Null was smiling as he marched towards the end. He was smiling because beside him was his sister, beside him was the Ward, and he knew that, from this moment on, from this instant, that she would be celebrated, from one end of the world to the other. And it was the best revenge he could think of against those who had hurt him, against those who had thought themselves so powerful that they could just destroy innocent lives.
He was smiling as the Grimm army around them…army, it was barely a platoon. Fimbulwinter had done its work, decimated the Grimm's numbers. Atlas had done the same, grinding them down, just like Ironwood had promised him. And now they were strolling through what remained, a few of the larger flying ones trying to come down right on top of them, some even being smart enough just to drop rocks.
But it didn't matter. They walked through it, and he could feel the desperation growing, as he and the Ward, the only two in this assault, literally entered her Citadel with a jaunty air. He could hear her voice, echoing along the halls, as she ordered more and more of her minions to come at them, all dying the moment they got within range of Amber's power, some dissolving in seconds, thanks to how much she could put into it now.
The moment they stepped into the throne room, Salem struck at them, her arms glowing with eldritch power, as she fired blasts of…he had no idea. Magic he figured. They got inside the Ward's range, and vanished. Heat, light, force, whatever they had, it was instantly nothing, and the pair came on, the woman looking through her red eyes first in anger, then confusion, and finally a dawning horror.
She called to her Legions, but what remained of them were on another continent. What she had on hand were those she made recently to send to the front lines, and now? They were cut down, solidly and without fail by the pair of mortals coming to her. The Dark Mistress of the Grimm felt fear, for the first time in all her centuries. A fear not of being alone, but a fear of losing the game, and in that fear, she found anger.
She launched herself towards them, she flung rocks, hurled not blasts but everything. She even looked ready to bring down the whole of her Citadel on all their heads. He picked up the Grimm Ward, and bolted, carrying her towards the Queen. This chamber had no exits save the one behind them, it was her personal retreat after all, and so they were in range in only seconds, the result of her fury passing quickly, as all her power left her.
Finally, he was over her. Null had found her, and his hands grabbed her. Within the field of Nullification, her powers waned, while his flowed freely. Aura guarded hands grabbed her wrists, powerful fingers wrapping around her slender limbs. She struggled, she pulled, but she found nothing on that path, as the siblings dragged her out into the wastes around her fortress, leading her towards the future..
When they stepped outside, out into the gloom of the perpetual night of the Grimmland, he nodded, and the pair stopped, him still holding her, even as shapes began to move forward, shapes in masks that were mockeries of her children, shapes with horns, tails, scales, and other things, marking them as inhuman. They kept well back, stopping at the point before they would enter Nullification's effect, and one took out a box.
"Metal Man…your plan worked. We've got her. Please advise, is this launch time, or do we simply kill the bitch?" said the voice of a man she did not know, his bull horns visible, and a brand on his face over one eye marking him as someone who had suffered for his mortal life. Null smiled at the man, as the box squawked, squealed, and finally beeped twice, the voice on the other end coming through clearly.
"The Launch is the goto at the moment. I just gained insight into…the sheer extent of her immortality. Even if Nullification works, there's no guarantee that she won't be brought back somehow," explained the voice of Ironwood, a voice everyone there knew very well. The one holding the box nodded, and set it down, pushing a few buttons on it, and then standing back as the Grimm Ward stayed where she was, and Null all but carried her forward.
Reaching the box, he held her with one hand, and then picked up something from inside, an ampule of something. Blood, probably. He honestly wasn't sure, but it was the solution. He would have laughed, honestly. Absurd that it should be so simple, and that the answer should come from such a horrid place. But he didn't laugh, instead he pulled the plastic from the ampules needle, and drove it into the arm of the Mother of All Grimm, as for a brief moment, her magic returned, and his eyes swirled gold, before spinning out into the spectrum.
She cried out. Perhaps this was the first time she'd felt pain, any pain, in all her life as this dark queen. He didn't care, he pushed, and watched the solution flow into her, mixing with her blood, and idly, he wondered if it would take. He didn't bother asking, however, and instead motioned for everyone to stand back, as the Grimm Ward let her power flow again, and he then hurled the body of the woman forward, her hands going out, stopping her mid flight, as she left the range of Nullification, and spun around to face him.
"What? Was that it? Lure all my forces away, throw away the last great kingdom AND whatever mercy I might have for your island of refuse? All to inject something into me?" she demanded, and he laughed, nodding as he looked at the ampule in his hands, and then tossed it aside like so much garbage.
"It was all we felt was needed. You see, there's a thing about my power that was the reason they needed me alive. Sure, Null can get rid of Aura and Semblances, it can undo the work of the Soul. But far, far more importantly, it can open the soul up to be changed, to give to a select few, the power of others," he said, and then smiled, as she held up her arm, which was beginning to glow, the Aura in her flowing freely now, not just the Magic, and it was doing what they wanted.
