Epilogue (Patreon)

Ruby stretched her body slowly, like a cat that was lounging in the sun, she tried to stretch her tense muscles before she rolled to her side of the bed and fumbled for the scroll beside her. With one quick swipe, she turned off the obnoxious trill that echoed through her room. 

Stupid technique, stupid alarm, stupid habits…

Reaching for the scroll, Ruby hit the right button to shut it off by feel alone, on her first try! Okay, it was on her third, switching off the alarm clock's trill before blinking her eyes slowly, yawning and trying to wipe the morning drowsiness from her eyes before reluctantly rising from her bed.

Tomorrow was Ruby's birthday, the day marking yet another year that she had lived… She was going to be nineteen years old, a more than respectable number, Ruby couldn't even be called someone who had just had her 18th birthday!

"Maybe this year, Yang will stop calling me a baby." Ruby entertained the thought for a moment, before waddling towards the shower. Sadly, any thought of sleeping in and enjoying a slow day was crushed by her time in the Academy.

Being forced to wake up at seven o'clock in the morning had hardwired Ruby’s biological clock to make her wake up at that time. Even when she was on holiday! 

At least, back home as she was for the holidays and before her birthday, Ruby didn't have to worry about a busy shower room. Being back home, Ruby didn't have to share her shower room with her team…!

Sure, she loved them to bits, but her authority as team leader meant nothing in the face of the queue for the morning shower! 

Uncle Qrow, Aunt Raven, even Dad and Mom didn't allow any tardiness to their lessons! So waking up early to get her own time in the shower was paramount, especially since she was almost always inundated with extra work. 

Just why!? What was the point of having half of the academy's teaching staff as her relatives if she ended up staying after lectures almost more often than anyone else!

Muttering more complaints about the unfairness of it all under her breath, Ruby Rose, the nineteen years-old proud sophomore at Trismegistus Academy, strode inside the bathroom. 

Turning on the hot water, she let it wash away her morning drowsiness.

***

Ruby Rose was a simple girl in the prime of her life, and she had her hobbies. No one played board games better than her, and no one could build weapons better than her, but having such hobbies were normal for all Hunters. Some liked to talk about dresses and some liked to talk about large-calibre machine guns, the latter was even more normal for a Hunter like Ruby than the former.

***

After enjoying her morning shower and waking up fully, Ruby dried off her black hair with the towel, before she looked at it in the mirror and gave up trying to comb her hair early in the morning. Yang could afford to spend the time to take care of her luxurious hair for three hours a day, whereas Ruby preferred to leave it all to chance. 

Besides, she wore her hair short anyway, and even without any help, it would settle into its proper shape after half an hour.

So, putting on her favorite t-shirt, she allowed herself to forget about her appearance, at least for the day she didn't plan to leave the house. Ruby then stalked out of the bathroom, almost running headfirst into her mother, causing both girls to recoil from each other in surprise, falling on their butts with a squeak of surprise. 

They were almost like twins, each copying the other’s action and reaction.

“Mum!” Ruby wasn't even sure what she was supposed to be saying by that exclamation, and neither was Summer, who answered her similarly in turn. Like mother, like daughter.

“Ruby!”

The mother and daughter looked at each other, as if trying to figure out what the other meant by their exclamation. Summer however caught on sooner, and so with a laugh she pulled Ruby up, even as she started laughing. 

“Breakfast is on the cooker, the cookies are in the oven, and I'm going to the shop.”

“Which one!?” Ruby’s interest was piqued for a moment for the possibility of sweets being bought.

“AlbainCo in Menagerie, so I'll be there in a couple of hours, and yes, I'll get you some strawberry shortcakes. Dad will be here in the evening, so don't miss him!”

“You're the best mum ever!” Ruby, delighted at the prospect of her eating her favorite cakes, instantly broke out into a smile before reaching up and kissing her mother on the cheek.

***

Ruby Rose grew up in a world where teleportation is completely commonplace. Since moving to Glenn, the former colony of Vale, in her childhood, Ruby has lived most of her life surrounded by portals. A world where the economy has long since gone truly global, where people could go grocery shopping in a town half the inhabited world away and return before their food had a chance to get cold. 

Ruby Rose grew up in Remnant's most powerful monarchy and entered the Academy with all the other students at her proper age.

