The lights came on. Oddly enough, Salem wasn't there this time. Instead, Cinder and her team were now in the room with Ozpin and the usuals.
"About time!" Mercury yawned out as he leaned back and put his legs up on another seat. "Wanted to see more of this alternate universe stuff."
"Indeed. Heard we missed a rather interesting combination last time." Cinder said as she crossed her legs and took a glass of wine.
"Eh, don't worry about it," DB told them lazily. "Today, you will watch an abridged series."
Cinder Fall, Mercury, and Emerald were at a sleepover with Teams RWBY and JNPR. They were all gathered in the AV Room flipping through television channels. Ozpin and Glynda were in the back row watching along. In fact, the group was watching a live-action martial arts exhibition as two women were in an intense match.
"Wait, why?" Mercury asked. "I could understand all of us being there, but why are your so-called headmaster and his secretary?" He could only call Glynda a secretary so confidently with her not around.
"Martial arts may be more important in this universe." Emerald reasoned. "Just stop talking and watch the screen."
"Please," Weiss muttered. She had no love for Cinder or her cronies, but this particular fellow annoyed her to no end. Absolutely no charm to found in her opinion.
"This match is ov..." One of the fighters said as light starts to erupt from the ground. "Huh?"
The floor explodes and shows Salem rising up from below the instructor getting Ozpin to spit out his coffee and getting everyone's attention. Even Cinder was frightened by this. The martial artists fall to the floor as Salem floats up to the next floor.
"Now those are spectacular glutes!" One of the cameramen says lustfully.
Mercury and Yang had to withhold a comment as they were side-eyed by Cinder and Weiss respectively. "He isn't wrong." Surprisingly, or Unsurprisingly to some, that comment was mumbled by Blake.
"Quick, change the channel!" Ozpin yelled coming down to the front row with Glynda.
Ruby changed the channel to see Salem rising through a cooking channel, and then a soap opera. Ruby changed the channel only to see Team Four Star's Dragon Ball Z Abridged on.
"I love this show! Leave it here!" Nora cried out.
"Nora," Jaune said sternly.
"Oh fine." Nora pouted as Ruby changed the channel again.
"Aww." Nora folded her arms and pouted. "I wanted to see... whatever that was."
Everyone swore they heard an unknown voice in the somehow even more distant back yell about 'Dusttube' and this thing about. And it wasn't anyone they recognized either.
It was on the news.
"And so, in closing, the White Fan....gahhh!" The news reporter as Salem rose up to have his neck in her grip.
She lifted the tubby man into the air.
"The following contains violence, coarse language and adult situations not suitable for minors. Viewer discretion is advised." Salem said right before a black substance enveloped the reporter's neck. His head exploded right from his shoulders on live TV and his moments of agony was more than noticeable.
"Damn!" Mercury said pitying the guy.
"No kidding." Ruby muttered.
"This... this isn't something my mistress would do." Cinder said, sounding faintly unnerved. 'Why would she go out in the open like that? Is she winning? If that's the case, why do I feel fearful?'
Ozpin nodded. "Salem wouldn't be so cocky unless she had a very good reason."
"So," Ruby was hesitant, "this means she's got what she needed?"
Ozpin nodded. "That just might be the case." He could only hope that wasn't true.
Cinder wanted to know what the hell was going on as this wasn't a part of Salem's plan at all. Cinder had a bad feeling about this.
"Ladies, gentlemen, boys and girls, and that technicolor rainbow in-between, I am Salem. You may remember me from all the Grimm attacks that I cause. Yes, I am the mistress all things Grimm. But that's not why I'm here. I'm here to make an announcement!" Salem said excitedly.
"What is it? Going to leave the planet and let us have peace?" Ozpin thought sarcastically.
"I will be leaving the planet with all the Grimm!" Salem remarked.
Ozpin spat out the coffee, Cinder face-faulted, and Ruby cheered.
