AN:
I'll post a post-mortem Author's Note as another chapter the day after this chapter goes up, discussing this story, its end, and the future.
Chapter 87
The Relics assembled, with power overwhelming, He stepped out onto the moon.
Cinder woke up in a place she couldn't recognize.
Emerald green grass came up to her knees, rolling hills stretched, rose, and dipped as far as the eye could see. The emerald horizon met a vibrant blue sky that held not a single cloud suspended in it. A light breeze brushed through the cool air, waving the grass back and forth in a hypnotically peaceful display of nature at work.
Cinder felt calm. Calmer than she had ever felt in her entire life. There wasn't a single point in her memory when she felt peace like this, and the feeling was divine. It was as though her entire life she'd lived in a pressure suit and with weights hanging from her shoulders, and now the pressure was released and the weights lifted. It was enough to bring a tear to her eye, which she wiped away as the turned to look at the horizon.
She ran her hand through her hair, and found that not only had the mask been removed, but her hair was longer - and she wasn't wearing her clothes or her coat, either, but rather the dress she had worn under Salem.
She must have died, then. Was this the afterlife? Had she really redeemed herself enough to deserve something this nice?
"No." Broke the peace and ambiance like a gunshot.
Cinder whirled around and saw a face she'd worn for nearly a year, but on the body it belonged to. It had collected new scars, one going down his left eye and one stretching across part of his chin. His eyes looked duller, his skin, a little less tan, owing to the time he'd spent in Salem's domain while his Cinder recovered. His hair was just as long, it apparently having stopped its growth once it reached just past his shoulders. He'd forgone his customary coat, and even the armor he'd once worn, instead now openly wearing his mail suit, and a white, metal shirt over it.
Her eyes, after a moment, were attracted to the gauntlet on his dark, cybernetic limb. Made of solid gold, it had six multicolored pools of energy adorning it, five on his knuckles and one on the back of his wrist, all glowing with distinct colors, all radiating a power Cinder had never felt before, neither in type nor in magnitude.
She looked back up, into his cold, metal, gray eyes. "No?" She parroted back.
"You're not dead." Nebo Aldric responded, as he sat at the top of the hill, and looked out to the horizon.
Cinder, after a moment, sat next to him. "Then where are we?"
"A star whose light hasn't reached Earth, or Remnant." Aldric responded, looking unflinchingly up at the sun. "In eight million years the people that evolve here will call it 'kew-oh.'..." He explained, "apparently it means 'Serene...' I like that." He spoke with a strange tone, like a wizened old man who had seen and learned far more than they ever thought they would, and had resolved not to share any of it.
Cinder blinked at him, an expression halfway between a confused frown and an amused grin on her face. "Uh - oh." She grunted, not able to come up with anything more significant than that. "How are we here?"
Aldric lifted the hand in the golden gauntlet, and the blue light glowed brighter than the others, at the center Cinder realized she could see the Staff of Creation, and only more questions started to flood her mind. As they did, the yellow stone on the back of Aldric's wrist, and the green on one of his knuckles, then began to glow, and he said, "I know that's not how they work... But that's not the point."
Cinder blinked again, looking back at Aldric. "What?"
"You were forming the question in your mind." Aldric told her, "in ten seconds you would have said 'But that's not what the staff does. They don't work like that.'..." He nodded, "to which I respond: I know." He grunted, lowering his hand to his lap.
Cinder's head felt light, and after she took a moment to press her hand against it, she took a deep breath and said, "what did you do?"
"I didn't tell you about The Big One?" And when Cinder shook her head, he said, "magic works the way you think it does. Ozpin caught me early enough to impress that upon me." Aldric explained, the green stone glowing again. "If he hadn't, in my stubbornness to accept that truth and the general fear of what it implied, I would have instead defaulted to that idea we came up with about aura fight-or-flight. I would have thought that was what it was, and then it would have been." The glow died away, "but Ozpin caught me early enough to change my mind, my way of thinking... And that eventually led me to an idea: If magic is what I think it is. If my powers are essentially Ork Waagh, if my perception dictates reality, what can I do with that?
"So I decided to gamble on an idea. From day one in my journal, I'd always equated Salem's victory with that of Thanos snapping his fingers and obliterating all life." The yellow stone glowed, and Cinder's mind was flooded with images of a purple Titan wearing the same gauntlet as Aldric, and his battles with a group of heroes attempting to prevent him from using it. "My idea was simply an extension of that: If I equated the Relics with the Infinity Stones, if I thought that they worked like the stones did, shouldn't that mean they would?"
As understanding slowly began to enter Cinder's mind, she looked down at the gauntlet again, then back up to Aldric. "You... Rewrote the Relics of the Brother Gods?" She asked, unbelieving.
"Magic, Hot Stuff." Aldric responded, "I thought the Relics worked like the Stones. If they did or not didn't matter, what mattered is what I thought of them." He yawned, running his hand up his face then through his hair, before he continued. "I kept myself intentionally ignorant to how they worked. I grew my power as high as I could and I constantly reinforced the idea as often as I could. I even field-tested it against the Masters, and it worked like a charm." He lifted his gauntleted hand, clenched a fist, and the red stone glowed bright - the world around them shifting, a red sphere growing around them and replacing the grassy fields with a crash sight, and Cinder beheld Aldric's battle with Helmut and Ben in fast-motion, up to when he harvested Helmut's soul to create the red stone, and then Ben's to create it again.
The sphere vanished, and Aldric dropped his hand. "When Jaune killed Salem, I assembled the gauntlet, and it worked. Then I..." He paused, his voice rumbly. "God." He shook his head. "I can see events so tiny and so fast that they hardly can be said to have occurred at all." He said, briefly sounding as though he were speaking with two voices at once. "I am walking on the surface of eighteen stars in five galaxies across thirty billion light years. I'm seeing Homo Erectus on Earth light his first fire four hundred thousand years ago. I'm standing on your moon while it breaks apart while my people walk on ours for the first time." He took in a deep breath, "I'm seeing my father frantically buckle my seatbelt as our plane experiences turbulence way too harsh to be normal. I'm standing behind my mother when FAA agents tell her our plane went down in the ocean, unrecoverable. I'm experiencing your memories just as you did, thinking your thoughts just as you reached them. I can feel the Blade of Olympus enter your stomach and get ripped out in my time while you get thrown into the Delorean and take off across the vault, in yours." He drifted off, lowering his gaze to the gauntlet on his hand.
