Through the twisted battered walls of once magnificent splendor which made up the stunning symbol of Mobius's power, where all who ventured could hear the distinct jolly laughs of four little girls constantly driving their nannies mad, now sat lifeless in the mash of decay. Somehow, even though mere months had presumably passed since its downfall, the sturdy castle walls which lay shattered and dead appeared as though under the blanket of hundreds of years.

But such was the way of the Grimm blight, which Salem clearly unleashed in full after her battle with Ozma, which not only eradicated their home, but took the lives of the children... or so it seemed.

Magic, a lost art from a long ago extinct Humanity, did devious wonders on this place, and as Pebble and her traveled through and around, adhering to the labyrinth now guiding them as safe as could be through the broken mess of her past life, Ruby paused, time and time again, as she came across remnants of that history. Shattered family portraits, shards of homemade pottery which Diamond spent her weekends working on alongside her mother. Beside the princesses' room lay a small wooden sword - Garnet's favored toy, if she recalled - which Ozma himself had carved for her from oak both he and his wife had enchanted, ensuring an undying timeless proof of their love.

Being forced to traverse the kitchens due to the castle's near uprooted state, they came beside the little set of kitchenware Hematite used under strict supervision of Angela, who'd encouraged the budding noble sprout's ambition to outdo the professionals who worked adjacent to them - a challenge the little Mobius took with pride.

Worst of all, however, had to be the instance when they'd finally found the woman of the hour.

Alone in the center of the explosive wave of destruction, near the core of the gardens whose little fairy homes were nowhere to be found - as with any signs of the garden itself - sat Salem, the Dark Queen, clutching in her arms a sewn figure resembling the mischievous little sprites. Cassiterite had stitched to life that little toy. Having spent most of her days immediately following the new pets' reveal, the gentlest of the divine rulers' children had been enamored with them. She'd always loved gardening before, but being joined in her singing to the flowers had intertwined the fairies in her heart, and so she'd immortalized her wonder, carrying it around wherever she could.

Whether it was their connection to her daughters and the wonder these fairies brought which inspired the woman to adapt them into the dutiful Seers of the modern day couldn't be wholly confirmed, but Ruby liked to think they kept at least a tiny piece of the immortal mother's Humanity intact, even if all she could process was revenge.

"Is this what you were always alluding to?" Salem croaked, face buried deeper into the steel-clutched patchwork guardian. "Is this to be my reward for having trusted in you? My family in tatters, and my husband so willing to throw our love away for these... worthless, insufferable mortals."

"This is no reward," Ruby muttered, solemnly. "Just an inevitability which could not be stopped."

"And you knew of this? All of it?" Broken words from a broken woman, who dared shoot a glare towards her, only for those eyes to widen and pause as they spied the companion beside their target. "Who... is this?"

"Him?" Ruby tossed a glance down to the boy, before returning. "His name is Pebble, and he's been my companion throughout my travels." Through a halfhearted laugh, she added, "If it wasn't for him, I doubt I'd be coming back to you now with any semblance of sanity remaining."

By this point, and with mind off the addictive line of vengeance for mere moments, Salem seemed to feel it, the darkness radiating from her very skin. Looking up, and holding the doll now less rabidly, the destroyer muttered faintly.

"You... you're tainted with destruction; pure as the god himself."

"So I am." By now, her physical form had begun failing to contain it, but it must. Salem, being tainted herself, could see beyond the veil and pick out the destructive force effortlessly; those of light would not, and it was this tidbit of fact that their plot relied upon. Regardless of how things went down, one thing stayed true: Ruby Rose would finally pass, and enter into the afterlife once more - a free soul to be reborn when the time came, and entirely ignorant of the millennium or more she'd suffered through for all these years.

Only then, when she could not comprehend it, would Ruby learn if her trip itself had meaning.

For a spill, Salem stayed quiet, observant of any signs of trickery. When none showed their faces, she found the courage to ask, "Why have you come?"

"To put an end to things once and for all." Approaching, Ruby slowly began to release Pebble's hand, letting the boy move at his own speed. As expected, he'd gone - cautiously - to check up on Salem, earning her intrigue as he examined her to the best of his abilities, all the while Ruby reclaimed her focus via explanation. "The marks of the seal are in place, now all we need is to prepare the trap."

