Chapter Text
Salem knew these demons were powerful but it was another thing to witness it. She had thought herself strong, once (and she still was of course in comparison to other humans)… But she had learned twice that there was always something stronger than her.
It made her feel angry, if she was honest; they wielded power enough to shake the ground, and even the Fuka-girl was so powerful as to treat this as a casual affair. The creature she called her sister tore into the forces meant to tame her into another boring prinny with a genuine smile of a young girl. Even this red prinny was doing his best to keep her alive…
And she didn’t even need to manipulate them all that much. True it was because Fuka was clearly malleable but why the other two? Perhaps the creature could not help but obey Fuka? Was it natural?
The battlefield was awash with battle, and the two prinnies found sanctuary in the strange, artificial place’s limited cover; little better than a cardboard box but beggars can’t be choosers. The other instructors had set up some sort of puzzle… and all of them were dying or in server pain against the sisters.
“Desco is her sister, biologically speaking… sort of.” The red Prinny explained as they took cover behind a wall that would probably explode. “She’s an artificial demon who her father made.’
Salem just peered over to see Desco morph into a strange-looking ax into Fuka’s hands. “Well, that explains that bit.”
“We can do that too dood.”
Salem paused… well that was information, but she’d be a dead-DEADER- woman before she let anyone wield her like that. “Why do you insist on following such an inane rule?”
The Red prinny cocked his head to one side. “How long did they tell you you’re in for? I’m… about the same time. I just don’t want to extend it dood. Besides I… knew Artina and Lord Valvatorez… He set his mind, made a promise to us and nothing gets in between him and his word.”
“Strange…” Salem paused. “... What brought you here?”
Nemo paused. “My sins?”
Salem covered herself and cringed away from the explosion that shook the ground and the howl of pain from some no-name prinny instructor (who all suspiciously looked alike to her but then again that wasn’t too unusual) before pretending that didn’t happen. “No, not that… the other prinnies spoke of angels, or some. Strange goat-skeleton. Sometimes a phantasm,” She added as afterthought. “But… I don’t recall that.”
The Red Prinny shook his head. “That’s a long story. And it looks like the fighting’s almost over…”
“Let’s get this over with then.” She paused. ‘You dropped that word…”
The Beaked version of what Salem assumed to be an embarrassed smile appeared on his face. “Well, I don't think we need to worry about that… dood.”
—-
Kinzel looked at the message from Flonne. It was irritatingly simple; keep Cinder out of these areas for the day and to Avoid St. Paprika’s Gate. Apparently, they were getting visitors.
Human visitors to Celestia… the event was noteworthy, but she supposed if the Seraph and Archangels wished for them to be here that was that. Not like they were looking for her approval.
She looked to where she kept Cinder; which was to say the futon. Her apartment was modest, and it gave Cinder her own space, but not enough that Kinzel couldn’t figure out where she was. Kinzel did the unforgivable sin of letting Cinder sleep in for a bit so she could figure out something.
The other instructors were dumb kids, at best, trying to handle a hardened murder. That was the problem up here really; angels born up here didn’t know what it’s like down there, and people who ended up here, like Summer or that Penny girl, were too sweet.
Maybe this was why she was up here, in some sort of godly plan beyond her understanding… it explained why she ended up here at least.
More practically was jobs; she wanted to avoid making Cinder clean the Celestial Zoo, at least until she was sure that the field trip was over. Laundry Duty at the Academy of the Hosts? Maybe for later. For now, she was just going to have Cinder do the normal maid-stuff she wanted; hey, might as well if she had access to this subject.
Not that she was particularly dirty mind you; her apartment was as spotless. You learned to appreciate cleanliness when you came from a slum. Prinnies didn’t get days off but spending that time seems pointless at the moment… a challenge she needed to meet.
An idea formed in her mind at that moment… Alright, that could work!
She just needed to get the old thing from out of the closet…
—-
Summer looked at the mask she had made for herself; the face of a skull in ivory-like coloration. She remembered reading as a child that executioners hide their faces. Or maybe that was something Raven told her at Beacon. It helped her with her new job…
Someone needed to be out there for the dead. And one day…
Cammie went to open the door to Summer’s house as the doorbell rang out. Summer quickly hid the mask away and went downstairs. Cammie let the other angel into her home… Morgan. “Good morning, Summer Rose.”
“Morning ma’am.” Summer said with a bit of a bow, a smile on her face. “How Ya doing? You don’t visit as much as you used to miss Justice.”
