Grimm Magic
Grimm Magic
The night had fallen, the moon was up, and her father had eaten his dinner tonight.
Whether he was actually feeling substantially better than he had done earlier today or whether he was just putting on an act to make Ruby think that he was feeling better…it mattered, but at the same time she didn’t want to think about it too hard. She didn’t want to be suspicious because Ruby herself was feeling better than she had done earlier today.
She stood on the deck, her hands resting on the wooden railing that surrounded it, having just stepped out of the patio doors that led out onto the wooden boards outside. She couldn’t see much in the darkness, but she could feel the cool night air brushing against her cheeks and that was nice in itself.
Zwei barked as he rubbed himself against her leg. Ruby chuckled as she bent down and scratched him between the ears.
“I know, Zwei,” she said. “Thinks are looking a little better, aren’t they? And so is Dad; at least I hope he is.”
Zwei barked.
“Yeah, you’ll keep an eye on him, won’t you?” Ruby said. She tilted her head to one side. “I think…I think that I’ve almost got it.”
“Am I intruding?” Sunset asked, as she appeared in the patio doorway, hands resting on the frame, leaning out slightly onto the deck.
Ruby smiled as she rose to her full height, what there was of it. “No, it’s fine. Come on out.”
Sunset stepped outside, the deck board creeking as he put her boot on it. “So…is this what people have when they don’t have a balcony?”
Ruby shrugged. “I guess. It’s a nice place, though, even if it is on the ground.”
“I suppose it’s nicer in the day when you actually see two feet in front of your face,” Sunset said, coming to stand by Ruby at the rail.
“I thought you could use magic to help you see.”
“I could,” Sunset said. “But it makes my eyes look weird and it might make us talking a little awkward.”
That actually made Ruby curious to see what Sunset’s eyes would look like, but she let it go. “It is better when you can see,” she conceded. “But the breeze is cool.”
“In more ways than one, it seems,” Sunset said.
“Uh, yeah, sure,” Ruby said. She looked out into the dark that blanketed the land all around them; the moonlight was faint, and the only real illumination was the light spilling out of the house, casting their shadows on the ground beyond. “Thank you,” she said.
“For what?” Sunset asked.
“For coming,” Ruby said. “Everything…everything feels a little better now because of you.” She reached out, and placed a hand on top of Sunset’s where it rested on the wooden rail. “It’s good to see you again, Sunset.”
Sunset glanced at her, and Ruby almost that she looked surprised to hear that before she smiled in turn. “It’s good to see you too, Ruby; it’s good to be here because…because this is what we’re fighting for, really, and it’s good to be reminded of that. But to see you…I’m glad Professor Goodwitch gave me the excuse to come down here. I’m sorry that I can’t stay longer…and I’m sorry that we won’t have this chance again for a while, one way or the other.”
Ruby frowned. “Where are you going next?”
Sunset shrugged. “Wherever Cardin tells me to go. That’s my life now: go where he tells me to go, fight who he tells me to fight, then go back to Vale to submit my report and get my new orders. Rinse and repeat.”
“Sounds more like being a soldier than a huntress,” Ruby said.
Sunset chuckled. “We are soldiers, Ruby. Vale is becoming the new Atlas. Trying to, at least. The new Atlas as interpreted by people who don’t really get Atlas.”
“You don’t like it?” Ruby asked. She certainly wasn’t making it sound great.
“I think…” Sunset trailed off for a moment. “You remember our missions with Rosepetal, right?”
“It’s only been a few months, Sunset, my memory isn’t that bad,” Ruby said.
“I didn’t mean anything by it,” Sunset said. “My point is…they weren’t much different from us. What makes Atlas great is the same as what makes any kingdom great: good people. People like Rainbow Dash.”
“And Penny,” Ruby added.
“Yeah, and Blake,” Sunset said. “You don’t need to invent half a dozen different institutions and throw all your ideas at the wall…you just need to find the good people, and get them in the right place.”
