Chapter Text
“It showed us everything…” their voice trailed off as Salem fought off a familiar nausea.
Salem, unlike any full human, was used to the feeling of an unfamiliar body. She wasn’t sure when exactly she came to have soulmates. None of her people had soulmates and it is unlikely that she always had them or else the gods would have been warier of her. It may have been a side effect of the fallen moon fragments which disturbed so much, or the works of the magic which produced the godlings and the silver eyes. But it was more likely, in Salem’s mind, that it was another side effect of the Pools of Destruction. It certainly didn’t make her human, but it had transformed her there-to-fore unchangeable body in enough ways that it was unlikely even her soul escaped unharmed. To evidence her change, since the second time she met humans, she has had many many soulmates.
Typically, humans just have one. She’d never met a second soulmate while her last was alive, but she had various relationships with more than 300 at this point and she could say with confidence that one creature could have multiple, even if they only came one at a time.
Her most recent soulmate is currently ruining the best shot she’s had at gathering the relics in nearly 100 years. If her soulmate could have appeared just 2 months earlier she could have tossed out the plan and given it a century. But no, her soulmate had to appear at the dawn of her victory over the flying city. More than that, her soulmate was about to give what was sure to be a tremendous speech to try and regain traction after she shattered Ironwood’s conveniently-fractured mind. Now she would have to miss it.
Meanwhile, the tendrils of Salem’s dress began writhing to match her soulmate’s distress.
“Huh? Wait where…? Ohh nooo!” Her illusionary body, currently piloted by her soulmate, groaned. Her soulmate didn’t take the transformation well. Salem hadn’t even known that her seer’s illusion could make meaningful eye contact but now she was desperately hoping that her soulmate would make it again. She’d been cut off from the grimm, and she wasn’t controlling the illusion. She winced as her soulmate tripped and fell face-first to the ground. She could do little to fix this from her soulmate’s tiny body, if she could just get back to hers then she could kidnap her soulmate and negotiate but as the illusion began to flicker her hope went with it.
“I’m Salem’-“ her soulmate’s wails were cut off as the illusion dissipated. And just like the smoke she’d used to conjure it, her attempt at intimidation had surely turned to mere ash on the wind.
“That’s Salem!?” And here come the laughs. “That’s who we’re up against?” Oh, the godling soldier with the tail sounds stressed, maybe her soulmate hadn’t entirely ruined her plan.
“And apparently she’s on her way.” Yes, that is assuredly the tone of a spooked huntsman trying to prepare for a hopeless battle.
With her soulmate gone, and the humans and godlings bickering, she allowed her mind to explore a suddenly pressing question. What happens if she’s in her soulmate’s body for an extended period? Will her curse carry over? Will the alterations of the pools carry over to her soulmate’s body? Tempting to test certainly, but what would Ironwood do if he knew she was trapped in this body? Would he kill her defenceless soulmate? probably. If her soulmate has her curse could she truly leave them to suffer her fate? Her soulmate is a silver-eyed huntsman ready to fight an unkillable foe; would Ironwood use that to manipulate her soulmate into some horrible strategy to contain her for a few centuries? Also probable.
For now, it would be better to keep her presence secret until she knows who she can manipulate safely.
“I’ve sent your sister to claim the power of the winter maiden.” Ironwood monologued to the window like a rebellious child.
If she can get to the Winter Maiden, Cinder may be able to solve the whole thing. The white-haired girl had a connection to the next Winter Maiden and her soulmate was standing right next to the girl so, sadly, they were likely allies.
“The staff and the lamp have to be locked away.”
Ironwood was surprisingly helpful as she established her situation. Salem would have to collect the Winter Maiden, be that Cinder or White Hair’s sister. White Hair could lead Salem to the Winter Maiden but she would likely have objections to Cinder killing her sister. The dealbreaker was her need for secrecy. If her soulmate was friendly with White Hair, she would know their fighting style. Salem couldn’t even figure out what, on her temporary body, was a weapon, though she had a guess as to the weight attached to her hips. So White Hair would figure her out and then the guards would figure it out, and Cinder couldn’t take down a room full of huntsman and a maiden while protecting Salem. That was all assuming that Cinder wouldn’t let her personal issues with Salem’s soulmate get the best of her and attack on sight like a rabid dog.
This would all be so much easier if she could just turn them all into dogs.
“We’re going to take our plan for amity tower and apply it to the city of Atlas,” the general said, crushing Cinder’s chess piece.
