Hope

/həʊp/

noun

1.

a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen.

"he looked through her belongings in the hope of coming across some information"

Oscar stared into the dirt, the world burning around him as he sat there brushing his fingers through Ruby's dark locks, his gaze avoiding the empty gray that had replaced the once dazzling silver of her eyes. She was gone, everyone wasgone… he was the last one standing.

He had watched them fall, one after another. Until it was just him.

Alone.

Shehad taken everyone and everything from him again.

Only this time, there would be no starting again… no 'next life' to take up the mantle and try again.

Salem hadwon.

Soon, she would take the Relics and bring about the end of everything… again.

He failed…Theyfailed.

What do I do!?He asked, reverting back to the small farm boy, begging the wise old wizard for the answers neither one had.

He knew it to be a useless endeavor though, because nowhewas the ancient wizard, meant to have all the answers, yet somehow always coming up short.

Ozpin wasgone, a part of him he could no longer communicate with the same way he could before…

Qrow, Maria, Jaune, Blake Yang…Ruby.

Everyone… They were allgone.

Tears began to fall from his eyes, streaking down his dirt covered face and landing on the ice cold body in his arms.

He was allAlone. The God of Light had promised he would never be alone, but he'd lied.

"I didnotlie to you, Ozma."

Oscar looked up at the voice, deep and commanding, in a way that only a god's voice could be. "You…"

"It has been a long time." The god of light spoke.

"What are you doing here? Have you come to tell me I failed? To punish us for failing to stop her?"

"Your duty was never to stop Salem, Ozma. That was never your burden to carry. Peace for humanity, was the task I charged you with. And you cameso close… on so many occasions. You werealmostthere."

Oscar glared at the primordial being of light standing before him. "So I failed at both, the job given to me by the gods, and the one we gave ourselves."

"Yes, I suppose you did. But, it doesn't have to be that way."

At that, Oscar's eyes widened, confused. "What do you mean, it doesn't have to…"

"It means… that I am willing to give you another chance. But, justone. If you fail again, then my brother and I will have to accept that humanity was a failure, and we will bring this world to its rightful closer. Will you accept? Or have you given up hope that this world can be saved?"

Looking back down to Ruby, laying motionless in his arms, Oscar thought of how she refused to give up, until the very end… through all the pain and loss, she never quit, never backed down… Ruby never lost her hope in a better tomorrow.

Oscarhadlost hope, his only reason to keep going was to keep her safe, to protect her hope for a good and kind world.

He had lost hope, but… if this last chance gave him the opportunity to see her world, to build the Utopia she always dreamed of then he'd do it.

Oscar laughed, he finally understood why Ozma made the decision he did, all those lifetimes ago. He had believed that seeing Salem again was worth any pain, any torture the world could try to throw at him.

"I'll do it." He said, repeating the words he'd said long ago, in another life, When he was a different man… for a different woman. He agreed to do the biddings of a god without asking questions…

This was the last chance- whatever that meant Oscar would take it and save the world, not for himself, or because the God of Light asked him to… not even because agreeing was Humanity's last hope.

But because it's what Ruby would have wanted.

The next conscious thought Oscar had, was waking up on a train.