Oscar had thought he'd missed his aunt, but somehow she was at the hotel where Theo's reception was.

Most of the team had made it there already by the time he got there.

"Oscar!" Emily grabbed him before he even really saw her coming. "I can't believe it! Why didn't you contact me!" She hit his arm.

"I... didn't have the chance." Oscar rubbed his arm.

"Did you really help save the world?" Emily lifted up the medal. "I can't believe it. Why would they even let you go with them? Oh, my gosh. I'll skin Theodore alive."

"Oh, relax, Em." Theo saw her and put an arm around her shoulder, to her chagrin. "It's time to celebrate. I got married yesterday. We saved the kingdoms. Life is good."

"And this young lady is the one?" Emily eyed Vara. "I suspected as much when you stopped by before. And you didn't tell me you were taking Oscar into the Grimm lands!"

"Well, at the time I didn't know." Theo shrugged. "But it worked out. He's fine now."

"This is why we never visit you," Emily said severely. She jerked Oscar's arm like he was a much younger kid. "Does he seem ready for this to you?"

"Couldn't you just be proud of him, lady?" Vara frowned and folded her arms, blowing her hair in annoyance.

"Of course I'm proud of him, but I want to strangle you both!" Emily said. "He shouldn't be doing things like that. He's not even learned to fight."

"Actually, I kind of did," Oscar tried.

"What? How?" Emily said. "You seem different than before though." She grabbed his face and looked at him closely. "Hmm..."

"He seems happier, right?" Theo said. "A little less down in the mind."

Vara snickered.

"Oscar, please tell me you're coming home now." Emily glared at Theo. "Enough of these heroics. You've had your fun, right?"

"Uh... the thing is..." Oscar didn't really want to go back. He knew he didn't fit in on the farm anymore. He wasn't sure where he fit.

"Okay, there you are." Ruby walked up. "Hey, can I borrow Oscar? We were all going to have fun with the Shade students."

"Fun? Like pick-pocketing?" Emily said.

"Don't be ridiculous, Emily, that's a job," Theo said. "Not fun. They're just going to celebrate the Deliverance-Day--whatever they called it."

"I suppose," Emily relented. "Just don't go too far. I still have some words for your cousin." She frowned.

"Way to bring down the mood," Vara said.

"I'll stall her," Theo hissed to Oscar. "Run while you can."

Oscar didn't think this was going to help in the long run.

But Ruby took his arm and burst into rose petals, dragging him away. Then she stopped.

"Whew," she said. "Your aunt is worse than my dad."

"Heh... I kind of brought it on myself." Oscar rubbed his arm. "I knew I should have called more. Thanks though."

"No problem. Want to go watch the fireworks? Uncle Qrow said not to stick around this reception," Ruby said. "Apparently he thinks people are going to get pretty drunk."

Since it consisted of mostly Theo's friends and other adults visiting Vacuo for the first time, and alcohol was more common than water in the desert, Qrow was probably right.

"Is he going to be okay then?" Oscar said.

"Winter was with him, so I'm sure he'll be fine." Ruby was certain Winter wouldn't allow drinking. "But you know... that's not really my thing anyway."

"Yeah, we should go," Oscar agreed.

Yang had stopped by to wish Vara and Theo well, but she, Neptune, and Emerald and Mercury were already gone again. They didn't want to hang around strangers and Theo's friends.

Most of the other teens had done likewise.

"I still can't get over that Theo and I are related," Oscar said.

"Well, not by blood," Ruby said.

"Maybe," Oscar said.

"It's not that bad," Ruby said. "He's kind of cool... sometimes. And Vara will be your family now too. That's pretty good, isn't it? Since you didn't have any family before but your aunt."

"At least not that I knew of," Oscar said. "But yeah, I guess I've gained a lot of things. Who knew leaving home would end this way?"

"So... uh... what will you do now?" Ruby asked hesitantly, looking down.

"Oh..." Oscar didn't know why he felt awkward. "I don't know yet. I'm not sure I want to move back to the farm though, but it's going to take a lot to convince Aunt Em not to make me. I guess legally, you know... she could."