Morgana laughed. “Pick formal or informal first… Uh, well… You remember that talk we had?”
Cammie, seeing Summer’s face harden, quickly excused herself to ‘iron some of her robes’. “... is that today?”
Morgan stepped inside. “You’re not still scared are you?”
Summer tried to say something, but it caught in her throat. “... Ruby barely knew me, and Yang, I…”
Morgan put a hand on her subordinate… no, friend’s shoulder. “I haven’t seen my father in ages. I’ve thought of what to say to him. It’s never going to be perfect but-
Summer closed her eyes. “... I know I should but… But…”
What was she supposed to say? “I’m sorry?” didn’t seem to cut it. She had good reasons, she thought at the time and yet being up here and just… thinking of it made one realize all the mistakes. She took her time with Raven for granted; if she tried more could she have made a positive change in her? She was gonna end up a prinny for all that she did… and Tai and Qrow…
She tried to watch over them, but the Brothers’ Veil meant all she could do was take souls to their proper place and she did for Ruby’s proudest accomplishment. But how could she look at her daughter in her silver eyes… when she wasn’t in her life.
It was better she was dead…
“Well… you could use your mask?”
“Oh yeah! ‘Hey kids! Do you want to see the personification of death?” that will go over smoothly!”
“About as smooth as angels and demons then?”
“Oh, touché.” Summer smiled, but there was just barely any joy behind it. “... I’ll take the mask but... I’m not sure this is going to work out.”
Morgan smiled. “Well, c’mon. We got the Seraph and Archangel on our side. It’ll work out.”
—
St. Paprika’s Gate was a massive structure on the southern edge of Celestia. It was about as big as Beacon’s man building was, with other angels guarding the top. It reminded Ruby a bit like the walls around Vale as well, except they were ornate with marble, gold and purple banners and carved like it was one of the old churches that were falling out of style. From there, an endless sea of Stars both below and above. Teams RWBY and JNPR (and penny) entered and were greeted by a woman with long blonde hair. Her wings were bigger then Pyrrha’s and Penny’s and her robes looked ornate compared to the basic ones.
“Welcome to St. Paprika’s Gate. My name is Alouette.”
“Is that normal?”
Alouette looked up to see a red smear about to crash into Saint Paprika’s Gate, smiling with a sigh. “I wouldn’t say so. Find cover, I'll deal with her shortly.”
Ruby and Yang exchanged a glance, but something told them that it was probably for the best to listen to an Archangel. Pyrrha and Penny exchanged a glance. “W-who is your friend again Miss Alouette?”
“Oh, never mind her, she enjoys a bit of…theatrics.” Aloutte said with the patience of a mother about her misbehaving child. “Overlords tend to be like that.”
“O-Overlords?” Penny said with a nervous smile. “I-I must have misheard you!”
“Just keep them safe, I'll deal with her.” Alouette took out her tome and seemed to judge the read-smear’s impact sight with well-worn practice and muscle-memory.
Hiding behind a well-carved marble pillar and wall. Nora stuck her head from it and watched Alouette pitch her hand back. “Uh… what’s going on?”
Oscar just watched from the pillar, crouching down and trying to make himself a smaller target as Alouette threw through it with more grace than he’d have expected for something that made a Sonic boom that threw the red smear off course and into the wall behind her.
“Priere, I thought I told you this wasn’t a fight.”
From the rubble, a bit annoyed, stood a woman, her crimson hair was darker then Pyrrha’s, curly white horns on the side of her head, her eyes lit on fire with anger as she twirled her baton. Black wings vanished into her back. “Hardly fair though. You offered me a challenge and they don’t look like much. What are they? Level… huh, 30ish?”
“What?”
“Longer more complicated story.” Penny replied nervously, stepping out with the others. “This Medium doesn’t support it as much.”
“On focus… Oscar and Ozpin, this is Overlord Priere of the Dark World Netherworld. A Close and dear friend to me despite her… battlelust.” Alouette smiled. “Maiden of Darkness, and amateur exorcist.”
“I am a great exorcist, first off.” Priere huffed, beaming with pride. “Secondly, I’m not doing this for free; it will hurt my image. At least making Pringer X was fun.”
Oscar frowned. “So… wait, your plan is to… exorcize me?”
“It’s similar to spiritual surgery should such a thing be possible.” Alouette explained. “But this case is a challenge Priere: The souls are merged to such a point where Oscar begins and Ozma ends is tricky as to be undefined. Flonne is counting on us for this?”
