Yo!

My classes are absolutely eviscerating me, so I've been doing literally no writing at all. Luckily, I still have multiple chapters in reserve. In fact, I probably have at least 1...

Wait, what do you mean I only have one chapter left in reserve!? How did I blow through them all!?

Start Chapter 64

Jaune awakens to some familiar scenery.

It isn't Remnant, to be clear. No, it's yet another astral dimension somewhere beyond their world. This one, however, Jaune's been to before. He knows it.

The other couple hundred people with them, soldiers and huntsman and everyone else who hadn't been there when their group of nine or so had visited this place after escaping Evernight seem far more confused. More than a few of them seem to be readying themselves for combat, preparing to face off against yet another Godlike enemy.

That will not be necessary, however.

Or, well, Jaune's pretty sure it won't be.

"It is good to see you again, children of my children," The Blacksmith speaks, standing from her position by the forge and making her way over to them. "And it seems you are victorious. The brothers have been vanquished."

"Yeah… well, it wasn't easy, and it certainly cost us…" Jaune shakes his head. "But yeah. We won."

"That is good. I was rooting for you, even if I could not do too terribly much whilst holding the Ever After together."

"You did more than enough. After all, it was you who helped me to save Summer Rose's life, wasn't it?"

The Blacksmith smiles, then, seemingly rather proud of him for deducing such. "I did indeed."

"…How, if I might ask?"

"In truth, it was not that much. Undoing curses and fighting battles are not my prerogative, so while I could not do such with Salem, I could intervene with Mrs. Rose. That, and the brother's magic is far more potent than saving the life of a single mortal."

"I get it… or, kind of, I think. Basically, it was easier for you to help me save Summer's life, because that's… your field, basically?"

"Creation is my field, child. Granting life. Breathing it. It is precisely because that is my specialty that the brothers banned the study of such. They believed it to be the ultimate form of magic; that if another being, even one as small as a human were to acquire it, that they might challenge even them." She speaks, and Jaune lets out a 'huh' as she turns back towards her forge, which gives off a comforting orange glow. "I regret that I could not have done more. I sought to do as much as I could whilst still attending to my duties to the Ever After."

"No, no… please," Jaune shakes his head. "You did more than either of the brothers ever did for us, and you weren't even supposed to help us."

"Yeah, what he said, giant lady!" Nora harrumphs with her hands on her hips.

The Blacksmith nods her head, seemingly completely chill with Nora's strange vernacular.

"I must say, I regret that my creations came to war with one another as they did."

"You didn't anticipate as such?" Cinder asks, stepping forward. "Does such not fall under your power?"

"No, it does not. And even if it did… I do not believe I would have chosen to see into the future. For that is perhaps the most interesting part of the process of creating. Of seeing how things play out. It would not be as rewarding if I knew how every one of my experiments would go before I started on them."

Jaune hums at that, before asking, "What will you do with them? With the brothers, now that we've, uh… kind of had a hand in killing them?"

"They are not dead." The Blacksmith says, and Jaune feels his heart skip a beat before she continues, "That is not to say they will be coming back, to be clear. I mean only that nothing truly dies in the Ever After; and they are Afterans, despite how much they might've wanted to pretend not to be. They are not Gods, no matter how much they wished, tried, or conspired to be. And as for your question; I will return them to life in a few thousand of your years, but this time as smaller, humbler forms. Perhaps that will teach them the humility that they seem to have long forgotten."

Jaune feels that's a pretty fair punishment, as far as they go.

Jaune wonders, for a moment, just what it is he's supposed to say? Here they are, in the middle of some crazy space dimension, talking with the progenitor of their world, and…

What is Jaune actually supposed to say that he hasn't already?

And then, in that instant, a question comes to him; something he's fairly certain mankind has been asking since time immemorial.

"I… wanted to ask you something, Ms. Blacksmith, if you don't mind?"

"Certainly." The god turns to him with a gentle smile. "What is it you wished to know?"

"…What are soulmates."

The Blacksmith laughs, as if pleased he'd thought to ask.