"Unless Theo fights her for custody," Ruby said.

They both cringed.

Oscar hoped he couldn't win that fight just because he was now a hero.

"What are you going to do?" he asked.

"I don't know yet," Ruby said. "I might go back to Patch for a little bit. Keep Dad company. I don't think Yang will do that. But then I thought I might go back to being a huntress. I mean, I can be one anywhere I want now, and that was always my dream... and now I don't have to do it for some weird cause I don't fully understand. I can just slay Grimm and catch bad guys." She grinned slightly. "It's just what I wanted to do before I knew about Ozpin. Plus, if I travel a lot, I can visit everyone wherever else they go. Who knows? Maybe someday I'll take up teaching. I kind of liked teaching Mercury after all."

Oscar pictured Ruby doing that as a cuter version of Qrow, but probably just as reckless.

"That sounds like something you'd be good at," he managed.

"Really?" Ruby said.

"Oh, sure, no one cares more about helping her friends than you do," Oscar said.

"Hmm." Ruby looked to the side. "You know, you could always consider moving to Vale. I mean--to Beacon. Glynda knows you--I bet you could get into the huntsmen school once it opens again. If you still want to learn about that."

"I'm not sure I want to be a huntsman," Oscar said. "Now that Oz is gone, I wonder how much of it was really me. I have these other gifts." He held up his staff. "I don't know if they'll last, but they made me think there's more to life than fighting... Fighting is good too, but I think I'd like to contribute more than that. I think Ozpin's best work was building a school and inventing things. I don't know much about that, but if I was going to do something, I think I'd want it to be something that would change people like that. Help them find better ways... They'll need it now."

"That's very noble sounding," Ruby admitted. "I feel kind of small now."

"No, no, I think what you want to do is great too. You'd be good at it," Oscar hastened to say. "We need both, right?"

"I guess that's true," Ruby said. "I mean, they don't have to be mutually exclusive."

She rubbed her head sheepishly. "We're supposed to be celebrating."

"Yeah, but between you and me, Ruby, all the celebration I really needed was just hearing that it worked," Oscar said. "I don't care about being celebrated. I know more than anyone it wasn't because I was stronger or smarter that this worked. They still have no idea what really saved us. That's what I want them to know. Shine, Wally, Alicia, they entrusted us all with something to give the world. Saving it was just so that would be possible."

"When you put it that way, we're just getting started," Ruby said. "And I think I can live with that. I think, actually, I'd prefer that. If everything was at an end, it would kind of suck. Huh, isn't that what they always told us? Stopping Salem was just an obstacle... I finally get it now."

"Yeah, it became more clear after we faced the gods," Oscar said. "What they did ran pretty deep here. Without it the world's going to need answers."

"Still, we did a lot of things that were pretty incredible. You broke a millennia old curse, we stopped Salem from destroying the world, I went to another world and brought back a friend and she went home. We got Mercury and Emerald to work with us, and Cinder is... different. We even united the world, at least for a short time," Ruby mused.

"Even being able to see them would have been enough for me to be amazed the rest of my life, let alone help defeat them," Oscar mused. "I got more adventure than I ever bargained for. Maybe I could stand with a little less now. I was never like the rest of you."

They were walking down the street where the fireworks were supposed to be starting now that it was quite dark finally.

Ruby thought.

"I think that's why though," she said. "They chose you because you weren't like the rest of us. We were all too ready to do things the old way. You might have had Ozpin, but you didn't have the rest of it, the idea that you'd save people by fighting, and that's why you never tried to save anyone by fighting. It was always the other way for you. Maybe in a way, you had that love part down long before we did. You forgave Hazel. You always tried to understand them better. And that was you, Oscar, not Ozpin. That's what changed it. We followed your example later."

"I didn't feel like it was that remarkable." Oscar might always use words like that now that he'd had Ozma in his mind. He rubbed his head awkwardly. "I just didn't... I didn't know anyone that well. It was hard to judge them."

"And that was what we needed," Ruby said. "So maybe it's okay to be a little different. You saved us and Ozma too."

Oscar was on the point of saying that he didn't know if he really had done this, but Ruby leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

He stopped short and forgot how to talk.