Salem had to keep herself from laughing in his face. When Watts had mentioned their plan for the satellite she thought it a joke. She had assumed Ozma would have shot it down immediately, but Ironwood must be acting on his own. If he had just asked Ozma he would know that she had visited the moon’s fragments. She had designed Grimm specifically for spaceflight in an attempt to find the gods, though she doubted any of them survived. She made a side note to follow up on any potentially unstoppable space Grimm older than humanity once she got her body back.
Even if she hadn’t designed space Grimm, she could send two thousand nevermore and rely on their collective body heat to let the inner grimm survive until they could find a safe place to grow on the island. Barring that, she could just fly Monstra up there. She was just as capable of using dust as a human, and it would hardly be the first time.
If they did succeed she would have to ensure a stock of cold-resistant nevermore was spawned. It would take a decade or two to confidently gather a sufficient swarm but the flying city would probably count those few years as a success.
Maybe she could just destroy the island with the Sword Of Destruction. Was that a melee only relic?
Everyone is looking at her. She had been ignoring them while plotting their destruction and now she would pay for it. White was looking at her expectantly, but not in an angry way. Well if they are close her soulmate would likely agree with whatever White just said.
“…Yes! I agree.” Silence hung in the air. She kept her eyes locked on White seeing her brows slowly scrunch in anger. Salem staggered back, sloppily raising her arms in a stance she vaguely remembered learning when she had ruled a human kingdom. When White whipped around along with the godling with the raven hair and the blonde she was happy to see it looked like her guess had been correct. Then they all started arguing about huntsmen and wars. Which was better than combat but a solid step down from the terse conversation they were having with Ironwood. It was escalating and she needed to remove herself from the situation before she got her soulmate’s body killed or worse.
She decided to take a full inventory of the situation. The three very-colourful huntsmen– assumedly her soulmate’s team– are in an argument with four Atlas soldiers. Her soulmate’s team is in the centre of the room while the soldiers are on the left and right leaving a clear path to the door. Just behind her is Ironwood, distracted by the argument. Behind him, a desk with Watts’s bag on it. And behind that, a large glass pane wall looks out over the city. There were bookshelves on one side of the room. The huntsmen were able to beat her minions at the lamp’s vault so they were each likely able to defeat one atlas soldier with little difficulty. Without her help, they would be outnumbered.
Ironwood may count as two fighters but his defeat would severely damage morale.
One of the soldiers asked, “who exactly are you loyal to?” And as the huntsmen turned to look at Salem, she was already halfway through stealing Ironwood’s revolver.
“Me,” She said with the confidence of a queen as she shot Ironwood in the face. He stumbled back holding a hand to his face. He wasn’t so slow as to be dead, but taking a gunshot to the head at such close range would spook any human. And she didn’t need him dead yet. She ran past him, nearly stumbling on her soulmate’s too-short legs and clunky boots. She sprinted over to Watts’s bag and felt around for the pocket he kept his tool in. “AH!” She yelped and dove below a whizzing bullet from Ironwood. She crawled around the desk on her soulmate’s hands and knees, trying to avoid Ironwood while searching through Watts’s bag until “Aha!” She pulled out the strange device he used to control all his machines. He called it a ‘scroll XL’ but it was somewhat hard to see the comparison. She could never figure out how to use the damned thing but she figured one of these buttons would be helpful.
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Chaos spread in a wave across Atlas. Giant screens painted across skyscrapers flashed from channel to channel giving snippets of warnings, flashes of Robbin’s attempted assassination, a saucy picture of young Ironwood meant for Glynda Goodwitch’s eyes only, clips of random security camera footage, a short video of Tyrian cackling. Then a platoon of automated soldiers began the Cha-Cha Slide while a police drone attempted to arrest them and one of Atlas’s external artillery cannons fired into the empty tundra, deafening 2 soldiers and giving a third severe burns.
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A hidden table in Ironwood’s office rose from the floor tripping an unseen soldier, shudders dropped over the windows and doors, a screen appeared over Ironwood’s desk and automatically signed in, and then finally three hatches in the walls opened up and turrets emerged.
“Perish!” She screamed as she pressed a finger down hard against the fire button. The turrets began to pepper the room with bullets, She was hidden behind Ironwood’s desk, peaking over to watch as the huntsmen seemed to take the new layer of chaos in stride, working around and with the hail of bullets much better than the soldiers who were being herded into the hail.
She was just about to celebrate the destruction of one soldier’s giant yellow-green arms when she heard a heavy body leap over the desk. Before she could spin around and face him she felt cold metal shoved against the back of her soulmate’s skull.
