Author's Notes

I know I promised the one-shot collection in place of K to bide the time until my next major fic, but since FFN net is down for me and not updating, I'm probably going to hold off on posting it until it's back up, on both websites. If it's down for more than 2 weeks, though, I'll just go ahead.

Happy rats, and don't do crime!

Chapter 87: Final Boss

In which Ruby fights for her life.

Salem's magic was pure. Purer than pure. Despite her blindness, Ruby could see the woman, as a clear as day. Actually, they were in a land of eternal twilight, so maybe she was as clear as evernight.

Salem was shaped like a human, but she was a monster. Her skin was as pale as the ashes of a dead fire. Red veins stuck out of her skin along the length of her body, all of them leading up to her face. And her eyes – oh Dust, her eyes. Ruby would never forget those eyes as long as she lived. Salem's eyes were dark, sclera and all, but they weren't black. Black was a color. Salem's eyes were completely devoid of all light. It was like looking into nothingness itself.

Ruby shook herself out of it. What stood before her, abominated though it may have been, was just another Grimm. She closed her eyes and focused.

Team Adventure, or what's left of it. Humanity's future.

Silver eyes opened.

Nothing happened. Salem didn't even flinch.

There was no time to hesitate. Throwing her arms forward, Ruby cast almost every bit of magic she had into a powerful lance of glowing white light. The combined power of two maidens had to be enough to stop this monster.

Salem was the only visible thing in this semi-visible word, so she was an easy target. The lance, inspired by Blake's attack at the CCT, tore straight through Salem's heart. It exploded in a blinding flash of rainbow colored light.

Bronzewing, who was defending her back from the now enraged Seers, cheered. "You did it, Branwen!"

"Darn it, don't say things like that. Now she's sure to get back up!"

The light faded, and Salem stood unperturbed. "Hmmm. I do not believe it was a waste to sacrifice all my horsemen bringing you here. You are quite the powerful one, girl. Both Spring and Fall – never before has there been a double maiden. It is simply too dangerous to allow Ozma to have you."

This was it. The final boss. Running away was no longer the priority. If they could kill the Queen of the Grimm, would that spell out the end of all monsters in Remnant? That sounded like a cause worth dying for.

"Bronzewing, new plan. Get rid of her at all costs."

"What about escape?"

"She's too dangerous to not destroy. We're hunters, and that means we always choose to protect people from Grimm. Even if it costs us our lives."

His head waved up and down as the logic sank in.

Magic didn't work, nor did silver eyes. Plus, the lance had clearly stabbed her in the chest, so conventional weapons probably weren't going to do anything. There had to be some way to kill her. It was just a question of how.

Fortunately, Ruby had a question or two up her sleeve. Grinning, she reached down and clutched at her belt. There wasn't anything there. Ruby patted around her waist for a few seconds before searching for the relic of knowledge with her magic.

It was gone.

"Where–?!"

"Branwen, the arms!"

It was then that Ruby noticed what had to be the exceedingly oddest Grimm she'd ever faced. It had no head, no torso, and no legs. Quite literally, it was just a Grimm arm sticking out of the floor. More importantly, it had the relic in its grasp. Salem had reached out a hand (one of the ones attached to her torso), and the arm was stretching toward her.

"No!"

Ruby's silver eyes were out of juice, her maiden powers were getting low, and her baby was lost somewhere in the forest outside Mistral. She was running out of tricks, and fast.

Ruby stepped into her semblance. The hand slowed down to a stop in relative speed, as did Salem as she reached out for the relic. Darting forward, she snatched the relic. As soon as her fingers contacted it, they began to burn. Dropping the relic, she fell back into the regular flow of time. Her body felt numb, and she awkwardly landed on the floor.

"W-What …"

"Girl, I simply charged the relic with electrons. That was but a static shock."

"Hiiyaaah!"

Bronzewing cut the Grimm arm in two with his sword. Salem looked on with a sort of bored amusement as it dropped to the ground and begin to disappear. Charging at her next, he wasted no time in separating her head from her body. Salem's decapitated face was still smirking as he continued and stabbed it through the eye.

