I'm going to put my notes up here this time, to let the story play out on its own. Thank you for reading this story to the end—when I first outlined it, I was originally confident it would come in under 40,000 words. Thank you everyone for the faves, follows, support, and critiques; I was wildly unprepared for what writing in this environment would be like, but I always appreciated your engagement with my work. It's a very humbling experience. I've already heard some questions if I have plans to continue this story, either with a sequel or prequel (though the words "space opera" and "prequel" don't have the best history together). Maybe I will in the future, but right now, I've told the story I wanted to tell, and I have no immediate plans to do more with this AU, or even whatever it is I'll be writing next. But, as always, these aren't my characters and it's not my playground—if anyone wants to take it up and do their own Space Opera AU or even your own sequel, feel free. After all, my own contributions were mostly just ripping off Star Wars, anyways.

Anyways, thank you for reading. I hope you've enjoyed it, and I hope you enjoy this denouement.

They were back in the same apartment they were quartered in when they first came to Atlas, but this time, it felt like a real hero's welcome.

Yang and Blake were on the couch, enjoying the downtime as Yang cuddled up on her girlfriend's shoulder. Girlfriend, hard to think of that being their relationship, but it was, and she had to admit, it was pretty good. She idly sipped her drink—the finest Atlessian ale she didn't have to pay for, perks of being a hero—as Blake devoured her sushi. Ren was mostly asleep in his chair, a book on business management still open in his lap, while Nora was trying to defeat Neo in some kind of ice cream eating contest. Roman was reclined in his chair, smoking a ludicrously expensive cigar, while a medal the size of a dinner plate rested on his chest.

She gave him a lazy grin. "You got any plans to ever take that medal off, Roman?"

He looked at her in mock confusion. "Medal? What medal do you- Oh, you mean my Atlessian Medal of Valor, Awarded for Conspicuous Gallantry by the Atlessian Parliament, at the recommendation of the Crown Princess of Atlas herself? Is that the medal you're talking about? This medal? If it is: never. I am never taking this medal off, and, as I have told Neo, I am wholly planning to be buried with it." He gave his medal a satisfied pat.

Blake snorted at his display, but Yang got where he was coming from. They'd all received medals for their service, smaller than Roman's promised monstrosity, but now that she had a medal, she really wanted to wear it everywhere. But her real reward was the look on the King's face as he had to do his best to look happy as he pinned their medals on. Even better was watching his face as Weiss spoke—it had been a wonderful speech, speaking to the universal cause of peace, justice, and brotherhood, between Kingdoms and Humans and Faunus. But watching her father stew as she called on all Atlessians to reject prejudice and fight for a better tomorrow, that had been fun.

It seemed that Roman wasn't done yet, though. "Oh, and it's Count Torchwick now, commoner. It seems my business acumen impressed them as much as my undeniable heroism, and I've been granted a mining colony to administer."

"Oh?" Blake cut in, "One of the mining colonies famous for their appalling record on Faunus rights?"

"The same! But believe me, kittycat, I've got no plans of overseeing a bunch of grubby mines. Yep—I'm using it to build the biggest casino in known space! Gonna be printing money in no time, and it'll all be 100% legit and aboveboard!"

"And the Faunus?"

"That's the trick! They'll be making a boatload of money, too—believe me, I'm no cheapskate. Thinking I'll even make it the first casino themed around the Faunus civil rights movement—don't roll your eyes at that, young lady!" He pointed right at Blake. "I think you'll find I have quite the in with the Faunus. After all, there was that time I saved the life of the one and only daughter of Ghira Belladonna..."

Yang laughed at that. "Pfft, no you didn't. Blake's already told us she's not one of those Belladon-" But her eyes went wide as she noticed her girlfriend's ears crumpled and her face turned bright red. "Blake, you're not, tell me you're not-"

"He's just… It's not that big of a deal."

Roman roared with laughter.

Jaune looked up at the ship.

It looked more scarred than it had ever been, deep gouges and burns across the frame. The anterior signaling antenna had been shorn clean off, and the one of the front armor plates, which he'd known were loose for the past three weeks and kept forgetting to ask Nora to tighten them, were now just a bolt shy of falling right out.

He'd made a hundred apologies; he'd thrown himself at his friends' mercy, but they were mostly just happy that they had all come out of it alive. But this apology… the ship looked down on him, impassively, but he could tell—it felt his betrayal, and it'd be hard to win its trust back. It would be a very long time before he could call it his ship again.