***

Finishing her cookie, not her first, judging by the crumbs scattered on and around her, Ruby picked up the remote for the television and then switched it on. She was doing her best trying to find entertainment in the short time that Yang wasn't around her for the purpose of ‘getting her sister to go outside and touch the grass.’

With a brief sound of static, the TV turned on, with the channel showing a man wearing stylishly-rimmed glasses and a well-fitting suit reporting on the news.

“... this is the third charity concert organized by the Schnee Corporation and the Government of the Republic of Mantle and Atlas since the formal organization of the Faunus Rights Council within the All-Remnant Alliance…” The news announcer's calm and dulcet voice pronounced the words quickly and without hesitation, before continuing. 

“The current owner of the Schnee corporation, Willow Schnee, refused the channel's request for a comment, while the star of the concert, Weiss Schnee, once again denied rumors of her possible career change from a Hunter to full-time opera singer…”

“Boring~!” Ruby switched the channel again and again, eager to find something interesting to watch, before an advertisement on one of the channels caught her interest.

“If you don't have enough lien, a six percent loan! If you've got too much lien, bank deposits at twelve percent! Torchwick and Rainart Bank, two names for two problems!” As the catchy advert ended, Ruby switched the channel again, rolling her eyes at the ridiculous advertisement. 

A loan with only an annual six percent interest while giving a 12 percent interest for deposits? She may not have been much older than eighteen yet, but only an eight-year-old could believe such ridiculous terms.

Finally, her channel surfing found something interesting for her to watch, and to no one’s surprise it was something about a Grimm. Ruby might be a Hunter on a holiday, but it doesn’t mean that she was no longer a Hunter.

“Are the Grimm really retreating under the onslaught of civilization? Is the threat of the ‘reverse Grimm wave’ predicted by the most pessimistic of analysts real? And what lurks beneath the unprecedented assault on Grimm territory. A search for new opportunities, or is it just a source for new threats?” Ruby could literally see that Lisa Lavender, acting as both a marketing person and a talk show host, was trying her best to inject some mysticism and interest into the topic of her next debate. But even Ruby could read Lisa's complete reluctance to talk about such a topic. 

Ruby didn't know enough about Lisa Lavender to be able to say anything definite, all she knew was that she was the journalist that was somehow brazen enough to conduct an investigative report on His Majesty. A negative leaning one at that! 

After the ‘report’ flopped harder than Ilia dealing with Blake, despite the large amount of money she had spent on it, she had been relegated to a host for a second-rate television show.

Ruby switched the channels again, her brow furrowing a little, as she found nothing that could catch her attention. “Has good television dried up and there's nothing else of interest on Remnant?”

Well, Ruby did find one, a TV program that could catch her attention, if for all the wrong reasons.

“… I'm asking you, is this normal?! Can you look at your own daughter and think, yes, that's my future wife and the mother of my child?! It's madness, but everyone pretends it's normal, that King Osmond is allowed to do such things just because he's the King! Such words were the reason for the creation of the Council system itself, in the original sense of the word!” 

The flushed face of the man shaking his fist menacingly might look imposing enough to scare young children, and their long official sounding title might cow the civilians, but Ruby was neither. Ruby knew such people, third assistant to the second deputy first chairman of the public works committee on the issues of organizing of work committees. A title so vague and undefined that hardly anyone could even imagine a list of his duties, but enough for the ratings-hungry producers to sign him off as a ‘government official’. 

In response, however, a younger and considerably more neat and handsome-looking young man replied, by raising his voice to interrupt his opponent’s unintelligible ranting. "If you mean kinship, well, there just isn't any! As for the age difference? It is almost negligible, we all know of far more high profile weddings where the participants are twenty, forty, or even sixty years apart!” 

His opponent sufficiently cowed the young man for his killing blow.

“Or do you now turn to tradition? What happened to the idea of progressive acceptance of love? Well, there have been many versions of the Council where such things are banned. Tell me, maybe you are thinking of going back to the original version of the Councils, with a ban on women and faunus voting? Or maybe we could go the other way round? If you're so focused on the past traditions, it's worth saying that marriages in the past were possible among much closer relatives. Not that such arguments even hold any water, given the lack of any familial connection between Cinder and…”

Ruby leaned back on the sofa and rolled her eyes as she pressed the power button, shutting down the TV. Perhaps in the first couple of months after the wedding between Aunt Cinder and Uncle Jonathan had taken place, such talk might have kept the most bored of housewives watching. But soon enough, the television producers had discovered how indifferent the people of Remnant were to such news. 

