A/N By POPULAR DEMAND! The sequel to Shining Souls! That wasn't supposed to happen, but hey, I ain't mad. Thank you very much for your kind words- I haven't had this much self-esteem in AGES! Anyway, as reviewer themytick was able to deduce, the POV for the sequel is… Ruby!

By the way, Greif is an OC I plan to use for another story.

I DID IT FOR YOUUUUUUUUU!

The End of an Era

It has been a while, hasn't it friends? I've lost track of time.

How long ago did those shining souls come together? I seem to have forgotten, myself.

Don't worry, dear friend, they are all well.

But there is one missing piece.

I entered a small house in the woods of Vale, coming to claim an old soul once again- the last of an era.

She-her body- was patiently waiting for me in a bed, with a younger man sitting alongside her.

"Ruby Rose?"

She –her soul- laughed, like they always do. "No one's called me that in ages," she said, a little light flickering in those dull grey eyes. "It's always 'Grandma' or 'Mrs. David', or 'Commandant'

"It is time for us to walk together."

That weary old soul got out of the bed, and stood alongside me. "Let's go," she said. "I'm getting kind of hungry. You should try and eat some more yourself, Death, you look like you're skin and bones!"

She got this bad humor from her sister. I will have to deal with it.

"Let us take a longer route," I said, "for you are the last to go."

We walked, but not the normal route. Instead, we walked around the world. We looked at the world she and so many others fought to make.

I am not only a taker, but also a giver.

I give rest. I give memories.

So while we walked, we watched the memories. First, the ruins of Beacon.

She watched her friend disappear into nothing.

Nothing.

NOTHING.

She couldn't accept that, no way, no way, no way.

Then, Haven.

He held her like this for a long time.

"No one will ever hurt you again," Scarlet said, "I swear on my life."

Atlas.

"Do you think we did the right thing, Ruby?"

"Of course we did, Jaune."

That little shanty town in the desert.

Ruby watched the man from the attack on Beacon- his name was Greif- stared down Cinder, as the little girl hid behind him.

"I don't care if my daughter's the Summer Maiden. You. Can't. Have her."

Vacuo.

Greif Greyfinch and Orchid Zhao looked at Ruby with a mix of awe and fear.

"What does the commandant want with us, Greif!? We haven't broken anything yet!"

"You should know, Orchid, she's YOUR aunt! Besides, how long have I known her, a couple of years!?" The old grey haired veteran asked, folding his arms and looking away like a child.

She laughed, she couldn't help it. She was just like her parents- Orchid had Junior's fear of anyone related to Yang Xiao Long, and had the aforementioned's bullheaded resistance to correction- and of course, her bad puns.

"The last one to be killed in war was Greif," she reminisced. "It was what he wanted, I think…"

"It was, don't you remember?"

"Show me again, I've never had a good memory."

"Don't you know, Rose?" he said, clutching the wound in his stomach. "I'm a soldier, and a soldier will only be truly at peace if he dies from the last bullet, of the last day, of the last battle, of the last war. Now, go finish this. I'll just be a little while."

Mistral.

Ruby watched as Jaune handed the man the band- Pyrrha's.

Hector Nikos handed it back to him.

"She would have wanted her friends to have it, after all."

That bar in the center of the town surrounding Beacon.

"To absent friends," Dane said, raising his glass.

"Yeah… to absent friends" she replied, raising hers as well.

Jaune, Blake, Velvet, Ren, Scarlet, and Nora did the same.

"To absent friends!"

Haven.

"Ruby, wait!"

She turned around to find Scarlet David, covered in dirt, his hair plastered down by the rain.

"I was trying to ask you a question!" He got down on one knee, disregarding the fact that he was in the mud. "Will you marry me, Ruby Rose!?"

She forgot how long they laughed after she said 'Yes.' He couldn't get out of the mud- his knee was stuck.

The graveyard in the woods.

Ruby sat next to Blake's headstone, while Jaune poured out some cheap generic-brand brandy on Scarlet's

"It's just us now, isn't it? You, me, Weiss, and Ren," he asked.

"Yeah, I think it is…" Ruby said.

Ren passed in his sleep before the year was out.

She would bury Weiss in two years.

Jaune, in four.

I looked over at my traveling companion.

A single tear fell down her face.

"It has been a long journey, but we are finally in a true time of peace. Thanks to you, Ruby, my business has been slow, and souls few and far between."

"Come with me."

"It is time for you all to be together again."

Suddenly, they were on a different world. A happy one. Everyone she knew was there, smiling, enjoying themselves.

"Hey, there she is!"

She felt a pair of thick, muscled arms wrap around her and lift her into the air. Of course it was Greif, who else would try to break her back like this?

"Hands off my wife, you git!"

"Wife!? Scarlet, you and I are having a real talk right now!"

"No, no, no, no, no, put the weapon DOWN, bro!"

As Taiyang's fatherly instincts kicked in, she looked over at a corner of the room where she saw two familiar faces. Well, she would have, but there was a TOTALLY DIFFERENT set of instincts in play between them.

"Hey, love birds, if you could stop sucking face, we've got a visitor!" Qrow shouted, throwing his flask at the wall over their heads.

Pyrrha looked over Jaune's shoulder and blushed. "Oh! Hello again, Ruby."

Jaune was a bit more enthusiastic, dragging his lady with him to join in on Greif's embrace of Ruby.

Weiss shuffles over to her, drawing as little attention as possible, and pats Ruby on the back once. She immediately runs back to her table with Winter, Qrow, Neptune, and Blake. Sun had already jumped into the hug festival.

Scarlet threw himself into the dogpile to escape Taiyang's wrath, while also taking his beloved into his own arms. "My wife, my hugs, ya big dolt!"

"You better let me get in on this! BIG SIS COMING THROUGH!" Yang shouted, pretty much shoving Scarlet across the room.

"Hol' up, girl, I want a turn!" Coco fired back, shoulder tackling Yang.

Ren dropped his face to the table next to Nora, who pats his head knowingly.

Ruby wriggles out of the dogpile of love and affection, and bursts out laughing, causing every head in the room to turn to her.

She manages to compose herself, and look at the crowd before her. Friends, family, teachers, and acquaintances- everyone was here.

"I love all of you guys!"

I watched all of this with a smile, and walked away. This was no place for me.

I returned to where her corporeal form lay, and watched the younger man squeeze her hand. He could tell she was gone, but once again, he demonstrated that humans rarely accept anything without a last word.

"I love you, grandma," he said, before taking out a scroll, and calling the rest of his family.

"And so ends the greatest generation," I mused, "that ever dared to live."