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 Nine, The Battle of the Beasts.
Xxxxxxx
-Remnant, Edge of the Grimmlands-
Bubbling pools of darkness dotted the edge of an accused realm, where grass holds no sway and all animal life instinctively avoids the land, the bleached bones of various animals scattered across the ground like a trail of salt.
All the while a cold wind blew across the obsidian rocks, signaling the end of another Remnant day and the beginning of a moonlight night.
"Grrrrr." growled a lone Beowolf as it patrolled the border of its land, searching for anything that dared step over the line of bones.
SHING!
Instantly, the Beowolf's head fell to the ground before dissipating into dust, a lone figure moving towards the ring of bones as the screen suddenly turned black.
(Elsewhere)
-Evernight Castle, Throne Room-
Looking upon the empty room, sat upon a throne of purple Dust crystals, the immortal lady of the Grimm, Salem, placed a fist on her cheek and expelled a sigh of discontent.
Her discontent? She was without allies, for in the last twenty years since the Fall of Vale, another war took place and all her allies, be it human or faunus, were caught in the tide of blood and death, unable to escape the seemingly destructive Second Great War, a moniker that masks it's true goal.
The complete destruction of all faunus/humans on the planet.
'Such a pity.' she thought to herself with bored eyes. 'A Great War against the species of this ruined world, and I have no one to help instigate the war even further. No, I have no one to help regain the Relics from their now fortified cities.'
As she tapped the left end of the throne with her fingers, the immortal contemplating locating a new ally, but then squashed it instantly as the entire planet was at war, so violent in nature that the Grimm were wary of even slaughtering the combatants, in 'fear' of being massacred by the larger forces, with their new weapons and recruited Huntsmen, all 'bred' for the slaughtering of others.
For her, acquiring the Relics was impossible and locating the Maidens is even harder. Thus, she was in a stalemate, caught between waiting out the storm or bringing the fight to them.
"...perhaps I need a new strategy?" she muttered to herself before seeing a Seer floating towards her and grumbled. "What is it?"
The Grimm's orb-like head glowed red and revealed the location of the southern borders of her 'kingdom', a lone figure moving towards Evernight Castle and seemingly avoiding the local Grimm by way of beheading them from behind while hiding in the shadows to obscure their face.
"I see, an intruder? But who would be so bold as to come to me?" she muttered to herself, while contemplating letting the Grimm devour the figure.
But something clicked in her head, why would any mortal, especially a lone one, enter this land without backup? Isn't there a global war being raged? And even if this was a member of the faunus or human sides…who even knows of her existence?
'This one is either foolish or brave.' she muttered while feeling a form of irony butting its head into her mind. 'Mmm…kinda like me when I faced the detestable god of all Grimm.'
As she smirked at the notion of a visitor, she waved her left hand and signaled several Nevermores and a rather large Ursa to appear before her.
"Bring the visitor to me, do not kill them." Salem said calmly as the Grimm flew or ran out of the throne room, making her straighten her posture and grin. "This might be interesting, I do need some company…although who exactly is this lone intruder?" 'Ozma? Nah, he's too busy trying to stop the war between the species to do anything worthwhile.'
(Some hours later)
"..." the immortal narrowed her eyes while tapping her nails on the throne at rapid intervals, feeling her patience fading away with every passing second. "What is taking so long!?"
As she cursed to herself at the lack of intelligence of the Grimm, she didn't notice that a pair of eyes were watching her from a nearby pillar, or that it was moving closer to her until the clacking of heels was heard a few feet near the throne.
Clack.
Clack.
Salem quickly turned to the left, saw the pair of eyes, and frowned. "I see, so you came here, without the escort."
"Escort? You mean the beasts?" said a cold tone, one filled with malice and hate. "I thought they were the strike force."
"They weren't, now come closer, I will not bite."
"Like how you 'bite' Vale into submission?"
The immortal's eyes raised at that before waving her left hand, beckoning the mysterious figure closer. "I will not attempt that. I only want to know why you came to this place of death."
Silence.
Salem raised an eyebrow that the figure, who moved towards the center of the room, illuminated by the simmering stained glass window above the throne, and for a moment…she had a moment of complete confusion at this individual's very presence.
For the figure was that of a tall fair skinned young woman with long wavy black hair that went down to her hips and dyed blood red near the tips, amber eyes with dark purple triangle shaped eyeshadow near the sides, two black cat ears with four long cylinder-like gold earrings hanging from tips, a small white mask that covered the lower jaw and was decorated with black painted fangs, a F cup chest and large ass, wearing a deep blue long sleeved kimono with spiral purple lines going from the helm to the lower hips, a thick black spiral helm near the sleeves that covered her arms completely and trailed downwards to her knees, thin white rectangular shoulder guards that had deep blue tassels near the ends, thick white diamond shaped plates on the lower armpits, stomach, spine, hips, knees, and neck areas, a slim black obi that was tried in the back into a double bow which dragged downwards to the legs, thick copper bands on the ends of the obi, deep blue hakama sporting a black flower emblem on the thighs that went down to her knees, knee high black geta styled boots with three wedges near the bottom of each foot, who seemed to expel an aura of madness similar to her fallen assassin Tyrian but more restrained.
