Rebirth And Change
'Well shi-' That was the last thought that went through Shen's head when the explosion occurred. Enough kinetic energy and magical power to level an entire city struck his body all at once. His flesh was taken right off of his bones being reduced to particles, his bones were turned to dust and every organ in his body became ash.
In the end, not a sliver of his original body remained, but something that wasn't originally a part of him did survive. Buried deep under millions of tons of rock was a golden crown. A naturally formed chamber surrounded on all sizes by a rock over a meter or two in diameter and length.
The crown was of course the Relic of Choice, the relics were indestructible. But lying next to it was a single red strand, a Life Fiber. Its glow was dim, but as time passed it began to pulse like that of a heartbeat. The pulses grew more frequent and so did its light. Over the first few week's it remained as it was.
But after a few months, it began to replicate itself and weave itself together forming the shape of a head. Once it was done there it began replicating the process of making flesh and tissue along with brain matter and bone. Even more, time passed until the head was fully complete, it looked like a blank slate, a corpse.
More months passed as the Life Fiber's continued to replicate, forming arms and legs, the torso and abdomen. When it was done an entire body had been created and the final process began. The body that didn't even seem to have a gender began to have its appearance morphed and twisted.
This process took the longest an unknown amount of time passed. But when it was over Shen's body had been completely recreated from scratch. His eye twitched before slowly opening, he stared at the darkness around him absently for a moment.
"What happened? Where am I?" Reaching out he felt around him and realized he was buried underground. Fragments of memories began coming together slowly, eventually turning into a flood of information.
"Oh right. I remember now, I died…" He had underestimated how capable Ozpin was. He always told himself not to let his guard down and the moment he did, this was the result. Clenching his fist, Shen's eyes sparked with electricity.
The ground shook as if it was trembling as a stream of lightning shot into the sky. Looking down on the world from the sky Shen's eyes widened. The entirety of Vale had been transformed. Beacon Tower, the ruined city, all of it was gone.
In its place stood a military base or perhaps a fortress would be more apt. Looking in the sky Shen saw Airships flying information and on the surface soldiers were patrolling the grounds. What truly caught his eye though was the flags hung up everywhere. They were the exact same Insignia's he came up with for his army.
All of this information hit him at once and it was a bit overwhelming. How long was he out of commission for all of this to change?
"You identify yourself immediately!" Shen looked up and saw there were three airships flying around him, a sudden bolt of lightning was difficult to miss. On the ground, over fifty soldiers had arrived as well, all of their guns pointed towards Shen.
"I guess I have been dead since they wouldn't recognize me." Swiping his hand, clothes appeared around Shen's body as he descended to the ground. The soldiers there made a circle around him the second he touched down.
"You there, who are you! Identify yourself or we will open fire!" Standing amongst the soldiers was a man dressed slightly differently. He was the commander of this unit. Looking at him Shen spoke.
"My name is Shen, surely you recognize me standing this close." Or maybe his existence has already been erased from history. Though that was unlikely especially considering how much damage he caused.
"Shen?" The commander blinked for a moment, scouring his memory while staring at Shen's face. Slowly a sense of dread and realization fell upon him. He felt like his heart was going to stop all by itself.
"Put your guns down! Put your guns down now you idiots!" He screamed at the men around him, who all looked confused. The commander yelled at them again until they finally listened. At the same time, he walked up to Shen and kneeled.
"Forgive my Lord, I was not aware you would be arriving. To what do we owe the pleasure?" Shen frowned, he was addressing him as Lord, but he wasn't being controlled or manipulated through Life Fibers. Still, the fear and loyalty in his voice were certain beyond all doubt.
Hearing the world Lord, the other soldier's finally realized who Shen was and quickly retreated out of fear.
"Who's in charge of this place?" The Commander raised his head and answered with no hesitation.
"General Politan is currently in charge of operations here and across Vale." Hearing that Shen narrowed his eyes.
"Take me to her." Standing up the Commander nodded before turning around and speaking into a device on his wrist.
"Air Force Alpha, you're no longer needed here to return to your group. The rest of you make way and return to your post." The airships took their orders flying off with the threat being gone and soldiers did the same. Shen was led through the base and saw both Humans and Faunus were working there.
Not only that but he couldn't find a single person wearing an Ultima Uniform. Either they were all destroyed or they were somewhere else. Soon they arrived at a large building that towered over the others. It was heavily guarded and security was tight. It took them around ten minutes to finally get in as Shen was led to the top floor.
