Aftermath

POV Death

When Death was cheering up his lovers, the morbid task of collecting the informaion on who lived ad who died. Most of the Teams survived relatively in tact, though there were two exceptions, Team CRDL from Beacon was completely wiped out and Team BRNZ from Vacuo lost three members, leaving May as the soul survivor.

The only other Team that lost two member was Team CPPR, with Piper and Rain wiped out in an Ambush by a Hound. In the end, Penny and Ciel beat the monster, but were unable to save their allies.

Three other Atlas teams lost one member each, so Team FNKI, which lost no members, was disbanded and sent to these four Teams, with Neon going to join Penny and Ciel. They would have only three members for the time being.

It was a bit easier for Vacuo who lost only five of it's students. Apart from May's teammates, Dew Gahl of Team NDGO died. These two teams were both in their second year and they simply got combined, while the last fallen member was a fourth year student so they didn't want to dump a second year into their team.

Death was fine with this since he was glad that May and the others who were all bound to him would have each other. He was not looking forward to having them return to Vacuo, though, even if he knew that they would come to him after two years.

Death knew that the teams would stick around a while and help rebuild after the destruction that befell here, so he could at least put off having to worry about some of his lovers leaving for the time being.

The next morning, Ozpin asked Death to bring back the civilians of Vale and he did just that before it was time to go meet General Ironwood.

While the General could have waited for reinforcements from Atlas to arrive before going back, but that would take time since the entire fleet that came with him had been wiped out. Instead, he asked Death to get him to Atlas.

While Death had not created a gate inside the vault space there itself, he had created a few gates around Atlas, so it was easy for him to assist with.

When he arrived at Ozpin's office, Death found Ironwood waiting with Penny, Ciel, and Neon. "Death, my friend, I am happy to see you well again" Penny greeted him enthusiastically and hugged him.

"I'm sorry about your Teammates." Death said to Penny sympathetically while hugging the robo-girl as well, gently patting her back.

"It was indeed unfortunate" Penny admitted with a sad tone "It happened so fast, I couldn't save them."

"Well, I'll see if the general will let me show you something really cool later" Death suggested to Penny.

"You mean the relic of creation?" Ironwood guessed "I've already told these three about it, so there's no need to beat around the bush when it's just the five of us.' even though it was Ozpin's office, neither he nor Professor Goodwitch were in it at the moment, instead they were out helping the returning civilians.

Death looked at the General and nodded "Yes sir. I want to use the relic first to make Penny a real human, I think you and I both know that she deserves the chance, and second I want to create a weapon that will be useful is quickly terminating a lot of Grimm. Since they cannot repopulate, this will make the world much safer."

"Can you tell me about this weapon?" Ironwood asked him.

"I have the schematics, but do not properly understand them yet. I know that it is able to travel at insane speeds, at least 850,000 light years per hour, and that is with it's primary FTL drive. It also has a Wormhole Drive capable of crossing multiple Galaxies in a few seconds, provided you have enough Zero-Point Modules to move that far. Obviously we wont be really using these engines, I just want to study them while we use the City-Ship against the Grimm."

"City-ship?" Neon asked with shock "How large is this shop?"

"Atlantis is 5000 meters across, roughly circular in shape, but the buildings on it are as tall as 850 meters. Oh, and the sub-light engines that I hadn't mentioned before are capable of speeds approaching 300,000 kilometers per second." Death insisted "Though not just anyone can control this technology. I believe myself and Penny will be able too, though. Once it is built I can properly begin studying it."

"Alright, then lets do this" Ironwood agreed .

One quick trip to Atlas, Ironwood arranged for Fria to accompany them to the vault and unlock it, which brought them to summoning Ambrosius again. Death introduced the relics spirit to Penny and said what he wanted, offering future-penny's schematics that he scanned while watching the things Jinn showed them, and tried his best to stick to what the cast in the show had asked, though due to her currently smaller size, Death offered to offset the required material with materials provided by his system.

