This was it. The morning of the final battle. They had trained for this, fought bitterly to get here, and with some luck after this they would never fight again. The early morning sun filtered through the thick fog that hung on the air, clinging to the few people still alive, still preparing for the fight ahead. The sounds of weapons being cleaned, blades honed, rounds being counted by hollow voices, and fresh magazines sliding into guns rang through the campsite. They knew the day of their apocalypse, and they would be damned if they were going to let it happen without a fight.

"You need to eat." A man with a scraggly beard and straw like hair, sat down next to a woman in a filthy cloak, loaded with the grime of a hundred battles, the blood of thousands of friends and enemies.

"I can't Jaune." Ruby's voice was raspy, dulled by years of shouting and hard liquor. "And I could say the same to you."

"I already ate." Jaune said as he watched her out of the corner of his eye. He was sat in her right side, the side she could still see out of, hear out of. The other was horrifically scarred, burn's and cuts that had melded together to form a macabre image. "I'm just worried about you." I'm always worried about you, it's my job.

"Please don't."

"I always do." There was a sense of finality to his words. The war had changed him too. The unsure boy was gone, in his place was a general who never wavered. "Eat. this is about you needing the energy to actually fight those demons, not about any childish worry." He held out some of the hardtack rations and a small portion of meat. "You have tea right?"

Ruby gave a shallow smile and held up her tin mug. "The last of Blake's favourite blend." Ruby had been there when Blake died, her intestines spilling onto the pavement. She had been trying to infiltrate the old White Fang. They had made an example of her, left her for her friends to find. One small mercy was that she hadn't lived to see Yang's rage at her death, taking out nearly 50 white fang members including Adam Taurus before succumbing to her own injuries. Ruby bore her sister's gauntlet on her left wrist, an eternal reminder of her loss.

"I'll be by your side today."

"You always are." Ruby said, leaning against Jaune's shoulder, drawing strength from him. "Thankyou."

They sat like that for a short while, the last members of their respective teams they had been forced to forge ever closer bonds over the course of the war. They had lost so many, friends from Beacon, other friends they had made over the war effort. Sage and Scarlet remained, as did CFVY, Neon Katt, the twelfth reiteration of Penny who had said not to bring her back again if she didn't survive this fight. Mercury had joined them, lines had blurred as the fight moved from a petty squabble of good versus evil to one for the very survival of humanity and any capable fighter had been welcomed. There were others of course, but they were the ones they had known the longest.

Nora had been first to go, sacrificing herself to save them all, yelling that she was going to break its legs as she jumped into the maw of a giant snake on a suicide mission only she could complete. Ren hadn't died that day, but he might as well have. He never lost his will to fight, but he took ever more dangerous missions until one day he never came back. they never found anybody but they just knew. Weiss had held on the longest, fighting for her life through battle after battle until an act of chemical warfare felled her, leaving her struggling for breath as she drowned in her own blood. Ruby and Jaune had been on other battlefields that day, only learning Weiss had died when they couldn't find her in the mess hall, and a younger huntsman, barely fifteen had explained what had happened and handed them Myrtenaster, which still hung from Ruby's hip. She carried the reminders of her team mates with her always, as Jaune did for his, with coloured bands around his wrists, crimson for Pyrrha, pink for Nora, green for Ren.

"How long now?" Ruby broke the silence that stretched between them after she finished the tea.

Jaune sighed and pulled a battered pocket watch out from under his armour. The original owner of the watch was unknown, he had pulled it from the filth of a battlefield after they had run out of generators to power scrolls for time. "Half an hour if we're lucky."

"Promise me you won't die out there." Ruby said, not meeting his eyes. "Promise me that we will both live."

"I can't do that." Jaune's voice sounded hollow.

"Good." Ruby leaned her face against his shoulder. "Thank you. For being realistic."

"I'll try to live." Jaune said as he looked down at her.

"So will I."

"I have to go soon." Jaune said as he stood up. "I have to speak to the troops."

Ruby stood up and wrapped her arms around him, pressing her face to his metal chest plate. "Kiss me before you go."

"Ruby -"

"I know you hate to kiss me before a fight, and I could handle it before, but today -"

"You don't think we're going to live do you?" The question cut through the air, colder than ice and harder than steel

Ruby shook her head against his chest and he felt tears begin to form in his own eyes.

"Please don't do this to me Ruby."

"I'm trying not to, I just don't want to die without -"

"I'd rather live with never kissing you again, than kiss you and lose you." Jaune cut her off abruptly. "I love you, remember that." He wrapped his arms around her. "Never forget it."

"Stop speaking like you're going to die." Ruby poked him in the stomach. "We're both going to get through this you hear me? Death is not an option." She disentangled herself from the hug and hefted Crescent Rose. She had made modifications to it over the years, more clips after Coco nearly died when she ran out of bullets, better blades after she got sick of replacing the old ones. The ability to fire different dust rounds. "We know what we're doing, we're the ones who have the reason to fight. We're the ones with the drive to fucking win this thing."

"Maybe you should be the one giving speeches." Jaune said with a slight smile.

"Go." Ruby said as she wiped a tear away from her eye. "Give the most kickass speech of all time. It's the end of our world, I think it deserves something special. And afterwards -" she choked on a sob. "- afterwards you kiss me."

Jaune simply nodded at her as he turned on his heel and walked off to face his army. He'd be by her side in the fighting, but it would be if he was still there after that would make or break both of them.