Ruby had mostly done that on impulse, but then she turned red.

"Anyway, we should go," she said hastily, trying to play it off like it had been nothing. "We're going to miss it."

She dashed forward.

Oscar rubbed his face in a daze and just stood there for a few minutes.

* * *

Then he was interrupted by Cinder, who stepped out of the side street.

He looked up, surprised.

"That didn't take long," Cinder muttered.

Then she looked down uncomfortably like she was thinking of saying something. Finally, she held out something.

It looked like a glass cane almost.

"What is this?" Oscar said.

"To replace Ozpin's cane," she said. "For your weapon? If you don't have something inside it the weight and balance will be all off."

"Oh..." Oscar took it because he didn't like to be rude, though he didn't understand.

"The glass won't matter if it's inside the metal..." Cinder said as if that was the surprising thing. "Anyway... I suppose I wanted to... say thanks." She rubbed the side of her head.

Her hair had grown slightly from that bob cut she'd had before. It was down to her chin almost.

It made her a little less angry looking.

Or maybe her expression had just changed.

"Thanks for...?" Oscar said blankly.

"The eye?" Cinder pointed to it. "And my arm..."

"Oh, right." Oscar had totally forgotten about that.

"I guess this is goodbye too," Cinder said stiffly.

"Oh... you're leaving?" Oscar asked.

"Yeah." Cinder looked up awkwardly. "I'm not staying in Vacuo. I figure if I slip out now, everyone will be too busy partying to notice."

"Where will you go?" Oscar asked.

"Mistral, I guess," Cinder said. "It's big enough, a lot of small towns. People who won't know my face. Or my name. I can disappear."

"I see." Oscar fingered the cane. "What will you do?"

"I don't know," Cinder said. "I suppose I'll have to find an honest living for once if I don't want to end up arrested again. The idea sounds laughable." She smiled without humor. "But what choice do I have?...  Anyway, if I don't figure out some way to live without destroying things, I'm never going to stop feeling this way."

She rubbed her chest.

Oscar knew she was probably right.

"Well, I hope you find what you're looking for," he said. "But you know... I think the peace you're after is something you have to have inside."

"Yeah... Likstar has made me well aware," Cinder said. "She'll leave soon anyway. Maybe she's right. Maybe I'll try that path... read the book. Might as well. Probably have to change my name anyway and everything else."

"I think you'll be okay." Oscar leaned on the staff, as was his acquired habit now. "Maybe if we're ever in Mistral, you could look us up... say hi. You know, just out of curiosity."

"Hmrf." Cinder made no commitment to that. "You sound like Emerald... You look kind of like Ozpin still."

Oscar frowned.

"Maybe you should become the new headmaster of Beacon," Cinder remarked. "Teach those students to actually use their heads instead of throw themselves off cliffs."

"I don't think you were even there for that, were you?" Oscar said.

"Why would I be?" she sniffed.

"Well, I don't know if I want to be that guy," Oscar said. "But I want to do something to make the world better."

"Have fun with that," Cinder said dryly. "I'm out of here."

"Right... well, take care of yourself, Cinder," Oscar said wryly.

Cinder shrugged and walked away. She disappeared into the shadows.

Oscar didn't hear any more about her for a long time after that, but he knew she got away.

She said goodbyes to no one else for whatever reason. Perhaps she'd just felt Oscar was the one with the least ties to her and she could make the cleanest break from him.

Or maybe it was that he'd helped her so innocently that she didn't feel as awkward around him.

Oscar would be the last one to know.

* * *

Weiss met a lot of Meridian's other friends at the pavillion/town clearing where they'd set up their party.

It wasn't much to look at, but they were playing lively music like the kind Meridian had been teaching her before, and plenty of boisterous teens and young adults were dancing--or at least attempting to.

They all were thrilled to meet Weiss after the way Meridian had hyped her up.

Weiss would have expected to find this attention annoying, comparing it to her father's stuffy guests, but to her surprise that wasn't quite the treatment she got.

They wanted to hear about her successes along the way, and some of them wanted to fight her.

