Prequel:

Remnant's Destruction

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

The last thing he remembered before…was when he and so many others stood before the gravestone, honoring their friends who didn't make it on the day Atlas fell.

We mourned and tried to move on.

He remembered seeing Nora falling to the ground, sobbing.

For some, it was hard and others…Even harder.

The people of Vacuo had been…less than welcoming, especially since all the negativity from the refuges had attracted Grimm.

I remember looking for anything that could explain what had happened.

He had been in the libraries for days.

And then…

They came.

The first thing I remember is…the screaming.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" Winter Schnee, the current Winter Maiden let out a scream as she unleased a literal blizzard through the streets of Vacuo towards one of the rampaging monsters.

She and the rest of Remnant were under the impression it was a Creature of Grimm.

However, in reality it was much worse.

Those outside Remnant knew it as a creature of darkness, called the Heartless.

Those that knew it personally called it…Darkside.

The Darkside turned its head, watching dispassionately as the blast of wind, snow and ice neared, raising only one arm in response. The blast struck head on, covering it in ice from head to toe. Winter landed on the roof of a nearby building, panting heavily to catch her breath.

But she knew it wasn't over.

Several more Darkside could be seen, shattering through the walls of Vacuo and making their way into the city. Winter was about to move when the Darkside she had just frozen had shattered, sending ice flying in every direction.

"GAH!" Winter shouted as several shards hit her but luckily her Aura was still up.

The blast of darkness didn't stop with just the ice, but destroyed several buildings around the Darkside as it began moving. Winter shot up, aiming to attack but giant black fist came out of nowhere and slammed into her, knocking her out of the air like an annoying house fly. Winter cried as she crashed down onto the street below as several civilians ran past her, screaming in terror. Winter grunted, lifting her head up as blood covered her left eye before she felt someone lifting her up.

"Come on, Winter!" Qrow Branwen grunted, pulling Winter off the ground. "We got move!"

Winter tried to move but she was still too dazed, so Qrow picked her up and took off. Just as they made it around the corner, there was a Blind Worm Grimm waiting for them.

"Oh fu-" Qrow began to curse before something strange happened.

A nearby Darkside snatched the Blind Worm by the neck and lifted it up off the ground. It held the struggling Grimm in its grip for a moment, seemingly confused by what it had before it squeezed its hand and snapped the Grimm's neck. The Grimm went limp and began to dissolve but the black misty matter did not dissipate. The Darkside leaned forward, seemingly breathing in the misty matter while red and purple veins began to appear along its face.

"Wh-What-What?" Winter stuttered, her and Qrow watching in shock as the Darkside 'ate' the Grimm. "Since when do Grimm eat other Grimm?"

"I don't think these are Grimm." Qrow muttered, sweat running down his face.

As three Darksides marched through the city, a single black feathered bird flew straight them, suddenly becoming Raven Branwen as she gripped the handle of her nodachi, Omen.

SLASH!

SLASH!

SLASH!

And faster than the eye could see, beheaded the three Darksides before they could even blink. Raven landed on the ground, sheathing her weapon as her eyes blazed with the power of the Spring Maiden. The three Darksides collapsed onto the ground and dissolved into darkness.

Raven stood up, glancing up at the sky. 'All of this…Yang, I can't believe I would ever say this, but I'm glad you're not here to see this.'

There was no point in trying to run away like before.

She knew it would not matter.

There was no safe place on Remnant anymore.

'Ironic, I tried to avoid this outcome by leaving Ozpin and force my brother, Tai and Summer to turn away by leaving and it happened anyway.' Raven thought with a bitter smile. 'And it is only here and now, I can only do the one thing I can do that I tried so hard to avoid: stand and fight.'

And that is what she would do.

For Yang.

For Qrow.

For Tai.

'And for you…Summer.'

Qrow had no idea how right he was.

