Chapter 4 – Ruby in Atlas
Ruby looked out at the city of Atlas and was briefly baffled by the concept that all of humanity remained within those walls. The literal fate of the entire species (and the Faunus) had boiled down to a mere crater and its accompanying floating hunk of rock.
Vacuo, Vale, and Mistral were scoured for survivors by Salem's plentiful Grimm, and Argus and Menagerie were no more as well. Those two hadn't been proper kingdoms in the first place, never having truly possessed standing hunter armies of their own, and so an aquatic force of Leviathans and Sea Feilong had been dispatched to rectify the mistakes that they represented. Salem had confirmed that both of the minor outposts' populations were completely exterminated.
That left Atlas. Only Atlas. And they were on their last legs without Salem having had to send any Grimm their way.
"Even we would be unlikely to topple the giant of the north by force," Salem said to Ruby as they rode in on the whale. She sat atop her throne, with Ruby to her immediate left like a bodyguard. "Atlas' military is strong, and it would be a waste of forces to spend my entire army that's been decades in the making on one kingdom when it can instead deal with all the others."
"So what has Watts been doing that's so successful?" Ruby asked. "How can one man kill an entire kingdom?"
"You may not recall, but I sent you on a mission many moons ago to retrieve catalysts."
"Nah, I remember." Ruby looked out towards the ocean. "Argus, right? Me 'n' the guys snuck in and carried all of the grub out right under Atlas' nose. Eleven deaths, forty capsules of catalysts…good times."
Salem smiled. "Excellent memory, my Rose. Watts has taken the catalysts and used them to produce large volumes of toxins that are all but impossible to detect and yet incredibly deadly, killing over the course of four days. His sole assignment was polluting Atlas Academy's private aquafer."
"Poisoning them? How?"
"The entire military, to avoid sabotage, drinks from a separate water supply, so that they are not endangered by terrorism or sabotage of the general population's water. In Atlas, where cybertechnology reigns supreme, Watts' can enter any room in the entire city. Coupled with plenty of time to go about his work, he's deposited the poisons and has crippled their military leadership."
"No one noticed?" asked Ruby, scratching her head. She followed with the plan, but it seemed weird that Atlas would just take this lying down and let themselves be killed in massive numbers.
"It's not about what they notice. Perhaps some cure could have been synthesized in four days time, but when the entire military begins experiencing symptoms, including many of the doctors? There would be panic, Ruby, far too much to put forward a reasonable disaster response. The entire military – all of their soldiers, all of their commanders, all of their huntsmen, all of the men and women who know how to raise the shields and pilot the airships and aim their turrets – all of them imbibed the befouled drink and were affected. In the meantime, Watts has been poisoning the other aquafers of Atlas one by one. Atlas is days away from death."
"Doomsday preppers?" Ruby asked. "Bottled water drinkers? Not everyone could be dead."
Salem grinned malevolently. "All that remains are hapless civilians with no knowledge of how to defend themselves or how to investigate the mass genocide that has befallen them. I suspect that the Atlesian military command center can't even be accessed, for all those with knowledge of the security codes required for access are deceased. And to that end…"
As the city came closer to view, Salem waved a hand, and the mouth of the whale in which they rode opened up. Stationary Grimm that had been crawling among the tongue and teeth poured out. Ruby didn't know why Salem was using exclusively Atlesian Grimm – Teryxes, Tempests, and other aerial creatures – but it wasn't her place to question it.
They flew off towards the city until their clear shapes became a swirling mass of black dots off in the distance. As Salem had predicted, no shields were raised nor defenses put forth.
As they entered Atlesian airspace, some of the Grimm began to divebomb down towards Mantle while others furiously flapped their wings or flying appendages. Ruby estimated that they'd gotten close enough to sense the terrified few survivors of Atlas and were in the process of picking them off.
"Watts?" Ruby asked.
"He has no Scarab in his arm," Salem declared. "And my orders to spare the humans of Evernight have been rescinded. Ozma cannot have a host."
"What happens to him when all of the men are dead?" Ruby asked. "Does he dissipate? Does he go into limbo and wait? Does he, I dunno, become a male animal?"
Salem said nothing. Ruby assumed that meant she didn't know; after all, it wasn't as though she'd ever wiped out all human and Faunus men on Remnant before.
Monstra the whale must have truly been host to a large number of Grimm, for they just kept pouring out of her mouth like a waterfall of drool. Salem had taken it to Vacuo to pick up some of the more useful ones, but it was starting to look more and more like a land-based invasion wasn't going to be –
BOOOM! CRRRCKA-THHHWWWM!
