As a bit of a reminder, this chapter is going to be written in Ruby's PoV. It wouldn't be hard for me to do it from Jaune's if I wanted, but I think it's better to see it from hers in this case.

Argh, I accidentally slipped into third person halfway through this and had to go through it all again to fix it. That's the danger of writing all your other stories in third person I suppose. All in all, I've enjoyed having one in first person and feel like I've improved from the first few chapters.


Beta: College Fool

Cover Art: Dishwasher1910

Book 9: Chapter 22


The world moved in slow motion.

That didn't stop it being a terrifying place.

Grimm, war, Salem, the names changed but it was always the same – always anger and fear and crushing relief that we'd all come out alive, replaced moments later with fresh panic when the new crisis came along.

Being a Hero is nothing like you said it'd be, mom.

Heh…

Maybe she'd been trying to make it sound better for our sake; trying to stop Yang and me from worrying whenever she went off on another Quest. I'd never realised just how close they all came to killing us all and how the same would have been true for her.

Did I blame her for dying?

No. Yes. Maybe.

No.

It was a swirl of raw emotion as ever, a hurricane of memories, love, grief and the anger that came of it – the pathetic attempts to deflect the pain by blaming someone else for the loss of a person you loved more than anything else in the world. Really, I wasn't sure why my thoughts came back to her as I charged the line of Grimm. Was this what it meant for life to flash before one's eyes? Was I afraid?

Yes. Yes, I was terrified.

How did the others do it? How did they put aside all this doubt and terror and fight? It didn't matter that I could do it as well – I knew how I managed; I didn't. I fought with my heart in my throat the entire time, always on the verge of screaming at the top of my lungs and curling up into a ball. I was a coward.

Jaune had his Resilience to help him. Was that cheating? I didn't know. It felt like cheating, yet he was a Blacksmith by birth so compared to him, the rest of us were cheating by being Heroes. I guess that was why I was drawn to him. Because, like me, he had a Class that held him back, and because he pushed through regardless in a way that I hoped I could do. He stood as an example of what was possible and how anyone could be a Hero.

Even a weakling like me.

Heh. He'd call me an idiot if he heard me think things like that…

Maybe I was an idiot. My echoing footsteps were bringing her closer and closer. The Grimm moved so slowly, snarling in long and ominous motions and pawing at the ground like they were swimming through oil. I'd crossed several feet in the time it took for one of them to lower its haunches down, then another six or so before its hind legs bunched, more before it leapt forward. So slow. The whole world was slow. Or I was fast. Too fast.

I hated my Class.

At least if I'd been a Farmer, I could have Stats that made sense. I could do like Jaune was and push through and have Strength, Constitution and Resilience to use. Not just Agility, Agility and more Agility. If they hit me, I'd die. If I tripped at speed, I'd die. If I got distracted and ran into someone at full speed, I'd die.

That was kinda scary…

The ground beneath my feet rumbled.

Jaune.

It had to be.

If it wasn't and if I was wrong, I was running unarmed into Salem's grasp so… yeah, it better be Jaune. I didn't want to die. Not yet. Not without making something of my life. Not without achieving something. That was why… That was why I couldn't die.

Why Salem had to die.

Ten feet to the Grimm. It landed on its foreclaws and reared up.

Eight feet. Its red eyes tracked her as best it could, struggling with her speed.

Six feet. It knew she was coming right for it. Rearing back, it brought one clawed paw on high, ready to slice down and crush her.

Four feet. The dried dirt beneath its feet splintered.

Reality crashed back down. Time sped up.

Rock and dirt parted as the thick silver root exploded from the ground, slamming the Beowolf away and arching up into the air. My foot hit the base without pause and took me up it and over the front line of shocked Grimm, above running along a root that continued to grow before me, creating a path of pure silver toward the centre of the formation.

Salem recoiled, stepped back and then thrust out a hand towards me.

The root dipped down suddenly, completing its arch and dodging the attack by only a few feet. I followed it, stamping both boots down and sliding down the steep incline toward the Grimm – or toward the open space that was created when the root smashed down, eviscerating anything in its path and throwing the others back. It dug back down into the soil.

My boots struck dirt. Knees flexed. I leapt forward, under the arms of stunned Grimm recoiling from the sudden attack. The front line now behind me, confused and only just beginning to turn. There were many more ahead of me.

Ducking under the claw of the first and pushing past, I side-stepped a second and waved around a third, gasping as my free space was cut off and the Grimm closed in. I'd soon be out of space to manoeuvre.