He felt Pyrrha's hand on his shoulder, a comforting presence, but another reminder of his failures. If he hadn't panicked when she first confessed her feelings for him, he could have- could have-

"It's alright Jaune, it's alright." She always had the strange power to make his self-loathing dissipate with her voice. "You know, you don't have to do this—none of us blame you."

"I promised Saph I'd make things right if she used her contacts for me, and it's not like I can refuse to meet Admiral Ozpin, after, you know, he saved all of your lives." He fidgeted "Also… I promised myself I'd face the music and stop running from things."

"No matter what," she gentle massaged his shoulder, "what you're doing is very brave. And I'm here for you—I'll always be here for you."

He smiled, a real, genuine smile, as he looked into the eyes of the woman he could never possibly deserve, and would never not be ceaselessly grateful for.

But then the familiar click of a cane on the concrete floor of the hanger made him aware of Admiral Ozpin's arrival.

He snapped to a salute, by reflex more than anything. "Admiral Ozpin, sir," he began, slowly, but deliberately, trying not to think about the fact that this was the man who had, a lifetime ago, given the welcome speech on his first day at the Academy. "As I said, as a sign of the sincerity of my claims, I promised to turn myself in and face trial for my desertion from the Valean Navy. I stand by what I've done, and I am prepared to make account for my defense."

The Admiral nodded, a slow, purposeful move, then spoke. "A noble gesture, however, I don't believe you are accused of any crimes, young man."

"But… everything at Montglenn, and, and," he gestured to the ship, "the Juniper, I… stole it." He choked on his words as he realized what he was doing. Idiot! Don't look a gift horse in the mouth!

"Hmmm. True, true. I do seem to recall there was an incident at an unauthorized prison facility in a Valean Duchy. But I don't believe we have any records or evidence of persons involved in those events, besides this ship, which I do not recognize as even resembling anything the Royal Navy, or any of our Ducal Navies, have ever fielded. And besides," he pointed to a deep gouge on the side of the ship, "This ship does not appear to have a name at all. I can hardly accuse you of stealing an unknown, unnamed ship."

He was right, the ship's name and identification numbers had been ripped right off. "So, I'm…"

"Free to go? Nearly. I believe you've already met my associate, Glynda?"

Jaune followed where he was gesturing and was stunned to see the figure of Glynda Goodwitch, standing a short distance away, looking as though she'd been there the whole time.

He glanced over to Pyrrha, who seemed just as surprised. "You… you know each other?" she stammered out.

She seemed to glide across the room to the Admiral. "Ozpin is not merely some Valean Admiral. He has, in truth, been involved in the history of the Maidens and the entire galaxy for longer than you can imagine."

"I keep my involvement indirect, when I can, and largely rely on empowering people of noble character to do the work of protecting the galaxy. Never underestimate that your hard-won efforts make a meaningful change in the world, whether in destroying a superweapon," his gaze felt to Jaune like he was looking right through him, but whatever he was seeing in him, his voice carried a note that seemed like pride. "Or helping the downtrodden realize the power they had to break their chains."

Ms. Goodwitch nodded. "But we believe it's time for you and your companions to take a more active role in the protection of the galaxy."

Pyrrha gave Jaune an uneasy glance. "I sense that you're about to tell me that there's more to this than just Cinder Fall and the White Fang."

"Have you ever heard the name of Salem before?"

Jaune hadn't, but the name still seemed to draw the air from the room. Pyrrha's voice seemed far away, a half step above a murmur. "Cinder… mentioned it once. Before she…"

Ozpin nodded. "She is the Queen of the Grimm, and the one who has orchestrated all of this. She has been our enemy since ancient times."

"What," Jaune's voice wavered, but he caught himself. "What would you have us do?"

Admiral Ozpin looked him over, seemingly assessing him all over again, but more thoughtfully than critically. "As I understand it, your friend, the Princess of Atlas, has a plan for you all to continue the work you started." How he knew this, Jaune knew not to ask. "Tell them what we've told you. I will get you in contact with my agents, some you may be surprised to find you already know. Our enemy is clever and amorphous, always moving, always reforming herself to a new end. It is difficult to know her plans or where to find them, but you will have our full aid in searching her out and thwarting her plans." He turned with Ms. Goodwitch to leave, Pyrrha and Jaune being both too stunned to ask any questions. "We will be in touch."

"Oh, and Mr. Arc, Ms. Nikos," he added, "I noticed your ship seems to have lost its name in the battle. It's terrible luck to fly in a ship without a name. If you're open to suggestions," he smiled, "I believe 'the Beacon' has a nice ring."

