EPILOGUE

This isn't a story heard from someone, but rather a small prayer directed at the stars in the sky.

What a long journey. The trials, the ideals pursued, the times were possibilities became reality. Painful memories, bright memories. Even that was only the beginning. After the attack at Beacon, Vale was left to pick up the pieces. Yang survived the stab wound from Excalibur, but only barely. And the girls grew up to become true Huntress. Even with Ozpin dead, they aided the fight against the White Fang from the shadows.

Four years. It was a long fight, but it came to an end on that day. After they were capable of overturning the attack of Beacon, the White Fang's forces were greatly reduced. But that didn't end the hatred of the Faunus. Attacking their warehouses, camps, settlements, the place of their recruitment meetings, and the underground complexes they had. They had be crippled, but it was no over. And even then, they were growing. It wasn't easy, and they didn't make any over movements, so it was really dragged down. The point wasn't that they were a great threat still, but if they didn't end it, they would grow back to their full strength and eventually even beyond.

Vale couldn't afford that.

Remnant couldn't afford that.

They destroyed all opposition. They killed if they had to kill, which was most of the time. Only when it was clear that it was all hopeless did the surviving soldiers surrender, and allowed themselves to be arrested. The leader of the White Fang, Adam Taurus was captured and executed, and that provided the catalyst for the group finally crumbling down. Cinder was also captured and executed publicly, as the master mind behind the two tragedies of four years ago. She died laughing. It wasn't a crazy laugh, but a placid little laugh, as if everything had turned up like she wanted.

Ozpin's basement was never discovered. As for his death, there were reports that he had been puking black blood, almost like a Grimm's blood, and had been begging for somebody to kill him in the middle of the battle. Glynda had been nearby, and she had taken care of that task. Nobody ever knew why he turned up that way, and the rumors and such were quickly silenced. However, Ruby couldn't never forget such a thing.

So after four years, Remnant settled back into an uneasy peace.

The red knight had told her to kept Shirou alive him her heart, and be happy. And she had done it. The life of a Huntress was scary, painful and you always lost more things that you gained. And what was gained was often fleeting things. But still, she felt happy for just simply being alive. Her friends were with her, fighting besides, and each at every one of them were happy too, so there was little to regret.

She couldn't lie. She wondered often. When they were talking idly about meaningless things, when they were going out to shop, when they were playing around like they still were kids. Most of the time, she wondered how happy would it be if he was there with them too. But still, It didn't change that she was happy. No matter how many times she failed, there would be a next time and she knew that many, many people could and would have died without her help. And in the end of the day, she had her friends. So her life was good.

Besides. Whenever he was, he surely would want to see her happy, smiling and being happy when looking back occasionally.

She couldn't remember his voice. It had been a long time since then, ten years, and they hadn't had even a whole year together, so it was only natural. But when she found herself thinking those simple words, she felt as it the weight world itself was pushing her down. She shouldn't have forgot his voice. She shouldn't have forgot anything about him, let alone his voice. But details that once held stark clarity had slipped away between her fingers.

She remembered that she had very happy back then, that she had thought they were the happiest days of her whole life. She remembered how his smile made him felt, and some of things he said to her and she said to him, and the simple sensation of his warmness as he carried her in his arms to the bed on the night after the excursion to the Forever Fall Forest. She remembered what he said to her back then, how happy she had felt because of having clasping her hand as she just vented off, without fear of being locked at as pitiful or the guilt that would come with burdening her sister with that kind of knowledge, which was the only one she had felt like she could talk about that with.

She remembered all of that, but the details were fading. And all those normal, daily life moments, those irreplaceable memories of the days which blend into each other yet weren't quite the same, disappeared in the blur of time. It hurt. It hurt, because it made her painfully aware that each of them were irreplaceable moments she couldn't never return to… and that she couldn't even remember them now.

But even that reaffirmed the happiness she felt right now. Because, she told them about those feelings instead of keeping them locked away and try to dealt with by herself. They talked about it carefully, and… somehow, it worked. The pain didn't go away. It wouldn't go away as long as the knowledge of not remembering such things existed, and it wouldn't never heal. But… it wasn't that the hole in her heart had been mended, but that she once again felt like she could live with it.

Ruby had walked for a very, very long time, struggling with the friction between ideal and reality. For the sake of the love he held for Emiya Kiritsugu, who had saved him and gave him a reason to live where he had nothing. For the sake of the love she had for him, who threw his ideal away to try to save her. Her journey has never contained a finishing line, and has never yielded any results. Where should she go, what should she do, in order to stop her footsteps? The answer was set to be finish line since the start.

Anyways, she was filled with scars. There were people who died in pain. There were people who gave their lives to save others. There were people who died right in front of without her being able to do anything. Still, no matter how many times she failed, she believed there would be a next time if she didn't betray herself. Because, she knew there were people who she had helped. Because, if she gave up people who she could have helped could die. But most of all, because that dream of his wasn't a mistake. She liked to make it come true for her own sake just as much as for his sake.

Yes, it had be a long, long journey.

Now, it was coming to an end. She knew she wouldn't never have a long life, so she wasn't angry or in denial at all. The wound that she had received now would end her before her Aura recovered. That was all there was to it. She closed her eyes. The pain was only a dull ache now. She felt… strangely calm. Almost relaxed, really. She was a Huntress. It was only natural that her life would end this way. Her only regret was about the people she was going to leave behind, but she couldn't do anything about that. Yang… Yang would be shattered, once again, but she would still have Weiss and Blake. She would still be happy, even without her. They all could.

Well, the truth was that she had another regret. If she had lived longer, she would have helped even more people. But that couldn't be helped, either. Oh, well. Almost idly, she wondered if that was her mother had been feeling before she came to ruin it all. Maybe. She didn't know. She couldn't know. But she liked to believe that, at least. She opened her eyes again, and…

For an instant, her breathing stopped. There. Right there, in front of her very eyes. All thoughts ground to a halt, and even though she had been so calm before, now she had trouble breathing. She forced herself to her knees, and with an effort, she managed to stand up on her shaky legs. Blood was pouring from her stomach. Her right arm was broken, so she held it with her left. She dragged her body forward.

The boy, just like back then, was waving his hand at her at her from the top of the hill. In the sky, burning fire and turning cogwheels.

Ruby smiled.

Relaying on the sounds of the swords echoing far away, the girl heads towards the deserted plains.