A short little chapter about something before we go Terra for the end of the Volume.

Chaos is the Prize Chapter 76

"Shut up Ferrus, you are dead"

-Primarch Vulkan

"I heard about Xarl. I'm sorry. I think… by your standards, by the Legion's ideals, I mean… he was a good man."

-Octavia

"Of course. A good man. A heretic. A traitor. A murderer. A fool. My brother, the good man."

-Talos Valcoran of the Night Lords.

Ruby found herself in the garden of Beacon Academy. She was sitting by a table in located on a small terrace.. She knew the place, thought she had never personally sat there. The view that opened to her was that of a beautiful summer day. Birds were singing, a gentle breeze was caressing the trees and bushes. Roses were in full bloom, their red flowers sending a pleasant scent that was drifting on the edge of the senses.

"This is not Beacon…" Ruby said to the person sitting across from her on the other side of the table. "There was… a battle. Yes. The School was laid waste to..." Her thoughts felt a bit sluggish. Gone was the strange sharpness of mind from their previous meetings. This was feeling much more like an actual, real dream.

"It was," Nox replied across her. "Assaulted. Devastated. Ruined. By the Grimm. By the White Fang. By the Legions of Terra," Nox said as he kept looking at the table between them, not meeting her gaze.

"So… "Ruby said with some hesitation. "What are… the Legions of Terra?"

"Go read a history book or something," Nox grunted. "I am done with opening up to you about things. It's not like it would be of much use to you anyway." Nox lifted one of his hands to the table and touched a corner of a board set on it. "Say… who do you think wins?"

Ruby lowered her gaze. She realized there was a chessboard in front of her, and she had not noticed it before Nox pointed it out to her, despite it being right there under her eyes. There were only two small chess pieces on the board. A white knight in her end of the board, and a black pawn on Nox's end. "Wins?" Ruby asked. "What do you mean?"

Nox slowly reached forward and left his hand hovering over the white chess piece. "Little red, little red… you see… there are two wolves inside us all. One of them…" Nox touched the white chess piece. "Is Good." Suddenly the game piece was of a totally different form, more like a figurine on an elaborate base. It was depicting a figure clad in pure white hood and cloak, the details vanishing under the garment that made up most of the figure in an exaggerated style.

"And the other one… is Evil…"Nox said. Ruby looked from the white game piece resting in front of her and noticed the black piece had changed as well. It was now a hideous, bestial black monster with long and gleaming claws at the end of its limbs.

"Good. Evil," Nox said, gesturing at the pieces. "Two forces at eternal conflict, internally and externally. So, what do you think? Which one wins?"

"I… ehh" was all Ruby managed to say. She was not sure how to react to the strange question. Just as she was about to say that good would always win in the end, the small black figurine sprung to life. Before Ruby's eyes, It crossed the distance between it and the white piece, and in the next moment, it attacked its counterpart. The sharp claws struck the white one and soon tore it apart, leaving but broken pieces on the board before the black piece.

"Good hesitated. Good was foolish. It did not act, it allowed Evil to strike first, and was thusly defeated…" Nox said as he lifted his eyes to look at Ruby. "Good paid the price."

"So you are saying Good loses, is that it!" Ruby let out, a hint of agitation in her voice. "That Evil wins?"

"No," Nox said and gestured again at the board, and its sole intact piece. Ruby looked at it as well. The black piece was jumping around, striking its arms in the air, almost dancing. It looked to be celebrating its victory over its opponent. In the next moment, however, the black monster-piece drifted too close to the edge of the table. In its careless jubilation, it lost its footing and fell over the edge.

Ruby watched the piece fall. It hit the floor as in slow motion, letting out a terribly echoing impact noise at the end of its fall. The black game piece shattered, its broken parts scattered around the feet of the table and the chairs, even more, destroyed than that white piece. Half of its had came to a rest by Ruby's feet. She remained leaned into looking at the game piece for a moment. Then she focussed her silver eyes to Nox again.

"Good," Nox snarled. "Is stupid." he glanced at the pieces of the black monster. "And Evil… is self-destructive…"

Ruby said nothing for a while. When Nox did the same, she finally opened her mouth. "You… you died," she said. "You are dead. How are you here?"

