This is the second to last chapter, not counting the epilogue. Although there's plenty of story I could have told, I'm starting to feel fatigued by this story and I want to move on to other things, so this is a good time to end it.

I barely remember my graduation ceremony. Has it been that long? I guess it has. If parts of the ceremony seem off, that's why. As usual, I suck at speeches, so my characters kind of do too.

37: The Big Day

"I can't believe you're graduating already!" Ruby shouted, squashing her sister in a tight hug. "Again."

"Again," she echoed quietly, completely ignoring her ruffled dress as she hugged her sister back. "Doesn't feel like it."

"It's different this time," Ruby replied as they separated. "It's like we're doing school all over again, except it's different this time. Anyway, you should start moving because you don't want to be late."

"Yeah, you're right." She turned and started heading for the assembly hall. "I've got a date to catch."

"Oh, I got a new camera, so I'll take lots of pictures!" Ruby shouted after her. She turned to her other teammates. "So, are you two- aww, that's so cute!"

"What? What is?" Weiss asked, unconsciously taking a step back from the faunus.

"You were holding hands."

"Oh," Blake replied, feigning boredom. "We do that now."

"So are you two together now?"

"I guess so, yeah."

Without warning, Ruby grabbed both of them and squished them together in something resembling a hug. "I'm so happy for you! Have fun at grad!"

"Welcome to the grad ceremony, everyone," the principal's wavering voice called, amplified insufficiently by the public address system. "I know this is an exciting night for all of us, so I'll start my speech now so we can do the ceremony thing."

"This speech is going to be really bad, isn't it?" Yang whispered to the girl beside her.

"It's Powell," the other girl, a brunette with an expensive-looking dress, replied. "Good principal, but fucking horrible at talking. Of course it'll be bad."

"Uh... graduating represents a great milestone in our lives. This is, I think, more than any moment, when we go from children to adulthood. It's an important moment. A moment to dismember- I mean remember. This is it.

"It's been a journey to go from when you entered this school- for most of you that was four- no, wait, six now- years ago, but for some of you that may have been more or less. And now we're here, on the verge of going from school to not school. And wow. A lot of events have transpired between the years.

"As a school, as a class, we've all come together. We are one community in one school, even though some people here may have come from places that are really far away. Everyone can say, yes they went to this school, made friends, had a great time, and graduated. As principal of this school, I'm proud to present the graduating class of 2015 and send them on their way."

Yang turned to her right and shared a quizzical look with Gavin.

"Okay, with that being said, I'll turn it over to the valedictorian to do his speech now." The audience politely clapped, more for the sharply dressed student taking the stage than the principal's attempt at a moving speech.

"He's much better," Gavin whispered to Yang. "Scott actually knows how to talk."

"Good evening, everyone. I'm sure you all know me, but if you've been living under a rock, I'm Scott, your friendly neighbourhood valedictorian. I know you don't want to here me ramble- we have the principal for that- so I'll keep this short."

He paused to allow a round of polite laughter and not so polite shouting.

"What can I say? I've only been here three years, longer than some of you but shorter than others, and I've had an incredible time. We've come so much and so much has happened over those years, in our personal lives, at school, everywhere. When we came in, we were clueless and confused- not to mention a lot smaller. And now, yeah, maybe we don't know where we're going, but we've gained the skills and the confidence to get there, even if we don't know it.

"Look around. We're all different. We come from different backgrounds- with different birthplace, race, religion, social status, and upbringing. Even here, we're all different. Some of us are math nerds, some of us are athletes, some of us are really into drama. And when we step out the door, we'll all be going our separate ways- to college, to university, straight into the workforce, maybe out into the world to travel. But we all have one thing in common, which is graduating from this fine school. Thank you."

"Linda Anderson."

It took a moment for Yang to process the call and realize that her name- her alias, anyway- being called. She stepped out of the line and toward the centre of the stage, a broad smile on her face. She tried to find Ruby in the crowd, but couldn't pick her sister out in the packed auditorium. Instead, she waved in the general direction of where she hoped the energetic crimsonette was.

"Congratulations, Linda," the principal said, handing Yang her diploma and shaking her hand. He sounded canned, but she couldn't really blame him- they had a lot of students to go through. They posed for the cameras for a moment.

Yang couldn't help but feel like she'd done it before, but it still felt significant. Symbolic of a huge transition. She knew what it meant already- sort of. This was over and she had no idea what the future held- but that was fine with her.

With one last wave, she strode off the stage.

"Bella Blake."