"Trap?" Salem questioned, only for her eyes to grow wide with shock when Ruby, one by one, summoned from her body the four Relics Of Redemption. "N-no..." Almost rapidly she sputtered. "Y-you can't have- They were cast away!"

"You cast the relic of knowledge out, yes, but it wound up in the hands of Veilroot: the kingdom you hated most." Fury compounded within Salem, until she added, "However they have paid for their crimes; I've seen to it myself during the reclamation."

"And the others? Ozma cast them off lifetimes ago, before we founded Mobius even... How did you track them down?"

"It was always my duty to take them back; an obligation I owe to my benefactor. While corrupting the very land, at his request in preparation for now, I'd come across them one after the other - they were always drawn to me in some fashion, this I'm sure is his doing as well, but even without I would have needed to track them down. My possession of them was inevitable."

"He..." Here, it finally clicked; the darkness, the relics, corruption, Ruby could see all the thoughts compounding across her face. "The God Of Destruction..." Collapsing to her knees, she barely held herself up even with the aid of Pebble. "Even now, they were always meddling with our lives, despite decreeing they'd abandon us forever."

"His elder brother had... partially; certainly enough to look away until the relics called him back." Grabbing Salem's hopeless eyes again, Ruby finally unraveled their scheme. "But the younger brother... he has different plans."

Within her outstretched palms darkness swelled, and Ruby carefully stepped back a distance and lowered onto her knees with a Shadow Seed in hand. But this wasn't just any seed... No, this was something specially; wholly unconnected from the links of the seal, but perhaps the crux of it all.

"What... are you doing?"

"Planting the final piece," Ruby expelled, pressing the shard of crackling sable into the ruined cobble below, watching then as it sank inside and its faint hum dissipated. "Vermillion will never awaken this one, but that's okay; he doesn't need to."

"Vermillion..." Restrained fuss echoed as Salem clambered out, "Are you saying he is alive?" Ruby nodded, to which Salem demanded, "Tell me where he is!"

"Not here."

"What?"

Smiling caringly, Ruby wandered over and reached out to grasp Salem's hands, thumbing over the backs.

"Don't worry, you'll see him again, and when you do, I guarantee that, no matter what happens, you'll be standing before the doors of death. You'll finally die, just like you wanted, and Vermillion will put to end a war which never should have been." Leaning in gently, she planted a tiny kiss on the queen's cheek, before backing away to hover over her gardened treasure. "But not now..." Standing strong with purpose fulfilled, she cast the four relics together, and they merged in a glorious light. "It's time for the Brothers to look upon their creation once more."

The air grew heavy with, not quite dread, but far from the element of peace. Uncertainty may describe it well, were it not for the rush of unabashed panic ensuing in the hearts of two unknowing onlookers. Pebble instinctively clenched on to Salem, however his face bore the struggles of courage trying to uphold their shield as he did his best to stare down what he presumed to be his demise in the face, whereas Salem's fear and hate shined bright, staving off the beam of light and dark to rain from the heavens in an ear-shattering torrent. Flames of intertwined lavender and gold mingled around, coating everything momentarily in stale, almost frozen warmth, and all dissipated in a deep second of colorless gray.

With the settling of the winds, and the whirling, and the quaking, the trio were beholden to two humanoid figures, one of yellow, and one of purple, and both without features but carrying horns atop their heads. The colors returned, as if begging for permission, but rapidly filled the scene and hungrily shot around the duo, whose own flame of unbreakable presence eradicated any outside attempts on their position in this world.

The Brother Gods had returned.

"So it has come." Breaking the silence first, the God Of Light and eldest brother stepped forward as a mortal would, his eyeless mask twisting organically in a manner befitting an intrigued onlooker to whatever shouts had drawn their eye. "And in the midst of disaster, apparently."

"I like it, dear brother," said the dark one, voice heavy with playful sass. "It reminds me of my first children's work." And, as if she'd beckoned him herself, the God Of Darkness, with an unseen twinkle in his missing eyes, aptly pointed out. "Oh, and brother, I think that one wishes for your attention."

"So it appears." In this span of not-quite-frozen time, every step he took "pinged" out, like a tiny bell ringing to alert of his presence. He stood before her now, appearing to gaze within her soul... but he could not; that was the trick. For all they were, the gods were not omniscient, nor omnipresent, even if their mastery over reality should have been limitless. There was one creation beyond their control.