Meridian and Hamish thankfully stopped them from doing the latter, but the reception was so different from what Weiss was used to that she felt much more at ease. [I couldn't shake the image of Rose and Jack from Titanic going down to the poor section for this scene.]

"Well, enough of all this," Meridian said finally. "Let's show the Atlas lass how we have real fun here."

The group cheered at this and struck up more lively music.

https://youtu.be/0X0sLw63KLU

Fireworks went off not that long after that. Some were regular fireworks and some exploded in the shape of the four kingdoms' crests--more of Vacuo's though.

Weiss' team showed up eventually to join in. They liked the less formal attitude of this kind of party.

Pyrrha and Jaune were really there to join the dancing, since Jaune was good at it. Ren and Nora did too.

https://youtu.be/Qt5hmDN2SX0

[AMV to "Shut Up and Dance With Me" by Tacita Koe.]

Of course Yang wanted to. Neptune tried to keep up.

Eventually even Ruby and Oscar joined them, though they weren't talking to each other at the time, and Ruby seemed a bit flustered.

Upon persuasion, Weiss did finally consent to sing along, and the style was so different from her usual opera-like ones that she found it less constraining.

https://youtu.be/5K4TIQXCmPQ

[This song is called "Teir abhiale riu" by Celtic Women.]

There were a lot of small rings of people playing their own kinds of songs off the speakers or off instruments and dancing and having arm wrestling contests.

Nora won about 6 of those and a few bets while at it.

Then team JNPR all did some dancing in one of the circles, playing a song off Pyrrha's new and expanded scroll playlist.

https://youtu.be/K_flH6B21Y8

[Okay, so I really was just dying to finally put this AMV to "Shout Your Freedom" in here. I liked it and the song. AMV by A2Z.]

The adults found them at some point. Shine and Wally had spent some time just talking but finally had met up with Theo, Vara, Raven, and Hazel (reluctantly in his case). Tai was also around.

Robyn and the Ace Ops joined them. Her huntresses were off at their own circle, but she wanted to hang with the main team for a bit before going back to them.

Harriet and Elm didn't stick around for long, not being much for parties, and mostly they were just patrolling, but Marrow hung out a bit with the younger guys and was even persuaded to dance a few songs.

Theo and Vara were in a good mood--all the more for finally shaking the officials from earlier.

Shine, getting in the spirit of all the music, sang a song to commemorate their getting married with the help of local musicians--they liked it.

https://youtu.be/vCOe4x-LXcE

["Dancing and the Dreaming"--Cover of the HTTYD song by Erutan.]

Penny and Kip were flying from place to place, taking part in a lot of different festivities.

Victoria had attended one of the quieter gatherings--which was a feast on one street as opposed to a revelry.

She was in a wheelchair and still not back to full strength--but it wasn't stopping her from making plans with all the scientists who were there (who didn't like wild parties either) about what to do to improve energy and power inventions.

Watts had apparently told her about things likely changing in the future without magic, which he'd heard from Mercury and Hazel.

Watts was around, amusing himself by acting superior to those people and reminding them of who helped rebuild the tower.

Victoria wasn't letting him get away with that much of it without reminding him of his close calls.

Winter had also warned Watts that if he didn't want to be imprisoned again for helping Ironwood, he'd submit to proper supervision from now on, which had cooled his jets slightly.

But still, actually being needed and appreciated by the technicians, if only of necessity, was clearly pleasing him.

Victoria had also resigned herself to not being able to keep Kip too close--not very graciously, but she literally couldn't chase after him, and he tended to avoid her if she tried to scold, so she was slowly starting to give up.

If she ever truly would, Kip didn't know. His mother had to be one of the most stubborn women in the world, but he hoped at least to put some distance from her. Penny was going to Argus to help Winter with Atlas, and he'd been invited to join them--Winter wouldn't have left him near Victoria for anything.

Vara and Theo would be sorry to lose him but probably knew he was safer that way.

Vara said she'd just have to visit Argus more if that was the case--which probably made Winter very happy to hear.

But Kip and Penny were having fun anyway, though Penny was still not quite back to her usual self, thinking of her father. Still, she said he'd have been so happy to see them succeed. She also said she was happy to have so many new friends even with the losses.

