Maybe, a change of pace would be nice.
Maybe, just maybe, some time away from this job could make him some good.
Maybe, he could finally relax and forget, for just a moment.
Who said that this was forever ? He already did what he has to do.
Maybe he should had become something else. Something that could keep him active for more time, something that didn't make him lose so much.
But now, there is no turning back.
Maybe, a little rest could be nice.
"Hey Cardin..." A raspy voice talked, a voice just as tired as his.
"Mmm?" The large boy, no, no more boy, the man grunted, making the blonde next to him to acknowledge that he had his attention.
"Do you think…that maybe, we could take a break from this ?" The blond asked.
"I don't know Sun, can we?" Asked the large man. His voice now a tone more deep and more mature than what it used to be.
"Well, I don't know. I think we can. It's been, what decades? That we've been doing this, and I just… I don't know, I think I'm finally satisfied of what I've done. Of what WE have done… And I think I'm ready for resting for good." Said the monkey faunus.
"Maybe… Maybe you're right… I think that some rest will make good." Said Cardin.
His whole body was sore, his eyelids tired, and his muscles strained and with no more energy to move. Maybe Sun was right… Maybe they could rest.
Maybe, this could be a turning point for their lives.
Just rest.
"I miss them..." Said Sun twirling a gold ring on his hand. "I miss all of them, so much…"
Drip.
Drip.
"You're not the only one." He said, trying, and almost failing, but managing to take the dog-tags hanging from his neck, next to a black ring hanging from the chains of the same dog-tags.
"By any chance, do you think we'll be able to see them in the other side.?" Asked the monkey, trying to stand from the pile of rubble he was in, and failing miserably.
His face now planted next to the carcass of a decomposing… Beowulf? Ursa? He couldn't even distinguish the corpses now. They had been decomposing for the past hour, and now it was indistinguishable.
"Maybe, they had been waiting for us all this time." Said Cardin, his voice sounding more tired.
"Maybe they do."
It had been long and gruesome years for all of Remnant this past century.
First from the fall of Beacon, then the fall of Ironwood's army, the invasion of Grimm on Vacuo, the civil war in Mistral, and finally the second color revolution. That brought more Grimm.
More than 35 years of problems, and today, was the last of all those problems.
It all began with the Vytal Festival, and it all went spiraling down from there.
But the heart and optimism of a young huntress made them stand up and fight, never letting their heads down.
The dead of Yang and Tayiang, trying and succeeding in absorbing all of the explosion blast in Amity Colosseum, may had been an awful way to start this, but the both of them gave them the courage to fight. To defeat the White Fang. And they succeed it.
At the price of Cinder taking over the mechanical army of Atlas.
Those were some tough 5 years of fighting endlessly against her.
Thousands of lives were lost, but in the end, the Hunters made it.
At the cost of the wisest and most powerful hunter in Remnant. Ozpin never made it back, nor Coco, Yatsu, Nora or Sage.
But their sacrifice was never in vain, with Cinder dead and all her minions defeated, things were looking up to all of them.
Then came the Grimm.
Those were some of the worst years humanity has ever seen. All the dead, despair, sadness and anger, made the Grimm attack one of the less expected kingdoms.
Years, and years and years were fought, after 20 years of fight, they managed to eradicate all Grimm in Vacuo.
And there went the lives of the rest of team SSSN, Fox, Ren, Dove, Sky and Qrow.
The rest of the ex-students of Beacon, were never the same. J[N]P[R] was never the same, nor Cardin and Sun. Sun took it the hardest, losing all his team, made him a moving carcass. He didn't have anything left. Nor family nor team.
The only one who managed to take him of out his depressive hole was Blake, the silent-beauty. Even if they never had a ceremony, they married, after the fall of Cinder.
He managed to continue, but he was ever the same.
Then, came the civil war. After all the efforts made between Humans and Faunus, Mistral was one of the only places that never kept peace between species.
The White Fang was again started, but now called the Black Fang, and started a direct war with every human they encountered. But the humans were fighters of their own.
A human force was started, with the son of Cinder as the leader. With the intent of avenging her mother, he openly declared a war against the whole kingdom. Even more lives than were lost than the Grimm invasion, giving beginning to the second color revolution. The suppressors (Cinder's son faction) wanted a tyrant, someone to control everything and everyone. The Black Fang, wanted the dead of all humans. A human holocaust.
And the people that never took sides, were hunted down for treason.
They almost made it, had it not been for the rest of the Hunter population.
9 more years of fighting, of more dead and more loss, made the rest of our heroes loss more than they bargained for.
First went down Weiss, defending a settlement of refugees from the Fang. Not one life was lost of the refugees, only Weiss. She died fighting the last Fang member until reinforcement arrived.
That was in the second year of the revolution, and Cardin realized that he had less people with him now.
So, before someone else died, he married Velvet, not wanting to lose her too.
In the fifth year of the war, the rest of team RWBY perished. The died trying to take down Cinder's sons. They never expected for him to have such an army at his disposal.
At the seventh year, an ambush was set, a lie of extraction. Glynda, Russel, Jaune, Pyrrha and Velvet went down. They didn't even woke up before they were dead. A silent dead.
The only ones left were Cardin and Sun. They were the only high rank Hunters that could lead the rest of the 'resistance'. The only leaders left.
In the last year of the war, they managed to thin out the Black Fang forces and The Supressors forces, with the help of an old woman, General Winter Schnee.
In the end, they did it. They managed to finish another war.
But at the cost of all their friends… Their family.
After that, a lot of things changed for the good.
Beacon was rebuilt, the youngest sister of Arc, made Headmistress.
Vacuo reconstructed.
Mistral in peace, with just a couple of hundred-thousand habitants left, all the saved refugees.
Grimm going thin and being less and less of them.
And the Atlas army, even more powerful, just for the protection of the world.
But the boys never stopped fighting. Helping anyone they could.
Until two years after the end of the war, they battled what could be described as the biggest army of Grimm, but finally, the last one.
Side by side, they made it. They won.
They managed to bring victory to humans and Faunus alike.
No more fighting, no more dead.
Just… Peace.
"Hey, you ever wonder why we're here?" Asked Sun, to Cardin.
"I… Think that we are no longer here… We are going to somewhere else…" Said Cardin, his voice getting more and more tired.
Maybe rest would be good.
"Hey Sun…"
"Mmm?"
"I think we finally deserve a rest, don't you think?"
"Yes… Maybe we do…"
"Goodnight Sun…"
"Goodnight Cardin…"
Fin