"When the gauntlet worked..." He rumbled, examining it. "I became what I once said you wanted to be." He explained, "My will be done." He scoffed, "and with this unlimited power... To borrow words from someone else, I cut through to the most direct solution." He snapped his fingers, "and now I'm stretching it out. I may only get one wish, but I've seen enough genies twist the rules to know that I need to be careful - so I cheated. Instead of the genie catching me in a monkey's paw, I caught it. I have the power and the mental acuity to do as much as I want and need before the tank runs dry... So among so much else, I brought us here." He finally said, lowering his hand and turning to Cinder for the first time.
Cinder felt she already knew why, and she nodded. "Okay."
"Did you and I pre-plan Raven?" Aldric asked.
Cinder thought a moment, before asking, "don't you already know?"
Aldric nodded, "yes, but what I care about is you saying it." He explained, "I'm not speaking in metaphor when I say that right now, I'm omnipotent. I can tell you the exact time and date the last black hole in the universe evaporates, just as I can tell you of the literally endless things happening right now all over the universe. I see and know it all, but once this is done -" He tapped the gauntlet, "once the light fades, I won't remember any of it. I won't remember what it feels like for two hydrogen atoms to fuse in Sol's core, I won't remember when or how every species in the Milky Way reaches spaceflight. Even if the gauntlet and its power lasted forever, even if it didn't have an expiration date, all of this power is reliant upon the gauntlet to begin with, when it's gone, for whatever reason, all of this literally endless knowledge will evaporate. Vanish.
"I won't kill you, Cinder, this doesn't end with you dying." Aldric assured her, "I already know the answers to every question I'll ask you, but if I don't ask them, then when I take this gauntlet off, that knowledge will disappear. So you're not arguing with me, right here, sitting next to you, you're arguing with me laying in the recovery bed, remembering everything I physically experienced during this time." He explained, "you're convincing me then that I don't have to hunt you down once I've finished recovering."
Cinder leaned back, turning forward and trying to digest everything he'd just given her. "If I lied, would he believe me?" She asked the entity that was and was not Aldric.
"He'll have a hard time believing you even if you don't." Aldric responded, "and the question is moot, because we both know you don't want to lie."
She sighed, then shook her head. "I went to Raven of my own accord." She revealed, "you and I discussed it at length in your vault. I desperately wanted to believe that if I had changed, that if I had learned better, that this time's Cinder could as well... But for every point I made, you countered it with another, and it all boiled down to the most basic fact that my change was reliant upon your death and what came afterwards. Changing that variable changed everything that came after, and even if I learned the same information, my reaction may very well be different... But once you left, once I was left alone in the vault, I just couldn't accept it. I wanted to give myself every chance, I wanted that blind, desperate hope, because I knew what it would mean, otherwise.
"So... I thought the best way would be to plant the idea in your head. I went to Raven and bartered her life for the survival of her tribe and her daughter, and I convinced her double to assess Cinder." She admitted, "I had hoped that doing so would lead you to realize what had happened in my time, and would lead you to giving your Cinder a chance, before you went to fight Salem... That giving her this chance would be enough to spark in her the change that I underwent as well." She hung her head, "I knew then and I know now I shouldn't have... But I just couldn't let it happen. I had to try. I wanted to try."
Aldric was silent for a moment, before he then asked, "what will you do when you wake up?"
She tilted her head in his direction, but couldn't bring herself to look at him. "Wake up?" She repeated.
To which, Aldric nodded. "Wake up."
She considered it, "a part of me wants to ask if you would have me." She let it hang, hopeful that she might get a good answer.
The green stone on Aldric's fist glowed as he spoke, "Pyrrha will ask something similar when she finds me in several years. I'll borrow my own words - I'm not looking for anything romantic, lady. Put aside the shit I've done that doesn't involve the women in my life and all the trauma associated with that, I was blackmailed by a mute assassin and all but forced to fuck a psycho-goddess after that, and past that, before this world became reality to me, it was a work of fiction, and I never had the chance to reconcile that. That you're all real, that you're all people and not just images on a screen, characters in a story. I need time, time away from all of this, time to heal." He paused, "maybe." He grunted, "maybe I could use a friend, but nothing more. Not for a long time, if ever."
Cinder blinked, "wait, he and I - uh, her -" She stuttered, but was given reprieve by Aldric nodding. "Oh. Oh wow." She sighed, putting that one away for later. "I don't know what I'll do. Even when I fought for Salem, I'd never really considered after." She said, "I think I'll just... Wander. Find a village out there that I like, and protect it." She shrugged, "or maybe just settle down in Atlas. I really don't know." She whispered, before looking to him, eyebrows furled and a thin frown on her face.
Aldric smiled knowingly, before he nodded. "He'll have one requirement." He said, "what he intends to do is live alone, where the Aviator went down and Ben and Helmut died. It's part of his plan for if you or Ozpin act up... But he doesn't intend on distancing himself from the world. Salem is gone, she'll be gone forever, but Ozpin is still here, and Aldric has no faith in him anymore. He's going to be Ozpin's check and balance, but he needs one himself, too."
"You want that to be me?" Cinder scoffed.
"Why not?" Aldric asked.
"You know what I've done, Aldric. I'm hardly qualified."
"I've done just as bad. Is it better to be born good, or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?"
Cinder sighed, looking away for a moment. She could understand why, but it still baffled her that she had come this far. "Would he really trust me?" She asked, turning back to him, finding it easier and easier as time went on to differentiate the entity sitting next to her, with all of its infinite power, with the man she knew would wake up from this.
"No." Aldric responded, "no, it will be many years before he opens his heart to trust, and when he does it will be too late. But just as he will allow Ozpin the chance to prove himself, so too will he give you yours." He nodded to her, "to that end, I've fixed a few minor problems for you."
She frowned, "I don't follow."
"You were living on borrowed time, Cinder. If you so much as lost the fork, the universe would course-correct and you would cease to exist." The green stone on his gauntlet lit up, "I fixed that by repairing my Cinder's body and moving your soul to it."
Well that explained some things, at least. "You did so to ensure, should we come to blows, he couldn't just take it himself and defeat me in an instant." She surmised.
"Not just that, but you'll learn my reasons soon enough." Aldric responded, "our time is running short." He grunted, pushing himself to his feet, and holding his hand out to Cinder, who accepted it and pulled herself up.
"Can I just -" Cinder began, "one question?" He nodded, and she said, "if you have all this power... Are you going to use it on them?" She asked, nodding to the gauntlet.
Aldric went silent, his face turning dark as he thought. "Some tests shouldn't be cheated on, Cinder." He said, before closing his fist, the six stones all lighting up as one, blinding Cinder before the world went dark.
Ancient prophecies fulfilled, with no reason to wait, They came, and He sensed Their approach. He knew Their verdict before They had even made it.