"Woohoo!" Ruby cheered.
Everyone froze. Salem, the witch who embodies everything negative and the downfall of sentient life, said she would leave the planet with her Grimm peacefully.
"But what about me?" Cinder said, a bit louder and less composed than usual.
"Guess she had no more use for a pawn." Blake chortled out a bit darkly. Cinder's right eye slightly twitched and her underlings felt the need to scooch a few seats away from her.
"After I blow up this planet." Salem said.
"Oh shit!" Half of the group said.
RWBYNPR almost mirrored the reactions of there on screen counterparts, albeit saying, "Of course" altogether and with a few eye rolls.
"And there it is." Ozpin sighed out as he took a nice, long sip of his coffee. He knew he should've expected something like that.
"Who cares about the planet, what about me?" Cinder urged on, a bit desperate to know her fate. Alternate universe or not, she felt she should never be screwed sideways. By anyone.
"Unless." Salem said as the world wheezes. "One of your young hunters and huntresses-in training can best me in one-on-one combat."
"So, anybody not from Team CDRL?" Nora sniped.
"They're not even here," Pyrrha said to the pancake lover.
"I am officially hosting a once-in-your-lifetime event! A tournament so grand, it will leave you breathless! I hereby dub it...the Grimm Games! Be part of the conversation on Twitter at #GrimmGames!" Salem said holding up a scroll.
"Son of a bitch is trending!" Ozpin said checking his scroll.
Ozpin held back a groan through his mood lowering was noticeable by a few, namely Ren. "Is there an actual social media battle between you two?"
Ozpin looked at him for a few seconds. "Maybe. It's complicated. Let's just say she seems to be more... fruitful on followers."
"To be fair," Pyrrha chimed in, "you're a headmaster with little appeal to teenagers both digitally and reality wise while she is essentially the goddess over criminals with connections to people, some of whom who don't need to be covert." Despite her limited social interactions, she knew marketing and demographics thanks to her celeb status. Weiss nodded with her, understanding the situation as well.
A trained eye could see that Ozpin looked as though a dark cloud loomed over him.
"For all of you familiar with your adorable little Vytal Festival, I'll be borrowing the rules. No brackets this time, however. Yours truly will be your only opponent. And much like Yang and Ruby's mothers," she winked, "I will accept all comers." Salem said mirthfully.
Yang's eyes flickered red and Ruby's silver eyes seem to burn brighter. "How dare she?" Yang growled.
Glynda turned to her and noticed said blond bombshell was only wearing a sports bra. "Miss Xiao-Long, why did you take off your shirt?"
Cinder was panicking on the inside. "This wasn't just as planned, this wasn't just as planned!" She kept repeating in her thoughts.
"I don't understand." Cinder mumbled aloud. She couldn't grasp this.
"Me neither..." Mercury agreed. "Seriously, why would you take off your shirt? Not that I'm complaining."
Yang folded her arms and snorted. "I get hot when I'm angry, okay. And that pale bitch crossed the line." Ruby nodded agreement, more than nettled by Salem's joke of both their mothers.
"Who cares about any of that." Cinder uncharacteristically growled. "I'm being bamboozled here!"
"Hehe, bamboozled." Nora giggled out, ignoring Cinders harsh glare.
"But before I make closing statements, I must thank Cinder Fall, Hazel Rainhart, Doctor Watts, Tyrian Callows, and Adam Taurus. Unknowingly, they gave me a power sweeter than the Maidens or the Relics could ever be. Thus, I no longer need them." Salem said as her eyes glowed red. "With this power, I could even torch the entire planet if I wanted."
Everyone turned to glare at Cinder who looked more and ready to shrink. Even Emerald looked ready to throttle her. Unknown to Cinder, Salem had lied to her all this time. There was no power in it for her, Salem just wanted to make sure that no one would impede her goals of pure destruction and what better way to do that than with loyal to fault expendable pawns.
