How Volume 2 Should Have Ended
RWBY
Summary: Spoilers for Vol. 2 Ending. This is how I would have gone about the ending if I had to stick to those plot points presented.
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
Evacuation procedures were practiced by the civilian populace. They lacked discipline. Panic was sunk her claws deep into the hearts and minds. The Grimm, with their great girth hardened by hysteria and fear, knew no weakness. Dust-enhanced bullets could not pierce their hides and aura-imbued blades could not penetrate them.
Death spiraled around Team RWBY as the darkness ravaged the populace around them. Assuming a four-point formation, the girls withdrew their weapons.
"So… what's the plan, Cap?" Yang asked raising her guard and cocked another shell into the chamber. Her gauntlets were fully loaded for battle.
"People are getting eaten," Weiss spat as she drew her sword. Trying her best to shake off the daze of having being pounded into the ground earlier, she steadied her blade, ready to riposte any of potential foe. "We don't need a plan. We just need to… to..." A slight slur. Blinking it away, squaring her shoulders and adjusting her footwork, the heiress prepared to parley.
"No… we need a plan. There's enough Grimm to overrun ten cities…" Blake muttered. The Nevermores blotted out the sun and the Ursa flooded the streets of Vale. She checked her dust cartridge. Empty. Damn. "We need to contain this sector, before the Grimm overrun the other districts."
Ruby held Crescent Rose tightly.
Her hands were shaking. It was a feeling she hadn't felt in a long time. A sensation that left her palms cold, her stomach empty. There was a bitter taste in her mouth. Screams all around them. Ruby readied high-powered rifle rifle jettisoning an empty casing.
"Our plan… our plan is…"
Ruby felt her mouth was dry. The words wouldn't come.
"Ruby!"
"Ruby…"
"Sis?"
Can't back down now.
"Just… do whatever!"
And so, Team RWBY hurled themselves into battle without a plan.
A few minutes later, they regrouped. Exhausted, low on ammo, and slowed down by compounding injuries, the four girls regrouped in an abandoned video game store.
"So… Guys want to play some video games later?" Yang joked.
Weiss and Blake both glared at her.
"No." It was rare to see the faunus and heiress agree on anything.
"Aw… let's play," Yang joked. Ruby leaned against the far wall, away from the windows. The Grimm appeared to be ignoring this particular store. Most likely due to not sensing much panic or distress from within.
But, there was a sense of disappointment.
"We… couldn't do anything…"
"Can't help it. The Grimm gets stronger when they attack settlements. Especially if they're thrown in a panic. The White Fang… they would rather destroy everything in Vale than work together to build something…" Blake lamented. Leaning against a bin of bargain games, Blake sighed. "We just aren't strong enough."
"We're plenty strong. We just have a poor excuse for a leader," Weiss snapped.
"Hey! That's my sister you're-"
"Your sister what? She's useless! Absolutely use-"
"Why you little-"
"Stop it! Both of you," Blake intervened as Yang was dangerously close to reducing Team RWBY to Team RBY. "We can't be fighting amongst ourselves right now."
"Why not? Our leader is stupid. She's young, inexperienced… what exactly even makes her captain worthy? All she does is make us do ridiculous things for what? A rosy colored school life? As if that makes us better protectors and defenders of justice or peace or, or… anything!"
Yang scowled.
"Well what about you, snob? Why don't you try to do something instead of complaining all the time!"
"Each time I do, I get shut down because nobody listens! You're all pathetic!"
"Weiss-"
"No!" Weiss was fuming now. "You should have listened to me in the first place! Stop the White Fang? Us? A group of teenagers? Do what no one else could? But no..."
She shot a scathing look at the rest of the team. "You all wanted to play hero before you graduated, and became wrapped up in some fantastical fairytale mumbo-jumbo where you thought this had a happy ending. Well guess what? It doesn't!"
She was heaving now. "I almost died today! Do you know what it's like! To wake up after being knocked out to see a chainsaw inches away from your head? To have to desperately twist out of the way and hope it doesn't hit you? That White Fang lieutenant was just inches away from-"
Her whole body was shaking. "Not only that, but we all almost died today. We're kids! We weren't ready! We did all of this, the schemes, the plots, the fights..."
Hot tears were starting to form. "And for what? This?!"
Weiss waved outside. "Look out there and see that Vale is burning. Do you see that girl over there, who's probably about our age? Do you see that she's being mauled by the Grimm? Being torn limb from freaking limb? Oh jackpot looks like the Nevermore scored her head just in time for dinner! You see all of that? That's on us! Because we weren't ready! Because we failed them! We should have never taken this mission, and yet here we are because of-!"
"Calm down. Calm down," Blake tried her best to keep Weiss from puncturing Yang like a pincushion. "Surely by now reinforcements from Beacon is coming… so we can help with the containment and counter offensive then."
Yang grunted an affirmative and walked over to the silent Ruby. Taking a seat beside her, Yang crossed her legs and rested them atop a pile of games with her arms pillowing her head. "While we do that, guess I'll nap."
"You're napping?" Weiss was fuming. "At a time like this? When people's lives are dying left and right?"
"Nothing to be done. Go with the flow, Ice Queen. Can't be so rigid solid all the time."
Weiss screamed and turned toward the entrance.
"Hey, where are you going-Ugh! Yang! Did you really need to taunt Weiss like that!" Blake turned towards Yang. Weiss leapt into battle against small packs of Grimm roaming the streets. "We've got to help her!"
"I'm tired," Yang said with a roll of her eyes. "Ever heard the saying sometimes you've got be as immovable as a mountain? Swift as the wind? Silent as the forest? And… of course, as fierce as fire?"
"I'm familiar…" Blake's face turned red at Yang's knowledge of military classics. "But… Ruby! Shouldn't we-"
Ruby stayed silent.