Yes, it was an unusual love story. But that’s it, just ‘unusual’, not something that could be milked for years, or even months on end. 

Besides, given Jonathan's life, people would have been considerably more surprised that his love life would turn out to be ‘ordinary’. Well, considering how uncontroversial. Jonathan's love life turned out to be, after the news broke that Jonathan had married Cinder, most people were actually a bit disappointed. 

Like people who had foreseen the developments of a movie but were still hoping for a big plot twist at the end, only to end up disappointed since the movie ended the way they expect it to end.

The Hero has won and the Demon King slain, what a cliché ending.

Now that Jonathan and Cinder's son was already two years old? Bringing up that old story again only meant that today is an exceptionally slow news week, at the very least using His Majesty’s name on a title card would bring in some eyes. Even if the topic of discussion has been discussed to death. 

But, that also meant that Ruby couldn't find anything interesting on TV to waste her time on. So, getting up from the sofa with a sigh, Ruby headed for the bookcase nearby, trying to think of which of the books she'd already read was interesting enough to reread.

***

Ruby Rose was the leader of Team RUBY, a marvelous team of four. She had never seen Weiss Schnee in person in her life, she knew her only in passing, and of course, Ruby still regularly hangs out with her older sister, now graduated from the Academy. Her teammates were Blake, Illia and Pyrrha, and was the leader of her team. 

She lived in a slightly odd but wholesome family life with her mother, father, uncle Qrow was a regular fixture that tried to visit as much as he could. While his sister, her father's ex-wife, Yang’s mom, Raven, was a distant aunt to Ruby, not too close to meet each day, but enough to wish each other happy holidays. But thanks to Aunt Raven’s job, no matter how much her mom protested that she and King Jonathan were friends, Ruby had even been to Jonathan and Cinder's wedding, the formal banquet, to be precise. Those celebrations hadn't lasted too long, and soon enough Jonathan and Cinder had left the guests before going on a little honeymoon in Menagerie… 

***

Yang had arrived at the doorstep the way Yang liked it, with the thunder of a motorbike roaring to a halt, and then with the bang of the door slamming, a joyous voice at full volume. 

“Where are the flowers at the feet of Remnant's best Hunter and a congratulatory hymn at full volume! I'm back from my mission!”

“Yang, it was just a routine patrol!” Ruby huffed indignantly from her couch, even if she was inwardly glad for the arrival of her rambunctious sister. After half an hour staring at the walls to see if she could find some eldritch truth on the way the paint dried, Ruby was ready to settle for any kind of entertainment imaginable. 

What brain damage had made her leave her scythe at the Academy!?

“What cruelty, does my own sister wish for me to be ambushed by a Grimm?! My own sister doesn't respect the risks I take for humanity?! My own sister doesn't appreciate my hard work!!!” Yang, hearing Ruby’s response, waited for her to turn fully in her direction, before she exaggeratedly recoiled as if struck, leaning her back against the front door and placing the back of her palm against her forehead. It created such a grotesque parody of heartbreak that such clowning managed to break through the threshold of ‘hilariously unfunny’ and become funny precisely from the ridiculousness of it. “Oh, woe is me, woe is me!”

“Okay, okay, Yang, you're doing great, the cookies are in the oven in the kitchen!” Ruby rolled her eyes, plopping down on the sofa again and throwing her leg over the armrest. Of course, at first, Ruby, a much younger Ruby, had listened with rapt attention to Yang's stories about her missions, oohing and aahing in all the right places. She happily absorbed the information about the dozen hordes, all exclusively Alpha Beowulfs, that Yang had wiped out in one fell swoop. 

But after the fifth such story, doubt had crept into Ruby's mind about the veracity of the information Yang was providing. After Ruby herself had been exposed to real Hunter missions, under the purview of full-fledged Hunters, of course, but real missions nonetheless, Ruby suddenly realized that the vast majority of Hunter missions were terribly boring.

