The wicked witch of the west

{Salem's General POV}

Salem. A name that would send shivers down the spines of anyone that knew the history of said name.

The Immortal Witch.

The Black Queen.

The Grimm Queen.

The woman that wished the downfall of the gods.

A woman who lived for ages, hiding in the shadows and plotting. She gathered her pawns, orchestrated the deaths of any Silver Eyed Warrior she found, and weakened the power of her former husband, or outright having him killed. Centuries of planning, creating connections, and gathering power had led to the plan of destroying Beacon and reclaiming the Relic hidden beneath.

Her recent pawns had a viable plan, and she approved of it. The chaos that ensued would be enough to naturally attract thousands of Grimm. The Grimm Dragon would ensure even more Grimm for the plan.

And it was working. Watching the chaos through her Seer was glorious. The destruction spread throughout Beacon and Vale. The Grimm flocked towards it without her needing to direct them, and everything was going to plan.

And then it wasn't.

At one point, Salem felt a disturbance through her Seer. It was strange, but she paid it no mind.

And that was a mistake. With the minor connection she had with the rest of the Grimm, she felt them die faster then before. There were people fighting back, and cutting down her Grimm in droves. and she HAD to see what was happening.

So by looking through her Seer, she focused on the area her Grimm were being culled, and moved it in that direction. That's where she met the first variable. A woman prone on top of a building, sniping her Griffins and Nevermore.

Usually, she wouldn't pay much mind to something like this. But Salem felt something... Different, about this woman. Her Seer could tell the woman didn't have her aura unlocked, but that raised a question.

'What was she shooting with?'

Salem knew those were no ordinary bullets. They weren't even dust bullets. So what were killing her Grimm? To try finding out more about this variable, she coerced three Griffins and a Nevermore to attack her.

And the results shocked her. The woman avoided the volley of feathers from her Nevermore, re-positioned and shot the Nevermore mid transition. The Griffins had moved in, and as they got close, the truly shocking thing happened. The woman grew fur, fangs, claws and gained a minor aura of a predator. The nearest Griffin paused for a moment, and was immediately cut in half by her claws.

The other two were dispatched relatively quickly after that, and the woman dropped her transformation and went back to sniping her other Grimm.

That. That shocked Salem far more then anything she'd seen in recent ages. Salem had been the oldest being on Remnant, but never in her years had she seen something like that. That was no Faunus, she knew. But that was all. This was something different. Something dangerous.

So Salem kept observing. And when she saw the woman aim towards her Grimm Dragon, she made sure to take note of everything. This woman was an unknown, something unheard of in her long life. So when the woman fired a compressed bullet of SOMETHING, she tried to understand what it was. It wasn't magic, that she knew. It also wasn't aura. Despite the similarity, she could tell it was something different.

Her Grimm Dragon hardly felt the projectile, but she felt its irritation at WHERE it had been shot. So collaborating with her Grimm, she set a swarm upon the woman, hoping to kill her and rid the board of this variable.

But of course it wasn't that easy. The woman moved with a speed similar to veteran hunters, and avoided any volley sent her way. Salem watched the chase, and when they reached a certain point, she froze.

The woman had started shouting for a 'Silver.' And that's when she saw it. A man with a Silver eye, and the air of a monster around him. Her Seer had stopped advancing, but that didn't matter. Salem took in the Silver Eyed Warrior? And felt her irritation grow. She was sure she had killed the last one. A 'Summer Rose' years ago. But not only was there a Silver eyed warrior, there was also another.

She could SEE the child by his side, a splitting image of the last warrior she had killed. Two Silver eyed warriors side by side, and that wasn't the end of it. The man called Silver had thrown away his coat, and Salem watched him change just like the woman had. She felt the air around her Seer slow. It was as if the world was holding its breath, and she held hers along with it.

She watched the man be encased in a sphere of flowing power, and rise to the sky. Salem could FEEL the power radiating through her Seer, and she grew worried. Her Grimm were beginning to lose the will to fight due to their animal like instincts, and she couldn't blame them. It was as if she was being stared down by a king. A lion without equal. And all she could do was watch.

The sphere began to change. It changed into a shape she knew. The shape of a wolf. And when it was done, the power she could feel radiating off of it made her feel something she hadn't felt since she was mortal.

Fear.

That power easily eclipsed hers. Her magic had power, but that was something else. Something primal. And as she heard the howl and name of that ability, Salem knew.

She couldn't defeat that.

Her swarm was decimated. Her Seer was destroyed. And she felt the Grimm clouding the skies simply die.

Since the start of her war against Ozma, Salem had no answer for this.

But she knew something. She needed information. She needed to prepare. So she looked through the eyes of her Grimm Dragon, and made sure it could prepare itself for the fight she knew would come. She needed as much information as possible. So she did something she hadn't done since the creation of the Titans.

She coursed her power through the connection she had with the Grimm Dragon, and fed it. She usually abstained from this. Too much and she'd lose the control she had over the Grimm, and it may gain sentience. Not all of the Titans obeyed her, so she stopped when she felt it was about to take too much.

But it was enough. She felt her Grimm Dragon had gained another layer of armor, increased power, and enough strength to be a minor Titan. It wouldn't be enough to win, but it'd be enough for her to gleam some information.