Remnant itself, the realm abandoned and having survived to make itself its own.

Ruby, upon having him before her, simply reached out, as if begging for his touch. Be it out of sympathetic benevolence, or purely curiosity, the God Of Light accepted her hand, taking it into his own, and as he did so everything fell into place.

None could hear it, or feel it, but as the Light Lord thrashed, nearly frozen but able to bend, black gooey tendrils ripped free of her skin, and Ruby felt her soul betray her flesh and make its escape. While she wouldn't know what becomes of this yet, one element had fully come to fruition.

Ruby Rose had finally found peace.

.


.

"AuGh!!!!!!!! NEAh~hgH-HH!!!!!!!!"

Sputtering and broken with divine suffering rending the very reality around them, Salem was at a loss for what befell Remnant here and now. There, thrashing around rabidly as the binds of black viscus muck ensnared the god and drew him in, the body of the woman whose mysteries remained so scattered began to crack, and both the darkness and the light poured out from broken bloodless skin in cascades of conflicting aura. Black and white tentacles fought for dominance all across the body, ripping apart everything but the skin itself, which struggled to remain fastened to the muscle below.

"How does it feel, dear brother?" So... arrogant and unbothered was the younger brother, to the point Salem could not deny he had a part in this to play, such as the woman's claim. "Hurts when the vessel doesn't fit, huh?"

"YOU!" Fighting through the unbearable pain, the master of order accused the other from within the body of his captor; eyes burning with pure white light which harbored only the hint of silver irises behind. "THIS WAS YOUR DOING WASN'T IT!"

"Maybe a little," the Dark Lord taunted with a shrug, shaking his head as carefree as can be. "But most of it belongs to the soul you've evicted from that body. Her stubbornness gave her the strength of will to witness her failures, over, and over, and over again. An endless re-enactment of sorrow and suffering: agony in its purest form."

Slowly, the manifestation of chaos and change approached his orderly sibling, and his texture-less cheeks stretched a fraction, signifying a smile as he leaned before the enraged face of his contorting older brother.

"But you feel that too, now don't you?" Pulling away, the Dark Lord circled the newborn enigma, who continued to struggle just maintaining his balance. "All her memories, all her plans and schemes, they've come running in all at once; a world of hurt, mortal hurt." Chuckling, he rounded back. "You've surely brushed that off though, haven't you? I know I did when she first came to me." Excitement bubbled from within the god's throat. "It's so... inconceivable, so unbelievably audacious: using your relics in such a way as to erase even our recollections of the past. Ha! What an irony... Stringing the creators of these tools into her schemes; relying on a loophole in the limitless all reaching power of the "second chance" you've given them."

"A m-Mmm!" Buckling over, the elder brother took a moment just to get his bearings and pick himself back up. "A mere o-oversight. One I can erase in an insta-AAHHHH!"

"Oh no you won't~" Arm cast out towards his sibling, thorny vines of purest tar caked in shadowy purple smog ripped from the ground below and wrapped up the god in Human skin. Salem immediately recalled the Shadow Seed. Waggling his finger, the Dark Lord added, "I won't be allowing you to interfere in this."

"Y-you fool..." Cackling out a series of wheezed coughs, the Light Lord shot down his brother's decree. "R-regardless of how... How t-tainted this vessel is, I s-still at least have one. I can ta-take my time... purifying it. And when I-HNMM! W-when I do, I'll be f-free to walk the surface again! Your d-delusion based tricks mean NOTHING!"

"Ah yes~" Soothingly, with spice abundant, the God Of Darkness seemingly admitted to that fact, but Salem couldn't discount the raw mischief rumbling alongside what he said. "That is true. You have a vessel now, meaning you won't be kicked out of this realm anytime soon. Funny... I recall this being your fault too, wasn't it?"

Receiving nothing but scorn as the binds held him fast, the Dark Lord mocked openly.

"By your decision we abandoned our creation, and in our absence, she grew scornful. Remnant... this world born of our essence, has made that power its own; they are like us, gods in their own right, but much more... m~mh, primitive." Kicking himself up unto the air and laying across nothing on his stomach, swooning almost like a young teenage girl wishfully daydreaming atop her bed, the younger brother's voice carried with it a sizeable amount of spunk. "Given time the creatures of this world will master their power, becoming wholly divine in a sense... But unlike us, Remnant will permit their presence forevermore, instead of trying to kick them out. Even now, I feel the disturbance; I've not long before either I leave of my own volition, or I'm cast away forcefully. But you don't feel that call, do you?"