Patrol the designated grounds, find Grimm, relay information. Monitor a concentration of Grimm, delineate an area for future extermination mission, relay information. Deal with a couple of Beowulfs, conduct objective control, and relay information.

Half of the hunter's time was spent moving cross-country, ten percent sleeping, another five percent resting to recover Aura, just five percent on actually fighting, while the remaining thirty percent was for filling out paperwork.

When Ruby first entered the Academy, she was ready to roll her eyes, when her Father had tried to teach her such things. After all, who needed boring forms and formulae!? 

She was a Hunter, put her not-so-little Crescent Rose in her hands and watched her heroically take down a horde of Grimm, all by herself!

As it turned out, on field missions, Ruby held a pen more often than she held a weapon, and no jokes that pens are the mightiest weapons, dad, made her feel better. 

Sometimes, when Ruby closed her eyes, she could see the blank paperwork dancing in front of her eyes, reports that needed to be filled in duplicate, sometimes triplicates. A report of discrepancies in the information provided, a report and growth of the Grimm horde, an eradication report… 

Sometimes Ruby would wake up on these missions, when, involuntarily, her hand would clench as if she were holding a pen and was writing a report on the classification of encounters with Grimm… 

Ruby was not a battle maniac, no, of course Ruby was only even more pleased that she was far more likely to avoid combat altogether and not endanger the defenceless civilians around her. But maybe sometimes, rarely, she was still allowed to enjoy combat, no?!

Opening her silver eyes, Ruby stared at the figure of Yang sprawled across the table, then sigh. It seems that her sister was also dead with post-mission syndrome. 

“Yang… How about a spar?”

***

Ruby Rose knew about the Maidens and their powers, but she had no idea about the silver eyes or the powers hidden in them. Didn't know about the existence of wizards and ancient legends, Gods and Relics. Didn't know about Ozpin's past, or the existence of Salem, or the great war that stretched through all of Remnant's known history, and its forgotten ones, of the end of that war only three years ago. 

She didn't know about why Professor Ozpin had stepped down from his position as the Beacon academy headmaster. Ceding the post to his apprentice, Winter Schnee, or why he had passed away peacefully in his sleep just two years later on Uncle Jonathan's birthday. Ruby wasn't even entirely sure if she'd ever met Professor Ozpin, or if it was just a mirage of her memory, born of her imperfect childhood memories.

***

Once inside the house on tired and shaking legs, Ruby nearly fell, as she dragged her feet along the ground before she reached the couch and plopped down on it. Ignoring the clothes clinging to her skin and the sweat running down her in nasty, cold, sticky rivulets.

“Yang… You can go… First…  In the shower…” Ruby managed to squeeze out the words, not without considerable amusement as she watched even her perpetually energetic sister taking her time to get inside the house, each step measured on shaking legs.

Of course, Ruby was a… Not so great a fighter, to put it lightly, without Crescent Rose. But, even if she did bring it home, such weapons were only to be used in the event of a real battle, or at least under the oversight of an experienced Hunter always ready to step in. So, there was no way Ruby could beat Yang in a fist fight, Yang, who specialized in such battles.

However, Ruby did her best. After entering and training at the Academy for over a year now, her unarmed hand-to-hand combat skills had gone from 'nonexistent' to 'satisfactory'. It was more just to shore up her weakness, as Ruby was too lightweight and petite to become a champion like Yang. However, the training at the Academy and Yang's personal training had still forced Ruby to learn a trick or two in the extreme case where she loses her weapon. 

And so, after no small amount of sweat, and some spilled blood, Ruby got results.

She was able to land three strikes on Yang and knock her down once!

Of course, aside from that fact, Ruby herself was more of a moving punching bag to Yang, being beaten black and blue more times than she should mention for the sake of preserving her self-esteem. 

But Ruby had made Yang at least expend some energy on hitting her, and that in turn already meant that Ruby had achieved at least some success!

Unable to contain her mirth completely, Ruby let out a few chuckles to herself, before getting to the shower herself when Yang was done. Throwing off her sweaty clothes to the hamper and finding herself under a blissfully hot shower after the long spar, the jet of hot water washed away any soreness in her muscles.

