Chp XXV: End - Part II

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.

"The light you gave to guide me will never fade away / But moving forward never felt as hard as today." ~ 'Cold' by Jeff Williams


"Hey."

Tyrian—the thing that used to be called Tyrian—roars in the distance. I can't focus—I'm not focusing—I hear the roar through an echo chamber. It sounds like the ocean, burning and breaking. It sounds like—failure.

I failed. How longhave I been failing?

Jaune surges forward, reaching for me, hands closed into fists.

I'm rooted to the ground—I don't know why, but suddenly it feels like the world is crashing down on me. None of them—none of them watching—move at all.

I can't—"I'm sorry."

Jaune freezes in his tracks, his eyes widen, and his fist stops fractions away from a swing. I think—I would've liked to get hit then, instead of this.

Shock, betrayal, anger, but—the hurt—

Ruby, I'm—I was—I didn't—

"We'll save this for later—" my mouth betrays me "—we have bigger problems to deal with right now...literally." Words come out of my mouth, words that aren't mine. I should be grateful, that she was taking the lead. But—

"Sum—er, she's right," says Qrow. "That Grimm is tearing apart the city—that's our priority. Save the talking for later."

"Where did it even come from anyway?" wonders Nora, but her eyes don't move away from me.

"Where all shitty things come from," I mutter, then I turn and run—away from them, it feels like. Away from Team R_BY and JN_R . I hear them following behind me, I want to say 'Don't follow me' or maybe 'It's good to see you again'. I don't know. I can't choose.

But I guess—

All things must come to an end.

The Tyrian Grimm is tall, big, and hulking, it's a reminder of the past, of burning villages—

and hollow Dragons.

Of failures—

and triumphs.

The Grimm is blocks away, it's moving, every step sends trembles through the ground. I throw my swords, teleport, and wonder—

Everything I didwas it all wasted?

I don't know, but I know what I have to do now, something only I can do. Maybe—Maybe that's enough.

I hear Ruby's voice carry over the wind. It's commanding and strong and—none of it was ever my doing.

Good, I think.

"Qrow and Nora, on me! Ren, Jaune, Oscar, Maria, I need you guys on evacuation duty. Yang and Blake, distract it!"

I teleport into the air, above buildings and wires and the city, Argus—it's exhilarating and at the same time, somber. Tyrian shifts, its six reptilian eyes opening and closing—searching. There's always a weak point, a chink in the armor, I think.

I fall—I can only stay in the air too long before gravity begins working again. Tyrian's jaws—all four of them—part ways and that toxic tar, a dark purple, drips all over the street. It melts the cement instantly. The roar split my hearing. I grunt, hitting the ground.

There's always a weak point, sometimes it isn't so obvious. Sometimes, it's just a lot more work.

Yang and Blake streak pass, circling the Grimm and landing hits that Tyrian only seemed to regard as annoyances. Then, behind Tyrian, Ruby launches herself off Qrow's scythe, aiming at the Grimm's back.

I sprint for Tyrian.

The Grimm is more agile than it has any right being. Its eyes burn red, it turns, crushing a shuttle under its foot. It's—face-to-face with Ruby.

I throw my sword and teleport. I slam into Ruby, sending us both flying to the ground. Fire sings my clothes and my hair stands on end. Fucking hell, I think, it breathes fire. I let most of the impact fall on my left side, I don't need it, and better me than Ruby. My aura holds strong, flickering between white and red.

"Be careful!" I snap at Ruby, "You can't—the risk—"

"What do you know about risk?!" demands Ruby, stepping backward. "What do you know about anything?! You're the one using my friend's dead body!"

That isn't technically true, I wanted to say, technically, it was always my body. I grit my teeth and keep my mouth shut. I know better. I should know better.

"Is Pyrrha in there right now?!" Ruby continued. "Was she there, trapped, the whole time? When you traveled with us, lied to us—"

I flinch.