"I d-don't know what you believe this to accomplish, but w-when I escape these binds... I will ensure you experience suffering multitudes beyond these pinpricks I s-stroll through now..."

"Don't be so modest," suggested the cheeky god. "You're allowed to admit to the excruciating agony." Melting webs of darkness began to rise up over the Light Lord inhabiting the unfitting body, constructing a cage of sorts with the bars being linked by a thick film of ebony. "But when you do return, that will be the day we finally settle things, once and for all."

The cage complete, with not a break in sight and completely hiding the raging god within, this... divine retribution of sorts - Salem couldn't fathom a proper term for this hallucinogenic trip playing out right in front of her eyes - left them with an egg of pure darkness. Soon, however, around the egg formed colorless walls across its surface, and an opening arch leading into it. Skeletal hands circled the entrance, each carrying an orb with a bright flame inside. At a loss for this dome, Salem felt no additional shock when the Dark Lord approached it, laying his hands across the surface and muttering, not to any of them, but seemingly to the woman who'd sacrificed herself to capture his older brother.

"You did good, better than expected even. Don't worry, no matter how many times we ignorantly repeat this, our day will come, and with it, your face will herald my victory."

Then, perhaps remembering he had an audience, the god left the seemingly impenetrable prison to approach, and while Pebble moved between them in an act of shaky defense, Salem remained struck with total loss. The boy's rattling voice called out, as if louder meant stronger.

"I won't let you hurt her!"

Drawing some chuckles from the deep violet figure, he reached a hand down. Pebble flinched, but soon eased up a little when the God Of Destruction began ruffling his hair.

"Watching her for all these years... I think I'm finally beginning to understand the significance behind you mortals; what enthralls my brother so much he'd be willing to do anything to get back into Remnant's good graces." Kneeling, he spoke at level to the boy. "Don't be afraid. Unlike my brother, I've no intention to eradicate you should you deny total subservience to what I deem justice. In fact, I like your chaotic nature; it keeps you interesting. You're so willing to commit to the inconceivable, to the point you trump even our own creative design. It fills me with pride even now to see someone so small and weak stand before me; willing to brazenly challenge the natural order of things just for the chance of making a difference, no matter how small that chance may be. And don't worry, I can feel your fear for her swelling around you; Ruby is well. Her soul escaped when she touched his hand; only my brother is facing punishment."

Standing, the younger brother approached her now, and offered her a hand. Stiltedly, Salem blinked towards the gesture.

"Are you... is this... what?"

"I'm offering you a hand; this is a gesture of goodwill between you mortals, right?"

"Ah... I..." With her brain not working, Salem's instincts kicked in, and she accepted the offer and was pulled to her feet, where the latency seemed to pass and she asked, "Why did you do that? If... If you wanted me up, couldn't you have lifted me without staining your hands?"

"I could... but unlike my brother, I wanted to offer you the choice." Casting his featureless face back to the prison, he added, "Especially now, with the mother of fate's scheme in full play."

"M-mother of... what?"

Chuckling, he turned back.

"Don't worry about it. Instead, hear me now: one day, the champion will return into your life, and should he find the seals Ruby Rose has left behind, my brother's sentence will be extended. Should this happen, your eventual demise will be pushed back... but not postponed."

No... Nonononono! "B-but can't you just kill me now?!" Salem, losing some of her control, grappled onto his arms. "Please! Please free me from this punishment! I beg of you!" Slamming her head into his chest, she rattled out through a tease of tears just waiting to drop. "I've learned of death's importance, I swear! Please, I don't want to do this anymore, I-!"

His hand cradled the back of her head, and he gently pulled her away.

"Believe me, if I could, I would. But my brother was the one to rend you from my power's grasp. While my darkness may enhance your body as a side-effect of your curse, it will never kill you. He must be the one to lift your curse; it was his to begin with."

"Then..." Salem nearly fell, but was prevented by his hands on her arms. Still, she looked him in the eyes as she loathed. "I'm doomed."