And a few minutes later, she got all she could. He had no aura, just like the other woman. He healed wounds like dismembered arms in mere moments, he had the physical power to punch through her Dragon's armor.

But there was something else. A comment she'd heard through her Dragon's ears. A comment that made everything else that was happening seem irrelevant.

'Remind me to take you to the WORLD of Gods and Demon Kings.'

And it all fit. Whoever this 'Silver' was, he was a World Traveler. It made sense. When the Brother God's had stayed on Remnant, they had made mention of those with the power to move throughout the realms. They had barred entry to the realm, but when they left, it seems the blockade had gone with them.

And now, now travelers were here. And they stood against her. And when she had a moment to see Cinder's corpse, the power of the Fall Maiden go to a student of Beacon, and finally the death of her Grimm Dragon, Salem raged.

She would've had the advantage.

She would've taken a Maiden from Ozma.

She would've potentially killed him with the almost army of Grimm at his doorstep.

She would've been able to claim the relic beneath Beacon and begin her hunt for the others.

But she didn't.

She held no advantage.

She had lost her pawn and the power of the Fall Maiden.

She wasn't able to have Ozma killed.

She didn't have a way to lay claim to the relic.

And it was all because a World Traveler had intruded upon their realm. Upon HER realm.

Another sleight from the Gods. Even when they were no longer in the realm, they still found a way to deny her.

And so Salem raged. For hours the sounds of her screams, the roar of the Grimm, and the crackle of her magic rang through her castle. Her pawns had tried to talk to her, the fanatic begged for mercy, but she didn't listen. Lost in her rage, she let her wrath be known until it was spent.

And for the rest of the day, she kept going until she couldn't.

When she had cooled off, she informed her remaining pawns of the variables, and from there, she started planning.

With killing Ozma and taking the Fall Maiden's powers resulting in failure, she needed information on the World Traveler and those he brought with him.

From what she saw, there was the sniper. A woman capable of using her gun with a deadly degree of accuracy, the ability to create and empower bullets, transform into the beast form they shared, and was competent in battle.

Then there was the swordswoman. She had been laying besides Cinder's decapitated and tortured corpse. She had used the same form 'Silver' and the other woman had, so Salem assumed all the World Travelers had that power. That woman was cruel, played with her food, and seemed to defer to 'Silver' the same way Tyrian deferred to her.

The other two were unknowns to her. A blond woman that seemed to have no sense of self preservation. But that was all she knew. The Seer hadn't been focusing on her before it was destroyed.

Then there was the pink haired woman. She was the most unknown out of them all.

There were too many variables. So Salem started to plan.

After creating two new Seers, Salem put them to work. They were sent off towards Patch, and by using the Grimm on the island itself, she started gathering information. Focusing on a single area when there were thousands upon thousands of Grimm at her command was tiring, but she needed to do this.

So for weeks, she spied on them. She couldn't actively choose Grimm to do this, but viewing the situation through their eyes would have to do.

And it did. During the mornings, she learned their names, listened in on any conversation she could, and gathered all the information she could. She learned what they were to each other, and during the night, watched them doing a form of training, mate, and then every morning they would meet up with the other thorn in her side.

Ruby Rose. Daughter of Summer Rose, and true Silver Eyed Warrior.

She would need to be dealt with. But at the moment, there was no way to do so. With the World Travelers staying with them, any action against her would alert them to her spying.

So she didn't. She kept her Seer's invisible, kept them in the sky away, FAR away from them, and observed. She learned they had enhanced senses, they had made mention of it during a training session, and her Seer was almost caught by the Alpha of their pack during a late night meeting between him and one of those twins. Thankfully, by luring a stray and small Nevermore to its position, the suspicion seemed to have been thrown off.

But it was worth the extra effort. After a month of spying, the World Traveler and his women were leaving. From what she was able to gather, they were heading to Atlas. It was perfect. With them apart, she could get rid of the Silver Eyed Warrior, and fully focus on the World Traveler.

When she had learned their destination, Salem called for her pawn Watts. After she instructed him to gather as much information as he could, she knew Watts had left bugs in Atlas, dispatched a Seer to track them, and remain undetected.

And now, she had to plan for the Silver Eyed Warrior. She was undoubtedly protected by Ozma, but she could get around that.

She could deal with Atlas. The nearest Titan was one she had control over. She'd just need to wait. When there was an opportunity, she would force it to awaken, even if it would exhaust her for years, and unleash it on their Alpha. She had heard he was weakened while in their realm, so with a full powered Titan, with some major enhancements from her side, SHOULD be enough to weaken him greatly. Killing him would be too optimistic. With him out of the picture, she would be free to deal with the rest of his women.

For now, she would need to focus on creating a horde to dispatch of the little girl. What was a Silver Eyed Warrior, one from her observations had yet to unlock her powers, be to a horde of Grimm? Nothing. That was how she felled the last one, it would just be poetic justice that the daughter followed her mother to the grave in the same way.

She just needed to wait. An army of Grimm would take time. Waiting for the right time to rouse her Titan would take time. And for her? Time would be nothing.