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(AN: This is quite a long chapter. Make sure you have ample time to read it.)
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(Eight months later)
The nightclub was closed.
Technically, it was not even supposed to have anyone inside.
It was 1 in the afternoon, after all, and the building would not have officially opened until later that evening. The neon signs outside were dark, the entrance was locked, and the streets surrounding the establishment were considerably more suited to lunch crowds and afternoon commuters than people looking for drinks.
Inside, however, three people occupied the bar.
Junior stood behind the counter, one hand holding his phone while the other occasionally reached for a bottle. Qrow sat on one of the stools, already several drinks deep, while Taiyang occupied the seat beside him.
A large Holo-TV mounted in the corner of the ceiling displayed a live sports game, its players moving across a brightly illuminated arena while commentary quietly played through the speakers. None of the three men seemed particularly invested in it.
Junior occasionally glanced at the screen between rounds of whatever game he was playing on his phone, while Qrow and Taiyang only looked up whenever something particularly interesting happened.
The rest of the nightclub was completely empty.
Qrow, meanwhile, was enjoying himself immensely.
"Hahaha, Tai, you have no idea how much I've missed this," Qrow said, lifting his bottle and staring at it with an almost reverent expression.
"Ohhhh man, never did I ever think it would be a blessing for my power to be gone."
Taiyang stared at him over the rim of his own bottle.
"We've been doing this every week since. Why are you saying the same thing over and over?" He took another drink before grimacing.
"Ugh. Why did I even bother joining you this time? I would've rather stayed at home with Zwei."
Qrow turned toward him, his eyes slightly unfocused.
"*Hiccup*. Urgh... I think you just need some liquid confidence in you."
Taiyang stared at him for several seconds.
"You realize I'm drinking too, right?"
"Exactly. But you're not drinking nearly enough, and correctly."
"There's a correct way to drink?"
"Sure as shit, there is." Qrow lifted his bottle with solemn authority.
"You need to reach the point where the room becomes slightly more interesting than it was before."
Taiyang snorted.
"That makes no sense. And that's literally called being drunk."
"Technical terminology."
"You're an idiot."
"A happy idiot, right?" Qrow took another long swig. "And more importantly, a free idiot."
Taiyang gave him a sideways look.
"Free huh?"
"Free from the tyranny of my own body rejecting alcohol."
"Seriously? You really still obsessed with that?"
"Hey, I'll have you know that I spent years unable to properly enjoy a drink because my damned awakened constitution would decide that alcohol was some sort of hostile foreign substance and purge it."
Qrow gestured dramatically toward his bottle.
"Now? Now I can become a complete disaster like everyone else." Taiyang laughed despite himself.
"That's your definition of freedom? Sounds pathetic. Happiness at the end of a bottle huh?"
"Heh. It's one of them, at least."
Their banter continued for another few minutes, drifting from complaints about their former powers into arguments about who had suffered more during the apocalypse, which inevitably became an argument over who had been more annoying before the apocalypse, which eventually became an argument about whether Zwei secretly liked Qrow more than Taiyang.
Junior ignored them for as long as he could, his attention mostly fixed on his phone. Then Taiyang finally reached over and smacked his palm toward the back of Qrow's head.
Except his hand stopped, halting several centimeters before making contact.
There was nothing visible between them, yet Taiyang could feel the resistance. His palm pressed against something that wasn't there, an invisible barrier that simply refused to allow his hand to reach Qrow's skull.
Qrow took another enormous drink from his bottle, swallowed, burped loudly, and slowly turned toward Taiyang with the most condescending grin imaginable.
Taiyang frowned and retracted his hand.
"Stupid domains."
Qrow shrugged.
"Hey, it's not my fault that I was once a super awesome Rank 3."
"For like twenty minutes or so, maybe thirty." Taiyang deadpanned.
"Yeah, yeah. That still counts!" Qrow slumped against the bar.
"Too bad that kid didn't let me keep all my awesome powers." He paused and sloshed the remaining alcohol around inside his bottle.
"Shouldn't we show more respect to our resident god?"
"Huh? Respect? No way. I mentored that kid when he was just a little shit who didn't know how to properly fight like unbeatable awakened. He might be all powerful now, but aint no way am I not gonna throw that shit in his face whenever I see him next." Qrow waved his fist.
"Wasn't it Raven that taught him?"
"Hell no. She barely taught him anything. Aura Echo. That's all. And even then... *sigh.* Oh well."
His expression became thoughtful.
"In any case," He looked at the drink. "Powerless does come with its fair share of perks. I can finally get blasted without my own body denying the booze."
Taiyang stared at him.
"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard."
He raised his bottle.
"I'll drink to that."
Their bottles clinked together and both men drank deeply. A moment later, their laughter filled the empty nightclub. Junior's head slowly rose from his phone and stared at them.
Then he looked down at the screen and saw that his character had been defeated. A large GAME OVER notification occupied the display.
Junior's eyebrow twitched.
"Oi!"
Junior slammed his phone down on the counter. "I allowed you two access for the sake of our previous acquaintance."
Qrow and Taiyang finally looked over and Junior held up his phone.
"Because of you, I lost."
Taiyang blinked in confusion and Qrow pointed at the screen.
"You were playing while listening to us?"
"Yes?"
"You can't blame us for that!"
"I absolutely can!"
Junior leaned over the counter.
"So let me make this clear. If you don't pipe down, you can get the hell out!"
The two men looked at each other. Their expressions became sheepish almost simultaneously. Taiyang coughed and Qrow cleared his throat.
"Understood," Taiyang said.
"Very professional establishment," Qrow added.
Junior glared.
Qrow lowered his voice.
Taiyang shifted in his seat, covering his mouth with one hand as he leaned toward Qrow. "Sheesh, why's Junior got a stick up his butt today?"
Qrow leaned toward him as well, lowering his voice to an exaggerated whisper. "I heard he got dumped recently."
Taiyang's eyes widened slightly.
"And those two twin girls that he adopted or employed got boyfriends," Qrow continued. "They haven't been visiting him recently or something or other."
Taiyang nodded slowly.
The explanation seemed to make perfect sense to him.
"Ah."
Junior's eyes narrowed from behind the counter.
"I heard that!"
Both men immediately straightened. Taiyang coughed and Qrow suddenly became extremely interested in the sports game. The Holo TV showed a player scoring. Qrow pointed toward it.
"Hey, look at that."
Taiyang glanced at the screen.
"That's a replay."
"Still impressive."
Junior shook his head and returned to his phone. For several seconds, the bar was quiet again. Then Taiyang turned toward Qrow.
"Oh, yeah. I wanted to ask. How big is it now?"
Qrow's face slowly changed. His eyebrows lifted and he looked at Taiyang. There was a long, deeply uncomfortable silence as Qrow's expression gradually became one of disgust.
Taiyang stared back and frowned.
"Your domain, moron!"
Qrow blinked.
"Oh."
Taiyang rubbed his forehead.
"Urgh... right."
Qrow took another drink and thought for a moment.
"Ten meters in diameter."
Taiyang stared.
"Diameter? You sure?"
"Um... I think so. It can't be radius, can it?"
Taiyang paused before saying, "Do you even know what that means?"
"Hey, I learnt this shit in high school. You can't expect me to remember what each means! From myself as the midpoint, my domain now only extends outwards in a spherical shape in every direction for ten meters!"
"That's radius."
"Whatever man. Did you want to know about it or not?"
"Fine. Fine. How large did it use to be?"
"About fifty kilometers."
Taiyang whistled softly.
"That's a pretty large downgrade."
"Yeah," Qrow repeated, "but... well, who's counting, I guess?"
"You were."
"Details."
Qrow rested his elbow against the bar. "Besides, it doesn't function like it did when I was Rank 3. The space within doesn't really ignore laws anymore like what it did when I was a Rank 3."
Taiyang nodded.
"So what does it do?"
Qrow scratched his chin.
"It functions a bit more like a sphere of influence or something, I'd say. Kind of like... within this range of ten meters, I have..." He frowned. "Telekinesis?"
"Telekinesis?"
"Eh. It's a bit hard to explain."
"You're telling me you went from being a gigantic flock of immortal crows capable of spanning hundreds of kilometers to having telekinesis."
Qrow pointed at him.
"Don't phrase it like that. It makes me sound super lame now."
"That's exactly what happened."
"You're making it sound pathetic!"
