Sun walked around Salem as she and Ozma stared each other down. The faunus' mind was racing as he watched the encounter play out, and he took care to note every detail he could of the events he had seen already and those in the process of transpiring. So much of it was surprising, unsettling, and just felt wrong. Meteors were continuing to fall, wiping out incalculable swathes of land and tolling countless lives outside of the magically sealed dome. The God of Light hovered wordlessly above the caldera, simply watching the impossible encounter he had forced into reality. The Relics had been created successfully and contained the essence of literal gods… and yet none of that was what surprised Sun the most. What rattled him more than anything was the expression on Salem's face.

What had been nothing but rage before had quickly begun to shift to misery. Salem looked almost as though she had forgotten entirely about the battle, and the only thing on her mind was the man before her and what his presence meant. Sun had never once seen her show sincere emotion other than anger, in the flashback or the present day. Salem had always seemed motivated and unshakeable… yet there she was standing before him, seeming almost ready to burst into tears.

"…I don't understand," the faunus and the witch said at the same time, causing Sun to shiver and stop talking as he resigned himself to listening. Salem spoke in a low voice, sounding almost afraid. "What are you… how are you… Ozma, the God of Light is our enemy. He's a traitor to his own kin- a thief. He refused to bring you back to me, and now he's doing it out of spite. You don't owe him anything…"

Ozma took a deep breath, audible enough to confirm his apparent humanity as Lora and Astrid moved to their mother's sides. The man kept his blade pointed forward, holding it steady with remarkable control as he shook his head.

"The God of Light did indeed grant me a second chance at life… but this isn't about that. Look around you, Salem. Witness the destruction that your betrayal has caused in a matter of minutes. Two of our daughters lie dead, along with how many others outside? What remains of the planet? What home will you go back to, if you manage to slay another god? Your quest to pull me back to this world has resulted in nothing but ruin, and my being here now cannot be justified against the cost. This needs to end."

"With us against each other?" Salem asked, a bit of anger flaring back into her voice as she gripped the Staff of Creation and secured the Lamp of Knowledge to the side of her belt. "I refuse to accept that. I refuse to bow down to this monster…"

"You must accept my death," Ozma declared, finally lowering the sword down to his side. "Mine was like any other, but you let it change you in ways that have warped you beyond recognition. How much were you willing to sacrifice? When was it going to be too much? Too far?"

Salem looked down at the black stone and turned her head to the side as she closed her eyes. She clenched her jaw and inhaled sharply before meeting Ozma's gaze once again and speaking in a defiant tone.

"…I would give up everything. I will still sacrifice it all to have you at my side once again. Join me in bringing an end to that monster, and our family will pick up the pieces afterward. We could rebuild. Renew the world, together. Make things as they should be…"

"The world as it should be…" Ozma said softly as he shook his head. "Things were not ideal under the stewardship of the gods, but chasing that perfect world without them is folly. The world was as it should have been. Things were stable. Orderly. Now, you've chosen to plunge everything into chaos, and for what? The only way forward is to rebuild, but that task cannot fall to us. If my death was all it took to render you this broken, how can we be responsible for everyone and everything? Humanity would fare no better, with only a fraction of the power to incite change. Come with me, Salem. Embrace an ending. Let our family be together once again and leave the future in hands more capable than ours."

"…and die?" Astrid asked, her face pale. "You're asking us to simply give up and just… admit defeat? Willingly die to join you, away from our home? Hand it all over to him?"

"It is the only path forward," Ozma lamented as he gave his daughter a solemn nod. "After all you've done to work against the God of Light, there can be no mercy. The cycle has been broken, and it cannot start again with your continued interference. I know that it is hard to accept loss, to admit to a mistake that cost us everything…"

"Fighting for you was not a mistake!" Salem roared, her breaths growing erratic as the Staff of Creation began to jitter slightly in her hand. "You were stolen from me! Stolen from us! What use are these supposed gods if not for our protection?"

"The very same gods whose power you now rely on in those Relics," Ozma pointed out. "You have entered our family in a war that you do not even understand…"

"I understand betrayal!" Salem insisted as the God of Light readied a new spell.

"Mother…" Lora said hesitantly, pointing up toward the spectacle.

"I see it!" the witch reassured. "Astrid, the sword. Now!"

"We need to do this together," Astrid repeated. "If anything, Lora should have a Relic for protection. Giving them all to you…"

"I need to set this right," Salem hissed, finally looking over at her daughter. "You should not- cannot fight him."

"I slew a god!" Astrid countered. "I've done more in this fight than you were ever capable of, and the Sword speaks to me!"

"This fighting will never end," Ozma declared as he readied his sword once again. "I am sorry… but the world as it should be doesn't include us any longer."