Ruby Rose awoke on her back, grass tickling her face and the bright sky above hurting her eyes.
She groaned, squinting them as she pushed herself upright and rubbed at her eyelids, her mind needing a moment before it successfully rebooted and she remembered what had happened. In a brief panic, she ran her hands over her chest, and then examined them, and found nothing awry, nothing missing. She was still solid, she was still here. Even more, her injuries from the battle were gone, her clothes repaired - even her ammunition magazines were all full again.
Confused, she took a calming breath and got to her feet, brushing off the grass and dirt before she looked around and gasped, because she knew where she was:
She was home.
The great log cabin surrounded by trees, it looked just like it had been the last time she'd seen it, and seeing it again, for the first time in so long, it filled her heart up with joy. The young Rose took a step forward, but stopped short when she saw someone else stirring awake, just as she had, and she cried out in happiness, rushing the person when she saw the meticulously brushed blonde hair. She laughed, tears of joy leaking from her eyes as she practically tackled Yang to the ground, surprising her older sister, but only for a moment, as she took in their surroundings and processed the fact that they were, in fact, not dead, and once that fact settled in, Ruby found her ribs pressing painfully against each other as Yang held her tight, joining her in tears, but not in laughter, of relief.
To Ruby, her thoughts were dominated by the sheer joy of having won. Of her faith in Aldric having been rewarded. To Yang, her tears were dominated by relief, that they were alive, that Aldric hadn't killed them all.
It didn't take long for the commotion in the yard to rouse awake the other half of their team, and as they got to their feet and celebrations began, so too did they attract the attention of the man of the house, who came sprinting out to the yard, gathering his children up in his arms. The three of them, alongside the Faunus and the Heiress, enjoyed the mere fact that they were alive and together for a few minutes, before they entered the house and started asking, and answering, the important questions.
They soon began to come up with a semi-clear picture of what had happened, because when they entered their home, they found the television on - tuned into a CCT channel, the news anchor taking the sudden reappearance of her job as best as she could as she listed out the facts they had, though all they really knew was that the war between Earth and Remnant was over, and that there were an increasing number of reports from all over that a titanic battle had been fought at the 'Heart of the Grimm Hordes,' and without warning, everyone fighting there had vanished, only to reappear in their homes, near loved ones, in churches, or sometimes even hospitals.
All of them agreed that this had been Aldric's doing, but Ruby was the only one who smiled at it. Weiss didn't smile, merely glad that it was all over. Blake didn't either, instead trying to process all that had happened, how fast it had happened. Taiyang didn't care one bit, just happy his daughters were safe, and Yang frowned - she refused to glorify 'Him,' and promised painful things if they ever met again. Even if he'd done this, their vanishing had hurt everyone involved, and he'd hurt them, specifically, even before this. Her opinion of him remained unchanged, as did her vow.
Ruby only felt despair for a moment, nearly falling into the pit as she found herself staring at a wall of resentment to the man who had saved their lives and won the war. Her feelings were interrupted by her scroll vibrating, and when she answered, she felt even more relief wash over her, as Pyrrha's voice filled her ear - JNPR apparently having made it out like RWBY had, appearing together in Mistral. They had born witness to Haven Academy miraculously putting itself together, as though time itself rewound until the Academy was pristine and its CCT Tower repaired and functional, and though they were just as confused as to the why, they, similarly, were just as sure as the what.
Aldric had come through, in the end. Soon, the days started to run together. Weeks. The four Kingdoms located all of their soldiers and Huntsmen who had been in the fight at Salem's castle and began to piece together a picture of what had happened. Fleets were sent out to scour Remnant for the portals to Earth to try and get information from the Terrans, but all came back empty-handed: The portals had been shut by the same force that had ended the fight.
RWBY and JNPR had been brought back to Vale. They found that Beacon, like Haven, had been restored to its former state, the Dragon that had once blocked the academy off had vanished entirely, and a new headmaster had taken Ozpin's place, he would be the one to question RWBY, and he would be the one to present their information to the other Headmasters.
A tall, tanned man wearing a formal suit with green accents, he introduced himself warmly, telling them his name was Ozma.
But He also knew Their secret. They were not what They claimed to be. Powerful beyond measure though They were, They were but gods, and He, now, was God.
The man of many lives awoke, floating in an ocean, a sky above him so bright that it appeared not blue, but white. Brilliant aurorae danced many hundreds of miles above him, and for a moment they captivated him.
But it passed like a fleeting shadow, when his mind caught up with the situation, and with a gasp, he flailed about, his foot finding purchase in the seafloor below him. He pushed himself up, finding the water below him ankle-height, and finding himself much taller than he had been moments ago. When the water calmed around his legs, he was greeted by his reflection, and for a moment, didn't recognize the face that looked back up at him, until the faintest memory of a time long ago floated up to the forefront of his mind, and he realized he, in fact, did.
It was his face. His very first, the one he had been born with. Ozma's face.
Ozma brought his hand up and pressed his fingers into his tanned skin, breathing heavily as he looked up from the calm water beneath him. As far as the eye could see, that was all there was - water, stretching all the way to the horizon, as still and cool as that which he stood in.
Is this it? He asked himself. Have I finally moved on? He never remembered his brief time in the land beyond, only his endless visits to the void in between.
But no, it couldn't be. He felt his heart in his chest, could feel the cold of the water around his legs, the weight of his sodden clothes hanging from his shoulders. He could feel the blood in his veins and when he looked up to the sky, his eyes hurt from the brightness that tried to burn them.
So where was he if not dead?
"A random planet." He heard a rumbly voice speak, that sent ice through his veins. "At a point equidistant between Earth and Remnant. No life, no people, no moon, only two suns and stale, stagnant water."
Ozma twisted around and saw him. He saw Aldric standing there, on top of the water, a look of anger wrinkling his young face, his left hand, clad in a great golden gauntlet, curled up into a tight fist.
The two stared each other down for several long, tense seconds, before Ozma threw himself at the stupid boy. Magic poured off of him like golden fire and he roared, throwing fire and lightning, ice and wind, energy beams and force-field lances, everything he could think of at the Master, but Aldric calmly raised his hand and clenched his fist, the multicolored stones lining it glowing brightly, and causing all Ozma threw at him to fade away like steam.
"What did you do?!" Ozma screamed, "what on earth did you do?!" He demanded, creating a meteor in the sky and dropping it on Aldric.
"I did what was necessary Ozma." Aldric shot back, waving his hand as though he were backhanding the ancient Master, the meteor above turning to snowflakes that lazily fell to the water below.