Ruby looked away, her voice turned quiet, but it was still cold like steel. "I used to admire you, you were my hero, my dream, my ideal. Now—"

"They say that fantasies are better than the real deal," I say. "Someone once told me that...that the dead were a martyr, an image you can change to whatever you want them to be. That when you think of them, you aren't seeing the real them."

"I guess they're right," says Ruby.

"Yeah, and... they said you only get one chance—at life, I mean." That a second chance was unfair. "I don't need to know what you think of me, Ruby. It's good to know, but I don't need to know. It won't matter, after this. We have a Grimm to fight, and I plan on finishing it." We've already wasted enough time as is.

"Have any ideas?" Qrow limps up to us. "'Cause nothing seems to be working on this thing, whatever it is."

Giant pink heart bullets hit the side of Tyrian's head. He growls and shakes it off, roaring purple flames. Blake throws Gambol Shroud around a foot, Yang pulls. Tyrian halts, he swivels his head and breathes fire.

I smile thinly. "I do. I need all hands on deck." I add, "I'll get the evacuation team."

"That's not a good idea—" starts Qrow.

"I know, that's the point. Distract it!" No second chances.

Who am I? Maybe it doesn't matter.


Ruby, Qrow, and I make our separate ways. They're fast and they get the memo and I appreciate that, I do. Still, it feels like things are being left unfinished—incomplete, even. Too soon, too late, mistakes make too long ago.

You're lucky, or maybe you were just smarter than me. You have no regrets and you're fine with loose ends. Still, you have one more chance to say—

"Jaune, we need to go." My voice is strained. My hands are holding a building in the air. Polarity—is—surprisingly—useful.

"Wha—" Jaune starts. The old woman behind him, dressed in dated elder clothes, adjusts her goggles.

The civilians understand, they hurry to safety like it's a second instinct, running past me and away from Tyrian's path of destruction.

"I have a plan—" I say, voice catching. I don't know what to do—why did I decide to do this—it's beyond awkward—why—"I-I need you to listen…

Ren gives Jaune an awkward thumbs up, tells him "All the civilians are accounted for," he pauses, "at least the ones I can sense."

"That's good enough," says Jaune. He turns to me. "Plan? You're kidding right? You think I would do anything for you—"

I wave my hand and the building flies for Tyrian. My aura flickers with effort but it's worth the reaction. Tyrian growls, turns his head—and okay, I think, maybe that wasn't the best idea after all.

"And you dare to use her semblance!" snarls Jaune.

"Jaune—" I begin.

"Don't Jaune me, don't talk to me, you can die in a pit for all I care."

I'm at a loss for words. I never thought—I don't know, I don't know.

Ren looks up. "Uh...Jaune?"

Jaune turns angrily. "What now?"

The hairs on the back of my neck rise. I feel the temperature take a drastic spike and—"Duck!" I raise a metal wall, grab Jaune, and duck behind it. Purple fire sears the edges of the wall. It's suffocating—my breath hitches in my throat. All things turn to ash. All things end with fire.

Sweat drips down my face. I'm breathing heavily.

I raise another set of walls.

The flames suddenly pitter to a stop. My walls collapse and I sway on my feet. Then I realize—Tyrian is facing us and his tail swings forward. It paves a path of destruction, buildings fall—bursting into pieces. I curse. I grab Jaune by his collar and teleport—I'm too late, too close, and the force of the tail knocks us into the air.

We spin, wind blows in my face, gravity takes hold, and we're falling.

"Let go of me!" Jaune screams.

"Stop making this more difficult and help me!" I yell back. "I'm trying, Jaune, but you are not making this easy!"

"You sound like her, why do you sound like her?!" Jaune struggles. His voice is strangled, it cracks, "Y-You have her eyes—"

"What—" I breathe too late. We slam into Tyrian's tail. I wheeze, stand up shakily, and drop back down, stabbing my sword into Tyrian's tail. We're sent flying back and forth, up and down. It's disorientating and my vision spins.

Jaune stabs Tyrian repeatedly, gritting his teeth and eyes blazing. His sword cuts into the tail, but it doesn't do enough—not enough, never enough.

