AN: This the chapter I least certain of and probably the reason for the update being delayed as much as it was despite the fact it was done. More of less the climax, I have two more chapters written, but I'm only going to post the one after this for sure. The last in a Epilogue that I may or may not post. Depends.
The cells were far worse than the ones they'd been put in at Atlas. Those had been clean if cramped, these cells were huge, but they were dark and damp, and a faint sweet smell like something was rotting nearby.
Yang wondered where the two brothers were now. Loki had turned out to be the snake they all had suspected he was, yet they had fallen for it. The last thing she remembered seeing before the floor had swallowed her and the other's and waking up here was Thor throwing his ax at his brother's hologram, that hologram with that stupid smirk.
Thor hadn't been brought to where ever they were, and she was worried about him. But she had a whole bunch of other friends who needed to be worried about. As it was now only her, Jaune and Nora were awake, and the other's were still asleep. They'd tried to wake them up, but it was almost like they had been drugged, and as she thought of this thought they probably had been, she herself felt slow and sluggish, like she'd had a rough night drinking.
She knew that those awake now had most likely simply had shaken off the effects sooner. She looked at Weiss and thought it might be kinder to leave her asleep anyway. She was going to be incredibly hurt with Loki's betrayal. For her own part, Yang was just furious with Thor's brother, next time she saw him, she didn't care what was between them, she'd put her fist through his face.
None of them had been disarmed, and Yang and Jaune had soon found out why. The chitinous bars of the cell did not break easily, and whenever they had made some sort of damage, the black tar that the Grimm formed out of seeped out to fill in the damage.
If they were going to have any hope of breaking the cell, they'd all have to hit at the same time. Jaune had thought of using the Silver-steel to burn the bars, but what little they had was gone, apparently Loki had told Salem what they had and she'd taken measures to remove it from the equation.
There was another cell she could see, across the hall, and she thought she might see a body in it, but the light was so low she couldn't tell if it was something or just a trick of the low light. Blake would be able to see when she woke up.
Right now, her only concern was getting everyone out alive, no matter how slim that chance may be. And if she couldn't do that, she'd settle for taking Loki out.
"I knew we couldn't trust him." She heard Jaune mutter behind her.
"I wish I could say it was unavoidable." Yang said turning to him "But that's what we get for trusting a trickster god."
"But he seemed like he was coming around." Nora added, her tone somber.
"Yeah, but can we even know that for sure? I mean the guy's whole deal is he can trick anyone." Jaune said.
"Fucking trickster." Yang muttered.
They sat in silence, waiting for the rest of their friends to wake up. While they did so Yang looked at Jaune, and found herself wondering something about her sister's boyfriend. With nothing else to do, and no way out of the cell at the time. She thought now was as good a time as any.
"Jaune." She started, causing him to look up at her "how far have you and Ruby gone?"
To her slight surprise Jaune didn't blush, stammer or get flustered, he looked like he didn't have the energy to. He just answered.
"Not as far as you and Thor." He said.
Brushing her surprised off she continued "Have you…talked to her about that?"
"Not really, she'd brought it up a few times, but I'm not comfortable with it."
"Why is that?"
"Is this really a conversation you want to have?" His tone and face showed some irritation, but she didn't back down.
"Why not? We're stuck here for now, and until everyone else wakes up, I don't think we're going anywhere."
Jaune chewed the inside of his cheek before answering her first question "It's weird with Ruby. I like her and we're dating ,but when I think about being…intimate with her, I have this mental block."
"That's good." A gravely, and familiar voice called from the other cell.
All three were startled and looked at the source of the voice, and Yang felt her heart jump into her throat, she knew that voice anywhere. "Uncle Qrow?"
"Hey kiddo." He said, as he walked to the bars of his cell, more into the light. "I'm glad I got to see you one more time."
"Qrow…what the hell, I thought you were going to Shade Academy?" Jaune asked.
"I was…I did, but I was too late to stop it, she got the relic, and took me hostage." He sighed "I haven't had a drink in…I don't know how long."
Hope was draining from Yang like she a hole in her stomach. They were captured, no help on the outside except a fractured and defeated Atlas task force.
"How are we going to get out?" She asked her Uncle, knowing it was pointless, if he'd known that he'd be gone by now, but she had to talk or else she might cry.
"We don't, not unless your mother comes looking for us and uses her portal to get us out."
"So we're screwed." Jaune muttered, and Yang wished she had a reason to be mad at him over doubting her mother, but she more or less felt the same way.
"You don't have any of that silver stuff to burn these bars?" Her uncle asked.
"The only silver here is Ruby's eye…."Jaune said trailing off in his line of thought.
It took Yang a moment to realize what he was thinking. Ruby had silver eye's, that were lethal to Grimm, and this cell was just one giant Grimm.
"Ruby!" Yang shouted and ran over to her sleeping sister and started to shake her. "Ruby wake up!" She shouted.
"Don't waste your time." Qroq said "She'll wake up once the tranq wears off, till then, it would be better to try and figure out how to get her to use those powers, which I'll remind you she's only done once in her life."
"Right." Yang muttered "So how do we do it?"
"You've done it again brother." Thor muttered as he hung from the wall, his arms and legs bound in the living membrane of the massive Grimm.
"What's that?" Loki said as he examined the relics laid out before him. The pen he'd had, the relic of knowledge, and the relics for creation and destruction, a carpenter's hammer and a dagger respectfully. " I rather like this one." He said handling the dagger.
"Made a fool of me, why do I ever bother trusting you?"
"Because you are blinded by love." Loki said. "Now I would suggest you not fight what Salem is going to do to you, it's going to hurt, but will be easier if you just let it happen."
"What is that?" Thor sneered as he asked.
"You have the relics power inside you, the one you broke, and she needs it to complete the set."