"Frick!" Ruby jumped back in alarm as a large portion of Atlas Academy suddenly exploded. She'd known the Grimm would be inflicting as much damage as possible, but she hadn't been expecting them to go full kamikaze.
Salem also jolted backwards in her throne with a distinct lack of queenly grace. "Oh my!"
"What the hell was that?"
"I…I don't know!"
Could it have been a Dust stockpile exploding? A huntsman doing a last-ditch effort to take as many Grimm with him?
ZZZZRRRRRRRRRR! TTSSSSSZZZZNNNTT!
Lightning seemed to strike a random spot in Mantle, but it was…going the wrong direction? It had looked like the lightning was coming out of the ground and flying upwards.
There's no way it could be any huntsman or huntress. No semblance existed within Atlas that could be that powerful, and certainly no two semblances. I guess it must be Dus–
The answer hit Ruby, both figuratively and literally.
"Ruby!" cried Salem, rushing to tend to the young girl as she was knocked to the ground in surprise, downed by a proverbial ton of bricks. "Are you alright?!"
Her entire body was stinging, and her head felt like it had just been the recipient of a soccer playing Goliath's best kick, so no, Ruby thought it was safe to say that she wasn't okay. Of course, the agonizing pain was too much to really let her 'say' anything, so Ruby just screamed and writhed instead.
Maiden powers were meant to be intimate transfers, between a host and their successor. It was the reason it was sent to the woman a host last thought of – only a close friend or family member was supposed to receive them, close enough to be in the prior host's final thoughts before passing. But when the hosts thought of someone who was dead (which included most of Atlas), the powers transferred to a random, applicable young woman. Thus, when Fria, the first host, had died to poison without a successor, the powers moved to a random civilian in Vacuo named Orinoco. Then, when Orinoco died, her next thoughts were of her own dying father who was being chewed up by a Grimm next to her, so the powers jumped back into Atlas, in the hands of a plumber named Tana. Tana succumbed to poison without a valid successor, so Marianne came next, but she was also dying of poison, meaning that her successor was Kelsey, another poisoned woman.
There had been a good eighteen links in the chain that had led to Enich, one of the only women left. Her sink had been broken, meaning she didn't have access to tap water and was spared death…until Monstra came. The Grimm had attacked her on Salem's command, unaware of the Winter maiden powers she boasted, and they'd killed her, but not before she'd accidentally let loose some of her magic - that was what Ruby and Salem saw first. The next host had been another survivor, a nameless beggar girl who'd been drinking rainwater for lack of access to potable water. Grimm had attacked her just as they'd gone for Enich, and she'd died trying to defend herself with weapons she didn't fully understand as well.
Twenty people in less than two days – no wonder my head is hurting. I have all of their dying memories floating about in my mind. Names, places, visions…it's just too much to process.
"Ruby? Speak to me, Ruby! Make it known that you live, my child!"
"I'm…" Ruby grunted and pressed the sides of her head. "I'm okay. It was…was the Winter maiden powers."
"The Winter maiden? Oh...o-ohhhh, I see. The prior host died to our armies?"
Ruby could just barely manage a nod. Explaining the chain of succession would take too long, and Salem probably didn't care now that the power was in their hands.
There was a little something more to this, however.
"I think…I think all of humanity is dead, your grace."
Salem helped Ruby back up to feet. "What makes you draw that conclusion?"
Ruby looked out at the cityscape and saw the black Grimm dots were no longer in motion. They weren't pouring out of Monstra's mouth, either. It wasn't like they were perfectly still or something; they just no longer were traveling about the city.
"The maiden powers…I think…I think they didn't want me. It's supposed to be random when the whole 'last thoughts' thing doesn't work, but I was chosen last. Dead last, among all of humanity, as they were whittled away one by one? I think the powers were avoiding me, saving me for last as long as they could. They did come from Ozpin originally, after all, so perhaps some of his will resides within them."
Salem seemed to notice the same thing about the Grimm and nodded. If this truly was the end of humanity, then that meant…
I'm the Winter maiden. The Spear of Destruction is the last remaining relic, and I know from Jinn where its vault is.
It's time.
Salem walked with Ruby into the vault, leaving the empty world behind them. The two women stared at the spear with awe.
It had all been leading up to this. From the moment she'd killed her uncle to the first mission to becoming the maidens one by one, all of Ruby's journeys, all of her growth, all of her pain – this was the reward. Serving Salem by collecting her relics and handing them to her grace to be finally used.
