(Present Time; Date : unknown; Location :unknown)

In the middle of a dark and desolated landscape and surrounded by hordes of Darkish creatures with red eyes and skull on their heads (they were called Grimm) was an exhausted and wounded young woman. She had shoulder-length black and red hair, fair skin and silver eyes.

She was wearing a high-neck décolletage-like blouse with studded wristbands on the arms, a black and white overbust corset, a skirt with white tulle underneath, gray leggings and finally, she had black knee-high boots with red soles.

She would be a beautiful woman… if it wasn't for both the current state of her clothes and the blood leaking off the wounds she received. Her white cloak was torn and stained with the blood coming from her many wounds and her weapon, a golden and black axe laid broken on the floor, a feet or two away from her body.

She was exhausted beyond measure, as she wouldn't stop panting deeply and, as she laid on her knees, she knew that, despite the fact her wounds were not THAT severe, she was going to die soon… especially when her opponent stepped out of the horde of dark creatures to approach her.

It was a woman with deadly pale skin, jet black scleraes in her crimson eyes. Her white hair were tied into a large bun hairstyle with six offshoots wrapped together with suspended obsidian-colored ornaments. In addition, she had dark purple veins lining her face and arms, along with a black diamond-shaped marking on her forehead.

The Dark Woman was wearing what looked like a very long, short-sleeve form tipped black dress that hid her feet and was partially dragging across the floor. Its most distinct feature was a curved high collar with dark red trim bordering the outer edge of a narrow window exposing her cleavage in a vertical ellipsis that strangely looked like an eye, and completed by a long shawl with three interconnected brown colored vertical ellipsis that looked like three eyes. On her right hand, she was also wearing a Beetle-like ring.

Who was this being ?

Her name was Salem and she was the Queen of the Dark Creatures surrounding the wounded woman.

"You put up a good fight, Summer Rose… It has been a long time since someone had survived so long against me…" Salem began to say with a smile before her expression turned serious as she added almost in slight disappointment.

"But I'm afraid that playtime is over..."

Around, the creatures of Grimm growled or howled their anticipation as their blood red eyes were locked on the wounded form of Summer who, despite her tiredness, looked calm and composed.

"So must it be..." Summer answered in a pained tone before coughing some blood.

"Before I kill you, I want you to know that none of this is personal… My quarrel is with Ozpin and the Gods alone… Your death will bring me no joy..." Salem told her wounded enemy after a few seconds of silence.

"Before you kill me… can you at least… tell me why you hate Ozpin that much ?" Summer asked her in a pained tone before coughing again.

"..." Salem staid silent as she thought about her enemy's last request before sighing deeply

"Very well… Millenniums ago, me and Ozpin or Ozma; as he was known back then; were together… then he died and I begged the gods to bring him back to me… They refused… In my anger, I turned humanity against them and in return, they annihilated everyone except me as I was cursed with immortality… After the death of humanity and the departure of the gods, I tried to end my life in a pool of Grimm… you can see the result..." Salem began to explain in a tone filled with sorrow and sadness.

"Centuries later, I found Ozma again… he had been reincarnated and we were together again… we have daughters together… We were happy..." A look of fondness nostalgia appeared on Salem's face until it hardened as she added

"But then, he showed his true colors : he reveled to me that he was sent here to keep an eye on me by the God of Light and to stop me if I stepped out of line… Furious, I attacked him and we thought… However, during our battle, we accidentally killed our daughters and after that began our long feud…"

Summer looked at the pale woman before her with a hint of pity in her eyes before saying "That's not what Ozpin told us… He said you wanted to control humanity ! That you wanted to bring back the Gods so they could destroy everything !"

Salem, hearing this, released a dry chuckle before saying "Of course, he would… Ozpin… no, Ozma is ready to do everything in his power to please the gods… in his mind, they were our creators so we must respect them…"

Then, the Dark Woman looked back at her before saying in a soft tone.

"I have no interest in control Humanity… I just want to be released from my curse and be with my daughters again..."

"I understand…" Summer whispered back with a nod.

After, she was also a mother so she could sympathize with Salem on that.

"But what about the hundreds of Silver eyed warriors you killed ?" she asked her enemy back with slight steel in her voice.