"That power is gone Loki, this mortal form can't contain such raw power."
"That's what I thought, but the power of choice, well I think you subconsciously suppressed it, using its own power to contain it. The power to choose in all things, you chose to keep it hidden deep down."
Thor didn't trust a word of what his brother said. If he'd had that power, he'd of used it to kill this creature and Salem with one bolt of lightning.
"Your brother is right you know." A voice he didn't know said drifted out from the shadows of the room.
"Salem." He muttered.
"The mighty Thor." She said. "I've wanted to meet one of you Asgardians for some time now." Loki made a noise at this, but Salem ignored it. Apparently, she didn't count Loki as an Asgardian.
"What do you know of Asgard." He spat at her.
"Well that depends, what do you remember before coming to our world?"
Thor looked at his brother, and saw he was listening intently, so whatever she was going to say, he believed his brother hadn't heard.
"Nothing." He said .
"You poor little god." She said in a tone that dripped with venom but was oddly alluring at the same time. "You don't know?"
"Know what?" He sneered.
"The gods of Asgard are dead. They have been for eons."
Thor scoffed at this, how could she know this, and she clearly saw he didn't believe her. She produced a book, which Thor recognized as one of the set on his people. She walked over to the table with the relics, picked up the quill and wrote in it.
After she was done, she threw it on the floor so he could see what was written.
All it said was "Where are the gods?" and the response appeared "Dead."
"But I am here, and so is my brother, such as he is." Thor said "Your little trick didn't address that."
"Yes." She said as she approached him with quill in hand "But I'm afraid you two no longer count."
"You'll have to do more than use some cheap magic tricks to convince me." He said. He'd seen more tricks than most, and he wasn't so quick to believe the enemy.
"Very well." She took the quill and before he knew what happened, stabbed it into his side. The pain wasn't as bad as he would of thought, but she triggered the lever and he felt the liquid pumping into his body. "Show him the fate of his family." She said.
His vision turned white and he started to see flashes of a battle, a massive war between Asgard and the Giants. His friends, family and people, dying in droves under the feet of Surtur and Fennris. But more than that, he knew this was real, in a supernatural way, he knew this was true.
The quill was pulled out with a sudden ferocity and his vision returned.
"A more direct approach than writing the questions out." She whispered in his ear, a smile on her lips. He looked at her with his one good eye, and felt tears running down his face. "They died, here on this world, in fact the iron in their blood made this interesting little metal." She raised a piece of the silver-steel.
"Why…" he muttered.
"I couldn't say why they choose this world." She said "By the time the gods of light and darkness came here, the Aseir were long dead."
Thor looked at his brother, who hadn't seen the vision, but was clenching his jaw tightly. He's thought this was a test from his father, but now…
"Why us then?" He said "Why me and Loki."
"I don't know and I don't care to ask." She said. "Your brother only cares if his powers are returned, he has none of the sentiment you have."
"What is your goal?" he muttered.
She smiled "Once I have the power from you, I can finally make my children the proper rulers of this world."
"The Grimm?"
"Yes." She said "I can only manipulate the primordial pools they rise from, but they don't have true life, but with the relics I can give them that, and they will take their proper place in this world."
"So you want to kill all humans?" He said.
"Not specifically, but that will certainly be a result of it. I'm more than fine killing their hope, they will die off on their own after."
Thor couldn't help but laugh at this comment.
"Oh, what's so funny little god?"
"You want to kill humanities hope." He said, laugh some more, despite his sorrow.
"You think I can't?" She seemed amused by the idea that she couldn't.
"I've seen far worse than you try, and fail. Humans are much stronger than you think." He said smiling up at her, now seeing he was making her mad, and loving it. "You can't kill hope."
"Hope is foolish and dangerous, and self-destroying." She said "It inevitably causing those who have it to break in their disappointment." She smirked a little at this, despite the fact it was clear she was getting angry "It's a terrible thing for humans really, it just makes everything hurt more."
"No." He said, smiling still "Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies." He said.
"Well then." She was done playing now "Let's hope that's true for you, because if it's not, you won't last long, but you're such a good man, so you don't have anything to fear."
"My head hurts." Ruby muttered as she watched her friends circle around her. "What do you want me to do?"
"Use your silver eye's to try and burn the bars." Yang said, rubbing her sister's back.
"But I can't control it." She muttered, thinking of the one time she'd managed to pull off the feat.
"Well just try to think of what triggered it in you the last time." Qrow said from his cell.
"But that was…" she didn't like to think about it, but if that was what she needed to do. She thought about it and…nothing happened. She tried again and still nothing.
"It's probably not a sharp enough feeling anymore." Qrow muttered.
She hated to agree with it, but he was probably right, she had made peace with what had happened to Pyrrha. She still felt sadness and guilt, but it wasn't anything like what she'd felt when she saw her die.
She wished she'd had time to train this power, but as it was now, it was only reactive.
"So much for that plan." Yang muttered, slumping down on the floor.
"How much dust do you have?" Blake asked.
"If we put everything we have on the bars, we might be able to break it open for a bit, but then we're going to be left with nothing by melee options." Weiss muttered. She'd been sitting in the corner, sulking, which Ruby understood, after what Loki had done.
"If only we had some of the steel." Jaune said slamming his fist into the wall.
"Well we don't." Yang said "Loki took it all."
Ruby hadn't ever felt this hopeless. They might get out, but if they did, they'd of used all their ammunition.
She walked over to Weiss, leaned against the wall and slumped next to her on the ground.
"I'm sorry." She said to Weiss.
"For what?" She responded without looking at her.
"For everything that's happened, for not being able to get us out."
"It's not your fault, you didn't get any training, and the rest isn't your fault, it's that snake Loki."
Ruby didn't know if it was wise to try and talk to Weiss about that right now, and looked around for another topic of discussion.