"It is a little pathetic."
Qrow sighed.
"Look, the kid fundamentally changed how the entire hierarchy works. Ranks aren't even really ranks anymore. The domains aren't what they used to be. We're basically leftovers from an old system."
Taiyang took another swig.
"And to think that shit used to be twenty kilometers in range."
"Fifty."
"Right. Fifty."
Qrow shook his head.
Taiyang looked thoughtful.
"Is that all the former Rank 3s have over the rest of the... uh..." He paused. "I guess... former awakened?"
"Yep."
Qrow looked down at his bottle.
"That kid made Ranks no longer a thing. Or runic energy for that matter. The only thing that former Rank 3s have over everyone else is our... domain."
He hesitated.
"Though I don't even know if calling it that is appropriate anymore."
Taiyang shook his head.
"Well... I suppose we're all still strong enough to level a building."
Qrow shrugged.
"With enough effort, I suppose."
"Still not what it used to be."
"No."
Qrow leaned back.
For a brief moment, his expression became distant.
"I'm tired of destroying shit now," he said. "All of us were overdue for a loooong vacation. Makes it even better that we actually get to sleep now and have normal dreams like regular people."
Taiyang smiled and the two looked at one another. Then, almost simultaneously, they raised their bottles.
"I'll drink to that!"
Their bottles clinked and they drank deeply. Junior raised an angry eyebrow from across the bar. Qrow noticed and waved him off.
"Yeah, yeah, I got you. We were just about to leave anyhow."
Qrow reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. The moment he looked at the screen, his expression changed.
The caller ID displayed a familiar name.
Ozpin.
Qrow answered.
"Hey, Oz."
Taiyang continued finishing his drink while Qrow listened.
The conversation was brief, though Qrow's expression changed several times as he listened. Occasionally he glanced toward Taiyang, who watched him curiously. Finally, Qrow hung up and slipped the phone back into his pocket.
"Alright, Tai. I gotta head off."
Taiyang raised a confused eyebrow.
"Weren't we supposed to grab lunch?"
"Yeah, but unfortunately, or rather fortunately for me, I gotta head to Vale Airport."
Qrow paused.
"Oh drat. I guess I forgot to mention it to you, huh?"
Taiyang stared.
"What?"
"Since LUCID disbanded, Ozpin's been using up his millionaire status to go on vacations all around."
Taiyang blinked in surprise and Qrow continued.
"He's in Vacuo right now."
Taiyang considered that for a moment.
"...Huh. Fair enough, I guess?"
"Yeah. It's kind of weird seeing him swimming around, sipping Mai Tais in like some odd surfer dude, but oh well."
Qrow stood from his stool.
"Do surfers even do that?"
"No idea. Probably not. In any case, he invited me to come along. Ain't passing up on some free food and drink if I can help it."
Taiyang frowned.
"Damn. Where's my invite?"
Qrow looked at him.
"Ain't you a damned rich bastard yourself? Why'd you need an invite for?"
Taiyang opened his mouth then frowned as he considered it.
"Ugrhh right..."
Qrow grinned.
"Exactly."
Taiyang shook his head.
"So, you're seriously flying to Vacuo?"
"Yep."
"Just like that?"
"Just like that."
"You're not going to spend the next three days hungover?"
"I can be hungover on a beach. That's pretty good too, no?"
Qrow reached for his coat, then paused. "Though, I suppose that... it's not exactly a true vacation."
Taiyang's expression changed.
"Of course it isn't."
Qrow sighed.
"Duty never stops, huh?"
"So what's the problem now?"
Qrow looked toward the door.
"We're also going there to see if we can find traces of that new rogue organization that's been causing trouble."
Taiyang's expression became more serious.
"First Sleepless, now there's another?"
"Apparently."
"Wait, don't tell me the name."
Qrow paused and Taiyang narrowed his eyes in thought.
"Is it Vivid?"
"No."
"Oneiric?"
Qrow shook his head.
"Neither."
"Then what?"
Qrow sighed.
"Nothing to do with Dream Realm stuff anymore. They're calling themselves Axiom or whatever."
Taiyang's expression remained skeptical.
"Axiom?"
"Yeah."
"That's a little ominous."
"Most upstart organizations with names like those are. But fortunately, nothing as crazy as the Sleeper shenanigans should happen anymore due to Jaune."
"Fair point."
Qrow slipped his coat on.
"I gotta rush."
Taiyang stood as well.
"You know, for someone who spent his entire life fighting monsters, gods and whatever else crawled out of nightmares, you're handling retirement pretty badly."
Qrow smiled.
"Retirement, who said anything about that?"
Taiyang raised an eyebrow.
"You said vacation, right?"
"Exactly, but that's not retirement. Although, I can't exactly say that I hate this life. So it is what it is. Besides, I'm kind of enjoying it now."
Qrow walked toward the door before stopping and looking back. Junior had already returned to his phone and Qrow lifted a hand.
"Thanks for the drinks, Junior."
Junior didn't look up.
"Don't come back again. Ever."
Taiyang laughed.
"See ya, Junior."
"Yeah."
Qrow opened the door.
The hot afternoon air of Vale rushed into the nightclub, carrying the sounds of traffic and distant construction. Sunlight spilled across the entrance, so bright compared to the dim interior that both men instinctively squinted as they stepped outside.
The city was alive.
New buildings had risen where old ones had fallen. Repair crews moved through damaged districts. People walked freely without looking toward the sky every few seconds. Children ran along sidewalks without parents desperately calling them back whenever something passed overhead.
The world had moved forward. Qrow looked toward the city for a moment and then he turned to Taiyang.
"See ya, Tai."
"See you, Qrow."
Qrow started walking toward the street, then he stopped after several steps.
"Oh, and say hi to the nieces for me."
Taiyang smiled.
"Will do."
The two men waved to one another before separating, each heading in a different direction beneath the warm afternoon sun.
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The beach was beautiful.
There was really no other way to describe it. The famous Vacuoon coastline stretched for kilometers beneath a brilliant afternoon sky, the golden sand almost painfully bright beneath the hot sun, while the deep blue ocean rolled toward shore in long, rhythmic waves.
The water was warm enough to be inviting without becoming uncomfortable, and every few moments another wave broke across the shallows with a soft roar before retreating back toward the horizon.
Music played from several nearby beach establishments, people laughed and shouted as they moved between the water and the shore, and the entire atmosphere carried a sense of carefree relaxation that would have been almost unimaginable only a year ago.
For four people sitting beneath the sun, however, this particular vacation had an additional layer of novelty. Glynda Goodwitch, Peter Port, Bartholomew Oobleck and Ozpin were all wearing beach clothes.
Port had abandoned his usual formal clothing in favor of an open Vacuoan shirt, swimming trunks and sandals, his large frame occupying an impressively sturdy beach chair as he leaned back beneath the sunlight.
Oobleck had traded his usual attire for a simple pair of swim shorts, a loose shirt and sunglasses, while Glynda was relaxing in a bikini with her long hair tied back, sunglasses resting over her eyes as she stretched out comfortably on her chair.
Ozpin, meanwhile, looked as though he had embraced the concept of vacation with almost alarming enthusiasm. He wore a simple pair of swim trunks, a loose shirt left open over them and sunglasses that concealed most of his expression, with a large tropical drink resting in one hand.
They were getting tanned and relaxing. None of them had an urgent crisis demanding their immediate attention or much of anymore responsibilities, for that matter.
The irony was not lost on Glynda.
She slowly lifted her head and looked toward the beach volleyball court a short distance away. Two familiar figures were currently engaged in what had become a rather impressive match.
Sun Wukong and Neptune had apparently decided that simply playing beach volleyball wasn't enough. The two former awakened had discovered that their remaining physical abilities made an ordinary recreational game considerably more interesting than it would have been for normal people.
Even after Jaune had dismantled the old system of ranks and runic power, their bodies were still significantly stronger than those of peak humans, and the result was a match that had gradually attracted a growing audience.
Sun leapt upward.
For a moment, his body seemed almost weightless as he rose several meters into the air, his golden hair catching the sunlight as he twisted his body sideways. Neptune had already anticipated the move, sprinting across the sand and launching himself upward as well. Sun slammed the ball downward with enough force to make several nearby spectators instinctively step back.
Neptune's hand struck it and the ball shot sideways.
Sun's eyes widened.
"Darn! Good one! But not good enough. Take this!"