A fresh root – or the first, I wasn't sure – erupted off to my left and cut across in front of me, bowling Grimm out the way and killing any unfortunate enough to get in its path. Fresh rumbling behind told of another and I chased after it, hopping over the head as it burst from the ground and weaved forward, then ducking and sliding under it, catching an arm on a branch underneath to flip myself up and on top, surfing the root down into six more Grimm that tried to get in my way and died.

Something dark flickered on the edge of my vision. I dropped and swung, sweeping underneath the root as a blast of pure energy sailed through the space I'd occupied. Tucking in so as not to hit my head and instantly break every bone in my body, I continued my spin until I was back up on top, then jumped off as the root dug back into the ground again. A veritable garden of silver roots was building behind me, entangling and slowing the Grimm's pursuit.

"I need a weapon!" I yelled, unsure if Jaune could hear me. He knew; I trusted him to. All I had to do was keep moving forward and trust in there being an answer. It wouldn't be the first time I'd run into danger without a scythe.

I hadn't stopped while I spoke and dashed past more Grimm, leaving their startled bodies behind to be engulfed by the Ironwood. Salem sent two more attacks hurtling my way, but the distance was too great, the time for me to dodge far too generous. Weaving between them and still having the time to duck and slide under a root that shot up before me, cutting down three Grimm and leaving me the tiniest room to slide underneath, I kept moving. Kept the momentum going. Even when the Grimm bunched up in thick walls of meat and gristle, I ran straight at them.

Jaune's roots forged a path, punching through their lines and giving me a direct route. I jumped off the chest of a dying Ursa and used it as a springboard to get up into the air, catching a growing root by the tip and riding it on, hanging on the precipice of death until the very last second when I jumped off, leaving it to crash down and obliterate anything in its path while I landed in a roll, kicked off and kept going.

I could see Salem now, see her past the Grimm that were thinning out. Her face was locked in a rictus of purest fury. Her wings were beginning to beat, her intent clear. If she took off again, there'd be no hope of getting hold of her. Salem would fly far away and summon her army anew, and this time she wouldn't come anywhere near the city.

I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die.

So… that only left one thing…

Salem had to die.

Heart racing, eyes wide and white, teeth gritted and with absolute terror rushing through her, I charged through the final Grimm and mounted the Ironwood root leading directly to Salem. Mouth open in a scream I couldn't hear, my eyes caught the briefest glimpse of something manifesting in front of me, of something growing up slowly from the Ironwood. A thin branch reaching high with a curved tip.

A scythe.

My fingers snagged the haft as she went, ripping the rough scythe up off the root and swinging it behind me.

Salem swept away on her huge wings, leaving me to shout out in anger and crash down below. The Grimm waiting – some horrific cross of a Boarbatusk and an insect – raised its mandibles up to catch and rip me in two. Eyes burning with tears and power, I brought it down with all my anger, silver flashing as I tapped into one of my Skills.

"Cutting the Wheat!"

A red circle expanded out from the point of impact, slicing through the bodies of Grimm in a radius of several metres. The move which I still wasn't sure if it indicated me as a Hero or particularly efficient Farmer, wrought a terrible toll on any it touched, lopping their legs off. The scythe shattered at the same time, drifting away on the wind as at least fifty Grimm screamed out and died.

"Close, little Reaper, but close does not cut it." Salem brought her hand up and summoned several orbs in the air around her.

I looked up through a face smeared with blood and dust and smiled.

"What re you-?"

Salem turned in the air, ether hearing or sensing the danger a second before Jaune's root completed its circuitous journey and slammed into Salem, swatting her out the sky. The Goddess crashed down in an explosion of dust.

Bitch, I thought uncharitably. That's what you get.

A second blast cleared it, Salem standing and stretching her wings with a furious snarl, snapping a hand back to obliterate the root before it could stamp down on her. The Ironwood peeled back under her power, shattering much like her scythe.

Even as it did, more rose up from the ground, punching up with loud, grating noises to form trees all around the battlefield, tall and wide, splitting rock and pushing Grimm aside. Oaks, I thought distractedly. They weren't, of course. They were Ironwood trees, but they were forming in a shape and style of tree Jaune was familiar with. Their branches interlocked above and around them, forming a small forest around their position.

"Pointless displays of power from a peon who knows not when to die." Salem snorted and flicked her wings out. "He was one mine, you know. He made a wish on me and like so many others he would have died from it."