"Killing all those people?!" Ozma yelled, "sacrificing billions on the altar of your broken mind?!"
Aldric's frown deepened and he snorted, "do you think me so petty, Ozpin? To destroy the Earth and Remnant because of nihilism?" He demanded, "do you think me so strong that I weathered this endless storm of absolute horse-shit without breaking? Do you think Salem's words so potent that they would do what my own decisions apparently couldn't?!" He clenched his fist again, the yellow stone lit up and Ozpin suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to fall to his knees, "sit down son, and let me tell you something you probably already guessed - yes, she did tell me everything." He presented the gauntlet on his hand, "and this proved it all. You know what this is, you know what I had gambled on, so you know what I'm capable of right now. I can see you two meeting for the first time, I can hear you two discussing Earth, I can sense both of your thoughts aligning for the first time in a thousand years and I can fucking feel you two ripping open two holes in the universe to bring me and my plane here. She told me all of it and I can see all of it for myself!" He screamed, the water he stood upon shaking and raging outwards. "And I know you did it to have a god damn tie breaker! So you two could find something to tip the balance of your argument in your favor! Well let me tell you something, you rat fuck -
"I sided with her!" Aldric declared. "You fucking failed! I think she's right, I think that without a unifying threat, our species will never reach that universal cooperation you want!" Ozma felt his heart sink, his face becoming despondent. "But I didn't just obliterate nine billion people. I didn't do what you think I did, I didn't just rip and tear at all but one million humans and faunus, no, because unlike you, unlike Salem, I'm fine with the prospect that we'll go extinct." He took in a breath, and Ozpin heard two voices come from Aldric's throat, one angry and wrathful, one calm and reflective, both speaking in unison. "A thing isn't beautiful because it lasts!" He declared, before the new voice faded away, leaving only Aldric's rage. "You're trying to stop conflicts and get everyone to live like one happy family, and guess what? You failed again - but that's okay!
"Your world and mine have been in some state of conflict for longer than living memory, and that's alright!" Aldric stressed, "if my planet hits the big red button and atom-bombs us to extinction, if the Grimm rally and slaughter every living thing on Remnant, that's fine! Because we made it as far as we did! Every day is a victory against an unforgiving universe that hates us and wants us dead!
"Every day we survive is a victory, Ozma. If we make it to other planets, if we make it to other stars, that's because we earned it! Because we learned - collectively - how to survive and tolerate each other! And if we don't, then that's FINE!" He urged, "we tried! And on our gravestone will be those words: Here lies Humanity. We died trying."
Ozma found his voice, "Aldric what did you do?" He gasped.
"I fixed it." Aldric responded, his voice calmed down, but his expression still livid. "I fixed it all. I sent everyone there where they needed to be - home." He stressed, "to their loved ones. To the people who cared about and missed them. Who were worried that they wouldn't come back. I didn't kill a damn one of them." He declared, stealing the breath from Ozma's chest.
"And that's not all - I killed the Grimm at the castle and neutralized the pools that bore them. I destroyed the dragon, shredded it down to its very atoms. They're still born but far fewer now. I sent the Terrans home and closed the wormholes leading there - as it fucking should have been." He growled, "and I separated you from the boy whose body you've routinely been hijacking ever since you felt the situation spiralled out of control - and! And! Once we're done talking, I'm sending the relics away. I don't know where or when they'll come back, only that they'll return where they're needed, when they're needed, and to whom would use them best." He pointed at Ozma, "and I did this to reset the scales. To bring back balance, to put Humanity back in the driver's seat."
Ozma was about to speak, to cut in, but when he did, he realized he could see the sun behind Aldric.
Or rather, the suns, and their appearance stunned him into terrified silence, so Aldric continued unimpeded.
"Because I'm not you, Ozma." He growled, lowering his hand again. "Like I said, I'm perfectly fine with my people going out if they're not smart enough to figure out how to work together." He took in a deep breath, "but." He let it out, "but you made me some promises, Ozma."
"And now's your chance to make good on them. Salem's gone, Ozma. I trapped her in the Master Sword and sent her so many trillion years in the future that the number won't mean anything to you. To the black hole era of the universe, and I dropped her in the one that would last the longest. She can be as immortal as she fucking wants stuck for the literal rest of time inside the event horizon." He explained, teeth gritted and eyes practically shaking with suppressed rage. "And now you're alone. You fucking won, congratulations - no more Salem. Now you can make good on your promises. To make the world better, to enlighten Humanity and to bring them to a brighter golden age, and I'm going to let you." He declared, "I'm going to give you the chance to make good on your word, because I'm done." His shoulders slacked, and all of the rage melted away, leaving only exhaustion and pain. "I'm done fighting your war. I'm done proving your point. I'm done being the main piece in an argument between an ex-husband and wife...
"But I'm not done with you." Aldric declared, after taking a moment to breathe. "Because I want you to remember that I did what you couldn't - I won your war. I arguably won your argument, and I want you to remember that - and to remember that I can do it again." His face twitched in barely contained fury, "In all your years to come, in all your most private moments, I want you to remember that I did what you, chosen by your gods couldn't... And I want you to remember, that I'm watching." Said Aldric, draped in the light of this planet's binary stars, one a brilliant gold, and one a deep purple, their light falling over Aldric in equal halves, draping his front in shadow, as the Master loomed over the Immortal.
Ozma, his expression turning to one of fear, his eyes widening and his jaw falling slack, as he realized it wasn't Aldric speaking to him, that the Master was being used as a mouthpiece.
"Aldric -" He croaked, "Aldric, they're here. They're watching. They're coming, they will be -" He pushed out of his throat, "you need - the gauntlet, you have to use it before it runs out!"
The Terran Master merely bared his teeth, and said, "let them." Before he clenched his fist, the stones on his gauntlet lit up, and then all went dark.
They would be a problem, one His enemy had rightfully predicted He would not let go. There was no way He could, especially not with the power He now held, so He did what He always did, and solved it.
Ozma explained to them that the world wasn't ready for the truth. It wasn't ready for the reality of the situation. They had to come up with a story, so people wouldn't fear the night, wouldn't fear Masters and Maidens capable of influencing the fate of billions. Almost everyone present agreed with this. Yang was more than happy to make sure Aldric was never remembered, Jaune was on board with it from the sense that it really hadn't been Aldric that killed Salem, but the kingdoms that had provided the heavy lifting, and he, Pyrrha, and Ruby that had landed the killing blow. Weiss agreed that introducing the mere idea of Salem, then of the Maidens, then of the Relics, and then of Aldric and the Masters, would be too much for people who hadn't had months and months to come to terms with the ideas, and enforcing faith in leadership was what was needed in these confusing times. Ren remained largely silent, as he was coming to terms with the fact that the others had been right, and he, wrong, about Aldric and Ash. Nora hardly even cared, willing to let the people in charge make the decisions, and Blake was fine with it once she realized the major boon that would come to her kind when their own pivotal part in the battle came to light. Qrow, as ever, listened to Ozma, and his own resentment for Aldric contributed to his general apathy towards the situation.