“Drop the weapon, Ruby.” Ah! Finally a name. And a jewel name. Over the centuries she had come to find a loose pattern in her soulmates. Jewel names were common, as were dark hair, heroism, sugar addicts, and energetic personalities. When she first put that together she was pleased to see Ozma fitting neatly alongside her soulmates. It made her feel less like the mates were chosen by the bastard gods. It ensured that they wouldn’t in any way stop her from cursing those same gods for her current predicament.
She dropped Watts’s control box and held up her hands. The turrets came quickly to a standstill. The fighting beyond the desk slowed to a stop. The only sound in the room was breathing and the crunch of bullet casings being pushed around by nervous feet.
Then Ruby’s scroll rang.
“It’s Jaune, we have a serious problem.”
Ironwood shoved his pistol harder against Ruby’s skull.
“Don’t,” Ironwood warned. She wouldn’t know how to shut the device up if she tried so she was happy to listen to his threat. “Team RWBY you are under arrest for the assault of military personnel, attempted assassination of a council member, unauthorized use of security systems, and shattering two military personnel. Come quietly and I assure you will serve minimal sentencing.”
The last time she had a council member assassinated it had taken her agent out of the picture for decades. She couldn’t wait decades to see Ruby, and Ruby wouldn’t have the skill or desire to launch a successful assault on an Atlas prison for years. She was in a bind. If she could only get away from Ironwood, Ruby's team could easily handle the remaining soldiers. So she began to stand.
“Alright Ironwood.” Oh wow, Ruby’s voice was cute… Notthepoint. She stood, thanking Ironwood’s trust in Ruby for her not being shot. As she stood she could finally look over the desk and see the results of the battle.
The walls were full of bullet holes, the floor was coated in bullet indents and empty casings, the bookshelf was bleeding spineless paper, and the tailed soldier was bleeding on the floor and being tended to by the soldier with the big yellow hands that she broke. The ravenette and the blonde were teaming up against the hammer soldier and White was eying a large column of ice next to her. Salem was still holding Ironwood’s gun. She would have to distract him with that and use Ruby’s weapon to keep herself alive until Ruby’s teammates could kill him.
“I am going to drop my weapon,” she said in an obviously fake tone. “You have outplayed me. Checkmate.” She dropped the pistol.
The hammer soldier failed to call out a warning in time. Quick as lighting there was no longer a gun at the back of her head. There was only a grunt from Ironwood and a clatter as he collided with the shutters. The ravenette didn’t wait to check if he was awake before emptying her pistol into his chest. His— oh, what was it called? — his aura shattered and the Ravenette curb stomped his head and gave Ruby a once over before rejoining with Blonde to fight the hammer soldier. Meanwhile White was adding layer upon layer of ice to the column.
“Ruby!” White called out, awakening Salem from her shock. What happened? Well, the ravenette had knocked out one of Ozma’s biggest pieces before either of them could even process what was happening, that was clear. But why? Was the attack so instant because her soulmate was constantly in need of saving? The thought brought a small frown to her face. It wasn’t her preference but it would either help her plan immensely or be a major detriment. Either way, her preference was an issue for a time when her soulmate’s body was safe.
“Yes?” Salem strode over to meet the girl, eying the column with concern.
“Are you alright? You’re acting strange.”
She couldn’t tell the girl the truth, at least not yet. So instead she said “I am perfectly alright. I was just concerned for my well-being. My life flashing before my eyes at the thought of my own mortality… which I have.” White looked at her with sadness.
“Oh, Ruby.” Salem was surprised as White took her into a fierce hug. White said, “We’ll get through this, together.” Salem hesitantly returned the embrace, awkwardly patting the girl’s back.
“There there,” she said robotically, hoping to comfort the distressed white-haired girl. The hug ended as the other two huntresses approached. Salem glanced behind them to see the unconscious and tied up hammer soldier.
“Could’ve used a little help there, guys,” Blonde called out.
“Not that we needed it,” the ravenette said. Ravenette was less emotional and clearly very skilled. She had nimble fingers and a complex weapon. Salem collected Watts’s control device and handed it to the girl, choosing to ignore White’s small glare at the action.
“Use this to its fullest capacity. Knowing Watts, it has control over much of this building’s technology.”
“I certainly hope not.” White seemed, perhaps rightly, perturbed by the thought.
“Shit, this isn’t only the academy,” the godling said as she moved through various screens and button combinations, “This can access systems across both Atlas and Mantle.”