Things weren't perfect, Victoria herself commented, after hearing that Salem had been stopped and how things had turned out. But they were a heck of a lot better than before.

[Which seems to be the theme of this arc.]

* * *

https://youtu.be/xgyT0z7-5ts

[Counting Crows--"Accidentally in Love". Half the reason we wanted to use this song was the band name.]

Qrow and Winter stole away from the partying at the first convenient opportunity.

"I'm glad the kids are having fun, but this is a little too much excitement for me," Qrow remarked, feeling the burnout.

"More than weeks of fighting Grimm?" Winter replied.

"That was nothing compared to politics and press," Qrow sighed. "I'm going to miss being able to just fly out of here."

"Hmrf, forgive me if I don't sympathize. Most of us can't escape so easily." Winter cast an annoyed glance back at the festivities.

"I'm starting to think Ruby was right about you." Qrow studied her. "You are shy."

"I am not shy!" Winter nearly exploded. Then checked herself. "I just don't enjoy these events the same way certain people do."

"Right, okay." Qrow didn't buy it. "Actually, it explains a lot. You never did strike me as a people person."

"If you're going to rub that in, you could just leave," Winter bristled.

"No, no, I'm not judging. I'm not either," Qrow winced. "I just don't really get it. Raven eats up all that attention like fuel, but it gets old fast if you ask me."

"Well, don't take this question the wrong way, but how did you get such a reputation for being a flirt if that's true?" Winter said.

"I think probably the same way you got one for being scary and domineering," Qrow replied philosophically. "You play up to a role because you can and people expect it. Whatever you really prefer under it. Anyway the rep was useful to getting information without seeming suspicious."

Winter raised an eyebrow.

"Don't act like you've never used your reputation to intimidate people," Qrow protested.

"I suppose..." Winter mused. "I don't know that I had a choice. My father really insured my reputation would be problematic at best, and the General didn't care as long as it was used to promote the Academy instead of the SDC. In the long run, I feel I don't always know what I would have preferred. But we are what we are... at least we were."

"You don't have to be, you know." Qrow moved to a different thought carefully. "You could always just... do what you want, not what they want."

Winter laughed bitterly. "It won't be that simple."

"Maybe, but it's about time you had some choice about your own life," Qrow mused.

"I suppose I could say the same for you."

"Why do you think I'm not rushing back into the teaching game? That's what they want, but I don't know what I want." Qrow rubbed his chin. "Not that it's not fun... sometimes. But all the stuff I learned from Ozpin might be useless now. I'd have to probably go back to school myself. Maybe Pine should take over."

"Hmm, can we not talk about work for a while?" Winter said.

That was so out of character that Qrow didn't know how to take it.

"Oh... sure... What did you want to talk about?"

"I don't know." Winter paused to look at the sky. "But I've been working for days. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I almost miss the road. The peril was at least broken up by quiet spells."

Qrow was silent for a bit, but, recollecting some of his conversations the last few days, finally he spoke again.

"Again, sorry about avoiding you. I need to get better at dealing with things. I guess it's just been hard to accept that it's all over."

"I know that," Winter surprisingly said.

"Really?" Surprised.

"Yes, I feel the same way. I think everyone does." Winter was quite right. "I barely believe it."

She rubbed her arms. The wind was cold by this time of night. "That war was going on for so long, even before we had a name for the enemy, that it ending is like an epoch ending. An era, even. I understand you feeling lost, because I think everyone does. But at the same time..." She paused. "At the same time, after the things we saw and learned and came to trust in, it's also like being found for the first time. It wasn't just Salem and Ozma who were set free, it was us all. That freedom feels too big and uncontrollable for us to even be entrusted with, but here it is. In a way there's never been so many possibilities... and that's frightening, but it's frightening in a new way. Every decision I ever made, I did it to avoid something else. My father... the Maiden powers, or losing them to someone else, losing the world. There is nothing to avoid now--perhaps the loss of Atlas, but that's a formality. Whatever we build, it will be new in a sense. I find the politics of it frustrating the same as you, but the positives of it are staggering in a good way."

