Chapter 11: My Immortal

False Remnant #10,434,792: Beacon

Nidhogg

The world was just as he wished it would be. The sun had risen and set probably a dozen or more times since he turned Beacon into a pile of ash and rubble. If he were capable of smiling, his gaping maw would be disgustingly wide with glee. A low chuckle escaped from its mouth. "Burn," it muttered. "All will burn. All is ash. Burn. Burn. Burn."

Roughly four days had passed since he took this campus from the filthy mortals who lived and studied here. The lesser Grimm that had gathered in that time were still gnawing away at the rotting flesh, yet the dragon was content to simply sit on his prize; unmoving and perfectly pleased with himself. Lying on the ground beneath him rested a silver rapier broken into two pieces, and the burnt flesh of what was once a white haired young girl who tried to oppose him; a fine addition to his collection of bones and trinkets, yet it did nothing to quell the deep seated rage from within.

He was calm and content for now, but a few more days the wrath would return, and he would be forced to find the next bastion of life to destroy. Part of him looked forward to it. He yearned to release his burning anger.

As though summoned at the very thought, three pillars of flame erupted on the ground before him. Though pleasing to the sight, they confused him. He hadn't conjured them with his breath, and there wasn't an accelerant to catch from the nearby fires. What's more, the color was wrong.

The flames were of the rainbow.

Weiss, Penny, & Rose

The flames died down, and Weiss saw him. Her own anger swelled, filling her with a lust for carnage. Her ravenous gluttony that drove her to destroy the Master Units was about to reach its end, which in a twisted way filled her with a sense of pride. In a way, she almost envied her younger self; when she died on this world not so long ago she had only killed Ouroboros, having not tasted the joy of destroying the rest yet. Nothing else interested her.

And with a mad smile upon her lips, she knew that nothing ever would. Today, she would get everything that she ever wanted, and more.

The black dragon stared at her, his wrath seemingly delayed by shock. A low, deep, demented voice filled the air. "I burned you," Nidhogg stated.

"Wouldn't be the first time," Weiss retorted, Myrtenaster at the ready in her left hand.

"I shattered that blade."

"Ready?"

"As ever," Rose muttered, once again summoning the black bladed scythe of her lost lover.

"Don't die on me, Weiss."

The immortal huntress smiled wider. "Not yet," she whispered.

The dragon's black leathery wings spread as he prepared to take flight. "Burn!" he shouted, opening his infernal maw as orange flames licked at his own tongue.

"Ouroboros!" Without a word, the Master snake grew to his true titanic size and coiled around the three of them to create a spectral shield. The flames erupted and formed around his spiritual flesh without harm. When they died down all of the lesser Grimm began to charge in for the kill. "You two take the small shits. The dragon is mine!"

"I don't think that's a good-" Rose started.

"She's got it, let's go!" Penny shouted as she deployed her petal like blades. "This is what she's lived and died for. She can handle it."

Rose shook her head, readying her scythe. "If you say so. Hya!" With a single swipe of her black blade she beheaded a Beowulf. "Like Penny said, Weiss! Don't die now!" Leaping away, she began carving an opening in the horde of Grimm. Penny nodded without a word as she leapt in the opposing directed, clearing out the Grimm as she went.

Weiss, short and petit as she was, used a glyph to propel herself up until she landed atop Ouroboros' head so that she could stand at Nidhogg's eye level. "I've waited for this," she muttered. "For so long, you bastard. I've been waiting for this day."

"Only a fool wishes to burn twice."

She laughed. "Truthfully? I've lost count." Her grip tightened on her blade. "But for you lot? I'm five-for-five. Let's make that six, shall we?"

"So be it, witch!" the dragon shouted, and Weiss gritted her teeth.

"You've not earned the right to call her that yet, draconian," Ouroboros said with a hiss. "She is my witch!" With that shout, he spat acidic venom at the dragon, who took flight to dodge as Weiss began to preemptively hurl fire and lightning at him.

Penny

Just like Wraiths, she reminded herself as she cleaved Grimm after Grimm. Deathstalkers, Beowolves, and the occasional Nevermore all assaulted her whilst she eliminated them with ease. Just like old times. Nothing to it. Don't worry. She paused for just a moment to glance over at Weiss and found herself feeling genuinely impressed.

The Heiress was using Ouroboros' head as a bounding platform as she implemented her glyphs to bounce around Nidhogg, forcing him to stay lower to the ground and restricting his flight. She's been thinking about this, she realized. She's got it all figured out. A Nevermore feather narrowly missed her, dragging her back to her own battle.

"Damn it!" she shouted, swinging her puppet-like blades to cut the devil bird in two. "Focus! Let's go!"

Rose

With every swing of the black bladed scythe, Rose felt as though she were ripping a piece of her own heart out. Over a hundred years ago, during the war against Crim and his band of misfits, she'd witnessed her lover fall in battle whilst wielding this very same blade. It belonged on a wall mount with a framed photo of Darkstar, somewhere where everyone could know about his deeds and how many lives he saved by giving his own. To use it felt wrong, but she knew he wouldn't feel that way.

