From the moment Ruby Rose opened her eyes to reveal a shining silver, her fate was sealed. Her life would go something like this: If the only other known silver-eyed warrior in the world, her mother Summer Rose, were to fail, the burden of saving the world would fall onto Ruby's shoulders. She would become a Huntress whether she wanted to or not because once she saw her power, she couldn't just stand by and let people get hurt. She would join the fight against Salem. And she would lose.
That was the life Summer and Tai envisioned for their baby girl. And they couldn't let it happen. So Summer silently planned. She would have a few more years with her family and watch the kids grow. Then, she would go for Salem. And she would come back, the war won and the weight of the world lifted off of her youngest daughter's shoulders. She would not have to die in vain.
But, fate had other plans. Summer Rose did not return.
Ruby Rose was born to play her part in this game of a war. She was born to die a martyr.
Since she went to a school training children to become Huntsmen and Huntresses, Ruby knew the survival rate of her chosen profession. It wasn't the greatest. But that didn't stop her from choosing to protect people and help give them the happy endings they deserved. To give them the happy ending she wasn't all too sure she would be granted.
Her perspective changed after the Fall of Beacon. Penny and Pyrrha were dead. Her friends, both barely older than herself, were gone. Because of the life they had chosen. In Penny's case, because of the life she was made for.
Now, with the knowledge that her silver eyes were apparently a crucial piece in winning a centuries-old war she had only just been informed of, she felt like perhaps this was her fate too. She thought of her mother, of the legends of silver-eyed warriors that all ended in tragedy. She wondered when she would be added to the list. She dared to hope she would be the last.
But she kept a smile on her face. For her father and Qrow who had heard this song before. She prayed she wouldn't be yet another reprise.
When death came in the form of Salem herself, Ruby greeted it like an old friend. That is, a very estranged old friend who you dreaded seeing and was also your worst enemy and the world's greatest threat but greeted nonetheless, type of friend.
She stood strong and looked destiny in the eye. She looked death in the face and dared to breathe before it. She was strength, she was protection. She was life.
She was scared.
Gods, she was terrified.
She truly didn't want to die. But if it was what had to be done? She would do it so no one else had to.
They hardly ever talked about life after the war. They didn't dare to tempt fate even more than they already had with every day they woke up and fought another day.
But when they did, Ruby never joined in. The others would talk hypotheticals about getting a huge house together somewhere in the country, retirement, a normal life. Ruby never dared to dream she would make it that far.
When Ruby thought of death, she didn't think of it coming for her when she was old and gray. She didn't think it would be peaceful. Ruby planned to go out swinging. She knew it would be the only way this war would finally end, the only way her friends could get that life that they dreamed about. She knew she would die along with Salem. And she was okay with that.
It terrified her, yes. But it was what had to be done. Ruby had always been selfless, putting others' needs before her own and this would be the ultimate test of that.
She would fight until the end. That's what she had promised everyone. And after that? Well, the end had already come. Her story would be over.
Ruby would end at the beginning of the rest of her life.
If she could meet her younger self, the girl she left behind at Beacon, she would tell her this: Prepare yourself. Live while you can, cherish the moments you have with your team. Your family. Protect them. Your days are numbered, love. Make them count.
And most of all, she would tell her, "I'm sorry."
Early in the morning after the night they, sans a captured Oscar, had all reunited, Ruby left. She left at first light, when everyone else was still blissfully unaware in their sleep. She left behind a note.
The night before, they had all piled together in a tent in the slums, desperate to have each other close for just one night before the world ended. They had told each other they loved them again and again and clutched each other close and cried out of relief and regret. It felt like an ending. They all knew it. Ruby knew it. So she decided it would only be an ending for one of them.
She had placed herself on the edge of the cuddle pile so she could easily slip away in the morning without anyone noticing. She had barely slept, a combined result of nerves and the sheer desire to drink in her family's presence one more time.
By the time Weiss woke up and noticed the absence of Ruby's arm around her and frantically woke the others after finding the note, it was too late.
Ruby Rose had taken fate into her own hands. And she had decided that she was going to die.
So apparently, Salem had seen her coming. Maybe she was just like her mother in some ways. (But not the ways that mattered right now.)
She had sent her newest Grimm, the talking one that had taken Oscar, to bring Ruby to her when she came. And that he did. It was a brief, albeit brutal fight. One that left behind Crescent Rose in the snow, stained with her own blood.