"Get your team back together—!…" I tell Jaune. My voice hitches. I rasp and whisper, "Our team."

I remember—the empty nothingness, the hollow, a place where all things ceased to exist. There was only me—whoever I was—and thoughts and contemplations, regrets and what-ifs—

—A person could go insane, in there.

A person could search for any way out.

I don't know who I am. I don't know when I stopped being me, but this life, this second chance, was always—

a lie.

I smile weakly, look away, up, and say, "Do you believe in destiny, Jaune?"

"W-What?" Jaune goes rigid. He freezes, mid-swing. He's silent, motionless, until he sags—tired, and says, "I don't know what to think anymore. I don't—yeah, I just don't know."

I almost laugh, "Not a predetermined fate you can't escape but rather..."

"Something you work towards your entire life," Jaune finishes, quiet, solemn, downcast, remembering.

"I guess I always felt as though I was destined to become a Huntress. To save the world, I guess. To prevent what happened to me from happening to other people, but—" I do laugh this time, it's loud and harsh and betrays all of my feelings. "Somewhere along the way, I—well, I lost my way."

"You're not making sense here, Pyr—" Jaune stops himself choppily. He isn't fast enough. "...rah."

"When you see the world in a vacuum, in black and white and who's good and who's bad and if your winning or if you're losing, it eats you from the inside out—slowly, yes, but always surely. And then you take the wrong turns, make the wrong choices, forget what's right and wrong, forget what's really important, and—" I take in a breath, I'm stressed desperate, and— "I guess what I want to say is…I'm sorry. I'm sorry it turned out like this, I'm sorry we turned out like this. It wasn't—it wasn't what you deserved, it wasn't what anyone deserved."

"I wouldn't have said those things if I knew—if you'd told me—you know," Jaune says, "I wouldn't have—sometimes I think it's my fault, you, everything, my fault. If only I hadn't been so weak, so useless, if only I hadn't said—"

"Don't lose yourself in the what-ifs and regrets and what-could've-beens. That's how you fall down the hole and lose yourself," I say, "...I should've learned sooner."

"You shouldn't have come back."

"I know."

"I'll never forgive you."

"I know."

"...Don't think about the what-could've-beens, huh?" Jaune squeezes his eyes close. We're still swaying back and forth on the tail of a giant Grimm, still barely holding on. This is the end, "That's hard," he says, "That's really hard."

"Making the right choices is hard."

"...Yeah." Jaune's aura glows gold, he stands straighter, his eyes determined, and he says, "What's the plan?"


I scale Tyrian's back, dragging my lance through his skin. It's a mess of protruding bones—a spine—and black bog. I sprint as fast as I can, leap pass bones, and aim for the head. I stumble, carry on, think one final leap of faith.

Something I must do. Something only I can do.

"Bumblebee!" Ruby shouts.

Blake wraps Gambol Shroud around Tyrian's back leg. Yang grabs the end of the ribbon, jumps away, uses the recoil on her gauntlets. She touches ground and skids back, eyes shifting red and hair on fire. Jaune reaches her in time, conducts his Semblance into Yang through her shoulder. Yang snaps back and pulls on Gambol Shroud.

Tyrian loses footing, roars fire, and falls. I stumble, grab onto a protruding bone, and wait out the tremors.

Qrow slides behind Tyrian. He swings his scythe and his weapon flips into a longsword. He stabs it into Tyrian's tail and grunts with effort as he digs his weapon in deeper.

I begin running again.

Ren and Nora weave around Tyrian's head. Nora slams her hammer into the side of Tyrian's cranium, Ren pelts Tyrian's eyes with bullets.

The farm boy and the old lady help civilians out of the shambles of buildings and point them to safety, keep them away from Tyrian's line of sight.

Tyrian roars again, purple fire burning the building in front of him into crisp. The fire letters away as he closes his four-way jaw and then—

Ruby appears in front of the Grimm in a swirl of rose petals. She opens her eyes and silver light unfurls from her pupils.

"Before you go," I say, reaching out. I quickly retract back my hand. Qrow, Ruby, and I are standing in an alleyway, but that doesn't mean we're safe from Tyrian. I shouldn't be risking precious seconds like this.