A look of irritation and rightful anger appeared on Salem's face as she retorted coldly "How would you have reacted if warriors kept being sent at you to kill ?!"

Summer opened her mouth to retort… but quickly closed it as she had nothing to oppose that. It was true… If she was in Salem's place, she would have done the same.

"Point taken… what now ?" Summer asked her enemy with a tiny smile on her face, her eyes scanning the horde of Grimm around her.

"Now… we-" Salem began to say before stopping.

Why ?

Because she was interrupted by something unexpected : the ground started shaking madly… to the point she was unable to stay on her feet. Summer wanted to vomit at the tremor but soon, with wide eyes of horror, she realized what it was.

"EARTHQUAKE !" She and Salem cried out at the same time, just as the Grimm fled the same with their tails between their legs, leaving the two alone at the mercy of the elements.

"CAN'T YOU USE YOUR MAGIC TO STOP IT ?!" Summer asked the Queen of Grimm while futilely trying to stand back on her feet.

"I MAY HAVE MAGIC, BUT EVEN ME CAN'T FIGHT AGAINST NATURE !" Salem retorted back while falling again on her knees due to the tremor.

Just as those words escaped her mouth, the ground beneath them gave away and with screams if fear,horror and surprise, they all fell into a gigantic black hole.

"WE ARE GOING TO DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEE !" Summer cried out loudly as she fell.

"YOU MEAN YOU ARE GOING TO DIE ! I WILL REVIVE AGAIN !" Salem cried back as she also fell.

"CAN'T YOU USE YOUR MAGIC TO FLY AWAY ?!" Summer snarled back with some heat in her voice while her face was red with slight embarrassment at having forgotten that detail.

At this moment, Summer felt like slapping herself for telling this to the Queen of Grimm.

Salem opened her mouth to retort, either to the affirmative or negative Summer didn't know, but the Dark Woman had no time to answer as her head crashed against a rock, knocking her out. Summer stared blankly at Salem's limp body before shouting again loudly

"YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING ME ?!"

However, as if Fate wanted her to shut up, she was also knocked out when her head met a rock appearing out of nowhere. The last thing she thought about before loosing consciousness was of two little girls : one who was the carbon copy of her and another, older, with blond hair and lilac eyes.

"Ruby… Yang… Mommy loves you both..." she thought to herself before her eyes closed completely.

00/(Time Skip)/00

"Ohhhh… my head…" Summer grumbled in pain as she slowly regained consciousness.

The first thing she felt upon awakening was a sharp pain coming from her head… but it was to be expected. But, as she rubbed her head in an attempt to ease the pain, she felt another thing… from underneath her. Blinking a few times, she found herself looking at… shining mushrooms ?

Indeed, she was laying on a large amount of blueish mushrooms, shining in the darkness. Looking up, she could see a tiny point of light far above and after a moment of thought, she quickly realized what had happened : those mushrooms must have prevented her death by fall.

Speaking of fall, she took a moment to remember how she fell but after a few seconds, she remembered the way the ground opened beneath her feet and Sale-Wait a minute !

Remembering the Queen of Grimm, Summer quickly looked around to locate her, but it was pretty hard because of how dark the area was.

"Salem ?! Are you there ?!" she called out loudly, while internally wondering why she was doing this.

Was this her 'saving-people thing' as her husband Tai called it ? Probably…

A groan echoed from her right and, after turning her head to look toward its source, Summer was a bit relieved to see the familiar pale form of Salem slowly rising from another large pile of glowing mushrooms.

"Rose ? Is that you ?" the Queen of Grimm's voice echoed in the air with a groan of pain.

"It is ! Are you okay ?" Summer asked with reluctant concern.

Why would she treat her this way ? Salem tried to kill her for fuck's sake ! Was it because of her back story ? About her daughters ?

"I'm immortal, remember ? As long as I have this curse within me, I won't going to die anytime soon…" Salem retorted with a scowl and a bitter tone.

Clearly, she hated her curse and Summer couldn't help but feeling even more sympathetic toward her. She didn't know how it felt to be immortal but she wouldn't want it for anything in the world. Shaking her head to regain her sense, the black haired woman decided to change the subject to focus on the present.