He twisted in midair, barely managing to reach it with his fingertips. The ball changed direction again. Neptune landed, immediately sprinted toward the opposite side and jumped.
"Not this time!"
He smashed again.
Sun dug his feet into the sand.
The impact sent a small cloud of sand outward as he absorbed the force, his arms shaking for a moment before he managed to send the ball back over the net.
The crowd cheered.
Glynda watched the exchange from the corner of her eye.
Her sunglasses lowered slightly.
"Should we tell them to tone it down a little?" she asked.
She glanced toward Oobleck, who was lying comfortably in his chair beside her. "People are starting to crowd at their... well..." She paused, searching for the word. "Expertise, I'd say."
Oobleck continued watching the game for several seconds before casually taking a sip from his drink.
"Perhaps in a bit. They're still holding back, after all."
Glynda looked at her former colleague and current friend.
There was no sign that Oobleck was about to start talking at approximately four hundred words per minute. This was an Oobleck who no longer consumed special awakened blend coffee on the regular.
"I find you unsettling, now."
Oobleck slowly turned his head.
"Why?"
"You've been quiet for nearly ten minutes."
"Perhaps I have finally discovered the benefits of silence?"
"Right. That's definitely it."
Oobleck smiled faintly before looking toward the volleyball match again. Sun had just managed to spike the ball past Neptune, prompting the younger man to shout something that was lost beneath the cheers of the spectators.
Oobleck sighed contentedly.
"You should really stop worrying about former awakened actions nowadays," he said. "It's really not our jobs anymore, you know?"
Glynda was silent. She knew he was right but that didn't make it any easier. She slowly sighed and placed her sunglasses back over her eyes before leaning farther into her beach chair.
"Old habits, Barthy. Old habits."
There was a pause.
"...Please don't call me that."
Glynda ignored him.
She turned her head toward Ozpin, who had been lying in his chair with the almost complete stillness of someone who had discovered a profound truth about existence.
That truth apparently being that doing absolutely nothing was wonderful.
Glynda stretched slightly, her arms rising above her head as she adjusted herself in the chair. The movement caught the attention of several young men walking along the beach, who turned their heads almost simultaneously. A few stared for several seconds before their friends noticed and elbowed them, prompting them to hurriedly look away.
Glynda didn't seem to notice. Or if she did, she didn't particularly care.
"When are we getting started?"
Ozpin yawned.
The sunglasses concealed his eyes, making his expression difficult to read, but there was absolutely no mistaking how sleepy he looked. He shifted slightly in his chair and took another sip from his drink before settling comfortably into the sand.
"Let's wait for Qrow," he said lazily. "We have plenty of time after all."
He took another sip.
Then, so quietly that Glynda almost didn't hear him, he muttered, "Hopefully he comes later rather than sooner."
Glynda shook her head.
"You're enjoying this far too much."
Ozpin gave a faint smile.
"Perhaps."
There was something different about him now.
Glynda had noticed it over the past several months. Ozpin had always possessed a certain patience, but it had once been the patience of someone carrying an enormous burden. Every decision had mattered and every day had contained another responsibility.
Now?
He could simply sit beneath the sun and drink something with an absurd little umbrella sticking out of it. And apparently he had decided to embrace that opportunity with both hands.
After LUCID disbanded, everything had changed.
Their responsibilities had changed first.
Since the Dream realm no longer existed, and the entire framework of awakened was dismantled, all that was left was for LUCID to disband. Their entire existence was quite moot, now that they had an all powerful god watching over them.
In any case, the system that had shaped so much of their lives simply no longer existed and humanity had been given its future back. With that future came an unusual problem.
What did people who had spent their entire lives fighting do when there was nothing left to fight?
The answer, apparently, was vacations.
Glynda had heard that several of the former Rank 3s had taken the opportunity to laze their way around the world, enjoying retirement in whatever ways they could. Qrow was apparently drinking far more than he ever had before. Taiyang had become increasingly comfortable spending time at home. Others had returned to old hobbies, taken up entirely new ones, traveled, or simply enjoyed the luxury of having an ordinary day without expecting disaster to arrive before sunset.
It was almost surreal.
Yet Glynda couldn't deny that it was nice. She glanced toward the ocean. Children were playing near the water and families were laughing.
She smiled faintly.
"The world really has changed."
Oobleck nodded.
"Quite dramatically, I suppose."
"Do you think it was worth it?"
Oobleck considered the question.
"Considering that we are currently sitting on a beach in instead of fighting for our lives against eldritch entities, I would say that the answer is self-evident."
Glynda laughed quietly.
"Fair enough."
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The room had grown warm by the time the campaign reached what Maurice had repeatedly insisted was the final dungeon, though everyone at the table had heard that claim at least three times over the past several sessions.
Though, considering how fun the sessions were, they weren't inclined to stop them any time soon.
Dice were scattered across the wooden table like tiny pieces of some forgotten battlefield, character sheets had been covered in increasingly frantic notes, half-empty drinks sat beside bowls of snacks, and the large Holo TV mounted against the far wall displayed the campaign map that Maurice had spent far too much time designing.
The former members of the Occult Research Club had gathered around the table in their usual arrangement, arguing over spells, abilities, hit points, and whether or not a particular monster was technically capable of being frightened by a spell that clearly should have worked.
At the center of it all sat Mocha, one hand resting against her cheek as she stared at her character sheet. Her character was a divination wizard, a woman who had spent the entire campaign peering into futures that no one else could see, manipulating probability and predicting disasters before they happened.
It was, Maurice had joked when Mocha first created her, the most Mocha character imaginable. She had laughed at the time.
Tonight, however, the joke felt strangely hollow.
She was participating.
That was the strange part. Anyone watching from the outside would probably have thought she was perfectly engaged with the game. When Maurice described the ancient fortress looming before their party, Mocha listened.
When another player proposed a ridiculous plan involving an enchanted barrel, three chickens, and an extremely questionable interpretation of the teleportation spell, she laughed at the appropriate moment.
When combat began, she immediately reached for her dice and calculated her modifiers without needing to look at the sheet. She even remembered to use her character's divination abilities at precisely the right moment, interrupting Maurice's carefully prepared sequence with a calm declaration that her wizard had already foreseen the attack.
Her voice carried the appropriate confidence, and she occasionally leaned forward with genuine interest when the rest of the party made some absurd decision. Yet beneath all of that, her mind seemed to be somewhere else entirely.
She kept thinking about his eyes.
It was such a simple thing, almost embarrassingly simple, and yet she could not stop remembering them. Oscar's eyes. The way they had looked at her when he was trying to reassure her. The way they had softened whenever he was tired. The way they had widened in surprise when she called him her husband for the first time, despite the fact that they both knew the statement had been half teasing and half something much more sincere than either of them had wanted to acknowledge.
She remembered the way he looked when he was afraid, too. That was the memory she hated the most. Oscar had always tried to hide fear behind composure, but Mocha had learned to recognize it. She had spent enough time with him to see the tiny changes that others missed, the subtle tension around his eyes, the way his breathing changed, the moments when his gaze lingered just a little too long on the people he was trying to protect.
And then there had been the last time she saw those eyes.
Mocha slowly blinked and looked down at the dice in front of her.
Eight months.
It had been eight months since the end of everything. Eight months since the awakened had been returned to Earth and the world had been given something resembling peace. Eight months was long enough for cities to begin rebuilding.
Long enough for the news to stop broadcasting emergency alerts every few hours. Long enough for most people to start thinking of the apocalypse as something that had happened rather than something that was still happening.
For Mocha, eight months was apparently long enough for everyone else to assume she should be doing better.
She wasn't sure whether she was.
She had changed more than she realized. When she had first joined LUCID, so much of it had seemed like a game. The Dream Realm had been strange and dangerous, certainly, but there had been something exhilarating about it. Missions had been adventures.
Fighting Grimm had been terrifying, but it had also been exciting. The people around her had made everything feel lighter. There were jokes, arguments, ridiculous plans, victories that seemed impossible, and an endless stream of strange situations that somehow became normal after enough time.
Mocha had laughed through most of it. Even when things became dangerous, she had been able to convince herself that everything would eventually work out.
Then, Oscar died. The thought returned with such suddenness that her fingers tightened around the d20.
She stared at it.
A twenty.
For some reason, she almost laughed.
Her character was supposed to be the one who saw the future. Yet Mocha had never seen Oscar's death coming.