“Where they can make the right decisions,” Ruby murmured.
Sunset winced. “Well…you’d hope.”
Ruby watched as her breath misted up slightly in front of her. “If I had to choose,” she said. “I’d make the same choice again.”
“Yeah,” Sunset said. “I kinda figured that one out for myself.”
“Do you think that’s wrong of me?”
“Do you really want to hear what I think about a choice like that?”
Ruby snorted. “Yeah, strange as it sounds I do.”
Sunset looked away. “I have to admit that I don’t ever think that I could ever do that. Make that sacrifice. Even now, I still don’t like the idea of making sacrifices. I’d prefer to…to act as though I can always find a middle way, that avoids having to make any of the hard choices. I suppose that makes you clearer sighted than me. Your choice…your choice is yours, and it shows that…it shows you haven’t lost who you are.”
“Yeah,” Ruby whispered. “That’s what I’m…that’s what I’m afraid of.”
“Afraid?”
“Maybe that wasn’t the right word,” Ruby admitted. “The point is…when you didn’t like the results of the choice you made you could tell yourself that you’d made the wrong choice, that you’d learn from your mistakes and do better next time; and you did. But I…I can’t say that because, even though I hate the choice that I made, I still know it was the right choice, and the choice I’d make again. So all I can do is stay here, so that I don’t ever have to make a choice like that again.”
“Even in our line of work choices like that aren’t common,” Sunset said.
“Two in one year,” Ruby pointed out.
“Point taken,” Sunset said. “So…is this your way of telling me that you’re out.”
“No,” Ruby said. “It’s your way of telling you that I might want to be.” The night seemed to be growing darker outside. She could barely see the shadows she and Sunset were casting on the ground. Ruby focussed on what she was saying. “But the world hasn’t stopped while I’ve been here, has it? Vale is changing, you’re fighting alongside…alongside Cinder.” She couldn’t quite believe that Cinder, of all people, was the one that Sunset trusted, but it just went to show that everybody was doing something about the state of the world except her. “Pyrrha and Jaune are in Mistral by now, I hope, and if they made it safely I’m sure that they’re not sitting around either. Blake and Penny are in Atlas, and I’m sure they’re working hard too along with Rainbow and Twilight and everybody else. Everyone is trying to put the world back together except me and I think…I think that if Yang were here she’d ask me what was up with that.
“If this…if this is the thing that I can do,” Ruby said. “Then I’ll do it.”
Sunset looked down at her. “I…I don’t know whether to wish you luck or urge you not to go along with. It’s going to be a long road to travel by yourself.”
Zwei barked.
“Dogs don’t count,” Sunset said. “Are you really going to take the dog?”
“Probably not,” Ruby said. “I don’t want to leave dad all alone.”
Zwei whined.
“I can do this,” Ruby assured Sunset. “I’ll find a way, trust me.”
“I do,” Sunset said. “You’ve got the heart of a hero, Ruby Rose; I shouldn’t ever have doubted that you’d choose this.”
“No, you should,” Ruby said. “I almost chose the other.”
“But you didn’t,” Sunset said. “The choices we think about…they don’t really matter compared to the choices that we make.” She paused. “Hey, Ruby, is it me or is getting even darker.”
Ruby nodded. “It is…kind of weird,” she murmured squinting out at the darkness and the gathering gloom that only seemed to growing more intense all around her. “It’s almost like-“
“Smoke,” Sunset said, her eyes reflecting light off them as though they were suddenly made of glass, or like she was a cat or something; that must have been what she meant when she said that using magic did weird things to her eyes. “There’s smoke coming from…Ruby, I think we’d better-“
Something emerged out of the gathering darkness, a blur of movement that hit Sunset hard enough to send her flying backwards into the house, smashing through the glass of the patio door – both of them, stacked one in front of the other since the door was open – before crashing into the living room wall.
The kick that sent Zwei flying off into the darkness seemed almost idle by comparison.
“Ruby!” Taiyang called from upstairs. “What’s going on?”