He eye's landed on Weiss and she noticed her partner had a necklace with a locket on it she'd never seen before, at least didn't recall her wearing it.
"That's a nice necklace, did your sister give to you?" She realized after she said it that she was taking a gamble, given it might of come from Loki.
"What are you talking about?" Weiss gave her a look of confusion.
"That." Ruby said pointing necklace.
Weiss hand drifted to the necklace and her eye's widened ever so slightly.
"So, you're certain you can extract the power from him Doctor." Thor heard Salem say to the very Doctor who'd robbed his brother back in Mistral.
"Yes, I can transfer it directly to you my Queen, then we can do so with the rest of relics."
"Good." She said and sat in a throne-like chair, that seemed to alive and linked to himself. "You may start the process."
The doctor started up the machine, or creature, he really couldn't tell the difference at this point. His brother watch, and looked like he was waiting for something.
Then he heard it or more accurately felt it, an explosion from somewhere below.
"Seems like your friends aren't taking to their cells very well." The doctor said "Not that it will do them any good, They could blast those cells with a full artillery barrage and not get out."
"Take Tyrian and go silence them. "Salem said from her Throne.
"My Queen…the procedure."
"Will still be here, but I don't want my ascension in godhood to be disturbed by that racket."
"Yes my queen." He bowed out and set off for the cells, or so Thor assumed.
"Looks like your friends have bought you a few more minutes." She said standing up and walking to him. "Those cells are very unique, they give the impression of looking like they are giving way only to regrow. No matter what is thrown at them, they only ever take the same amount damage, another little trick to destroy hope."
"What about that steel?" Loki voice came from behind her. "Would that burn through it?"
"Yes, I believe it would, but you took all they had." She said, not even bothering to look at his brother, just smiling at him, very pleased with the mental torture she was sure was being inflicted on her prisoners.
"Not exactly." Loki's voice came from behind her and Thor only caught the expression of confusion on her face before the blade of his spear erupted from Salem's chest.
Her black and red eye's went wide and with a lighting quick reaction she turned and backhanded his brother across the room.
She clenched her chest which was a smoking from the attack. "You little worm." She hissed as the wound closed.
Loki was already on his feet, his spear glowing. "Come now, you can't be that surprised, can you?" He smirked. "God of mischief, remember."
"You'll be a dead god now." She waved her hand and the room seemed to come alive, like the trap Loki had sprung on them, and the black tentacle shot towards his brother.
His brother swung the spear more like a club or ax, cutting the tentacles, and they froze and shattered. He then stabbed the tip into the ground and a layer of ice coated the room, keeping the floor from swallowing him.
"You aren't dealing with a novice here you pretender." He said "I was fooling Odin himself before you were even a thought in your creators mind."
"You little worm." Salem said, and shed her heavy robes "I'll kill you myself."
"Come and try then." He smirked as he said this and Salem charged him.
Weiss clenched the locket to her chest, it gave her hope, hope that she hadn't been wrong. When she'd opened it, it didn't have anything in it except a message carved into the silver metal.
"Make some noise on your way out'- L.
The chain was silver-steel and they'd cut the locks off the cells and made their way out. It had to be Loki, she hadn't had this before they'd entered the castle, he had to of given it to her.
But now as they ran through the fortress, she could help by wonder why the deception had been needed. These were questions for later, right now they needed to…do something.
Right now they were just running through the castle, killing the few Grimm that patrolled it. The section they were in was a hall with very high ceilings and halls wide enough for several cars to drive down side by side, with several halls of similar size branching off. She wondered why this building was built with such large dimensions.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" An unfamiliar voice called from one of the side halls.
Weiss turned to see two men she'd never seen before, at least in person, yet she recognized the one with mustache from one Loki's drawings from the relic.
"A little prison break it looks like." The mustached man said. "I think I need to call in the reinforcements." He pulled something out of his pocket and pressed a button.
Before they could react, the floor started to shake and open up.
"What is that?" Ruby wondered out loud as something came up from the floor.
"I call it the "Warden"." The mustaches man said. "For just such an occasion.
As it rose up from the floor Weiss saw what it was. It looked like the Grimm-Machine hybrid they'd fought at Mistral, only bigger and much more heavily armored.
The other man, a Faunus she had to assume was the man called Tyrian. He gave her a very…disturbing look at the "Warden" marched on them, slowly but deliberately.
"So, the little Schnee is alive, your brother was quite concerned about you, you know."
What? How did this man know her brother?
Loki was crafty, Loki was smart, and he was a deadly fighter in his own right. But there were two things he didn't have anymore. His powers or the Jotun physicality he once enjoyed.
Thor watched his brother start to flag as Salem moved around him like a snake, she seemed to be made of smoke at times. He landed a few hits on her, but she wasn't like a Grimm or a human, she recovered from the attacks quickly, while he was stacking damage.
This wasn't going to end well for his brother. The magic he had wasn't strong enough to make a difference.
Salem threw Loki across the room like a ragdoll and he slammed into the ice wall he'd made with enough force to fracture it and he actually bounced off it and barely managed to land on his feet.
Salem knew that this wasn't even a fight anymore and strolled up to Loki while he wobbled on his feet. He raised his spear, balanced it in his hand, and threw it at her.
It flew with a fair amount of speed but missed her by several feet. She laughed at this and grabbed Loki the throat and slammed him into the already fracturing ice, exposing the black living wall beneath.
"You were supposed to be the smart one." She whisper in his ear. "Now." She let go of him and the living wall started to form around Loki's body, starting to swallow him "You've killed yourself."
"No." He whispered "I've killed you."
Thor saw what his brother was talking about. While she had him against the wall, she hadn't noticed the spear had lodged into the wall next him, if he could just reach it.