Blake began to move toward the front of the stage. She had already anticipated the call, knew her name was next. A thin smile crossed her face, far from Yang's hilarious grin but better than some of the sad, forced smiles she had seen earlier.

"Congratulations, Bella." She could tell the principal was getting tired of handing out diplomas, and she couldn't blame him. He'd probably done it for hundreds of students already, and he'd probably done it for years before. She took the diploma and shook his hand, the grip disappointingly weak in her own, posing for the camera and hoping Ruby would take the pictures she promised.

It was different for her, Blake knew. This was when most left the controlled, safe environment of high school and moved out into the dangerous, uncertain world. But she had already been there. Two different worlds, even. Still, she had to admit to herself that things would get a lot more complicated after this, especially for her.

She pushed the thoughts out of her head and smiled at the crowd one last time before stepping off the stage.

"Anna Weiss."

With her name near the end of the alphabet, Weiss was one of the last students to walk across the stage. Her years of grooming were not forgotten. Without even realizing it, she straightened her posture and strutted toward the front of the stage. She gave one polite, practised wave and put on a smile that was halfway between real and fake.

"Congratulations, Anna." The principal was clearly very tired at this point, and delivered his line in a very drab monotone, his smile both tired and artificial. If he treaded in the same social circles she once did, he would be eaten alive.

But he wasn't, she wasn't, and neither of them cared. Weiss took her diploma graciously, shaking the man's hand and pausing to allow photos to be taken. She could taste the freedom that came with it- and the trepidation. Soon, she would be headed out into a very strange world, without anything that should have come with the life she was supposed to leave. She would be both free and lost.

Soon, but not today. She smiled at the audience one last time before leaving the stage.

"So..." Gavin muttered to no one in particular, one arm around his girlfriend. Weiss stood in front of them, with Aaron and Blake awkwardly close to each other on their left.

"We're done," Yang replied.

"Actually, we technically don't graduate until we pass our exams," Weiss told them. She motioned to her diploma- or rather, what she had previously thought was a diploma. "This? This isn't real."

The other grads glared at her. She crossed her arms and glared back. "What?"

"Just let us have our victory, Weiss," Yang told the former heiress.

"Doesn't feel like a victory," Aaron groused.

Yang shrugged. "I mean, everything changes after this, maybe, but we've still made it through high school, accomplished something. That's a victory."

"Could be short lived," Aaron added.

"Just call it a victory and stop being so fucking depressing," Gavin told his friend, tone light but with a cautionary tinge. "Hey, you guys are coming to the party tomorrow, right?"

"Uh..."

Yang cut her partner off. "Yep! One last crazy high school party, right guys?"

"I guess."

"I suppose."

"Sure."

"You guys are depressing today," Gavin complained. "Tomorrow, you're all loosening up and having fun. I'm serious. One last crazy high school party."

"And the day after?" Weiss asked.

"Who the hell knows?"

ODST110: I often feel the same way writing this fic, which is why I feel it's time to end it even though I could have pushed back Convergence and slotted another arc or two in. I barely remember my last year of high school, to be honest. It wasn't horrible, but it was pretty stressful.

Firehawk242: I feel Shine works the best out of all the songs for Monochrome in this context.

GreatWyrmGold: It was a pretty sparse chapter- I just didn't have many ideas for it. I don't count the epilogue as a chapter, so it's an even 38 to me, which is quite a nice number in my opinion.

Happy1K1nob1: Yep. I could have made this fic longer, but see the author's note at the beginning of the chapter. I think someone's already postulated something similar- perhaps you should try to seek them out.

BbK2442: They've been edging closer since before spring break. Most of it is unclear or offscreen because I have no idea how to write romance.

Tatopatato: The funny thing is that I didn't actually set it up that way on purpose- I've hinted at White Rose and Bumblebee earlier in the fic. But Connor turned into a love interest for Ruby (Gavin was always intended as a love interest for Yang). Because of this, I started bouncing Weiss and Blake off each other while the other two were busy, and I decided that I liked the result and it could go somewhere.

AnonymousReading: It will get VERY interesting in Convergence. But they're very much together now, and even before the prom they'd been edging toward a date but too nervous to actually try.

winxfan808: Reviewing every two chapters is pretty frequent considering the update rate of this fic. I think the biggest difference between this and Emergence is that it's primarily character-driven rather than plot-driven, and Convergence will be much more plot-driven. There's also a sense of tension and adventure that I feel this story lacks, which I hope to bring back in Convergence. In short, this fic was all about developing the characters as you've said, but Convergence is all about the bigger picture.