This was something the Queen of the Grimm herself was finding out the hard way, watching as her Grimm battled the dark manifestations in the ruins of Vale. They appeared out of nowhere, assaulting the Grimm surrounding Beacon as she arrived to finally claim the Relic of Choice that had been hidden from her. However, now she was finding herself dealing with a new form of monsters that she had absolutely no control over.

Worse, they could seemingly 'eat' the Grimm.

Salem watched as a bunch of smaller creatures dogpiled on a Goliath that let out a dying screech as it fell over. The Shadows plunged their claws into the Grimm, purple and red veins appearing on their arms and traveling down their bodies as they continued to 'feed' on the dying Grimm. It was happening everywhere.

Even at the top of Beacon Tower.

Heartless could be seen crawling up the petrified body of the Wyvern, clawing and smashing away at the stone and feeding on the trapped Grimm.

"RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Cinder was literally on fire as she blasted, blasted, and blasted at the creatures attacking her. The Heartless continued appearing, eating at the Grimm that had infested Beacon, leaving Salem and Cinder alone as both fought to repel these…creatures. Salem simply blasted away at the Heartless with her magic, her immortality leaving her confident that nothing would harm her.

Until she was literally stabbed through the chest.

Eyes wide, Salem looked down to see a blade stabbing her in the heart by one of the monsters. A creature with small black like wings sprouting from its back, gold-tipped feathered wings on their forearms and wielded a blue bladed sword that was currently embedded in Salem's chest.

Then…she could feel something eating at her.

Salem snarled, the dark Grimm essence in her being fed into the Invisible as veins colored black, purple and red traveled down the sword and into the Invisible's body. Salem let out screech as she grabbed onto the Invisible's arm, digging her black claws into it that only seemed to feed the creature even more. Realizing she couldn't tear its arm off; Salem pulled her hands back and let out a scream as lightning blasted from her body. That seemed to work as the Invisible was blasted off her body and she finished it off with a blast of fire, incinerating its body. Salem then spun around with renewed fury, blasting the Heartless away with a fury she only had ever held reserved for Ozma or the Brother Gods.

Cinder continued to fight until she made the mistake of stabbing her Grimm into a Neoshadow that Had snuck up on her. She tried to retract her arm but to her shock and horror the arm was absorbed into the Heartless as it pulled her closer towards it. Cinder snarled, raising her other arm to blast the creature when another Neoshadow grabbed her arm, and she was suddenly pinned down. The Neoshadow she had stabbed continued devouring the arm until it reached her body.

"MY LADY! HELP!" Cinder screamed out in a moment of panic.

Salem turned her head and saw the Heartless devouring Cinder's Grimm arm and made a simple gesture.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" Cinder screamed as the Grimm arm, a Geist arm to be precise literally detached itself from her body.

The Neoshadow staggered back, absorbing the last of the Grimm essence into its body but during its moment of surprise, Cinder's anger was enhanced by her pain, and she conjured a literal fire tornado that burned the Neoshadows holding her into nothing. The flames cleared and Cinder stood up, her right arm pressed over the remains of her left shoulder. Salem said nothing, merely turning to face the Heartless as more appeared.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" A hammer came down on a Darkball, shattered into black and purple mist before Nora Valkyrie lifted her hammer back up.

She looked around, seeing the same thing.

Stranger monsters, not Grimm, attacking the city.

Humans.

Faunus.

Atlesians.

Vacuons.

Men.

Women.

Children.

Even Grimm.

That's right, the monsters were even attacking Grimm that had been attracted by the negative emotions coming from the panicking populace.

Why?

Why was this happening?

How had it all come to this?

Hadn't she lost enough?

Pyrrha.

Penny.

Jaune.

Ruby.

Weiss.

Blake.

Yang.

She and Ren had been left alone, just like they had been alone ever since Kuroyrui.

And then…

First the sky was blacked out by black clouds unlike any she had ever seen before, completely blocking out the sun. Then an eerie and sinister run blew in, causing her to feel a chill no matter how warm she was supposed to be.