But there were two voices, alone against the tide, that disagreed with the plan. Pyrrha and Ruby had to fight everyone they knew and loved on all fronts. Pyrrha believed that Aldric deserved his due diligence, that he had come through in the end, proven that he wasn't the vile creature everyone had painted himself as by going out of his way to leave Remnant in a better state than it had been for a long time. Grimm attacks had slown down, all of the Soldiers and Huntsmen in the battle had been returned to their homes, perfectly healthy, and Salem was dead. All of that had been Aldric's doing - without him, who knew where they would be? Ruby parroted many of Pyrrha's arguments, but added that, in this new world, post-Salem, didn't the people deserve to know the truth? Didn't they deserve to know that people - that heroes - like Aldric were out there? Willing to take evil onto themselves, to stain their souls, so no one else would? Didn't they deserve to know the full story, so they could learn from it?
But they were alone in their arguments. They didn't like it, not at all, but they didn't really have a choice. Ozma and the other Headmasters were going to go ahead with their story, what was happening here was a courtesy to make sure two of the biggest players in the endgame were on the same page. If Ruby and Pyrrha tried to tell their truth, it would be their word against the words of four Kingdoms, and even if they got their word out there, it would start a witch hunt. People would hunt Aldric down, some to try and use him for his power, some to put him on trial, some to kill him, and didn't he deserve peace? Didn't he deserve rest, after all this?
That got them to quiet down and begrudgingly accept the 'official' story.
To the world at large, what had just happened was the end of an investigation held in great secret. Beacon's former headmaster, and Atlas' current General, had coordinated with the Terrans in an investigation as to just how they had arrived on Remnant. This led them onto the trail to what they called the 'Origin of the Grimm' - their queen, Salem. Ozma and Qrow, alongside their Terran counterparts, were at the head of this investigation on Remnant, owing to their by-and-large lack of association with any government and subsequent ability to travel and investigate independently, even during the war. They 'discovered' that Earth and Remnant had been linked by Salem by means of incredibly old and incredibly powerful Grimm on both Earth and Remnant, and that by killing Salem, they could potentially undo that which she had done. So, they brought their findings to Ironwood, who called in favors everywhere he could, even landing support from the reformed White Fang, to gather an army large enough to attack Salem on her home territory. Their goal was to get a strike force close to her so they could end her, and it was RWBY and JNPR who had managed to punch their way through the Grimm and make it to her. The perfectly planned, miraculously coordinated execution of Salem turned into a pitched battle, the only truth of it being that it was Ruby, Jaune, and Pyrrha who had landed the final, decisive blow that killed her. Her death severed the link between Earth and Remnant, and some sort of after effect was that everyone was banished from her lands, sent to their homes, and all traces of the damage caused by the Terrans had been reversed.
Tied off nice with a pretty pink bow, clear heroes to idolize, a few mysteries left to investigate so they could have more time to come up with explanations for the stranger things Aldric had done, and not a single mention of he himself.
Weeks turned to months, and the world took its time to react, and after that time had passed, once the investigations were over and the story was presented, reactions turned to celebrations. As sad as Ruby was about Aldric, she couldn't help but be swept up in the celebrations. Not just because of how she, Jaune, and Pyrrha, alongside their teams, were touted as the heroes who had landed the final blow of the war, but because at the very least, its end was worth celebrating. Salem was gone, the Grimm were breeding slower, the Kingdoms were recovering, those were honest facts, and worth celebrating.
So she found herself at Beacon for Vale's celebration, coinciding with Beacon's reopening and the creation of a new holiday - Witch Day, named after Salem and celebrating her death and the turning point in the eternal war between Humanity and the Grimm. Ruby tried to bow out of the celebrations, to hide in a corner, but she constantly kept getting dragged back in, be it by her former classmates, or by random people from the city who recognized her and wanted to pay her tribute. The rest of her team and JNPR were doing no better, but of them, only Pyrrha seemed to share Ruby's sentiments - if only inwardly. Owing to her previous reputation, she'd had much more experience playing this game than Ruby ever had.
It took her hours, well after the sun had gone down, and she suspected deep enough into the morning that the sun would be coming back up, soon, before she finally found her chance to break away from the party, which showed no sign of dying down anytime soon.
Wearing a simple red dress, her hands behind her back, Ruby wandered Beacon's grounds. It felt like an eternity since she'd last been here, and she felt like an entirely different person compared to back then. She wondered if this was even close to how Aldric felt, knowing all of these secrets and not being allowed, or even able, to give them out in the first place.
Reaching the fountain in front of Beacon Tower, she looked up to the shattered moon, wondering where the world was going to go now, hers and Aldric's. Then she wondered where Aldric even was, that no one had seen hide nor tail from him since Salem, and she hoped he was okay.
She let out a muted sigh, and cast a look over her shoulder to the academy, seeing the bright lights and hearing the distant, muffled music. She didn't want to go back, she feared she wouldn't break out again, so instead she kept walking, finding her way to Beacon's dorms, and realizing with an innocent smile that her stuff may still be in there. Her old combat outfit, her unfinished homework, she decided she wanted to take a look, morbidly curious as to the stench of the tomb of several tons of unkempt teen and early adult dorm rooms.
Reaching the building, she entered and deftly navigated it, as though she'd never left, but she didn't make it to her dorm. She stopped just short of it, when she found a door with four bright, glittery, rainbow letters on it that prompted a thought she realized with shame she hadn't had yet.
GEMS
Where were they, she wondered? She hadn't seen any of them, not at the battle or even here, which surprised her, since Neo had said Myrtle had gone to retrieve them.
Unbidden, her hand lifted towards and landed on the handle leading to their dorm, and to her surprise, she found the door already open, it swung inside with just that little contact.
When the door opened, she beheld a dark room, moonlight spilling in from the large window on the far wall, and she found that it was occupied.
Her heart picked up when she realized she recognized the silhouette - a long coat ending just above his heels, hugging his chest and flaring out just a bit at his hips. He was looking out the window, off in the direction of the party, his hands in the pocket of his coat, still as a statue.
The young Rose took a tentative step in, quietly whispering, "Aldric?"