Ruby looks back at me, vaguely irritated. "What is it?"

"Silver eyes—" I remember Raven, her words, how they stung more than I thought they were: 'Ruby doesn't know, does she?'. "Silver eyes take their power from the soul. That's why—that's why they have to be used sparingly. You only have so much of your soul and—you become less human, the less you have."

Ruby's eyes widen. "What does that mea—"

"It means that my life is a cautionary tale, that you can do better. You can be the me I never was, the Summer you saw in your mind. I—I entrust the future, Salem...to you."


Tyrian's head turns to stone, spreading from his jaw to the top of his head and then down his neck, into his back. It begins flaking three-quarters to his tail. His body tremors, begins quaking.

I reach his head. I leap off as he wakes, opening his jaws and breathing in air—turning it into smoke and fire.

All things turn to ash. All things end with fire.

I throw my lance into Tyrian's gaping mouth—

—and I appear inside the mouth of the Grimm, I dive for its inners.

There's always a weak point, sometimes it isn't so obvious. Sometimes, it's just a lot more work.

I feel the temperature rise, the heat begins to reach unbearable levels. My lance hits solid—

—I close my eyes as purple flames engulf me.

It isn't enough, I think, but it's the end.


For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee.


Tyrian explodes from the inside out, his purple flames erupt throughout his body—his mouth, his eyes, his skin. Ruby yells for cover and takes off for an abandoned building, grabbing Jaune on the way.

They watch the Grimm—in its bony, reptilian, scorpion-like entirety—turn into ash and smoke. It evaporates into the air—a giant cloud of darkness—and disappears.

There is an indent in the street—the buildings—of a giant monster.

There is nothing else.


A/N:

What? What is this unsatisfying and super loose ending?! It sucks! Well...hehe, that's part of the charm. This is how I think of it: death is unsatisfying and filled with loose ends, there's no such thing as a proper send-of, just an ending that you don't get to choosethat's why you've got to live in the moment, live while you can, because you never know when your ending is.

Besides, who else can say they wrote a bad ending on purpose?

On that note, what's this? A fanfiction that has an ending? It's a goddamn miracle! Uh...I guess...I really appreciate you, dear Reader, for sticking with me through this goddamn trainwreckbecause, let's face it, that's exactly what this is (and I hope to learn from my many, many mistakes writing this fic, but hey, you gotta start somewhere). So thank you, seriously!


Reviewer Responses

bwburke94: fixed it, thx

SuperSaiyajin4Vegeta: Hm, can't say I was too satisfied with Ruby eyeing the giant Grimm to death with no consequences...but then, who am I to talk? (haha...ha)

merendinoemilliano: That's good to hear. School is a pain in the arse, but unfortunately important…

The Wizardrous Magicman: Oosh, I didn't even think of the Titan Atlas. That's definitely a parallel there, huh? And, haha, I don't think I'm that great of a writer, I can do a lot of improving, especially with the details. Besides, using so many dashes, commas, and paragraph breaks annoys a ton of people and has honestly become a bit of a crutch for me. Ah, yes, unfortunately bargain bin games have also become a bit of a source of impulse buys and empty wallets…

Phalanx30: Agreed, I suggest doing some research on 'Death of the Author'. One of my favourite YouTubers of all time, Lindsay Ellis, did a video on it recently. It's basically the idea that the text of a story stands by itself, that when a creator puts their work out there, it's open to any interpretation by anyone. What can I say? I'm a literary fanatic.

Amelia: Oof, can't say the story has any answers for RWBY, JNPR, and Cinder after this. I've always thought of 'Stars Never End' as Summer/Pyrrha's story, and so it ends with those characters. I suppose. I do think Jaune and Ruby get nice developments, though.

Allison Illuminated: Hi! Gotta catch up with re:Bound, too. I like waiting for fics to finish or stop updating thoughwhich, I know, makes me a filthy bingerbut I just can't help it!


Thanks for reading! ~ Aros