A Fable So Ridiculous

Gray stood in the elevator that climbed up to the headmaster's office. He was feeling a little apprehensive considering what he was about to do. He was essentially entering the proverbial lion's den.

Once he was finished with Glynda, and after cleaning himself up a little, Gray had sent her on her way. She had lessons to plan or whatever. He did ask her before she left if Ozpin would be in his office, and she confirmed that he usually was at this time. The staff down in the office at the base of the tower had confirmed for him that the headmaster was present.

So, now he was making the trip to Ozpin’s office once again. It had worked out before, and that gave Gray some hope that it would work out again this time too. He still needed to be on his toes though. It was possible that his sensitive line of questioning might trip some sort of trigger in the man’s mind, so he needed to be cautious.

The elevator came to a slow stop and the doors opened.

Gray did not announce himself, here or down at the office desk. He simply kept his Semblance active, asked if Ozpin was in, then saw himself onto the elevator. Now he was walking into Ozpin’s large clock tower office, while the man himself was looking out across the school from the window behind his desk. He had his signature coffee in hand, and his cane was leaning against the desk.

Gray stopped a few meters away from the desk and watched the man. There was no acknowledgement and no indication that the older man knew he was there. A silence filled the room, likely present even before Gray entered the room.

The silence went on for a little bit longer before Gray decided to approach Ozpin. He stepped around the desk and walked over to stand next to the white-haired man. Gray looked at his face, noting the far-off expression he had as he looked out across the rooftops of campus. A moment later he lifted his mug to take a sip.

Gray observed him for a moment. He noticed that for all he appeared like an older and more mature man, there was a youthfulness to him. His face was mostly clear of any of the ruggedness of age. His eyes looked like the oldest part of him. That plus the white hair, but that could also have been natural.

Gray remembered that Ozpin was the youngest headmaster to ever take the position. Gray couldn’t remember where he had learned that, but he was certain that was the case.

Ozpin still didn’t seem to notice Gray standing so close to him. His guard was completely down.

“Professor?” Gray ventured forth.

The older man turned his head to look at Gray. There was no surprise or shock. Just a calm acknowledgement that he was addressed. “Yes?”

Ozpin was now looking at Gray and Gray wasn’t sure how to begin. He needed to ask a lot of questions but didn’t quite know where to start. Should he go directly for the Grimm lady? Or check to see if he knew about Gray and his activities?

Gray had the feeling that the Grimm lady question would lead to a very long story, while the other would be rather short. So, it was best to get that shorter one out of the way first.

“Are you... aware of what I have been doing?” He finally asked.

“If you are referring to the shopping trip to get beds, then yes.” Ozpin said and nodded. “I was informed that today you would resolve that particular issue.”

That was the answer and he continued to look at Gray, waiting for anything further.

Well, of course he would be aware of that. Glynda must have let him know that much at least.

“Do you know anything of what happened on that shopping trip?” Came Gray’s second question.

“I was expecting a transaction to be made using one of the school's bank accounts, but I received no such notification. Beyond that, I can only assume that you did not find what you were looking for or the beds were paid for by some other means.” Ozpin said. He didn’t question Gray on how the beds were paid for, but Gray imagined that if his Semblance was off then he would likely have had asked how and the why of it.

Ozpin went silent, waiting for any further questions.

“Do you know what Glynda and I talked about while on this trip?” Gray asked a third question.

“No. Glynda has not informed me of anything as of yet.” Ozpin sipped from his mug.

“Have you ever suspected me of anything?”

“No. You haven’t given me any reason to be suspicious of you.”

“Do you know what my Semblance is?”

“No.”

Gray stayed silent. He wasn’t sure what else to ask. Judging from the answers Ozpin gave it was unlikely that he was aware of the things Gray had been doing on campus, so it was looking more and more like Gray was safe. Though, could he use his Semblance to take Ozpin’s loyalty like he had with his enemies?