"Bronzewing! The relic! Ask Jinn how to kill her!"

He continued to hack at Salem for a few seconds before processing her words.

"What?"

"Grab the relic!"

The lamp in question had fallen and rolled into the great hall, stopping underneath the main table. Bronzewing dove (heh) for it, but more shadowy Grimm arms sprouted out of the floor and covered it up.

Cookies!

Silver eyes weakly opened, but the rushed attack barely managed to blow free enough of the writhing Grimm mass to reveal the relic for a brief second, before it disappeared once more.

"No!" he cried.

"Keep going," ordered Ruby. "I'll distract–"

Salem was already upright. Her hands were placing her head back onto her shoulders, and thin lines of Grimm flesh were reforming her neck. Ruby had no weapon, so she raised her fists.

"Do not be a fool, child. My victory is inevitable. Give me the relic. Struggling against that which cannot be changed is unbecoming."

A familiar voice cried out. "But she isn't alone!"

A purple window in the great hall crashed open, and in somersaulted…Weiss? It sounded like her, but Ruby could only clearly see magical things right now, and the new figures were moving too fast to make out with her maiden power sense. A stream of flame consumed Salem, likely from a Glyph. Ruby zoomed past her and stepped next to Weiss. The pair of them stood between Salem and Bronzewing, who was hacking at some Grimm-like appendages protruding from the floor with his sword, slowly making his way to the relic.

"Ruby! It's good to –"

"Weiss, she didn't really set you up for that one-liner, silly.…er, you dolt. Heheheh!"

"Ugh, this is not how I pictured our reunion. You are still such a dolt."

"Nope! I said it first this time, so it's mine! Hey, you don't happen to have any spare scythes, do you?"

"No, but I can hold her off while Penny flies you out."

Ruby froze. "P-Penny? She's here?"

"Salutations, Friend Ruby!"

"I shall aid Friend Dove in acquiring the relic!"

Weiss looked behind her to see Penny converging to meet Dove Bronzewing. She hadn't even seen the bronze-armored boy the first time around. You know, if Penny was helping him with something, that was probably better than her getting Ruby out of here. Ruby was blind and utterly defenseless, and Penny was malfunctioning so bad that sending the two of them out into Nevermore and Grimm dragon-infested airspace was asking for trouble.

Ruby's confused and frantic look made Weiss' heart swell with pity. This poor girl had been dragged straight into a Grimm fortress straight out of a nightmare. She had to be so terrified right now. Weiss vowed to never leave her leader's side again. Team Rhapsody would stick together from now on.

The Grimm woman stepped out of the flames and brushed her robes to smother some lingering burning. "Ah. And who might you be?"

So, it talked. "Ruby, what's this thing's deal?"

"Penny is–"

"Ruby!"

"She's the Queen of the Grimm, but we–"

"Salem," Weiss growled, brandishing Schachmatt menacingly at her enemy. "We meet at long last."

Salem raised an eyebrow. "You recognize me?"

"I do. You tried to kill me!"

Recognition washed across her face. "Of course. I see it now. You've got your sister's hair."

"W-Winter? How do you know me?"

"Oh, poor, poor Weiss. I never tried to kill you." Salem spread her arms wide and smiled a bone-chilling grin. "I saved you. All I've done is save this world, and it still despises me so. And yet I soldier on…"

"Ruby, we need to kill her."

Ruby seemed distracted by something going on behind the two of them, back where Dove and Penny were.

"Ruby!"

"Oh! Weiss, we can't kill her, not through normal means. But the relic might be able to tell us how to–"

Salem smile grew far wider. "The relic still has questions, then."

"Shoot! Ugh, I – there's too much going on! One at a time! Weiss, there's something you need to know about Penny!"

"I already know, Ruby."

"Y-You know? About her going crazy?"

"A bit of a rude way to put it, but yeah. She was having a bit of a moment early, but it's mostly resolved. We can count on her for now."

It was true. Penny had mostly overcome the weird stuttering thing, and she'd entirely stopped repeating herself. She certainly needed an in-depth diagnostic at some point (hopefully along with a trip to Raven-Summer's aura switching machine), but that would have to wait until after all this was over.