Ruby was ready for a surprise case of death to spring up out of nowhere, but it surprisingly never came. Salem just stood there, practically salivating at the sight of the relic.
"Bring it to me," she commanded.
The miniaturized sword, lamp, and crown jangled on Ruby's belt as she walked towards the dais on which the spear had been planted. They were in a grassy field that seemed to stretch into infinity, with no landscape or features to be seen on the horizon. Ruby might have almost felt comfortable in such a kind place if she weren't keenly aware of what was to come next.
Grasping the spear with one hand, she plucked it off the pedestal and held it up. There was no rumbling in the ground, no quaking Remnant or burst of typhoons to herald the world's destruction. It was just a staff being lifted and carried.
Salem may as well have been hyperventilating for how frantically the Grimm queen was panting as Ruby delivered the spear into her hands. She nodded once, and Ruby plucked the other relics off her belt one by one.
The lamp, sized up, was hooked onto the tip of the staff by the ring that was used to hold it.
The sword was taken by Salem in her other hand.
The crown was placed around the sword.
Salem steadied her breath. "The moment is finally at hand. Brother Gods, origin beings of light and darkness…I SUMMON THEE!"
She tapped the sword and staff together, and there was instantly a brilliant burst of light. Ruby's eyes were forced closed to prevent herself from going blind, and she raised her arms to shield herself from this luminous blast. At the same time, a low ringing noise steadily began to rise in volume until it was too loud to be ignored.
Then, as quickly as it had come, the light disappeared, and the ringing sound ceased.
Ruby opened her eyes to see that she was standing…somewhere. This wasn't a place with which she was familiar, nor was it anything she'd ever seen in pictures or heard descriptions of.
Right in front of her was some sort of lake-thing, with a manmade island placed within the motionless waters. The island had a raised circular platform on it, and there was a pretty little yellow tree at the center.
She looked around at her surroundings to her sides and behind her. Immediately, she saw Salem to her right, and the woman was looking eager. The pair was standing on a paved pathway, and behind them were steps that led down a long and winging trail. If Ruby had to guess, she would say that she was at the top of a mountain…wait, Mount Serathusa?
Yeah, now that I'm looking around, I think this is the lake that I fought Lìxià in! There are some other features that weren't here last time, like the tree and the stairs, and the cabin and farm she used to have are both gone, but it's definitely the same place. I guess it was transformed into something special by the same force that teleported us here?
"Gods!" Salem cried out. She dropped to her knees. Ruby noticed that the relics she'd been holding had mysteriously vanished.
The still waters suddenly began to grow violent, with small ripples turning into large waves that grew only larger and larger. The water began to move in a circular pattern, spiraling around and around as its speed grew. Ruby took a few steps back in fear when the water began to rise up into the air in a large, water spout that was limited to this tiny lake and didn't seem to be feeding into any clouds that Ruby could see.
"Gods! I have completed your mission! The relics are united!"
The water kept growing more and more turbulent, and a second micro-hurricane built up in the same way that the first one had. It was the smaller of the two, but both were still sights to behold.
Ruby couldn't explain it, but witnessing these vortexes of water made her feel like she was the smallest thing in the world by comparison. Looking upon them was like looking into a clear night sky and seeing the full breadth of the heavens above; one could easily lose herself in the splendor and terror of the sight.
The water eventually cleared, and there were two tall, thin beings standing side by side in its place. Ruby hadn't even realized she was kneeling before them until she looked down and saw her own knees touching the ground.
The one that had replaced the larger water spout was a vivacious golden being that glowed like he'd been perpetually ignited by the purest of all Fire Dusts. His horns were of a stag, and he stood with his arms joined in front of his torso. Though he wasn't wearing any clothes, Ruby could see no signs of gender, or any personally identifying features on the being for that matter. He was like a doll – amorphous and vague enough to represent an outline for humanity but not a particular human. The only reason Ruby was calling him a 'he' was because she was fairly certain she already knew this divine being identity from the fables of her culture's legendarium (Salem calling them out also helped).
The second Brother God, the younger and somewhat smaller one, was a rich purple, one similar in tone to the black, white, and red of the Grimm all blended together. His horns were of the ram, and his arms were neatly folded behind his back.
The calmness that the God of Light made her feel was immediately balanced by the wariness she gained when gazing upon the God of Darkness' aura. They were two distinct beings, and yet they were one and the same. Life and death, together in a flawless balance. A cyclical process, Ruby might have said, with one turn moving the dial towards the other side, only for that side to inevitably lead back to the first.