Ruby was speechless as the blur of motion resolved itself into a man, tall and rangy with his hair worn in a long braid reaching down towards his back. He was dressed in a brown leather jacket that was open, exposing a chest criss-crossed with scars. His eyes were golden, and seemed to gleam with a strange unnatural light, especially when combined with the crooked smile that played across his features.
“My, my,” he said. “I came to pluck a rose and found a sunset too, such good-“
He was interrupted by Sunset telekinetically throwing the couch at him; he grabbed it, turning on his toes before converting it into a throw at Ruby that knocked her through the deck railing; she skidded on the grass as she slowed to a stop.
The intruder started towards her, but recoiled as a beam of green energy erupted out of the living room in front of him, singeing the wall as it passed by into the darkness. Sunset teleported in a flash of green light, appearing between the intruder and Ruby. She had her sword in one hand and Crescent Rose in the other, and she had teleported with her back to the intruder so that she could throw Ruby’s weapon to her. “Ruby, here, take this.” She tossed the scythe and started to turn, shifting into stance, her now-free hand reaching for the hilt of her blade.
The intruder was much faster.
“Well, if you want to be the first to die,” he said, as he slashed at Sunset’s back and side as she was turning, slashing at her with the claw-like blades attached to his wrist that sliced through her aura as Sunset staggered backwards. He was so fast that even Pyrrha would have had a hard time keeping up with him and Sunset had no chance at all, by the time she tried to block his strokes he had already made his attack and was moving onto the next. He flipped, balancing nimbly upon one hand as with his legs he kicked Sunset’s sword out of her hand and then kicked upwards, striking Sunset on the chin hard enough to propel her upwards.
“Sunset!” Ruby cried.
The intruder leapt, his own leap carrying him higher than Sunset and faster too, carrying him to the lip of the roof of the Xiao Long-Rose house, which lip he kicked off to meet Sunset as she rose, his claws slicing out again as he bore her down face first into the deck which shattered into splinters of wood beneath the impact. The intruder giggled as the splinters settled.
But now this guy had his back to Ruby, and Crescent Rose was in her hand and there was no one between the two of them.
Ruby scowled as she took aim and fired.
A scorpion tail emerged from underneath the intruder’s jacket to block the shot, and the next, and the one after that. And all the while he kept on giggling.
Snarling, Ruby got to her feet and charged; the blade of Crescent Rose glinted in the moonlight as she brought it down upon the intruder’s back.
He twisted out of the way, leaving Ruby – eyes widening – to try and turn her stroke aside as the point of her scythe descended on Sunset.
The intruder kicked her in the gut while she was distracted. Ruby let out an ‘oof’ as she was lifted off her feet and into the air. With another kick the intruder wrenched Crescent Rose out of her grip while his scorpion tail lashed out to wrap around her neck, constricting like a snake around her throat as the intruder, his eyes flashing purple, made to strike at her with his claw blades.
“RUBY!”
The intruder had been fast enough to dodge Ruby’s stroke, but he wasn’t fast enough to avoid Taiyang’s fist as Ruby’s father charged out of the living room. His first punch decked the intruder on the jaw, making him drop Ruby to the ground with a thud as he staggered backwards. Ruby caught a glimpse of her father’s face, wearing an expression of sheer unbridled fury that she had never seen, nor ever thought to see, upon his face.
It was sometimes easy to forget that Dad had once been a great huntsman alongside Mom and Uncle Qrow, when you were used to him just pottering around the house, tending to the garden, teaching a few classes at Signal. But just looking into his eyes in the brief moment, seeing those blue eyes boiling with a murderous rage, Ruby knew that she wouldn’t forget it in a hurry.
His second punch hit the intruder squarely on the nose, snapping his head back before the third punch hit him in the gut.
The intruder retreated a few paces, cackling wildly. “So, a true hunts-“
Taiyang hit him again.