"I suppose the last hit addled your mind." She said as he disappeared in the wall.
As he said this, Thor managed to grip the made of the spear, and felt the power in it. He realized in that moment that Loki had none of the magic in him anymore, he's put it in the spear.
He felt the power surge, and with it, called the lighting.
Yang fired three quick blast at the "Warden" to no effect. This wasn't looking good, the one they'd fought in Mistral had been bad enough, but this one was stronger and they didn't have the forces they had then.
Her Uncle was fighting the doctor and Ruby and Jaune were trying to fight the Faunus, and none of them were doing well. Her Uncle wasn't at full strength, and the man Jaune and Ruby were clearly out of their league.
But none of the rest of them couldn't help, the Warden was taking all their effort to just hold it off.
Then damn thing was not only tough, but it was armed to the teeth. It had firepower that Grimm never used, and it mixed them typical Grimm projectile like spines.
Why? They were on a damn roller-coaster here, hope and despair switching what felt like every two hours.
And where was Thor? Where was Loki? Had he helped them? So many questions.
Her thoughts were broken by the clap of thunder so loud it shook the fortress. "Thor." She muttered, and before she knew what happened, she felt a sharp pain in her clavicle. Looking down, she saw a Grimm spine sticking out of her chest.
She realized she was in the air, flying back, she hadn't even realized it had lifted her off the ground. She felt numb.
The last thing she heard was she sister calling out her name.
Salem didn't dare move as Thor stood over the remaining relics, holding the dagger in his hand, the relic of destruction, ready to strike the other relics. He already destroyed one, now holding the dagger he was now ready to finish the job.
"Now don't do anything rash." She said, keeping her composure as Thor stood ready to crush all her plans.
"Let my brother go." He said, and she sneered but waved her hand and the wall released Loki.
"How did you get out?" She said, trying to keep him talking.
"My brother's spear, you were so certain you had him, you just assumed he missed." He looked like he was smirking at her.
The brother in question was lying on the floor next to her. He tried to crawl away, but she grabbed his shoulder.
"Now Thor let's talk about this like reasonable…deities." She said.
"You are no god." He said.
"Neither are you." She said "But I have your brother here, and your friends in my prison, we can make a deal."
"No you don't" Loki muttered weakly, and both she and Thor looked at him. His left eye was swollen shut and blood was running down the side of his face, but he was smiling "I got them out, I'd dare say your little minions are rather preoccupied with them"
"You little!" She sneered and struck him in the head again.
"Salem!" Thor shouted, raising the dagger.
She froze, but saw he wasn't making his move yet. Why though? He could of destroyed all the relics if he wanted, what was stopping him?
"Do it!" Loki shouted, and while she didn't hit him again, she squeezed his shoulder hard enough to make him flinch.
Thor held the power Salem wanted hostage, but he didn't strike. He didn't know for certain if the effects would the same, but what worried him more was the fact that if he let loose here he ran the risk of killing everyone here.
As he watch his brother bleeding at the hands of this witch, he found it harder to actually strike. If the Grimm was back underwater, then only he'd live if he destroyed it, and he didn't think he could tolerate the deaths of his loved ones, especially if he cause it.
But what choice did he have? What were a dozen people compared to the millions who lives could be saved. Now that the choice was here, it was harder to make.
Then his brother shouted "Do it!"
Without thinking about it anymore, he brought the dagger down on the quill and hammer, Salem shouted and lunged at him throwing his brother aside and they were all consumed by the light.
Dr. Watts watch as his prized creation smoked and boiled in a flash of light from the Rose girl. The silver eye's, he hadn't thought that would affect his creation, but here it was, toppled by her outburst.
"This isn't possible." He muttered. Then he felt it. It was a fleeting sensation crossing his neck, like someone had blown across it. Then the warm sensation running down his front, he looked down and saw the whole front of his clothes straining red with blood…his blood.
He looked around in a fogging daze and saw Qrow standing to his right, his sword stained red. He tried to say something but that came out was a gurgling sound, and the world greyed out as he fell to the ground.
Tyrian watched as his 'partner' and his toy fell. It was time to go, he was outnumbered and outgunned.
As he made to move his feet felt cold and they wouldn't move, looking down, he saw his feet were frozen to the ground, and he looked up just in time to see a large hammer crash into his face.
"Yang!" Ruby shouted as she ran to her sister, who lay unmoving on the ground.
"Mmmmm" was all the noise she made as she started to stir.
"Are you Okay?"
"I think my collarbone is broken." She said. "Stand back for a second." She Gripped the spine as hard as she could, gritted her teeth and pull. She yelled in pain, but it didn't come out. She pulled again and this time yelled even louder, but this time pulled it free. Despite the pain she remained upright, but was panting and feeling light headed. "Did we win?" She said looking around.
"I think so…" Ruby said as she looked around. The machine was down, it was still moving but it looked like a dying animal. The Doctor was dead and the one nut case was captured and slung over Nora's shoulder, hod tied.
"What about Salem?"
"Yang you weren't out for more than a few seconds, we don't know what's going on elsewhere." She said "We heard a loud thunder crack though, so that might mean-"
Before she could finish a loud explosion came from the ceiling at the far end of the hall, blowing a massive hole in ceiling. And out from the smoke came Thor, back in his godly attire, holding his hammer again. But something was wrong, he wasn't flying in a controlled manner, he looked like he'd been blasted through the ceiling.
He managed to right himself and land on his feet yet he still slid along the ground.
"Thor!" She and Yang both yelled.
He didn't have any of the confidence they had seen on his face the last time he transformed. He looked scared.
"You all need to leave now!" He shouted.
"Why?" Ruby asked "You have your power back, you can just finish this."
"I'm not the only one who got a power-up." He said darkly.