“Another amazing example of Atlesian pride shooting itself in the foot,” Blonde commented. Salem couldn’t agree more, it was amazing (and useful) how many holes humans would leave in their defences in an attempt to prove their superiority over one another.
“Can you access the security cameras?” White asked.
“Yeah I think so, give me a second.” White was likely hoping the girl would find her sister. That would be trouble. She needed a reason to get her distracted. “Yeah, here we go.”
“Can you see-“
“Jaune,” Salem interrupted White. “Jaune is in danger. If Ironwood tried to arrest us then Jaune could be in the same situation.”
“Shit, Oscar has the lamp, they’re probably being swarmed with soldiers right now. They’ll need our help.” And the blonde seals the deal
“But Ruby, what about Winter?” apparently White was willing to push the issue. What to tell the girl. They couldn’t go find the girl, she would either be dead and White’s sister would try to arrest them under Ironwood’s orders, or Cinder would be mid- or post- murder and Salem would be stuck, defenceless, in the middle. The new maiden would be new and inexperienced but as the winter maiden, she would have more raw power than fall who was more well rounded. It would be a hard fight to win no matter what but Ruby’s absence could make it impossible. Her only chance would be to side with Cinder after she killed the Winter Maiden, but if White was there even a moment before then she would likely become the maiden which couldn’t be allowed.
“We can’t risk your sister and her guards arresting us for her. We can’t do anything from a dungeon. We need to get the lamp. Cinder’s probably chasing that first and foremost.” She wouldn’t be, despite the lamp holding priority, but Salem could hardly be annoyed at Cinder’s power blindness working in her favour.
Blonde gave her an indecipherable look that quickly morphed into confusion. She turned and held a silent conversation with White before they both gave Salem a sad look. She’s done something wrong, she just doesn’t know what.
“Ruby’s right Weiss,” the Ravenette said. “Winter’s loyal to Ironwood and even if she won't like it she’ll arrest us on sight.” It clearly broke White’s — Weiss’s — heart, but her eyes hardened into steel not a moment later.
“Ok, so where’s Jaune.”
“They’re fighting Neo near I.T.” The ravenette began to run off and Salem gave chase, not knowing where or what neo and I.T. could mean. Maybe NEO- was the flying city’s new fighting machine.
The ravenette had quickly acclimated to Watts’s machine, dropping doors to block soldiers and opening others to make their route as short as possible. When they arrived it was to find 4 soldiers, 3 huntsmen, and Ozma surrounding a small huntsman. Ruby’s team dropped into combat stances but Salem stopped dead. Ozma was here. She had completely forgotten her soulmate’s connection to Ozma. Would he be able to identify her soul on sight? There were times when some undefinable quality of his had shone through his host and made him immediately recognizable, and there were times when it was only when they made eye contact that she was sure. She couldn’t risk him finding out, he wouldn’t kill the last silver-eyed warrior but there are much worse things than death.
“Jaune!” She called into the crowd. Everyone turned to her voice and she scanned the crowd trying to determine who Jaune is. The handcuffed girl looked murderous so probably not her. The soldier’s straightened as one, and she could almost feel the way Ruby’s team tensed around her. The hunters and Ozma looked surprised and delighted. She relaxed minutely but vowed to continue being careful around him. The blond boy sheathed his sword and began to approach.
“Ruby! I’m so glad you’re here. Neo tried to steal the lamp,” he gestured back to the crowd of people behind him. “If these guys weren’t here I think she might’ve done it.” He scratched the back of his head nervously. He seemed to be looking for approval, trying to give her the details so she could make a decision. Maybe Ruby is these people’s leader as well. An attractive quality for a prospective queen.
“Good work Jaune. Where is the lamp now?”
“Oh, we gave it back to Oscar.” So Ozma’s keeping it close. But Ruby is clearly leading publicly.
“Give it to me for now. We need to talk about Ironwood.” Jaune nodded with a concerned expression. Salem glanced back at Ruby’s team to gauge their response. None of them seemed nervous about telling Jaune luckily; they were, however, eyeing the soldiers with distrust. They nervously followed Jaune as he returned to the crowd.
“What are we doing with her?” Blonde bobbed her head at the handcuffed huntress. Maybe that was Neo?
“Not to worry ma’am we’ll be sure to get her in a hard light cell right away,” said one of the soldiers.
“Do you think she’s with Cinder?”
“She shouldn’t know about the lamp otherwise,” Ravenette narrowed her eyes at Neo, who hadn’t stopped glaring at Salem. If she was with Cinder she might be useful. As a prisoner, it would be easy to get her alone, have her contact Cinder and together they could sneak up to Monstra to see Ruby and get Salem’s body back. She looked over to Ravenette and Blonde.