Ruby watched them fight in the lights streaming out of the house with a wide-eyed awe. The speed of the intruder that had so confounded both Sunset and herself seemed to make no difference at all to her father, who matched him blow for blow, blocking his claws and staying well away from his legs. Dad had taught Yang how to fight, a style of straight-forward boxing amplified in Yang’s case by her Ember Celica; but even though Dad had no shotgun-gauntlets what he did have was a mastery of the style that Yang had only begun to learn before cruel fate had taken her away.
Sunset getting to her knees, summoned both her sword and Sol Invictus to her with her magic, but when she put the rifle to her shoulder she could only scowl and mutter, “He’s blocking my shots.”
Ruby groped for Crescent Rose in the darkness. “Sunset, can you-“
“Sure,” Sunset said, and Ruby spotted Crescent Rose by the green glow that enveloped it before it flew into her hands. She turned the barrel to the ground and used the recoil to lift herself up and onto the roof of her house, hoping that the added height would give her an advantage in finding a clear shot. It didn’t; Taiyang and the intruder’s fight was too fluid, it moved around too readily for her to ever be able to fire and be sure of hitting her enemy and not her father.
All she could do was watch, but as she watched it became clear that her dad really didn’t need her help. The intruder, whoever he was, was only occasionally able to land a hit on him while Dad’s fists, striking out right and left, were continuously hitting home, hammering his opponent to the face, the shoulders, the chest. Soon the intruder’s aura broken, a purple light that flickered over his entire body before another punch from Taiyang broke his nose and knocked him flat on the ground.
It was when he straddled the intruder and started raining blows down on him that Ruby realised that she was about to watch her father beat a man to death with his bare hands.
Considering that that man in question had been pretty clear about his intent to murder Sunset – not to mention Ruby herself – that didn’t bother her as much as it maybe should have.
Taiyang bellowed as he raised his fist for another blow, before a burst of purple light – or energy, she guessed – flew out of the shadows and struck him in the chest, hurling him off the intruder and away as the dark smoke, gathering around the house, crept closer still, smothering the intruder in its embrace, hiding him from Ruby’s view.
Hiding him from Sunset’s view as well, judging by the way that she fired into the smoke with no indication that she was hitting anything.
“Don’t waste your fire,” Taiyang snapped. “Wait.”
Sunset growled wordless. “Understood, sir.”
Taiyang picked himself up and began to retreat slowly towards the house. “What is this?” he muttered. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Ruby breathed out. Her breath misted up in front of her, and far more so than it had done before. She breathed in, and breathed out again to make sure she wasn’t imagining it. No, it was definitely misting up more than it had done. She shivered. It was getting colder out here, as the smoke grew thicker around them; but it wasn’t just the cold that was making her shiver. As she looked out into that smoke, into that cloud that her eyes couldn’t penetrate, she felt…she felt a shiver in her soul.
“Dad,” she said.
“I feel it too,” Taiyang said.
“And me,” Sunset said. “Do grimm make emotions now?”
“We have to stay sharp,” Taiyang said. “Be ready for anything.”
Ruby put her eye to the scope of Crescent Rose, and tried to penetrate the darkness.
“Took you long enough!” the intruder, concealed somewhere in the smoke and shadow, complained audibly.
In answer there came a soft, sibilant sniggering sound, a hissing laugh that seemed to carry with it some contempt.
From out of the smoke emerged a grimm; for a moment Ruby thought that it was a karkadann, the creature that Sunset, Jaune and Pyrrha had fought in Mistral during the spring break when she hadn’t been able to go with them. But this grimm, that came out of the smoke almost as if it was being formed by the smoke itself, did not – as she realised after a moment of observing it – look that much like a karkadann other than that they both kind of looked like a horse; this creature only had a single hoof at the end of each leg, for a start, and it’s horn – although curved like a sword – was not so long as the horn of a karkadann; and it was black rather than being bone white. Horn aside, this grimm looked very much like a horse; strangely, despite the fact that it was huge, it had very little bone armour or spikes sticking out of it, but was mostly black like a juvenile grimm; the only bone was the mask on its face, and the fangs jutting out of both jaws.