"Mocha?"
Her head lifted.
Maurice was looking at her from across the table, one hand resting on the campaign booklet. "Your turn."
Mocha blinked once before looking at the battlefield displayed on the television. "Right. Sorry."
"No worries." Maurice gestured toward the map. "The lich just finished monologuing about how pathetic mortal existence is, so naturally your party gets to interrupt him."
One of the players leaned forward. "Wait, can we interrupt him with another monologue?"
Maurice stared at him.
"Please don't. Let's just continue?"
"That's a no, then."
Mocha smiled faintly.
Maurice cleared his throat and slipped into his dramatic Dungeon Master voice.
"The lich raises his skeletal hand, and the entire chamber begins to tremble. Green flames erupt from the braziers surrounding the throne as he looks down upon you and says,
'Foolish mortals. You have come to challenge the inevitable. I have conquered death itself. I have watched empires rise and crumble into dust. I have witnessed the birth of kings and the extinction of bloodlines. You are nothing but brief sparks in an eternity of darkness.'"
The player beside Mocha immediately raised a hand.
"Can I ask him if he has considered therapy?"
The room erupted into laughter. Even Mocha laughed, lowering her head for a moment.
Maurice sighed dramatically.
"The lich looks at you."
He paused.
"He is visibly reconsidering his career choices."
More laughter followed, and the tension in the room loosened again. Maurice continued the narration, describing the lich's magical aura expanding across the chamber. Mocha watched the battlefield carefully, and for a few moments she allowed herself to become absorbed in it. Her wizard stepped forward in the imagination of the game, robes trailing behind her as she raised one hand toward the throne.
"I cast See Invisibility," Mocha said.
Maurice nodded. "You see six several magical constructs hidden around the chamber."
Mocha glanced at the others. "They're traps?"
"Correct."
"Can I determine which ones will activate first?"
Maurice smiled. "That's exactly what your divination ability is for."
Mocha picked up her dice.
She rolled.
The die bounced across the table, struck another die, spun once, and settled.
"Twenty."
Maurice stared.
"Of course."
Mocha smiled.
"I knew it."
"That's not how dice work, Mocha! You keep rolling 20's!"
"That's just how divination works!"
"That's cheating!"
"Prove it!"
Maurice pointed accusingly at her. "You... you... people are impossible."
The table laughed again, and Mocha felt some of the heaviness in her chest ease. She had forgotten how much she enjoyed these sessions. There was something comforting about sitting around a table with people who knew her before everything had become so complicated. Before LUCID. Before the Dream Realm. Before the Crimson Moon. Before the world had nearly ended.
The Occult Research Club had once been just that, a club.
A group of people fascinated by strange stories, supernatural rumors, old legends, and unexplained phenomena. It had been almost comical how close they had come to accidentally stumbling into the truth before LUCID had ever revealed itself to them. Looking back, Mocha sometimes wondered if the universe had been laughing at them.
Now they were all sitting around a table pretending to fight a lich.
It was strangely peaceful.
"Alright," Maurice said, leaning back in his chair. "Your divination revealed the order of the traps. What do you do?"
Mocha looked at the battlefield.
"Tell everyone where to stand."
"That's it?"
"Yeah? What else am I supposed to do?"
Maurice raised an eyebrow.
Mocha's expression became serious. "I know exactly where they're going to strike, right?"
Maurice smiled. "Very well."
He moved the miniatures accordingly.
Then he paused.
"Actually, you know what? Let's make this interesting."
Maurice reached toward the television remote and changed the display. The map vanished, replaced by a dramatic rendering of the chamber. Green flames burned around the skeletal throne. The lich stood at its center, robes flowing around its skeletal body.
One of the players immediately whispered, "Oh, he's cooking."
Maurice raised his hands.
"Picture this. The chamber goes silent. The lich slowly rises from his throne as the magical traps activate. Arcane symbols appear across the floor, one after another, and the entire room begins to glow."
He slipped into the voice again.
"'You have seen the future, little prophet.'"
Mocha's eyes narrowed and Maurice continued.
"'But you have mistaken foresight for control.'"
The other players immediately leaned forward. Mocha smiled despite herself.
"That's actually pretty good."
"Thank you."
"Continue."
The lich raised his hand.
"'There are countless futures. Countless paths. Countless endings. You may glimpse them, but you cannot command them.'"
Mocha's character stepped forward.
"Perhaps."
She looked toward Maurice.
"But I don't need to command the future."
Maurice waited and Mocha smiled.
"I just need to know which one hurts you the most."
The table went silent for half a second, then everyone erupted.
"That's cold!"
"That's so damn good!"
"Mocha, what the hell?"
Maurice slapped the table. "Okay! Okay! That's going in the campaign notes."
Mocha laughed with them.
For a little while, she forgot.
The group continued deeper into the dungeon. Their characters fought skeletal knights, avoided traps, argued with a sentient magical door, and eventually discovered that the entire dungeon had been built around an ancient artifact capable of rewriting one event in history. Maurice made the revelation dramatic, lowering the lights and allowing the room to fall into a brief silence before explaining the artifact's power.
Mocha stared at the glowing image on the television.
One event and one change.
One chance.
Her smile faded.
She remembered what Jaune had done.
She remembered how impossible the final battle had become, how many people had died, how many times reality itself had been twisted and broken before the last pieces finally settled into place. She remembered Oscar.
She remembered his eyes.
Her character sheet blurred for a moment. Mocha blinked rapidly and looked down. Nobody seemed to notice.
She breathed slowly through her nose and forced herself to focus.
The game continued.
At one point, Maurice asked everyone to describe how their characters would use the artifact. One player wanted to resurrect a lost king. Another wanted to erase a political war from history. Someone else wanted to make their character unbelievably rich.
Mocha's character simply stood before the artifact.
"I wouldn't use it."
Maurice looked at her.
"Why?"
Mocha paused.
"Because changing one thing changes everything around it."
Maurice smiled.
"Very philosophical."
"I'm a divination wizard."
"Fair."
She looked toward the others.
"And sometimes you have to accept the future you were given."
There was a small silence.
Then Maurice nodded and continued.
The rest of the session passed quickly after that. The party defeated the lich, although technically he surrendered after realizing that his greatest weakness was apparently four extremely persistent idiots. The campaign was not quite finished, but the final confrontation was close enough that Maurice declared they were probably one or two sessions away from the ending.
When the dice finally stopped rolling, everyone began gathering their things.
Mocha helped collect the miniatures, carefully placing them back into their storage containers. Her hands moved automatically while conversations continued around her. Someone argued about whether their character had earned enough experience to level up. Another person insisted that Maurice had been cheating with the lich's legendary actions. Maurice denied the accusation with an offended expression.
Mocha smiled faintly.
Then Maurice approached her.
"Mocha."
She looked up.
He stood beside the table with his hands tucked into his pockets. His expression was different now. The joking tone had disappeared.
"You doing alright?"
Mocha's smile remained, but it became smaller.
"I've been better."
Maurice hesitated.
"I... know it's been a bit of time, but if you want to talk about it, we're here to listen."
Mocha looked around and only then did she realize everyone else had stopped what they were doing. They were looking at her.
Just watching with quiet concern. For all her effort, she apparently hadn't hidden it nearly as well as she thought. Mocha looked down at the character sheet in her hands.
"I appreciate it."
Her voice was softer now.
"Really. All of you. You've helped me more than you probably realize."
One of her friends gave her a small smile. "That's what friends are for."
Mocha nodded.
"I know."
She took a slow breath.
"I'll be fine. It just... takes time, I guess."
Maurice nodded.
"Yeah."
He didn't press her, none of them did. Mocha appreciated that more than she could explain. She gathered the rest of her things and slipped them into her bag. Her phone was lying beside her character sheet, and when she picked it up, the screen illuminated her face.
3:00 PM.
Her eyes widened slightly.
"Oh, crap."
Maurice looked over.
"What?"
"I have somewhere to be."
"Important?"
Mocha slipped her phone into her pocket.
"Very."
She adjusted the strap of her bag over her shoulder and looked around the table one last time. The familiar faces of the former Occult Research Club looked back at her, and she felt something warm beneath the sadness that had followed her throughout the afternoon.
The knowledge that she wasn't alone.
"I'll see you guys tomorrow, alright?" she said. "Or maybe the day after if I can't make it tomorrow."
