So yeah, remember when I said that we'd be starting how Volume 2 should have ended this chapter?
I lied.
I'm sorry, guys, but their are so many things that the writers needed to ignore for that story to work. I promise we'll start Volume 2 next time. That said, onto the story.
"Okay, guys, time to finish this." Jaune said as his team was on the verge of victory over team BRNZ. Finally, a way to prove himself to the rest of the school. After this, no more underdog, no more jokes. When people speak his name, they'd speak it with praise. "Ren, Nora, FLOWER POWER!"
"Wait, what?" Nora asked her team leader, neither she nor her partner moving from their spot.
All of Jaune's hopes and dreams where destroyed by that one word.
"F-Flower Power, Nora. It's the formation I devised for you two." Jaune stuttered, unwilling to believe that they didn't know what he was talking about.
Their shrugs made a more convincing argument.
Team BRNZ, meanwhile, was just watching them in confusion along with the rest of the crowd. This was a team from Beacon. This was the team with the famous Pyrrha Nikos on it. And this is how they behaved in the middle of a battle? The four could hardly believe it.
Brawnz put his hands in front of his face, ready to call out to them, before Roy put a hand on his shoulder. "Brawnz, if they can't stay focused during a fight, that's their problem. I say we show them why."
Brawnz grinned upon hearing this and nodded to the rest of his team. In unison, three of them began walking towards their opponents while May got back into her sniping position.
"Pyrrha, you and I are Arkos. It's that thing, when we take our shields? Remember?" Jaune explained to his partner, no one noticing the men of team BRNZ walking up behind them.
"'Arkos?'" Pyrrha asked.
"It's our names put together, I could come up with anythin-" Jaune said before he felt a tap on his shoulder, he turned around with an agitated look on his face. Though before he could asked 'what?' he got a bladed knuckle punch to the jaw as the rest of Team BRNZ began their attack.
Team JNPR was taking completely by surprise and had no time to formulate a new strategy. Because of this, they took a large amount of punishment dished out by bullets, blades and punches until all their Auras got knocked into the red.
"The winners are team BRNZ!" Port yelled out after the buzzard sounded.
"... Well... Didn't see that coming." Mercury stated as the crowd began celebrating a win for Vacuo.
"Take Pyrrha off the list." Cinder said annoyed as she burned the pile of popcorn in her hand.
"And then I said, 'Kid, if you want a shotgun kick-blast to the face, keep it up.'" Mercury recited to the only person in the room listening as Cinder was doing who knows that on her scroll. "Sure enough, he kept going, so I-"
"Oh." Cinder stated as she began reading the blueprints on her scroll and began formulating the details in her head.
"What?" Emerald asked.
"Oh, nothing, we're just gonna make a slight alteration to the plan." Cinder stated before her eyes went wide as she recalled an important detail. "Or at least we would be if Pyrrha hadn't lost in the first round." She growled out.
"Huh, that's too bad. I'm still gonna get paid, right?" Mercury asked.
-Or-
For the first time since initiation, Coco felt nervous. She didn't like that, she should be making this girl nervous, not the other way around. If Coco was nervous, that meant Emerald had the upper hand on her. She kept scanning the tree line, trying to find anything that could clue her in to where the mint haired girl was. She was Coco Adel, she doesn't lose.
Coco might not have been big on strategy, but now she was trying to figure out what to do as she pointed her gun at every slight noise, reminding her of initiation. She spun around again at the sound of rustling when she realized that she was wasting time.
Coco pulled the trigger on her gun, aiming straight in front of her, no angle, no tilts, and started letting lose on everything.
"TIMBER!" She yelled, though she could barely hear it over the sound of her gun firing and the trees falling. After a minute or so of firing, she released the trigger and looked around her.
What was once a forest was now a field of fallen trees. And in the middle of one of the piles, lay Emerald, trying to reach her pistol.
Coco smirked at this and casually walked over to her opponent and kicked the gun back into the center of the arena, she then knelt down in front of the girl.
"Come on now, I know I'm hot, but you shouldn't get a bloody nose because of it." Coco said as she turned her gun back into it's bag form.
"Bloody no-" Emerald didn't have time to finish before Coco smacked her face with it, breaking her nose and knocking her Aura down to 0.
Coco then turned her attention to Mercury, how had just defeated Yatsuhashi using one of the geysers. Coco stepped into the center of the arena and began shooting at Mercury. Of course, he managed to avoid each and every shot, moving away from Yatsuhashi.
"You missed!" He yelled at her.
"Wasn't aiming at ya!" She yelled back.
It then occurred to Mercury that there was an awful lot of hissing around him, looking around, he saw that all the bullet holes Coco had left were now letting out steam. His eyes went wide as he realized what she had just done.
"I hate you, so much." Mercury growled at her.
*BOOM!*
A new, gigantic geyser then went off right under his feet, propelling him high into the air. Coco watched as he smacked into the force-field above him. The geyser let out the last of it's steam and then Mercury fell quite a long ways down. The buzzard went off again, signaling that Coco had won.
"YOU TWO HAD ONE JOB!" Cinder yelled at her teammates.