Then came the monsters.

They were not Creatures of Grimm.

Nora somehow knew that just as she knew these monsters were actually worse than the Grimm.

"Help!"

She spun around, watching as civilians were attacked by the monsters, smaller than the ones she had been fighting but were still very dangerous. She rushed forward, her hammer shifting into its grenade launcher that she aimed behind her and used the recoil to propel herself forward. She let out another yell her weapon transformed back into its hammer form, and she smashed through the batch of Shadows with just one swing. Turning around, Nora knelt down to the nearest person, a boy with black scratch marks on his body.

"It's okay." She said soothingly, hugging the boy with one arm. "You're okay now."

"Why this happening?" The boy cried into Nora's shoulder. "I want to go home!"

Home…

Nora had been without a home for most of her life.

The closest thing she had to a home had been Beacon Academy and she had lost even that before she was even aware of the secret war of Men, Beasts and Gods. And just recently, everyone she had been trying to help had lost their own home to this war.

Now something else had come to take everything else.

The boy suddenly screamed, and Nora looked at him, eyes widening as the black scratches began to spread all over his body. She picked up, frantically running to the Academy, whispering she would get him to the infirmary and the doctors would help him. Then the blackness covered the boy's entire body and he disappeared into a black mist that faded, leaving a shell shocked and horrified Nora who fell to her knees.

Another life she failed to save.

BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG!

BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG!

BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG!

Lie Ren continued shooting at the growing number of Shadows that crawled down the walls of the city, a single shot causing a Shadow to dissipate into a black and purple mist.

But no matter how many shot, it was like five or even ten more would take its place.

And eventually, his weapon Stormflower ran out of bullets.

As the Shadows crept towards him, Ren showed a furious face as he dashed forward, his weapons glowing green from being enhanced by his Aura as he struck them down.

For Pyrhha.

For Jaune.

For Ruby.

For Weiss.

For Blake.

For Yang.

For everyone who had lost their homes and for everyone who were losing their homes because of these…heartless monsters. He didn't know where they came from, he wasn't even sure if Salem was responsible.

He just knew…that he was tired.

Tired of losing.

Tired of losing friends.

Tired of losing family.

He was just tired.

But that didn't mean he wasn't going to go down fighting.

"HA!" Lightning Lash shot out and struck down three Neoshadows.

Ilia was panting heavily, sweat and dirt running down her face but she had no time to rest. All of Menagerie was being attacked by…

Monsters.

Not Creatures of Grimm, but different kinds of monsters that had appeared out nowhere.

Ghira Belladonna was urging everyone to take shelter in the Belladonna home as he and the city militia fought against the monsters.

They kept coming, no matter how hard they fought.

'Blake, what would you do if you were here?' Ilia wondered to herself.

"Come on!" Taiyang Xiao Long shouted, ushering everyone into Signal Academy, the only shelter they had left.

Tai watched as countless…Not Grimm as Grimm did not have yellow eyes, crawled towards the building.

'Ruby, Yang, please be safe.' Tai looked up seeing the sky having become completely black.

"They're getting through!"

"We can't stop them!"

"They're everywhere!"

Lil' Miss Malachite could only watch as the kingdom she had built a criminal empire underneath its pleasant surface be torn down by endless swarms of monsters that appeared out of nowhere.

Whatever they were, she knew for a fact that they were not Grimm.

As someone who had spent her life seeing information as something more valuable then Dust or money, she knew enough to tell the difference between a Grimm and something else. These monsters, although similar were certainly not Grimm.

They had yellow eyes while Grimm had red eyes.

Some had heart shaped holes in their chests which not even the weirdest Grimm had.

The number of Huntsmen guarding Shade Academy fell quickly in numbers. No matter their strength, their speed, their weapons or their Semblances, there was just no stopping the Heartless as they relentlessly swarmed the academy.

BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG!

BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG!

BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG!

Coco was firing her Gianduja at a group of Darkballs.

Velvet used her Anesidora to conjure copies of the weapons she photographed, desperately striking down a dozen Neoshadows.

Fox was striking down any Shadows that got close to him.

And Yatsuhashi fought against an Invisible.

Team NGDO was there, fighting as desperately as the others but the looks on their faces showed a great fear.

They were losing.

They wanted to run but had no idea where to run.

Flynt was there, blasting away at the Heartless with his Trumpet while Neon dashed around the battle, striking at the monsters as they crawled closed and closer to Shade Academy. Kobalt and Ivori were there as well, fighting just as hard.

It wasn't enough.

None of it was enough.

Willow Schnee could safely say she had many regrets in her life.

Marrying Jacques and letting him take over her father's company, only to watch him besmirch the Schnee name for his own personal greed and have to live with the fact she was in a loveless marriage.

Her children were the only good things to come out of that loveless union and she had failed at being a mother.

She tried so hard in the beginning but when the truth of her marriage was literally shouted right at her face, she couldn't cope anymore. All she could do was try to numb the feelings of pain and self-loathing for falling for such a disgusting man. She had missed out on her daughters growing up, let her son be molded into a near image of his father, watched as her daughters did everything they could to get out of the house and away from the man who sired them.

She watched her now dead husband drag the Schnee name through the mud.

She watched as her kingdom was torn apart with an iron-fisted dictator on one side and the immortal Queen of the Grimm on the other.

She had only tried to help at the near end…and ended up losing her second daughter.

Now, she was possibly losing what she had left as she could only hug her son, watching as the Heartless made their way into the Academy as the dark sky blocked out any remaining light.

'Weiss, I'm so sorry.' Willow buried her face into her son's hair. 'I could never be strong enough to do anything…'

How?

How had it all come to this?

Oscar was in the library of Shade Academy, staring up at the dark clouds.

'This is not Salem's doing.' The voice of Professor Ozpin spoke inside Oscar's head.

"Then what is it? What is happening?" Oscar stared up the black sky. "Oz, this isn't Salem or the Brother Gods."

'No. Whatever it is…Is much worse.' Ozpin stated, actually sounding afraid.

Then it happened.

A massive blackhole ripping open in the sky and everyone could feel the end as the darkness swept over them.

Qrow and Raven just resigned themselves, accepting the fate they somehow knew was always waiting for them.

Nora and Ren embraced each other one last time, thinking of their team in their final moments.

Ghira and Kali hugged, both thinking of their daughter.

Tai wished he could have seen his daughters one last time.

The teams, they all latched onto each other, holding their closest partners and friends in their final moments.

Winter just lied down against a wall, accepting the end. 'I'm coming, Weiss.'

Malachite just wished she could have seen and held her daughters one last time.

Somewhere in Vacuo, Tyrian was laughing with glee, spreading his arms out as he beheld the massive blackhole that was about to swallow the world. "BEAUTIFUL! BEAUTIFUL! IF ONLY I COULD SEE THIS WITH MY QUEEN!"

Mercury was just staring with cold, numbed horror.

Emerald fell to her knees. "I guess…This is it."

Cinder was screaming, unable to believe this was it would end for her.

And Salem…

Salem simply smiled. "At last…I am free."

She spread her arms out and accepted her end…Only to blink when she found herself seemingly still alive…Or dead and sent to a dark realm while standing at the top of what was left of Beacon.

No, she knew she was still alive.

"No…. No!"

This wasn't the release she had yearned for.

Even the end of the world didn't end her curse.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

That was all I remember before I reincarnated in Jaune and then woke up in the chamber of resurrection.

Oscar glanced down at the ground briefly, remembering the last few moments of terror he had felt when the Heartless destroyed Remnant.

The more I try to make sense of everything, the more I wonder if any of this is real…Or not.