"I have done as you asked!" declared Salem, bowing her head once more. "The relics have been reunited. Your time has come, and your day of arrival is none other than today! Judgment is nigh!"
The Brothers stood perfectly still. Neither one budged an inch, with their arms still mirroring one another in opposite stances. Ruby and Salem patiently waited for them to move or speak or do anything.
Eventually, their heads turned. The Gods of Light looked away from the God of Darkness, and he did the same in the other direction. Both beings surveyed the landscape, and Ruby had a feeling they were seeing with more than just the hollowed out recesses that resembled eyes in their formless faces.
Salem spoke of judgment. They're judging us, then?
It would be folly to speak; now was obvious the moment for the gods and interrupting them was impossible. Though Ruby possessed the means to speak up, the mere idea of it was unthinkable. How Salem had even breathed a word in their presence was still a mystery to Ruby.
"Judgment was promised," said the God of Light.
"Judgment shall be proffered," said the God of Darkness.
Judgment…Salem had done all this to be judged? Ruby knew she was an immortal being, so she supposed the math tracked that she had some sort of personal relationship with the creators of the world.
Maybe she craves for it all to end as I do. That certainly would explain her wiping out humanity and then immediately summoning two gods for 'judgment.'
The Gods continued to turn their heads, slowly perusing the landscape. Salem's heavy breathing was all Ruby could hear.
She's really nervous about this. This must have been all she's been working towards for centuries or possibly even millennia. This is quite possibly the most important moment in her life.
And yet the Gods just kept standing there.
Something's wrong, here. Why are they just waiting? Why aren't the smiting us or whatever it is the judgment is supposed to entail?
Ruby didn't particularly crave death, but she was ready for it to happen. Now that the relics had been collected and the maiden powers claimed, there was truly nothing left on Remnant to do. It was just a shell of a planet with no people and no purpose.
Judgment, whatever form it took, would be a blessing.
"When we departed, we vowed to judge humanity," said the God of Darkness.
"Humanity is worthy," said the God of Darkness. "So we declare."
"W-What?" Salem rasped, but the Gods didn't even seem to hear it.
"The world has become a land of harmony."
"Humanity's true reach shall be restored. Purity shall be renewed."
"Let the cycle reach its conclusion."
"There is no need for death when life has become a fitting paradise."
The gods' hands dropped down to their sides in perfect synchronicity. Then, they turned to face one another. Both raised both hands and pushed them forward. The hopeful white gleam of the Elder Brother merged with the unholy pale mist of the Younger Brother when their palms touched, and they disappeared. Both forms blinked away, just like that. It was so abrupt that Ruby rubbed her eyes and looked around just to make sure that she hadn't lost sight of them when they teleported or something.
"And so we are no more," said a twin pair of disembodied voices.
"What?" Salem cried. "What? No, no, you were supposed to –"
Ruby looked at the Grimm queen…
…except she wasn't a Grimm anymore. Though her dark and edgy outfit remained the same, Salem's skin was no longer the ashen gray it usually was but instead a more typical pale hue. Her hair was now blonde and much brighter – not as bright as Yang's, certainly, but bright enough that it looked like an actual normal human's hair. All in all, she looked like an actual person and not a monstrous monarch.
The words of the gods echoed in her head. Purity shall be renewed.
"You're normal," Ruby said without thinking.
Salem's head snapped up to her. "What?"
"Y-You're…You're –"
"Kill me." Salem's angry face growled at Ruby, snarling like a feral beast. "Kill me. Do it, now!"
Ruby didn't really know what the fuck Salem was on about, but it wasn't her place to disobey, so she sent a spear of fire right through Salem's heart.
The attack passed right into her, leaving a scorched hole of charred flesh where Salem's chest was supposed to be. The stench of burning meat filled Ruby's nostrils, but Salem didn't drop dead.
"No! No, no, they were supposed to free me! They were supposed to lift my curse!"
Ruby didn't have the full picture here (she had no idea what history Salem and those two beings had), but context clues from what they had said gave her a pretty good idea of what was wrong.
"They liked what we did with the world and rewarded you with spending an eternity in what they see as a perfected world," Ruby hypothesized. "And now –"
"NO!" Salem screeched. "NO! NO! NO!"
Ruby's queen strode towards her with purpose, arms reaching forward, and Ruby lowered her aura. This was what she'd known was coming all along.
Salem didn't even hesitate to push her entire arm right through Ruby's throat. The fingers, encased in some sort of purple magic to sharpen their point, pierced the skin and passed right through Ruby's flesh all the way to her back on the other side. There was pain, and plenty of it.
