A/N: July 5th, 2020: And here we are at the end. It's finally done! I hope you all enjoyed this fic.
A longer author's note is at the end of the epilogue. Enjoy the end of What We Call Home!
What We Call Home
Epilogue
The battle against the Leviathan felt like naught more than a dream. How in the world a Leviathan Grimm of all things- a monster so legendary that people had thought them to be more folklore than anything- had managed to turn up at the eleventh hour to throw a wrench in their plans remained to be seen, but Nora didn't mind.
All that mattered was that Argus was safe. Their guardians were safe. Saphron and Terra was safe.
Ren, and all their friends, were safe.
The very fact that Cordovin had allowed them to escape at the end of it all was a miracle in and of itself. Well, I'm not gonna argue with her, Nora thought wryly, leaning her head back against the wall of the transport carrier. It was almost like a miracle, to have Ruby telling them that Cordovin was letting them go as thanks for standing up for Argus. I'm exhausted. No need to pick a fight with that crabby old coot ever again.
The trip to Solitas was a long, empty one. There was little to see other than a vast expanse of ocean outside of the window. Nora contented herself with leaning upon Jaune's shoulder and listening to Team RWBY's banter, the girls quietly unpacking everything that had happened while they were apart over the past few hours. Every once in a while, she allowed her eyes to drift over to Jaune- his jade earring was right by her face, his fingers clutching onto his necklace. Yet, his face was serene; not a hint of grief rang in his eyes.
He was going to be okay.
Turning her focus back to Team RWBY, Nora's heart crumbled when Weiss finally asked the question that had been on their minds since the start of their operation. "What happened, Blake? Why weren't you able to cut off the communication tower?"
Blake's ears flattened against her head, eyes falling to her lap. She was shivering, her coat having been lost in the fray, leaving her only in a short cropped sleeveless shirt. Yang smiled encouragingly, leaning against her while Blake gathered up the courage to speak.
Finally, the Faunus girl murmured, "Adam Taurus was there."
Nora softened, waiting for the girl to continue.
Blake whispered, "He… he followed me to Argus, all the way from Mistral. After Haven, he didn't give up. I thought maybe he'd try and fight the White Fang, or join Salem, but…" She shuddered, eyes growing misty. "He followed me and hunted me down, and the moment I was alone… he attacked."
"Blake…" Ruby whispered, silvery eyes teary. "What… where is he?"
Yang smiled, flashing everyone a weary thumbs-up. "We took care of him," she said, a cheerful affectation to her voice. It was hollow, but she was trying, at least.
However, there was a shadow in Blake's eyes that Nora could recognize; a fear, a shadow hanging over her. Trauma. Nora knew it all too well, her own visage staring back at her from barely a few weeks earlier. "Give it time," she said softly to Blake.
The other girl perked up, staring at her in confusion.
Nora added, "You did it, but it… won't feel real for now. You have to give it time. You're free now."
The amount of warmth which flooded Blake's face could have heated the entire cabin of the ship.
Weiss said, "I'm sorry you went through that nightmare." She frowned, fidgeting with her puffy skirt. "But, I'm glad Yang was there for you in time."
To everyone's surprise, Yang took Blake's hand within hers, smiling softer than Nora had ever seen. It wasn't the same smile that Yang reserved for Ruby- it was something else. Nora stopped short when she realized that Yang's expression mirrored her own when she looked at Ren. Oh… are they… together… together?
Yang said simply, "We were there for each other."
Oh my god, they are. "Took the words right out of my mouth," Nora sang sweetly, biting back her questions. She could bother them later to figure out what was going on between the two girls.
As her words died away in the ship, however, everyone's gazes seemed to naturally fall upon Ruby, the girl standing right behind the pilots' seat. She noticed the awed looks and immediately spluttered, "H-hey, stop it!"
Ren stated incredulously, "You petrified a Leviathan... after diving down the barrel of a cannon!"
Ruby laughed, trying to brush if off as if it weren't anything out of the ordinary. "Don't act like you all haven't done crazy stuff before!" she attempted, pointing suddenly at Oscar. "I mean, Oscar made a successful crash landing! He's a fourteen-year-old farm hand!"
Jaune admitted, "That was seriously impressive."
"We'd have been stranded without you," Blake added.
Oscar blushed, but his smile was bitter. "I- thanks, but… I've been meaning to tell you guys." Guilt shone in his pale eyes. "I didn't land the ship on my own."
Nora's eyes widened, the implication of his words clear. "Ozpin took control?!"
Oscar shook his head, fiddling with his gloves sheepishly. "No, he guided me," he supplied. "And then he was gone again."
"Does that mean he's been watching us this whole time?" Yang scowled, her tone matching everyone's confused, uncomfortable expressions.
"I don't know," the younger boy said quietly, brow furrowed in though. "But... it at least means he was looking out for us."
Nora hummed. Was Ozpin's 'care' enough? She didn't know.
But… does it really matter? We have a mission, and we'll see it through, with or without him. That much was certain.
Before she could dwell too long upon it, Qrow leaned back to look over the shoulder of his co-pilot's chair. "Hey, if you've never seen Atlas in person before, you don't wanna miss this," he said gently.
For a moment, Nora hesitated. They were already at Mantle? But how?
Her head rushed with memories; memories of wandering Mistral, of being lost in Anima, of suffering for being something that didn't belong in those forests- for being something that should have been in Solitas. According to the world, she was meant to be from Solitas. All of her life, she had wondered whether she was meant to one day find herself at Atlas' door; and now, she was here.
What if she didn't like it?
Or… what if she did?
Ruby's excited gasp piqued her interest, an excited, innocent squeal in the girl's voice as she gushed over the view. That rating was enough for Nora to shove her fears aside for the moment and leap to her feet, pressing her face against the side window of the ship. "Wow!" she breathed.