"Venom let slip that she'd stolen a coat of mine from GEMS' dorm." He said in a low, rumbly voice. "Gave me hope that I still had one left in this time... And waddaya know." He turned, looking over his right shoulder. "Hey, Ruby."
Tears sprang to her eyes, and she leapt into the room, wrapping her arms around Aldric in as tight an embrace as she could give him. It wasn't even as close to as tight as what Yang or Nora or anyone else could give, but she at least heard him groan a bit, so she'd take what she could get.
"I -" Her voice shook as she tried to keep it together. "I thought -" She gulped, "I was -"
"It'd take more than the Snap to kill me, lady." He said, patting Ruby's hands.
Ruby held him even tighter for a moment, before she backed off. "I -" She stuttered, wiping her eyes. "I tried to get them to tell the truth, Aldric, I really did!"
Aldric shrugged as he turned around, his front cast into such deep shadow that Ruby could barely make out his features. "Ah I don't care about that. You guys deserve the limelight, you can have it."
Ruby's instinct was to argue, but she desperately didn't want to argue with him, not after having gone so long without seeing him, so she started wringing her hands, saying, "where have you been?" She asked, "Pyrrha and I were so worried!" Then she gasped, big silver eyes going wide. "Pyrrha! She'll want to see you, we need to go get her!" She said, reaching into one of the pockets that lined the inside of her dress for her scroll.
But she found her fingers could find no purchase on it - as though there were a barrier around it.
Looking up, she saw one of Aldric's hands raised, two fingers pinched together, and he shook his head.
"She'll get her time. I wanted to talk to you, Ruby." He said, nodding to the door. "Let's get some air."
Ruby fell in step behind Aldric as he brought them to the dorm's roof, and when they reached its edge, Aldric took off his coat and laid in on the ground to his right. "So your dress doesn't get dirty." He explained, as he dropped to his rear with a groan, feet dangling off the edge of the roof.
"Thanks." Ruby said, a little sheepishly. She wouldn't have asked for it in a million years, but she was thankful he'd done it - getting a dress with pockets on the inside was remarkably expensive, even if Weiss told her not to worry about it! "So -" She stuttered, "where have you been?"
"Recovering in the Garden." Aldric responded, "and... Fixing some stuff." He indicated his head with his cybernetic limb, it quiet enough out here that she could hear the faint whirs and whizzes of the gears and motors underneath the otherworldly metal. "You read the Record, so you know about the Neuralyzer... Well there's also a deneuralyzer. Does what it suggests, undoes the effects. I took a few trips and got some memories back to make sense of how what happened at the castle happened."
"So you remember everything?"
"Not everything." Aldric clarified, "just how I'd managed to save you and get all that working." He said, a hint of morosity in his tone.
Ruby nodded, "what was it like?" She asked, "to, uh - to wipe your memories, and then to get them back?" She clarified.
Aldric shrugged, "wiping them was just a flash of light and it was all done. Getting them back was weird, they were back, but I didn't know how to access them. It was like they were always there, had always been there." He explained, looking out in the direction of the party and nodding to it. "How's the party?"
She gulped, "too much." She said, "Ironwood and Ozpin - uh..." She shook her head, "I... Guess it's Ozma... Now... They gave your credit to us, so a lot of people wanted to talk to us, and it got overwhelming." She said, before turning the subject back to him. "You said you were recovering? Were you hurt?" She prodded.
Aldric nodded, "pretty bad. Snap didn't kill me, but it did its best. Doctor Deer was ready to skin me alive, made me put him on retainer." He said, "and I had to pay him an extra coin to get across how serious I was that I didn't want Neo or Torchwick to find out I was there." He leaned to the right, towards Ruby, giving her a semi-serious glance with one eye. "How'd she treat you, while you were on the ship?"
"Fine." Said Ruby, "she actually kind of helped a bit. The people on the ship had orders not to talk to me, but some of the younger ones, a little older than you, still tried. They never proved it was her that did it, but they also couldn't prove it wasn't her that put them in the hospital." She said, expression halfway between a giggle and a guilty frown.
Aldric though, he chuckled without a single care, as he straightened back up. "Sounds like her." He rumbled, rubbing at the side of his face Ruby couldn't see.
"So - what did you make the Relics do?" She asked, unable to stop herself in time.
"They show you the Avengers movies while you were on the ship?" Ruby shook her head, "well, the brief explanation is I tricked the universe into making the Relics work how I want. I used the glove as a filter so the energy overload wouldn't kill me, and alongside a couple other goodies I'd had stashed away... For a few brief moments I was big-G-God." He explained. "I snapped my fingers, and..." He shrugged. "Sent everyone where they needed to be. Closed the portal to Earth, sent Salem so far into the future that if she breaks out of the sword she'll have nothing but dying stars and black holes to rule over. I undid the damage caused by the Grimm and the Terrans, wiped away the radiation from the nukes they'd launched, got rid of the dragon... And I used the power I had to cheat a little. Used its infinite power to stretch out how long I had said infinite power, so I could have a pow-wow with Venom and a come-to-Jesus meeting with Ozpin."
Ruby gulped, "okay?"
"To summarize it all... Venom was Cinder from the future. I call her 'Solidus Cinder' to keep up the little Metal Gear motif I'd been running with, but you won't get that." He waved it away, "point is, as much as I don't trust her, I'm giving her the same chance I'm giving Ozpin. She's earned it, and she promised to stay in the light."
"Wow..." Ruby leaned back, looking up to the shattered moon, its white light washing over them, reflecting off of her skin and Aldric's armor, almost giving the both of them an ethereal glow. "Cinder?" She asked, turning back to look at him, "really?" She didn't think she'd had it in her.
Aldric nodded, "really." By the tone of his voice, Ruby could tell he didn't either.
She gave him a moment before she asked, "and... What about Professor Ozpin?" A beat, "or... Ozma..." What should they refer to him as when they were talking about his past lives, she wondered?
"I'd used the gauntlet's power to give him his original body for this life, and to separate him from Oscar - who's back at his farm, now. I altered his and his folks' memories, so they're as happy and ignorant as they've ever been." He explained, "I was less kind to him than I was Cinder." He explained. "Salem told me that he was just as responsible for my being here as she was. I'm not sure if he was part of the later connections between Earth and Remnant, or if it was my father, who I suspect was the only one to actually spend time with her, but I digress, I know at least I'm here because of him, too." Ruby blinked, turning from him to the distant party lights, eyes wide. "So I basically threatened him. Told him that I was giving him a chance to make good on his word - that without Salem he could really make a difference... But that I'd be watching him. If he slipped up, I'd be there to make sure he knew... And solving that problem will take much less effort than Salem." He said, conspiratorially.