Ambrosius said what he needed and Death provided it, allowing him to make Penny a brand new human body. After examining her new body and outfit a bit, Penny suddenly hugged Death, and he hugged her back, very much enjoying the new Penny in all her fleshiness "I'm happy for you Penny" he smiled at her.

"Do hugs always make you feel this warm?" Penny asked Death excitedly.

Death chuckled and nodded "Think that your father will like this surprise?"

Penny's face became even brighter and she looked at Ironwood "May I go see my father, sir?"

Ironwood nodded "I am happy that we could get a little bit of good news today." he informed her.

"Thank you sir" Penny said before running out of the vault to go look for her father.

"Well, I guess we're done here huh?" Ambosius asked.

"Actually, there is one more thing, but this will take a while even for you, I fear" Death explained to Ambrosius "Compared to your modifications to Atlas before, this is much more complicated."

"Oh, let me see it then" Ambosius insisted..

Death nodded and literally dropped a pile of schematics reaching eight feet in height in front of him "These are the schematics related to construction of Atlantis, but you wont be able to build it with the materials available in this world alone, so you'll need this." Death retrieved the 'schematics' for a new molecule "This is the shape of a molecule called naquadah, which is damn close to indestructible. These schematics are technology of an extinct species known as the Lanteans, and their tech is heavily reliant on naquadah the same way people in Remnant have been reliant on Dust. I want this made as shown in the schematics so that I can study the technology. Trying to make sense of it and make changes to it seems a foolish thing without a working prototype to look over."

"Your requests are never boring, kid, I'll give you that." Ambrosius agreed with a chuckle.

Death then looked at General Ironwood and the others who were all visibly shocked by the huge pile of sheets of schematics.

"I wasn't lying when I said even Ambrosius would take a while to be able to pull this off." Death pointed out, then looked at Fria "Do you think Penny would be a good successor for you?"

"She seems like a sweet girl" Fria admitted "It is surprising that she was a robot. She seemed so human. Can she even receive my powers?"

"Penny is human now." Death pointed out to Fria "But even if she wasn't, she would have been able to receive them because she has a soul, and she certainly has a maiden's heart."

"Death is correct. We saw a bit of the future with the assistance of the relic of knowledge" General Ironwood told Fria "the information we saw allowed us to minimize the tragedy that befell Vale by a lot, but the important part for you is that in the future that we saw, even before the relic of creation was used as you just observed, Penny did inherit the power from you successfully. I would have had my doubts as well if I had not see it through the relic of knowledge."

"When would this have happened?" Fria asked, since obviously it meant that he would die.

"We didn't see the date, but I'm pretty confident it was more then a year from now but less then two years" Death explained "That's just an estimate though. It could be less or more. That future has been thoroughly derailed, but you came to your natural end in that timeline, and left peacefully. The same cannot be said for Penny. She inherited your power for less then two days and got to enjoy being human less then an hour before she died."

Ciel, who was normally fairly stoic, actually shed tears when she heard what had happened to Penny "That wont happen now, will it?"

Death smiled at Ciel and shook his head "No way. General Ironwood and Headmaster Ozpin took the information provided by me with the help of the relic of knowledge and so thoroughly thwarted the Grimm Queen that she acted rashly and attacked Vale, where we all dealt with her permanently. With the mastermind and all her servants dealt with down to the last one, there's no threat to Penny." he reassured Ciel.

Death had done what he could to help Ciel a bit to grow closer to Penny before he fell asleep all those months ago, and while she had stoically resisted, he was glad to see that it worked out eventually.

Death decided to give Ciel a hug "I'm proud of you for getting closer to Penny. Trying to be a good soldier is noble and all, but even General Ironwood, who could be said to be an ideal example of a soldier, opens his heart to others. In fact, he loves ALL the people of Remnant. whether man or woman, or human, faunus or Nephilim. He might seem stoic and professional, but he can maintain the ruse because he is fighting not for himself, but for others."