"He did die," I said. "He died and came back. Came back to kill you!"

"And this is how he'll do it?" Salem shot a spell at the closest tree and tore a great hole through its base. It toppled under its own weight, coming down toward the Goddess who snorted once and slapped her hand to the side, catching the entire tree of solid metal and deflecting it with one hand.

It crashed down off to the side. I swallowed at the raw display of Strength.

No, it didn't matter. My Constitution was so low that even Yang's Strength might as well be that of a giant compared to me. It didn't matter how much Salem had, only that she couldn't catch me. Funnily enough, thinking how her high Strength didn't matter because I was weak didn't help me feel better.

"I am unimpressed. And you, my dear, are surrounded."

Growls and snarls echoed from the trees, Grimm coming between the trunks and pacing their way forward. Salem flapped her wings and floated back up, creating space for a huge and hulking horse-like Grimm with a rider on its back to clip-clop forward.

I took a step back.

A bell tolled in the distance.

Vale…?

A whistling sounded in my ears a second before I hit the floor, hands over my head. Arrows rained down, thudding into the Nucklelavee and all the other Grimm. The thunk-thunk continued, occasionally split with a clink of an arrow hitting a metal tree and deflecting off. I huddled into a ball and wondered how I hadn't been hit as even spells came, exploding all around me and hurling Grimm from their feet.

Hot fire and cold ice washed over me, burning and freezing my skin. Wind howled and lightning crackled. Grimm roared and through it all, Salem screamed in a mix of fury and pain.

I cracked one eye open. The first thing I saw was the shade all around me, which I quickly realised was a solid sheet of Ironwood that had grown over and shielded my body, providing the cover that kept me safe. The next thing I saw was the grass.

No, not grass. The grass outside Vale had been burned away and turned into a charnel of mud and ash by all the spells. The stalks that stuck up from the ground were all wooden, their metal tips buried in the soil and disappearing Grimm. Arrow shafts peppered the ground all around me, apart from patches where spells had burned them away.

I'm not alone, I thought, crawling out into the open.

Everyone was fighting. Everyone was watching. Everyone was doing their part and pinning their hopes on me to make a miracle happen. As Salem brought her wings back, peppered with arrows and burned from spellfire, I knew I'd have to make it soon.

Salem had to be getting worn down. She'd been hit by so many attacks now – both in the Guild Village and here – that she had to be injured. Just a little more. Just enough that I could do something about it.

Something tickled my shoulder. A haft poked out from the Ironwood that had covered me. Without looking, I took it, ripping the scythe free from the wood and holding it in my hands. It felt like a lifetime ago when Jaune made Crescent Rose for me. I still missed it, my first baby and a sign that someone like Jaune, who at the time I'd thought a Knight, considered me a proper Hero. The fact he turned out not to be didn't change anything. He was a Hero to me; he'd saved my life, helped end the war and defeated Cinder in single combat. That was enough for me.

Salem was distracted. Facing away from me and casting huge balls of black light toward the city walls where the attacks had come from, she floated in the air. Those wings were a problem. I licked my lips and darted forward, kicking arrow shafts out the way as I sprinted not for her but for the tree closest to her.

"Fire!"

The spell rocketed away from her with a sharp bang, shooting toward the walls.

I hit the tree and sprinted up it, defying gravity for a moment and turning my horizontal momentum into vertical, running as high as I could.

An explosion in the distance drew a laugh from Salem.

"Let that be a lesson to you."

Gravity tugged at me. With my final step, I pushed and kicked off the tree, spinning in the air and hurtling toward Salem, scythe drawn back. The flap of my cloak warned her, rustling and flapping in the wind.

"Again?" Salem asked, turning lazily in the air and watching my approach. Her wings spread out and buffeted her back, taking her out of reach. "Haven't you seen already that-"

Salem backed into a branch.

A branch that hadn't been there two seconds ago, that had sprung to life and cut across the space between one Ironwood tree and the next while she'd turned to deal with me. A branch that cut off her escape even as Salem looked back in shock and anger, even as she reached back with one hand to rip it away.

Those nanoseconds were all I needed.

Salem stabbed a hand out and cast another attack.

The scythe swung through it, the Seal Rune on the blade glowing as it absorbed the attack. The blade carried through, my body flipping in the air as I intentionally took the blade away from her extended hand and beyond, cutting down into the meat of her left wing, severing it close to the base. The weapon shattered on impact again and I travelled through and past, catching myself with one hand on the branch behind.

