Epilogue:

When one is finally faced with death, if can for sure be the most frightening thing to face. It is funny, really. I spent my whole life fighting and killing monsters, and yet nothing ascared me more than staring at the face of death.

However, though I was alone for much of my life, I was not for my death.

As I took my last breaths, felt the pyralysis creep its way up from my legs and into my chest, inching itself closer and closer to my heart.

I was able to find comfort in my friends, who were unwilling to leave my side for a second.

My guardian, Alfred, was by my bedside the entire time, holding my hand and whispering words of comfort. Behind him were my newfound friends. Ruby and Weiss, and Yang and Blake. Yang and Weiss held Ruby, who had each of her arms wrapped around thier shoulders. The stubborn girl, so much like me, didn't want to stay in bed when she heard about my imminent death.

Alfred, whom had sworn to protect me after my father's demise. This was the last thing he wanted for me, but Alfred was my father's friend, and understood why it had to be this way. I am my father's daughter, after all. We fought countless times, about how hunting the beast that killed my father was the last thing he would've wanted; about how I deserved to be a child, and not a warrior. What Alfred did not know, was that I was to blame for Brutus killing my father. At least partly.

There was Blake, whose eyes looked so much like mine. She stood next to Alfred, solid and stoic as a rock. Her eyes held a simlar sadness, a similar hopeless expression to one I wore for much of my life. Regret can be a powerful emotion, but it can also be powerful motivation, one I knew all too well. With every mistake I regretted, I devoted a new moment to make up for it. And it was absolutely worth it, even though it killed me.

Then there was Yang, the strong-willed blonde who aggrivated me every step of our journey, who had as much anger inside of her as she did happiness. I hope that does not come back to bite her like it did me. Anger gives a surge of power, but also a distraction. Dristraction from pain, from empathy...from things you want most to avoid. I know that all too well, though I devoted much of my time to hiding it.

And Weiss, who is almost as cold-hearted as me. And just like me, hers is a facade meant to keep people at bay. That can come in handy, I have learned, but it also came at a cost. Loneliness can kill almost as fast as a poison. A guarded heart can be both a gift and a curse. It protects the individual from pain, while also preventing them from allowing themselves to feel emotion, to form connections.

And finally, Ruby, who was every bit as childish as I used. She has a spark of light in her that I wish I had kept. No matter how much adversity she is faced with, she chooses to focus on the good in the world. Even when she is in trouble, she chooses to put the needs of others above her own. That is a quality I admire very much, and one that will bring her very far in life...if it does not get her killed, that is. Take it from someone who knows, selflessness is both a warrior's greatest trait, and thier enemy's greatest advantage.

But I do not regret my life, nor do I regret my decision. Death was imminent for me, anyways, whether or not I took a dose of antivenom. However, that does not mean I am free from wishing I had more.

I wish I had the option of knowing these girls longer than a few days.

I wish I had the chance to go to a proper huntsman academy.

I wish I had a longer life...I wish I could live, and continued to guard the village I love, to protect the people I love.

A hand grips mine, but my extremities are so numb, I almost cannot feel it.

"Victoria." Alfred's voice calls. I open my eyes-merely slits now-and see his careworn, worried face staring back at me. But in his eyes, I see pride...and sadness.

"It's okay now." Alfred says. "You can go home now. You don't need to protect us any longer."

I part my numb lips, desperate to say something that has been on my mind since my eyes began to turn green. I want to tell him how much he meant to me over these years. I want to let him know my grattitude. I want to let him know that I loved him like the father I had lost, even though there were many times I did not show it.

"Thanks." Is all I can get out. I suppose it is better than nothing. I do wish I that could elaborate. I think he deserves that in the least. They all do.

Alfred smiles, and his eyes crinkle-the test of time evident on his face. Something I will never have to worry about.

"It was my utmost pleasure to be your guardian." Alfred says, his voice breaking slightly. "I only wish...well, you know what I wish, Little Flower. We've argued over that enough times." He chuckles slightly.

I part my lips again, and force out, "Loe...ew." Really, it was all I could muster.

There is a pressure on my hand as Alfred says, "I love you, too, Little Flower."

A light appears behind Alfred, where the members of Team RWBY stand. Two figures emerge from the light, one with the figure of a man, one with a woman. They come to my side, and the light-woman puts a hand on my cheek. The man-figure stands by Alfred, puts a hand on his shoulder, before he comes to the light-woman's side.

I feel a gentle pull in my chest, like a balloon blowing in the wind, only being held down by its string. My soul, my consciouness, is trying to blow away, and the only thing that's keeping it tied to my body is the slow beating of my heart, and the breaths that are becoming harder and harder to take.

"It's time to come home, Victoria." A voice calls, but who is belongs to, I do not know.

I still want to obey it, though. But I want to defy it, too.

However, I also know that this day has been for a long time.

The two figures extent thier arms towards me, and like a little girl, I fall into them, finally allowing myself to be engulfed in an embrace of light.

-Yang-

They had stayed in the village for a few days after Victoria's death. Ruby needed to be sure to get the proper doses of antivenom. Weiss had called Beacon on the village's ham radio (which she was really upset that they hadn't disclosed that information to them in the first place!), thier scrolls having been out of range of a celltower. When Ruby was cleared for travel by the medics, they had sent for an airship from Beacon. Ruby, still too weak to stand, was strapped into a cot when they boarded the airship. Yang rarely left her side, and neither did Weiss, who was fully determined to be the best teammate ever.

When they got back to Beacon, they each had to be debriefed by Ozpin and Goodwitch. Ruby was currently staying in the infirmary while she recovers. The medics were kind enough to send them back with an extra vial of antivenom, just in case she regressed. However, because of the venom's deteriorating properties, part of Ruby's upper arm would forever be marred with discolored skin and veins where the talon of the Brutus had nicked her skin.