First of all, getting hugged had surprised Ciel, but before she was able to complain, Death started talking to her, and she had to admit, his words made sense. Was shutting off her emotions not the right way, then, he guessed she was wondering.

She looked towards General Ironwood, who nodded that it was true "You are a good soldier, Miss Soliel, but Death is right about what motivates me. I do not let my heart influence my actions, I focus hard to maintain my rationality rather then to act on my emotions, but I don't reject them. I harness my emotions in a controlled and productive manner. The difference between a good soldier and a great soldier is a good soldier tries to repress his or her emotions, while a great soldier will use them to drive him or herself ever onward, they will just balance out their emotions and do not become slaves to them."

Hearing a man she respected so much, General Ironwood, verify that Death was telling the truth, filled Ciel with resolve to open up to people a bit more, accepting that to be a great soldier she had to be a better person. She even forgot that Death was still hugging her until she realized she was hugging him back,

When she noticed that she was hugging Death, Ciel blushed, let go of him and stepped back with embarrassment. "I think you will definitely have an incredible future." Death reassured Ciel.

------

Death, Ciel, Fria, Neon and Ironwood talked for over an hour before Ambrosius finally finished looking over the schematics "I'm ready. Where do you want it built"

"Off the coast of Vale, West of the Island of Patch" Death answered simply "It's appearance there will not stir up as much trouble and it will give me time to get it working" he then created a gate "This will bring us to a beach on the west coast of Patch where people don't visit much. Our staging point."

Death stored the schematics back in his inventory and then the group, including Ambrosius, passed through the gate and the spirit of the relic of creation went straight to work.

"You coming to Remnant was truly a blessing to us, young man" Ironwood said to Death "Even if this Atlantis of yours doesn't work as you hoped, just dealing with Salem and her minions makes us infinitely safer."

"It will work." Death reassured the General "With this you can safely invade the Dark lands and take out every last grimm there, and seal up the pits of destruction there with covers made of naquadah. That way even if the grimm gain the ability to repopulate in the future again, the most prolific source of the grimm will not be able to produce anything. I'll plan to stick around at least long enough to seal those up."

"You'll leave in the future? Like, leave Atlas, or leave Remnant?" Neon asked with worry.

"Remnant. This isn't the only world that needs a hero, after all." Death answered to Neon "I'll be bringing those with me that wish to follow me, of course. Remnant will be a much safer place by that time. If you, Penny or Ciel wish to follow me I'll welcome each of you. Of course, if Penny comes I'll invite her father as well, I'm sure he can learn a lot by seeing the technology of other worlds as well, and I'll still visit Remnant occasionally."

Neon nodded to Death and smiled "Then I'll take you up on that offer and go with you when the time comes.

Death and the others looked towards the West as Ambrosius returned, and they saw the newly made city floating about a mile out to sea.

"You certainly are one that gives my interesting requests young man. Summon me again some time" Ambrosius insisted before turning into mist and vanishing back into the relic of creation that Death held. Death put the relic into his inventory and then looked at Ironwood "I'll go to Atlantis and create a gate for all of you to come through." he said before activating his abyssal/doom armor and used the antigrav jetpack to fly towards the city.

------

After bringing Ironwood, Fria, Ciel and Neon to Atlantis, Death left four avatars there to assist them, as well as to take them to wherever they needed to go when they needed too. and he himself returned to Vale. He had wrote to them on his scroll a bit before he left Atlantis to meet up in the Beacon Courtyard, and he also invited Nebula, Gwen, and Octavia.

When he arrived, though, Pyrrha Nikos and Reece Chloris were also with the group. Death didn't question it and brought them all into the mirror dimension for privacy. His lovers decided to trust Pyrrha and Reece, whom he also suspected had feelings for him, so he decided to disclose his plans for the future, including leaving Remnant one day with his family and whoever chose to follow him, in order to save other worlds the way that he had saved Remnant.