"What an interesting question. How to explain… I first noticed their existence as a result of creating my children; the Gods of Light and Dark. They were magically connected, like soulmates, although such a bond would not have been called as such at the time. Perhaps more they were the yin to the other's yang; two halves of a whole. Eventually, I came to realize that everything that was created in this world behaved in a similar way. Eventually my creations would face destruction; or perhaps inevitably. And yet, no matter how many died, more would rise to take their place. No matter how much the God of Light attempted to impose order, his brother would counteract it with chaos. No matter how much the curious cat helped others, it would always be diametrically opposed by the Jabberwalker."

"Uhm… what?"

The Blacksmith just smiles. "Do not fret over such frivolous things. What I mean to say is that if you are asking for an exact definition of what a Soulmate is, then I cannot provide you with one. They are… simply a connection. A bond of fate, or destiny, or love. But it is only a potential fate. A potential destiny. A potential love. Sometimes such destinies do not come to pass." The Blacksmith looks to Qrow, who frowns somewhat, and then to Jaune for some reason, smiling like she knows something he doesn't. "Other times they play out as if a script for a play. In my eyes, they are simply… something intriguing. Something I find myself fascinated by."

"So, you don't… know what they are?"

"I do not." The Goddess smiles. "And I think… perhaps that is what makes them so alluring."

Jaune smiles, even as he shakes his head.

"I guess I'll have to settle for that."

It is Nora, this time, who steps forward, with her hand raised like she's waiting to be called on in the classroom.

"So, we're not going to be wiped from existence now that the gods are gone, right?"

"They are not gone. I told you." She says, before shaking her head amusedly. "The denizens of the Ever After can only be reshaped. Never destroyed."

"But the God of Light said…"

"If he had managed to ascend, then yes, the inhabitants of this dimension would've been used as the kindling for such an event, including myself and his brother. You would have all met a rather ignominious end as well. But he failed to accomplish such. They both did. Neither were holding your reality together. The brothers had long since pulled their magic from your world, leaving only echoes. Fragments. A Semblance of their magic behind. Removing them from the universe has changed nothing for you."

Jaune lets out a breath of relief himself. He'd been worried that a part of the reason why they were here, and not back at home, was that they'd essentially had their world deleted when its creators had died.

That had happened with Salem and Ozma, after all. The moment the Gods of Light and Darkness had both perished, their curses had gone with them.

"Still, to think that in the end, their own creations were the cause of their undoing. Reality, I often find, has quite the sense of humor with things like this."

Such prompts another question from Ren, this time.

"So, you're not… God of the universe?"

"If you are asking whether or not I progenerated the entirety of creation, then no. I am as much in the dark about the mysteries of why we are here as anyone else."

"Hm… that's quite humbling."

"It is, in a way. But I also believe there is something comforting about that. That no matter what, long after I myself have met my end, there will be something else. Something other."

Jaune just nods his head, before smiling.

"Thank you, ma'am."

"You are very welcome, child of my children. Ah, but I have kept all of you here for far too long. You've a world to go back to; one freed of the wake of the brother's shadow. Now, go, and live your lives as you wish to."

And with a single flick of her wrist, the Blacksmith sends them away.

/

It's kind of weird to just be suddenly plopped back down in the middle of the courtyard they'd all been in some hour or so ago without any real fanfare.

A second prior, there'd been scant anyone within it, and then in the next, nearly four or so hundred people had been teleported in. Jaune himself tumbles out of the portal – or, well, he assumes they've been taken back via a portal – and lands rather painfully on his broken left arm, which causes him to let out a stunted gasp as he rolls over and looks up at the sky.

Which is still there. Good.

Their moon is still broken; shattered into a thousand pieces, but it's there nonetheless.

They're alive.

They'd been the lucky ones. Those who'd survived the final battle. It's clear, however, from the multitude of bodies that now laid scattered around them, that many, many people had not been so lucky.

The Blacksmith must've used some of her power to transport the dead back as well, so that they would not simply be lost in some other plane, in some other reality.

Jaune takes a moment to count off and make sure that everyone he's immediately familiar with had survived. Of course, General Ironwood, Salem, Ozma – Oscar is still alive, so that's good – and Tyrian he will not bother with. He'd seen those four meet their ends himself. But luckily, everyone other than them seems to have survived the final battle.