"If you think Cinder was and is feeling shit, go see Tyrian. Pretty sure he hanged himself." DB told them.
"Dark." Ruby simply stated.
"Nice going Cinder." Mercury carefully whispered to himself. Luckily for him, his actual leader was still too distracted by the onscreen development to hear him.
Emerald, on the other hand, wasn't sure how to take what she just saw. 'Would I actually be angry with Cinder... I mean, if she unintentionally screwed me over...' Emerald had much to ponder.
"You think this might make them see the error of their ways?" Weiss whispered to Blake.
The cat faunus shrugged. "Who knows? Probably might make those three more wary at the least."
"The location of this marvelous event will be at Vale's Beacon Academy."For a split second, she stopped smiling and spoke quickly. "If you don't know where that is, you're an idiot." Her cheshire grin returned full force. "The games will start at noon two weeks from today. That should give you plenty of time to prepare. Or for those not participating, time to connect with loved ones, get your affairs in order, or maybe just kill your boss! Get a purge going! Live a little! Because in two weeks' time..." Salem said with a chuckle. "Well, to give you an idea."
Raising her arm, a red energy sphere formed in her hand growing larger. Salem launched it tearing through the walls of a building before blowing up a chunk of Atlas.
"So, keep that in mind, and I'll see you next Sunday! Also, feel free to pray to a diety..." Salem said with a smirk showing too much teeth. "But spoilers-I won't be listening."
"Inconceivable," Ozpin muttered. If he actually saw his Salem do that, he would be terrified. "That was a power beyond... the output of our universe and she clearly wasn't using much."
"So, she's far stronger than you thought?" Emerald asked.
Ozpin nodded. "Indeed. That world of Remnat-"
"Is screwed?" Yang finished. Ozpin nodded. "No way, not as long as we're still there." She said as her face steeled and she punched her fist into her palm. Her team and NPR nodded with her.
'Fools.' Cinder thought with pure bitterness. 'There's no hope with her like that.'
Salem slowly flew out of the hole in the studio as the CEM, RWBY, JNPR, and Ozpin look in shock and fear at the static in the TV.
"We're so screwed." Emerald remarked with a whisper.
With little warning, Ruby changed the channel to some type of hentai channel to everyone's shock.
"She said one week! I'm using it!" Ruby angrily roared. "Everyone get out or get weird!"
Everyone just left the room and Yang didn't even bother arguing with her.
Adam had it worse as Sienna Khan tried to maul him to death. All over the world, everyone was panicking. Raven was drowning her sorrows at the nearest bar making a promise to visit Taiyang, for one last roll in the hay, and Yang, to apologize. Qrow and Winter were doing the latter of what Raven was doing seeing as it was essentially the end of the world and amends had to be made. Roman did not feel like robbing anything and Neo was drowning her own pain in ice cream.
"Yikes, talk about a cavalcade goodwill. Where's the purge?" Mercury asked. He didn't mind the goodwill stuff going on, but damn, where's the purge at? It's the end of the world after all!
"I'm glad mom made amends and all, but that part with dad was so unnecessary." Yang couldn't help but blanch and Ruby just looked away to pretend she didn't notice that at all.
"I found it all rather satisfactory." Blake said, rather enjoying the karma Adam received. And the thing with her teammates parents could be used for novel material.
People realized the situation's bad when the White Fang put aside its crusade to join forces with everyone against Salem. "Members of the White Fang!" Sienna Kahn was addressing her people while a ragged looking Adam was locked in a cage next to her labeled 'The Fuck Up Pen'. "Despite my predecessors... advances to our downfall, we must not surrender! As painful as it is for me to say this, we must work with humanity and bring down the true threat that is Salem!"
"Amazing what greater fear can do to even the most hate filled of people," Blake muttered, her friends nodding with her in agreement.
"If only this could actually occur without the need for the evil to ride to greater power." Weiss sighed out.