Yet another portal opened in the sky, large enough for the dragon god to slip through it and away from the battlefield. It was clear that only seconds remained to make a decision. Astrid took a deep breath and opened her mouth to say something.

"Wait!"

The scene ground to a halt, the words never escaping Astrid's mouth as the God of Light paused seconds before slipping through the portal. Jinn looked down at Sun. The faunus was beginning to sweat, looking just as pale as the Maiden he was standing next to.

"Ozpin… Ozma… whatever, he was… he was insistent that no one can stop Salem. That bringing the Relics together would cause something terrible, that everything had to be in his hands to win this war against Salem. This entire time, he was still in service to the God of Light? All of this, everything we've been through, he's been trying to set up a win for that… that thing?"

"…we should continue," Jinn warned. "Not all is as it seems. You have incomplete information…"

Sun threw his hands up in the air and began to pace.

"Yet you can only show us information about what I asked," the faunus pointed out. "We'll never have complete information until he returns and we grill him on it, and even then…"

"We'll do the best we can with what information we have available," James declared. "That has never changed… but it isn't looking good, based on this. Ozpin was always hiding things, always seeming like he was one step ahead…"

"But it doesn't make sense," Qrow pointed out. "There was never talk of redemption for Salem, even in death. It never felt personal. This whole ordeal with the two of them being old lovers… none of this sits right with me. Something's missing. Something big."

Raven nodded her agreement, walking closer to the encroaching conflict.

"…and he always tended to remove himself from the equation when it came to working against Salem, instead relying on all of us. At least… until he went after Ruby, and then Sun. Something changed. We don't even know how far back we've traveled. Letting the origins of this conflict taint our perception of where it is now is… dangerous. Grudges evolve, given enough time."

"Mine certainly is," Sun grumbled. "I guess… this is it. There's something more to the Relics, or we wouldn't be seeing this. Jinn? Keep it going."

Time resumed within the scene, and Astrid immediately tore the circlet from her forehead before tossing it to Lora.

"Go after the God of Light, before he can escape!" Astrid ordered. "I… I can handle him, regardless of what you say. You're compromised. We cannot afford hesitation! The dragon is the root of the problem!"

Salem let out a roar of frustration before grabbing Lora's wrist and taking to the air, speeding up and into the portal as it began to close. Astrid was left alone on the platform, staring down Ozma as the man narrowed his eyes.

"…what are you doing? You were always the most reasonable and level-headed one, Astrid. I expected you of all of our daughters to be the one to talk her down. To make her see sense."

"Don't," Astrid threatened as she hefted the Sword of Destruction and aimed it at her father. "I've seen how she has acted since your death, and I do not trust in her ability to do what needs to be done. We've committed to upending the global order and wresting ourselves free from the gods themselves. Now is not the time to hesitate or listen to honeyed words."

"You believe I want this?" Ozma asked, his voice low. "To stand against my own family? You haven't gone too far to fix this. Salem has, yes, but you and Lora…"

"You can't turn me against our mother," Astrid resolved as she sank deeper into her stance. "I volunteered for this because I have accepted your death. This isn't you. You're a construct. A false representation, here to sow doubt. My father would never simply give up…"

Ozma let out a weary sigh before matching Astrid's stance.

"…you leave me no choice, then. I love you, my daughter."

Astrid let out a yell and charged, swinging her sword hard in a horizontal arc. Ozma's blade met hers, resulting in a shower of sparks as they both faded to smoke and the scene around them transitioned away. Everything brightened considerably as Jinn shifted the memory to the God of Light's mountaintop, where a portal was rapidly closing above the platform high above the water. Though Sun and his crew hadn't spent much time within the realm, they all immediately knew that something was wrong.

The sky all around was a fierce blood red. The higher elevation of the mountain afforded a view of the landscape far below, where giant, thick plumes of smoke were rising from the sites of the continuing meteor impacts. Even from on high, it was clear that almost all of civilization within sight had been destroyed, leaving the country a barren wasteland inhabited only by fire. It very much looked like the end of the world… and Sun couldn't help but wonder how they had ever bounced back.

"Holy shit…" the faunus remarked. "All of Remnant is just… destroyed…"

"This is what's going to happen again if Salem gets her way," Blake said ominously. "We have more reason than ever to fight, seeing all of this. To cause an apocalypse out of love that turned to obsession…"

"If it was love at all," Sun considered. "We didn't see them before this."

Salem and Lora flew out of the portal and landed upon the dais, each readying spells as the God of Light turned and coiled around itself in midair to face the pair. It was then that the serpent spirit in the tiara manifested once again, hanging downward to speak into Lora's ear.

"I have a plan, little one. Killing the God of Light after he has taken power from his brother is beyond our grasp… but we may not need to in order to defeat him…"

Author's Note:

It's going to take more time than I thought to wrap up the Lost Fable. Who could ever have foreseen this.

-RD