Jaune lets out a breath, and finds relief nearly choking him as he looks up, and sees, of all things…

Snow.

He can't help smiling; he's always liked the snow. It helps somewhat that his hometown of Domremy has always been a boreal place, and thusly he'd gotten quite used to going out and playing in the snow with his sisters and friends. But even now, as a grown adult – and by everything, is that a scary thought to be thinking – he finds that snow still reminds him of home.

Home…

…He realizes in that moment that his parents, and his sisters, have never met Cinder.

They know her – or of her, he might say. After all, Jaune had been dealing with the issues of having a particularly problematic soulmate his entire life. But they'd never met the wonderful woman on the other end of that link.

He'd have to rectify that. Because now that he thought about it, his family hadn't met his team, either.

And… he'd have the time to introduce them. He'd have the time to take them all to Domremy, and just…

Just relax.

Hah… the thought feels somehow distant; unreal. To have time to do anything but go on some mad dash across the world.

How humorous a prospect.

But it is their reality, now.

He stands up as best he can, minding not to bump his left arm against anything or anyone, and takes in the sights around him. Across the courtyard, many soldiers are just now coming to terms with the losses they'd sustained. A good half their number had been killed, and many more than that had been injured. Jaune's fairly sure their casualty rating is something close to ninety-five percent, if not higher.

Still… they'd saved the world. Every single person who'd gone with them, whether Atlesian soldier, White Fang fighter, Vacuoan or Valean Hunter, or a member of their number, is a hero.

He bumps into someone as he's walking, and when he looks up, he sees it's Ren standing before him. He's about to make a comment to try and lighten the mood before he sees a rather terrible wound running down the right side of Ren's face. It's as if a wolf or some other kind of creature had managed to run their claws straight down his brow.

"Ren, you…"

"Is it that bad?" Ren lets out a quiet laugh, somehow calm despite everything. "It certainly hurt at the time, but I suppose I thought Nora was overreacting."

He can't help but want to keep things light and airy. He's already dealt with enough horrors today. To deal with more…

Well, he decides to do otherwise.

"I like it." He jokes. "I think it gives you a grizzled veteran kind of vibe."

Ren actually bursts out laughing, which is so rare from him that Jaune's fairly certain he could count the number of occurrences on one hand…

Actually, one finger is more like it.

"Well, glad to know my image is intact. Or improved, if what you have to say is accurate." Ren rolls his eyes. "But still… I think we're all officially grizzled veterans after this. Personally, I plan on retiring. I think I'm getting a little too old for all this."

This time it's Jaune's turn to laugh, and maybe it's just the fact that they just saved the world from a pair of malicious Godlike beings, but Ren's joke might just be the single funniest thing he's ever heard.

He leans on his friend, and practically collapses with laughter. Ren is the same, cackling into his shoulder as they each wrap their arms around the other, and tightly hug.

It's a much-needed bit of emotional support for the both of them, Jaune thinks.

"I was worried." Ren finally says as they both calm down a bit. "I believed that I might lose everyone I'd ever cared about. And that scared me more than anything ever had before."

Jaune nods his head. "Same here."

"And now it's simply over. An hour ago, we were headed into that dimension, and now it's done. We won. I barely know what to think."

"Yeah, again, same here." Jaune admits. "But… we did survive."

"Many didn't."

"Mm. And it's our job to honor their sacrifices, right?"

"I do believe it is." Ren speaks, sighing as he pulls away, and shakes his head. "I should… likely get this wound looked at. Going off of the fact that I'm yet alive, I believe the God of Darkness must not have placed a poison upon the claws of his summoned creatures, but even so, I would like to avoid an infection, given they can be equally deadly if left unattended."

"Yeah." Jaune nods his head, fully in agreement. "Alright, well… I probably need to get my arm put in a cast. And…"

Jaune starts to notice that nearly everyone who's not either dead or unable to move seems to have also come up with a similar plan. The vast majority of the crowd of people that had come back from the Brothers' dimension are now currently funneling towards the medical wing.

…

"Hey, I kinda' get the feeling we're going to be waiting a while."