Gray considered the man for a moment. In that time, Ozpin had turned back to looking out at the view. Gray thought about all the ways this could go wrong. He could gain his loyalty and obedience, only to turn his Semblance off at some point and all his commands could be nullified by something. Of course, that could have been the case before with all the other times Gray used his Semblance on Ozpin. Perhaps Ozpin had an acquaintance that could see through a Semblance like Gray’s and inform the headmaster.

A new question came to mind.

“Have you ever heard of anyone having a Semblance that can affect people's minds?”

The man turned his head back to Gray.

“There are illusory ones, such as making people see things that aren’t truly there, and others that can nudge emotions or thought processes into a particular direction. However, I have never heard of one that can directly alter or fully control someone's mind.”

That was interesting. So, there were Semblances that could create illusions or push someone to feel or think a certain way but weren’t classed as mind-control. Gray was curious to see what those even looked like.

“Are there Semblances that can counter those?”

“There are various Semblances that could help someone fight against illusions. An example would be a Semblance that allows a user to sense the emotions, or the Aura, of their opponent. I also know of an individual that had command over the air in a radius around their body and allowed them to feel the area they stood in. They essentially had a sixth sense inside that bubble of influence. Wherever you stood they would know. Any false images would be rendered useless against them.”

That sounded cool. That would also give them a limited ability to see in the dark. Just not with their eyes. It wasn’t the type that Gray was asking about though.

“How about a counter for the other type you mentioned? The emotion nudging one.”

“The only one I can think of would be a similar one that can calm people down. There may be others, but nothing comes to mind at the moment.”

That felt like good news to Gray. If an immortal soul like Ozpin couldn’t think of a more dangerous Semblance than one that creates illusions or nudging emotions or provoking thoughts, then Gray may be in the clear. It didn’t seem like he was aware of any possible counters to a Semblance on the scale of Gray’s. This may be the stress-free answer he needed. Still, he needed absolute clarity.

“So, you have never heard of anyone using a power that could control people on a large scale?” Gray asked the final question on this subject.

“No.”

Gray breathed a large sigh of relief.

That was it then.

Gray was the most powerful person on the planet. Maybe not physically, but more in terms of possibly taking over the world and controlling all its peoples. If his power had no limit to the number of people he could control...

He shuddered.

The shudder wouldn’t stop. His hands started to shake, and his legs felt weak. Gray put out a hand to the column next to the window and tried to get a handle of this sudden rush of... fear? Anxiety? The weight of the world settling on his perverted shoulders?

He breathed in and out, hearing the edge of hysteria come out as a silent whimper. A couple minutes went by as Gray felt his grip on sanity become... just a little uncertain. He breathed deeply through the nose and breathed out through his mouth. He looked out across the world and at the people, students and staff, walking about the campus grounds.

At some point Ozpin had moved away from the window and sat down at his desk. Gray barely gave any attention other than to eye him sideways for a moment, before looking off to the side.

It was perhaps ten full minutes before Gray’s heart stopped pounding loudly in his ears. He managed to stay standing as he leaned on the wall column.

“All I wanted was to have a harem...” Gray muttered. “Now I’m obligated to save the world.”

There was no way he couldn’t. The world was where he lived. It was where his family lived. Gray was trying to make a life for himself here. That’s why he enrolled at Beacon Academy. To carve out a place for himself and help people. That was the original goal, before he discovered his Semblance. After that the goal had changed to helping people and having lots of sex along the way.

Now the goal was... to save the world from an evil Grimm lady so that he, and everyone, could live in peace.

And also have lots of sex.

Gray shook his head and leaned back against the wall column. He managed to find out that he had power over someone like Ozpin, an immortal. The headmaster was likely one of the most powerful people in the world, politically as well as overall strength. Having him to back Gray up would be amazing.

Another worry surfaced in his mind. Could he use his Semblance on this Queen of the Grimm, or was there some sort of obstacle, like how Gray thought there might have been one with Ozpin? He would need to plan out how to figure that one out. But how? What was even her name? Glynda didn’t say.