Now, her only defense was her eyes. She was determined to work with that. Her original plan had been to sneak aboard the whale by riding on a Grimm, find Oscar and release him, and take down Salem. That plan was out the window, but as Qrow had drilled into her, adapt and overcome.
The Grimm took her directly to Salem, so there was no option to free Oscar first on her way to the immortal. She hoped Ozpin, if he had returned, would help him get out of the wreckage after she was done. She hoped he wouldn't try to find her in the aftermath.
The Grimm dropped her in front of the throne, Salem's amused gaze locked on her. Ruby lifted her head to look her in the eye. This, she knew, was the day she'd waited for. The thought that it would all be over soon comforted her. After this, she could finally rest.
So Ruby Rose looked Salem in the eyes. And laughed.
Salem's expression darkened and she extended a finger to lift Ruby's chin. She was looking for something. For what, Ruby didn't know. But she knew with utmost certainty that she would not find it. Salem saw her as a clone of Summer, but Ruby knew that she was a far cry from her mother. Salem would figure that out the hard way.
"Tell me, child. Why are you here to face the same demise as your mother? Why did you become a Huntress if you knew it would end like this?"
Salem's smooth, intimidating tone would've terrified a weaker woman. But Ruby was not weak, and she was no longer terrified. She was ready. She was ready to let go.
Ruby stood to her full height and stared death in the face for the last time. In the ultimate display of defiance, she smiled. She spoke the words she very well knew could be her last.
"If someone had asked that of me a year or so ago...my answer would've been very different." She thought of Oobleck asking her teammates, but not herself. Because to anyone who knew Ruby, the answer seemed obvious. She was a young girl filled with hope and passion for a better world despite the horrors she knew it contained. That was true, yes. But there was more.
"I became a Huntress to help people, yes. But Salem? Would you like to know the truth?" She stared up at her with that godsdamned grin, like she knew everything in the world that she didn't. For the first time since she had bled mortal blood, Salem was nervous. And perhaps she was scared of this child.
Without waiting for a response, Ruby answered. "You see, Salem. I wanted revenge."
With those words, Ruby's entire demeanor changed. Her smile vanished, her eyes narrowed, her muscles tensed. She was everything Salem had wanted to be. Power, strength, and despite her immortality...life.
"On whom?" Though the answer was clear, Salem still spoke the words. A formality, if you will.
"You."
With that single word, Ruby Rose let go of all the power she had been born with. She felt her eyes burning with a blinding silver light filling the room and beyond, her ears rang with her own screams and Salem's, her legs trembled but still stood.
A millennia-long war seemed to pass in an instant. Ruby's vision cleared. Salem was gone. As Ruby collapsed to the ground, she smiled. She smiled in the face of fate once more. For she had won so her family could live on in a world untouched by the gods, for she could see her mother and Pyrrha again.
She was sorry, yes. But she was happy.
So she let go.
They had followed the fading footsteps in the snow to a scene straight out of their nightmares. This scenario had all been buried deep in the back of their minds, unable to see the light of day until they lived it. They had all noticed Ruby getting more and more self-sacrificial, the way she held all of them a little tighter and told them she loved them more and more so there was no chance of them ever forgetting it when she wasn't there to tell them. But they had reasoned - she'll always be around us. We won't let that happen.
But it did.
Because right there in front of them, lay Crescent Rose, the blade buried in the ground. The snow was stained with blood. Before they could process this further, an unmistakable, blinding, agonizing silver light reached them. They heard faint screams. Then, when it all faded, silence.
Without a word, they ran. They ran, desperate to reach their friend in time, praying that she was alive. That she wouldn't have been born just to live like this. That if the war was truly just ended, they could live in the aftermath together.
She promised she would be there until the end.
Too late, they all realized, they had different definitions of where their story would end.
The day Ruby was born, Summer had rocked her newborn daughter in her arms and sang to her a lullaby.
"A new day is gone without a trace
All memories are dark and light is fading
We try so hard
But what are we fighting for?
We're losing all our strength, how can we give more?
Time falls away
Pain always finds a way to stay
The tears that you've shed
May find a tree to water
But only when you're stronger
I promise I'll be here until the end…"
Summer looked at her baby girl in the pale moonlight and wondered why it was that lullabies were all so dark. Perhaps it was because they needed to introduce children from the beginning to the dark world they lived in, to show them that despite it all there was still beauty to be found.
Summer gazed upon her youngest daughter's face, so innocent and unaware of all that was to come. She looked at Ruby and prayed she could make this world better so she could sing a happier lullaby. She prayed a mother's love would be enough.
"I promise I'll be here until the end."