The screen began to bubble and boil as the familiar silver door rose from it's depths, the thick purple chains corroding and breaking apart as the door opened up and bathed everything in dark purple.
From the tainted light, came a single red eye that glared at the screen before the door slammed shut and everything became static, a crumbling rose symbol appearing every so often as the title began to form.
The Ruinverse: Chapter Twenty Seven, The Last Belladonna.
Xxxxxxx
-Remnant, Sanus, Deep beneath the Valeian Coastline-
Darkness, complete darkness of the abyss.
This was the reality of the darkness trenches, a home of intense pressure, little sunlight and sparse microbial life.
Empty blackness filled the screen as bioluminescent animals swam in the far distance, akin to stars to the untrained eye. But as the camera began to pan backwards, a strange crystalined door began to float upwards towards the surface.
(Later)
-Unknown Coastline-
SPLASH!
SPLASH!
Water rose and fell across the shoreline, dull and tainted with obsidian fragments, as the doorway, now revealed to be covered in green crystals and the occasional metallic tube, jutted from the water like a ship's mast, the occasional bleached coral fragment hanging from its triangular top.
The sea water splashed across it, not a single sign of life anywhere nearby to notice it's magnificence. Not even a seagull to take roost upon the ancient gateway.
SPLASH!
SPLASH!
Thick dark clouds rolled by on the western wind, signaling a storm, as the door seemly broke apart from the increasing gale-like winds.
Crack.
But then, in a sudden flash of green energy, a small tear began to open from within the door, seemly revealing a blackened void within it.
SPLASH!
With numerous cracks beginning to spread around it, making it look extremely fragile.
SLASH!
SPLASH!
Creek.
As the cracks formed along the sides of the door, a figure landed face first upon the sand before the door exploded into fragments, destroying the crystal and the tear in the process.
"Ah...sand?" groaned the figure while getting up, revealing themselves as a tall fair skinned young woman with long wavy black hair that went to her back, amber eyes with purple cateye eyeshadow, two black cat ears, a D cup chest and wide ass, wearing a black buttoned vest with coattails, a single black detached sleeve over her left arm with a silver cuff around the bicep, a single silver button on the front, black ribbons on each forearm, a small loose black scarf is wrapped around her neck, a white sleeveless high necked crop undershirt, white shorts with a zipper on the front of each leg, a gray magnetic backpack on her back with a signature black blade like weapon on the side, blackish purple full stockings with a white flower shaped emblem on the hips, black low-heeled boots, and had a large black bow tied ribbon on the top of her head, in the process. "Why is there sand here?"
This was Blake Belladonna, student, activist, faunus, Huntress.
And right now, she was in a daze, seemingly confused and unable to recall anything else.
"Ugh...my head...everything feels like it's spinning." She groaned while rubbing her head. "Just..what happened?" 'Did Yang succeed in giving me alcohol? No, she wouldn't do that.'
However, when her eyes adjusted to the world around her, she noticed it was not only barren, but devoid of most plant life, a few ferns and lichens growing from the nearby rocks.
"What the...where am I?" She muttered in confusion, sniffing the air a little as her ears tried to locate familiar sounds.
But to her disbelief, the air around her was...too clean for her, not full of the toxic Dust emissions or the exhaust from airships, it was...pure untampered air.
'What the? Why is the air so clean? And where are the birds?' she thought while feeling on edge, the hairs on her ears puffing up slightly in the process. "Am I on some deserted island in the middle of the sea?"
As she looked around, she noticed her Scroll and activated it.
BZZZZZ.
Only to get no signal, or anything for that matter as it seemed to be suffering from interference for some reason.
"Well, that's not going to help." she muttered in disappointment.
"Grrrrr."
Blake spun her head to the left as she saw a pack of Beowolves walking by her, seemly looking for prey around the shoreline.
But, for some strange reason, they ignored her entirely.
She stared at them in worry and confusion, expecting them to turn and lunge.
But none of the Grimm even turned to face her as they moved down the shoreline, the waves splashing against their paws.
"...what the?" Blake muttered to herself.
RUMBLE!
BOOOM!
And cue a loud boom of thunder in the sky as the clouds became black as pitch.
Blake, sensing the change in weather, began to move away from the shoreline, towards the nearby hills, hoping to locate a suitable shelter from the rain.
(Later)
BOOOM!
Lightning struck the ground as Blake, now hiding within the cold earthen hole of a cave, watched the rain fall upon the land, feeling relieved she wasn't going to get soaked.