"Not so." Hinting towards the bitter, almost bygone topping of hope, the Dark Lord exclaimed, "Should the champion fail to uphold the seals, and they all burn out entirely, then my brother will break free, and I will face him down myself, perhaps in a vessel of my own, and ensure he sets you free and leaves this land be. Should he succeed, though, my brother's sentence will simply be extended, until the relics are called upon again and he is freed from our grasp. But, should he be summoned by the relics themselves, the act will erase his memory of our scuffle here - that I have ensured - and so he'll carry on with erasing this world's presence as was promised; either way, you'll have the death you seek."

"Vermillion..." She whispered, trying to fathom what it meant for her to know of this champion for so long."

"Indeed." Stepping back, the God Of Darkness carried with him that carefree attitude from before. "She's insured he will return at the critical apex, the divide where Remnant's destiny is decided again, but whether he does so incomplete or whole will be yours to discover when the time comes."

"Do... Do you know where he is?" She just had to know, if only for her peace of mind.

"Resting in the darkness, outside of Remnant's knowledge. Being born half of this world, however, he will be welcomed back with open arms; as for where he'll end up, even I cannot say. But carry this in your heart, and never forget it: he will succeed, even if he has to fail one-hundred fold or more before. My brother will eventually break free, and I will face him; this cannot be changed. So whether you choose to obscure his path or aid in his fate, that is for you to decide; you may only quicken things, not prevent them. No matter what you perceive, even should you begin remembering forgotten failures you've lived and not lived, the champion will succeed."

Bowing politely, the cockiness returned.

"And with that, I bid you adieu~"

Rocketing up into the sky in a beam of darkness which faded just as fast, Pebble and her were left behind with the haunting shell keeping the entombed God Of Light imprisoned. The champion; seals; Remnant's abandonment; mother of fate; none of this made any sense. Salem wasn't sure how long she sat there stewing in disbelief, but at one point she finally picked up on Pebble, who was leaning back against the twisted prison and seemingly untouched. Curiosity over the boy's decision to rest there, she set her focus on that instead, if only to quell the chaos of her mind.

"Child... Pebble, was it?" Her inquiry got him looking at her, and he nodded, giving her the affirmation needed to carry on. "Why have you taken rest there? The gods are dangerous, and even if it isn't harming you now, it may well strike you down at a moment's notice."

"I'm okay with that."

Pardon me?! Shocked again, but for different reasons, she bade he answer.

"What do you mean? You can die. Does that not scare you?" Yes, she herself wished for death, but she'd seen and experienced all there could be, endlessly for more than a lifetime demanded; Pebble was merely a budding young boy, perhaps only old enough to grow his first bundle of hair in places he didn't understand. Maybe a man in the eyes of many, Salem saw only a boy throwing his life-to-be away.

"No. I'm not afraid to die." Making her heart leap a little in terror not fully her own, Pebble went on to recount, "I followed my new mom here, knowing I'd probably die. She wanted me to go back home, but she was my home. She saved me, and even though the town and Miss Blossom were nice, I didn't want to leave her alone to stand up against what scared her. She didn't say it, but I could tell she was a little afraid, and I wanted to be there with her." Resting his back against the black, he capped it off with, "So I'm okay if I die here; we did it. I don't know what we did, but we did it, and... I think mom would be happy that we did, both Ruby, and my first mom."

"But she wouldn't wish for you to die." Salem didn't know when she started walking, only that she now carried the startled boy in her arms, and had at some point begun moving away from the prison. "This I know. I am a mother myself, and it hurts me deeply knowing my own children are no more."

"You... lost your kids?" He asked, warily and full of empathy at having lost family twice over it seemed. Salem, in turn, nodded, casting a look back at the trap. She didn't want anything to do with it, or the war Ozma had unleashed upon her anew. She didn't want any more chaos or despair, or pain or suffering.

In her arms sat a child in need of a parent, and until the day he finally left to reunite with his mothers before her, Salem would guide him along his journey herself. Even if she wasn't his, she refused another child under her care failure in meeting adulthood. And until the day that was said and done, and she was lonely once again, the Grimm of Mobius would all converge to guard and protect this prison, until it was time to reap her vengeance upon the world and Ozma in earnest.

Salem just wanted to be a mother once more, even if only for a little while.