One of the others waved.
"See ya, Mocha!"
Another called after her, "Don't forget your wizard!"
Mocha glanced back at the character sheet in her hand and laughed.
"She can take care of herself."
"She's a divination wizard. She probably already knew we'd say that."
Mocha smiled.
"Probably."
She opened the door and stepped outside.
The afternoon sunlight spilled across the sidewalk, forcing her to squint for a moment. Mocha stood there for a moment staring at the repair crews working. Then she looked toward the road.
Her expression softened.
Oscar's eyes still remained somewhere in the back of her mind. They probably always would. But perhaps that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
She adjusted her bag and began walking toward her appointment, leaving the former Occult Research Club behind her as the afternoon stretched onward.
.
.
The convention center was packed.
Every hallway seemed to be filled with people dressed as characters from comics, games, novels, movies, and whatever other pieces of fiction had managed to gather enough of a following to justify someone spending several hours putting together an elaborate costume. Bright signs hung above the various exhibition areas, music and announcements echoed through the enormous building, and vendors had transformed entire sections into colorful displays of comics, figurines, posters, clothing and all manner of merchandise. It was loud, crowded and almost absurdly energetic, but that made it all the more enjoyable.
Among the crowd walked two familiar faces.
Ruby Rose had committed herself fully to the occasion, dressed in a red panda cosplay complete with ears, a fluffy tail and a costume that made her look considerably more adorable than normal.
Blake Belladonna, meanwhile, had gone in an entirely different direction. Her outfit was a cat-burglar cosplay, complete with dark clothing, gloves, boots and a mask pushed up over her head. Her cat ears were especially prominent, and she seemed to have accepted that there was no point in pretending she wasn't enjoying herself.
The two wandered through the various stalls while chatting, occasionally stopping whenever something caught their attention. Ruby would spot some ridiculous novelty weapon or obscure comic and immediately pull Blake toward it, while Blake would quietly disappear toward the nearest book display whenever she noticed something that interested her. Eventually, that habit brought them to a booth that had been displaying a particularly familiar series.
Blake stopped and her eyes immediately focused on the shelves. Ruby followed her gaze and smiled.
"Ninjas of Love huh?"
Blake nodded solemnly.
"It's the new edition."
"Well... since you've been waiting for that..."
Blake picked up one of the books and examined the cover with the same seriousness she might have used while inspecting an important LUCID document. The latest edition had been printed in comic format rather than its usual novelized presentation, and judging by the way Blake's eyes immediately began moving across the pages, she was perfectly content to spend the next several minutes reading it right there.
Ruby leaned closer.
"You're not even embarrassed anymore."
Blake glanced sideways at her.
"Why would I be?"
Ruby's smile widened.
"Last time you were here, didn't Jaune and I have to practically drag you to the booths?"
"That was before I realized that nobody cares. And if they do care, that's their problem."
Ruby stared at her and Blake continued reading, pointedly ignoring her pointed looks.
"Wow. You've really changed."
"I've learned many things over the past few years."
"Apparently one of them was confidence in reading questionable romance comics."
Blake calmly turned another page, though a hint of blush could be seen on her ears.
"...Exactly."
Ruby snorted and wandered away before Blake could say anything else. A few minutes later, she found herself talking to a cosplayer dressed as a Mistrali samurai. The costume was incredibly detailed, complete with armor plating, a sheathed katana and a traditional helmet, and Ruby immediately became fascinated by the craftsmanship. She asked where the person had obtained the materials, how long the costume had taken to make, whether the sword was functional and, most importantly, whether they had built the armor themselves.
The cosplayer seemed delighted by the questions.
Ruby listened intently, occasionally nodding along and asking another question before eventually realizing that she had been standing there for nearly fifteen minutes.
Blake eventually found her again.
The two continued through the convention until they reached the exhibition area where one of the major cosplay competitions was being held. They joined the crowd, watched several contestants walk across the stage, and cheered as increasingly elaborate costumes were displayed beneath the bright lights. Ruby enthusiastically applauded almost everyone, while Blake quietly pointed out details in the costumes that demonstrated particularly impressive craftsmanship.
It was all fun, but eventually, hunger won.
They found a quieter restaurant nearby and settled into a booth with their food spread across the table. Ruby immediately began talking about everything they had seen that day, while Blake listened with an amused expression, occasionally adding her own observations. Eventually, however, their conversation shifted toward something they had both been thinking about more seriously.
"So," Ruby said, stirring her drink with her straw, "what are you actually planning to do now?"
Blake looked at her.
"Now?"
"Well, after high school, obviously."
Blake leaned back slightly.
Technically, all of them had graduated. The old days at Beacon, the classes, the exams and everything else associated with being high school students had finally ended. College was the expected next step, but for the first time in their lives, nobody was forcing them toward a particular path.
"I don't know," Blake admitted. "I might take a gap year."
Ruby raised an eyebrow.
"Really?"
"Maybe. Either that or I could go into writing or rather, authoring, I suppose."
Blake glanced toward the window.
"I have time now. That's the thing. For so long, there was always something happening. LUCID missions, school, training, everything. Now I wake up and realize I have an entire day with nothing I absolutely have to do."
Ruby smiled.
"Sounds nice."
"Mostly."
She looked down at her food.
"I just don't know what to do with all that time. I don't want to spend the rest of my life just reading books, you know? I love reading, but I think it would actually be fun to try writing something myself. Maybe just as a hobby at first. If I happen to be good at it, maybe I could turn it into a career."
Ruby nodded enthusiastically.
"That actually sounds really cool."
"That's what I was thinking."
Ruby took another bite before asking, "Are you going back to Kuo Kuana anytime soon?"
Blake looked thoughtful.
"Maybe in a few months. I do want to go back and see my folks, but I think I want to stay here for a little while first."
She hesitated.
"Besides... I'd need to..."
Ruby watched her and Blake's cheeks began to color slightly.
"...introduce a certain someone to my parents."
Neither girl said anything for a bit of time. The subject required almost no explanation.
Jaune.
At this point and time, it was obvious that both Ruby and Blake had feelings for the stupid blond haired god. But that stupid blonde haired god was also doing his best to act like he didn't know a thing. Well... mostly.
He did say that he had a solution to problem that would satisfy all parties, but it would be a little problematic at first. And perhaps even hard to accept. But it would all work out in the end. Beyond that, neither of the girls knew what to expect.
Blake looked away and Ruby suddenly became very interested in her drink.
"Right."
"Right."
Another awkward silence followed. Blake cleared her throat before offering a different topic.
"Anyway. Ren and Nora?"
Ruby's eyes widened.
"Yes!"
Blake smiled faintly.
"I haven't heard from them in a while. What have they been up to?"
Ruby's expression changed instantly. She leaned forward, practically vibrating with excitement.
"Okay, so I actually have some news which is a bit of a secret, but not really a secret."
Blake's eyes perked.
"What?"
Ruby lowered her voice dramatically despite the fact that there was absolutely no reason to.
"Ren is going to propose to Nora!"
"What?!"
"Yep!"
Ruby's smile became enormous.
"Ren wants to make the occasion really special, and he's kind of waiting for today so he can ask Jaune to make the scene super romantic and magical for her."
Blake's expression softened immediately.
"Oh, finally."
Ruby laughed.
"That's what I said! It's about time, right?"
"They've been together for ages, anyway!"
"Exactly."
The two spent several minutes discussing how Ren might actually manage to surprise Nora, which quickly became a conversation about how impossible it would be to keep anything secret from Nora for more than five minutes. Ruby suggested that they might need to physically restrain her from discovering the plan, while Blake pointed out that Nora would probably interpret being restrained as an invitation to investigate whatever everyone was trying to hide.
Eventually, their conversation returned to their own futures.
"And what about you?" Blake asked. "What are you planning to do?"
Ruby leaned back.
"I don't know."
She considered it for a moment.
"Yang and Pyrrha decided they're going to start a martial arts gym together."
"That actually makes sense." Blake smiled.
"Yeah. They're going to coach students. And considering they're both former awakened, I'm pretty sure people are going to line up around the block."
"Probably."
"But beyond that, they don't really have any plans yet."
Ruby looked thoughtful.
"I don't either. I was thinking maybe baking."
Blake blinked.
"Baking huh?"
"I like cookies, you know"
"So that's your career plan? Cookies?"
Ruby gigled.