"A faunus, how interesting. But who are you?" the immortal asked, sensing something off about the woman but couldn't put her finger on it. "What 'Kingdom' are you from?"
"Menagerie." the woman said as Salem blinked in surprise.
"But that isn't a Kingdom, but a barren wasteland."
"I know." she said with a low growl. "I was born there, before Atlas bombed Menagerie with Hard Light Dust, turning it into a wasteland of glass and metal."
"I…see. But who are you exactly? Why have you come here?"
The faunus chuckled darkly while moving her left sleeve towards her mask.
SQUISH!
Letting out a sickening squishing sound that caused the immortal to flinch at, just in time to see what lies behind the mask.
Which was an exposed lower jaw bone with dull pink burn marks near the gums, the teeth, blackened slightly by soot, were exposed due to a lack of lips, and covered in an adhesive tar-like substance near the bones that seemingly held the mask in place.
"Revenge." the woman said, her tongue visibly seen from the sides of her jaw, as the immortal looked a little green in the face. "Against Adam Taurus, the one that did THIS to me!"
'Ok…that's kinda disgusting. Not even Cinder's injuries were this extreme…well maybe the arm and eye but I don't recall her having exposed bones or flash dancing off her scalp, gah! Stop thinking of that, focus on the woman's eyes, NOT her jaw…gah! Did it again!' Salem thought while unable to remove her gaze from the lower jaw, something the faunus noticed and deadpanned in the process.
"Yes, my jaw is hideous, can we move past that? I mean, I've had worse injuries than my jaw." she frowned before putting the mask back on, snapping Salem out of her 'trance'.
"R-Right, so…who are you exactly and-wait, worst injuries?" 'She has something worse than an exposed jaw!?'
The faunus deadpanned, her expression filled with annoyance more than anything, as if she heard that line before. "Really? You want to know how hideous I am?"
"I never insinuated that you were ugly."
"Your eyes are filled with disgust."
"No they're not, it's just…I really didn't expect it. That's all." Salem said, hesitantly, as the faunus grumbled, feeling like the immortal was going to keep asking until she broke.
Which was what happened as the faunus began to push off the kimono's sleeves with her shoulders, revealing thick burn marks around the sides of her ribs, leather-like indentations near the shoulder sockets as two slim black metallic arms that went to the shoulder socket with thin 'V' shaped lines going downwards towards the fingers and thin arrow notched nails, were fused to the woman's bones via thin titanium stitches.
"These, queen of the Grimm, are what's left of my body after burning in a house fire, started by the White Fang under Adam's control, and had beams of burning wood crushing all the bones in my arms. I was forced to RIP THEM OFF!" she snarled while flexing her claws a little. "I can no longer feel anything, I can't hold any bladed weapons without them breaking, and I can not reveal myself to anyone because everyone thinks I, Blake Belladonna, died!"
'Wait, Belladonna?' Salem thought while quickly recalling who the woman was.
A member of the Silver Eyes team, the renegade White Fang that assisted Adam in the days following Cinder's plans of Vale's destruction, and…the child of faunus rights activists.
'I see, the rumors were false.' the immortal thought while internally chuckling at her luck. 'And she came to me, without any real fear? Interesting."
"Now listen to my grievances, my needs and wants." Blake frowned while carefully putting the sleeves and upper kimono back on her shoulders, her patience running thin. "I have not come here for a strip-tease of my disgusting body, I came here to bargain with you."
"Bargain? You, a mortal, want to bargain with me?" Salem chuckled with amusement. "And what's stopping me from ignoring you entirely and letting the Grimm feast on your bone marrow?"
The faunus narrowed her eyes. "Because you are without allies."
"How di-"
"I am an assassin by trade now, The Spider pays for my services now." she smirked while Salem blinked in surprise. "And from the grapevines, I have heard that certain 'people' have been swept under the rug after the Faunus/Human Wars began, mostly from racially charged militia attacks. That and after looking at the memorial plaque in Haven, a certain name popped up that made me recall why Adam chose to attack Haven in the first place. Cinder Fall."
As the faunus began moving closer to the throne, Salem noticed that the woman's eyes were beginning to become slightly bloodshot, creeping her out slightly.
"An accomplice that I saw destroy the Kingdom of Vale, allowed Adam to gain Atlasian technology, and in proxy, destroy my home." she said with a low cackle. "Her very existence stank of otherworldly interference, which allowed me to locate a certain 'wave' in the heart of a 'magical' artifact mine, abandoned just two years before Vale's destruction. Data from their semi out of date terminals and a document from it's leader led me to the keywords, 'Salem' 'Grimm' and 'Realm of Darkness'."