"O-Okay. If you've fixed her from whatever was wrong…"

Not yet, but we will. I promise.

Dark particles materialized midair and began to converge on Salem. Weiss threw a Glyph forward to act as a shield for the impending attack, but waves of multicolored light tore straight through it and hit Schachmatt's Dust chamber. The pickaxe exploded in Weiss' hands.

"Surrender. No one is coming to save you. You have no weapons. You are alone."

Ruby tilted her head coyly. "See, now this is the time you should've said your one-liner about not being alone, Weiss."

"Shut it, you." Weiss created a Summoning Glyph with her bare hands and brought forth a snow white Geist. "Let's see how well she does when her castle turns against her."

The Geist jumped into the walls, and Weiss willed it to collapse the roof on Salem. Cracks began to appear, widening rapidly as her intentions were realized via the spectral possession. Then, just as suddenly, they stopped growing entirely and disappeared. Salem stepped closer to them, forcing Weiss and Ruby to retreat.

"Why isn't it working? My Geist should be crushing her in rubble by now."

"This castle is an extension of her magic, Weiss. You can't use it against her because it is her."

"Ruby, what are you talking about?"

"All we can do now is hold her off long enough for the others to get the relic."

Why was Ruby talking about magic and relics? It sounded like she was babbling nonsense, but then, as fucking always, nothing was making a shred of sense to Weiss anymore. What was going on? Just who was this Salem person that made her so dangerous? She had the visage of a human-Grimm hybrid, but both of those were fully killable. An…An aura-user Grimm, perhaps? But they'd seen the last of them die, save for the dragon.

Weiss swished her hand, and the Glyph faded away. Immediately, she produced a new one and called forth a Tempest this time. It was a miniature one, as a full sized Tempest would be far too large to fit in this normal room. Salem stopped advancing on them in the doorway and looked at the white Grimm curiously. By this point, Ruby and Weiss had their backs to the table where Dove and Penny were doing whatever they were doing. Finding a relic or something?

"Most impressive."

"If you like that, you'll love THIS!"

Two of the Tempest's feathery tentacles wrapped around Salem, covering her and squeezing down. Fire exploded from within the mass of white tentacles as the enemy counterattacked, so Weiss attacked with two more – the Tempest had enough. Without Dust or her weapon, she was limited to working with just her semblance. Summons would be the most effective, especially since Glyphs seemed to have no effect on Salem's powers.

"How are you guys doing?" she called to the others. "Ruby, check on them and see if they…oh, sorry. I forgot about your eyes.

"They're still fighting the Shadow Arms, but…Weiss, are you sure Penny's on our side this time?"

"What are you–"

Salem exploded free in a tornado of nebulous smoke, destroying Weiss' Tempest. Ruby raised her arms.

"Don't worry, Weiss. I'll hold her while you make another!"

A flurry of icy wind struck Salem, freezing ice around her.

"Ruby, how are you doing that?"

"Magic. Literal magic, but – look, no time to explain. Get your Glyphs going!"

Weiss followed her leader's orders and shoved the burning questions she wanted to ask to the back of her mind. Two extra-large, lumbering Ursai pulled themselves out of the Glyphs she made and stood at attention. When Ruby's freezing attack ceased, Weiss let them loose.

The pair of them didn't make it ten feet before Salem flicked her hand. Shadow Arms shot straight up claws first, and the Ursai's momentum carried them right into them. Salem stepped forward. Weiss drew up a Glyph as a barrier and put all her aura into making sure it stayed up, but Salem walked right through it, dissipating the patterned circle without even breaking a sweat.

This woman, she was not human. It was like fighting an impenetrable wall. Everything they threw bounced right off of her, and her own attacks were instant kills. It was a miracle that they'd survived this long.

"We have succeeded in obtaining the relic of knowle – guh!" called out Dove.

"Weiss, switch!" shouted Ruby. "You ask the question! I'll hold her off!"