"Fine. I'm going."
"Have fun."
Blake departed leaving the sisters alone.
"Hey… Ruby… it's not your fault."
Ruby said nothing.
"It's nothing like last time," Yang said with a soft smile. "Last time wasn't your fault either… I bet Mom would be pretty proud of you. So don't beat yourself up over it okay?"
Ruby continued her silence.
"Well, I guess I gotta go. Someone's gotta watch those two idiots while our captain catches her breath," said Yang as she got up and dusted herself off. "Don't worry about it. Your big sis will protect you. Always. Welp, gotta beat up some Grimm."
With that, Yang Xiao Long rejoined the battle.
And Ruby, her knees brought up to her face, sat silently against the wall.
A counter-offensive by Beacon hunter and huntress teams along with General Ironwood's army brought the Grimm incursion to a halt. Several isolated packs had made their ways into the sewer systems or were roaming the poorer districts but were manageable once a quarantine was put in place. The hole was contained with a combination of fire support from airships and Glynda Goodwitch's personal intervention.
As far as Ozpin was concerned: the Grimm attack, while brief and devastating, was over.
But the council had dissenting opinions.
"Ozpin, your lax handling of the situation is an embarrassment to our Kingdom! Several teams deployed and little more than containment to show for it? Why, if General Ironwood's army hadn't intervened and pushed the monsters back, who knows how many more fatalities we would have had."
"Several teams rendered out of commission due to injuries. General populace in fear and panic… it'll take days to restore power, water, and find all the people trapped under the rubble. Do you think we can survive another attack like that?" Another council member added.
"And that is exactly why we are appointing General Ironwood as Chief of Security for the duration of the Vytal Tournament… afterwards we will have a serious, and very short, discussion on your position as head of Beacon…" A button could be heard being slammed on the other line.
The connection to the council went silent. Ozpin was not allowed to defend himself.
"Seems they're rather angry. But they are justified you know," Ironwood commented.
"I know." Ozpin took a sip of his coffee. "And of Torchwick, is he still not speaking?"
"Not a peep. A lot of maniacal laughter though. He keeps muttering 'she left me to die' under his breath… but nothing else apart from that. We're planning on putting him through the works: water, rack, everything."
"Torture is outlawed here in Vale," Ozpin commented.
"We're flying the ships out to international airspace tomorrow. I'll personally administer some of our more aggressive interrogation techniques."
"Good skies to you then," Ozpin said hoping to end the conversation.
"And good land to you.. but Ozpin. I believe the council made the right decision… goodbye."
The line went silent, and that was the last time the two ever spoke as friends.
"This seems like a huge mess," Mercury stated as they overlooked the devastated ruins of Vale. Construction crews had already begin rebuilding, under the protection of whatever active teams were available. They worked late into the night, wearing thick coats to protect themselves from the chill.
"Tell me about it. Wonder how many people died today. Like… a thousand?" Emerald wondered excitedly.
"1,298 deaths to be exact. Mostly children from schools that couldn't evacuate in time." Cinder answered. "Ah… back to the drawing board."
"Really? After all that work?" Emerald groaned. "It's the stupid animals who had to start the train early…"
"Not like they'll listen to us after that…" Mercury commended.
"There, there," said Cinder as she flicked a small flame on her finger. "The kingdoms of Remnant are but a flickering candle in the stormy night and all it take to extinguish it is a strong…"
"Wind."
Mercury, Emerald, and Cinder turned to the unknown masked man emerging from the shadows.
"Welcome," Cinder said with a smile.
"Wind, like the changing of a new era," the masked figure continued.
"Hey… aren't you Ad-" Cinder waved off Emerald. The mistress of flame and dust held out her finger, the flame flickering like a dying ember.
"We could use a bit of your persuasion with the White Fang. I'll need their help, and yours, to see it… the destruction of this era of kingdoms."
He gave a nod.
"They'll listen to me."
He withdrew his blade. An instantaneous slash. The fire on Cinder's fingertip went out. There was the sound of his sword being resheathed in the darkness. It was quiet underneath the stars in the heaven.
How Volume 2 Should Have Ended Fin
Special Thanks to narutochaos22 for the Weiss rant, editing. He's bro.
Author's Notes: Between the choppy animation, cringe-worthy and predictable dialogue, and the sheer amount of 'pls be excite' teasing hype with the Velvet, Adam, Cinder 'IT'S ALL GOING ACCORDING TO KEIKAKU'... man, what are these writers doing.
You guys need a plot, seriously. An antagonist with no motivation is useless. This is the exact sort of stuff that leads people to admire the character designs and personalities more than the plot. It's the sort of stuff that makes people want to write stuff… stuff that these characters could do. SOMETHING THEY'RE CAPABLE OF.
It creates people like me.
LOOK AT ME. IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT TO CREATE? PEOPLE WHO WRITE FANFICS THINKING THEY CAN DO BETTER THAN YOU? BECAUSE HOLY CRAP I CAN WRITE SEVERAL VOLUMES ON HOW JAUNE PISSES ALL OVER THE ENTIRE RWBY CAST. LIKE LITERALLY. JUST TAKE A HUGE GODDAMN PISS.
Because all you guys did IS TAKE A PISS ON THE FANS.
Bonus Scene
Jaune: Hey Pyrrha, want a Golden Shower?
Pyrrha blushes furiously.
Pyrhha: Wh-what! Jaune! What are you saying!
Jaune shrugs and tosses Yang and Neptune at Pyrrha.
Bonus Scene End
Disgusting. Filthy disgusting… ARGH! Shoe-horning in characters, cheesy AND predictable dialogue… DID CINDER REALLY NEED ALL THAT KEIKAKU?
;_; See you later, space cowboy.