He gave it to her right before he took his last breath. He wanted her to have it so that she could defend herself and others, just as he did. One, two, three swings and three Beowolf heads went flying. Four, five, six. Seven, eight, nine.

Before too much longer, she'd lost count. But it didn't matter. She wasn't here to keep score. She was here to buy Weiss time, and to help her kill that damned dragon.

Because with Nidhogg dead, the remaining survivors of this Remnant had a better chance at living. Without realizing it, she'd activated her Oculis spell; her eyes glowed a bright purple, and her pupils became black four pointed stars. Time seemed to slow as she began to process everything that she saw at a super human speed. For every tiny crack in a Grimm's skull-like face that she saw, she killed three. Before she knew it the thrill of her previous battles kicked in, and she slowly began to enjoy herself.

This is for you, my love.

Weiss

"We're winning, Witch!" Ouroboros shouted as he spat another round of acidic venom at the dragon, finally finding purchase with its left wing. The black beast roared in pain as its wing crippled, forcing him permanently to the ground.

His maw opened to release a torrent of flames. "Burn!"

"Fuck you!" Weiss shouted as she launched herself into the air with a glyph to dodge while Ouroboros harmlessly took the full blazing barrage. Casting one more glyph to hold herself aloft, she pointed at the ground with her right hand. "Meet my new friends, you son of a bitch!"

Penny, Rose, and Ouroboros watched in awe as four gargantuan blueish white glyphs formed, two on each side of the snake. "Yes!" the snake shouted.

"Whoa," Penny muttered.

"Holy shit!" Rose exclaimed.

A massive white, spectral paw burst from the ground of the first as the full grown might of a spiritual Cerberus clawed its way to life. The left and right heads barked angrily at the dragon while the middle seemed to smile. "At long last! A feast worthy of my hunger!"

Suddenly, a giant white boar leapt from another glyph. Seemingly hundreds of razor sharp teeth and six tusks protruded from its gullet, and its three eyes shone with a piercingly bright blue. "You call on me to defeat this? The beast is nothing compared to my might!" it shouted, its voice prideful; Calydonian

A bright scorpion the size of a city block clawed its way into existence, its four pincers snapping wildly as its two stinger tipped tails twitched to and fro in anticipation. "You have power, Witch. Great power," it muttered, with a hint of jealousy; Scorpius.

And lastly, the great bear Callisto sprang forth, though much slower than the others. Much less interesting in appearance, she seemed just as a normal bear, only the size of a six story tall building and a Schnee emblem emblazoned upon her head. "You own my spirit, witch? How bothersome," she whispered lazily.

Ouroboros looked up and into Weiss' eyes lustfully. "You are beautiful, Witch. You've earned this."

She smiled as she released the glyph that held her in the air. "Rip him apart! Bring that son of a bitch down for good!"

The five white, spectral Master Units descended upon Nidhogg as one, viciously shredding his flesh and ripping his limbs off as he screamed in agony. "No! Burn! Burn!" he shouted just as one of Cerberus' heads clamped down on his throat, silencing him. Casting more glyphs, Weiss accelerated her descent, falling faster and faster with her sword in hand.

"You! Are! MINE!" she shouted, and her rapier made contact with Nidhogg's skull, sinking deep into its dark and twisted brain tissue.

Silence. The battlefield grew still as the lesser Grimm seemed to freeze and all six Master Units froze in place with Weiss balancing on the dragon's head. The lesser Grimm slowly began to evaporate, much to Rose and Penny's surprise.

The explosion caught everyone off guard. Nidhogg burst into millions of black shadows that slowly faded from existence. Weiss herself, caught in the brunt of blast, fell to the ground limply on her stomach, her clothing torn and shredded in places. "Weiss!" Penny shouted as she leapt over and between the five white summons that the heiress controlled, Rose following suit behind her.

"Fear not," Ouroboros said gently. "She lives. We would not still be here if she had perished."

The two Shifters rolled Weiss over and inspected her. She opened her eyes and looked into Penny's. "I have them all," she said with a smile, laughing softly.

Penny smiled back. "Yeah." She nodded, lifting Weiss up into a gentle hug. "Let's go home."

Song: My Immortal - Evanescence

Author's Notes

Very, very, very delayed chapter, but here it is! What I've been busting ass trying to write. Admittedly, I wrote most of it this morning. I actually haven't been to bed yet. I'm tired!

But, as promised, here's the chapter where we finally fight and kill Nidhogg. The chapter is a little shorter than I expected it would be, but in my defense I've never excelled at writing fighting scenes. Fights are fast paced pieces of action, so it's hard to write a good one as an entire chapter when there isn't much in the way of character drama, such as the Battle for Beacon chapters in the previous two stories, both of which were multiple chapters.

Next chapter is Number 12, and the Epilogue. We're in the home stretch, kids! I'm so excited to finally wrap the Shifting Remnant AU up after 3 1/2 years. Fuck! 3 1/2 YEARS! Why did you guys let me drag this out!?

But seriously, I've had a lot of fun with this. Maybe I can finally focus on Free or some of my other unfinished RWBY fics.

Well...

It's not over just yet!

Till Next Time!