Y/N's Pov
We had done it. Salem was dead, and the gods had returned. It was all over, or so I thought. For a few minutes, I was thinking about what my life would be like now that we had won.
Unfortunately, we had solved one problem by creating one much worse.
The gods saw we were not what they had hoped for, and decided we were not worthy of them keeping us alive in the state we were in. They cast Ozpin into the afterlife, leaving Oscar alone. Then they did something I never could have expected. They began to fight.
The god of light believed that the problems with humans came from our free will and ability to fight amongst ourselves. The god of darkness wanted to destroy us, thinking we would never be worthy of existence. To him, we were a failed experiment, and wasting any more time on us would only be counterproductive.
Neither were willing to budge on this. Everyone else was horrified, but I saw an opportunity. They were as close to equal as possible, so if they were to fight each other they might leave themselves open for us to hit back and force them away.
I was going to try to communicate this to Ruby or Oscar, but then the god of light reached out and created a massive blast of light. When it subsided, everyone had lost their will. I had teleported to the other side of them as soon as I saw his hand going up. Everyone turned and proclaimed their total loyalty to the god of light.
In that moment, I had to make the hardest choice of my entire life.
Would I join my friends and girlfriend in the promise of a perfect world with no pain, no conflict, and no danger, or would I join the god of darkness, who now was in charge of the Grimm and would be dead-set on our destruction.
Everyone else began turning to the god of darkness. He and his brother were perfect equals, so the god of light having a large group of powerful humans would surely mean he would win. I realized they had not noticed me slipping away. I didn't know what to do.
I had been fighting to save the world from Salem, but she was gone. Ozpin was with her as well. That left it to me to decide. I saw in that moment that they were both wrong. Obviously the god of darkness was wrong to want to destroy us, but life under the god of light would be completely meaningless. I knew from my life that without pain, happiness meant nothing.
I couldn't honestly be on either side, but I saw that I could even the odds so they would both be weak, hopefully opening an opportunity to stop both of them.
Everyone else attacked the god of darkness, almost killing him then and there. He was on his knees, and his brother was about to finish him.
In that moment, I made my decision.
I teleported between them and punched the god of light away. Yang's gauntlet had been shattered in a previous battle, but I could still deliver a powerful blow with my fist.
God of Light: "This is your chance to achieve everything you have fought for, boy. Do not throw this awa-"
Y/N: "You can shut your nonexistent mouth." I stood by his brother and drew my sword. That was it. My last chance. From now on, I was an enemy of everyone I had ever cared about.
God of Darkness: "Impressive, human. Perhaps one of your kind is worthy of living."
Y/N: "I don't care about that. I fought for a world free of Salem, not a dictatorship." I was partially lying. What I cared about was just getting rid of both of them.
Yang: "Don't do this!" I turned to the god of darkness.
Y/N: "What do we do?"
God of Darkness: "I must rebuild my strength. You must delay these humans as long as possible. As soon as I can, I will open a portal to safety for you."
Y/N: "I can't fight your brother alone."
God of Darkness: "You have to."
He opened a portal and disappeared. I placed my sword in its sheath and switched to lightning dust. Team JNPR wasn't there at the time, so it was safe to use. The god of light left to go bring the rest of humanity under his control. I tried to teleport into the air and stop him, but couldn't.
I guess he figured that my semblance would allow me to avoid him doing the same to me unwillingly. Oscar went with him. Team RWBY was left to take me in. I had beaten them before, but they were much more experienced this time.
Yang's Pov
I didn't want to hurt him, even now. He was wrong, but I knew he could still be brought to see what we all did. I looked at my team.
Yang: "Let me talk to him first."
Ruby: "Go ahead." I stepped forward.
Yang: "Please. Just come with us. I don't want to hurt you."
Y/N: "You'll never take me in. Ever. He'll be worse than Salem. What about his actions suggests he is going to be a responsible leader? He is responsible for Salem, Ozpin, and all the pain we have gone through. I'm done with all of this. The god of darkness is right. It's better to die then live as nothing but machines." I couldn't believe it.
Yang: "What about us? I thought we meant something."
Y/N: "We do, but I care more about the right thing. Can you say the same?" I felt a hand on my shoulder.
Ruby: "We can still save him. We just have to take him back with us." He pushed is sword slightly out of the sheath with his thumb and placed his other hand on the handle.
Y/N's Pov
In an instant, the experience and adrenaline took over. All my emotion for any of them disappeared in an instant. I had one objective: Survive. Stall them until the god of darkness could pull me out and we could regroup from there.
Before they could react, I teleported to Ruby and Yang who were slightly further away and pummeled both of them with a single strike. I lost track of what was happening afterward. The sheer chaos of the battle and my body running on its own are all I remember. Eventually, Wiess used some air dust to create a massive gust of wind that stunned me, but did not hurt my aura.
Ruby: "Sorry, Y/N." She charged at me, but I was fast enough to send her flying with a strike from my sword.
Y/N: "Don't be." Yang came flying at me with her fist raised, but I teleported to where she was and bodyslammed her with enough force to kill a normal person. The battle resumed, this time with me being much more aggressive and deadly.
We fought for what must have been at least 10 more minutes, until Blake got a lucky strike in and broke my aura. I saw no point in holding back the flood of power. I pulled out my sword and stabbed it into the ground, creating a shockwave that knocked the entire team off their feet. They recovered and this time I came at them full force.
The next thing I knew, I was bleeding in several places, including a fatally large wound in my chest, and a massive gash across one of my eyes. Thankfully, the eye itself had survived.
Just then, I saw the portal open. I jumped through. I couldn't even stand up. I was in a region that was completely overgrown with Grimm flesh. A small wolf-like one that I didn't recognize the type of appeared, followed by what looked like a small Nevermore. The bird grabbed my arm and pulled me along. As it was dragging me, I succumbed to my wounds.
I woke up in a distorted version of Beacon. I could walk again, so I looked around. The sky was dark and the entire academy was floating in a void. I entered the halls, and saw what looked like an aura projection of Ozpin training me as a child. I was sitting there, listening to what he was saying.
Ozpin: "Remember, you posses a gift unlike anything I have ever seen. You must learn to use it to help others, not for your own desires."
Young Y/N: "I understand."
The apparitions disappeared. I closed my eyes for a moment. What I would give to have Ozpin's guidance now. I snapped out of it, telling myself he would want me to find what to do on my own.
I pressed forward, and came out to where bullheads and airships would land. I saw similar apparitions of Yang annoying me during her arrival at Beacon. I shed a single tear, and forced myself to move on. She was as good as dead now, along with the rest of her team. I had been right.
I should have stayed away from her. I should have been strong enough to say no to her. I would never make that mistake again. I got to where I fought Michael and Adam, and saw both of them there.
Adam: "So good of you to join us, brother."
Y/N: "What?"
Michael: "You're dead. Just like us. I wish I could help you." He disappeared. Adam then attacked me. I put up a fight, but I wasn't able to beat him. He stabbed me and disappeared too.
I felt the worst pain of my life afterward. It was like my body was tearing itself apart. I saw my aura separate from me, and then stand there. As it did, I screamed in agony.