Well here it is. The final chapter. The ending to A Rose's Final Petal. The ride has been fun but like all good things, it must come to an end. I hope you all enjoy it. I know I have. This chapter wraps everything up pretty nicely though.

I know it's been sad but I feel like it's been refreshing too, a tragedy always brings people closer together even if it takes a long time to happen. And that's how this chapter ends. Check out the bottom for an update on what I'll be writing next.

Ren

I walk into the bathroom stripping down. I stare at my haunted reflection in the mirror scared to find what I'll see staring back at me. My reflection in the mirror swirls and warps and when it straightens out again, Ruby is standing in front of me.

Her shirt is mangled and drenched with blood. It even spills out of the corners of her mouth. "Ren," the hallucination says. "You let me die Ren. You saw. You watched as I sacrificed myself and you let it happen."

I punch the glass and smash it, the image of Ruby disappearing among the fragmented glass. I drop to my knees breathing heavily like I just sprinted a mile. "I'm sorry," I whisper. I close my eyes and think back to that hellish day.

I remember seeing the whole thing. I kicked away a beowolf and turned to see Ruby leap forward, becoming a blur from her speed. Even so I could track her path. She slid to a stop, pushing Weiss down and swinging her massive scythe upwards.

Time seemed to stop for a minute and I surveyed the scene. Ruby had her back turned to me but I'm sure she had a fierce look on her face. In front of towers a massive, plated ursa swinging one heavy paw down.

In that second I realized that Ruby would easily kill the Grimm, she was aiming the throat, but she would be unable to dodge or block the Ursa's strike. I try to move forwards but I feel rooted to the ground. "Ruby!" I screamed. "Move!" The scene unfroze and plays out to its horrific end.

I punch the tile floor and snap myself back to reality. Drops of sweat fall of my slick forehead and splatter on the floor. I blink and sit back on my heels trying to turn my thoughts to something else. Anything else.

Come on Ren, pull it together. I manage to shakily stand but even so I feel like throwing up. I look at my hand that I punched the mirror with dimly seeing the blood seeping out of the cuts, the pain not registering in my head.

Almost like I'm in a dream I walk to the medicine cabinet, keeping my eyes averted from the mirror, and grab a roll of bandages. Slowly I wrap the white gauze around my fist trying to piece myself back together.

The moment I finish I get dressed again and leave the bathroom having changed my mind about getting a shower. Back in the dorm room Nora stays crouched on her bed with her headphones covering her ears.

I can hear the music from across the room. I want to try and comfort her but I don't feel up to it this time so instead I walk out of the dorm and aimlessly wander the halls. At some point I find myself outside close to Rose Hill.

Last week the cliff where Ruby is buried was officially named after her. I gaze up the forested hill wondering if I should maybe go up. The only times I've ever been up there were the funeral and when Nora almost killed herself.

I stand there for a long time before finally deciding to make the trek all the way up the hill. Walking through the forest I wonder why I'm even trying. Other times I've tried to visit the grave Ruby always appears and I run away.

This time appears to be different though and I make it all the way through the forest without Ruby's ghost showing up. I stop at the forest's edge however almost scared to go any farther.

I force my feet to move deciding that I would finish what I started. I walk up to and then past the gravestone choosing to sit on the cliff edge. "Hey," I whisper to myself, "I made it all the way up."

I look down at my lap not saying anything else. I simply sit there. "Sup ninja boy," I hear from behind me. I don't turn around. Coco Adel.

"Hi Coco," I say still staring down at my lap. "What do you want?"

"Well you sound depressed," the fashionista comments, completely ignoring my question. She sits down beside me and leans backwards. "Tell me what's up."

I finally look over at her, carefully keeping my face flat. "Nothing. Why do you ask? Why are you here anyways. You barely knew Ruby." Again she ignores my question instead looking at me over her sunglasses.

I look away unable to keep her gaze. "It's Ruby. I keep seeing her everywhere. I can rarely look in a mirror without seeing her and freaking out." I show her my hand and the blood seeping through the light wrap of white gauze.

Coco doesn't say anything waiting for me to continue. "It's my fault," I whisper, turning away from the fighter. "That day… I saw it, I saw it all happen and didn't do a god damned thing."

"You're a dumbass, you know that?" My head snaps up and I look at her surprised. "You heard me. You're a dumbass," she repeats. I try and protest but she cuts me off. "Look kid, no one blames you for what happened to Ruby."

"To be honest, they're all too busy blaming themselves. What if this. What if that. So what. The girl died and that's a fact. Yeah it sucks, hell I barely even knew her and I feel like a piece of missing too. But really, do you think Ruby would want you to blame yourself for this?"

I try to protest again and for the second time Coco cuts me off. "Don't give me that shit. I know what you're going to say and I don't need to hear it." She stands up and looks off into the distance.

"Everyone needs to come to terms with things and understand that Ruby is dead and there's no bringing her back. Now to answer your first question. We're here to pay our respects and hopefully get some closure."

"We?" I look up at Coco as she turns to face something behind her. I turn around and find countless people standing at the edge of the forest; mine and Ruby's team all gathered together standing in front of the larger group.

Coco looks down at me and takes off her sunglasses. "You gonna join us?" Seeing everyone who came makes tears come to my eyes. I furiously rub my eyes feeling choked up.

The tears quickly overflow though and I hide my face in my good hand. Coco crouches down and places a hand on my back. "Just let it all out kid, let it all out. You'll feel better eventually. It may be days, it may be weeks. Even months, but it will get better. I hope you see that. It looks like everyone else has."

So! That's it! The final chapter of this wonderful story! Now, as promised, an update on what I'll be writing next. Luckily it's not so damn sad. Quite the opposite actually. I plan on writing a series of subset books within a larger book that's centered around the romances that develop between the characters we (the majority) ship.

The ones I plan on writing, in this order, will be White Rose, Arknos, Bumblebee, Nora x Ren(let me know if you come up with a name for these two please), and Crosshares (Velvet x Coco)

It will all be underneath one book but each new chapter posted will be labeled, for instance, like this: White Rose: Chapter 1 or Crosshares: Chapter 3. The whole thing will be named something else.

The best part of this project will be the writing because I will be using the episodes as a guideline. Such as the dance for Bumblebee. We never see the dance between Yang and Blake or Ruby's jealousy when she hears about Weiss asking Neptune to the dance and wanting to dance with her instead or Ren and Nora forcing Pyrrha to tell them about her true feelings for Jaune.

Because of this however the writing will most likely take a lot longer than normal so new chapters aren't likely to appear every weekend. I think. I could be wrong but we won't know until later. The first chapter will definitely be posted this weekend. I hope you enjoy them!