"Oh? So you just came to me using that old expendable organization? Is that right?"
"Yes, but enough about how I got here." she said while, with some arrogance in her movement, taking a seat on Salem's lap, her left claw gently stroking the immortal's left cheek, creating a small cut as black 'blood' dripped from the wound. "I came here for a bargain, and it's a good one."
'What is her deal!? First, she came here and acted silent to me and now…she's acting like a common prostitute!?' Salem thought with a frown, very unamused and confused. 'Just how broken did her mind become to act like this!?'
Blake smirked while 'booping' Salem on the nose, seemingly tempting fate in the process. "I want you to help me kill Adam."
"...what?" she said, her mind in a confused stupor due to the request and the faunus' current position.
"You heard me, I want you to help me." Blake said while pointing to herself with her right index claw. "In exchange, I will become your servant."
"...what?" Salem said before getting 'booped' on the nose again. "And get off me!"
"You're no fun." she huffed before jumping off of the woman and landed a few inches away, towards the left side of the throne. "But I do want you to help me kill Adam, end the war."
Salem frowned and contemplated killing this arrogant child at this exact moment but chose not to out of curiosity. "And what makes you think I would even consider your request?"
"Because you know as much as I do that Adam killed your precious Fall Maiden, dashing away your chase at whatever plans you have for the Relics." Blake said coldly. "He betrayed your servants in a bid to lionize himself, just as he killed my family and friends for the sake of glory. We have a common enemy with that miserable pile of fecal matter, why not join forces to end him and his genocidal machinations now?"
"Mmmm." Salem muttered while contemplating the woman's words, her mind formulating various scenarios within the span of seconds.
But the major question that loomed within her head was…
How exactly would ending a second rate species' war help being about my final demise?
"And think about this, I am a willing servant. One trained in both White Fang fighting styles and the Huntsmen system." Blake said, her tone fluctuating between kind and dark on the flip of a dime. "I trained myself to kill, be it subtle or upfront. And given your former assassin is dead, the job occupation is still open for the taking."
"I don't see the point. You, Belladonna, are a former member of the Silver-"
"It's Ruby!" Blake snapped in anger.
"...Ruby's team. A pacifist that ran from danger and allowed said team to break apart." Salem said, slightly hesitant to make the 'guest' angry, despite being capable of defending herself. "How do I know that you won't run from me at the first sign of trouble."
Blake narrowed her eyes before-
SWISH!
CRASH!
Slashing a pillar into five pieces, the crystalline structure falling to the ground as two long stretchable limbs with segmented notches filled with yellow Lightning Dust crystals, a thick gray cable in between the Lightning Dust crystals and elongated dark purple arrow tipped nails, shot out of her sleeves and quickly re-entered them just as the roof cracked a little and caused fallen tiles to land upon the obsidian floor.
"I'm done running." the faunus frowned as she raised her right sleeve up, her nails poking out as electricity sparked around the tips. "I am willing to put my life on the line, just to kill that son of a bitch Adam Taurus, the son of a whore that killed my family, cut off the arm of my partner, and the one that is turning the faunus species into a pack of genocidal lemmings! I want him DEAD and I'll damn myself to Grimmdom if that will allow my vengeance to materialize!"
Salem looked upon the faunus with a mix of surprise and…sympathy, for she made similar goals in the past, when the gods stole away her former love and forced her to unite humanity against the divine.
And while it was a failure and led to her current predicament, in her youth and in this present moment, she would bet her powers and existence to have the last light against the gods who ruined her life.
'Her desire for revenge might be useful to me, keep her from getting any ideas.' "Very well, I will allow you to join my side, but with one tiny catch."
Blake raised an eyebrow, seemingly confused. "And that would be?"
"You will acquire the Fall Maiden, take her powers, and use them to hunt down the other Maidens. With the death of Fall, I can not acquire any of the Maidens, given the current state of the world." she said while Blake nodded, understanding her logic to a point.
"I can agree to that, I even know where it went off to."
"Oh? And who has the Maiden's power?"
"It was once in the hands of Coco Adel, before she was killed saving her team from a Vaucoan Huntsmen team. If my sources are correct, the Fall Maiden is now in the hands of Robyn Hill, hero of Mantle and currently head of the Pro Faunus Rebellion that's besieging Atlas' barriers." Blake said while moving her fingers a little. "She will be easy to kill, given she is currently in a hospital, on life support after an Aeros Dust bomb explosion."
The immortal woman smirked with renewed glee as she pointed her left index finger at the faunus. "Then go, hunt the Maiden down. I grant you control over my Grimm, but don't fail this 'test' or else."