Qrow thought, then he said, "Yeah, there are a lot more possibilities than before." With an odd look at her.

Winter felt she was flushing, though it was too dark to tell.

"Perhaps that's why planning too much seems like a waste of time," she said, slightly less calmly. "We had to plan our every move for so long... it's no longer appealing."

"Not having limits, you mean," Qrow said. "Yeah... well, there are limits, I guess. But they all seem to be much more liberating than the old ones. That's what had me spooked too, though it sounds stupid."

"Why?" Winter asked, a little lower.

"I never thought you'd ever want to be with me," Qrow admitted. "So I didn't think about possibilities about it. Being alone just seemed like what would always be it for me. I didn't even mind it that much anymore, I thought. I thought it was okay with just watching my family from a distance. Not really being part of it. After I tried to be a part of it, I kept failing."

He could have been reading Winter's life story with that speech.

"And then you wonder if you're even suited to it at all," she finished.

"Yeah... heh." Qrow realized what she was thinking. "So both of us have that problem. I didn't think about you feeling that way though. I guess I am still pretty selfish."

"Selfish, overly self-depreciating," Winter gestured. "It's hard to tell with you."

"I'll take that as a compliment, I guess." Qrow winced slightly.

"Take it as one that I can't tell. Usually it's obvious," Winter supplied.

"You have the strangest way of comforting people, you know that?" Qrow said. "But effective, I admit."

Winter managed a faint smile. "Effective is all I can hope for when I have no idea what I'm really doing."

"It's okay, I think if you sounded cliché I wouldn't take you seriously anyway," Qrow said. "That was how it always was, you know. People might tell me not to think of it that way, but they didn't have anything new to say. Just that it sounded sad.... Well, that didn't make it not true. It's only been in the last few months that I've heard anything different. A lot of that was you. Makes it worse for me. I liked you before, but how am I supposed to get over that if you surpassed even what I thought?"

Winter felt this was too flattering but could think of no comeback.

She just looked at the horizon again.

"Why do you need to get over it?" she asked finally.

"If I don't know, I think it'll be past the point of no return," Qrow said, not nearly as sure of himself as you'd think from his word choice. "That's what's been making me avoid it. Back in the real world... if it still works out well... I don't know if I can let go."

"Why would you need to?" Winter tried to keep herself calm.

"I want what's best for you." Qrow said what was easily the most romantic thing he'd ever said by accident.

Winter wanted to cry.

After a few moments of trying to compose herself that were torturously long for Qrow--though he didn't think she was angry, but still the suspense was dreadful--she managed to reply,

"If that's what you want, then doesn't that mean you're what's best for me?" Finally turning to look at him.

Qrow looked flustered. "I'd like to be that," he said in a small voice. "If I could be... Do you really think that's possible?"

Winter felt much less shy now. Perhaps because he was finally being vulnerable.

Slowly, she put her hands on his shoulders.

"I think it's certainly possible," she said quietly. "If you meant it."

"Meant... what?"

"What you said, after the gods left... remember?" Winter almost looked nervous. "Was it true? Do you love me?"

Wow, that felt risky to say.

Qrow looked at her, and then finally he didn't look nervous.

"Yes."

Something about telling her that was magical. Winter smiled. A happier feeling than she was used to welled up inside her.

"I love you too."

She didn't even know she was going to say that until she did, but... it felt right.

Something about acknowledging it made it seem bigger and more at the front of her mind.

But pushing aside those feelings and questions for so long because of the crisis had kept her from noticing when she went from liking to loving, and removing those barriers had made it easier. She just hadn't had the courage to admit it till now.

She caught Qrow completely off guard by saying it back. He wasn't ready.

He lost his voice promptly.

Didn't matter though. It wasn't as if either of them could have thought of anything to say.

Instead they kissed, slowly and deeply.

[I'd write more, but I almost feel like it would be inappropriate to spy on their moment. Maybe just leave it at this. Le sigh. I'm so glad this ship finally came to harbor safely. They deserved it after all the hardship.

The next chapter may be the last one. I know you're not ready, but the story has to end. (If you ask nicely, there may be bonus chapters after it.)]