Weiss was currently on Ruby Duty...which meant that she'd be entertaining (actually, guarding) Ruby in the infirmary so that the younger girl wouldn't go running off...again.

Blake had become sullen, lost in thought (at least, more than usual), and like a cat, Blake had made herself scarce. So, an hour before curfew, Yang found herself looking for her partner in all the usual places. She wasn't in thier room, wasn't at the library, and wasn't at the cafe in town where she got her favorite tea.

So that just left the roof.

Yang finds Blake on the roof, staring at the stars and shattered moon.

"So, back to being silent and sneaking around, are we?" Yang asked, sitting beside her partner.

"I just wanted to be alone." Blake said, not even bothering to look over at Yang. Her eyes were still transfixed on the shattered moon.

"Great!" Yang said. "So did I. We can be alone together."

Blake sighed. "That's not what I meant, and you know it." Blake sighed again. "Fine, stay if you want. I don't care what you do."

For a few moments, there was only silence between the two friends. Yang became content just staring at the stars, the shattered moon, and wondered if the village of Sternlite was seeing the same view she was looking at right now.

"Do you ever feel it consume your life?" Blake asked.

"What?" Yang furrowed her brow, a little confused at the question.

"Regret." Blake said. "When we were with Victoria, she said she was trying to undo her father's mistake. She said that she was trying to do the right thing, but also that she was trying to make up for the attack in the woods that killed her father. I could tell that her regret for that decision to go to the woods that day was what drove her life. She was trying to make up for something she had no control over. She let that control her life."

Blake sighed, sounding sad. "Meanwhile, I'm regretting decisions that I had knew weren't right. I let myself get dragged into the White Fang. I let Adam convice me that we were doing good when we were only committing terrorism, because that's what I wanted to believe. I went on those missions with him, I knew what we were doing was wrong, and I still did them. I put people that had nothing to do with the White Fang in danger...That...Yang, how could I ever make up for something like that?"

For a while, Yang was silent. How could she not? Blake was trying to process something that had weighed heavily on her heart for years.

"You..." Yang started, wracking her brain for an answer. "Blake, to be honest, I don't really know, but...I think that for every moment you spend wishing how you could have done things differntly, is a moment you've wasted that could've been spent helping yourself." Yang gave Blake a slight grin, before turning her gaze back towards the horizon that Blake had been staring at so intently before, smile falling.

"I've always lived off of the assumption that anything that was broken could be fixed," Yang said seriously, "but I know well enough that's not always how it works. It's like breaking a vase."

"Something tells me that analogy was based off of real life." Blake says dryly.

"Shut up." Yang smirks. "Anyway, when you break a vase, no matter how hard you try to glue it back together, piece by piece, so that no-one notices, well...the deed is done. It's broken, so you can't un-break it. No matter how much glue you use, you can still see the cracks in the pottery, you can still tell that it ws broken. All you can really do is put it back together the best you can, and then tell someone you broke the vase."

"That is a terribly analogy." Blake says.

"Hey, you want poetry, go read one of you books." Yang teased, bumping her partner on the arm. Yang felt herself grow serious again, as an old memory from her time at Signal stirred inside of her.

"When Ruby and I were at Signal", Yang started, "there was this project we had to do. We had to make our own weapons. Sometimes, prototypes didn't work out, and the weapons were scrapped and thrown into a junk pile. I caught Ruby one day in the scademy workshop, combing through the scarp pile, looking for spare parts. I said, 'Ruby, what are you doing? There's perfectly good parts right over there'. But Ruby just smile and told me that even the broken weapons can be repurposed into new things.

"I don't know why, but that one line stuck with me for a long time. I'd like to think that the same thing goes with choices, sometimes. We have every chance to change our minds when we feel we're not doing something right, but every moment we spend wishing we hadn't done something or said something or made some sort of choice, is another moment that we've wasted that we could've spent trying to change it."

Yang looked into Blake's amber eyes as she said, "I...I don't know what you've been through, Blake, and I'm not going to force you to tell me if you're not ready. Just know that when you're ready to tell your story, I'll be ready to listen. We all will." Yang flashed her typical crooked smile as she said, "Team RWBY sticks together, no matter what, right?"

Blake returned Yang's smile with a small one, but it was a smile nonetheless, and Yang was happy for it.

"Right." Blake affirms. "Together, no matter what."

THE END

So...yeah. That's how I chose to end the story. I know some of you might have wanted me to kill Ruby at the last minute (believe me, I thought about it) but I origninally wanted this story to be about the events leading up to RWBY: Volume Three, which (SPOILERS!) Is...on second thought, I'm not going to spoil it. If you know, you know, if you don't, you don't.

Anyway, I wanted to see how what happened in volumes one and two would have affected team RWBY should they have been sent on a hunting mission before thier chance to graduate Beacon. It was something that was on my mind, since we learned that the number of active hunters and huntresses being sent on missions was dwindling...the reasons why, we learn in the later volumes.

Anyway, I'm a huge fan of this show, and absolutely CANNOT WAIT until Volume 7 comes out in OCTOBER!

A huge thank you to those who've read, followed, and commented on this story. Remember, critiques are always welcome (because I'm positive I need it sometimes!) and respected.

And a special thanks to Mary Wolstoncraft Shelley, who's infamous novel Frankenstein was a huge inspiration to this story.

And so, before I sign off from this story, I would like to end with some inspiring words from one of my favorite novels:

"It is true, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account we shall be more attached to one another."

-Mary Shelley, Frankenstein