-Or-
"And that is why Pyrrha Nikos will make a perfect Fall Maiden." Ozpin said to the group in front of him, gesturing to the large amount of papers littering his desk. "Any further questions?"
"Yes, a rather big one, I might add." Glynda began, a clearly annoyed scowl on her face. "Why the hell aren't one of us taking those powers?"
"Glynda, this is a very delicate operation, we can't rush into any of this-" Ozpin stated.
"Ozpin, no offense, but enough of the answers meant to avoid the question." Glynda stated. "I want you to think about this for a second: We're older, more experienced, more powerful, heck, we even have a better understanding of who the enemy is. So why the hell did you have us wait all those months to do this instead of pumping the Maiden powers into one of us the second we got the chance and have us go to town on those terrorists?!"
"Glynda, Glynda, you know how the Maidens work." Qrow said.
"Yeah, it's total bullshit, as you yourself will admit. But we have a way to work around those rules." Glynda stated. "Even if it were a matter of gender, we can still transfer them to me. Cinder managed to do it, and she's not all that younger than me."
"Glynda, even if it were possible, why would we give the power to you?" Ozpin asked.
"Maybe because I was able to hold off Cinder without those powers, and with them I'd definitely be able to win, how's about that?" Glynda responded with a much more venomous glare.
"... That is actually a really good point." Ozpin sighed as he leaned on his desk with his hand on his forehead, probably ashamed that he didn't realize this sooner. "Head down to the Vault, we'll be down to conduct the transfer shortly."
Cinder sat back in her seat and took in the incredible battle in front of her. She was genuinely impressed with how well Mercury and Emerald were fighting against Coco and Yatsuhashi. Yes, she rigged the match in their favor, but Coco and Yatsuhashi were no jokes, even then. The fact that they were able to take out so much as one of them so far was impressive.
Cinder then heard what sounded like the rushing of air. Confused, she, along with a lot of the other audience members, looked to up to see something that she though impossible.
Glynda Goodwitch flew into the stadium, landed right in front of her, and grabbed her by her vest.
"This woman is plotting to destroy Vale." Glynda stated before flying out of the stadium, towing Cinder with her.
Everyone was confused by that, even the battle stopped as they all watched as Glynda took her prisoner out of the stadium.
"Uh.. What just happened?" Port asked over the loudspeakers.
-Or -
"It sounds like you have two choices in front of you." Winter explained to her younger sister. "You can either call him, beg for his money back, and explain once more why you would want to study at Beacon over Atlas, or you could continue to explore Remnant, discovering more about the world and honestly, more about yourself."
"... It was really good to see you, Winter." Weiss stated.
"Oh, I am not leaving yet." Winter proclaimed. "From the way Ironwood has been acting, it is clear that something big is about to transcend here. And I would not trust him and Ozpin to handle whatever it is on their own as far as I can launch them without my Glyphs."
"So, you're gonna stay a little longer?" Weiss, asked, feeling a smile creep across her face.
"What did you think, I would only stay for 2 episodes after all the build up they gave me?" Winter questioned. "I will stay as long as it takes to resolve this whole ordeal." On that note, Weiss rapped her arms around her sister, and Winter responded accordingly.
-Or-
Cinder strolled confidently through the base room of Beacon Tower as pure anarchy raged outside the walls. The Grimm were doing their part perfectly, keeping all the students busy so that she could be able to get into the vault and achieve her goal.
She walked up to the elevator at the far side of it. To think that it wasn't Ozpin or his group, it wasn't the other Maidens, it wasn't even the students the school had that would require her to put forth the most effort to over come. It would simply be pressing the call elevator button.
Cinder's smirk faded, however, when the button failed to light up. The cruel pyromancer pressed the button a few more times to make sure it was functioning correctly.
She looked up at the indicator to see that it wasn't active, not even displaying which floor the elevator was on. She raised an eyebrow in confusion as she mentally questioned why this could be.
"We have successfully disabled all elevators in Beacon Tower, Headmaster Ozpin." A worker said over the scroll in Ozpin's hand.
"Thank you, you're contributions might just save this city." Ozpin said before hanging up and going back to the controls.
"Ozpin, I'm not sure that will slow Cinder down very much." Jaune voiced. "She could just melt the doo-"
"Don't worry, Jaune. I've got it all figured out." Ozpin stated.
Cinder landed on the roof of the elevator with a Thud! that echoed up the shaft. She brought her hand down on the roof of the elevator sharply and quickly melted through it. Jumping into the elevator she then turned her attention to the doors in front of her. Summoning her powers again, she melted the doors and strolled into the underground room.
Inside she found a collection of fancy art pieces.
She quickly began a search of the area and found that this wasn't even close to the Vault she had been searching for. Her eyes glowed with fire as her powers began to ignite the air around her.
They had disabled the elevator on an art museum!? She thought as she began to melt into the floor slightly. She began taking deep breaths and walked back to the elevator shaft. Okay, not a problem, I'll just jump to the Vault like I just did. Simple.
Walking up to the elevator shaft, Cinder quickly realized the problem with her plan. Is the Vault above or bellow me?
