Chapter 28: Immortal Grimm
Amid the storm of snow, there was silence. Salem pivoted on one foot, slowly, amusement gone from her face as she glared at Weiss, only murder behind the black eyes. There it was again, that feeling Weiss couldn't shake off, overwhelming like an ethereal and monumental pair of eyes burned holes in the back of her skull.
"Fine then," said Salem.
In a sense, it wasn't too different from what she felt when the snowstorm approached. She dodged low as Salem surged and cut with an open clawed hand at her chest. Weiss used the flat of the knife to parry the cut outwards, drawing sparks from the blade as she did. Why had she thought of the snowstorm at such a time? Its usefulness was null, and precious instants lost could lead to her death at any moment…
Penny took flight, taking Winter and the servant with her. With how severely beat up the two Huntresses looked, Weiss assumed Penny was the one to make the choice. In the split second Weiss looked at them, Salem lunged at her, bringing down a clawed hand she only narrowly avoided. The attack left five long claw marks on the floor behind, as if Salem's fingers carried long, unseen blades.
There were five ways I could've died there, Weiss thought. It was the knowledge from her Aura.
Weiss summoned glyphs on the floor in a circle around the two of them. She channeled some of her Semblance into the knife, then propelled herself from glyph to glyph, delivering tens of cuts at Salem on the path, cuts that were parried with ease.
Salem's fists were both morphed into clawed hands, each finger as long as her forearms, and she danced between parry and avoidance with flowing grace that hadn't been shown before, sometimes wrapping an arm around herself to block a cut with her claws, other times simply batting attacks away as if they pesky flies buzzing around.
Floating only a few inches off the floor, Salem flew away a couple of steps, landed softly a second later, "Do you think any of this matters? At all?"
At the edge of the roof, from the corner of her eye Weiss noticed, only for a moment, Neo pulling a stumbling Ironwood to safety, to the Huntship Roman piloted there. Yang, Blake and Ruby helped, the first two forming a barrier while Ruby carried ex-general along with the smuggler.
It seemed as if Salem didn't need to have her eyes on them to notice the escape attempt, as she turned to dash their way. Weiss followed… No, it was a feint by the witch! Salem turned back and extended her fingers, the digits erupting forth like lances.
Weiss weaved as she evaded, lowering her body close to the ground as she kept the momentum, slid past Salem and cut her ankles, drawing black blood from the wounds. She skidded to a stop then got up, her back straight.
Salem retracted her claws back, took a deep breath as she straightened her back, then pointed a hand to Weiss. In a second, an arch of bone erupted from her palm, both ends rising simultaneously… No, it was a bow, complete with a black, grimm-flesh string. From the other palm rose an arrow, though Weiss hesitated to call it so, it was as long as Salem was tall. And Salem was a good head taller than even Yang, the tallest of their group, and the one who dwarfed Weiss herself.
She drew the arrow back with the finesse of a champion archer. Black rose Petals opened in the air, swallowed the arrow as she let it loose, then vanished.
A chill ran down Weiss' spine. She dove to the side, flashed her knife an x-shaped cut. Behind her, the arrow reaped appeared, split in four along its length as it spun in the air.
Salem summoned and let loose three more arrows in quick succession, Weiss spun to her left, then flashed to the right as she avoided them, advancing as she slipped between projectiles.
In one flowing motion, Salem split her bow in two, and the halves morphed into a pair of curved blades. She growled, then cut low with both swords, crossing them like a pair of scissors. Weiss jumped on the flat of the blades, spun as she cut the witch's throat and leaped away. She landed on a handstand, then flipped herself away again.
Behind her, the others were just finished boarding the Huntship, only she and Salem remained in that arena.
Salem advanced. She combined both bone-swords and spun them, they melted as she extended them into a halberd. Her wound closed, flesh-reknitting itself, and she followed with a barrage of overhead cuts followed by low thrusts. Weiss danced away from the attacks well before they hit, but couldn't find an opening…
No, there was one, but it was dangerous, her Aura warned her so. Though she could keep Salem from getting the upper hand for a short period of time, she could see, as the battle drew longer, the windows for victory grew ever smaller.
Like grains of sand in a shrinking hourglass
Ah, in the moment between cut and stab, as she weaved between attacks and snowflakes seemed suspended in the air, Weiss formed a conclusion. She summoned a Glyph between them, blasting herself and Salem away. A cloud of dust covered them, buying Weiss some time as she cat-footed to the side...
I'm not fighting just a person, Weiss thought. It's more like fighting an earthquake or a hurricane that can think of all the ways to destroy as much as possible.
Slowly, the storm blew away the dust cloud, revealing both Weiss and Salem. Again, there was that raw feeling that Weiss felt besieged on all sides, like she'd walked into a dead-end. Her aura sounded warning at every possible move, a roiling thundercloud of danger ahead.
Each was at an opposite end of the rooftop. Salem was still, her chin up and back straight. She held a bone spear at her side, planted firmly on the floor. There was not a scratch on her, even the clothes repaired themselves, as expected of a truly immortal witch.