However, she felt...confused. For wasn't she...supposed to be in Vytal? No, Vale? She had to be somewhere...yet her memory was blank.
"I'm officially lost. I have no idea where I am, the Grimm aren't acting like Grimm, and I can't get a signal." She muttered out loud as she continually tried and failed to get her Scroll to work. "This is strange and yet I don't even know what happened to me. I know I was somewhere, but...what was it again? I know I'm part of Team RWBY and we had something important...gah! Why am I having blanks!?"
ZAP!
BOOOOM!
"And why's it storming like this? This isn't normal weather, it feels...off." She muttered while feeling her nerves getting worse with every passing second, only to notice something was off about the cave she was in.
It wasn't made of stone...it looked faintly metallic.
She raised an eyebrow before rubbing away a bit of dirt with her hand, only to see the words 'KA Cordovin' painted upon the white metal frame. "KA. Wait, Kingdom of Atlas? This is an Atlasian airship?"
BOOOM!
"But how? This isn't Solitas, right?" she said in disbelief before noticing the decaying rust and cocked her head to the side. "Just how old is this ship?"
As she examined the metallic metal, she felt a chill run down her spine, for perhaps she was on an Atlesian weapons testing ground, or worse, perhaps this was the wreck from a war, possibly current.
"But that doesn't explain the weather, at all." she said to herself while her stomach growled. "Great, now I'm feeling hungry."
As she looked around, she noticed that the inside of the 'cave' was covered in snakes, from snakes slithering across the ground to snake eggs hidden within the walls, making her pale in fright.
'Ok! Snakes are NOT ok!' she thought with dread while her stomach growled, making her slowly reconsider fearing them and instead helping her hunger. 'I don't wanna even consider it, but...desperate times.'
"Hissss." one of the snakes hissed while Blake pulled out one of her weapons, Gambol Shroud, and licked her lips.
Swish!
(Some hours later)
Blake, currently full from the ten snakes she ate, looked out of the cave entrance and saw the rain dissipating, leaving only a dark dreary gray morning, the sun hidden from view by the clouds above. "Disgusting." 'Never eating snake meat, ever again.'
But as she looked upon the wet fern covered ground, she noticed a vehicle jutting from the ground, exposed from it's muddy tomb by the storm last night.
'If I can get it out and jump start it, maybe I can get off this island? Or possibly find civilization.' she thought before moving towards the vehicle and began to pull it out of the mud, revealing an HVB Rhino HDS800, a dirt covered and badly worn down flying motorcycle, in the process. "Eh? How did one get here?" 'Aren't they Mantle crafted vehicles?'
As she looked upon the vehicle, she noticed that besides the rusted steering mechanism and an empty tank of Combustion Dust, it looked relatively fine…as if this was supposed to be a brand new model.
"This thing looks like it hasn't even gotten scuffed up." Blake muttered while getting an idea. "Mmmm, perhaps I can use this to travel off this...island? I think it's an island...anyway, I just need some Combustion Dust."
As she looked at her backpack, she noticed something off.
Her normally ready supply of Dust had diminished significantly as she only had five Fire Dust, two Electric Dust, three Ice Dust, a single Gravity Dust shard, ten Combustion Dust and a single Water Dust shard left in her backpack.
"Damn it, I'm low. Better learn to make it last." She muttered before taking the Combustion Dust and inserted it into the tank, allowing her to fiddle with the controls in the process. "Come on."
Zeeeeee. Zeeeeee. Zeeee.
"Come on, work."
Zeeee-BOOM!
ZOOOOOM!
"Yes!" She smirked while jumping onto the seat, revving up the engine as it floated upwards. "Time to find another town, maybe a city."
WOOOSH!
And just like that, the faunus left the area, hoping to find an answer to her foggy memory.
(Five years later)
-Somewhere near Anima-
Rumble.
Rumble.
ZAP!
BOOOOM!
Rain fell across the semi mountainous land, barely covered in flora except for a small speck of lichen, as thunder rang out across the sky.
ZOOOOM!
In the distance, a flying motorcycle moved across the land, seemly on its last legs due to its exterior being covered in mud, rust and sand.
And upon the motorcycle was Blake Belladonna, her clothes semi tattered from countless environmental wear and tear...yet her body, sans for the longer hip length hair...was still the same as five years ago, youthful and beautiful.