"I should have gone down from the start." Cinder muttered as she broke yet another door and walked into the Vault. Checking all the floors above her while they were still closer so she would need to use up less energy seemed like a pretty dumb idea now. Strolling into the Vault, she was then met with a sight that actually managed to horrify here.
The transfer had just finished, Pyrrha Nikos now had the rest of the Fall Maiden's powers.
Not only that, but she'd also need to fight Ozpin along side that.
Pyrrha looked at Cinder with a look of pure furry, the cause of the destruction of what had become her home standing before her filling her with great anger. The energy began to pore from Pyrrha's eyes as she used the powers bestowed upon her to levitate above the ground, using her magnetic powers to pull out her weapons.
"Tell me, Cinder." Pyrrha began growling. "Do you believe in destiny?"
"Y-yes." Cinder gulped.
"Good." Pyrrha began. "Then you know that I'm destined to kick your ass."
With the Fall Maiden's powers, along with the assistance of Ozpin, Pyrrha was able to defeat Cinder and remove the stolen powers from her. The red haired girl then used the power she now had to help fight off the invading Grimm. Needless to say, they didn't stand a chance.
Absolutely nothing went according to keikaku.
-Or-
Cinder tapped her foot impatiently as the indicator above the elevator door displayed each number as she descended towards the Vault. She knew that she should probably be more patient about this sort of thing, plus the elevator didn't exactly think it should move any faster than normal or play something other than the soul crushing loop it usually does. But by Oum was she exited for this!
The elevator finally let out a it's beautiful ding and Cinder let out a sigh of relieve. Almost there, almost done. All she had to do now was fire an arrow and-
The doors opened and 3 young women stood before her, eyes glowing with energy. It took Cinder a moment to process the fact that the Maidens of Summer, Spring, and Winter were standing before her.
"So," The Summer Maiden began. "You are the one who stole our sister's power?" Cinder was about to attempt to lie her way out of the situation before being interrupted. "Don't bother answering, I can feel the power within you."
"I'll be honest." The Spring Maiden began, pushing a hair behind her ear. "I expected someone with a cape."
"Doesn't matter." The Winter Maiden said, channeling her ice powers into her hands. "If you want the rest of our sister's powers, Cinder Fall, you're going to need to go through us!"
Fighting Glynda Goodwitch, Cinder could manage. Fighting Ozpin, Cinder could manage. Fighting Pyrrha Nikos, Cinder could manage. Fighting the other 3 Maidens at once...
"I surrender." Cinder reluctantly said, placing her hands behind her head and kneeling down before them.
"Yeah." The Winter Maiden said, freezing her hands in place, more to give Cinder a taste of how cold her ice can be than to actually restrain her. "Smart choice."
Well, that was a lot harder than expected. I know what you're all thinking, 'It shouldn't have been that hard, all you needed to do was take a moment from the show and change the outcome.' And while it does seem that simple at first glance, you then need to disqualify any moments that didn't have an impact on the plot. Even if Weiss grabbed Myrtenaster and took out Flynt with it, Team RWBY would most likely still choose Yang for the final round. I also had to disqualify anything that other authors have already done. And I'm not just talking about on Fanfiction either, look up How RWBY Volume 3 Should Have Ended by Bendorah, it brings up some pretty good and funny points. So with all this, I was actually quite limited on what to do for this chapter.
Now then, I'd like to give you a few breve words about each scenario in the same order they're in.
-This one actually came from the RWBY YMMV page, where it was noted how stupid it was that Team BRNZ didn't take advantage of JNPR arguing amongst themselves to wind the match, and considering that would have thrown a great bigger spanner into Cinder's plan, it qualifies her.
-They showed off how powerful Coco's machine gun was in Breach, you've shown that she's clever enough to use it as a lawn mower in Lesson's Learned, why isn't she going crazy with it? Between Ruby breaking the sound barrier in Best Day Ever and this, Rooster Teeth seems to have a really bad problem with having their characters use up all their awesome early.
-This is what happens when you A. Leave the age limits of the Maidens unconfirmed. And B. Not state the age of one of your characters. If Glynda is too old to be a Maiden, then it's shame on them for not explaining that better.
-They hyped a character up, and then got rid of her after two episodes!? WHY? If she appears that little, what was the point? That would be like of Red vs. Blue season 13 built up the return of Sister. That said, the build up to Weiss's summon ability was handled a lot better than Ruby's Silver Eye ability.
-I know that they probably wouldn't have many workers left to disable the elevator shaft with the entire school being attacked by Grimm, but the point still stands that Ozpin could have done something to slow Cinder down just in case. Plus, the idea of Ozpin tricking Cinder to run around an art museum looking for the Fall Maiden is just too funny to pass up.
-This one came to me writing the above, there were 4 Maidens, right? Why didn't they call in the other 3 to do guard duty?
Now then, as promised, the next update will be centered around Volume 2. And yes, I will be tackling the tailors and Grimm Eclipse. Though I'll probably get to Grimm Eclipse much later. And no, I'm not going to be tackling anything from Volume 4, I've given up all hope on this series and probably won't be able to stand another second of it no matter how many improvements they make. If you guys see any problems with it, write them yourselves if you feel that your up for the challenge.