Salem screamed and dropped, one wing flapping and flailing uselessly as she crashed down to the forest floor, leaving me up above, perched on a metallic bough. It grew under me, supporting my weight while also sprouting a new scythe in a matter of seconds. I took it and pulled it free with a little snap, whispering a quiet thanks to the open air.

The forest hadn't been an attack as Salem thought. It had just been to limit her manoeuvrability in the air. In that regard, it worked perfectly.

And now I have more than her.

Which was fortunate because black light blinked below. I dashed along the bough and jumped, vacating my spot a second before a beam of black punched up, destroying it and cutting a whole in the canopy above.

Landing in a roll, I skidded down to the trunk and jumped for another, hearing the tree fall behind me, severed at the base. The new one I was in suffered the same fate and began to fall, tipping sideways and nearly spilling me out. I was able to ride it down thanks to my Agility and jump out, catch a branch on my scythe and swing up.

Another spell punched through the air behind me, chasing me as I jumped from branch to branch, circling the still cloudy spot Salem occupied, from which beams and orbs of black light would constantly shoot forth. Trees were cut own all around me, some falling even as I jumped onto them and kicked off to reach another.

Not being able to hit your prey because they were fast and in the air sucked. It was good that Salem got to experience it for a change!

"You pest. Come and face me!"

The bell of Vale tolled.

"Not again…"

I took the chance to slip behind a tree for cover and catch my breath as arrows and spells rained down for a second time, now on a Salem who couldn't stay in the air to dodge. I could hear her casting spells at the oncoming attacks and probably smashing them aside, but arrows continued to thud down so she couldn't have blocked them all.

The barrage continued, overwhelming Salem's defence and bathing her body in fire, ice and every other element under the sun. The Ironwood tree provided me cover but even then, flames licked left and right of me, burning away until the tree was toasty warm.

When it dissipated, I peeked around the corner.

Salem's arms and shoulders had arrows in them. Her hair was blackened, and her white face smudged with dirt and, unless I saw wrong, blood. It definitely wasn't mine. Had they managed to wound her? She had her hand out, another spell aimed at the walls of Vale.

I blurred forward.

The spell was cast and shot away the second I rose up behind her. Salem's second wing made too tempting a target and erupted in a shower of blood as I lopped it off. She screamed and sliced an arm back that I slid under, knees scraping along the floor until I was on her other side, our eyes meeting for a brief moment before I sped back into the trees and out of sight.

This was what it was meant to be like in the city. In and out of cover, using my speed to ambush her. I circled around as a spell tore three trees down in the direction I'd been. They crashed and fell behind me, then more coming closer as Salem turned a full ninety-degrees, slicing through tree trunks with an elongated black sword of pure magic.

"Do you think this changes anything?" she roared. "Take my wings. I can re-grow them. Take my army, I will summon it anew. You can't kill me, Reaper. I'll bring this whole forest down on your head!"

Judging from the sound of crashing trees and spells, that was certainly her plan – and not a bad one. Jaune had bought me an arena in which I could excel, and Salem knew it. She turned and continued to rip the Ironwood trees down, slicing through ten or more at a time and clearing a huge swathe, creating an area of open space wide enough for her to see any approach I made.

A root punched up behind her and tried to stop her by crushing her against the floor. Salem caught it with her one hand, wrestled against and twisted it to the side.

"You can stop your meddling as well! Your efforts are worthless. That's all they've ever been. You bray at destiny as though it can be changed. Well guess what – it can't. You were born a nobody and you shall die a nobody!"

"That's where you're wrong."

Ruby's eyes bulged as Jaune – the real Jaune – ducked out from behind the last root he'd used, the one Salem was still fighting with, and swept in under her guard. He'd thrown aside his armour and left himself in nothing but a tunic and his jerkins, a silvery amulet bouncing on his chest.

Salem gasped and tried to move back, only to falter as the Ironwood root pushed down on her.

Jaune dropped under her guard and fell to one knee, sweeping his silver blade at the monster's stomach like a hero from legend. The blade caught black cloth and ripped through, cutting through skin with an audible slice of a cleaver through meat.

Salem shrieked in fury and brought her knee up, snapping the blade with one well-placed strike and tossing the Ironwood root to the side. Now free, she pushed a hand against Jaune's chest and sent him flying back with a point-blank spell. Jaune crashed into a tree and slumped to its base with a pained moan.

