The threshold of heaven

Farewells are the threshold of heaven and the essence of hell.

Emily Dickinson

"It's over."

"I know. I feel it clearly."

"Is that all? Won't you make me an offer, won't you fight to the end? Will you even deny me the pleasure of hearing you beg?

"I'll never do that, silver-eyed warrior. I am too proud."

"I'm surprised," Ruby said, "surprised and disgusted by people like you, who very naturally confuse pride with gratuitous contempt and absolute selfishness."

"Wow, what a mouth you have." Salem laughed sweetly, like a maiden in love. "You know, I think you're the one who needs more than this. Something more significant than a battle 'won' and an enemy at your feet. Because you understand, deep down, that if you don't get that or something similar, you won't be able to move on. You won't take another step in your whole life. Or am I wrong? No, of course not. I see it in your eyes. Those eyes full of power..."

"You see what you want to see. That doesn't surprise me, though. After all, it's the only thing you've done all your life."

"Then why don't you just finish me off? What makes your pulse tremble? Fear that I'm not finished yet, that I have an ace up my sleeve? Ridiculous. You know very well that I am no longer a threat to you."

Ruby was silent.

"You don't answer, huh? I'm not surprised. Anyone can pick up a weapon and release their aggression on anything that comes their way. But when the enemy turns out to be yourself, well..., it's not so easy to slice anymore."

"Where do you want to go with this? Get to the point, it makes me sick to hear your voice."

"I think I've made things very clear. You have won, but you still know very little. The circle hasn't closed. And this hurts and frightens you."

"Well, you're wrong," Ruby said after a moment of silence. "I know enough. About you and the Grimm."

"Really? And what good is it to you? I will die soon, but the Grimms will stay. They are a separate existence from mine and much older. When you breathe your last breath, they will continue to threaten humanity. When humanity becomes extinct, they will surely kill each other on the ruins of the world until they all starve to death."

"Do you think you can deceive me and agitate me so easily? I'm not that little girl anymore. There are too many dead comrades behind my back for that. I know you're lying. You're right, killing you won't kill the Grimm. But without you to create horrible mutations and release them into the world, without the birthing pools that significantly increase their reproductive speed, so to speak, they will be reduced to a simple obstacle. We can dominate them. After all, you are the reason why the Grimms remained a threat to humanity after the discovery of Aura and Dust."

Don't make that stupid face of surprise. As I said, I know enough. Like it or not, we have won. Try again."

"As you wish. I'll ask you a very simple question: what good is that knowledge to you? It's true that your exploits have contributed to improving the general situation of humanity, at least as far as the Creatures of Grimm are concerned. But you are not a weapon without emotions and feelings, and this is about you and no one else. You said it yourself: you have too many dead comrades behind your back. Tell me, do you think it was worth it?"

"It was necessary."

"That's not what I asked you, Ruby Rose."

"It's the same thing. You gave us no choice. The fall of Beacon... No, for centuries your only desire has been the extermination of humanity. This is not what I wanted, and I would do anything to recover all that I have lost and sacrificed along the way. But it was necessary."

"I feel sorry for you. You may think it's a cruel mockery, but I mean it. Caught in a false victory, with all or almost everything you value lost and shattered behind you, for the sake of a false war. I have long since lost the ability to cry. But if I could, I would cry for you."

"False war? False war! Don't you dare deny the fall of Beacon and all your dirty machinations, the countless people who have suffered and died because of you.

"What? Oh, no, no. Of course not. I have no intention of denying what I have done or repenting for it. Why should I? I think that human beings are a plague and I stand by it. The falsehood is in the reason. For you and for most of those involved, surely this war is... it was a struggle for the survival of humanity. But not for Ozpin. He only wants my death."

"Speak clearly at once, or you will never speak again."

"You know he is immortal. More precisely, he goes through a process of reincarnation every time he dies. But the story he told you, whatever it was, is a lie. Let me guess. Cursed by the gods? Ah, don't bother, I see the truth in your eyes. How can you be so deluded?" She extended her arms. "Do you think this is a world governed and cared for by the gods?"

"Even if you are telling the truth," Ruby began a little later, "it doesn't matter. He would have his reasons for not telling us the truth. And, in any case, that doesn't change anything about this war.

"Listen to me until the end... " Salem stopped to spit blood, as black and thick as that of the Grimm. "And we'll see if you can keep thinking that way."

"I should finish you off," Ruby said quietly.

"But you won't. So shut up and listen.

First of all, there was no curse. It wasn't an accident or a mistake. He deceived me, pretending to be in love with me, and when he saw an opportunity to steal part of my power from me, he seized it. That's why he's immortal. And that's why he wants me dead: I'm the only one who can really kill him. He is afraid to die. He would do whatever it takes to stay in this world."

"That doesn't make sense. Ozpin's immortality is not immortality in the strict sense of the word. At death he enters another person's body, but eventually that person's original soul is the only thing left inside. Memories remain, but not the person who he was before. Even if he wanted to live as desperately as you say, it's impossible."

"I said first of all, didn't I? Here's the next part: that's also a lie. No matter how many years go by and how many bodies he uses, Ozpin is always Ozpin. All that's left of the person he gets into are the memories."

"You are lying! That... that can't be true. It would mean that I..."

"That you loved Ozpin, kissed Ozpin and slept with Ozpin, not Oscar. That you held the hand of someone who has died thousands of times and killed almost as many people as I have. Someone for whom death means nothing." She smiled. "I imagine putting it inside you was one of the best moments of his long life. He desperately desired your mother, more than any other woman, but could not make her his. And you are very much like her."

"It can't be. It can't. Shut up!"

"I feel sorry for you," Salem repeated. "The road to peace, to reconstruction, is already difficult enough, but after discovering that the walls around you and the floor beneath your feet are transparent, it's almost impossible. The rest of humanity will have to face the same thing. You have overcome war, well done, but peace is approaching, hovering over the horizon. Be very careful... or you will end up devouring each other."

Ruby lost strength in her legs. She was hurt and exhausted, but that's not why she fell. She lowered her head. The hood bathed her face in darkness.

"That's it, that's it, that's it! That's the expression I wanted to see!" Salem's voice didn't even sound human anymore. It seemed to join the howl of the wind that was stirring and swirling, that was pulling her cape, pulling her to the depths of an unfathomable abyss.

Ruby spent much time like that, next to Salem, who was bleeding to death on the ground, to one side. Both were enveloped by the light of the fragmented moon. But in the end she lifted her head with strength, with the same strength she stepped on the ground and stood up again.

"This is what you really are," she said slowly. "That indecent rejoicing, that poorly hidden anger... nothing but an animal. Though you have a human body, you don't differ at all from the Grimm. I used to think it wasn't like that. That there had to be a reason. A motive. A thread of logic. But I was wrong. You simply hate indiscriminately, you feed on other people's negative feelings. You're an empty shell. A weapon without feelings or emotions."

I was wrong," she repeated, "and not only in this, but I will remedy it. We will. For centuries, we have been hunted by inhuman beasts. For centuries, we have died, yes, but we have not stopped fighting. We created four kingdoms. Points of light in the darkness. And we will continue to fight, no matter what. Towards the future. Towards the light. You think you have achieved everything you wanted." She lifted the scythe and waved it in the air, full of a rage that she could not express with words or gestures, a rage that burned inside her. "Victory for hate incarnate, misery and pain for all. But you won't get what you want. Never."

Ruby's eyes shone like a lighthouse in the darkness, between the dust and earth.

"I am not resigned."

The scythe fell one last time. The morning fog covered the red cloak of death from sight, and then silence dominated the wasteland of the final battle once more.