But at this moment, her mind was in tatters, for in her desperate search for companionship, she found nothing but Grimm, small animals and the ruins of long dead civilization.
For her...she was alone and being alone can sometimes lead to insanity, yet for her, she was near the brink of the abyss.
Everywhere she went she found no one, not a single human or faunus. It was madness to think that two sentient species disappeared from the face of Remnant.
But this was the case, and now, she was heading towards a strange hurricane-like tornado in the distance, seemly driving the storm, knowing that in the direction of the storm's eye was Mistral, the last Kingdom still standing in this ruined world.
And if there were people thriving behind the wall of wind, then she will be damned if she will stop. She will find companionship, even if it's brief, and she will not stop until that happens.
ZOOOM!
ZOOOM!
'Just think about what Yang will do in times like this.' she thought, her eyes wide and semi crazed, as she turned the acceleration on maximum. 'She wouldn't stop, she'd just keep on going.'
ZOOOOOOOOM!
KABOOM!
The motorcycle flew closer and closer to the storm, the winds becoming more chaotic with each passing second as Blake continued onwards as her breathing became heavy from anticipation.
'I need to find someone, ANYONE!' she thought with an eye twitch. 'I can't be the last person, I can't!'
ZOOOOM ZOOOOOOOOOM!
The motorcycle's engine began to combust, the rain dripping down the sides as the ruins of a rusted city jutted out from the nearby mountains, a deep lagoon forming near the path of the storm's eye.
ZAP!
BOOOOM!
"I need to see another person!" She yelled before seeing the massive wall of wind getting closer to her. "I NEED COMPANIONSHIP!"
ZOOOOOOM!
As the wall of wind moved closer to the motorcycle-
BOOM!
The engine started to ignite, causing Blake to panic as she jumped off the vehicle and-
KABOOOOOOOM!
Into the storm itself.
"AHHHH!" Blake screamed as her body started to be torn to pieces from the windstorm, all before everything went black.
(Later)
"...ugh..." the faunus groaned while slowly coming too, her eyes fixating on her surroundings.
Which in this case, as a calm sandy beach near the edge of a calm ocean, walls of wind circling the entire ten mile coastline like a fence.
But as she tried to move her body...she noticed a horrible realization.
She was decapitated and her body was currently walking around her, seemingly searching for its head as a strange orange energy formed from the gaping neck and slowly healing cuts on her tattered clothes. "Ah...ah...ah..."
As her eyes began to dilate in fear, her headless body found the head and picked it up, placing it on her head in the process.
"Ah...ah...AHHHHHHH!" she screamed as the bloodied cut near her neck began to heal via the strange orange energy.
Her sanity came undone as she held her head as her mind went all over the place. Why did she survive decapitation, why did she even survive that...and WHY did she have glowing orange energy!?
Yes, she was able to survive for five years due to her training and skills...but she didn't have regenerative powers, her semblance wasn't that strong...so how!? HOW DID THIS HAPPEN!?
"Keep it down." said a feminine voice, seemly tired and annoyed at the screaming. "You're scaring the birds."
Blake's eyes widened, her clarity returning to her as she quickly turned in the direction of the voice.
And lo, on a rock overlooking the sea, was a tall marble skinned woman with extremely long bleached pale white hair that went down past her legs and around her like a humanoid jellyfish, jet black sclera eyes with dull crimson irises, pale purple veins on her face and arms, a black diamond-shaped marking on her forehead, a G cup chest and wide ass, long jet-black nails, wearing a tattered sleeveless black robe that cut off abruptly near the upper thigh, a dark red trim near a torn off collar that exposed her top, a vertical ellipsis-like eye near the underbust, and had a short shawl with a torn maroon colored eye sigil dangling near her left hip, who seemed to be giving the faunus a half serious expression.
Her eyes widened and jaw dropped.
She found someone. SHE FOUND SOMEONE! ANOTHER PERSON!
The mysterious woman sighed, her tone filled with melancholy. "I see, so the faunus race has not perished. But who exactly are you?"
"Oh, I'm Blake Belladonna. Member of Team RWBY."
"Ah, the Silver Eyes' team of misfits." she said while Blake's eyes widened at the fact this woman knew her for some reason. "That explains everything."
"What do you mean?"
"Have you not realized it by now?"
"Realized what?"
"That the world ended already."
"No! No no no, you've got it all wrong! I mean, the fact the two of us survived means there must be others, there has to be."
