Author's Note: Here we are. Here we go.

It has been 377 days since this story was first published. 377 days and 50 other chapters, and somehow, this chapter has two of my favorite three moments of the entire story, both written and planned.

Let's ride.


Chapter 51: "I'm not better than her." – Jaune Arc


Yang's POV


"What happened?" Raven asked as I stepped out of her portal and into her tent. I ignored the looks I was getting from her and Vernal, the only other person in there, and walked straight over to the table where Raven's weapon was laying. I grabbed it and tossed it to her wordlessly.

"It's Jaune. We need to get him out, now," I commanded.

"What happened?" Raven repeated forcefully as she strapped her weapon to her hip.

"Ozpin found out. He has Jaune. We need to move now, while he's distracted," I barked out angrily, getting frustrated that it felt like Raven was dragging her feet. Pyrrha was likely arriving at Ozpin's office right around now, which meant that Jaune was unguarded—or he wasn't guarded well enough that a Maiden couldn't free him. "We don't have time to sit around!"

Raven and Vernal shared a wary look, something unspoken passing between them. Each second they wasted only tightened the knot in my stomach.

"Yang, slow down," Raven called out, trying to calm me down, which only had the opposite effect. "What exactly happened? What exactly does Ozpin know?"

"What does he know?" I repeated, zoning in on that last word. "Are you worried about your own precious secret!?" I accused loudly, before forcing myself to bite down my emotions long enough to explain things to her. "Look, Jaune tried to recruit his teammate to take Ozpin's Fall Maidenhood, and Ozpin found out. He might know about you, or he might not; I'm not really sure. But what I am sure of is what's going to happen to Jaune if we don't stop stalling and save him!"

"Shit…" Vernal tried to mumble under her breath, failing to do so. I whipped my head at her, but she was watching Raven with concern.

When I followed her eyes back to Raven, she was staring off at the ground, a disappointed and frustrated look on her face.

"Raven…" Vernal's voice pleaded, as if she knew what Raven was thinking and didn't like it.

"What are you waiting for!?" I screamed.

"No," Raven stated softly, distantly. "Jaune will face his consequences."

"What!?"

Raven looked up finally, her red eyes locking onto my own. Her eyes were set firmly, but there were several emotions evident there. Disappointment. Frustration. Anger. Resentment. Loathing. Sadness. Pity.

But it was the resignation there that angered me the most, that she was allowing herself to be content with letting Jaune suffer. I activated my gauntlets, cocking them back to load a round into each of them.

"I don't think I heard you," I threatened, glaring at my mother with no care in the world to hide my anger. "Say it again," I dared.

"Vernal," Raven's voice called out evenly, though a little bit of the tension in the air seeped into it, "leave us."

She didn't want to, if the nervous glance she shot between us was any indication, but Vernal obeyed, silently exiting the tent flap.

"I warned you," Raven hissed bitterly, anger and contempt dripping from her voice now that we were alone. "I warned you what would happen if Jaune did something stupid, Yang."

"You said that you'd take him back!" I yelled back, taking a few steps towards her. "You said that you were preparing for this, that you were going to make sure the Tribe was there if he needed it! He… he does, okay!? You were right! Jaune doesn't belong in Beacon; he's too much like you. Is that what you needed to hear?" I screamed as best I could, despite my voice failing me and cracking at least once. My fists shook and my eyes were starting to water, but I ignored it and focused on my anger. There was plenty of it, after all, and I was shaking.

"I said," Raven growled at me, fixing me with a firm glare of her own, "that if he didn't betray me—"

"We don't know that he did!"

"—or that if he didn't do anything irreparable, then I would take him back. I never said that I would rescue him from his own actions."

I nearly exploded, only steps away from her now.

"What the hell does that even mean!?" I screamed at her. "You won't rescue him? Whatever happened to giving him 'one,' huh?!"

"He used it," Raven answered, her voice low and tense, "when he got captured by Torchwick."

I'd had enough of her condescending bullshit and finally snapped, swinging at her with my right fist and attempting to blow a hole in her face with Ember Cilicia. Her head ducked to the side to avoid the blow and her knee came up into my exposed ribs, knocking the wind out of me and before she shoved me back.