She could at least pretend she was a bit winded, Weiss thought, a fragment of Yang seeping in. She rolled her eyes internally.
Salem let a smile spread over her face, "Do you see it? You cannot kill me, you can barely injure me. Did you forget who you were fighting?"
She's also a talker. A weakness, if it were a quality carried by anyone else- Weiss interrupted the thought and replaced it with another. But a weakness is a weakness. She had a goal in mind, and by now, there's no way she can continue it…
Yes, Weiss considered. The androids were cut off from communication and dust sources. The specialists were distracted and the head of the Schnee Dust Company was dead. If Salem still fought, it was either purely because she wanted to, or because the prospect of letting Team Ruby live would ruin plans further down the line. But what plans? What potential did she see that Weiss did not?
Salem continued, "I'll congratulate you where you deserve, however… you fight like an old Huntress, from the time those were still training in temples, and fighting Elder Grimm for hours. They were hard to kill, those ones. But I was at the end of their road, just like I'm at the end of yours. No Grimm Hunter dies peacefully, you know?"
Weiss hesitated, there was something she was missing, a key piece of information.
Weiss remained silent, it seemed as if Salem felt it was a cue to continue, "You even did what was necessary, ended the threat of your father. And you did it all on your own too. That is something I can personally respect, did Ozma tell you of the time we killed mine?"
Was she trying to talk Weiss down? It had to be a joke.
Weiss surged and cut down, Salem parried the blow and launched her backwards, continued talking, "I doubt he would. He'd rather minimize chances of failure, run the numbers here, increase the chances there. Secrets, lies, and all for what? For people who'll turn on you at the first possible chance?"
Weiss circled around Salem, carefully. The Witch didn't bother taking a stance, "Did you know I barely needed to do any convincing to get that-" she pointed at Arthur's corpse, "man to join me? He hated Atlas that much. Sure, you may have stopped his plans in their tracks, but do you have any idea how many enemies Ozma made along the years? How many you've made today, purely because you're fighting to unite the continents again?"
Weiss moved her knife from hand to hand as she dashed at Salem, drove it into her ribs as the witch — barely inconvenienced — pushed her away with a wave of invisible force, "And the Grimm, I'm sure Ozma told you I control them, but they were here before me, before him. They'll be here, even if you somehow find a way to stop me."
Weiss got to her feet, remembering the vision when she wandered. The old era, filled with magic, and the callous gods that created them, left the world when it no longer suited them as if it was an old toy, an annoying plaything no longer worth its cost.
"It doesn't have to keep happening. This world of ours, it's already dead, has been for millennia. It needs to end."
There were words that went unsaid. Join me, don't follow that fool, Ozma. The world you're in can't be trusted. Atlas will only doom you. Words said between the letters, lines between the lines.
Was that her goal? To put an end to it all, through violence? Weiss remembered the past battles, the fights against the White Fang, misguided as it was through Adam, she wouldn't wish them death. She remembered the dead Operators, among them Isabella, her life cut short as she followed Team Ruby into Atlas, now buried under a stone memorial deep inside a cave. Even her father, his head separated from his body as he found himself in her way… She wouldn't have wished him death if it wasn't absolutely necessary.
If she thought Weiss would spread it to the rest of Remnant then she was fucking insane.
As if to punctuate the thought, a roaring path of flame cut the sky from above, two shots that hit Salem dead-on the chest. Yang.
One by one, Yang, Blake and Ruby all landed besides Weiss, the Huntship was already at a safe distance. Ruby aimed her rifle at Salem, fired twice, both shots carving holes in Salem's midsection.
"Well," said Ruby, "Consider me thoroughly impressed!"
Blake and Yang stepped forward, both in their fighting stance. Salem glanced at the group, scanning them one by one. She pinched the bridge of her nose, shaking her head, "Why must you all always disappoint?"
Yang surged, Blake following close behind. The two flanked Salem, Yang at her left and Blake at her right, Blake attacking low as Yang kicked high. Salem blocked both, splitting the spear into a pair of batons. As the couple continued with a flurry of attacks, Salem stepped back as she defended, then struck Blake across the belly, pushing her at Yang.
Yang caught Blake's hand in midair, and the faunus, for her part, needed only the slightest anchor to right herself. As she landed, Blake unsheathed her weapon and fired at Salem from behind Yang, quick shots that barely penetrated Salem's skin.
Weiss summoned glyphs in midair, a dome that covered the roof. Ruby fired a shot that passed through Salem's chest, ricochet from the glyphs and lodged in her back. Salem stumbled, transforming her batons into a bow again.
As she prepared an arrow, Ruby shot again, hitting it dead center and destroying the projectile.
Yang dashed forward, delivered three quick hooks to Salem's body then an uppercut to her chin. Salem stumbled back…
And the witch lifted a hand, an unseen wave of force pushing them all away. She straightened herself, "Enough. I tire of this. The Grimm can find a way to grind you to death, or failing that, Ozma. You're all beyond my ability to reason with, or care for."