The woman raised an eyebrow at her. "There haven't been any intelligent life forms in millions of years."
Blake's eyes widened in horror, shocked at the woman's words. "W...What?"
"As I said, there hasn't been a single form of intelligent life in millions of years." she said while seemingly unaffected by the faunus' shocked expression. "Not since the moon obliterated everything."
"What are-"
"Mmmm, you look tired. Come." she interrupted while patting her rock with her left hand. "Take a seat."
Blake stared at the woman silently, her feet bringing her over to the spot without thinking.
The woman looked upon the faunus' face, rubbed her ears a little and then sighed. "To feel a faunus' ears, a rarity."
"Please...tell me what you mean by 'moon obliterating everything'."
"...very well. But first a tale." she said while looking upon the wall of wind. "In ages past, I was called Salem, a sorceress from the first age of man that was cursed with immortality for the crime of disrupting the cycle of life. For untold centuries, I would try to defeat the gods and their proxy...my husband Ozma. But that dream is gone now, I don't care anymore."
"What-"
"My dream of destoying humanity for the sake of suicide is no more." she said while Blake's eyes widened in horror. "And now I live in a nightmare of my own making, one similar to another extinction level event I had an unknowing hand in creating."
"You...You're lying!" Blake yelled while moving back. "You're lying!"
"I have not the motivation or need to lie." Salem said calmly. "This world is dying, just like in days of old."
"You are lying!"
She sighed. "When the gods obliterated humanity, I was the one to seed the world with life. All my efforts and magical prowess helped spawn a new humanity and in turn, your species."
Blake's heart skipped a beat upon hearing this revelation as Salem ignored her shocked expression once more.
"But in my anger towards Ozma, I saw my creation as second best, flawed worthless beings that will never become as great as my own 'version' of mankind. Thus, I went to end your species and myself, instigated wars, ignited racial intolerance, the destruction of towns and cities, all of it in a foolish attempt to end my own life." she said while expelling a heavy sigh of contempt. "But now, I have neither the strength or the will power to remake a third humanity. You're lucky Blake Belladonna, you're going to see my storms slowly wash away all life."
"Wait, YOU made the storms!?"
"Yes, semi sporadic storms that will destroy the rock bed, poison the waters and prevent life from evolving past single cells, or whatever they were called." she muttered the last part to herself. "I'm just done with existence. Done with never being able to defeat the gods that made my life a living hell. I'm sick of the war between spouses. I'm sick of everything."
"..."
"And I'm sick of your amnesia." she said with a frown. "In the five long years since you came into this world of ruin, you haven't even scratched the surface of your own broken mind. And here I thought you were the intelligent one."
"What are you talking about!?" she yelled in anger, pulling her weapons out in pure agitation.
"You completely forgot." Salem said in an unamused tone. "How quaint, did you really forget everything leading up to the end of days?"
"Stop speaking in riddles and tell me what's going on!"
"Simple, the moon, shattered by the gods ages ago, crashed into the Sanus, as you called it, continent." she said while rubbing her chin, pondering something. "But where exactly? No, that didn't exist yet. Memories, such a hard thing to recall, am I right?"
"Where-"
"Oh yes, now I recall. It crashed right on top of the Vale/Vytal causeway." she said as the word 'Vytal' echoed in Blake's mind. "Right during the Vytal Festival too. Mmmm, ah, it was during a match, a doubles...Team RWBY and, oh darn. I forgot the other team, it had a cat but I can't recall who else."
'Team RWBY..." Blake thought before something clicked in her mind.
Team Matches. Team FNKY vs Team RWBY.
And like the broken floodgates of an ancient dam, memories entered her scared mind. All telling the same thing.
The moon crashed into Vytal, civilization was in panic and Ozpin had a contingency plan.
"Ah!"
"Mmm? I see, the memories are flying back into your head, charming." she yawned as Blake dropped her weapons and clenched her head in pain. "Now think back, back to when Ozma told your group about the end of days. What did he try to do?"
"Ah...Ozpin...he had a vault. Got me, my team, Team JNPR...ugh!" she groaned as the memories started to bright forth unwanted feelings of loss and regret. "Cinder...she...oh gods..."
Salem looked on while placing her left hand on her cheek and placed the elbow on her knee with unfazed apathy. "Yes, you now recall the day everything changed."
Blake looked at Salem with tears in her eyes, as she remembered everything.