"Where do you think we are ?" she asked the pale Grimm-like woman while looking around with interest.

Clearly, the both of them looked to be what looked like a cave of some sort and she could see tunnels around her : three to be precise with one of her left, another on her front and one behind her.

"Honestly, I don't know… but one thing is sure : I don't sense any Grimm in those tunnels..." Salem replied after a moment of silence, intrigue clear in her tone.

Summer released a silent sight of relief at that before saying "How far do you think we are from the surface ?"

"Very very far..." Salem said while looking at the tiny point of light shining far above them.

The hole they came from definitely looked tiny… in fact, from their point of view, it looked barely bigger than an ant !

"Well, we will just have to find a way out..." Summer said with a sigh of resignation before slowly going back on her feet…

… only to fall back with a hiss of pain.

She had almost forgotten of how wounds and upon looking them now, she could see that some of them were still leaking blood.

"Damn it !" she hissed again, but this time with frustration.

Using her cloak, she began to clean the wounds before, once again, using her cloak to make bandages for the biggest wounds. While she was busy, she was unaware that Salem was watching her in silence.

"Those wounds are going to slow you down..." she commented calmly from her place.

"Yeah, I know !" Summer grumbled back, barring her teeth in pain as she enveloped an arm with her makeshift bandage.

Sighting, Salem waved a hand and slowly, she went back on her feet to before approaching her. Upon seeing it, Summer instinctively stiffen but soon blinked when she saw Salem tearing a piece of her cloak… to cover her other arm.

"What are you-" the black haired woman began to ask with a stunned expression.

"I'm helping you… As for why, let just say I do not want to stay prisoner in those caves..." the Queen of Grimm answered her in a firm tone once she finished wrapping Summer's arm with the piece of cloak.

"But, why don't you use your magic to fly away ?" Summer asked her inquisitively.

"I would… but I don't know how far we are from the surface… It might take hours or days for me to reach that hole…" was her answer.

It was a valid answer, Summer thought with a nod of understanding.

"So… truce ?" the black haired woman said before extending a hand toward the Queen of Grimm.

Salem looked stunned for a moment before nodding her head while extending a hand to shade Summer's, saying simply

"Truce..."

"Well, then… Which tunnel should we enter ?" Summer asked her 'companion' while eying the different tunnels around them.

"That's an excellent question..." Salem mumbled in thought as she studied each of those tunnels while helping the Huntress back to her feet.

"If only there were bats… When they are scared, those little critters would fly away straight to the exit and we would only have to follow them..." Summer commented while looking around with disappointment.

"It would be a good way… Unfortunately, there are no bats here..." Salem said with a look of equal disappointment on her face.

A long silence followed as they thought about their next courses of actions : one of those three tunnels was their ticket for getting out of those caves but the question was still the same…

Which one was it ?

"I think we should go this way !" Summer's voice broke Salem off her thought.

Blinking a few times, the Queen of Grimm was stunned to see her previous enemy standing at the entrance of the middle tunnel. A few seconds ago, she was at her side ! Shaking her pale head to regain her senses, Salem arched an eyebrow as she looked at her former opponent with curiosity and intrigue.

"Why should we ?"

"Well, the air coming from this tunnel smell purer that the air coming from the other two… As my grandfather taught me : 'if in doubt, always follow your nose' !" Summer answered with a smile.

Salem thought the notion to be silly… but it was still better than just standing there, doing nothing.

"Very well… Let's just hope it was the best choice..." The Queen of Grimm replied after a few seconds of silence.

Beaming, the Huntress quickly entered the tunnel, acting like she wasn't exhausted or injured at all, and Salem slowly went after her, wondering what she just get herself into.

Unaware that this adventure would change both of their lives forever !

(To be continued…)

Note : Yeah, I kinda changed Salem's back-story but I hope it is not bothering you in the slightest. I kinda like Salem, she had suffered lot and her greatest crime was to love too much. I don't know if it is the same to you but don't be harsh on sharing my view on her ! Anyway, I hope you liked this official first chapter of this new story : if you did, then I'm 100% sure you will enjoy the coming ones !