Out of the hole came a…thing. It looked like Black Tar, but had the vague shape of a human, Eventually it formed into a giant woman who stomped down the hall making the building shake.
Thor spun his hammer and fired a massive lightning bolt at the…thing and blew it to pieces.
"Well that was-" Ruby started but the walls started to move and melt, and soon it started to run like hot wax and form into another humanoid form.
"She's become one with this Grimm, the only way to kill her is to destroy this Grimm." Thor said "But I can't do that with all of you here." He electrocuted more of the substance, temporarily rendering it unmoving. "You need to leave."
"How are we going to do that oh mighty god of thunder." Qrow said "This whole thing is going to be trying to kill us now."
As he said this, the once fluid looking walls solidified and started to frost over. Soon the whole hall was coated in ice.
"Loki." Thor said and his brother jumped down from the hole in the ceiling.
Loki walked to the center of group, raised his hand over his head and the ceiling and roof of the fortress burst into ice dust so fine it shimmered in even in the low light and the shards feel onto them like snow.
Loki just said, "Going up." And the ice they all stood on rose to through the hole he'd made and started to rise to the roof of the Grimm's Shell.
"Loki." Weiss said, but apparently couldn't think of anything else to say.
"I'm back to me, for now, Thor destroyed the relics." He said to her instead "But we didn't count on Salem gaining power from it as well, look." He point into the wasteland below, and while it had never look good, now it looked like a bubble cauldron of tar and half formed creature.
Ruby looked over the edge and barely missed a massive nevermore taking her head off. Only now it had the head an torso of a woman, like a giant harpy. If weren't for the fact it looked like they were fused together in a painful an unnatural way, she'd have thought it was a new species of Grimm.
"Brother the ceiling is coming up." Loki called as their elevator of Ice neared the top of the chamber.
A massive bolt of lightning didn't just crash through the shell, but seemed to vaporize it and Ruby could see the sky, as distant as it was.
The sheet of Ice rose up through the hole and it wasn't long before Ruby realized it was closing in around them.
"Loki!" She cried and but there was nothing to fear as ice coated the walls, much like the time they traveled down, only on a much large scale.
Much faster than she would of thought, they broke the surface and the salt air felt like the first breath she'd ever taken. The sky was so blue, and the relief she felt was something she could never put into words.
"We aren't out of the woods yet!" Qrow shouted "We need to find a Bullhead, or else were swimming back."
That didn't seem likely to Ruby, after what happen to theirs, but there might be one if they…
"There's one!" Nora shouted and Ruby just could help but think of their luck now. Then she realized it might not be that at all, it may have been literal divine intervention.
"Loki did you…" She turned to look for the sorcerer, but he and his brother, were not where to be found.
"Loki…" She whispered "Thor?"
Thor hovered in the air as he watched the pillar of ice rose up an out. Loki would see to their escape, he mentioned getting them a bullhead before they'd left Salem's chamber, and all Thor could think was this was literally a Deus Ex Machina, a machine from a god to save them.
But now that they were safe, he could see to the issue at hand. He and Loki had reached some of the power from the broken relics, but Salem had as well, and now the entire terrain and every creature was of one mind. She may of controled them before, but now they were her, with her mind, will and drive beyond the more simple animalistic instincts.
Even the sky and ground fought against him now, and his powers were already waning.
"Poor little Odinson." A voice came from behind him. Spinning in the air he saw a harpy like Grimm with Salem's body. "Once the power fades in you again, I'll consume it, then your brother, then I will have my world."
He fried the Grimm with a lightning bolt, he needed to think of something to kill this whole thing at once.
More Grimm, all bearing some resemblance to Salem started to swarm him, and he killed them all with ease, but they were endless in here.
He flew to the ground with great speed and slammed into it the force of a small atomic bomb.
But as the smoke cleared, the ground came to life and tried to ensnare him. He broke free like they were tissue paper.
But they didn't need to beat him, just delay him. His transformation only lasted a few minutes last time, and if the power had been divided equally among the three, even accounting for the power he already had, this wasn't going to last long.
Salem had alluded to a way to make the power come and go at will, but as he didn't know how to do that, it didn't do him any good. However, if she knew the secrets, then her power wouldn't go anywhere while he just got weaker.
He'd lost precious time getting the others out, had he struck with the full power at the moment of the transformation, he could of atomized the whole creature, but now his strength was fading with each passing second. He had to try doing something to remove the threat once and for all.
He looked to the "Sky", an idea struck him as the more tentacles wrapped around his legs.
Spinning his hammer, he flew straight up with enough force to tear the tentacles to shreds. He slammed into the ceiling and braced his shoulders and pressed his hands against it and started to fly straight up.
He had no idea if this was working, given it was almost a whole different world in here, but he had the strong sense that it was.
"What are you doing little god? Are you fading already?" Salem face formed out of the inside of the shell. "Trying to escape and can't quite punch through anymore, how sad, just minutes ago breaking the shell was like crushing a can to you."
He just smiled at her.
Yang clutched her shoulder as the Bullhead took of, Thor and Loki nowhere to be seen. Despite their good luck, something didn't feel right, for one why hadn't the Grimm submerged itself after the attack? That's where it had spent all its time since…well she couldn't even guess to how old it was.
But as the Bullhead pulled away for the flight back to Atlas, something became clear to her and she was sure the others. The travel time from here to Atlas was just over an hour. Even at top speed for a Bullhead, this Grimm had been six hours away when they had deployed. It was much closer to the city than before.
Once they were high enough and far enough away, she could see the wake it was making in the water. It was heading to Atlas. Whether it was doing so out of revenge or some long-term plan she couldn't guess, but Atlas had just lost a huge amount of military assets, they wouldn't be able to handle an attack from this thing, and running…. well that wouldn't be much help either, like in Mistral, there wasn't a means to evacuate that many people that quickly.