I was left panting from having the air driven from me and shaking from the anger. A chill worked its way down my spine, either from my tumultuous emotions or from the draft caused by the hole in the tent that was just created.

"You told me that you would protect what's yours," I stated after I had enough time to catch my breath, switching tactics. I couldn't afford to leave any angle untried. "Well, now's the time to prove it. Jaune doesn't have anywhere else to turn. He's yours for the taking."

"That's not enough."

"Then what is!?" I screamed again. "Because all I can see is that you just don't want to back up your word! Are you scared or something?!"

"I am not going back on my word," Raven hissed, her hand falling to her weapon tensely. She removed it a moment later, before closer her eyes and taking a breath to calm down. "Yang, has Jaune figured it out yet?"

"He—" I cut myself off, finding that I was too worked up to answer. It might have been why she asked the question, because it forced me to take a deep breath before I could reply. "He…hasn't. I didn't tell him."

"Do you see the position you're putting me into?" Raven asked now that I was no longer so enraged that I shook. "I told you that I would accept him back openly if he came to terms with who he is and came back on his own. Unless you can assure me that this is going to force him to that realization, then all bringing him here would do is make him resent me. Can you honestly guarantee that?"

I opened my mouth to answer, but the words died in my throat as doubt crept in. Jaune might just as easily blame Pyrrha, or Ozpin, or even Raven, for the position he was in now. Even if he took this hard and blamed himself, would that be enough to make him see himself differently? If killing Emerald didn't make him realize just how much like Raven he is, then what would? How bad would something have to be for Jaune to see it?

"I thought not," Raven commented, though her words weren't gleeful or satisfied. "You're asking me to risk a lot just to have Jaune spit in my face and walk out again. Do you think Ozpin would take this lying down? Even if I make it out without them knowing I'm a Maiden, Qrow knows that I at least have Spring. They might come after us now that they have Jaune, but if I attack them to take him back, they definitely will. You would have me risk everything I have to save someone who's going to hate me for it?"

I could find no words, a combination of my adrenaline and anger still pumping through me crossed with a sense of being lost and not knowing how to respond, how to tell her she was wrong.

"I'm sorry, Yang. This is something I just can't do."

Her words… they weren't happy. They were resigned, disappointed, frustrated.

"You're just going to let your son die like that?"

Raven froze as my words hit her, choked out as they were. We both knew how likely Jaune was to cooperate with Ozpin, and just how bad this situation really was for him. Her eyes didn't meet mine, instead staring off into the distance at the dirt once more, her mouth slightly agape in shock from my question. After a few moments of contemplating it, Raven's eyes closed and her head dropped a little lower in shame.

She didn't deny it.

"Fine then," I spit out angrily. "Take me back there. At least let me try to save him."

"No," Raven replied after a pause, before finally opening her eyes. "Not till you calm down. All you'll do is join him if you go in there like this."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I was under the impression that you didn't care if your kids died," I spat again, trying to hurt her with any words that I could. "What are you going to do, keep me prisoner here? If you're so afraid of Jaune hating it here, do you think this is going to be any different!?"

"I'm not going to keep you hostage," Raven answered, putting on a calm that I wasn't buying and crossing her arms. If I didn't know better, I would say she was channeling the image of an adult or, gods forbid, a real parent. "I'm just going to keep you here long enough to cool down so that you don't do anything stupid like Jaune. Once I'm satisfied, I'll drop you off with Tai."

"No, it needs to be Qrow or Jaune!" I cut in angrily. "Dad's on Patch. That's too far away from Beacon!"

"I know," Raven replied. "That's the point. There's no reason for both of you to go down. Tai will agree with that, I'm sure."

Tears rolled down my face now, and I tried to ball my hands into fists once more, tried to get angry and ride that rage again, but it felt hollow now. I felt helpless. My only real chance of saving Jaune had just given up on the idea before my very eyes, and only wanted to make sure that I didn't waste my time trying to save him myself. I thought that coming here would be my best chance to save Jaune, and instead, all it did was stop me from helping him at all.