He caught what he thought was a glimmer of a smile from Ms. Goodwitch, but it was so quick, he wasn't sure if he imagined it.

Once they had departed, Jaune's shoulders slumped as he could finally breathe. "I thought I was going to die."

Pyrrha broke out in a fit of giggles. "Of all the things that might have happened, I really wasn't expecting to discover… that." She smiled at him, a smile with such warmth and fullness he felt like he could take on the whole world. "Sure is a weight off to learn you're not facing prison, though."

"Yeah, but," he rubbed the back of his neck, "We've got something even crazier, and we've got to explain all this to Weiss and the rest."

"I think they'll take it well. I don't think any of us were expecting we wouldn't get drawn in to an even crazier reality than we'd ever known before." She gave him a conspiratorial look. "You know, talking to Nora, I realize that the real fight's going to be about dividing the new cabin spaces now that we're looking to have a permanent crew of eight."

"Ugh, don't remind me. I am going to miss having the captain's cabin, and I just know Nora's gonna stick me right in that corner by the kitchen, just to try and force me to bake more."

"Um, about that," Pyrrha began, shyly, eyes downcast, "I was just thinking… if you wouldn't object, I mean, I wouldn't mind if…" she looked up, blushing furiously, "if you might be interested in sharing quarters?"

He felt his own cheeks grow hot and his throat dry as words failed him. He could only nod, which set off an even more furious blush on Pyrrha's face, which surely set off an even worse one on his own face. It was amazing, it was unbelievable, that he'd find someone so wonderful, and that she, this perfect, beautiful, amazing woman would give him a look of such adoration. How could anyone find the words for this moment?

So he kissed her.

Yeah, he thought, as she pulled him into a deeper kiss, this was the right choice.

Weiss gave the room one last look over to make sure everything was perfect.

They were about to have their first meeting as a full crew, and she couldn't allow anything to be wrong or out of place. She had various data files, of ship schematics and intelligence reports—including what little she could find about this "Salem" that Jaune and Pyrrha had told her about—as well as food and drink prepared around the room. It was perfect, everything was set up exactly how it should be, but she threw herself into looking it over one more time. As neurotic and anxious as this was, it was better to be thinking about that than what really was occupying her mind.

She heard the knock at the door and her heart stopped.

She stopped herself, took a deep breath, and then went to open it. "Hey Weiss!" Ruby cheerfully answered as she came into the room.

"Hi… Ruby" she said in her best, likely failed, effort to not sound completely artificial.

Fortunately, Ruby seemed not to notice. Unfortunately… "Hey, am I the first one here?" Weiss tensed, then nodded. Don't say anything don't say anything. "Huh, that's weird. Blake is usually, like, super punctual, so it's kind of weird that nobody else is here yet." Maybe there's a reason for that you dolt!

"Well, you know, she's with Yang now and… stuff."

"Nah, I'd expect her to be even more on time, just because she really likes making Yang do things. And what about Ren, he's really good at getting Nora to-"

"Alright! I gave you a different time to be here than everyone else! I wanted to…" Now or never. "I wanted to talk with you. Privately."

"Oh." Ruby blinked at her. "Oh!"

"Yeah."

She had faced down the White Fang, Cinder Fall, her father, and yet, this was what would kill her. Death by social awkwardness. Yang would be sure to spell it out in full detail on her tombstone.

She cleared her throat. "Ruby… I know I'm not the… best person at expressing my feelings at times, and I can be…" Come on, courage, just a little bit more… "I just think… On our journeys together, I think I just… I really like you. I really like you, Ruby. And I know we haven't… said much about this, but…"

They stared at each other, both equally at a loss of what to do next.

This continued for what felt like an eternity.

"Ok!"

Weiss's eyes went wide. Okay? What does "okay" mean? Terror welled up in her mind, freezing any thoughts of asking a clarifying question. Why did she have to choose a word that could mean literally anything! Did it mean she just liked her as friends? What if "okay" meant no? What if it meant she didn't want to be around her anymore? But… she trembled to think it, what if it meant yes? Okay could mean yes, right?

There was no guidance for this in charm school! Taking all of her courage, Weiss gently tilted her face forward, hoping, in this, her response was clear enough.

It was.

It was!

Ruby's lips met hers—too quickly, at a weird angle, and it was mostly teeth; none of them really knew anything about kissing, but none of that mattered! None of that would ever matter, as she kissed her… her… she didn't have a word for it. Didn't matter! They kissed and it was perfect!