Gray looked at Ozpin sitting at his desk.

The headmaster would know right?

Gray pushed off from the wall and tested his limbs. They were mostly free of any shaking. It was just the weakness in his knees and a mental fatigue that plagued him right now. He walked over to the chair in front of Ozpin's desk and sat down. The chair offered him a small relief from the weight he had acquired.

“Professor Ozpin,” He started, getting the man's attention again. He looked up from his terminal. “I... I need you to... explain to me...”

Gray was struggling with how to approach the subject. He was about to ask a man how he became immortal and why there was an evil lady trying to destroy humanity. Those weren’t questions you usually ask someone. There was also a small doubt in the back of Gray’s mind that this might backfire on him in some way. If he asks Ozpin these deeply personal questions, the other shoe might drop.

“How did you become immortal and why is there a woman trying to destroy humanity?”

The headmaster didn’t even look the least bit perturbed by the question. He just launched into a story so wild that Gray could only stare, fascinated. Like a child listening to a storyteller.

“It was millennia ago...”

---

Gray listened but had trouble believing. Ozpin spoke of gods and magic. There was a civilization that prospered. The Grimm still existed but they were a controlled foil for people. Ozpin was once called Ozma and was a warrior. He saved a woman from captivity in a tower made by her father. The man jealously guarded her for no discernible reason. Ozpin suspected that the man had an unresolved mental illness, and the result was to hide his daughter from the world.

Ozma saved the woman called Salem and the two fell in love. Their love didn’t last long as sickness took Ozma away. Ozpin then spoke of a very aggravating encounter and disagreement with the god brothers. Salem had asked for Ozma to be revived, only for them to refuse her.

Gray noted how irresponsible the gods acted by not trying to fully explain to the grieving woman why it was bad to bring the dead back to life. Their lack of care for human emotion made what happened next a no brainer for Gray. He didn’t like that it happened, but he understood the reaction from the woman. It was definitely the wrong move, but it was a move that anyone could have seen coming.

She tried to manipulate one of the gods into reviving Ozma. She stroked the ego and pride of the god of darkness. It worked but the god of light found out and intervened. Ozma was killed and revived a number of times in front of her eyes as the gods had a disagreement.

Very irresponsible and disgusting behavior. From gods no less. How could they not understand that they had made really bad moves here? Surely, the gods would have had the patience to help her through her grief, or impress upon her the importance of the balance of life and ****? But no, they dismissed her completely.

Salem then attacked them in a fit of rage and they punished her by dropping her into a pool of water that granted her immortality.

Why? Seriously, why? Gray couldn’t understand the reasoning here. At this point in time, this woman hadn’t done anything deserving of a punishment like that. Some reprimand, yes. A good sit-down with a therapist to help her understand her grief, yes. Connections with other people so that she had a support structure besides the hero from her hero complex, yes.

Immortality as a punishment with no real lesson or clear path of redemption? No! That is not how you handle it!

Ozpin then goes on to explain that Salem dwelled on her unresolved issues while he was dead at that point. She fell deeply into depression and tried to end her life multiple times. Nothing worked and she became resentful and full of hatred for the gods.

At this point Gray could pretty much predict what happened next. Ozpin confirms his suspicions. Salem planned **** and manipulated others to her cause. She gathered the nations through deceit and promised them the secret to immortality. They attacked the gods, and the gods... in their infinite wisdom... wipe the majority of humanity from the face of the world. There are some scattered survivors, chosen to live for whatever reason these fickle gods had up their asses, and Salem.

The gods then left the world, shattering the moon in their wake. Many of the pieces fell and impacted with the world, causing destruction that Gray couldn’t even fathom. Nor could he fathom the reason they did it. It was a little much.

The immortal woman was now **** to walk the land. A land destroyed and with the few humans left scattered. There was nothing left of civilization but for some ruins that were quickly swallowed up by nature. The lunar impacts had also kicked up monstrous dust clouds that covered much of the world for centuries, blotting out the sun and sending the world into an age of darkness and freezing temperatures.