The view outside of their ship was absolutely breathtaking. In a field of ice and snow, so far-reaching past the coast that it looked like it could cover the entire world, there lay one bright, fiery-red town, glowing orange and red through heating coils. The burning glow was surrounded by the lights of a dark, gritty city.
Nora bit back a smile. The city of Mantle looked like embers in a hearth. We made it, Kalian, Howl, Caelus. We did it.
At the center of the settlement was what looked to be a giant chain connecting the heart of the city to a floating island gently swaying in the sky, an entirely different style of architecture clear even from a distance atop the floating landmass. The peak of the island was a beautiful structure, so elegant that only one name came to mind: Atlas Academy.
The ship jolted and she bumped her nose into the window hard, wincing from the pain. The image outside remained, though, and the reality finally sank in.
They had made it to Solitas. And just like that, her worries came crashing back into full view.
She felt Ren's touch coming before he even made contact, revelling in the wash of calm that soothed her fluttering heartbeat from the bare traces of his Semblance. "Are you sure you're okay to use your Semblance?" she murmured, keeping her eyes locked outside upon the spectacular sight before them.
"I've had the whole flight to rest," Ren teased lowly. "I think I'll be fine." Still, his fatigue was clear in his tone. Nora smiled, reaching up and grabbing his hand, interlocking their fingers as he added, "Something's worrying you."
She shrugged. "I guess… people always assume I'm from Mantle," she breathed. "What if that's true? What if I find people who actually… y'know, look like me?"
Ren was quiet for a long moment- so long that Nora actually feared for a moment he had fallen asleep on his feet- but quickly, he replied, "If after our mission is done, and you find a place where you want to settle down here, then do it."
Nora's heart froze solid. "Oh," she breathed.
She felt another wave of calm wash over her. "What is it?" he asked.
"If I did stay here- and this is all just a big fat 'if'- where would you go?"
Ren finally stepped up to the window, looking at her in confusion. "Um… I… I wouldn't plan on going anywhere."
"But what about Mistral?"
His cheeks flushed pink, voice barely a whisper. "What's the point of going back to Mistral without you?"
Oh, Ren. "Y'know," she murmured, leaning against his shoulder as she took in the sparkling lights of Atlas, "We've been family for a long time, huh?"
"Always," he agreed.
She rolled her eyes, looking up into his face. Over his shoulder, she could see Oscar and Jaune talking quietly with the RWBY girls at the front of the ship. Slyly, she turned to face him fully and hooked her arms around Ren's neck, relishing in his immediate flush. "So… when did I start to fall for you?" she wondered aloud.
If Ren could have combusted on the spot, he would have.
She shrugged, brushing his mussed hair out of his eyes. "Oh well. I guess we'll just have to figure it out one day at a time, huh?"
His flush lessened, smile softening. "As usual," he sighed.
She scoffed. "When have we ever needed a concrete path?"
The quirk of his lips told her that he agreed with the sentiment.
So, she pressed her forehead against his collar and looked out of the window, basking in the breathtaking view; in the sound of her friends laughing; in the feel of Ren by her side. They had made it to Atlas. No matter what happened in Solitas, it would be alright as long as they stuck together. It would be alright.
After a moment, she whispered, "I'm sorry I left the dress back in Saphron's place."
"We can always get you another one."
"Yeah?"
Magenta eyes sparkled joyfully as they looked down at her own pale blue ones, adoration oozing from every pore. "Yeah."
We did it, Pyrrha. Our boys are here. We're all here. Grinning toothily, Nora reached up and tapped him on the nose. I love you, Lie Ren. "Boop," she whispered.
And to her surprise, while her friends were all distracted by the views of Solitas, Ren rolled his eyes and bundled her up in his arms and kissed her; and Nora knew that against his lips, she was home.
-end of volume 6-
-fin-
A/N: And y'all know how it apparently goes from there. I think it's kind of fitting that I finished a degree right when I finished LoA and now that I'm finishing WWCH, I'm finishing yet another degree haha- that higher education game is going strong.
I will openly admit that I like very little about V7, and am personally disregarding a ton of what happened during that volume. V4 and 5's storyboarding, fight scenes, pacing and narrative arcs weren't great, but I felt the narrative beats were at least believable and could be saved with a rewrite. That being said, I don't think that I will be doing a V7 rewrite- although, in the future and based on what they try to pull off in V8-10, who knows? Maybe I'll do another rewrite of the final volumes of RWBY to make it a whole trilogy. I'd just pick another character to write for and finish off the series. Wouldn't that be something?
With that being said, thank you all for reading this fic! It definitely was nowhere near as popular as Laws of Attraction, but I personally think this fic was better by a mile simply due to time and practice. The ending feels satisfying in a very different way to LoA; whilst Pyrrha's story came to its canon, finite conclusion, Nora and Ren are still developing characters in canon, and the difference in narrative arcs is clear in that. There was so much more room for headcanon and just pure nonsense in this fic, which I love. Nora's POV is quite fun to write, after all.
I also find it fascinating that I came into this fic thinking it was going to be solely about grieving, and have left this fic having written a novel about trauma and recovery. I'm happy with that little twist.
I will still be adding short stories and oneshots to this series, so keep an eye out for those in my oneshot collection Moments in Time! There are so many other scenes which I would love to explore in this universe.
Whether you're finishing this right when I post this chapter, rereading this fic later, or reading for the first time long after it was completed, I hope you enjoyed this fic. It was certainly a clumsy lil' labour of love. Leave a comment and let me know what you think!
See you around in my other works (I have so many RWBY fics), and as always, cheers for reading!