But that was not the strangest thing about this apparition; no, the strangest thing was that from its eyes burned crimson anima, like Amber and Cinder had possessed.
Does this mean that…is this a grimm with magic? How is that even possible?
The grimm tossed its head. “Rrrrruby…Rrrrrose,” it hissed.
“No,” Sunset whispered. “No, that…is that what he saw?”
“Sssssssunsssset…Ssssshimmerrrr.”
“How does it know our names?” Ruby asked.
“How is it talking?” Taiyang said.
“Good questions,” Sunset growled. “Which we can think about once its dead.” She raised Sol Invictus to her shoulder and snapped off one shot, two, three.
They might have hit the grimm, or they might not; it was hard to tell. What was clear is that they did the grimm no harm at all, Sunset might as well have been spitting at it for all the actual good that it did her. The grimm hissed wordlessly, and its horn began to glow with a purple light of the kind that had erupted out of the smoke – that same smoke, Ruby noticed now, that was pooling around the hooves of this strange grimm – before it fired from its horn a beam of light aimed straight at Sunset.
Sunset dropped her gun and held both hands before her, conjuring a shield of green light against which the purple beam lapped harmlessly like the waves upon the shore.
Harmless save for the effort that it seemed to be taking Sunset to maintain the shield. Her back was bent like an old tree before the storm, her legs were crouched as though she was bracing against something, and when Ruby looked more closely she could see to her astonishment that Sunset was actually being pushed slowly backwards along the ground towards the house.
“Ruby!” Sunset said. “I’ve got an idea but you’re going to have to keep him busy for a little bit, okay?”
Ruby nodded. “You got it!” she declared, as she leapt down off the roof of the house, spinning in the air before landing on her feet facing this unknown grimm. She spun Crescent Rose in her hands before pointing it at the giant equine monster and snapping off a trio of shots in its direction.
They had as little effect as Sunset’s rounds had had, but they got the grimm’s attention. It turned its burning, possibly magical – that possibly was becoming more and more a ‘certainly’ in Ruby’s mind, because what else could that purple energy be? – eyes in Ruby’s direction.
This isn’t like the dragon. I’m not doing this because I don’t have a plan. I’m doing this because Sunset does.
Ruby leapt at the grimm, Crescent Rose cutting through the air as the wind began to change direction, ruffling through her hair and tugging at her crimson cape. The grimm reared up, hissing, so that the blow which had been intended to cut through its leg only succeeded in scratching it, to no visible effect but a hiss of anger from the creature. Ruby landed, and saw the hoof on the leg that she had scratched descending on her like a hammer from above; she rolled away but the hoof struck the ground with a sound like the ringing of a great bell and the earth trembled. Ruby snapped off another shot, but with the ground shaking she might have missed.
The grimm snapped at her in turn, bringing its head down and closing its jaws around the empty air as Ruby leapt away, slashing at the grimm’s face with Crescent Rose; the blade scraped across the bone a moment before Taiyang assailed the grimm in turn, driving his fist into his face just below one of those burning eyes. The fire in those eyes seemed to leap still higher as its horn began to glow once more. A beam of purple leapt from the horn, burning a trench in the earth as it scoured the ground in search of its enemies. Ruby leapt away, but her father was not so fast and was struck a second time by the grimm’s magic and blasted backwards with a cry of pain.
“Dad!” Ruby yelled, firing every last shot she had in her magazine right into the grimm’s face before she leapt at it again, Crescent Rose swinging.
The grimm almost seemed to laugh as she swung her blade straight for that curved horn that jutted out of his head.
The scythe-blade struck.
There was a flash of purple light.
Ruby felt burning pain ripple up her entire body as her aura was ripped away, she flew through the air as she was blasted backwards to land in a heap, the rising wind washing over her.
Thunder rolled in the sky above as the grimm hissed. “Ssssslavessss.”
