn't be any earthquakes as it would weaken the city defenses.
"I don't know honey, but don't worry everything will be alright" he was sure of his words, because even if there had never been any earthquakes in Patch he'd be damned if he didn't pay the best architects and builders to make his home for his future children "I'll go check on Ruby" he said before running out of her room and towards Ruby's.
Qrow was already there with a hand on her shoulder keeping her steady so as to not fall of the bed, Taiyang let out a sigh of relief seeing Ruby being kept safe by her uncle.
A few minutes later the shaking stopped, and everything went back to normal.
Qrow left Ruby's room and met with Taiyang outside "Do you have any idea what happened?" Taiyang was the first to talk.
"I've no idea, but for some reason…" he paused as he felt a light breeze pass by him, and looked at the direction it came from "…I feel like something powerful is behind this"
"Do you think is 'her'?"
"I… I… I don't know" he answered honestly, Tai joined him and looked towards the horizon.
General Ironwood didn't care if what his advisors said.
He knew going anywhere near the Grimmlands was suicide, but if what his top scientist told him was true, and the origin of that Earthquake originated from there, then he'll be damned if he didn't investigate immediately.
He could've sent a specialist team to investigate and report back to him, but if the phenomenon had anything to do with 'her', then it was safer for him to go along with Specialist Schnee.
Said Specialist was flying as fast as possible her personal airship, through the sandstorm of dust and dirt, they couldn't see very well, and were ready to maneuver in case a Nevermore attacked, but it never happened. They were getting nearer to their objective with every passing second. He looked down at his hand, his human hand, and noticed he was shaking. He would honestly admit he was scared of whatever could cause an earthquake from the Grimmlands all the way to Atlas.
He closed his eyes and started to calm himself, he needed to have a clear mind, and whatever it was they would face, he needed to take in every possible detail. He needed to be ready for the safety of Atlas, for the safety of Faunus and all Humans.
"G-General" Schnee stuttered, she never stuttered "we-we are here"
He first opened his eyes and looked at who he considered his most trusted specialist and frowned at what he saw. Said specialist was lightly trembling and her eyes were as wide as saucers. But something he noticed is that she never, not even once, stopped facing forward.
So he too looked forward.
And felt his legs almost turn into jelly.
What was in front of them was impossible.
Was surreal.
Was inhuman.
Yet it was right in front of them.
In what could be at least a 25-mile radius of destruction. Nothing could be seen in the ground, only mountains of dirt and burnt trees. Not a single Grimm.
But that wasn't what was shocking, not even close.
For in front of them was a giant mushroom cloud so big it was obscuring the eternal moon of the Grimmlands.
All Ironwood knew was that they had been lucky this destructive power had been used in here and nowhere else.
Somewhere in a small farm, inside the mind of a boy a conscious felt a small connection break.
.
.
.
.
.
[Right after the bomb was dropped]
"Was it me or did the sky turn purple for a few seconds?" the pilot asked himself "probably the stress of carrying that cursed device" he muttered before shaking his head and looking ahead at the clear blue sky.
This was something always on my mind, but no one ever really wrote about it so I decided why not. For those curious, the bomb was an AN602.
-The Knight in Dark Flames