"Hey! I mean, I like baking too! So I figured I might as well do something with it."
"Have you considered culinary school?" Blake asked twirling her spoon. Ruby tapped one finger against her lip, thinking.
"Maybe."
She looked toward the ceiling.
"But I... might actually take a gap year like you."
Blake nodded sympathetically.
"Yeah. I'm kind of tired of studying."
"Same." Ruby sighed.
For a while, they simply ate. Then Ruby suddenly remembered something.
"Oh, right, Weiss flew down from Atlas yesterday, right?"
Blake nodded.
"Yep."
"How's the situation with the Schnee family?"
Blake's expression changed. The cheerful look faded slightly, replaced by something more hesitant and troubled.
"I heard Jacques Schnee recovered a few months ago. He's been out of the coma for a while now."
Ruby listened quietly.
"He was apparently pretty distraught when he found out both his wife and son were dead," Blake continued. "But with Winter and Weiss there with him, he's apparently back on his feet now. He's even taken over some of the operations of Schnee Corporation."
Ruby nodded slowly.
"Really?"
"Yeah. Schnee Corp has adopted quite a bit of former LUCID technology nowadays too. They're marketing a lot of the technologies to various entertainment companies."
Ruby hummed.
"Seems like Weiss is doing fine, I guess?"
"She's fine."
Blake paused.
"She said work was annoying, though and she doesn't want to go back there for a little while. She wants to stay here."
Blake hesitated.
"Especially since... today is, umm... well..."
She stopped. Ruby's expression once again became equally awkward. Both of them knew exactly what Blake meant. Neither seemed particularly interested in saying it aloud. Blake quickly changed the subject.
They finished their lunch shortly afterward, lingering for a little while as they talked about smaller things, occasionally laughing about the convention and discussing whether they should return another day. Eventually, Blake checked the time.
Her eyes widened.
"Ruby. It's 3.00."
Ruby looked at the clock.
"Oh no."
They both stared at one another.
"We need to go."
"Yeah."
The playful atmosphere suddenly shifted into something more purposeful. They gathered their bags, collected their purchases and stood from the table. There was still somewhere they needed to be.
An area that had been prepared and an arrangement that had taken considerable effort. Most importantly, someone they needed to meet.
"Ready?"
Blake hesitated for only a moment before she nodded.
"Yeah."
The two stepped outside together and began making their way through the busy afternoon streets.
.
.
The group arrived on a grassy hill some distance outside Vale proper, far enough from the city that the sounds of traffic and civilization had faded into little more than a distant murmur. It was not a particularly famous location, nor was there anything especially remarkable about it.
It was simply a broad stretch of green overlooking the distant city, with a few scattered trees and a gentle breeze rolling across the hillside. Most importantly, it was empty. Completely and wonderfully empty. Which, considering the people currently gathered there, made it practically perfect for whatever shenanigans were about to occur.
Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, Pyrrha, Nora, Ren, and Mocha stood together near the center of the hill, and despite the peaceful surroundings, there was something almost electric about the group. They were practically vibrating with anticipation. There was a shared excitement between them that none of them had quite been able to conceal throughout the entire day, even if several had tried. They had all been waiting for this moment, and now that they were finally here, there was only one thing left to do.
It was time to conduct a very special ritual.
Before that, however, there was something considerably more important.
Catch-up time.
Yang was the first to break the relative calm. She walked directly toward Weiss, slung an arm around her shoulders, and pulled the smaller woman against her with the casual familiarity of personal space invasions.
"Yoo, Weiss Cream, how you doing?" she asked cheerfully, earning an immediate scowl from Weiss.
"I'm fine, you oaf. You're choking me."
Yang immediately loosened her arm. "Oops, my bad."
Weiss adjusted herself and gave Yang a sideways look before allowing a small smile to creep onto her face.
"*Sigh*. I'm happy to see you too, Yang. How's the gym coming along?"
Yang's expression changed almost immediately. It was subtle, but enough for Weiss to notice. Her eyes shifted away for a moment, and she scratched the back of her head.
"Uh..." Yang began, suddenly sounding much less confident than she had a second ago. "That's actually going great."
Weiss raised one eyebrow. There was something about the way Yang had said that which suggested there was considerably more to the story. She looked past her toward Pyrrha, silently requesting an explanation, and Pyrrha merely shrugged before answering with the faintly amused expression of someone who had already heard the entire story.
"Too many people. We needed to hire a couple of receptionists, and now the gym probably might expand."
"Already?" Weiss blinked. "Wow. Consider me shocked, I suppose."
"Yeah," Yang said, spreading her hands. "Who knew that awakened, or... I guess former ones are synonymous with legendary warriors from, well, legend."
That was certainly one way of putting it. The world spent a bit of time adjusting to the bizarre reality that many of the people who had once been considered extraordinary beings had effectively become somewhat ordinary again.
The full breadth of their old powers were gone, yet the people who had once wielded those powers had not suddenly forgotten how to fight. Their bodies remained stronger than normal human bodies, even if they were nowhere near what they had once been, and their reputations had become larger than life.
The former awakened had become living pieces of history, and people were apparently more than willing to pay to learn from them.
"I can help with the renovations if you'd like," Weiss offered. "Schnee Corp has some really good contractors."
Yang's face immediately brightened. "Ohh, yes! That's just perfect. Thanks, Weissy."
"Please never call me that again."
"No promises."
The conversation continued naturally after that, branching into stories about the gym, college, travel plans, and the strange new world everyone had found themselves living in. All ordinary things.
Well, mostly ordinary things. Because eventually, the subject of Ren came up. Or rather, the subject of Ren without anyone actually saying anything.
The others exchanged knowing looks. Mocha and Yang were particularly merciless, both of them occasionally glancing toward Ren and then waggling their eyebrows at him with exaggerated enthusiasm. Ren tried his best to ignore them, but the faint redness beginning to creep into his face made it rather difficult. Nora, meanwhile, was beginning to notice.
"Why are you all looking at Ren like that?" Nora asked suspiciously.
Ren immediately looked toward the sky as though the clouds had suddenly become fascinating. Yang whistled innocently and Mocha took another bite of whatever snack she had brought with her and looked away.
Nora narrowed her eyes.
Ren realized that things were getting dangerous and silently began considering his options. Fortunately, before Nora could interrogate anyone, Ren reached into his bag and produced a cookie.
"Cookie?"
Nora's suspicion vanished almost instantly.
"Cookie!"
She accepted it and began eating, completely satisfied with the distraction. Ren quietly exhaled in relief while Yang covered her mouth to hide a laugh. Mocha merely shook her head. There were few forces in the universe more powerful than Nora Valkyrie and a cookie.
Eventually, after they had thoroughly exhausted the subject of everyone's lives and had spent enough time teasing Ren to make him regret agreeing to come, Ruby finally looked around at the group. She rubbed her hands together nervously and glanced toward the empty stretch of grass ahead of them.
"Well..." Ruby said, suddenly sounding much less confident. "Um... are we doing this?"
The question immediately changed the atmosphere.
The five girls, Pyrrha, Yang, Blake, Weiss, and Ruby, looked at one another awkwardly. Each of them knew exactly what was supposed to happen next, and somehow knowing that made the moment considerably more embarrassing.
Mocha, on the other hand, seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the drama. She stood slightly to the side with an expression of barely contained amusement, clearly pleased to have front-row seats to whatever was about to unfold.
Nora and Ren exchanged a look of humor.
Then Ren leaned slightly toward Nora and lowered his voice conspiratorially. "You know, I have to admit that I'm somewhat curious as to how Jaune is going to solve this."
Nora shrugged and whispered back, "Doesn't he have Knowledge? Surely this would be as easy to him as snapping his fingers?"
Every girl in the group turned around. They stared at Ren and Nora and the silence was immediate. Five pairs of eyes were glaring at them and both of them simultaneously fake-coughed.
"Anyway," Ren said.
"Beautiful weather," Nora offered.
They turned away.
Pyrrha sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Alright, alright. I think that's enough. Why don't we just get started?"
Everyone nodded.
They formed a circle and joined hands.
The ritual itself was strange enough that none of them had entirely understood why Jaune had asked them to perform it this way. However, since Jaune, whose existence now transcended most of the ordinary limitations of reality had specifically instructed them to gather together, hold hands, and speak the chant aloud—none of them had seen a reason to argue.
So they did as instructed.