"The reason I called this meeting is simple. While it is still some time off yet, as I need to set up a new governing system on remnant and still weaken the grimm by a lot, I will eventually be leaving Remnant to visit other worlds that need to be saved. I would like to offer each of you the option to follow me when the time comes, but I wont force you. And you will be able to visit Remnant when you want too in the future, so you wont have to worry about that."

"I'll go" Reece agreed and then started walking up to Death "I've been...trying to build up the nerve to do this all year" she clapped her hands onto Death's cheeks and dragged him down to her level and passionately kissed him.

Following the kiss, Death chuckled "Wow, Reece. I was wondering if you were going to confess. Thank you."

Reece blushed "Does anyone else want to confess?" she asked and looked at Pyrrha expectantly. Before Pyrrha could get a word out, though, Octavia and Gwen Darcy jogged up to Death and both of them hugged him.

Both of them whispered "I love you, Death." in his ears while seemingly in no hurry at all to part from the hugs that they had caught him in

Pyrrha sighed and also stepped forward "If you will have a woman like me, then I will be yours. I'll belong to you and to know other. I...also....am in love with you."

"I had a feeling about Reece, Gwen, and you, Pyrrha" Death smiled at each of them affectionately "I wasn't expecting you to confess, Octavia, but you are a great woman and I do admire you I offer each of you my love and all that comes with it."

Death smiled as his other lovers (Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, Melanie, Miltia, Amber, and Neo) rushed over to hug each of their new sisters and to welcome them.

Death was really happy seeing how the four newcomers were welcomed, and didn't notice Ultear approaching until she was right in front of him "Death, I know you fear that my free will was tampered with at the time you summoned and resurrected me, but time changes nothing. You don't have to make the decision now, but think about it. When you are ready, I shall also become your woman. I already dedicate my life to you as me savior, and when you are ready, I will also dedicate my body to you."

"While I was in a coma, the deity that helped me to come to Remnant spoke to me, and I now have a clearer understanding of my powers." Death told Ultier with an affectionate smile "That deity said he does not mess around with free will at all, and he clarified other things. The semblance he bestowed upon me a tiny spark of divinity, and while I am not a god or anything, people naturally feel awe or reverence towards a deity that is like-minded to them, thus resulting in me having a somewhat magnetic personality. How you manifest that respect, and reverence, though, is not something I can mess with at all At most, I could learn to control my divine spark and make those I have summoned like yourself forcefully obey my orders, but your mind would remain yours, and I couldn't always command you in that manner. Of course, I never want to use that. I am like-minded with the one-above-all, and refuse to screw around with free will. That was the whole reason I couldn't be with you before, Ultier. Now that I know the truth, though, if you want to be my lover, I wont reject you anymore."

Ultier shed tears of happiness and hugged Death's neck and dragged his face into her massive G-cup breasts. At first he was perfectly content with it, but eventually he was running out of air and his arms started flailing a bit.

Yang laughed at the scene "I think he needs to breath."

"Ooooh....I'm sorry." Ultier apologized while releasing him from her embrace, still crying a bit from her happiness "I was too excited." she said with pinkened cheeks.

Death chuckled and then wrapped his arms around Ultier's waist and pulled her body up against his own and kissed her lips passionately.

Following the kiss he released Ultier from his arms and started looking at the others "There is another announcement and introduction I have left to make to all of you." Death announced.

Death opened another gate and a man with long golden hair and flaming red highlights to it stepped out carrying a blond haired, blue eyed baby girl in his arms and handing him to Death.

Once the girl was out of his hands, the man transformed into a three-legged golden-colored crow and flew up to land on Death's shoulder. Death, likewise, summoned his other familiar, Dust, and the ice Crow landed on his other shoulder.

"These two crows are my familiars, Jīnwū and Dust" he glanced towards each of them as he said their names, then looked at the little girl "And this little girl is someone I plan to raise as a daughter and give a better life this time around. If she reverts to her old ways, I can render her powerless due to the way I resurrected her, but she can't make amends for her past deeds if she's not in a body."

"Um, are you implying that this adorable baby is Salem?" May asked with surprise.