After a few minutes in the shower, used to a quick wash, Ruby put on the clean casual clothes she had picked out, without waiting for her hair to dry off completely. Without the pain of the sore muscles, Ruby had to admit that she had fun with the spar. Not that she particularly enjoyed unarmed fights, but anything was better than boredom.

Yang, standing around in the kitchen, probably to fix herself some snack, gave Ruby a glance, then hummed, before casually propping her prominent breasts up, with her arms crossed underneath it. Ruby, instantly recognizing the meaning of Yang's action, only puffed up her cheeks in indignation. 

“I've got plenty of time! The body grows until you’re twenty-five! I’m just a late bloomer!”

Yang grin grew even wider, as she just pushed up her chest even more, smiling innocently at Ruby, 

“What? I didn't even say anything!”

“But I know what you're going to say!” Ruby pointed her finger accusingly at Yang.

In response, her sister only made an honest and surprised face, leaning slightly forward, making her already prominent breasts look even bigger, the surprise morphing into a shit-eating grin.

“You're unbearable!” Ruby stomped her feet as her sister started laughing, as Ruby launched into an attack, only to be kept at bay as her sister simply held out her hand, placing it on her head.  

Frustrated at her lacking reach, she only stopped from giving her sister the very much deserved punishment, when she heard dad's car slowly turning onto the gravel of their driveway. 

“Dad's home!”

“That’s great!” Yang's face brightened as well, before the smile on her face suddenly froze as she spotted something behind Ruby’s back. Ruby, following Yang’s gaze in return, found what Yang was staring at in horror. 

“Ruby, look at what you did!”

Huge dirt stains smeared across the couch, the stains left by Ruby's dirty clothes.

“Yang…” Ruby spoke out, slowly and with uncertainty, as she looked at the huge brown-black stains liberally smeared all over the previously cream-colored sofa. 

"You wanted to celebrate the end of the mission with your team, right?”

“I don't see how that's any of your business…?” Yang said with a note of vindictiveness in her voice that faded away as soon as she caught Ruby's sly glance.

“Yang, how can dad be sure it was me? Both of our dirtied clothes are already in the wash…” Ruby smirked slyly at her sister.

“Ruby, that’s not fair!” Yang glared indignantly at Ruby, to which she only reacted with a facial expression copied from Yang and her own words. “Yang, look at what you did! There, dad was sure to hear that…”

Yang looked at Ruby as her eyes turned scarlet as her hand started shaking. Before with one last glance to the front door, her eyes turned back to its lilac color, as she sighed, defeated. 

“We have thirty seconds before Dad comes inside.”

Ruby only nodded solemnly at those words, then started rushing all over the place, rose petals left in her wake. 

Sometimes her semblance of super speed really helped Ruby in her normal life.

***

Ruby Rose sometimes wondered where she would go next after she finished her training at the Academy, but that’s about it, just when she had some downtime without anything to do, not really something occupied her mind. After all, she had almost three more years of Academy training ahead of her. 

She could become a free Hunter? The demand for those was considerably high nowadays, with the mass retreat of Grimm, and with more land being opened up for development, there aren’t a lack of exploratory missions. 

She could join the army if she wanted something more stable? Or maybe even become a teacher, like her parents did. 

It didn't matter what she chose, really. Because Ruby Rose wasn't involved in the great missions to save Remnant, destroy ancient witches, or decide the fate of all of Remnant. 

Ruby Rose was a simple girl, a simple soul, living her life in the simplest way possible, one day at a time.

***

As Ruby tumbled out of the bar, only on her feet thanks to her sister’s support, she tried her best to find the nearest stable surface, much more stable than her also tipsy sister. Finally finding it, she leaned her whole body over it, planting her hot forehead against the cool surface.

Unfortunately for Ruby, she had inherited her resistance to alcohol from her mother, Summer. Which meant shit all.

“Oh, come on, Rubes, it's only three shots!” Yang, supporting her eagerness to take the form of a liquid sister, giggled gleefully. Yang had also inherited a resistance to alcohol from her mother. 

But in Yang's case, that meant Raven, and so her celebrations required at least three or four bottles of brandy before she could ‘get started’.