Beowolves howled as they emerged from the smoke at a run, their red eyes gleaming in the darkness even before their oily bodies and their bony faces became visible. They advanced quickly upon the huntsmen, but the howl of the beowolves was met by an answering bark as Zwei, too, emerged from out of the smoke to assail the beowolves from behind. He leapt onto the back of the nearest beowolf and began to bite its neck out.
Ruby didn’t know exactly how much aura she had left but she had enough aura left to fight. She swept around the battlefield in a wide arc, trailing rose petals in her wake upon the dusting of snow that still lay upon the ground as she cut down beowolves before slashing at the hind legs of the grimm. She dodged its first attempt to kick her, but when it stamped its hoof upon the ground she stumbled and allowed it to kick her away. Instantly a beowolf was on top of her, but Zwei was only a step behind and leapt upon the beowolf, bearing it backwards and away from Ruby.
“Ruby,” Sunset shouted. “Sir, get back.”
The winds had risen quickly, they were almost a gale now and as for the storm clouds rising over head where had they come from? Ruby looked at Sunset, and when she saw her partner standing there, arms raised on either side, the wind blowing past her, making her tail and hair stream, as she saw the shimmering golden wings emerging on either side of her back as though she had become a butterfly during the course of the battle, then Ruby understood.
It was harder than she had expected to do as Sunset had bidden, because the wind pushed against her and buffeted her, and even with her super speed she could feel the tempest blowing her back in the opposite direction, but with effort she and her father both made it behind Sunset and her glowing golden wings.
Sunset’s brow was set with concentration as the wind blew in the face of the horse grimm, trying to blow away the black smoke that seemed to spread from it; and as the storm clouds gathered overhead a torrent of lightning descended from those black clouds, some of it striking the beowolves as they were blown away but most of it falling upon the horse grimm, hammering and spearing it even as the grimm was hit by logs torn from the roof of Ruby’s house by the strength of the winds that Sunset had called up.
The grimm shrieked, it seemed that where Ruby’s blows had done nothing Sunset’s magic was actually causing it harm. It shrieked in pain, and as it shrieked it fired a beam of purple energy straight towards Sunset.
Sunset responded by throwing out her hands and firing a beam of her own magic, a broad beam as wide as a tree trunk, right back towards the grimm.
The two beams met, and Sunset grunted with effort as she leaned forward, looking as though she were trying to push a rock forwards along the ground.
The grimm hissed with effort, and bowed his head as though it, too, were pushing.
The two beams pushed against one another, the white light where the two beams met moved a little in the direction of Sunset, and then a little in the direction of the grimm.
And then it began to move, inexorably, in the direction of Sunset. Inch by inch the green light was overwhelmed by the purple, and process of the overwhelming seemed to only grow more swift the closer it got to Sunset herself.
Sunset’s eyes widened as her beam of magic was overwhelmed and the grimm’s own magic struck her square in the chest, bearing her backwards, lifting her up into the air.
“NO!” Ruby screamed, as she saw Sunset’s aura start to flicker and die the way that Yang’s had flickered when in the ursa’s mouth.
She’d already lost her sister, she couldn’t lose Sunset too.
Ruby screamed, and as she screamed her eyes exploded with a brilliant silver light that consumed the entire world, drowning out all other sights and sounds until there was nothing left but silver light and white noise.
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King Sombra?
Also first view
(Is it rude to add the first thing to a comment?)
0.0
Woahhhh that was sick.
Wait...... was that King Sombra from Equestria?! Or are we talking about a local, Remnant version of Sombra where Salem did something with it(?)/him(?)
10006672
It's Remnant Sombra, he just talks the same so you know it's him.
10006680
So, did Salem do something to Remnant Sombra like what she did to Cinder in RWBY canon by making her part-Grimm?
and so we meet one of those "Four kings" that Salem mentioned. and it's the remnant version of Sombra. i wonder if another one of them will be Tirek? regardless, this was an awesome chapter!
where the hell did Remnant Sombra get magic and Equestrian Dark Magic at that?