She was supposed to enter a vault, a place where humanity and faunus kind would stay until the world was healed, but...lost everything when Cinder Fall, mad and broken from fear, killed everyone...even her partner Yang. She was...pushed into the vault, just as...
"Gods...I saw the impact...I saw...oh gods..." she whimpered, falling to her knees in despair. "Oh gods..."
Salem smirked, half heartedly, as she watched the faunus remember everything. "Yes, you are only here because your blonde friend pushed you into the Vault of Choice. You survived the day of destruction, only to forget all of it because of the trauma of losing a loved one."
"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Blake screamed in anguish as she recalled the moment of Yang's death, traumatizing her greatly.
"Hush now." Salem said while Blake turned to her, her screams dying down but replaced with anger. "You have all the time in the world to cry."
"YOU! YOU DID THIS!"
"I admit I had a part in it, sending an unstable brat and all, but I never killed your partner, an unexpected environmental disaster caused it." she said before getting tackled off the rock and onto the sand, making her stare at the faunus with boredom. "Attacking me will not bring her back, nor will killing me. I am immortal, and judging by your previous screaming from your lack of a head, you are also immortal."
Blake roared and tried strangling her with both hands, squeezing tightly in the process as Salem just didn't move or attempt to struggle.
But as Blake tried to strangle the woman, she noticed that the immortal's face was unchanging...almost apathetic, which made her loosen her grip a little.
"Even you don't have the stomach to kill me." she said while pushing Blake off her and sat back on the rock. "Because you need someone to talk to. I know, I suffered the same fate millennia ago, and even now, I ponder the question, did seeing humanity's extinction lead me down my dark path or did it start with Ozma?"
Blake gripped her left hand tightly as she felt her mind cracking from guilt and isolation.
"Blake Belladonna." Salem said while giving her a sad smile. "I know you want to change the world, repair it and let life continue. But that is a curse, not a blessing. All life that you create will be less than nothing in your eyes soon enough."
"...tell me."
"Mmm?"
"What did you mean by immortal? How am I immortal?"
"You were bathed in the vault's energies, it kept you safe from time's hungry grasp for so long that you are now a lesser version of me. But regardless of that fact, you have three options." she said while looking out towards the sea. "You can try and kill me and possibly start an unwinnable war for dominance. You could walk away, never finding this place again and becoming a shadow of your former sane self. Or you could stay here and watch the world fade into nothing."
"So this is it? I...I won't die?" Blake said while looking at her hands. "I will...never see them again?"
"No, and I won't see Ozma either. Without a host he's stuck in the afterlife, meaning I don't have to hear his voice ever again." she muttered, seemly filled with a hint of sadness in her tone, as she turned back to Blake. "None of us will find a happy ending, however we can still make that ending painless. What I'm doing to the planet is to spare the next sentient species the harshness of this world."
"Still...it's wrong."
"Not really. Tell me, you saw the Grimm, the animals and plants, how many are there left?"
"..."
"That's right, not many left. I willed the Grimm to die slowly, there isn't a point left to sustain both life and death on a biological level." she said while Blake slowly began to understand her words a little bit. "All this planet has ever known is pain and misery, I wanted to destroy it in a blaze of glory but...a merciful end would be suffice for this dead world. Blake Belladonna, last of the faunus, what will you choose? War, insanity or a front row seat to the end of Remnant?"
"I...I...don't know..." Blake muttered while feeling like hope could be salvaged from this ruined world. "I...I mean the next civilization could learn?"
"And learn they will, to hate, fear and loathe anything different." Salem said coldly while pointing at Blake's ears. "They will hate any humanoid species just like humanity hates the faunus. Wars will be made, children killed for their deformities, entire cultures destroyed for the sake of progress. Tell me Blake Belladonna, if you allowed another species to thrive and then appeared to them with your ears unbound, would they see you as a deity or a monster?"
"..." she placed her left hand on her left ear, seemily recalling the hate and distrust of humanity upon her species. "...they could change."
"They will not. I have seen it all too well, both ancient and modern. Any species with the intelligence to perceive the world as anything more than a simple biosphere has the drive to dominate, to kill and hurt anyone that comes into contact with them. Leave the notions of repopulating humanity on this planet behind, this world has no need for repeat mistakes, all it needs now is a quiet death."
"..." 'Is she right? Is...sapience a mistake?'
As the faunus looked at her hands, she felt her body tremble, her mind thinking of all the terrible things humanity and the faunus have ever done in their existence, the actions of killers, the harshness of wars, the breakdown of civilization during the imminent collision of Remnant's moon.