It was down to Thor now, to kill it, or at least stop it. No sooner she thought this than wild electric currents danced across the shell of the Grimm.
Without thinking, he left hand drifted to her stomach, to gently cradle it.
Winter wanted to grieve, she wanted time alone with her thoughts and feelings. But fate didn't seem to have that in place for her. No sooner than she had told her parents about her sister than an alarm went up and all military personnel were called into duty, and she answered the call.
And here she was, facing down the damn thing that had not only killed countless soldiers and hunters and cost untold billions to the military, but had taken her sister from her. This thing, which she doubted even had any real thoughts of its own, was coming to finish them off, and even as far away as it was, she could just make it out on the ocean. It even had a storm roaring over it, with thick black clouds.
It was almost like watching death itself march on the city. The Atlas military was expected to hold it off as long as they could while the citizen, aka the super-rich, could escape.
She hated the idea of the rich and powerful leaving the working classes behind, but she wanted a chance to kill some Grimm. She knew there was no chance of killing the one that took her sister from her, but she'd kill as many as she could.
She found some comfort, even if it was a bit sour, that her mother, father and brother would live. She wasn't as close to them as she had been with Weiss, and apart from her Grandfather, who was long in his grave, her sister was the only blood relative she had truly felt close with.
But her brother…he made her furious. He'd taken his own sweet time when she said she had important news, bad news about Weiss, and had barely reacted when he'd been told. She knew everyone grieved in their own way, but the little prick didn't seem to care.
Her father was stoic as ever, but his eye's hurt, and he was making a great effort not to show emotions, but it did make her feel better know he did care at least a little.
Her mother though, had gone to pieces. She was an inconsolable mess and had needed to be sedated. It was the first genuine outpour of emotions she'd seen from her in years.
She stood there, along with the remains of the Atlas military, waiting for the hell they knew that thing would bring.
Her scroll hummed in her pocket and she didn't think she could bear to talk to anyone. But she pulled it out and looked at the name. Her heart near stopped.
"Weiss." She muttered, and didn't know what to do, to ignore it or answer.
Before she could answer it, it when to voice mail.
"Winter?" It was her sister's voice, and she couldn't believe it, she was in shock. "It's your sister, I hope you're alright, I can't explain now-"
Winter picked up the call "Weiss, oh my god! I thought you were dead!"
"Winter, I'll try to explain later, but the Grimm."
"We know, we're getting ready for it, where are you?"
"On a Bullhead back, we'll be there in ten minutes, please make sure we aren't shot down."
"I'll make sure" she the paused "Weiss?".
"Yes?"
"I love you."
"I love you too." She replied. "I'll talk to you soon."
They ended the call and Winter leaned against the wall, all the strength leaving her knees. Tears running down her face, but a smile creasing it.
But she looked out to the sea and reality came crashing down, that thing was still coming. But her desire for revenge had faded like fog in the sun, now all she was thinking of was how to save her sister and the rest of her family.
As she thought on this matter, the storm over the Grimm seemed to get worse. The lighting was becoming so violent that the clouds were almost constantly filled with the bolts.
It was then she started to notice something, something she wasn't sure she believed she saw and the idea of it sent her mind reeling. The Grimm was rising out of the water, she looked at the water in the bay to see if it was being affected and sure enough it was, confirming the essential reality of the event.
She had no clue if this was good or bad, but it was certainly a sight to behold.
"Give it up godling." Her voice rang around him and pillars of the bone and stone pummeled his body and flying Grimm showered him with all manner of attacks, but he endured it all, his godly body would withstand whatever punishment they could shower him with…for now. "You think you'll what? Throw us into space? Cast us into the Sun? You time is short and you've yet to break the Stratosphere."
"At the very least a fall from this height will hurt you." He muttered. He knew that wasn't enough, that wouldn't kill her once and for all, just damage the body. His plan had been to just remove the whole thing, like cutting out a cancer, but he wasn't sure that was possible now.
He needed to think of other possibilities. But what was there? He had to think of something, his power was waning and Salem was enduring. Where was his brother when he needed that mind. But he'd entrusted him with another task and he was on his own.
It was then he realized that he'd stopped moving. He hadn't felt it as while he'd built up the speed the stopping was all too noticeable. This was as far as he was going.
"Looks like the end of the road for you." The voice seemed to ring out from every direction.
Shifting the weight onto one arm, he took Mjolnir in his hand, grabbed the leather strap and started to spin it.
"Calling a little storm? If that's how you choose to waste your final moments." The voice echoed and he was assaulted but more bone spears and blast of an energy type he'd yet to see from the Grimm.
The weight was getting greater to carry, his muscles ached and the strain was even making blood vessels pop around his scars. This was his last effort, one thing that he's never even wanted to consider, for the damage it could do to the world, but this was an all or nothing situation. He knew if he managed this, he wouldn't see any of them again, his friends, his brother…Yang.
"Oh a nice light show you have there with that hammer." She said.
He whispered to himself one final prayer.
"That has to be Thor." Ruby said as the Giant Grimm was lifted from the ocean and into the air. It was only now she grasped the size of it, and the grotesques appearance it had. It looked mutated and just looking at it unnerved her.
As it drifted up she noticed it didn't go straight up, it was floating at an angle, listing to towards the shore, in way that even if it made landfall would be outside the city. Was he going to drop it on land? Maybe at that size it wouldn't be able to support its own weight and would crush itself.
But as it went up and up, it seemed more like Thor was just going to fly the thing into space.
But then it stopped and just hovered. "What's he doing?"
They all watched from the Bullhead as the just stayed in the air, with sea water running off it in such quantities that it was like rain.