Blake bowed to the woman before turning away. "As you wish, my queen."
'Ugh, another kissass.' Salem thought before noticing an extended right index finger poking her nose.
"Boop~" she chuckled while her elongated right arm quickly shot back into the sleeve and disappeared into the shadows, making Salem a little embarrassed at that sudden 'boop'.
Slumping back upon the seat, Salem shook her head and groaned in frustration.
"Gods damn it, that faunus is more annoying than Tyrian, and that man was a cultist." she grumbled before a Beowolf entered the room and rested next to the throne's right side.
"Grrrrrr." it growled, it's ears twitching as it waited for the immortal's next command.
Looking upon the Grimm, her eyes relaxed slightly before stroking it's head with her right arm.
"Grrr."
"Good boy." she muttered before looking around and whispered into its ear. "Go out, spread this command to every one of your kind, to all Grimm both in this land and beyond the borders. You are to follow the one called Blake Belladonna, answer her every command. But, away from her gaze and voice, bring about the end of both humans and faunus. Attack both sides, when one side faces off against your kind, produce the mark of the other upon your death, be it cloth, metal or leather, let them think the other has 'tamed the Grimm' as 'weapons'. Make their fear skyrocket, their notions of peace shattered like glass."
"Grrrrr."
"Turn this battle between lesser species into a never ending war. Make them ruin the planet's ecosystem, poison their mind with the expansion of weapon making, force them to mine faster, destroy cities without delay. Allow the Kingdoms to become their graves." Salem smirked with sadistic glee, the Beowolf growling with equal satisfaction. "Ruin this world and drive life down the path of death. Once that happens, the gods will return and you shall all return to nothing. Now go."
"AROOOO!"
"And do not fail me." the immortal said as the Grimm raced out of the castle, the moonlight above slowly getting covered with clouds as the screen went black. 'I am sorry Belladonna, but this war will never live happily ever after.'
Xxxxxxx
Name/Designation Title: Blake Belladonna (The Battle of the Beasts Blake Belladonna- TBBBBRWBY)
Age: 37
Affiliation: Mega Evil.
Dimension: - 17000123- 81 TBBBBRWBY
Abilities: Enhanced speed, agility, reflexes, hearing, jumping power and endurance, White Fang training, night vision, blade, gun and kusarigama handling (formerly), VBCS training and handling (formerly), espionage skills, Huntress skills and knowledge, Dust knowledge and handling, prosthetic cybernetics (arms), mechanical arm extension (via cybernetics), claw/blade handling (via cybernetics), electrical generation (via Lightning Dust), lighting discharging (via Lightning Dust), lightning creation (via Lightning Dust), paralysis affliction (via Lightning Dust), electrical burst generation (via Lightning Dust), bio-energy absorption, electronic interference/empowerment (via Lightning Dust), Grimm mounting/riding, Grimm control, human physiology knowledge, faunus physiology knowledge, heightened intimidation, high insanity.
Semblance(s): Shadow.
Bio: In this timeline, the Battle of Menagerie ended in the deaths of Ghira and Kali Belladonna, burnt to death in their own homes, allowing Adam Taurus to go unopposed in his attack on Mistral, turning on his allies and killing every single human or human sympathizer within the city including Cinder Fall and Ruby Rose. In the aftermath of the attack, the Kingdom of Mistral, whose government officials restructured the government into a monarchy following the execution of Leonardo Lionheart, issued a proclamation for the mass genocide of all faunus within the Kingdom, all faunus would be killed on the sight regardless of age, sex, career choice or Kingdom. Due to this, other Kingdoms followed soothe, declaring war against Menagerie and the White Fang as a result of fear and distrust, seeing all faunus as genocidal monsters. For twenty long years, the Kingdoms would fall into an endless war between humanity and faunus, either side letting up or preparing for peace talks, as Adam uses the war to fuel his dark desire to be lionized by all. But this all changed as the only survivor of the Battle of Menagerie, Blake Belladonna who lost her arms in the chaos and replaced them with special Dust infused cybernetic arms, approached Salem with an ultimatum, one born of madness from an already lost mind. Seeking revenge on Adam for the death of her family and friends, she offered the queen of the Grimm her services as an assassin and eternal loyalty in exchange for ending the war through the death of Adam Taurus, High Leader of all Faunus. Salem, seeing as she lost her human allies in the ensuing Faunus/Human Wars, agreed and sent her to hunt down Adam with an army of Grimm, but secretly ordered her army to attack both sides of the conflict, to spur the war towards a lifeless Remnant. On the fields of Sanus, Adam would face his death at the hands of Blake, but in the end, all hope was lost, for the last member of Team RWBY would witness the final days of 'peace' and the beginning of the eternal war of division. Oh, how a simple choice would be the end of Remnant, not by Relics, but by war spawned by genocide.