"You have an important visitor, mam." The Commander knocked on the door before stepping off to the side. A light ring, almost like that of a bell, came from the room. The doors opened on their own after that revealing an office. Charts and maps lined the wall, a large glass window covering the side behind the large wooden desk.
Shen saw Neo behind that desk signing a piece of paper. Her hair had grown long and straight flowing down her back. Despite not growing in size, she looked more mature? Everything about her left behind that childish appearance from before. Her black looked similar to the Ultima Uniforms he made in the past with slight alterations.
She was imposing the natural aura of a leader and felt slightly regal. The door closed behind Shen when he walked in, and Neo didn't look up at him. Only when she was down signing did she lookup. Her eyes were straight and cold, not an ounce of emotion on her face.
But when Shen came into view she froze. The pen in her hand fell onto the desk and rolled off onto the floor. Her eyes had widened like saucers and her mouth was slightly agape.
"How- We searched for you everywhere. We couldn't find you, we… We thought you were dead." She couldn't believe her own eyes and her mind had entered turmoil. Shen was alive, after all those years he had actually come back.
"Well, I can tell you dying certainly wasn't fun. But all things considered, it looks like my disappearing wasn't too bad. It's obvious you've grown, if this was before you would already be crying." Despite her still being under his Life Fiber's influence, she's more stable.
Considering how dangerous she and Blake were getting with their obsessions perhaps him dying was a good thing after all. But now he wanted to know exactly what had happened. Clearly, things had changed immensely, Neo took a while to compose herself. During that time he reminded her to send someone to get the Relic of Choice.
It had slipped his mind when he escaped from being trapped underground. Shen coming back was too much of a shock; it left Neo in a daze for quite some time. But eventually, she managed to compose herself and began to tell him everything.
After he died, they covered up his death and turned him into an idea more than a person. A ruler who never left his castle or throne, and one no one could ever see. They turned him into a myth, but one that held power and used that to retain order. Shen was surprised to hear exactly how much time had passed.
"Four Years? I was really out for that long?" He had expected years but four was a lot of time. Not long after his death, Salem had contacted them as he expected. It was more or less of an alliance and more of an agreement. Through it her existence was revealed, people considered her the Queen of Grimm.
Their armies fought alongside the Grimm and the Grimm did not attack them. Any battlefield they traversed becomes a literal hell on earth. Those who were captured were given two options submit or die, and those with potential were transformed into ideal soldiers with absolute loyalty.
"I see, that explains a lot…" When he woke he checked his System and saw that he leveled up to level twenty-three during those four years. Although a single level seemed minuscule, it took him a massive amount of XP to actually Level Up. It proved that they had done a lot of work while he was gone.
With Shen being turned into a fear-inducing tyrant, Neo, Torckwick, Taella, Sienna, and Blake all took on different roles. To the people of the RWBY Universe, their abilities were unmatched. They were the strongest and uncontested. This led to people calling them all kinds of things.
Dozens of different names had been attached to them. But it seemed Ozpin had taken Shen's words to mind. The Dreadhorde was a name that was feared across the entire globe and even now the wars haven't stopped.
Everything had been split between the five of them, Neo controlled Vale, Torchwick controlled Mistral, Taella was handling the war against Vacuo which was soon to come to a close, while Blake led the attack on Atlas. Meanwhile Sienna handled the other territories like Menagerie where the Faunus lived.
Out of all of them, she was the softest and was in charge of dealing with civilians and working alongside Venti to control the population. Hearing all of this Shen couldn't help but laugh.
"And here I thought I needed to hold your guy's hand. But you've all done better than I could have hoped for." He was never interested in world domination, XP was his main goal. But he had to think long-term and for that reason, he decided to build an army. He never expected it to grow to this extent though.
"Still the situation isn't all good. You haven't appeared in so long, people are doubting if you're real. After all, there aren't many videos or pictures of you in the world. All we have is the word of mouth and people telling stories about you. Despite us growing, resistances have also become bolder." As things are, they are at a stalemate with Atlas due to the Relic of Creation.
Under these types of situations, they have turned to it for help. Creating food, weapons, and even Dust to fuel their ships and barriers.
"So basically, Vacuo is forcing us to split our attention from Atlas and vice versa." Neo nodded with Shen's statement that was a more simple explanation. Taella was the strongest of all of them but even she's tired after so much fighting. Narrowing his eyes a bit, Shen cracked his neck.
"Alright then, I'll go pay Vacuo a visit." Neo sat up when she heard him say that.
"You don't mean to-"
"What? You said they doubted If I'm really right? I would say this is a perfect opportunity. After all, once Vacuo is gone, there's only one place left for us to focus on."