"Yes," Ren remarks, chuckling under his breath. "I get that same feeling, somehow."

/

Their first real order of business upon arriving back on Remnant – aside from getting the wounded attended to – is burying their dead.

It's perhaps the single most ostentatious funeral that Remnant has ever known. But then again, it's not every day that quite literally every one of the deceased had been a hero who'd helped to save not just this world, but every world that existed within their dimension.

In Jaune's opinion, each and every soldier, hunter, and White Fang member that had given their lives to fight the Gods had earned a twenty-one-gun salute.

They're to be given just about that.

The evening is one marred with tragedy, in fairness, as Jaune, his friends, and their teammates all make it out to the front of Atlas Headquarters, where the funeral is to take place. Of course, that tracks given what it is they're here to do, but it sinks in with Jaune just how many they'd lost as he sees the monument they've constructed.

Upon it are five hundred and forty-nine names. Most are those that Jaune has never met, and will never meet, in his life. But some he knows.

Some had given their lives for Jaune himself.

He sees it, there, around the middle-section of the slab of marble that the names had been carved into.

James Ironwood.

It feels odd to see him listed without his title. He'd been the General for as long as Jaune could remember, and yet…

"He wouldn't have wanted to be buried any differently than any other soldier."

Jaune near about jumps out of his own skin as he wheels around, and comes face to face with the now scarred countenance of Winter Schnee, who looks down at him with a smile, despite her eyepatch and metal arm reminiscent of General Ironwood himself.

It just makes sense, given she's the one who's inherited the title.

Jaune had done all he could at the time, but given that Winter hadn't managed to get to a medical professional as quickly as she should've, and the nature of the attack she'd suffered, Winter had lost both an arm and an eye. She's honestly lucky she hadn't lost more, given how badly the creature that had chewed her up had wounded her.

Still, Jaune can't help but feel like Winter looks all the more rugged and official like this – which is something nearly every one of their number can say now.

Atlesian General Winter Schnee. Huh. It has a nice ring to it.

"I uh… sorry, what did you say?" Jaune asks, having been caught up in his own head too long to remember the woman's opener.

"I said that General Ironwood would not have been wished to be buried in any other way." Winter speaks with complete surety. "He would not want to be remembered as greater than his men, or as some heroic ideal. No… no, he would want to be just another name on this monument, no more or less than any other man or woman who gave their lives that day."

Jaune finds himself humming under his breath as he looks back towards the monument, and reads another few names upon it.

Ozma.

Salem.

Tyrian Callows.

The first is the only name that he truly, one-hundred-percent agrees with. Ozma had been fighting this war for a hundred thousand years, and to be fair, Salem had too, just… on the opposite side. For her to be included feels…

Well, Jaune had always had a soft spot for Salem, and the same definitely could've been said the other way around.

Tyrian… well, he'd been a bloodthirsty psychopath, so Jaune's really got some doubts about including him on this list. But in the end, he'd died fighting for the freedom of their world against the tyranny of the Brothers. And perhaps that's enough redemption for him to, at the very least, earn a spot.

Jaune personally has his doubts, but that's another matter entirely.

"No matter what anyone else says, and no matter how Mettle made him out to be… he was a good man." Winter speaks, clearly still bereaved by the former General's death.

In the end, despite their differences in opinion, in how they'd gone about their lives, in how they'd fought against each other at nearly every turn on their respective journeys…

"…Yeah." Jaune remarks quietly.

He can't find it in himself to disagree.

They stare at the monument a long time, until day cedes entirely to night, and the call of sleep beckons them all.

End Chapter 64

Well, well, well!

Next chapter; epilogue start! Not too much more of this story. Going to be chilling, getting some thematic resolution, and then that's it, baby! It's been fun, I've enjoyed Cinderella a lot more than I thought I was going to while writing chapters 18-30. That was definitely a low point for this story, where I was releasing every two weeks, and generally just writing to get a chapter out, not out of enjoyment. Cut to me now writing multiple chapters ahead haha.

Alright, well, that's all for now. I'll probably upload on Thursday, but if I don't, then I'll upload Saturday. See you all next time!