[OP: "Ever After"--Carrie Underwood]
"'And the two beings of light went home to the heavens, and the heroes all lived happily ever after...'" Ruby finished, closing the book. "The end."
"But what did they do, Mommy?" young Summer asked, holding her stuffed dog.
"Yeah, where are the heroes now?" Clara, the second oldest, said.
Samuel, the youngest one, just moved a car on the floor.
"You know where they are," Ruby said, smiling. "They're all around you. Your daddy and I, our friends and family, they're all living happily ever after right now."
"Ooh..." Clara said.
Summer held up a hand. "Mommy, I want to be a hero too. Just like you and Daddy. Can I?"
"Of course," Ruby said. "Anyone can be a hero, if they do what's right and are brave and never give up." She smiled. "Right, honey?"
"That's absolutely true." Oscar looked up from polishing his staff. "Once, your mom and I were just kids trying to do our best, and we didn't know what we were doing, but we tried to be brave, and we never gave up, and that made it happen. That's the reason we got help. You have to believe that you can win, no matter how dark it looks, and even if you don't always succeed, you'll win in the end. Remember that."
The kids nodded.
"I wish I got to go on an adventure like that," Clara said. "The world isn't in danger anymore..." She sounded so disappointed.
Ruby laughed.
"Well, Clar--" Oscar put his staff down and picked her up. "--we went to a lot of trouble to make the world a better place for you and your siblings to grow up in, so I hope you don't wish it's going to get a chance again too fast. But, if you really want to go looking for trouble, you can always find it out there. Just remember, you'll get more than you bargained for."
"But I just want to be a hero," Clara said.
"I know," Oscar said. "And you'll be one, when it's the right time."
"Hmm," Ruby said. "You know, when I was your age, I couldn't wait to get out there and fight monsters and have a romantic life. I never thought I'd become famous around the world..." She sighed kind of nostalgically. "Those were crazy times. But now that I'm a little older, and wiser, and I'm your mom, I think that the best things in life aren't always the ones that seem like the biggest. The things I remembered the most--" She picked up Samuel. "--are getting a special hug from my sister, or friends...my mom reading me a story...my dad making me cookies, your father helping me feel better after a bad day... So hey, if you want to have adventures, just remember that this is the reason we have them...to protect this."
She gestured around. "Love and peace, that's the most precious part of life, and if you fight, fight to protect that, not for glory or because you think it's a romantic life... That's all fine, but...I wouldn't trade this, you know?"
"I know just what you mean," Oscar agreed with her.
"Are you gonna get all mushy now," Summer, who had Ruby's penchant for disliking shows of affection at a young age, said with disgust.
"No, I'm just going to get you." Ruby pounced on her and started a tickle fight.
Pretty soon everyone got involved.
After it was over and the kids were finally asleep, Oscar said, "I liked what you said there though... It's all true."
"Yeah," Ruby said, looking up at the now whole moon. "I mean, you know, I want them to have the adventures too, just like us...but is it wrong if I want it to be a little easier for them? Like we did all that to make their future better?"
"Well, Ruby--" Oscar took her hand. "--I don't know if we can control whether they have an easier life... I think only God can control that, but...I think we fought and we built and we worked to make them have a future at all...so that they could even be here. And I know that they're going to understand that, someday. And that's good enough for me. I think if I learned one thing from Ozpin...it's what you leave behind, good and bad, that's how people will remember you."
"Yeah, what you leave behind... What Shine and Wally left behind, my mom, and everyone else who gave it their all for the world," Ruby said. "We all did it out of love."
"Love," Oscar agreed. "Yeah..."
[And with that thought, ladies and gentlemen, I also leave you. This whole fic and the previous ones were a labor of love for me: love for the source material and what it represented to me when I first got into it, love for the craft of writing, and love for enjoying something with my family and fellow fans. So I hope that came through in the writing and that you all thoroughly enjoyed this ride.
It's finally over! I probably won't write any more RWBY stories, but if I do write any more spin off short fics for it, I'll be sure to post them on my profile.
Feel free to check out my other stuff. If you liked this you'll probably like the MHA and Naruto-based fics, and there are references to the RWBY fic in those ones.
Otherwise, thank you so much for reading this and supporting, and I hope that you got a better appreciation of the story's message and heart, as I feel like I did while writing it.
And I believe they all will live happily ever after--Natasha Queen.]
["This Will Be the Day"--Jeff and casey Williams--call back time!]
YOU ARE READING
RWBY Through Worlds (End)
FanfictionCouldn't fit it all in one book so this is the end of the story. Sit tight, it's a real ride. After the author's note, you'll see I wrote an epilogue in the form of a bonus book of extra stuff I wanted to see more of and couldn't fit in the main boo...
