A.N. Yup, this is finally the end of the story. Nothing more after this.
Chapter 100 - The End
~1 year later~
Cinder watched as Emerald walked towards the center of the Arena to face off against Pyrrha Nikos. The Vale Vytal Festival was in full bloom, and everyone was cheering for the final contestants of the tournament.
Next to her, Metis was petting a black raven perched on one of her fingers. The raven preened under the little girl's care, even as Raven glared at it from where she stood behind her.
"Can you not bring your pet everywhere you go?"
"No! Mr. BlackBird needs his preening."
Cinder ignored the two and started another conversation to distract them.
"Salem's been getting more and more restless with Ozpin finally going on the attack. She's becoming more hysterical as well."
"Hmph. I still can't believe we're still working for her. You'd think she'd notice that it's our fault that she's lost her immortality."
"And without that safeguard, she's finally feeling the sense of dread like the rest of us."
Cinder stared at the fight below them for a moment, before she signed and sat down next to Metis.
"I still miss him."
Rudy had died the day they destroyed all four Relics. By destroying all the Relics, all Magic was wiped out. Salem was no longer immortal. Ozpin will never reincarnate again. And even Raven had lost her ability to turn into a Raven.
Without the strange divinity that powered the Magic of Remnant, Rudy's curse had finally stopped working. And so, when Cinder found out that he had smashed his head from a fight against the Fall Maiden, Cinder was livid.
Without Magic, there was nothing special about Amber, so Cinder got her revenge easily. Even so, Rudy was dead and his body was proof that he wasn't coming back. Watts took a look at it and shook his head sadly when Cinder first brought Rud— no, Aurora to him.
"If we had sent someone else to go with him—"
"Doesn't matter. He made sure to complete his objective and that's all that matters. To him, killing Salem was probably one of his life goals."
"What's the other?" Metis asked in confusion.
"Well, duh? I may be a shit mother, but that guy would do almost anything for the two of you. You're his daughters. He would've liked it if you guys lived happily ever after or something mouth-vomiting like that."
"How would you know that?"
"Oh, I read his will."
"WHAT!"
Cinder stood up with an outrageous expression on her face.
"...oh, shit. Did I forget to give it to you?"
"YES!"
"Well... here you go." Pulling something from a portal, she tossed a book over to Cinder. "I took a peek at it, but it didn't really matter much to me. It's something you'd probably like more since it involves you."
Cinder stared at her for a moment, before sitting down to read the book. Looking at the first page, she skipped a few lines until she saw something that mattered to her.
'To Cinder Fall, the Princess of the Grimm. I'm gonna assume that our plan went well and the only bad thing that happened is my untimely demise. I'm hoping I died in an epic battle against a worthy foe who had to struggle with a reviving zombie.'
He died to a head wound from a breeze caused by a young woman.
'So... I already settled a few things in the case of my death. I have a list of all of my possessions and who they'll go to. I'm trusting Raven will help out with some things, considering the boon I gave her in the case of my death. This is the favor for not taking custody of Metis or outright kidnapping her to join the Tribe.'
Metis Branwen... nope, that would be terrible for everyone.
'And... I guess I have a few things to say. From this point on, I will be writing about a story that could have happened but will never come to pass if we managed to complete our objective. You may choose to skip this part, as it does not matter too much in the long term. Be warned, that this was and will always be just a possibility.'
And so, Cinder read about a story called RWBY. About how four young Huntresses were recruited alongside several others to join Ozpin in his attempt at fighting Salem. There were also notes of other people she knew. Raven, Emerald, Roman, Watts, Velvet, Blake, etc.
And she found out how she could have been the Fall Maiden. How she would have wielded an incredible power at the cost of her arm and eye.
'Of course, none of this will ever happen. I made too many changes since my arrival here that it's impossible for things to stay the same. The White Fang, while still a terrorist organization, is more on track than it would have been. A few people mentioned are now facing different circumstances. And if Magic is really gone, then Ozpin and Salem will soon not matter anymore.'
'I just wanted to say... just live. Live a long life, you wonderful daughter of mine. Have a fantastic life, because we both know there's more to death than just the end. I'll be watching, hopefully, uninterrupted by the Gods. But you still have your whole life ahead of you. You once asked why you were chosen to lead over me when we first arrived in Haven. I have been a part of your life so long, that I worried I may have dictated your actions and decisions more than I should've.'
'No, you didn't,' Cinder thought.
'But now, it's your turn to make your way into the world. Whether it's as Queen of Remnant or Headmaster or even a Huntress. Whatever path you choose...'
Cinder's eyes started to tear up, and she thought she heard his voice read those last few words out loud.
"I'm proud of you, Princess."
Final Note - And that's it. Thank you so much for those who actually read from start to finish. I probably wouldn't have done so myself.
To be honest, I did actually have a plan for how this story would have gone. The trouble is that I soon started to feel like this work became a chore of mine. Daily chapters with posts of 300 or so words with little to no thought put into it. If some of you were paying attention, there was a drop of quality sometime after the 30?th chapter or so? I thought about quitting this for so long, but I wanted to at least give a somewhat satisfying end before doing so.
The entire reason I even kept up with this was to see how bad authors with daily schedules had it and to exercise what little writing skill I had in short bursts every day. I now worship the grounds of authors like Coeur Al'Aran who can post over 5000 words a day for most of each week.
I don't think I actually did justice to this. I stopped caring at around chapter 40, and some of you can tell from the drop in quality and effort. This isn't ever gonna be my best work, and I will only see this as 'that one project I tried but failed at'.
But yeah, that life is not for me. I'm a reader at heart, not a writer. I write because it's fun, but not to the extent where I can commit enough time to do so daily. This experience has been interesting, but not something I'll likely repeat anytime soon.
So, ignoring all of what I said, let's talk about the story. I had a few ideas about how things would have played out if I wanted this to continue.
Mercury Black was supposed to introduce himself at some point. Qrow and Ozpin were supposed to discover that Rory was not, in fact, dead, but working for the enemy since day 1. Aurora was supposed to have his backstory expanded upon. Metis was a plot accident (as in, I literally had no plan for her before I added her into the story). Cinder was supposed to initially side with Salem instead of Rudy, before switching sides again. And Rudy was always gonna die, but he was supposed to have fought against Ozpin instead of Amber. I changed it at the last minute to fit the first episode of RWBY, and also cause it's easier to imagine Rudy beating an arrogant Maiden instead of THE Wizard.
But yeah, that's not happening anymore. So, to sum it up, thanks for reading up to this point and I hope you enjoyed the ending. This is Mister PurpleBook, signing off.
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...oh, and before I forget, I did a real quick drawing of Cinder, Metis, and Rory. It's on my profile page, or you can get the link here:
fa v. me / de 06 aqd (get rid of the spaces)