A small uproar rose in the crowd. They didn't question her decision but they did question how. "Silence!" Sienna roared and they listened. "We have an edge!" She motioned for her guards to bring something over. Well, two someones inside sacs. "My brethren, I bring you our champions!"
The sacs were removed and from it spring forth Ruby and Jaune. "What the -" they both simultaneously yelled but stopped as soon a cheer roared through the crowd. Whether they were genuinely convinced or cheering out of desperation remained to be seen.
"Them!" Cinder actually shouted. "I could have some understanding of miss Rose but that wannabe knight?! I highly doubt he'll be of use."
"Um, did you forget we're watching an alternate universe?" Pyrrha asked with an odd bit of sass that could a few looks. She had to hold back a little blush.
"Be that as it may, there's nothing that could stop her." Cinder turned to the screen and glared. "Nothing."
Salem and Jaune stood on opposite ends of a marble arena. The blonde teen was in a stance and looked ready to fight with hand to hand martial arts. He breathed in and engulfed in a spiral of potent silver aura, his hair even gaining a silver tinge.
"Holy crap! Do you feel all of this power?!" Salem excitedly yelled as her attention turned to RWBYNPR and pals. "How about that miss Branwen?!"
"Fuck off!" Raven yelled back, somehow becoming more irate.
"And he didn't have to buff up like a certain angsty childish lover of his!" Salem yelled as her eyes turned to Blake. The faunus just grit her teeth as a growl left her throat.
Blake didn't care so much about the lover part in the embarrassing sense at the moment despite the glances sent her way. What got her main attention, well ire, was the angsty child part. "I am not angsty." She growled out.
Weiss coughed into her hands. "May we focus on the fact that Jaune is actually standing up to the force that is Salem and seems to be on equal grounds?!" She gradually got louder as she went on.
"How?" Cinder whispered. "And why with his bare hands?"
"Now that you mention it, no one has any weapons." Emerald stated with some shock in her voice.
"Guess this is a world of fist fighting. Right on." Mercury said with a slight smirk.
"Yeah and now Jaune-Jaune is gonna break her legs!" Nora cheered. She held down the lingering part of her that held a fear of Jaune failing.
"Maybe." Ozpin said as he focused on Jaune. "Maybe he can." He hoped he can.
"Well, now that I've seen yours." Salem's hands began to spark with a powerful black and red energy. "How about I show you mine?"
"Yeah, put out for me, Salem." Jaune hungrily growled out. "Let me feel it all over."
"Ohoho, now you're speaking my language." Her dark aura was now enflamed, clashing with Jaune's very own silver aura. She gave him a demonically hungry look. "Well, what are you waiting for? Are you going to swing at me or stare into my eyes all day?"
"What was that?" Jaune asked, the battle smile still on him. "I was lost in your bottomless eyes. Like a void with a pool of blood far below."
"Oh just swing at me already, you big beautiful Arc!" She yelled with glee. He charged forth, bringing down a power worth more than any cavalry of heavenly knights.
The screen shut off.
"Dammit." Everyone sighed or growled. Once again, they are left in suspension though some were a bit grateful seeing as how the dialogue was getting a bit too... sensual for their appreciation.
Emerald looked towards Cinder with concern. "Mistress... are you-"
Cinder breathed in deeply and sighed. "I'm fine. This was an alternative universe. Obviously, this won't happen." That was more to herself than her subordinate. 'Still... contingency plans never hurt.' She thought a bit darkly.
"Aww man, that's the second time I'm denied a good show." Nora groaned again, sitting back against her seat with a disappointed thud.
"There's always next time." Ren told her, placing an easing hand on her shoulder.
"Indeed." DB's voice spoke. "There's always next time on R-W-B-Y-Z!" And the lights flickered off.
Special thanks to ma boi, yoshi3000. Look him up, he's got some good ideas. Hope you guys dig Teamthree - I mean Teamfourstar!