I hope this has some good explanation and not just a plot device to chalange Sunsets new magic
like sirously let Sunset do something badass for once because so far she just keeps geting her ass handed to her
If you are going to make Sunset an Alicorn than write her as powerful nat as a pushover
She should be at least some kind o concern for Salem , if she just has minions who are calualy Maiden/Alicorn level than her not using them against Ozpin and the Maidens in the past seams incompetent
If this was Equestrian Sombra it would make sense but Sombra from remenat has no reason to have this kind of power
The Scorpion vs Papa Bear... The most dangerous kind of bear.
Only way this chapter could have been even better is if Zwei had grabbed Tyrian's tail in his jaw and refused to budge.
The appropriate response.
Thank you for giving Tyrian the beatdown he’s needed since Volume 4, as well as doing something I really hope the show does and showing Taiyang in action.
10006755
It's actually Remnant magic, that's why it's purple like the God of Darkness.
Pyrrha would have had at least that much trouble because she's still inexperienced with her powers; a fully trained Maiden, on the other hand (like Raven) would be more than a match for Sombra or his ilk.
10006843
OHO! So Salem's been doing her own brand of magic-sharing like Ozpin did with the Season Maidens and the other past members of his secret order? Only it's with some of her personal Grimm variants?
okay, that scene with Ruby's dad beating the snot out ot Tyrian was great, any one else cheer when laid the smack down on the fool?
Any reason Salem was holding this Super Grimm on reserve?
Been a while since Ruby's eyes activated. Always at a good time, too. This new Grimm is worrying. Magically strong enough to take on and defeat Sunset...
10006941
I mean, she is basically re-learning how to use magic since she now has access to new abilities and spells that she just didn't have the power to pull off before; not to mention her pegasus and earth pony magics being lumped in on top of it; all while being in a world where she essentially has no one to train her in how to use the Equestrian system of magic and thus she is basically self-taught with some primers from Celestia.
10006948
I can think of 2 main reasons.
1) Salem has been trying to keep a low profile for the last centuries, if Ozpin doesnt field his maidens there is no reason for Salem to escalate and risk her resources, especially when she has the upper hand in a battle of atrition.
2) she knows Equestria magic exists, and the beings that are dumped on Remnant have no reason to bow to her. If someone like Tirek was exiled, Salem would be screwed (since we got the confirmation that the grimm are made of magic). Keeping some really strong and loyal protectors at hand at all times is a good idea when you know that a mayor problem can just fall into your lap at any moment and you have no way of seeing it coming or to stop it.
Both reasons go out of the window now that Salem has the crown. She has a honest shot at winning, now is the time to use all her cards.
10007033
Even so, the whole thing was sloppy as hell. Is not like Ruby's location was exactly secret, she could have gone and get her without all that drama. Granted it would have worked without Sunset there to help, but that still risked Ruby activating her eyes all killing the Grim, so she would be sacrificing a powerful warrior just to get one girl. When you know, actually putting a bounty on Ruby's head would have worked better
Then again is not like Salem has keep up with the times.
10007109
That is true, there was no real reason for Salem to risk Sombra like that, which makes me think that Sombra and the rest of the kings have some level of immunity against silver eyed warriors.
After all, its not like Salem has no experience against them and we know that the petrification caused by the silver eyes doesn't kill the grimm (in cannon the dragon is petrified but still alive). Given that this Sombra seems to have his counterpart "nebulous evil cloud" as part of his bag of tricks, I can see him escaping the petrification easily.
Plus, on a more meta level, given that they seem to be the grimm equivalent of Salem human court and strong enough to give a fight against Maiden lvl enemies, I really doubt that they are not going to become recurrent characters.
Uh...hi, Tyrion.
Okay, this is interesting. I've been expecting a Remnant Sombra showing up eventually, but I was thinking it was going to be a Grimm-infected faunus, sorta like a prototype to what Salem did to Cinder. This is something else entirely.