Salem turned, and glided towards the edge. She leaped off, Black petals erupted in the air, swallowed her, then disappeared.
Weiss fell to her knees, her breath heavy. As her Aura no longer flared with warnings of danger, and her Aura shield was gone before the fight even began, the high of adrenaline drained from her body like water from an open faucet. Her vision blurred, Ruby caught her as she stumbled forward.
—❖—
Roman kept his eyes on the sky, but his mind was on the events happening behind him. Neo was safe, and for that he sighed a breath of relief. Winter, he couldn't bring himself to care for and the weird redhead that fired lasers from her hands was way too quiet, but otherwise fine. There was also some servant and whatever she'd gone through, the woman slept like a rock. Reminded him of a certain fire witch though…
Ironwood, however, was sitting near a wall, alive but essentially a corpse. His skin was pale, wrinkled and cracked at parts, his hair was almost bleached white. Blackened veins were bulging near his neck, and his breathing was heavy and irregular. Roman wondered how he'd snap back from something like that.
Roman put the Huntship on autopilot. It wouldn't pilot itself but it would maintain altitude, and that was all that was needed.
Neo poked his shoulder for his attention, "How did you get all those androids anyway?" she asked.
Roman produced his scroll, showing a map of Atlas, "Well, I always thought those errands Jacques put us through had to have a purpose, so I kept a little bit of blackmail material-"
At the mention, Penny, Winter and Ironwood all eyed him suspiciously. Roman put his hands in the air, "Which I'm sure we can all agree came in handy when all I had to do was look for the right serial numbers and find their deployed location. Then Red rigged up that contraption-" Roman pointed at a ramshackle metal box, made of android innards and repurposed circuit boards, "Which she says is a frequency jammer but I'm pretty sure is what android nightmares are made of… And what do you know, finding them before they took out whatever military, civilian or Specialist was a cinch. We couldn't get to them all in time though."
Ironwood gave him a hard stare, then eased up, "Does it jam this ship's comms?"
Some cooperation for once? Or was simply being drained of life all it took for Ironwood to put old grudges aside? "Not really. I suppose you can use it, why?"
Ironwood glanced at Winter, who helped him up and put one of his arms over her shoulder, to help him walk, "Help me set up the radio for military frequency."
Winter nodded, following the instructions given by the ex-general when they got to the cockpit. Penny, Roman noticed, was way more quiet than she used to be, perhaps the android had seen something he hadn't. When configurations were complete, Ironwood took hold of the microphone.
"This is General Ironwood, ID A-GSAF 057.21-B. Under the authority granted to me by the Atlesian Armed Forces I order every unit to stand down now! I repeat, stand down!"
After the announcement, Ironwood slumped down, strength leaving him. His eyes were bloodshot, and black in his veins had spread further.
"You think that's going to be enough?" Winter asked.
Ironwood shook his head, "No, it might take some time, you might need reinforcements."
A violent cough stopped ironwood from saying more, blood sprinkling his gray suit. He put an arm around his chest, grunted in pain.
"We should get you back to the Mirage!" Winter said, "The medical bay is still operational—"
"Winter," Penny called, she said nothing more, only shook her head.
"Come on!" Winter protested, "We can't just sit here and watch him die!"
Ah, Roman realized why Penny had been so silent after all.
"We have to go back anyways, we have no way to tell if the cease-fire went through!" Winter said.
Neo put herself in front of Winter, "The Mirage is too far away, and it's still keeping the military busy."
Winter pushed Neo to the side, turned to Roman, "Come on! Or do you want to stay here and wait for the military to shoot us down?"
"Winter," Ironwood called. The Schnee stopped in her tracks, pivoted on one foot.
"It's okay." He said, "My choices led me here, it's my fault, nothing more. You deserve better than what the military did to you, and I deserve this."
As he almost leaned forward, Winter caught him. Ironwood breathed with difficulty between grunts, his teeth clenched in pain.
"No, come on," Winter said, frustrated. Slowly, Ironwood's eyes closed, and his breathing came to a stop. For a moment, no one said anything, Winter laid his body down, stood up.
She roared in anger and launched her sword at the nearest wall, nailing it up to the hilt. She pushed past the group, Penny following closely behind.
As he looked at James' corpse, for the first time, Roman found no quip within his before seemingly endless arsenal of sarcasm. They were enemies in the past, but in a way, he'd come to appreciate Ironwood's presence. He always made his displeasure obviously known, and always kept himself so uptight messing with him was always entertaining. He was also responsible for half the mess they were in, the androids, the slavery, and the monolithic power that the Atlesian military had.
All those things were his doing, others had only jumped on the chance of controlling them once he was out of the picture, and it had made Roman's life more difficult by a few magnitudes, on all ends. Perhaps it was inevitable.
He looked to the side, and saw that Neo shared his same somber mood. Roman wasn't one for sentimentality, not at a time like such, and groups of outlaws had such high turnover one couldn't hope to survive without putting such things aside.
Still, he'd kinda miss him.