"What do you mean how am I here?" Nox replied. "Is this not your dream? It's not real. Don't you ever have dead people in your dreams? You have a dead mother, don't you? Don't you ever dream of her?"

"So you are… you are not real?" Ruby asked. "You are not really here… like before…" She had to admit, the dream was totally different from the ones she had shared with Nox before. They were in a garden. There was sunlight. They were not in some dark and depressing catacombs or something. There was no dark smog hazing the surroundings. There was none of that clarity of mind. Maybe this was just a regular dream, and Nox would not appear much more in future dreams.

"How would I know?" Nox said. "I am dead. Maybe me sitting here before you is just a figment of your imagination, all in your head." Nox scoffed. "Why would you drag me to your dreams again? Have we had not enough of that? What possible reason could you have to dream of me here?"

"I don't know," Ruby muttered. If this was just a dream, then it made sense that she might dream about some of the dramatic events that she had just gone through. Ruby shook her head. It was hard to think about the events that had transpired. Maybe she needed to wake up to wrap herself around them.

Ruby lifted his head and looked at Nox. The pale boy with black hair and blacker eyes met her gaze, a faint scowl on his face. Ruby was silent for a while and then spoke up again. "You are dead… I am sorry."

"I don't want nor need your sorry and pity," Nox grunted dismissively. "I am dead. I don't care about much."

"Well… I hope you are… in a better place…" Ruby muttered.

Nox let out a sickening scoff of a laugh. "Heaven does not exist," He stated in with great certainty. "But hell does."

Ruby felt bad. Her kind heart could not help but feel bad for the Nox-like apparition before her. That was just what she was like. She did not want to kill or see anyone killed. Yet Nox was dead. He had died in her arms that night Beacon fell. He was gone, and would never return. It was such a sad thing to think about.

"How… how was your life?" Ruby asked with a soft voice. "Did you… enjoy it?"

"Not particularly," Nox replied. "There were highlights, but mostly it was just suffering, and then I died. It was a short, bloody awful mess from start to finish." A single tear fell down Nox's face. "I… I hated all those things in my life..."

Ruby almost had a tear sneak into her eyes as well as he watched the evil, wretched, sad, miserable creature before her. She did not speak ill of the dead, even if the dead person was before her right now, and she could feel some semblance of compassion for him. "Nox… anything and everything you did or said to me…" Ruby smiled faintly. "Pancake stealing and all," she said with an attempt at slight jest.

"Most people were so damn ungrateful to have pancakes." Nox muttered. "But not me."

"As I said," Ruby continued. "Everything said or done... I forgive you…"

"I need not your forgiveness either," Nox snarled. "I hold no remorse for anything I ever did concerning you. I…" Nox paused. "I… hated you…"

"I know," Ruby replied sadly.

The two of them fell silent again. Ruby thought about many things concerning Nox, and she opened her mouth when she felt like she had found something worth saying. "What did you hope would you have had in life?" she asked as kindly as she could. "It did not work out, but did you have anything you really wanted to do? Did you have dreams?"

Nox looked at her with a depressed look. "Not really, can't say I had."

"Well you must have had something," Ruby continued. "Everyone has something they dream of. Everyone. Take me for example," Ruby said as she touched her chest. "Ever since I was a small kid, I wanted to be a huntress. I wanted to help people, to save and guard them from danger. That's what I dream of. That's what I hope to accomplish in my life."

"Figures…" Nox said. "You are deluded little thing. Such silly dreams of being a champion fit you well…" Nox fell silent, but the look on his face told Ruby some idea had come to him. She waited for him to open his mouth, and so he eventually did.

"Actually…" Nox started with a somber voice. "Now that I think about it… maybe I had something like that. Something I dreamed of. Something I wanted ever since I was a child, something I have wanted as long as I can remember…"

"Well? Ruby asked. "What is it, Nox?"

Nox lowered his gaze in a sad way. "I wanted to live…" he said with a frail voice. "Look how that turned out…"

"You do not know the things I dream, brother. Nobody does. Nobody ever cared enough to find out."

-Primarch Perturabo

Okie dokie, with that perhaps final dream sequence done, we are finally ready for the aftermath and the Volume finale.

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