"Gods..." Ruby gasped.
"Oh, I handled them." Aldric deadpanned, matter-of-factly.
Ruby blinked, "what?" She asked.
"The Brother Gods are real, Ruby." A beat, "or... Were." He said, with a tired sigh. "They were part of Salem's endgame, and were why Ozpin wanted to keep the Relics as far away from each other as he could. If they were ever brought together, the Gods would come and would render judgement." He explained. "Salem had gone to war against them once and failed, and had planned to do so again if she beat me at the castle... But she's very good at chess. She set things up such that, even if she lost, the Gods would come anyways - she'd already assembled the Relics and she I'm willing to bet that if they weren't already on their way when we were fighting, she knew I'd use them if I won, meaning they'd come anyways. I was her fallback plan in case she lost. I'd prepare for the Gods' arrival and when they came, I'd end them... And everyone would know it, too. They'd be scared of me, and then she'd get what she wanted, in the end - a Humanity united against a greater threat.
"So... I took a third option." He said, "one I want to hope she didn't account for." He snapped his fingers, "I took care of them."
Ruby was aghast. She'd never really been a religious person, but anyone hearing these things would be thrown for a loop. She could barely process it, "so... You killed Salem... And the Brother Gods?" She managed to push out.
Aldric nodded, "yeah." He said, "yeah." He grunted, rubbing at his face again, this time groaning as he forced the hand away with the other. "I can't tell you how much I genuinely wanted to just let that one go... But they wiped out Humanity once before. Broke the moon." He nodded up to the sky, "and I had the power to get rid of them without any collateral damage... So there's no way I could not do it." He grunted, "however... You're the only one who knows." He said, "I want Ozpin to think they're still coming. I want to see what he does, and Cinder doesn't need to know. I tell you..." He snorted, "well, because I trust you, and someone has to know. I know that if you have the information, you'll do the right thing with it."
"So... It really is all over..." She murmured, "what are you going to do?"
"Exactly what I said I'd do." Aldric responded. "I'm going to rest." He nodded out to the horizon, where the first dregs of deep, dark red could be seen, signalling the coming of the sun. "Watch the sun rise on a grateful universe." He fell silent a moment, "after that?" He hummed, "there's... A place that I know. Not the Lonely Mountain, but somewhere else, and if it still is what I think it is, it's just as important." He explained, "I'm going to settle down there. Build a ranch, grow some senzu beans so I never fucking run out again..." He chuckled. "Maybe pull a Last Blood, dig some tunnels so I have something to do... Maybe pull an Injustice, link the ranch to the Lonely Mountain by a lead-lined hyper-loop." He shrugged. "Maybe get my ass a dog, I really don't know."
Ruby nodded, before something occurred to her she realized she should have thought a long time ago. "You can't go home!" She gasped, covering her mouth. "Oh Aldric -"
But he waved her off, shaking his head. "I knew that was probably going to happen way before the Big One was even a pipe dream in my head." He assured her. "My Mom's taken care of, and my old buddies think I'm dead, so..." He shrugged. "It is what it is."
But Ruby pressed, "Aldric, you can't just go away! You need to stay, you need your friends, we can help you deal with this!" She urged, grabbing at Aldric's arm, trying and failing to blink away the tears that welled up at the prospect of him leaving, of him dealing with all his trauma on his own.
"Let's do a head count, Ruby." Aldric responded. "I traumatized Yang on more than one occasion, cut off her arm - though she doesn't know - and murdered her mother. I was directly responsible for Weiss' sister's death - though she doesn't know - and hurt people she cared about on more than one occasion. I brutalized and nearly murdered Blake, and used her as a bargaining chip to the one man in the world she wants to avoid - which I honestly suspect she might have put together belatedly. She's a smart one." He sighed, "I manipulated Ren and Nora, groomed and all but forced Jaune into a role he really wasn't ready for, and manipulated, betrayed, and beat the shit out of Pyrrha on multiple occasions... And I lied to every damn one of them for as long as we knew each other." He listed out, "frankly, if I didn't know you better I'd be amazed you and her still have any positive feelings for me." He admitted.
Ruby was at a loss, "but... Aldric, please - we can... They can work through it, if you sit down with them, I know they can!" She tried.
But Aldric shook his head. "No... No they can't." He said, "most of them don't want a damn thing to do with me. Yang actively wants me dead." He said, "and Pyrrha wants different answers than the ones she's been given." He said. "Besides... I really just want to sleep. To be alone for a while. To be allowed, for the first time since I've gotten here, to process the fact that I'm here in the first place." He said, reaching up and digging into his coat, as the distant horizon became a sea of red. "But..." He groaned. "But... I know I can't." He said, pulling out a scroll and sparking hope in Ruby's chest. "This is a burner. It's got my number in it." He handed it to Ruby, who accepted it. "More than anyone Ruby, I trust you with it. You're probably the greatest moral paragon of the whole bunch - the fact that you're willing to believe they'll give me a chance proves it.
"So if you need me... If something happens, use it." He nodded, looking out to the horizon, as a single line of yellow started inching its way up. "I'll be there."
Ruby wanted to, but found she couldn't break the silence that grew, as the sun rose and the two watched it. Her gaze flitted back and forth from the sun on the horizon, to Aldric, who, with the rising light, she was seeing clearly for the first time. The red light diffused in his dark armor, reflected off of his metal mail shirt, inching its way up his chest until it reached his chin, and Ruby's eyes widened, her hand covering her mouth, as she beheld the horrendous burns and scars that twisted up the left half of Aldric's face, stretching like vines down under his chin and to his neck, where they vanished under his armor. The burned skin, wrinkled, red, and leathery, compounded with the deep groove running down his left eye and the scar on the right side of his chin, the man sitting next to her was barely recognizable from the day they had first met, when she'd interrupted his an her sister's fight in the nightclub.
But underneath the scars, she could see two expressions. In his eyes, she could see the telltale squint and twitches of someone being overcome with emotion, fighting to keep it under control and trying to force their tear ducts to stay dry, and on the corners of his mouth, she could just see them inclined upwards, as the radiant sun rose up, its bright golden light washing over him.
He let out a sigh, and Ruby watched him age right in front of her eyes. All of the energy he once had, the fire in his eyes, the squared shoulders, the confidence, even his breathing, it all hollowed out, but in their place Ruby could at least see something good. She could see satisfaction in the smile, she could see that Aldric, for all his regrets, was genuinely happy he had accomplished what he'd set out to do. He'd spent his soul and had bought the future of two worlds. She could see satisfaction in his smile, but it was his eyes that worried her, for in them, she could see the demons, the 'what ifs,' and the nightmares.