Then a flash erupted from the Grimm, so bright they had to cover their eye's, but Ruby just managed to make out what looked like a beam of energy blowing the Grimm into pieces. The head, part of the torso, two legs and an clawed remained in one piece and those piece flew towards the land, lighting arcing off it, while the rest of it was either vaporized or scattered like rubble.
Ruby was expecting a blast wave to rock the Bullhead, but it never did, that blast, whatever it was had been directed in one direction.
The remains of the Grimm crashed into a mountainside and crumpled and broke on impact, making it even less recognizable than before.
"But Thor…was he in there?" She muttered.
All she heard in the otherwise totally silent cabin was her sister muttering his name "Thor."
Thor was floating in darkness, aware of his surrounding but not caring. He'd been here before, in an endless walking dream. He never got anywhere, and he was too tired to try now.
But the light, which had once been so far away, now was close enough shine through his closed eyelid. He opened his eye and saw what it was, after all this time. It was just a normal pedestal in terms of shape, but looked like it was solid light. He reached out and touch it.
And an old, familiar, and comforting voice echoed out.
"My son." The voice Odin rang out in the void.
"Father." Thor said weakly "I was wondering when I'd hear from you." His mind wandered back to what Salem said "Was the witch telling the truth? Was the relic true in what it showed me."
"True enough my son, but even pure truth can be manipulated to achieve ends."
"So it didn't happen." He said, with hope.
"No my son Ragnorok came and you and your brother are all that is left of our people."
Thor went silent for a moment "So this wasn't a test of us then, we are just the survivors."
"And why are the two mutually exclusive?" His father's voice answered "You and your brother, more him than you, but still you both, never appreciated a mortals life, it's fragility, the shortness of it, how cruel and wonderful it can be."
"So…was I worthy?"
"You were never unworthy my son." His voice said in a tone that was far more gentle than his typical one "But if you could just wave your magic hammer and reclaim you godhood, the lesson would lose its impact."
"Then why?"
"You managed to achieve some moments of your real power, only through great personal sacrifice, and only in fleeting moments, make no mistake, you will never again reclaim you powers in this mortal like, the keys are all gone now."
"Salem."
"Was a fool of a witch who understood as much of gods as a flea does of the workings of the sun."
"So…why come to me now?"
"You are experiencing the greatest truth of mortal life, death."
"I'm dead?"
"Dying, you may yet live, but you are close."
"Father…will I see you again? Will out people return."
"There are some things even I don't know my son, but out time is short, and I sense someone else wishes to talk to you."
"Father…." Thor muttered and felt a sensation pulling on his arm, his real one, and he suddenly felt cold…and wet.
He felt like he was rocking on a boat, and all of a sudden, his eye burst open and he was hacking up water, and someone was pulling him onto…something.
"Father?"
"Not quite." He recognized his brother's voice.
"Loki." He sighed. For a while all he could see was the sky, but then looking around, he was he was on an emergency raft, his brother pulling him in. It's bright orange color seemed odd after the constant red and blacks he'd been seeing for the past few days.
He tried to help pull himself in, but he realized his artificial arm and leg were gone.
"You are heavier than you look, which is saying something." Loki huffed as they were safely in.
Loki looked at his brother and felt a sense of relief. "Here, take some." He produced a bottle and Thor drank it without question. After a few swings, he looked confused.
"Where did you get Asgardian mead?"
"I used a bit of the magic I reclaimed to make it." He said shrugging.
"Good use of it." He said taking another swig, and if it were anyone else other than Thor, Loki would thought he was being sarcastic.
"You did a number on the Grimm." He pointed to the black and white pile on Grim remains on the side of the mountain, they could see from the ocean, smoke rising from it as lighting still arced on the body.
"That was the idea." Thor said trying to sit up, wincing in pain as he did so. "So why the deception? Why did you trick us?"
"She knew we were there, she could feel the faint power in you and in my spear. Not exact locations, but we'd never of been able to sneak up on her."
"How'd you find this out?" Thor said, and Loki noticed him wince a little again.
"She tried to come to me in a dream, and get me to turn on you all. I must say I was tempted."
Thor just nodded an lay back on the rim of the inflated raft.
"We've got some work to do to get back to shore, the current will drift us back sooner or later, but I don't want to stay out here all day and half the night waiting for the tide to bring us in." He handed Thor a paddle, but he refused to take it.
"I'm not doing that Loki." He said, just staring as the sky.
"I get you just saved a Kingdom, maybe the world, but the grunt work has to be done too."
"I mean I can't." He said.
"You still more useful than most men with two arms and legs now row." He gestured with the paddle at his brother to emphasize his point, but it had no affect.
"No, you don't understand." He said smiling, and coughing a bit. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and took another swig of mead. There was a smear of red on the back of his hand.
"Thor…"
"I'm not going to make it back to shore." He said "Something…something's burst inside me." He coughed again, more blood this time. "I pushed myself to far this time for this mortal body."
"Please." Loki said "You aren't a doctor…." He realized what he'd just said, his brother was for all intents and purposes a doctor, the mind of the man he inhabited in first time as a mortal, he retained that knowledge. He'd know better than almost anyone they knew personally. "Your Aura…"
"It's gone, I burned it all."
Loki wasn't sure what else to say; the shocking reality of mortality was looking him in the face. "Well hurry up with it, then your hammer will come flying in and revive you, then we won't have to paddle all the way back-"
"I saw father." Thor cut him off. "I was told all the keys to that power are gone, this is it brother."
This wasn't right, it seemed wrong to Loki, which was saying something. For all the times they had fought, even to the near death. Maybe his brother just need the motivation to fight on till they got to help or help arrived.
"You're going to be a father you know." Loki was surprised at the tinge of guilt he felt over not keeping his promise to Yang, but Thor needed a boost.
"I suspected." He said taking another swig of mead.
"You did?"
"All the knowledge of a doctor combined with all the time we lived, I suspected yes."