"Raven, you need to see this!" Vernal and a few others busted into the tent, scrolls in hand playing some footage, but I didn't care to stop and listen.

I was already out the tent, running to get as far away from that bitch as I could. I didn't make it far, though, as what looked like the entire Tribe was gathered around a projector playing the Vytal Festival's broadcast. What caught my eye first was that this was supposed to be the singles round, but there were four people fighting in the center ring. As I got closer, I noticed two had White Fang masks.

"What's going on?" I asked one of the faces I remembered from my visit last night—Drake, I think, but I wasn't sure.

"No clue. Broadcast has been hijacked and the White Fang set off bombs all through the stands just a few moments ago."

"What?"

I looked again more closely. Penny and Nora were two of the four people fighting on the plain floor of the arena, and there was smoke everywhere. Spatters of dark crimson were seen the closer you got to the stands. Nora was fighting a White Fang member who had a chainsaw, and Penny was fighting one with a simple red katana-ish sword. The camera panned out, showing off the carnage in the surrounding stands as if the cameraman wanted it to be seen. There were whole sections that were missing chunks where bombs had been set off, bodies slumped all over the place, and skirmishes between the White Fang, Atlas, and other students were scattered about. Except… Atlas' soldiers were fighting with the White Fang, or some were.

"Yeah, they broke in before the match started and started fucking shit up! That Taurus guy started talking about judgement and karma for humans before they attacked those girls."

"What?! What's going on?!"

I pulled my scroll out hastily, hoping to see if I could find out anything more about what was going on. A weight that I hadn't even noticed lifted from my shoulders as I did so: I had texts from all of my team from the past few minutes. They weren't taken by the bombs.

I looked up as the camera zoomed back in on the fights on the main floor. Penny, at least, seemed to have this Taurus guy—wait, Taurus as in Adam Taurus!?—on the ropes, as she pinned him in place and blasted him down with a laser beam shot from the combination of her swords. I had yet to really see anyone in the tournament able to handle Penny's assault, and fortunately, that looked to apply here too.

Some of the members of the Tribe around me cheered, though not necessarily because it was Adam that was going down. They cheered because they enjoyed the fight. A majority of them just watched in stunned silence, either shocked or just surprised by the scale of things happening.

Dust cleared after Penny's attack, and to our surprise, Adam was still standing, his sword half-drawn where he had taken the brunt of Penny's attack. That sword was violently glowing red and causing the camera to blur around it from its intensity, and Adam cocked his head to the side slightly; it was almost imperceptible, but it sent a chill down my spine. He has something up his sleeve. He charged forward at Penny, taking care not to use his blade to deflect her attacks as he charged in closer. Penny was forced to pull back all of her swords to form an impenetrable wall to block Adam's attack. Adam jumped into the air and brought his sword straight down into Penny's defense.

After a violent explosion of red that reached blocked out all sight of both Penny and Adam, all of Penny's swords fell to the ground, cleaved cleanly into two pieces. As did Penny herself.

The broadcast continued to play the same background sound of panic crowds rushing around, but now everyone in the Tribe had gone quiet. Even Adam looked surprised, taking in the two severed halves and staring at the wires and tubing that stood in for organs and blood.

"The arrogance of humanity," Adam monologued once he finished staring inquisitively at Penny's mechanical nature. He inspected his handiwork by poking Penny's lifeless shell with his blade, before sheathing it once more. "You believe yourselves to hold the power over life and death. You believe it is your place to decide right or wrong, good or bad, worthy or unworthy, to create life and to take it. You will be shown just how wrong you are. Consider Vale your first lesson, and the White Fang your tutor."

His attention turned towards his comrade, who was pinned down by Nora's grenades. Adam's hand fell to his weapon and I went stiff, praying for all that was within me that Nora would run while she could.

Adam was distracted by something above him, a giant nevermore that had arrived and was trying to break into the arena. When the camera panned back down, Nora had fled, only the pink smoke of her grenade remaining where she had been.