“Oh, the kid?... Meh, fine, the short one owes me a fight for this.”
“I’m sure we can have a host attempt to kick you out of here by the end of the day.” Alouette replied with a smile. “Pyrrha, Penny, please show your other friends to the plaza… I have some catching up to do… is that alright with you Oscar?”
“Actually, something’s been bothering us since the meeting…” Oscar frowned. “Who’s the one organizing it?”
“Oh Archangel Flonne of course.” Alouette smiled. “A good woman, I think.”
“Decent mage.” Priere admitted not really caring. “Look i don’t have time to waste talking to people can we get this over with?”
“Do you really only care about fighting now?”
“It’s Fun.” Priere replied.
“At any point Flonne has been planning this since she locked herself trying to watch some sort of web-show and with the help of some of the Dominions. There is no ill intent here, I assure you.”
“Trust me Angels are terrible liars.’ Priere added. “For example, I should have known she’d weasel out of giving me a fight.”
Ruby and the others, who were mostly just trying to keep a level head with this, just decided to do as Alouette instructed and left as Oscar was stuck between the two women… and Alouette put her hands on his shoulders. “If you doubt me I understand.”
Priere’s demeanor dropped. “... It’s been a while since I've done something good. Flonne’s a good kid, even if she’s a bit of a weirdo.” She looked at Alouette with concern. “And are you sure this is a good idea? I mean… they’re just normal people, roughly speaking.”
“... Their gods let their world be alone. Flonne thinks it’s time to help them, not like conquerors like Valvatores or any of your other friends do it but… kindness.”
Oscar frowned. “I’ve learned to be a bit suspicious of kindness… much as I value it, but I supposed it’s time for that trust.”
—-
“-so that’s how it is.” Pyrrha finished. “Remnant’s Netherworld apparently died out because the Grimm were scarier than demons even early on.”
“And Celestia is connected to all of them… even if the gods try to hide it.” Penny said sadly.
Ruby tapped Weiss and pointed to the sky; it was still bright daytime and there were countless stars. Weiss smiled softly at it; There was a beauty here, no matter how alien it was. “So this is heaven?”
It was nice, fluffy clouds around marble structures. The Plaza was wide, marble floors that were so clean their reflections just looked like inverted copies of them and there were so many buildings and shops with angels and other odd creatures. (Yang grinned seeing a dragon just flying across the sky. It even waved back!) A large fountain stood in the center of an angelic woman pouring clear water to a pool beneath her.
“Well… it’s as close as it can be.” Pyrrha said. She had a choice, she remembered vaguely… she chose to be an angel. The other was out of reach. “When I… ended up here, I was confused, afraid but they understood.” she looked down to her robes. “It was lonely. There weren’t many angels from our world…”
“Most people find it hard to believe.” Blake replied. “I’m still not sure I do.”
“And Priere talked like we were in a video game or something.”
Penny giggled while Pyrrha sighed. “Some people here are weird like that. I think i met someone who was just named Main Hero B.”
Ren seemed quiet. “... Who else is here?”
“Well… I don't want to ruin their privacy.” Pyrrha admitted, looking at Ruby for a brief moment. “Uh, the four you met are from Remnant, but old. Penny caught me up and we could watch over you.” She sighed. “And… Well Uh, some ended up here after Beacon with me, but Celestia is massive Ren. I’m not sure they’re here.”
“And the bad people end up… down there?” Ruby asked.
Pyrrha pointed to the prinnies; a swarm of them really, doing the street-cleaning. “Sometimes that happens.”
“Penguins with… peg legs?”
Penny put on her best teacher’s voice. “Those are prinnies. Prinnies are the souls of bad people who have to pay for the bad things they did. I think the suits are supposed to be embarrassing on purpose.”
“Wait… bad people?”
Pyrrha nodded solemnly. “... I didn’t say that they all were angels.”
Ruby’s face got oddly still, “Are they here?”
She didn’t need to specify. Pyrrha let out a constrained chuckle. “Not that I've seen. The prinnies keep to themselves and If Cinder tried then…”
She let it drop. Penny chimed in. “She's probably in the netherworlds. Even if she was… well, Miss Priere and Miss Alouette are among the strongest people we know of. It won’t help any of us to confront them again and they won’t hurt anyone else.”
Jaune looked at the prinnies as they passed him by… Penny had a point and… considering everything he wasn’t sure it wouldn’t be him one day…
“It’s supposed to be something.” Pyrrha continued, not really as invested and looking at the star-filled sky. “You know, pay it off and you’re free to go to the Red Moon and pass on or… well get a redo apparently.”