Of course, with her Aura, even Ruby should have been able to handle considerably more than a couple of shots. But there was a reason Yang had chosen this particular bar for her celebration of the end of her month-long mission. The bar owner with the funny name, Junior, knew exactly what it took for Hunters to get properly sloshed and celebrate the successful completion of a mission.

“I’m… Not good…”  Ruby, however, didn't particularly care for such details, speaking the only phrase she was capable of at the moment.

“Rubes, it's impossible to celebrate with you!” Yang sighed exaggeratedly, still very much sober. But, Ruby was still her little sister, and so, seeing that Ruby was no longer able to walk, picked her up, and, staggering slightly, headed towards the portal station. 

After taking a few steps, however, Yang realized an important detail as she flexed her gauntlet-less hands. 

“Rubes, wait, I forgot Ember Celica! I'll be right back!”

“Ya-Ya-Yang!” Ruby, hurriedly being placed on the nearest bench, cried piteously for her sister to come back, receiving no response. But her attempt to shout to her provoked the expected consequence.

A moment later, Ruby was bent over in a spasm, expelling the alcohol along with breakfast, lunch, snack, cookies, and anything else that wasn't proper to mention in public. After a couple of minutes of puking the contents of her stomach, Ruby did her best, wiping her mouth with a napkin and blotting away the tears in her eyes.

Crumpling the dirty napkin, Ruby cringed as she tasted the disgusting liquid left in her mouth, tossing it into the nearby rubbish bin. “Ugh… That's much better…”

“I have to disagree there, Miss Rose.” A voice that Ruby would have recognized even in the middle of a crowd, immediately wiped off any residue of grogginess in her.

“Jonathan!” Ruby tried to greet out, before realizing her current state, and the mess right under her feet. That is, the fact that she was just caught drinking, by the headmaster of her school. Her very strict, no nonsense Hunter Academy, that definitely doesn’t allow drinking.

Terror gripped Ruby from head to toe, her frozen tongue prevented her from even trying to justify herself at the moment, instead Ruby froze so hard that even her heart seemed to stop beating.

“Miss Rose… Such a sorry sight, and action defames the honor and dignity of Glenn Academy and is without exaggeration a stain on its reputation. If there had been people around, I guarantee you wouldn't have gotten off with a simple warning, and at best it would have ended with a report to your parents…” 

Ruby's frozen heart was suddenly paralyzed with an icy lump, every muscle in Ruby's body was numbed, even the smallest ones that allowed her to move her eyes. Ruby couldn't even look at Jonathan at that moment.

“But still…” Jonathan's voice shifted at the last second, from the strict disciplinarian to that of an uncle that is chiding their niece, allowing Ruby to breathe a sigh of relief. 

“Ruby, I'm pretty sure you didn't get drunk to this state on your own, not with your mother's lack of tolerance for alcohol, one that I see that you also share. So… Yang?”

Ruby, forgetting how to breathe, nodded slowly before still raising her gaze to Jonathan, who circled the remnants of her celebration in a wide arc before still settling on the other side of the standing bench.

“Okay, in that case, we'll wait for Yang… After that, we'll go to the nearest supply closet, after which you two will do a little cleaning up as your punishment for being so irresponsible, okay?” Jonathan looked around before pointing to a pillar a few dozen meters away from them and glancing at Ruby, 

“In exchange for this… Well, if your parents asked why you’re so late, let's say that I happened to meet you on the road and held you up for a conversation.”

At Jonathan’s offer, Ruby could only nod, as she heard Yang's footsteps approaching behind her back… 

***

Jonathan Goodman was not a bad ruler of the rapidly growing state of Remnant, the de facto world center of trade and technology. A nation with the most influential and powerful Special Service and army in Remnant. Jonathan Goodman was considered by many respected analysts to be Remnant's most influential and powerful man, a ruler with a very high, and well-deserved, reputation as a hero, a champion of the welfare state, and a good monarch. 

Jonathan Goodman might not be a perfect example of a hero. His career had involved the suppression of democratic institutions, the very hot topic of the invasion of Mantle and Atlas, and the very liberal use of his special services. 

And yet he is still a Hero who saved Glenn, Vacuo, Menagerie, and the people of Mantle, a Hero with a capital letter. One of those men whose stories made children wish they could grow up and hold in their hands the shining banner of Jonathan Goodman, the Hero of Remnant.