All of it brought out the worst of intelligent life, and...she agreed with the immortal.
Sapience is a crime against nature...hope is a facade.
All that is needed...is...quiet.
"..."
"What will it be, Blake Belladonna?"
"..." Blake looked at her feet before walking towards the rock, sitting next to the immortal as she felt the last of her hopes fade away like shadows. "...will it hurt?"
"What would hurt?"
"I mean...will waiting for the end hurt?" she asked as the sun began to set in the west, the wall of wind preventing anything but a faint red glow to penetrate the twilight of this desolate coastline.
"Only if you think about it." Salem said while looking at the setting sun, Blake's head resting against her left shoulder. "But don't worry, eternity will be awaiting us all."
And like that, the light of hope faded like the setting sun, the being known as Blake Belladonna forever lost and in its place.
The dark embrace of oblivion.
The Last Belladonna...silent and forever alone.
Xxxxxxx
Name/Designation Title: Blake Belladonna/The Last Belladonna (The Last Belladonna Blake Belladonna- TLBBBRWBY)
Age: 3,000,000 (Physically and mentally 17)
Affiliation: Normal Evil (Loosely)
Dimension: - 102- 00 TLBBBRWBY
Abilities: Enhanced speed, agility, reflexes, jumping power and endurance, White Fang training, night vision, blade, gun and kusarigama handling, VBCS training and handling, espionage skills, Huntress skills and knowledge, Dust knowledge and handling, limited immortality (via Relic of Choice residue), eternal youth (via Relic of Choice residue), regeneration (via Relic of Choice residue).
Semblance(s): Shadow.
Bio: In this timeline, during the Vytal Festival match between Team FNKY and RWBY, the orbit of Remnant's only natural satellite started to stagnate, caused by the intense damage it received a million years ago by the God of Darkness, thus allowing the core to stop spinning and slowly move towards the planet. As it got closer to the planet, the entire world went into a panic, trying to save themselves as Kingdoms fell apart, civilization began to break down and intense natural disasters rocked the surface of Remnant itself. Ozpin, realizing that this was the end of the world, decided to repopulate the world by taking a select few members of his inner circle along with Ruby Rose and Pyrrha Nikos, and in proxy their teams, down into the Vault of Choice to escape the imminent collision. As the moon moved closer to the planet, Ozpin's assembled 'next civilization' move deeper into the bowels of Beacon towards the Vault of Choice, only for Cinder Fall, having lost what little sanity she had at the notion of her plans becoming undone by an unexpected planetary collision, to attack and kill many of the survivors, leaving Blake and Yang to flee from her madness. Upon reaching the vault's gate, Yang, knowing that Cinder will kill them both if they fight her and wanting to protect her partner, pushes the faunus into the vault just as the moon collided with the Sanus continent, obliterating all life on the planet as the entire Kingdom was submerged underwater. For hundreds of years, the gate would remain at the bottom of the sea, the world slowly repopulating with plants, small animals, insects and the now nearly extinct Creatures of Grimm as Blake was held in suspended animation by the vault's unique properties, gaining immortality and eternal youth as a side effect. Blake would later be freed from her prison when it's magical energy, exposed for the first time in millions of years to the surface once washed ashore, began to be depleted and was destroyed in the process, but for the last faunus, her memory was hazy from her imprisonment. For the next five years, Blake traveled the planet searching for signs of intelligent life, slowly losing her sanity from the long periods of isolation, as she finally stumbled upon Salem, who survived the collision due to her immortality and has been keeping life from repopulating by creating magically charged semi sporadic storms around the planet. When confronted, the immortal explains her origins and mentions that when the first age of man ended, she was the one that cultivated life and watched it grow before Ozma's return, and now that the second age of man has ceased, she found that she didn't have the strength or willpower to allow life to continue onwards, as she lost her chance to kill herself and end her own suffering. When pressed further by Blake, Salem tells the semi-sane faunus that both of them are the last intelligent life on Remnant and that it's better for this broken world to perish slowly than watch life grow and cause a war between her and her now gone ex-lover, offering her a spot next to her when the world becomes a gray ball of death once more. Blake, having regained her memories during her talk with Salem and still grieving over the loss of her loved ones, decided to stay by Salem's side to avoid the hardships of loneliness. All she can do now, is run from obligation and weather the storm that is time...for that is her nature, as the Last Belladonna.