“You two keep an eye on her. I want a word.” As Jaune handed her the lamp she could feel its power spark through her system. She was caught breathless at how simple it had been to obtain the relic. She had chased these for so long that she could hardly remember the start. She itched to use it, but she had no idea how it worked and Ruby had no reason to ask. Instead, she turned to White and gave her a task. “Explain our new position in regards to Ironwood.”
Salem approached the kneeling Neo. She was so overly aware of Ozma that his presence was almost a physical thing poking at her as she passed. When she stood above Neo, she stopped, she attempted to look down on the girl with a reasonable level of disdain for one who had harmed a close ally. Salem held up the lamp in front of her, “Do you know how to wield this?” Neo maintained a silent glare rather than answer.
“No? Are you retrieving it for Cinder?” She frowned, thinking of Cinder’s previous minions which have been utterly useless at the castle. Neo didn’t react.
“Fine,” she sighed “how about an easy one. You want me dead. Why?” She startled back as the girl’s body shimmered until an image of a young man appeared over her. He had orange hair hanging over half his face, the same bowler hat as the girl, and a large white overcoat. His face smirked at her reaction, but the hate never left the eyes even as they changed to green.
“He’s paying you to kill me or something?” If it was so simple as money she could just pay the girl more money to kill the man, save Ruby the trouble. Unfortunately, the girl glared harder and seemed offended. The crowd around her was startled as a large griffon materialized behind the man-shaped Neo. The griffon lunged down at her and Salem screamed a mental command at the creature to stop. The griffon engulfed the girl in a single bite and then shattered like glass. Left in its place was the kneeling Neo in her original form.
Then alarms began ringing. Ruby’s team, excluding Ozma and the huntsmen in green and pink, tensed and locked their eyes onto the guards. The guards stilled as a voice whispered into their ears. They looked up at Ruby’s team in unison.
“I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you all to drop your weapons and put your hands behind your back.” The soldier who spoke audibly gulped just after, likely realizing their chances against 7 huntsmen.
“What?” The pink huntsman asked.
“Ironwood wants to arrest us” Jaune’s voice was strained as he said it.
“For like a billion years,” Blonde added.
“What? Why?” The green huntsman seemed almost frantic in an instant.
“Cinder is manipulating the paranoid fool into thinking it’s him against the world.” The answer didn’t seem to calm the huntsman in the slightest, in fact, he seemed to get more agitated.
“C’mon Rennie it’s-“
“WE’VE DONE EVERYTHING RIGHT!” This, Rennie screamed. “We’ve done everything he asked. We’ve killed every grimm put in front of us and gotten every piece of equipment without a word of complaint and suddenly he just flips the script?!” The pink huntsman shut up after that. Everyone with any intelligence did.
“I’m sure it’s all just a misunderstanding,” this soldier was not a man of intelligence. “I’m sure you won’t be in for more than an hour or two at most until Ironwood catches wind of this and sorts it all out.” Rennie gave the man a glare that would make oceans freeze over.
“Unfortunately, we have people to see and a world to save.” Salem shamefully relished the opportunity to say something so cheesy. It seemed suitable for a silver-eyed warrior, and no one was laughing so it fit well enough.
Then there was a pause.
That pause was everyone waiting for her to fire the first shots. Unfortunately, she still didn’t know how to use whatever Ruby’s weapon was. So she used what she had at hand. She clubbed the nearest soldier with the relic of knowledge.
He dropped like a stone and someone behind her burst out into laughter.
Salem would never admit it but Yang would forever claim that her embarrassed squawk was the second cutest noise Ruby has ever made.
“I-I couldn’t well put the relic down, could I?” Salem felt a heat bloom in her cheeks like she hadn’t in 150 years. “Stop laughing!” The blonde was doubled over cackling, Ravenette and Weiss both hid amused smiles behind their hands. At least the pink huntsman and Rennie were doing actual work, dealing with the guards she had left behind her.
She decided to ignore them completely and pressed her hands to her cheeks to disperse some of the heat that had settled there. She turned back to find the guards neatly felled and restrained. She grabbed Neo and hauled her up by the shoulders.
“You will be coming with us.” That got the blonde’s attention
“Wait what? Why are we taking her with us?”
“At least she won't laugh at me.” She turned her nose up and started pulling Neo along.
“Ooooh she’s mad at you~” she heard the pink huntsman quietly sing behind her.
“Shut up Nora.” Then she heard Nora crash into the wall.