Weiss dropped the Glyph and turned around as Ruby rubbed her palms together, then sent a gust of wind at Salem. Rushing over to the others, she saw that Penny had some sort of old-timey lamp in her hands. Dove was behind her, and he looked like he was back from war. His armor was torn to smithereens, and his sword had fallen to the floor. The poor boy was breathing heavily, and he looked to be on the verge of collapse.

"Schnee…she…"

"It's okay, Dove. Let's just use this relic or whatever to kill Salem. How does it work?"

Penny said nothing.

"N-No…" Dove muttered weakly. "Stop…her…"

Without a word, Penny rose into the air with her hover boots and flew away. Was she going to Ruby to give it to her?

No, Penny flew right past Ruby.

Did Penny intend to fight Salem head on with the relic? Perhaps it was that, but it would be so dangerous! There had to be another way!

"Weiss, I thought you fixed her!" shouted Ruby angrily. "You said we could count on her!"

"We can, Ruby! I know she's having some difficulties speaking, but she's still the same Penny! We'll fix her when–"

"Speaking? Weiss, she tried to kidnap me in Haven! She's a traitor!"

Penny flew past Salem and landed on the ground. "The relic, my queen."

"Thank you, my dear."

No. No. No.

This couldn't be happening.

Darn Salem, and darn Ruby's stupid curiosity! If she'd just run away when she had the chance, she would never have handed Salem another darn relic! With the unused sword, that meant she had two!

For the first time in a while, she had no idea what to do. Without Jinn, they had no way to find out Salem's weakness. Running away would leave Salem with two relics, and she probably wouldn't be able to anyways, not with Salem's attention on her. Ruby's maiden powers were all but spent, and Weiss' Glyphs did nothing against Salem's magic. Bronzewing was injured, likely from Penny stabbing him in the back when they recovered the relic, and they were no closer to finding Jaune. Besides, even if they miraculously escaped Salem's wrath, the dragon was still circling around the castle somewhere. Ruby could turn into a bird and slip away, but she'd never abandon her friends like that.

"Weiss, is there any help on the way?"

"P-Penny…"

"Answer me, Weiss! Leader's orders! Do we have backup?"

"Why is Penny…"

"Weiss! Snap out of it!" Ruby slapped her friend across the face harder than a friend was supposed to slap another friend, then gripped her shoulders. "Was there anyone following you when you left? Did you bring a scroll?"

Weiss looked Ruby in the eyes, then shook her head. "Penny and I rushed after you. We didn't want to lose sight of the dragon. Maybe the others are looking, but they'd have no way to find us this far in the Grimm wastelands. I-I don't have a scroll."

Salem was right; they were alone.

Escape was impossible.

Fighting was futile.

So that was that. There was no hope.

Ruby looked at Weiss' shivering, stuttering face, her mouth wide with shock, one last time and lamented how far they'd come together, only to die out here in the middle of nowhere with no one to even mourn them. At least they'd have each other for their final moments. She never would have believed that the rude, prissy heiress from the first day of Beacon would end up being so close of a friend.

The first day of…

Maybe there was hope.

Neither fighting nor escaping worked as a strategy, but if she tried both at the same time…!

"Weiss! Listen closely. There's a dock with some bullheads lined up outside. It's on the outer edge of the south wing of this place. You can use your Glyphs to get there. Take Bronzewing, get a bullhead, and fly away!"

"We won't make it ten feet before Salem or that dragon–"

"Don't worry about any of that. Leave it to me."

"What about you–"

"I still have a trick up my sleeve to get out, but it'll only work for one person. You'd just be in my way. I'll meet up with you in Haven once I'm done here. Now take Bronzewing and go! Hurry!"

Weiss grabbed Bronzewing and leapt out the window. Before she plummeted down, a Glyph appeared beneath her feet, and several more in front of her. Supporting Bronzewing, she hopped from Glyph to Glyph until she disappeared.

Salem, a relic in either hand, watched them bounce off along the path.

"You have a way out?"

"No, but Weiss would never leave me if I told her that."

"Ah, the noble last stand. But what makes you think I'll let them go?"

"It was never about them. You don't care for Weiss or Bronzewing. It was always about me."

"Is that so?"