"Woo! Get some, princess!"

In absolute mortified horror, Weiss looked up to the unspeakably smug grins of the last two people she ever wanted to see in a moment like this. Yang and Blake, like twin gargoyles, smirking at her from the doorway.

"Blakey here wanted to make sure we showed up real early, was worried you'd be uptight about us being late. But please, don't let us interrupt anything…"

She inwardly screamed in fury as she outwardly hurled a pillow at the interlopers.

Everything was good.

Blake and Yang and Jaune and Pyrrha had finally gotten their feelings in order. Presumably, Ren and Nora had done something like that as well, just in their own, Ren-and-Nora way. And Ruby, as uncertain and confusing and new as all this was, had never felt more excited, never felt more right than when Weiss had confessed to her. She'd never really thought of life in terms of her romantic future, but it was... nice. They were heroes, they were in love, things were good.

And best of all, there would be no "going our separate ways" afterwards.

Weiss called the meeting to order and began. "The first thing I want you to know is that I've created a jointly owned trust to finance our journeys, to be controlled by all of us collectively. This means I'm no longer your employer, and I have no title or claim over any of you. We are all in this together, and we are all equals in it."

She gestured towards a display, showing White Fang activity across the Kingdoms. "We still have matters to attend to. The White Fang has been dealt a setback, but they are still a widespread and powerful force. And from the information we've received from Admiral Ozpin, Cinder was only one agent of a much more dangerous force."

"Salem," Pyrrha added, drawing on the map a number of regions they could begin their investigation in. "A name we know very little about, but we know that she is, somehow, the source of the Grimm. If she could be stopped, we could change the face of the entire galaxy."

Blake nodded, and pulled up photos of a handful of Faunus leaders on the map, matched to what regions they were active in. "More immediately, if the White Fang could be shown exactly who they're partnering with—and if we can persuade the Kingdoms to make a sincere effort to meet them halfway—the movement won't stick to their worst elements."

Weiss looked over the map, now full of notes, pictures, and labels. She pursed her lips. "We've got our work cut out for us."

"Like we'd have it any other way," Yang boasted, cracking her knuckles. "But I think the real issue we'll be facing is in this room right now. I'd like to propose the following rules to minimize dating angst, and I'll admit, 90% of them are about you, Blake. Rule number one: the following jokes are okay-" she was cut off as Blake whacked her with a pillow, only for Nora to flip a couch cushion at her head. The pillow fight was on in a flash.

Above the melee, Weiss shot her a scandalized look, but Ruby could read right through it—she wouldn't trade this crew, she wouldn't trade her friends, for the world. As childish as they could be, as perilous as their journeys would be, in that look, Ruby knew there was no one Weiss would rather face this with. And Ruby knew her own smile, as big and bright as it had ever been, said the exact same thing back to her.

It was amazing what you could say without using words.

END

Coda

She gasped awake, a terrible, burning pain lancing up her left side. Her leg—why couldn't she move her leg? Why couldn't she feel-

And then the memories flooded back. The fight, the blade, the ship, ripped apart by gunfire, and the flames, flames she could not control, her whole body wracked with pain-

And then the rage. The blind, mindless rage that seized at her and mastered her pain. She screamed, wordlessly, silently, only to feel a dark, familiar presence that quieted her rage and pain.

"M… M-mistress, I, I-" she choked. Where was she? What had happened? How was she alive?

"It's alright. It's alright." A soft, gentle voice answered her. A voice whose kindness and compassion belied an unmatched power and cruelty.

"B-but I failed, I f-failed you." And failure only means death.

"Failed me? No, my loyal servant, you have not failed me. You've not failed me at all. You've played your part excellently."

She glanced down, and immediately regretted it. There wasn't anything there—at least, not anything her. Burnt and ruined flesh had been replaced with, with… with abomination, a mixture of metal and Grimmstuff, a black suit of inhumanity that now sustained her. This was no prosthetic, no support—it was something welded to her soul. It was something that clung to her and pulled her into the world of the living.

It was something powerful.

"You have made them aware, my child, you have taught them what can be. And now they know it was only the beginning."

She inhaled, then exhaled, the sound metallic and monstrous. She coiled her fingers, feeling the sensation. Yes, she had been defeated, humiliated by that damnable child and the idiot girl she had once called friend. But she was not dead. She could not be dead. She could not die. Her power was greater, far greater than it was before. Even as the ruin of her skin and nerves screamed in pain, she smiled.

She would have her revenge.