A/N: Okay. Here we are. The end. God, I hope I do this right. I haven't had to end a story in, what, five years? Ah, it'll probably be fine. My older stories just ended with bad OCs and borrowed quotes from stuff I thought was cool anyway. Seriously, I don't know why I kept doing that, if only just for people who understood the references.

TL;DR: I was an idiot 5 years ago, and I hope I'm not still an idiot.

That said, let's get this started.

"Now, before we get at each other's throats, I have a question for you," Ruby said, her voice dropping all sense of anger.

Cinder stood there, eyes narrowed. Her expression changed to a slightly amused one.

"Go on," she said, motioning with her bow to continue.

"Do you think even the worst person can change?" Ruby asked, "That everyone can be a good person, if they just try?"

Cinder was baffled that a child like her would wax poetic in the face of death. She was going to pay… so why did Cinder feel frozen in place?

"Actually, don't answer that," Ruby said dismissively, shaking her head, "I have a better question."

Cinder felt strange. Like there was a well of fire that sprang up from the pits of her stomach, and was quickly spreading up toward her head. It wasn't the good feeling that it normally was.

*Do you believe in destiny?

YOU CAN BE A BETTER PERSON! ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS TRY!

Cinder felt a memory of the Fall of Beacon come back in vivid, almost lifelike form. She had bested a skeletal man in combat, and he was pleading with her to see the light.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN DESTINY?

"Not anymore," was her answer. She had such high hopes for herself, especially with Salem building her up to be the key to her original plan. Now that the plan had changed however, with two of the maidens being on the opposing side, Cinder was simply another pawn to Salem, one to be sacrificed whenever she pleased.

Ruby laughed quietly at that. She felt a great irony wash over her. If only Cinder had come to that conclusion sooner. So much could have been avoided.

"Well," Ruby said, "If you wanna get this started, just take one more step toward me. Just to warn you, you won't like what happens when you do."

Cinder stepped forward without hesitation.

"Oh well," Ruby lamented, shrugging.

Her whole body shifted at that, getting into a ready-stance, one hand on her scythe.

*Don't say I didn't warn you.

FLASH

"You look confused," Ruby said.

Cinder was one step back from where she had been before a bright flash filled her vision.

"Guess that means I'm pretty good at my job, huh?" Ruby remarked.

"What does that mean?" Cinder demanded, taking a step forward and readying her weapons.

*You'll figure it out soon enough.

FLASH

Ruby chuckled as she watched Cinder's face contort in confusion, not understanding what was happening to her.

"What are you doing?" Cinder asked, her teeth grinding together, "Whatever it is, it isn't funny!"

"Heh. That expression… That's the expression of someone who's died twice in a row. Does that clear it up?"

"What?" Cinder yelled in surprise.

*Care to make it a third?

Cinder tried rushing at Ruby

FLASH

"This is fun, isn't it?" Ruby asked, no closer from when Cinder had started to charge at her.

"How are you doing this?" Cinder yelled.

*Wouldn't you like to know, you murderer.

FLASH

"What's that now, four times? I'm only just starting to enjoy this," Ruby said, grinning wildly.

"What-"

*Let's keep going.

FLASH

"So, five in a row, hu-"

As Ruby started talking, Cinder let loose an arrow, and landed a solid hit between the eyes.

Ruby looked over to Cinder. Cinder was smirking like she had won. In all honesty, she had, but Ruby wasn't ready to give her the satisfaction.

*On second thought, let's try that again.

FLASH

Cinder was back where she had started, caught off guard by how easy she had actually killed Ruby.

"That expression you're wearing… I won't grace it with a description," Ruby said, her voice holding a new hint of anger.

"I see… you're using your silver eyes. That's how you've been doing this," Cinder observed.

"Now you're catching on," Ruby said enthusiastically, "Sad thing is, I'm just about finished with you. The least I can do is ask you one more time…"

*Do you think even the worst person can change? That everyone can be a good person, if they just try?

Cinder felt pain. A great pain, like a fire burned through her whole body, eating away at it slowly.

*Do you believe in destiny?

"Yes."

*I know how hard it must be to make that choice. To go back on everything you've worked up to. Just between you and me, Cinder, I want you to know… I won't let this go to waste.

Cinder was gone. Not a trace of her remained. Ruby bowed her head solemnly to Hazel's lifeless body and continued through the fortress.

The battle outside Salem's hideout had raged for the worse part of the morning, but thankfully it was over. Thanks to Roman's arrival (fashionably late, he'd call it), the Grimm on Salem's side were routed easily, their ranks broken. This afforded them a great deal of hope.

Roman and Neo were set to leave, as they had brought the dragon, and essentially saved the rest of them. As far as pretty much everyone involved was concerned, they had repaid Roman's debt to the party and then some.

Team JNPR had regrouped to have a quick celebration among themselves. Nora was haphazardly swinging Ren around as she laughed like a child, while Jaune looked sheepishly away from Pyrrha (eyes still burning bright orange), who was congratulating him for his brave leadership.

Asriel and Weiss sat together at the side of the group, both sharing relieved looks with their arms thrown around each other's shoulders. They both lived to see the end of this nightmare.