"So what is this? A gift? A Semblance that would prevent me from taking violent action perhaps? I know those are born in some generations. Even if it works, what makes you think it would stop me?" she asked, and he laughed at her, and shook his head.
"No, bitch, it's not pacifism we injected you with," turning around, and then holding up a hand, five fingers spread, lowering one as he did a head count, and then turned just as there was one left, and he pointed straight up.
"It's antigravity," he said it simply, said it quietly, and yet, the moment he said it, she shot skyward, the force holding her to this world reversing itself, repulsing her instead. As their studies of her from Ozpin's archives had claimed, her look was the result of Darkness in her body, a power she could never turn off, otherwise she could have simply been a normal person. The theory had been that, if she can't turn off the Magic, perhaps a Semblance was also something she would activate permanently as well.
It seemed that was indeed the case, as she was out of sight in a moment, leaving behind her darkened, blasted wastes, a few of the spotters, with those fancy Atlas made goggles watching her fly upwards into the sky, giving her range, right up until she vanished even to their sight, lost to the depths of the void. Null smiled at that, wishing, if only to himself, that he might have gifted the same fate to his own enemies. Still, he could settle for her cursing his name for all eternity. It was as good a consolation prize as any.
/-/
The day Salem left, the Grimm died. Perhaps there was a range to her control. Perhaps there was some humanity left in her, and she cut their strings to spare the people of this world their random wrath. Whatever the case, as the Prison of the Last Stand was breached, as a Behemoth roared in triumph, Ironwood, covered in the gore and refuse of the battle, it fell over, simply dead, leaving him to stare at it.
With the Grimm gone, with the world saved, you would think there would be a celebration. With peace, true peace gifted to the world for the first time in ages that passed beyond counting, you would think it would be a time to reflect, to try to find some solace in survival. Instead, it was a weary group of Atlas that looked out of the holes in their walls, soldiers all, who had lost home, hearth, and family to this operation, and they found it hollow in the extreme.
They would, at the invitation of the Grimm Ward, come to Menagerie, come to the place where their enemies dwelt, and she would offer them a place, not of leadership, but at least to live, so long as they gave up the weapons of war they carried. They, to a one, did so. There was no point in keeping them, after all, no point other than spite to hurt anyone else, and when they were given, her word was kept, and each was given a home, and a place to belong, if only amongst each other.
That generation would pass into its twilight years slowly, as the faunus state came to the ruins of the great kingdoms, and sifted through them, finding naught but dust within. Plans were made to rebuild, perhaps, to create monuments to these once thriving city states and those villages around them, but those plans were simply abandoned with the sheer cost of such being told, when far easier land was to be had elsewhere in the world, and so they would remain desolate, for now at least, as the people instead moved into regions far more accommodating to them.
Ironwood would die in his sleep, passing peacefully some decade and change after the final battle, his injuries from the battle that had cost him his arm finally catching up to him. To the surprise of all, the Grimm Ward's brother demanded a state funeral for the man, saying that, for all that he was the enemy, he had been a foe worthy of their respect, and he was laid to rest in the ruins of Atlas, his body placed beside the center of Fimbulwinter, with Null himself delivering a final eulogy for him, before they returned home.
In time, the people of Atlas, the Children of Vale, and a few outlying human settlement survivors, would integrate into the people of Menagerie, renamed Eden, and when the grandchildren of the current generation were running about, it was not a rare sight to see them mixed together, none of them told the horrors of what their forebears had gone through against each other, instead allowing the old enmities to die with them, rather than passing on that poison once more.
Still, from the first day of peace to his final breath, Null…Jaune Arc, would be asked, once a day, then once a week, and finally once a month by a single individual to see the ancient Relics, if only for a moment. A person on his hands and knees, begging for it, as if his very soul depended on it. And every time, he would be told no, and be shuffled off somewhere, everyone knowing the Pariah by sight by the time a generation had passed.
Perhaps, had he one ally left in this age of peace, the Old Soul might have forced the issue, might have claimed the Relics, hidden somewhere beyond his reach as he could no longer sense them as he once did. But his allies had died, or simply disavowed him. Even Ironwood refused to speak to or for him, leaving the Old Soul to stare wistfully at the stars every now and then, praying to Gods who either could not hear him, or refused to listen, to free him from this agony.
Still, for all that one dark spot, for all that the world had ended, this age of peace began to grow brighter, and within a century, they would speak of the Dark Times as legends, and in the center of every new city and village, a set of statues would be built. The Grimm Ward, to watch over them all, to protect them, and her guardian, Null, who stood ever beside her, ready to dive into the darkest depths to save those precious to him.