The breeze continued moving across the hill. Grass bent beneath the wind. Somewhere far below, a vehicle traveled along a distant road, its sound barely reaching them. The eight of them stood together, hands linked, and then, almost simultaneously, their mouths opened.
The words came naturally. It hadn't been memorized by them in the traditional sense but had instead simply appeared in their dreams, planted there with the strange certainty that they would remember when the time came.
The All Devouring Light,
The True Encompassing Perfection,
The Golden Dream of Night.
"We summon you."
The final words echoed across the hill. Then, everything, including the wind seemed to become still. A type of stillness that seemed to indicate the silence before the storm.
They waited and waited, expecting something incredible to occur. Except... nothing happened. The wind eventually returned and grass began swaying again.
The group stared at each other slightly confused.
Mocha was the first to open her mouth. However before she could speak, two beeps sounded from somewhere in the distance.
Everyone turned.
A vehicle was slowly making its way toward them across the grass.
It was an off-road car, moving with deliberate ease over the uneven terrain. Its headlights were off, but the vehicle continued beeping every few seconds, apparently trying very hard to announce its presence.
They all watched it in confusion. The vehicle rolled directly toward them, stopped several meters away, and the driver's door opened.
A young man stepped out.
He was tall, well-muscled, and handsome in a way that seemed almost unfair. His shoulder-length blond hair moved slightly in the breeze, framing perfectly sculpted features. He wore a simple black T-shirt, blue jeans, and boots, looking less like an omnipotent divine being and more like someone who had just driven out into the countryside for an afternoon.
He raised one hand.
"Yo."
Silence.
Every single person stared at him as though they had just watched a ghost climb out of an automobile. Then the collective realization hit.
"What the hell was that, Jaune?!"
"Why did you make us do the chant?!"
"You were already on Earth?!"
"You drove here?!"
"We literally summoned you!"
"YOU COULD HAVE JUST TOLD US!"
"YOU MADE US HOLD HANDS!"
"THE CHANT!"
The complaints came from every direction at once. Jaune stood there and took the verbal barrage with the expression of someone who knew, deep down, that he had earned every single word.
He looked a little sheepish.
Unfortunately, there was also a faint, unmistakable hint of a devious smile on his face. Once everyone had finished yelling at him, Jaune cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck.
"Yeah. I was just messing with you."
Every single person glared at him and Jaune's smile disappeared. He looked slightly more sheepish.
"Well, you can't expect me to just come down from my realm in all my divine glory, would you?"
Mocha folded her arms. "So what's this, then? Some type of regular form?"
"Yeah, you caught on. Not bad, Mocha." Jaune gestured toward himself. "This is kind of like an avatar in which my mind is possessing. It doesn't really have any powers but it does have Peak Rank 0 strength."
That explanation did little to improve anyone's mood.
Jaune looked around at their expressions and quickly decided to appease them before someone decided to throw something at him.
"Well, anyway, the chant is still my ritualistic symbol. If you want to call on me, just say that and I will hear you no matter what. Regardless of where you are. But you have to say it out loud, however. Only then will it resonate with my realm and allow me to hear it."
Weiss, who had recovered enough from her irritation to become curious, tilted her head. "You know, I've been quite curious, but what exactly are these chants? The Sleeper had one. Genesis had one too, right?"
Jaune hummed thoughtfully.
"It's a little hard to explain, but think of it as positioning coordinates. When the chant is spoken, both the entity speaking it and the god it corresponds to will be linked, allowing the god to locate the person speaking regardless of obstacles."
The group listened more carefully now.
"This is a universe rule that goes beyond the normal boundaries of reality," Jaune continued. "Actually, speaking of which, I also found out that this rule goes beyond the power of my Devouring authority, meaning I can't nullify it."
That earned several slightly confused expressions.
Jaune noticed.
"Don't worry about it. In any case, ordinarily, these chants aren't supposed to work with the English language. They can only be spoken using Runic language and wouldn't normally work with English. However, Genesis, Salem, and I have all specially modified our respective chants. Genesis's was so that humans could have a final attack against Salem. Salem's was so that she could leverage a fraction of the power of her Rank 4 self. And me..." Jaune paused.
The entire group stared at him and he scratched his cheek.
"I kind of just did it for fun."
The deadpan looks that followed were almost synchronized. Blake's expression was particularly merciless.
"What?" Jaune asked defensively. "It seemed kind of cool, didn't it?"
Blake shook her head. "That was super lame. Now I'm second guessing my own thoughts."
Jaune visibly deflated.
"Um... well, fine. That was my bad, I guess."
Despite themselves, several of them laughed.
Before long they were moving toward him from every direction. Jaune barely had time to register what was happening before the group collectively surrounded him and pulled him into a hug.
For the first time since the apocalypse ended and he had sent them back to Earth, they were actually seeing him in person.
Jaune had visited them before, of course.
In dreams.
As with his new authority over dreams, he could occasionally appear in their sleeping minds, talk to them, joke with them, spend a little time with them, and remind them that he was still there. Whenever they had asked him why he did not simply come to see them in reality, his answer had always been the same.
He was busy.
There were things he still needed to handle. He would be free later. Now, apparently, later had finally arrived.
And none of them cared that he had arrived in an off-road vehicle rather than descending from the heavens in some spectacular divine manifestation. They were simply happy that he was there.
Jaune stood in the middle of the group, surrounded by people he had nearly lost more times than he wanted to remember, and for a moment he simply allowed himself to enjoy it.
For once, there was nothing else demanding his attention. Which meant there was one final problem.
A considerably more complicated one.
Jaune Arc had to make a decision.
The decision of which girl he was going to choose to date.
The situation had been obvious for quite some time. Ruby, Yang, Pyrrha, Blake, and Weiss all had feelings for him, and every single one of them had made those feelings clear to him in one way or another. Jaune had known for a long time.
The problem had never been ignorance but rather, circumstance. There had always been something more important.
The Nightmare system.
His father, Nicholas.
Salem/Tyrian.
The apocalypse.
The battle for the world.
The burden of becoming something beyond human.
Every time Jaune had approached the question of what he actually wanted for himself, something else had emerged to make the question seem almost absurdly insignificant.
But now?
Jaune was free.
Which meant he could no longer avoid the question.
Ren watched him carefully.
There was a slight concern in his expression because he understood exactly how much this decision could affect the group. Whatever Jaune chose, someone would inevitably be affected by it. Their friendships were strong, but feelings were feelings, and Ren knew better than most how complicated those could become.
He silently hoped Jaune had some kind of solution. Fortunately, Jaune Arc was not Jaune Arc if he was not a special bastard.
The vehicle behind him suddenly beeped.
Everyone looked toward it as the rear doors opened. Four identical figures stepped out and four more Jaune Arcs emerged from the vehicle.
They all looked exactly like the original. And, most importantly, every single one of them was smiling.
Ruby's mouth fell open and Weiss couldn't help but stare. All of them looked genuinely speechless. Ren closed his eyes and shook his head. Mocha slowly raised one hand and placed it over her face.
The original Jaune stepped forward with an almost unbearably proud expression.
"Well..." he said, gesturing toward the four additional versions of himself. "What do you think of my solution?"
The answer was obvious. Jaune's solution was to date all five girls simultaneously, using five different bodies. One Jaune for each girl. No one would be left out and no one would have to be rejected. Everyone would get exactly what they wanted.
It was, in Jaune's mind, an elegant solution.
A solution befitting the power of a god.
The five girls stared at him and then they stared at one another. The silence became almost painful. Mocha slowly lowered her hand from her face.
"Jaune..."
Ren sighed. The five girls' expressions remained completely blank and then something changed. It was subtle but a shared understanding seemed to pass between them without a single word being spoken.
Weiss finally broke the silence.
"Hey, Jaune."
"Yeah?"
"You're not using Knowledge right now, are you?"
The five Jaunes looked at one another and the original frowned slightly.
"Huh. How'd you know? I actually haven't been using it for a while now, you know? Omniscience kind of takes the fun out of life away."
Weiss did not answer because she really didn't even need to. The girls had already begun cracking their knuckles and stepping forwards. Even Pyrrha, despite her normally gentle demeanor, wore an expression that suggested she had reached the end of her patience.
Jaune slowly backed away when he realized something was wrong. Each of his clones looked toward one another and all five seemed to realize the same thing at exactly the same time.