To be a part of something greater.

***

Tired and dejected, Ruby and Yang shoved back the cleaning implements they had had to wash after use. Looking at Jonathan, their expression asked whether they had suffered enough for their desire to escape their parents' control at the moment and go drinking. 

And while Ruby was clearly remorseful for her highly inappropriate behavior in public, Yang kept a certain amount of annoyance in her gaze. After all, she was a Huntress who had escaped Jonathan and the academy's control, why was she forced to take part in such a punishment!

Jonathan generally agreed with Yang, but Ruby, in her current state, simply couldn't do the cleaning herself. Not to mention the fact that at least some of Ruby’s current state was Yang's responsibility, just what made her think that someone with Summer's lack of alcoholic tolerance should be brought to a bar!?

“Okay, I've already told Summer and Taiyang that you've been helping me with some community service, so they shouldn’t question you when you two come back. And please don't get into any more situations like this. Yang, you can celebrate your successful missions all you want, but you shouldn't involve Ruby in these things. And Ruby…” 

Jonathan glanced at Ruby, causing her to turn a fearful look at him before he relented, “No more drinking, okay? And you've got it all figured out…” Jonathan could only shake her head at the younger girl’s antics.

Checking to see if he missed anything, and finding nothing, he nodded at the two sufficiently chastised girls.

“You two can go home now.”

Seeing the two heading to the teleportation port, Jonathan, rather than going home himself, sat down on a nearby bench, stretching his legs out and humming to himself as he took a minute to shut his eyes.

To his surprise, a moment later, Jonathan heard a person sitting down near him, and looked up to see Ruby, and Yang, who was still heading towards the teleportation port. 

“Ruby, are you okay?”

A look of concern flashed across Jonathan's face for a second, has his punishment gone too far? A little bit of drinking was not serious, and it’s not like the two had done anything illegal, they’re of age after all. Perhaps his efforts to instil in the girl a little respect for the image of the noble huntress came out too harsh? 

It was no more than his standard old man's grumbling about the ‘spoiled future generation’, nothing more, Jonathan punishment, couldn’t really be called one, just a little bit of public service.

On the other hand, Yang would hardly have left Ruby alone if she was really feeling distressed.

“Yang's gone to get the tickets, it's fine. I just… I just want to sit down for a while,” Ruby answered normally enough, showing that, at least as well as Summer, she was able to get rid of the alcohol in her blood at an astonishing rate. Or maybe it was her semblance? 

Jonathan was just beginning to study how the Semblances of this world interact with biology, and it was too early from being able to tell if Ruby's semblance was affecting her metabolism or not.

“Mhm, well, it’s free.” Jonathan nodded, joking lightly as he turned his gaze to the side before he exhaled, looking up at the night sky. 

Unfortunately, the significant light pollution of Glenn prevented him from seeing the full beauty of the night sky. But even the little bit he could see looked quite mesmerizing. Especially if you tried to imagine that the blackness above him was not just a black void, but something bigger. 

A huge void stretching in all directions, separating such an amazingly tiny piece of land, Remnant, from the millions and millions of other, equally tiny pieces of rock and water travelling at breakneck speed through that void.

Jonathan loved spending time with his family. But sometimes, very rarely, he wanted to stop for a moment and gaze up at the sky above his head, going out of his stuffy office and leaving his home. 

For ten or twenty minutes, there was only him and the void.

Jonathan liked his life, there could be no doubt about that, however… Looking into the darkness above his head, Jonathan wanted to ask a question.

Was there another Jonathan Goodman out there somewhere, among the distant, so small and so large pieces of rock and water in the vast empty space? Another man with the same name, with a different history if the same past… Has he found the answer?

“Ruby…” Jonathan suddenly shifted his gaze from the sky to the girl sitting next to him. 

“What do you think makes a person ‘good’?”

The question that Jonathan Goodman had once researched so thoroughly, the question to which Jonathan had devoted decades of his life… 

“Hmm?” Ruby shifted her gaze to Jonathan and blinked in surprise, frowning, making Jonathan feel a prick of conscience stung him. 

Really, asking complex philosophical questions he'd spent decades studying to a teenager in the middle of the night, one that is currently suffering from a hangover. Huh, sometimes Jonathan wondered how he'd lived to his years with a mind like that.