"No," I gasped, unable to help without a scythe and now with Jaune, the source of my weaponry, out for the count. "Get up, Jaune. Get up!"

"Damn you." Salem gripped her stomach, blood oozing between her fingers. "Damn you a thousand times, Jaune Arc. And damn you for a fool as well. Coming out here in person when you couldn't hope to make a difference."

"I think… ah…" Jaune slapped a hand on the nearest tree and smiled through bloodstained teeth. "I think I've made enough of a difference already."

Ironwood roots grew up around the fallen trees, forming a web of thick metallic vines several feet thick around them all. The forest came back to life, reaching up tall as branches bristled with silver leaves that rustled in the wind. In the distance, I could hear the bell of Vale tolling and the stampede of hooves and feet, the Heroes sallying out to reinforce us and finish this once and for all. And with Salem so injured, they might just do it.

Except that Jaune would die.

He dragged himself into a standing position as Salem approached, a bloody trail from prior or new injuries left on the tree behind him. One hand was flat against the tree, commanding the forest to grow but his other was gripping tightly to the misshapen amulet he wore around his neck, one he and Blake shared.

"How do you figure that?" Salem asked. "I hear your people coming. They won't make a difference here. I can use this forest you created to escape, and I'll make them rue your name when I come to slaughter them all. So, tell me, Jaune, what have you achieved in this life of yours?" She planted her hands on her hips and smiled cockily. "What have you truly achieved with the wish I granted you so long ago?"

"You're right that I owe everything I am to you," Jaune said weakly. "I'd have never got into Beacon without you and I'd have never met the people I did, gone on Quests or grown strong. Without you, I'd have died when Ansel was taken by Mistral's army. All of Vale might have fallen and I'd be dead without ever having a chance to explore my goals." He laughed. "So yes, I do owe it all to you. And I learned a lot from you as well." His eyes blazed. "Including how to kill you!"

His fist opened. The pendant dangled down on its chain, glowing faintly with untold power that had been absorbed when Salem attacked him; when she reacted instinctively to his ambush with her most powerful attack at point-blank range. Jaune slammed it and his hand against the tree, pushing the metal inside. The tree swallowed it like liquid, absorbing it into its trunk. The tree. All the trees – all the vines – pulsed with Salem's power.

"So thank you, Salem! Thank you for teaching me Runes. For trying to kill me time and time again and making me strong enough to use them, for pushing me deeper and deeper into the craft so I could do this!"

Jaune's eyes shone bright blue. Visible lines of azure raced out from his palms, sketching up the trees in every direction, like veins or even roots. The Ironwood shimmered and morphed, its bark twisting and reshaping before my eyes.

"Nice speech, Arc. It won't matter. Die now!"

Salem brought her hand down and sent an orb of black punching into Jaune's stomach. Unprotected, it took him up and through the metal tree, crashing down on the other side and dropping an entire Ironwood tree on him.

Too late. It was far too late. I screamed in rage and tore from the trees, scythe in hand.

"You again? Where are you finding these things!?"

Salem turned, almost dodging the attack but not quite. My blade tore through a chunk of her left shoulder, chipping away more of her body. Enough of it. Silver burst from my eyes as my Passive took hold.

Fell Harvest: May use Agility in place of Strength when target ready to harvest

No one had known those exact words, not even my own father. I'd known deep inside that if they heard the word `harvest` then they'd know what I really was, a glorified Farmer. I'd hidden it and lied to those who trusted me most. Hah. No wonder I'd found it so easy to forgive Jaune for doing the same.

One thing I'd figured out, though, was that the word `crops` wasn't in my Passive. Target. When the target was ready to harvest. Harvest being the end of one's lifespan in plant terms. Most crops would die whether they were harvested or not, spreading their seeds before they did. I wasn't sure if that translated to low health or not, but I'd known since the first Grimm in that Dungeon that mine did. Salem was weak at last.

"Time to collect the harvest…"

"You and with what?" Salem laughed. "Your source of weapons is dead."

That was something I wouldn't believe until I could confirm it myself, but it didn't matter. With a wide smile, I pointed up and behind Salem, up toward the twisting vines and Ironwood trees that had sprung up around us in Jaune's last act of defiance.

Dotted across their bark, hanging from branches and springing horizontally out from trunks, were hundreds upon hundreds of scythes, all of them glowing with the power of the spell Salem had used on him. All of them ready to be plucked free and used. Some were even falling as leave, fluttering down from above; a rain of scythes hurtling toward our position. To anyone else, they would have been coming at speed. To me, it was as gentle as winter snow.