Salem, in her loneliness, sought out one last possible way to end herself. The gods gave her immortality using the god of lights pool of water in his domain. So, if she threw herself into the god of darkness’ pool in his domain, then perhaps she would finally die.

It was not to be. Instead, the murky darkness in liquid form twisted and corrupted her. Changed her into something... not human. All her negative qualities, of which there were now many, were amplified and buried her more positive traits. There was a true darkness in her now. Not just the grief of a woman who lost her love, and not just the isolation of a neglected child. No. No, all of the hatred and resentment she was made to feel only gave rise to the desire for destruction. She just didn’t know it yet.

Ozpin wasn’t there to see all of this but was made aware of it all by the god of light. His soul was visited in the afterlife and the god explained what had transpired. Humanity was reduced to a percentage and Salem was still alive. The world was destroyed and made anew.

The god asked Ozma to live again and reincarnate, despite the fact that this god was the one to take issue with life being used like that. He was asked to guide humanity and gave instructions to find four relics that would call the god brothers back to the world to judge humans, though they weren’t fit to judge anything really.

The brothers would then decide if humans deserved to have them guide them again or to destroy them once and for all. That sounded very narcissistic.

Ozma was sent into the mind of a man many centuries later. A village was being attacked by the Grimm. He survived and came to terms with his new body. He then learned of a woman that lived somewhere in the wilderness. People called her a witch. Ozma sought her out and was reunited with Salem. She looked very different after her swim in evil waters.

They got hitched, had kids... then things fell to pieces again. Ozma and Salem tried to rule over humans and Faunus, but Ozma didn’t like the methods. They argued about it until Ozma let slip his mission from the gods. They fought. Things got ugly. Their kids died. Ozma died again.

Honestly this was perhaps the most depressing fairy tale Gray had ever heard.

The woman Salem had been was no longer present. Her earlier suffering from her father and Ozma’s first **** were not her fault. The gods in their lack of wisdom and understanding for their own creation wasn’t her fault. She suffered from an abusive childhood, an underdeveloped understanding of the world and the concept of ****, grief from losing a lover, being toyed with by horrible gods... but... her choices buried her. That pool of dark water sounded like it only made things worse.

Gray understood the steps that took her to these... moments, but he could not condone the rampage that Ozpin then described. She went full evil. She refused to reflect on anything. There was much that wasn’t her fault, but killing her children and becoming a **** hobo to the rest of humanity... That was not something she could easily come back from.

Over the next few thousand years, and after the dust clouds settled, people tried to drag themselves out of the mud and create again. They built villages and towns and cities, but then Salem would send the Grimm to ruin things.

Yeah, Ozpin mentioned that she now had power over the creatures of Grimm. Must have been the pool of evil water. Go figure.

Ozpin would reincarnate. His soul moving into a new body after every ****, cohabiting with someone else's soul until they eventually merged. In each life he would try to rally people and help them defend against the Grimm. He even sought out the relic of knowledge that could answer any question truthfully.

He asked if he could kill Salem and the relic replied, “You can’t.”

He lost hope then. Time went by and he kept up some effort to keep humans safe, but he no longer felt hope.

---

Ozpin wound down his story and silence came back to the office. Gray just watched the man silently as he went straight back to work. He told Gray that whole story with no change in his mental or emotional state. It was an odd monotone tale involving things that made Gray want to punch someone.

Gray took a breath and looked off to the side. The sky had gotten darker. He looked at the time and saw that it was just gone six. Dinner would be served in the cafeteria soon. He sighed again and just watched partially dark clouds drift by. The sun’s light had largely retreated over the horizon with some rays hitting the clouds with a blazing red.

Not only did Gray consider having the fate of the world on his shoulders, but now that responsibility involved... some of the dumbest mythical bullshit he had ever heard. The main actors were two people in an abusive relationship and two gods that had no clue what they were doing, and the main theme of the story was trauma.