There are Grimm with odd magic-like powers. The Apathy's lethargy aura springs to mind, as well as Giest possession, and Beetle power transfers. This could be along those lines, but the speech... that puts Sombra in a different category. Liches & Wraiths from the earlier magic-rich era that weren't 'mortal' and therefore not subject to the wiping out of other magic-users due to technicalities? Salem experimenting to see if she could replicate what happened to her when she jumped in the Grimm pool, shoving in other people who she believed to be strong enough to survive? Ooooh, how about the idea that Equestria is not the only alternate world dumping stuff in Remnant, and this is from somewhere... else? There's a lot of possibilities here, and now that this story is firmly off the RWBY canon rails at this point, it's all fair game. :)
hi. another comment from me.
I'm sorry, but i still disagree with this sentiment here. willfully forsaking your own humanity is never "the right choice" without their humanity, they're no different from Salem, as far as I'm concerned. Ruby should already know far better then most that Salem isn't an enemy that can be beaten with attrition tactics. if you constantly sacrifice entire battalions of allies or your own men, then sooner or later, there will be none left but you, and you'll find that all you did was delay the inevitable. okay... i won't dig up that can of worms again.
on other notes. i do hope that Sunset is able to shake off this "everything is my fault, everywhere, always" mindset she seems to be sporting even though not a single person died and all that really happened was a bit of property damage. when even thinking about it still puts her close to emotional breakdowns after several months? she is in desperate need of counseling like Blake was.
Yes. it happened. Learn from it and don't just roll over and let it dominate the rest of your existence. I was glad to see Blake find her way out of that pit, now lets see if Shimmy can.
Please tell me that Ruby's magical(?) Silver Eyes could definitely hurt/kill the Remnant Sombra........
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Or at least put him on enough of a back-foot (back-hoof?) for Sunset to win their Beam Off
It's past midnight over here so......
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! 🎉🎊✨
Hey! Im caught up again!
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Literally nobody else thinks that.
Whelp. Hello Sombra.
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I just thought it'd look badass, no need to be a jerk about it.
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I actually considered that for this chapter, but it's a long way to go with just one arm and Ironwood wouldn't know to send her a replacement.
Plus I'm not confident I could portray the trauma very well.
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I understand, it is hard to write out that type of trauma, its cool that you considered it though.
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How does she forsake her humanity here? Was it somehow more humane to let the grimm in to kill the townspeople? I'm confused here.
Especially with the context of the last chapter, this little bit says a lot without calling too much attention to itself.
I can completely believe that Sunset has never been on a porch before, between taking in the Palace, the Nikos manner, and Beacon where kids use the roof as a balcony instead. Perhaps it also illuminates things from her Atlas life a bit, or perhaps she's just making idle commentary. No matter which though, it's a nice little reminder of her not-quite-royal heritage.
There is... a lot of thoughts I have for this section, and this word choice. I think some of it comes down to a difference of interpretation and reading, because I see ways that it is accurate, and ways it is inaccurate. It makes it hard to really write a good analysis without going into the story as a whole, but it's worth noting that there is one way that what Sunset said is especially wrong: Ruby lost part of herself with Yang. That above everything else I can't help but feel is what she's struggling with, because now she gets the chance to re-frame sacrifice as an absence that she never quite dealt with regarding her mother. If she had, I don't think she'd be struggling so much with this.
This was both satisfying and amusing.
Jeez, the idyllic little ball of sunshine that is friends with Sunset really isn't shimmering so brightly these days, is she?
Fight scene was enjoyable, as was the satisfaction of catching on to Sombra's identity as I recall on my initial read through. I guess I don't have as much to say about this chapter, but part of that is that I'm not certain about what to say. Make no mistake, I enjoyed it well, but for some of their conversation I'm of a few different minds and interpretations about it all, and for some of it I don't think it's entirely settled. For other bits, the continuation of story makes commentary more relevant there.