"This is her move," I mumbled to myself as I stumbled upon the realization. I ignored the funny look from the guy who I had been talking with as I backed away from the screen, a loose plan forming in my head. I have to get back there to get Jaune out, before either Cinder or Ozpin decides to kill him during the chaos.

A bellowing, albeit muted, roar played over the projection's audio, commanding everyone's attention as the camera panned up from the arena to stare off into the horizon. It was dark, but the camera seemed to adjust as a massive black mass hovered through the sky, drawing closer and larger until it was clear that it was a massive Grimm.

A wave of inspiration shot over me instead of the panic I felt I should see at such a large monster being released onto Vale. An idea took root in my mind, one that would work because it had to. It was too good for Raven to pass up.

I stormed into her tent once more, where several of Raven's lieutenants were gathered around a table, with a scroll playing the broadcast laying in the middle.

"Trying anything in Vale was a bad idea beforehand, but with a fucking dragon flying around, it's suicide!" claimed some man I didn't know.

"Think of all the unguarded loot in Vale!" another chimed in.

"Think of getting eaten why trying to haul it back," Vernal cut back at the man, who had been the only one who really still seemed on board with going to Vale. "There's nothing in Vale valuable enough for us to risk protecting, and it's going to be too chaotic to do any real looting with the Wyvern flying around."

"Vale's too risky," Raven added on in agreement. "If we go and establish ourselves as a legitimate defense force, we all die to the Grimm. If we try to loot the place, we risk harming our brand, and we all die to the Grimm," Raven summarized, making it clear that she was leaning towards no. That was good, because new idea of mine or not, if she had been planning to go loot Vale after having just told me that she wouldn't save Jaune, I was going to personally tear her head from her body.

"With your portals, we don't have to get bogged down fighting any Grimm—"

"My portals only lead to the places with the highest concentrations of danger, I can assure you," Raven cut back. After that, no one had anything else to add, and it looked like the decision was settled. Raven looked to me curiously. "Have anything to add, Yang?"

"I accept."

The others around the room seemed confused, but I kept my eyes locked firmly on Raven, and she understood immediately. Her eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"You offered me a spot here, and you told me the offer stands. Well, this is me accepting that offer."

The room went, eyes shifting back and forth between Raven and me. I made sure to show my resolve, and I could see the gears turning in Raven's head.

"I assume that your condition is that I save Jaune?"

"Sure, but you would anyways, now that you have me," I responded, trying to give her a smirk. It was hard to put on, given how frustrating it was to be so desperate as to be going through with this. This was not a move that I enjoyed being forced into, and it likely showed on my face. But I gave her a smirk nonetheless, as hollow as it was. "You have me now. Do you think Jaune is going to let me stay here alone? If you save him, he's not going to leave. If you were worried that he'll hate you, or he won't see who he is, then I'll make sure you don't have to. Whatever you need me to do to make this work, I'll do it! You have no reason to let him rot anymore!"

Raven's eyes gave away nothing. She didn't even react to the words, remaining silent. As the moments dragged on, my gut sunk further, as I became more and more worried that even this wasn't enough, and that she was dead-set on abandoning Jaune. It shouldn't have surprised me that she would abandon him, but I was betting everything here that she didn't want to do that. Maybe I had a higher opinion of her than was warranted. Maybe Jaune was right, that she had fooled me and really was this monster that he saw. Right now, all I have left is a desperate plea to that 'monster,' and I'll beg if I have to.

"Don't you get it!? You win! You get what you wanted! Jaune Arc and Yang Xiao Long, willingly joining you! Is that not what this was all about?! Is that not enough!?" My voice threatened to crack and I could feel my eyes watering again, as this was truly the last thing I could do. If this didn't work, Jaune was gone.

Nothing. No reaction. No change. She continued, watching me through her narrowed eyes as she weighed my words.

"Vernal," she said finally, not taking her eyes off of me. The feintest hint of a smile could be seen on her face. "Get the men ready, and have them on stand-by. We've got an extraction to take care of."