"Damn it." He muttered, if he already knew, when he wasn't going to get any boost from that.
"Look after them will you?" Thor said, looking at him.
"I won't have to, you aren't dying, you're too stubborn."
"Loki, just say you will, a final request."
"Alright!" He said running his hands through his black hair "If anything ever happens to you, then I'll look after Yang and the child."
"Good." He said sighing "And one more thing."
"You are getting greedy with these last requests you know." Loki said, but listened, wanting him to keep talking.
"Try to find someone." He said "To make you happy, it's a lonely thing to not know love."
"Oh for the love of father." Loki muttered. Thor held out the mead and took and took a long knock, before handing it back to Thor.
"Weiss likes you, and you like her."
"So?" He didn't deny it, but still his brother's interest in his personal life was starting to irritate him.
"If you give it a go with her, don't' hurt her, or try not to."
"You know, you are getting pretty demanding, are you sure your dying? Or are you just trying to get me to talk about our feelings."
Thor just shrugged and took another swig. "I'm sorry." He finally said.
"For what?"
"For making you feel inferior, for hurting you in the ways I did." Thor muttered, his voice sounding weak.
"And I'm sorry, you know, for the usurpation, the invasion, the backstabbing." Loki said.
"So are we all reconciled now?" Thor said smiling offering him the bottle.
"As close as will ever get." Loki said took it, took another swig and handed it back. "We have to get to it if we want to get to land." Loki said as he started to paddle.
"Loki…" Thor said, weaker than before but Loki ignored him.
"Thor we'll be fine we just…" His voice trailed off as he heard the telltale sound of an engine. He scanned the sky and saw a Bullhead patrolling the sky's. "Ha, I told you we'd be fine." Loki said triumphantly, and pulled out a flare from the raft survival kit and ignited it and started waving it to get the attention of the pilot.
"Yang…" Thor muttered.
"It porably is her, and all rest of those misfits." Loki said "They would be the closest in the Bullhead I got for them." The Bullhead started heading towards them and one he was sure they were heading towards them and could clearly see the orange raft, he tossed the flare into the ocean. "Looks like you were being overly dramatic brother." He said smiling. Thor didn't respond. "Thor?" He started to turn and wondered if he fallen asleep with his exhaustion and the alcohol consumption.
His heart stopped. Thor was propped up against the edge of the raft, still clutching the mead. But his eye was blank and his skin was pale.
"Brother!" he knelt down and started to shake him, and feel for a pulse…nothing. "Thor!" he shouted, but his brother's one just stared out at nothing.
"I see them!" Ruby shouted, although she didn't need to. Yang had seen the flare, and even from this distance, the bright red cloak, the one Ruby gave Thor, stuck out on the steel grey ocean. The orange life raft also helped them be spotted.
"We'll have to get them out quick" Qrow call over the radio "Thor might have done a number on that thing, the reports are coming that Grimm are still spawning from it, pretty nasty ones too."
"Is Atlas sending anything to deal with them?" Weiss asked.
"Doesn't look like it, seems like the higher-ups want to play it defensively now."
Yang didn't care much, anything that survived was going to be hurt and this was a much more manageable conflict. They hadn't won yet, but it seemed like the final stages, and they were all alive. This was the best possible outcome they could of hoped for.
She gently brushed her stomach and thought about what she was about to tell Thor. Loki knew, but he'd kept quiet. She smiled thinking of his response, and the other's. Blake's might be a bit uncomfortable, but that would pass.
As they got closer, Loki threw the flare he was waving and turned to his brother. Thor looked rough even from here, his black prosthetic were gone and she could make out blood stains as they got closer.
But something was wrong, as they got closer Loki's actions were…jarring he looked like he was shaking Thor and her heart started to pump quicker. Was he seriously hurt?
Then Loki did something just as they got close enough to open the doors to let them in. He took off her own jacket and lay it over his brother. Not like how you'd do it to keep someone warm, but to cover up…
"Qrow! Hurry up!" She shouted.
Ruby was yelling as well, and Nora and even Jaune had joined in. Qrow, pulled the bullhead up and spun it around allowing them to open the cargo door to let them get to them.
"No." Was all she said as she ran down the ramp to the raft, while other's tried to keep this as normal as possible, Sun and Blake attaching the raft to cable to pull it up, but Yang didn't bother waiting for it to be fully loaded. She jumped onto it and pulled Loki's coat off him.
Loki just sat on the edge of the raft, looking at his feet, not bothering to say anything.
He was so pale when she got a look at him, white. His skin was cold to the touch, and she put her head to his chest to listen for his heart. Nothing.
"I'm sorry." Loki said, not looking at anyone. "He knew, he told me."
"No." she whimpered, tearing welling up in her eyes, she hadn't felt like this since…Summer. "No." she said again, she voice cracking even more, even as Qrow lifted off and the cargo bay door closed. She started to look around "Where's his hammer?"
"Yang." Loki said to her, his face miserable.
"It can make him better, it did it before, where is it? I saw he had it in there, we've got to get it for him."
"Yang…it'll do no good." Loki said solemnly.
"YOU DON'T KNOW THAT!" She shouted at the top of her voice, eye's flaring red as she grabbed Loki by his shirt and slammed him into the wall of Bullhead.
"Yang!" Ruby shouted and she turned to see her little sister, silver eyes full of tears, sorrow now mixed with fear.
"Ruby." She whimpered and let go of Loki and walked over to her sister and hugged her, both now sobbing. The others came in putting hands on their shoulders, and eventually joining in the embrace. "This can't be real." Yang muttered into her sister's hair.
The only one on the outside was Loki and Qrow, and while Qrow piloted the Bullhead, Loki wondered back to this brother's body's.
Yang could hear him muttered two words.
"Goodbye, brother."