Ruby gulped, and grabbed his arm, attracting his gaze and hitting her with the full force of the physical toll his quest had cost him.
"It's okay, Aldric." She said, earnestly. "You did it... It's fine. It all turned out okay in the end."
He held her gaze for a moment, before turning away. "I understand what he meant, now." He said, confusing her before he finished with, "nothing ever ends, Ruby." He grunted, getting up to his feet, and helping her to hers.
She knelt down and picked up his coat, she looked down at it, hanging from her hands, knowing what would happen when she gave it to him.
"Pyrrha..." She murmured, not able to meet his eyes. "She's going to come for you." She shut her eyes tight, lips pressed together in a saddened frown. "She wants to talk. Bad."
Aldric nodded, "I know."
"Yang too."
Another nod, "I know."
"She really wants to kill you." She whispered.
Aldric sighed, "yeah... Yeah she does."
Finally, almost silently, she whispered, "I'll miss you." She pushed the coat into his chest.
He took it, and after sliding it onto his shoulders, he said, "you're a wonderful person, Ruby Rose." He patted her on the shoulder, and she lunged into him for another hug. "To still think so highly of me."
Ruby felt a single drop of wet hit her shoulder.
With the snap of His fingers, three gods became one. When the energy ran out, when the final words were spoken, when He stopped stretching it out, when the relics dispersed and His senses returned to His body in the tower, one God, became none.
For the Record
I won.
I want to leave it at that. I won, the end, goodbye.
But this is For the Record. I've come this far, recording everything for posterity's sake. I'm going to finish the job.
One last entry.
I killed Cinder and confronted Salem. She revealed that Ozpin was just as complicit in bringing me and the plane here as she was, all because they've been in an argument for thousands of years over how Humanity should be united: By way of a unifying threat, or through peace.
Three guesses who's on which side.
Salem actually outmaneuvered me at every turn. She knew about RWBY - the show - from the very beginning. I suspect she had done her research into me, as well, but I can't prove it. What I can prove is that I was watching a show by the same people on my plane, and she likely saw that. She convinced Ozpin to pull our plane to Remnant, and after gambling on if I'd survive in the first place, she was golden. She managed to predict, in broad strokes, everything I would do, from the beginning to the end. I was her ace in the hole - I was her proof that she was right. That the only way for Humanity to unite was under great threat.
And she was right. I changed Adam Taurus into something of a noble leader, I pulled Roman Torchwick away from the darkness. I got Qrow and Ozpin to work with them. I got all their collective resources focused on Salem. Earth, ostensibly, united immediately when Remnant 'invaded' them, and kept it up when they realized who was really in charge of the whole thing.
I'll say it for clarity's sake: I actually believe Salem. I genuinely think she's right. Only way you'll get the kind of unification they want is with a huge, universal threat. War, famine, disaster, disease, you drop that on Humanity's plate and then and only then will national or ethnic lines be disregarded instead for one Human vision.
But though I agreed with her, that didn't mean I sided with her.
No, because I believe that our survival has to be a collective effort, not the will of one madman, or one madwoman. It has to be an ideal, shared and believed in. If we're too stupid to not kill ourselves, or too stubborn to join together, and we go extinct, then so be it. We tried.
So we fought.
To my ceaseless amazement, I actually hadn't failed to save Ruby Rose. I later discovered I'd shanghaied Neo and Myrtle into doing the lions share of the work, but in the end, they got it done, and Ruby survived. I hope Neo didn't have to kill Myrtle, but I suppose I'll never know.
Regardless, since Ruby was alive, that meant my alliances were still on.
And fucking everyone showed up. Earth, Remnant, Watchmen, Justice League, they were all there, and it was glorious.
In the single greatest, most coordinated strike I've ever seen, Pyrrha and I held Salem down, Ruby stunned her with her eyes, and Jaune lopped her fucking head off with the Master Sword, smiting her and sealing her away.
But.
But I'm not dumb.
Ganon always breaks out.
So it stands to reason Salem would too.
And then you had the tens/hundreds of thousands of people dying down below. You had the four wormholes connecting Earth and Remnant. You had all the damage done by the war, the radiation from the nukes that they let fly.
And four sources of infinite magic sitting right there.
And the soul of a Master in one soul gem, and the soul of four Maidens in the other.
Six.
Magic is what I think it is - and from day one I've associated the Relics with the Infinite Stones. Salem's endgoal with Thanos snapping his fingers.
The Big One: Using that to my advantage.
And it worked. All according to plan.
I used the Relics, and the two Soul Gems, and made the six Infinity Stones out of them. I pulled the Infinity Gauntlet from my belt, and...
Snap.
I sent everyone where they needed to be. I sent them to their homes and their loved ones. I sent them to their respective worlds. I killed the Grimm and nullified the pools around Salem's castle. I closed the wormholes linking Earth and Remnant. I fixed the damage caused by the war, cleaned up the radiation, got rid of the dragon, gave Oscar his life back, gave Ozpin his body back (for this life, at least), and sent the Relics to I literally don't know where. They'll come back when they're needed, to who can use them best.
Then I spoke to Solidus and merged her with this timeline, gave her a chance to prove to me she's good.
Then I spoke to Ozma and told him I'd do the same for him, but just like Solidus, I'd be watching. Solidus is my check and balance. I'm Ozpin's. I step out of line, Solidus comes for me. Ozpin steps out of line, I come for him.
But that's not all I did.
No... No.
There was still the problem of the Brother Gods.
They were a threat, and though I don't remember much from my stint with omniscience, I do know that I knew they were already coming. They weren't going to wait around - it was Judgement Day, and they were Skynet.
But I wasn't John Connor - with that gauntlet, I was God.
So when I snapped my fingers, I got rid of them, too.
Now?
Now the world's free. Humanity is able to make its own damn way.
I found Ruby after I finished recovering from my injuries. Ozma and the other Kingdoms couldn't really give me any credit as that would mean they'd have to give out a lot of secrets to the universe, so instead they cooked up a big story, and gave credit for the killing blow to RWBY and JNPR. Good for them. At the party, I got my old coat from GEMS' dorm and gave Ruby a scroll with my number if I'm ever needed, but I hope to God I'm not.
Gonna have to deal with the fallout of everything I did one day. I know for a fact Yang's coming for blood and Pyrrha's coming for answers, and, well - they can have it.
I'm going to build myself a home where the Aviator went down. It's as good a place as any. I'm going to walk there, though, take the long way - both to give them a trail, and because I fucking can.
Because it's over.
I won.
And now I'm done.
There won't be a next time.