Pyrrha tilted her head slightly. "Jaune, all of your... um, clones have no power as well, right? Only Rank 0 peak strength?"
Jaune swallowed.
"Huh... uh... y-yeah. They're all exactly the same."
The girls continued approaching and Yang even gave him a terrific smile. It was very beautiful and it showed off her pretty pearly whites.
It was not a reassuring smile.
"It's a very good solution, Jaune."
"Very good indeed," Blake added.
Jaune took another step backward.
"U-um..."
His clones began backing away with him.
"Oh shit!"
He turned and the five Jaunes ran. The girls chased them and the peaceful grassy hill immediately became a battlefield of a very different kind.
Ruby tackled one of the clones before he could get far. Yang caught another by the back of his shirt and dragged him down. Blake intercepted a third, while Weiss and Pyrrha closed in on the original and the remaining clone. Jaune attempted to flee, but without any of his powers he was merely a Peak Rank 0 fighter trying to outrun five angry women who had spent years fighting monsters.
He did not stand a chance.
The clones were swiftly overwhelmed.
Ren watched from a safe distance as one Jaune was dragged backward by Yang while another attempted to crawl away before Ruby grabbed his ankle. Pyrrha had somehow managed to pin the original Jaune to the ground, and Weiss was standing nearby with her arms folded, looking as though she were personally offended by the entire concept.
Mocha simply watched and looked down at her hands before back at the chaos. Then, at Ren. Ren flinched as one of the Jaunes was sent rolling across the grass.
"Ouch..." he muttered. "Well... at least it's a happy ending, huh?"
Nora was also cringing slightly as the girls continued beating the Jaunes into submission.
"Yeah..." she said, wincing as another Jaune attempted to escape only to immediately get caught. "Something like that."
Apparently, the universe had some special laws after all. One of them was simply this: Never give five women a reason to cooperate against you.
.
.
Jaune's true divine body lounged comfortably upon one of the golden streams of liquid light that flowed throughout the entirety of his divine realm.
The strange river passed beneath him without ever truly carrying him anywhere, its golden radiance moving endlessly through the vast white expanse that now belonged entirely to him. There was no ground beneath the stream, nor sky above it, and no horizon in any direction.
The realm simply continued, vast beyond comprehension, with countless rivers of golden light flowing through it like an endless network of celestial veins. Jaune rested upon one of them with the relaxed posture of someone who, for perhaps the first time in his life, had nothing particularly urgent to do.
Below him, however, was another version of himself, and Jaune could not help but shake his head at the sight.
Gula, now a Rank 3 being, was unlike any other Stalker to have emerged from the Shadow Realm, had taken on a completely human form that resembled Jaune almost perfectly. He possessed Jaune's facial features, his build, and even his general mannerisms, with the only obvious differences being his ink-black hair and his shadowy eyes.
At the moment, however, the terrifying Rank 3 entity was sitting comfortably within Jaune's divine realm while watching Mistrali anime and casually eating chips, apparently having decided that demi-godhood came with certain responsibilities, namely having absolutely nothing productive to do with it.
Jaune looked down at him for several seconds before shaking his head.
"I should have really just sent you on the planet," he muttered, though Gula either did not hear him or simply chose to ignore him, his attention remaining fixed upon whatever ridiculous scene was currently unfolding on the screen.
A sudden sensation then passed through Jaune's consciousness, causing him to flinch slightly. His attention immediately shifted toward Earth, where several of his avatars were still experiencing the consequences of his spectacularly poor attempt at solving his romantic dilemma.
He could feel the impacts, the shouting, the indignation, and the general chaos as Ruby, Yang, Pyrrha, Blake, and Weiss collectively made certain that the avatars understood exactly how terrible Jaune's idea had been.
Despite himself, Jaune smiled. At least Pyrrha had taken the initiative to kiss his avatar. That had been a pleasant surprise, and for a brief moment he thought that perhaps the situation had finally become somewhat manageable.
Then he realized that the others had apparently seen Pyrrha do it and immediately decided to follow her example. Jaune blinked, then laughed quietly to himself. Apparently, none of them wanted to be left behind after all. He shook his head, his expression becoming fond as he watched the ridiculous scene unfold from afar.
"I suppose that's a happy ending," he said to himself, accepting that perhaps this was simply what his life was going to be like from now on.
Even after becoming a god, there were apparently some problems that divine authority, near omniscience, and the ability to devour concepts could not solve without considerable collateral embarrassment.
His amusement gradually faded as his attention moved elsewhere. One of his avatars stood within a cemetery, holding a small collection of flowers in his hands. The avatar walked quietly between the gravestones until it reached one particular grave.
Nicholas Arc. Jaune's father. His avatar knelt down and carefully placed the flowers against the gravestone before remaining there in silence. There was no speech prepared.
Jaune simply watched.
The memories of Nicholas still existed within him, along with everything that had come with them. His father's mistakes, his cruelty, the terrible things he had done, the sacrifices he had made, and the final gifts he had left behind were all tangled together within Jaune's understanding of the man.
Nicholas had been many things to him, and Jaune knew that he could never turn their relationship into something uncomplicated. Still, the flowers remained there. For all the pain between them, Nicholas had ultimately given his son the means to survive the end of the world and become something capable of protecting everyone he loved. Jaune's avatar eventually stood and walked away, leaving the grave behind.
Another avatar then appeared at a different cemetery.
This time, Jaune stopped smiling.
The avatar stood before the gravestone of Oscar Pine, silently staring at the name carved into the stone. Jaune watched through the avatar's eyes, but unlike the earlier grave, he found no words to accompany the moment.
Oscar had been his friend, his teammate, and someone who had stood beside him through circumstances that should have killed them both many times over. His death had remained one of the wounds Jaune carried even after becoming something far beyond the person he had once been.
There were things he could devour, things he could restore, things he could reshape, and entire realms he could consume, yet Oscar's soul had passed somewhere beyond the reach of the world Jaune had rebuilt.
Jaune's true divine body slowly lifted his gaze. Far beyond his own realm was another realm. It was vast, dark, and filled with bones.
Mountains of them stretched across an endless landscape, while countless shades wandered through the darkness. Everything within that place carried the conceptual weight of death. It was not simply a cemetery or a world where dead souls gathered. It was something far greater, a realm that seemed to embody the ending of all things that lived.
Jaune had eventually given the that place a name.
The Underworld.
And that was where Oscar's soul had gone. Jaune's eyes remained fixed upon the distant realm. For a while, nothing happened.
Then, the Rank 4 being within the Underworld seemed to sense that something was watching it.
It turned.
Across the impossible distance between their realms, the being looked directly toward Jaune. It could not truly see him in the ordinary sense, just as Jaune could not truly see its complete nature. Instead, their authorities reached across the gulf between them, allowing each to recognize the existence of the other.
To the ruler of the Underworld, Jaune's presence manifested as something resembling an enormous, seemingly all-devouring maw. It was the conceptual expression of his authority, the hunger inherent within Devour given form. It stared silently into the Underworld.
The Rank 4 being smiled.
There was something unsettling about that smile. It was not the expression of a human being, nor was it the smile of an ordinary creature. It carried the hunger of death itself, an ancient conceptual appetite that seemed to regard everything living as something destined to become part of its domain eventually.
Jaune did not move, and simply stared back. Neither realm crossed into the other. Neither being attacked. There was no need for such a thing.
For now, they simply acknowledged each other.
Jaune's gaze briefly shifted toward the distant cemetery where Oscar's name remained carved into stone. Then he looked back toward the Underworld.
His expression became calm.
"Soon," Jaune said quietly.
The word carried a promise.
There would come a day when Jaune would cross that distance. There would come a day when he would enter the realm of death itself and find the soul of the friend he had lost. Whatever stood between him and Oscar, whether it was a god, a law, a realm, or the very nature of death itself, Jaune would eventually reach it.
For now, however, he remained where he was.
The golden streams continued to flow throughout his divine realm. Gula continued watching his Mistrali anime below him, entirely unconcerned with the cosmic exchange taking place beyond the boundaries of their world. On Earth, Jaune's friends continued living their new lives, unaware of the distant realms that existed beyond their reality. The world had finally found peace, but Jaune knew that peace did not mean the universe had become empty.
There were other realms.
Other beings.
Other gods.
And perhaps countless things that humanity had never even imagined.
Jaune looked away to the vast universe where there was a countless sea of stars, and each of those stars looked back.
(The End)