Chara and Yang shared a very passionate embrace. The two may have been battered and previously broken, but they pulled through, and they grew even closer for it.

Summer and Frisk looked around at the rest of the group with content smiles. Summer took a seat on the grassy hill they were all standing around on, watching the sun rise into the sky, the dark clouds beginning to slowly fade for the first time in the years since Beacon fell. Frisk looked to the gate of the hideout, worried for her friend.

The only thing for it now was to wait for Ruby's insane plan to be enacted, and then everything would be well.

Yeah, no, the team wasn't just going to wait there twiddling their thumbs while someone else did all the work. Sure, they had done their part, but that meant that they had time to help Ruby finish up her part of the plan. They all started to walk through the halls of Salem's hideout.

In the end, their victory would mean nothing if Ruby wasn't there at the end with them.

Ruby searched the halls with her aura sense, hoping to find some feel for Salem's energy.

*CHILD

Ruby felt a chill down her spine. Salem could feel her search for her. Ruby didn't know how she knew, but that was the only explanation.

*IF YOU WISH TO MEET WITH ME, YOU NEED ONLY SAY MY NAME. IF YOU CANNOT FIND ME, I WILL COME TO YOU. ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS SAY MY NAME.

Ruby hesitated.

Her breath hitched in her throat, not ready to let the word fly.

"S-Salem."

Ruby blinked.

There she was.

Salem.

Salem was an imposing figure. Pale white skin, that of pure marble, with black veins that gave the illusion of the marble cracking. Her eyes were dark, black with deep red irises that had the pupils of a snake. They were mesmerizing. Her figure was elegant, her hair was perfectly tied in a bun, and her demeanor was civil. This was not the villain Ruby envisioned. She pictured something more purely evil, like some sort manifestation of evil as a concept.

She did not expect a person that looked almost as human as anyone else.

"Surprised? You aren't the first to be so. My subordinates were surprised in much the same way you are now. Come, walk with me, Ruby Rose. Let us talk," Salem said, motioning for Ruby to follow her.

Ruby looked at her aura. It was a glowing white. Pure and otherworldly. But there was a dark, murky shell that kept that purity locked away. Ruby was reminded of those storybooks in which a princess was locked in a tower.

"Your stories have some truth to them, Ruby. Surely you recall how very real the stories of the seasonal maidens and the warriors with the silver eyes are? You may recall that the princess in your story used magic. Not a semblance or an aura. Magic."

Ruby jogged to catch up with her. She had so many questions, and the opportunity she was being given may have been the one chance she had to get answers.

"But I thought only monsters could use magic," Ruby said, looking to Salem in confusion.

"That was after the war we fought against them," Salem said listlessly, "Long ago, there were two races that dominated this planet. The humans and the monsters. After a long battle, the humans were victorious, and seven magic-users sealed the monsters underground with a spell. I was one of those magic-users."

Ruby contemplated this new information, unsure what to do with it.

"That was the story of the mountain that stood behind Beacon Academy, Mount Ebott," Salem continued, "The story was lost to time by the present day, but soon after the monsters were sealed underground, the magic-users who sealed them were being tracked down and killed. For my safety, I was to remain in a locked tower for the rest of my days. That was, until a man named Ozma came and freed me. After that, we ventured out across Remnant and offered my magical skills to any who needed it. Ozma died of illness a few years into our journey. I couldn't accept that he was gone, so I went to the shrine of the Creator Brother and asked him to bring Ozma back to me."

"The Brothers are real too?" Ruby asked, incredulous.

"Correct. So I visited the shrine of the Destroyer Brother, hoping I could sway him to oppose his brother, as he normally did. Just as Ozma was returning to me, the Creator Brother appeared before the Destroyer and informed him I had tried to trick him. In one last cooperative effort between the two brothers, they plunged me into a pool of something primeval in nature, and forced upon me a curse of immortality. I am unable to die by normal means. In a rage I campaigned against the Brothers for millenia afterwards, until they decided to reincarnate Ozma. That is how he came to be the man you knew him as: Professor Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon Academy."

"So what happened then?" Ruby asked, "If you and Ozma lived together like you did before, what drove you to this?"

"Ozma saw the beast I became when I had lost him. After the continuous loss of Ozma through the ages of his reincarnations, I couldn't bear to keep losing him. It seems he thought his deaths were driving me over an edge I couldn't return from. So in short, he vowed to stop me, and he split the magic I gave to him between our daughters, who became the maidens. The silver eyes, though, are still a mystery to me."

"So where does that leave us?" Ruby asked, holding her remaining hand up to her remaining eye.

"I grow tired of these games Ozma engages in to impede my progress. With the end of Ozma's time as Ozpin, I feel myself simply growing weary of life. I have done all I need to do. I feel it is time to accept that this is the end."

Ruby pulled out the pen Cter had given her.

"If that's how you really feel, I can't do it myself, but I do have a way we can both get what we want," Ruby said, looking up at Salem's tired expression.

"Do it."

Click

A loud, deep boom sounded from behind Ruby, as a portal burst open behind her, and out walked what looked like an army of her.

"Clever," Salem remarked, "If you want something done right…"

"You do it yourself," the collective Rubies finished.

FLASH