"No." Salem stepped back. "Impossible."

"Not impossible. Inevitable. You pushed us too hard, and humans aren't like metal. We don't break under pressure." My knees bunched as I ducked low and fixed my eyes on a scythe drifting down. "We adapt!"

I kicked off in a blur of red, hurtling toward the scythe and snatching it out the air, twisting as I went to avoid an attack from the Goddess that burned away at the tip of my cloak. Completing the spin, I lashed out toward her only to find the scythe parried by a black blade summoned from nowhere. It shattered on impact and Salem snarled her victory.

My body flickered and vanished before her.

"What!?"

Behind, land, kick back and attack – snatch a scythe from a root as I go. I charged in for her back and swung, catching her blade again as she spun. This time, the force knocked her back a pace, red eyes growing wide at the sudden surge in my Strength that was enough to overwhelm hers for a moment.

And then I was gone, sprinting to the next tree, scaling it as explosions ripped the bark below me asunder, grabbing a scythe that was growing out of it halfway and flipping off as the tree fell. Another attack came and I tossed the scythe into it, cancelling the attack while also obliterating the scythe.

It didn't matter as there were hundreds more, one of which I caught in each hand as I landed. One was sent spinning at her, forcing Salem to deflect the throw, but the second I swung myself, blurring in under her guard while her sword was parrying the other.

"This is for Ozpin!"

The scythe ripped through fabric and skin. It shattered before it could get deeper, but the damage was done and Salem reeled back, shrieking at the top of her voice. Her sword came down, splitting the ground in front of her.

I was already behind, a new scythe caught out the air. "And this is for Ironwood!"

A ferocious wound opened on her back. Salem arched and trembled, swinging back in a slash that would have cut me in two if it connected. Her eyes bulged as she caught sight of me ducking underneath, grinning brightly with a new scythe in hand.

I swept up for her over-extended arm, right at the elbow. "This is for Cinder!"

The arm flew up, severed. Salem screeched and brought her other around, hand already missing but a blade of black light piercing through the spot where it would have been. It stabbed down where I'd been, piercing deep. My feet hit a falling tree and bounced off it, new weapon in hand and rushing in for her right side.

"This is for Uncle Qrow!"

Salem's left foot flew away, dropping her to one knee. She swiped her one good arm around, casting a circular ring of black light that cut through every tree surrounding us. They all fell, some sideways, others back. I rode one down, using my Agility to beat the speed at which the tree itself was falling, racing down it and snatching two scythes at once. One, I threw up into the air. The other came in for her again.

"This is for the people of the Mirage Isles!"

The blade cut through her hand as she tried to cast another spell.

I caught the scythe I'd thrown before as it came back down, pivoted on one heel and swept it up into the elbow, cutting off another chunk of her. "And this is for all the people in Vale who died because of you!"

A backflip away had me bracing my feet against another falling trunk, kicking off to snatch another scythe out the air, flip off a second tree and hurtle back in. "This," I roared, aiming for the middle of Salem's back. "Is for my mom!"

The scythe's blade punched out Salem's stomach, spilling blood and gore onto the grass. Salem gasped and fell to her knees, eyes wide and her stump arms reaching for her guts in a futile effort to stem the bleeding.

My feet touched down, hand snatching a final scythe out the air, which I held against her neck and under her chin from behind, eyes burning with silver light and tears, hands shaking. The blade tickled the Goddess' throat.

"And this-" I whispered.

Salem's eyes met mine. "I can achieve anything. I can bring your mother back. Everyone you've ever loved back. Kill me and that path is forever closed to you."

I clenched my eyes shut, gritting my teeth against the thought of Summer and Qrow smiling at me again. Before the thought could take me, I pulled hard. Flesh gave way. The scythe shattered. My Passive cut out, eyes returning to normal, bloodstained and flowing with tears. Salem's head thudded to the floor and rolled away.

"This is for me..."


Oof.

I guess this is an "Omnislash" moment from Final Fantasy if anyone wants an idea of what it might look like. Ruby being the badass at the end, and yep, that's the final details of the Reaper Class. Lo and behold, Jaune wasn't the only one pulling a Labour Caste revolution. Ruby mostly knew which she was but always clung to the one per cent chance she might be wrong, even if she realistically knew she wasn't.

And then Jaune showed her it didn't matter at all.


Next Chapter: 25th November

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