Blake frowned. “I guess that’s it…”
Yang frowned. “I just-”
“Why Penguins?” Nora interrupted.
“No not that it’s… why do they? If there’s such thing as hell, then Cinder should be-”
“You know that’s a sin too, ma’am. I would surely hate to see you join the ranks of the prinnies for that.”
“Ah, miss Morgan! It’s good to see you.”
The dark-haired angel smiled. “You as well Penny. I hope you’re all not too overwhelmed by Celestia; it takes such a long while to get used to.”
She wasn’t alone, besides her was what Ruby would call an Angel of Death: She had a cool-but-creepy ivory mask and wore a white hood over her robes and seemed oddly still. Morgan glanced there but then sighed. “Nevermind her for the moment. She’s a bit shy around humans.”
Ruby’s brow furrowed. “Huh… well i-i guess that’s fine but uh… ya know…”
“Heh, death is a complicated thing. She doesn’t kill them herself, just ushers them to wherever they need. The netherworld has others, but Celestia has them.”
Nora frowned. “I guess that’s… neat…”
“Someone has to be there.” The Angel said and it triggered a memory in Yang. “No one deserves to die alone, or without a friend.”
Morgan smiled. “I worked the job for a bit, after my teaching days.”
Pyrrha nodded. “You told me the same thing when you took me here if I... Do I remember correctly?”
“You do.” She looked at Yang and Ruby for a brief moment, but the black holes of the mask let nothing escape. “We should hurry to see Archangel Flonne.”
“I was hoping Mab had picked up Winter and that Qrow friend of y-there’s.”
Yang picked up the correction. “You know our uncle?”
“I-I know everyone who’s fated to be taken by me. Raven has been on my list for a while… she needs this place most of all.”
“I figured…”
Morgan frowned. “Well, enough depressing news! Flonne has been looking forward to seeing you; she wanted your autographs, whatever those are.”
—-
Fuka sighed. “Great, now Emizel’s on our case.”
Salem sighed. That vampire would not leave her alone, would he? At least the girl was on her side. The Red Prinny seemed interested in her, but he seemed to think it was a mistake. As she had help from an outside source, she had managed to fail reeducation…
Lucky her.
They now waited in her ‘home’ such as it was; a jail cell in Hades she had bullied enough of the other prinnies (and one Cocktraice) to make into her little dominion. And now she had a visitor coming. The “President” of the Netherworld. Valvatorez was the true ruler of course, but the face was this “Sir Emeizel”.
“All this over a word.” Salem sighed. “Even without them the world simply hates me. Why can i not have died in peace?”
“It’s a chance to make up for what you did, dood.” The red prinny tried to explain with a tired tone of voice. Salem didn’t like that, but she allowed the fool to continue to speak. “... Someone has to be waiting for you.”
“All that I have wanted is lost to me. I am content to toil to get the relief of ego-death… but I have my pride. That's all I have left.”
“Desco can understand.” Desco said absentmindedly. “I almost lost my Big Sis.”
Fuka’s expressions saddened. "You think I made a mistake, Nemo?”
“Maybe.” The red prinny added. “Though it is all your dream, right dood?”
“Don’t encourage her.” Salem replied, lying down on her cot. She hated needing sleep again. And food (well she didn’t need it; she just felt tired, and hunger… as why should the work be easy?) and yet… Fuka lived in denial. It was irritating in a way she didn’t understand why.
“Death Emizel is on his way. I can see him from here dood.”
Salem looked at the… well he was a young man, but older than the form Ozma had stolen last time they had met. His hair was blonde, his eyes red, and he wore a green suit…
Ozma did like the color, once. But he wasn’t him… Gods if he could see her now, he would have felt that disgusting pity…
And as he grew closer, she realized something about him was… off. As if something in her mind realized that he was something more.
—-
“C’mon! I was practically letting you read me!”
Cinder cursed and threw the control to the floor. “HOW IS THIS A TASK?!”
Kinzel chuckled. “Hey, it’s whatever I want. I own your contract kid.”
Cinder sighed. “Why aren’t we allowed outside?”
“Something about an Overlord at St. Paprika’s Gate. Don’t worry about it.”
Cinder looked at the woman in confusion… before picking up the controller again. She would beat Kinzel at this children’s game eventually…
Neither of them wanted to lose, but it was… something different than drudgery at least.