“I apologize, I know it's a difficult question…” Jonathan's apology, however, made Ruby suddenly shake her head instead.

“No, it is not?” Ruby looked at Jonathan in confusion. 

“I think it's a very simple question actually… If you have made the world a better place, aren't you a good person? A good person is someone who makes the world a better place. That's all.”

“That's it?” Jonathan blinked in confusion when he heard Ruby's answer, "Just… Someone who makes the world a better place? That's the answer? That’s what makes a ‘good’ person.”

“Is the answer supposed to be more complicated than that?” Ruby frowned, clearly not understanding Jonathan's own confusion. 

Before, in one split moment, Jonathan just started laughing loudly, at the simplicity of the answer to a question that he was looking for all his life.

***

If Jonathan Goodman hadn't been in this world, what would have happened then?

Knowing Cinder, Jonathan had no doubt at all that, at some point in time, the cup of her patience at her past family’s treatment would have run dry. And without a powerful figure behind Cinder's back, after the murder of her past foster family, she would have to run away. A harsh prospect of survival for the young girl.

But, she wouldn't have died on the streets. No, Cinder would have gone through the cruelest parts of life before ending up on the top of that misbegotten pile. A leader of a crime Syndicate perhaps like Aifal, or maybe she would have caught Salem's attention? Just like Aifal… There really aren’t lots of ways of ‘going to the top’ for a street urchin,

And Salem would be happy to use Cinder's talents to her advantage… 

And Neo? Jonathan couldn't guess her fate, perhaps she would have been saved one day, or perhaps she would have disappeared with Mt Glenn.

Summer? Death on a mission seems very likely to Jonathan. Her brand of insane heroism would drive her to the brink and ultimately end in her death, leaving Ruby and Yang an orphan.

Raven? She would still continue her old bandit ways most likely, terrorizing villages all over Remnant, occasionally roaming around with her bandit gang, hardly even remembering the existence of her other family.

How about Menagerie? It would still probably continue as the cruel joke as a ‘Fifth’ kingdom, but barely larger than a town. The White Fang? Ghira’s old organization would oust him from a leadership position, and with the way the Faunus freedom movement had quietly broiled before his intervention, would turn into a radicalized army of disenfranchised faunus. An organization willing to do anything to fulfil their noble goals, even the most ungodly of deeds.

The Schnee Corporation would rule Atlas, from their deep pockets would spout influence, while Robyn Hill would fight for Mantle's life, hoarding her hatred for the hovering city above her head.

Aifal would have vanished, buried beneath the dust of history, and Salem would still be sending hordes of Grimm trying to bruise Ozpin. Ozpin, who would have continued to silently watch Remnant crumble before his eyes. 

What's an extra thousand years for an immortal?

The world would be different, Jonathan knew that without any thought. 

Completely different, and it was impossible for Jonathan to know in every minute detail every tiny factor, every tiny change that he had brought to this world. What if it was his arrival in this world that had caused that diner across the street to come into existence? Or saved this or that man, or robbed this or that family of their home? 

If Jonathan knew, in calculated units, absolute values, complete accuracy… Did he make the world a better place?

IS he a good man?

But perhaps that was the point? Perhaps that was the secret? That there were no exact units, values, and comparisons.

There were only those that made the world a better place.

***

“I think…" Jonathan said slowly, staring into the void of space before turning his gaze to Ruby. "That I've made the world a little better than it was before me.”

“So you're a good man," Ruby only shrugged at those words before realizing that she wasn't talking to her friend at the moment and correcting herself. "I mean your majesty, King Jonathan, yeah…”

“A good man, hmm?” Jonathan, however, paid no attention to Ruby's hesitation and nodded, rising from his seat as Yang had finally appeared. Frozen in her tracks as she spotted Jonathan, momentarily contemplating doing a 180 and escaping. A raised eyebrow from Jonathan squashed that momentary stupidity.

“So… So I know what I need to do from now on.”

Making the world a little better. For him. For Cinder. For their son. All of them.

Making the world a little better every day.

Jonathan rose from his seat, slowly shuffling his feet, and smiling to himself, wandered home.

The world that Jonathan had to make, a little better than it was before him….

So it would be done.