"I have," she told, cradling him even though he'd just passed the age for such, finding no issue in carrying him along as Grimm slowly unearthed themselves all around and dashed to take point in protecting the jail. "I've lost five little girls, and a boy."

"I'm sorry... I didn't mean to bring up painful memories." Such a sweet child; already she was beginning to understand Ruby's commitment to the boy.

"It's okay, it's not your fault." She whispered, allowing her eyes to settle on the horizon beyond the tatters of her kingdom. "It hurts, but it would hurt me more to let you die."

"Me?"

"Yes, you." A small part of herself felt a sense of betrayal towards her own children, feeling partially that this was her abandoning them. Not even remotely true, and it took only a second for her to correct that mistake and fully understand her feelings. She'd seen enough children die already; it was time to fulfill her duty and see to it that the child in her arms lives to see tomorrow. "Ruby wouldn't want you to die, and since she's gone, I believe the best way to thank her for all she's done for me is to take care of you myself. I... I know I can't replace her, and I'm unsure if I'll be the best mother out there, but know that I'll try my best, no matter how hard it becomes-!"

Locking up, she stared with prickling tears anew and a swell of pressure in her chest as Pebble carefully slid the bracelet previously over his wrist onto hers. Smiling brightly, he then faced her again.

"There we go." Obviously pleased, his expression stood leagues apart from her own befuddlement as she carefully lifted said hand, having to set him down to observe the tiny bracelet.

"What... is this?"

"It's a lucky charm," he said, completely ignorant to how she felt gazing upon the item. "It brings good luck. Mom has one, and I gave one to her friend who was a mom too. It works best on moms I think, so it's probably more of a mom bracelet than just luck."

"And... you're giving one to me?" Her arms felt weak, collapsing into goop when Pebble replied brightly, full of confidence and even a little ego.

"Yep. If you're going to be my mom too, then you need one. Besides, I can just make another for myself anyway, that way we can match."

It took Salem nearly two minutes to get beyond the point of mindless heart-strung babbling to herself, before thanking Pebble properly and leading him by hand along.

For the next several years, she stayed true to her promise, raising Pebble into a fine young man in her eyes, and even seeing that his donations of furs and food go untouched by anyone other than the homeless and orphaned children he gifted them too. While a phantom to all but him, Salem took pride in his adult life as a hunter, who soon became a hero in his own right having aided in the unification of Veilroot, who'd been struggling since the collapse of their slave trade.

She'd even attended his wedding to the young Scarlet Rose: the only daughter of Thorn and Veronica Rose; named seemingly after Ruby's identity under them - although Salem herself would later come to learn they knew of her true name as well. She'd paid a short secretive visit to the couple shortly after the wedding, and learned that the woman Pebble passed one of his bracelets to as a child was Veronica herself, for she was wearing it all these years later. Swearing them to secrecy, Salem vanished from their lives for a time and overlooked them from afar, choosing to return only to see Pebble off into the peace of the afterlife on his deathbed.

From then on, she'd stayed with Scarlet and the Rose family until only the woman herself remained, cared for by her own three children, and once she'd paid her final dues and seen Scarlet away into paradise's embrace, Salem vanished for one hundred years, before returning to the lost and forgotten kingdom of old. Ozma had begun stringing a secretive party together, and after slaying an ambush in wait - including the sorrowful man himself - she saw fit to begin her war in earnest.

It was here, upon laying eyes once more on the prison of the elder god, that Salem spat venomously her unbreakable decree.

"I'll never let you win, no matter how much pain I must endure. I. Will. See. You. FALL."


Author's note

...

Well... that escalated quickly.

Now hopefully, I've done this right; I wanted to get so much across in this critical instance, but I also needed to shadow a few things as well. Most importantly, I'm hoping this came off significantly satisfying; seeing the younger brother's plan not only amidst the light, but also the elder brother's entrapment.

Yes, all those obelisks were the seals to keep him at bay, and V's interactions with them renewed the prison - although I figure some of you may have come to that conclusion already... minus the 'god trapped within' part. Heck, now you might understand why V and most people got conflicting feelings around the door; behind sits in torture a wrathful divine.

Originally, a lot of this was meant to show up later, but I feel it fits better here. Be ready, because this is where things get wacky, crazy, and maybe even wild.

Until next time.