Pyrrha's POV


"Ms. Nikos, if there were ever a time to test whether you have inherited Amber's abilities, I believe—" Ms. Goodwitch was cut off as she strained and focused on her Semblance, which picked up a pillar of rubble to smash it into an Ursa "—that now would be the time."

"I'm trying!" I called back defensively, as I took out a small patch of three Beowolves. They were small and weak, and I found gouging them on Miló to be effortless. Honestly, I hardly even considered them, as there are so many other things on my mind. "It's not…easy."

I hadn't activated any of her abilities, but I knew the transfer had been successful. I could feel Amber's Aura stirring restlessly from within me, thrashing around like a blinded animal or a fish out of water; it—she?—didn't know where it was anymore. Fortunately, that hadn't manifested in magic being shot off randomly from me, but it still forced me to go through the uncomfortable feeling of hosting such panic. She had been gradually settling down ever since the transfer first finished, and was noticeably less restless now.

Perhaps, if I were a bit calmer myself, Amber's soul would resonate to that, and start to settle in better. With everything that was going on, I was the exact opposite of calm. Jaune is a hostage, I'm being blackmailed with that, Ozpin accused me of betraying humanity, I'm now half a Maiden, I have a target on my back from an unknown enemy, Jaune knows that enemy but hasn't shared, and now all of Vale is under attack! I think I can be forgiven for being panicked!

Nothing I've done has made things better, for anyone.

"Pyrrha, behind you!" Ms. Goodwitch shouted, her eyes going wide at something just past my shoulder that I had been too lost in my own thoughts to notice. I spun around frantically to find an Ursa reared on its hindlegs, barreling down to smash me. With no time to dodge, I desperately heaved Miló up at the underside of the beast's neck, hoping to pierce it as its weight fell down on me; I would take the hit, but the Grimm would evaporate enough to get out from underneath eventually.

Right as my adrenaline spiked and my arm fully extended its attack, a wave a fire jettisoned out of the arm holding Miló and hit the Ursa with enough force to counteract its stomp and knock it flat on its back. Though the flames dispersed outwards upon hitting the creature's body, they didn't burn me, or even feel warm to me, despite clearly burning away at the Ursa. A small flame hovered around my left eye momentarily, only noticeable because of the light cast down on my nose.

I was so surprised by the action that I never even capitalized on the downed Ursa, but I didn't need to, as another floating pillar of rubble crushed it, piercing it with jagged rebar and ending the Grimm's life.

"—rrha! Ms. Nikos!" Goodwitch's voice snapped me back to attention, the panic there only subsiding once I made it clear I was with her once more. With my attention garnered, her tone immediately turned inquisitive. "Are you okay? Did using that hurt you in any way? How is your Aura?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," I reassured, taking a breath to steady my reserves and pulling out my scroll as I did so. "It didn't even feel like me that was doing it. My Aura is just under half still."

"Under half?!"

"That's not from exertion! That's from—" I cut myself off before I could give away Yang's name. "That's from earlier, before the transfer. I guess this whole process has been too stressful to recover much."

Ms. Goodwitch gave me a wary look, before forcing herself to accept is as she turned her attention to the chaos around us. We had barely made it to Beacon's airfields before having to stop and fight, and now that the arena was clear enough for the evacuating students and Huntsmen to handle, we could continue on to Vale proper, as had been Ms. Goodwitch's intentions.

"I need to go!" I called out to Ms. Goodwitch as I finished reading the message I had just received on my scroll. "It's Ozpin. He said he needs me with him to guard the Vault."

Her eyes widened slightly as she took in the information, likely knowing better than me what other things might be hidden down there. To be safe, I handed her the scroll and let her read the message from the Headmaster for herself.

"Hurry, then!" she commanded, nodding once before turning to find a bullhead—or any other means—to Vale.


Beacon's Vault was significantly more depressing now, I found, as I stepped out of the elevator to find myself down here alone. My footsteps echoed on the marble floor making the only sounds in the entire Vault. The candles on the walls only served to cast long shadows off the square pillars to each side of the pathway, making the place seem even more ominous. The knowledge of the carnage, bloodshed, and terror that was being experienced above my head only served to make things worse.