Gray shook his head. He really hoped he didn’t have to do much besides use his Semblance on the woman. Hopefully his Semblance worked on her. Gray was definitely not going to bring the relics together and summon the brother gods. If their disposition was like how Gray imagined them, then they were not needed. Humanity didn’t need such neglectful gods. The two of them could stay away forever as far as Gray was concerned.

Gray’s goals were now as follows: Try and get Salem under control without fucking everything up. Cautiously find out if his Semblance even worked on her. Get her to pull the Grimm back and give humanity some space.

A bonus goal was to see if he could keep the kingdoms from clawing at each other's throats.

Gray didn’t want to rule the world or anything, but if he could help them avoid conflict then he was more than willing to try.

Well, he had gotten what he wanted from Ozpin. He could use his Semblance freely without worrying too much about getting caught. At least by humans. Grimm ladies may be different. Gray also now knew the truth. He learned about the bigger picture.

He looked back at the older man.

“Ozpin,” The man looked up again. “You are loyal and obedient to me. You trust me implicitly and are willing to follow my orders.”

Ozpin nodded his head. “Yes, indeed.”

Gray also nodded and thought of one last question.

“Are there any other details to this story that I should know?”

“There are quite a few. Like the relics being kept at each of the four academies. Only the maidens of the seasons can access them,” Gray looked sharply at the man. That fairy tale was true then? “The descendants of the Seol Argentus are being hunted down, presumably by Salem’s people.”

The Seol what? Who?

“The Autumn maiden was at-”

A beeping alert sound came from Ozpin’s terminal. The two of them looked and Ozpin pressed a button.

“Yes, Melina. What is it?” He asked.

“Sir, Councilman Branson is on the line for you.” A feminine voice spoke through the speaker in his terminal.

“Send him through, please.” Ozpin accepted the call. There was a click and Ozpin spoke again. “Good evening, Councilman. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Good evening, Ozpin.” The voice on the other end sounded like a gruff sort of man. “I just wanted to keep you apprised of the situation with the dust robberies. It’s been oddly quiet with very few disturbances around the city. We think that perhaps Torchwick is now focusing on selling what he’s stolen. Regardless, we asked the precincts around the city to keep to their current patrols.”

“Understood Councilman. Thank you for informing me.”

They spoke on other topics and Gray lost interest. He had Torchwick in his pocket so he could get information from him instead of listening in on this. Besides, Gray needed to move on. He was getting hungry and needed to step away from all this... this madness.

Gray did resolve to get in touch with Cinder’s group. Perhaps tomorrow night. He would sneak off to the city if there was a way. Do the airships run that late? Whatever, he’ll think of something. He will set up a meeting with Torchwick as well, maybe have all of them in a room to get all the details straight.

He stood up and turned to leave. Ozpin was still deep in conversation with a member of the city council. Gray didn’t want to wait around to learn more ridiculous things. He just wanted the day to end already. But in spite of that sentiment, he remembered that there were a couple lessons he had missed today. With a sigh he walked towards the elevator while thinking of asking the girls to help him catch up with classes.

But first, he needed to go looking for his team.

---

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A/N: Just for clarity, I'm not completely forgiving Salem and her many sins. I'm just acknowledging the fact that if her father hadn't been a fool locking her away, and if the gods acted with a bit more compassion, then none of the events of RWBY would have happened. There would have been no evil Grimm queen, no destruction of the world and no undue suffering from innocent bystanders.

That doesn't mean Gray won't be punishing her of course. She has had millennia to hurt lots of people. And many of those punishments won't be pleasurable for her. In fact, I might have to put in trigger disclaimers for those chapters, or even have them happen off screen. The same for Cinder really.

Of course, Gray isn't a monster himself. Just a pervert. So, just imagine some humiliating kinky shit. Some degrading stuff maybe. Or more than likely. Look, punishment isn't proper punishment if it doesn't sting a little. Right?