But not as much as there should have been.
Salem's hand pulled out of Ruby, soaked in blood, but Ruby remained standing. Reaching a hand to where there should have been a deep gash in her neck, Ruby felt nothing out of the ordinary there. There was no hole or wound to be seen, rather, to be felt.
I'm…I'm…
The master and her servant locked eyes. Queen and maiden, they stared at one another as the realization that all of humanity had been gifted with immortality in this godly 'paradise' sank in.
"No, no, it can't be!"
Salem began to reach down and stab her fingers into her stomach. Each time she did, she tore out a chunk of flesh and threw it onto the ground, but her human body remained unchanged. The pile of ripped human muscle and tissue on the ground continued to grow in size, but Salem's body didn't diminish in size.
"No! Please! Gods, please don't leave me so! You promised release!"
As Salem continued to break down, Ruby took a few steps away from her and over to the pool. Following the Gods' departure, the waters had become steadier and even, to the point that Ruby could see her own reflection in the surface when she leaned over it.
I look the same. There's no physical difference in me.
Ruby placed her hands against her ears.
Then, she pressed as hard as she could.
Her eyes continued to work for the entire time even as Ruby felt the material behind their sockets being mashed, and she could see every second of her head being crushed like a watermelon. Ruby's entire skull caved in almost instantly from her enhanced strength, and she could feel her hands touching the mushy brain matter within. Blood ran down her cheeks and dripped into the waters, diffusing outwards in all direction, and even a few chunks of Ruby's head dropped down with minor splashes. As with before, she still felt pain, but it was muted…capped, almost, never rising above the level of a broken bone or so.
Ruby blinked down at the reflection. It was a gruesome, gory image, one that should have terrified her in visceral horror from its mere sight, but the true fear came when she pulled her hands back and saw that her reflection was now an unchanged human head. Her own face stared back without a scratch. It hadn't sealed up or regenerated or something; it was just like the damage ceased to be the second she let go.
"Oh my gods," Ruby said, only to realize that they probably weren't the beings to beseech here.
They left. They're gone. It's just…
Ruby turned back around to see Salem frantically digging her arms into her chest and flinging out lungs and hearts and innards of all sorts.
"NOOOO!" she squealed. "NOOOO! NO! NO NO NO NO NO!"
"M-My queen," Ruby whimpered hopelessly. The full weight of this development was beginning to sink in, and Ruby felt like she could cry.
"NOOOOOOO!" Salem's legs kicked up and down into the ground like an infant. "NOOOOO-HOOO-HOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
It was just the two of them, trapped in this empty world now and forever.
Ruby had chosen Salem. And now, Salem was all Ruby would ever have.
Author's Notes
So. Mount Serathusa, home of Lìxià the summer maiden, was the God of Light's pool all along. Salem had built her house on top of the God of Darkness' one, meaning that they both still existed in the world.
In my opinion, being stuck eternally with your old boss who you know cares for you only as an object of their will is worse than being alone forever. If Ruby had just become the next Salem, cursed to immortality as punishment for her sins, that would have been nothing new - just plain plagiarism of Salem's actual backstory. It's being trapped with her bitter, hateful, already-insane queen, the bad influence who corrupted her, that makes it special.
That concludes Remnant's Greatest Villain. I think you can see why I called this one mid. It's got its moments (the ending), but aside from the ending, doesn't it sort of feel...plain? Plot-wise? Like, had I walked up to someone off the street and read them Origin Story and given them an hour to come up with the plot to a dark ending, this would have been the result. Anyone could have written this, so it's hard to be proud. Ruby goes bad, she blows up everyone, murder sprees, blood + gore + bones + boners, death, edgy gritty darkness, Jonkler we live in a society, welcome to my dark twisted mind, yada-yada-yada...
Like, to me, I feel like I can do better stories, ones that have unique premises (like Murderess and her Brain, K, Job Security). This was just the most generic, expected checkpoints for a descent-into-evil story. I even took out a Menagerie chapter because all I had in my draft was 'Ruby washes over Menagerie in a giant tidal wave.' I could have removed Ruby in Mistral and nothing would have changed.
I'm not trying to bash anyone who enjoyed it. I just feel like I only made this so the Yin and Yang of Hero and Villain would be complete. Either way, it's over now, so I can rest and enjoy relaxing as Hero finishes up. Sorry for all of the negativity, but too be fair, this story is an inherently negative one.
Happy rats, and don't do crime!