"You sent Angry and Creepy to capture me alive, then you threw away your hold on Haven to bring me here. Ever since I became two maidens and the biggest threat to your power, it's always been about me."

Salem nodded. "You're right. It has always been about you. But I think I might just order Kraken to bring them back. After all, it isn't right for you to be all alone here. Children should never be alone in this dangerous place."

Ruby's eyes narrowed. "Go ahead and try it."

Salem studied her for a second. Ruby stood her ground, with Penny calmly watching the two of them stare one another down from behind Salem.

At long last, the sound of a bullhead taking off broke their contest of wills. Ruby turned and saw the airship flying away.

I'm sorry, Jaune, she thought to herself. But there's no time for them to go back for you. I know you're the same kind of leader that I am. If there's a chance for your teammate to live, you'll happily lay down your life.

"Kraken," Salem said to no one in particular. "Don't let them leave."

The Grimm dragon was across the castle from the airship. Ruby saw it disappear from view when it flew over the roof, then reappear on the other side. As it closed in on the airship, Ruby sent a sudden gust of wind upwards from beneath the dragon. The unexpected burst was out of the airship's range, but it caught the dragon's wings enough to disrupt its flight and send the Grimm tumbling out of the sky, down towards the outskirts of the castle.

"I'm not sure what your grand plan is. You must know that he'll catch up to them, even with this little head start. Perhaps I overestimated you."

Ruby could barely stand at this point. She'd exhausted herself with the wind, but the fight wasn't over yet. When it was, she could rest. Forever.

The dragon smashed down into the ground, though most of the impact was absorbed by its aura. Ruby prepared herself for this final use of her last remaining magic. The Dust crystals that were littered around this castle would set off a chain reaction, each one igniting the next. Just one spark, and the entire place would go up in flames. She was lucky that this land was such a goldmine of unrefined raw, extra-explosive Dust. It might've been a tactical blunder on Salem's part if Ruby weren't one million percent sure that nobody would ever be able to find this place unless they were specifically brought here.

It was a simple plan. Unleash the last of her magic, light the Dust ablaze, and kill everyone still on the premises. Her, Jaune, Penny, the Grimm, the dragon – all would be snuffed out in a single instant. Salem might survive, but there had to be some limit to what she could take – otherwise she wouldn't be hiding all the way out here in the middle of nowhere. If she were truly immortal, what reason would she have to not launch an all-out assault on humanity to exterminate them? There would be no consequences for her failure. Anyways, even if Salem made it out alive, she'd lose her only means of transportation when the dragon and the rest of the bullheads went belly up.

Weiss and Bronzewing would get away. That was all that truly mattered.

If Salem was aware of her last ditch efforts to save her friends, she showed no signs of worry. Instead, she merely turned her attention down to the lamp Penny had handed her.

The airship sailed out of range. Ruby could sense the nearest Dust crystal, a tall spire standing just outside the window. She had a clear shot. She lit a fireball in her hands and braced herself for the pain.

"Jinn!"

Next Chapter: The Broken Fable – A tale of darkness and light, and light and darkness.

Omake

Penny: I wonder if Friend Weiss will ever forgive me for breaching her trust.

Penny: *remembers how Weiss cut off her own sister for correctly suggesting that her prospective girlfriend was a terrorist*

Penny: I'm sure it'll be fine.

Author's Notes

I imagine fighting Salem would be like hitting an enemy with no knockback and no health-bar. Attacks all connect because Salem can't be bothered to avoid them, but they just do nothing to truly harm her. From her perspective, she's just curious to see what these wacky kids can do before she uses her OP magic to curb stomp them all and just take the relic, however she sees fit. I imagine that, to the queen of the Grimm who's been bing chilling in a tower for the past ever, a Summoned Grimm might be a rather diverting thing to see.

Weiss and Ruby's miscommunication about Penny really did screw them both. Always remember to clarify what you mean by "There's something you need to know" down to the last detail, kids, or else you get it up the butt from a robotic traitor when she yeets a plot-armor sidekick and hands off a magic genie lamp to negative god.

Happy rats, and don't do crime!