"What?" Nebula asked with shock.

"Salem was innocent once too, you know. Are you familiar with The Girl in the Tower? That 'Fairy Tale' was actually about Salem's past, written by Salem herself" death explained to the others "While it is possible there there are inaccuracies in it, since it was used as propaganda for Salem to gather minions, many of the main points of the story are true. The fact that she tried to exploit it to help her evil ambitions does not change the fact that she was once a victim, and had a very difficult childhood."

"That excuses trying to destroy all people?" Nebula asked, seeming more confused then anything.

"Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, Amber, Neo. and May can verify what I am about to say." Death announced "After being freed from her confinement in the tower for who knows how long, Salem fell in love with the hero that rescued her. Unfortunately, not long after that, he fell ill to a normal illness and passed away. After having been basically alone except for her father, who for unknown reasons kept her confined, Salem finally had a pillar of support, and then immediately t was taken away from her. Salem could not bear to lose that pillar, so she approached the god of Light, and begged him to bring back Ozma, who was taken away too soon, but the god of light apologized and refuzed, stating that death itself is a part of the cycle of life and that he and the god of darkness had agreed not to intervene in it. The god of light expressed his sympathies and advised her to mourn for him and then move on with her life."

"I'm guessing she did not listen?" Gwen asked him.

Death nodded to Gwen "Yeah. She went to the god of darkness next, and begged him to resurrect Ozma, but she did not mention that she had went to the god of light first. The god of darkness didn't get many humans coming to see him, so he welcomed her happily, and even agreed to her request, resurrecting Ozma in front of her.. This act led to the god of light appearing there and killing Ozma again. Ozma was resurrected and killed many times in front of Salem, and it looked like the two gods might fight it out, until the god of light mentioned that Salem went to him first and was rejected. After that, the last one to kill Oza yet again in front of her was the god of darkness."

"How did that lead to her becoming the grimm queen though?" Pyrrha asked.

"What it led to was the gods cursing her with immortality, so that she could never reunite with the man she loved, not even in death." Death explained to Pyrrha "And that, combined with witnessing what had been done to Ozma while the gods were fighting, led her to rebel against the gods. She gathered many greedy humans and together they tried to attack the gods, and failed miserably. The god of darkness, particularly angered by humans trying to attack him with a gift that he had given them, wiped out every last human on the planet and then departed from the world, damaging the moon as he left. The god of light likewise departed from Remnant, leaving Salem as the only human left alive on the entire planet, and unable to die. She grew desperate, and decided if the god of lights pool of life could curse her with immortality, then maybe by drowning herself in the god of darkness's pool of destruction she could finally die, but she was wrong, and her attempt to die instead turned her into a monster."

"So you made her a normal human now. Her actions as a human were someone understandable." Gwen acknowledged "I'm not saying she was right, I just think that the punishment se received seems a bit too much, you know?"

"Now that this is fully explained, do any of you object to raising her with love and compassion, and helping her to free herself from her curse?" Death asked them all.

No one spoke up in complaint, and Death felt relieved.

"You have a good heart, Death. We love you and believe in you." Ruby insisted.

Death, of course, pulled Ruby towards himself with the hand that wasn't carrying baby Salem and bent down to tenderly kissed his lips "Thanks, Ruby. I try my best. I'm not perfect, but I try to be as close to it as possible."

As Death stood up straight again, ruby relaxed and rested her head against his chest, seeming rather blissful

"What have you been doing the past few days?" Yang asked suddenly

"I created a new weapon to use against the Grimm." Death admitted "The City Ship Atlantis. If we had that ready on the day Vale was attacked, the battle would have been won in seconds. Unfortunately, it wasn't ready."

Ruby, of course, looked up from where her cheek was leaning against Death's chest "Weapon? I wanna see it!" she declared excitedly "Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease!" she begged.

Death chuckled and nodded "You will all get a chance to see Atlantis. I promise you that. I'll give any of you who want to check it out a tour this weekend."