The atmosphere did nothing to help my frayed nerves, only exasperating the fears and uncertainties I felt. I tried calling out for the Headmaster, but was left to assume that I was the first to arrive when nothing but my own voice echoed back to me.

Up ahead, there was a sudden noise, a soft clack on the marble caused by something I couldn't see behind one of the pillars in the distance. My nervous mind jumped into overdrive and I drew Miló and Akoúo̱, slowly and cautiously stepping further ahead, keeping my footsteps muted.

The unmistakable sound of soft footsteps heading towards me came from my right, just far enough back that my periphery could see none of it. My body tensed, and I turned my head just enough to see a large white object barreling towards me. It was too close for me to spin all the way around and get Akoúo̱ up in front of me, so I instead released the tension in my body into a jump up and slightly towards the oncoming object, which turned out to be a shield. With a boost from my Semblance, I cleared over most of the shield and let it clip my shoulder, providing me with just enough torque to spin around and complete a sideways flip over my assailer.

A sword shot out from behind the shield as it passed by underneath me, but struck my own shield dead center as I had made sure to keep it between me and the attack as soon as I could spin enough to do so. I was already shifting Miló into its rifle form with my free-hand while airborne, and as soon as I landed in a crouch, I fired three rounds at my attacker.

My attacker had recovered easily, spinning around and crouching to keep as much of themselves hidden behind their shield as they could. All three shots landed dead-center between the crests of the twin moons on the shield.

"Jaune!?" I called out in confusion as I recognized the symbol.

If the long, dark form of Angau Glas sticking out from on his back or the crest of his shield didn't confirm it, then the blonde hair that slowly emerged from behind his shield did. His eyes—they're almost unrecognizable. They're still… the same, in a way, but I've never seen them so angry, so hateful before.

And they're glaring at me, I realized as my stomach flopped and a pit opened up in its place. This… this is bad. Something is wrong. My blood ran cold and panic swept over me, as it wasn't hard to guess what could make Jaune so angry at me.

"J-Jaune, I didn't mean to—" I flinched as Jaune reacted to my voice by sinking into a defensive stance and pointing the tip of Crocea Mors over his shield at me, his body rigid in a way that matched the rage in his eyes. "You have to believe me, Jaune! I never meant for Ozpin to find out! I tried to hide it from him! I—Jaune!"

I yelped as he charged forward at me, still refusing to say a word. He lunged out at me, pulling his shield back and stabbing down from above his head at my chest, making sure his momentum was too great to allow the blow to be knocked aside. Instead, I forced it up and over my left shoulder with Akoúo̱ at the last moment, but Jaune continued to charge into me, swinging his shield into my side. I caught the edge of the shield on the flat of Miló to stop it from digging into me, but this still transferred the full force of his charge plus his swing into my torso. I picked my feet up and let the blow knock me back out of melee range, deploying my feet back down to slide across the ground, firing Miló in Jaune's general direction for a small extra boost of separation. Any rounds that found their mark glanced harmlessly off his shield.

"Jaune, please—!"

He let out a yell and redoubled his effort to come after me at the sound of his name, a reaction that shook me to my core. He hated it that I would even say his name. What had Ozpin told him that I did? Did he think that I willingly sold him out, or worse, did he know the whole truth and still hate me?

I didn't have time to think, and the thinking I had done cost more time than I could afford, as Jaune had already closed the distance and was upon me once more. He recognized my distraction and raised his sword up, winding up for a large diagonal blow to throw his momentum behind to try to overwhelm me with power. I flinched and braced myself, dropping one foot back in the direction his blow would come from and raising my shield above me to catch the blow.

It never came.

The blow was a feint and I realized this too late to do anything about it, as Jaune's full weight crashed into me from behind his shield, knocking the air from my lungs and forcing me to skid backwards on the marble floor once more. This time, I ran out of room and my back crashed into one of the square pillars, softly indenting the plaster.

Panic shot through me as my instincts began to roar to life. I had been knocked out of measure, but not by much, and with one step Jaune was within striking range once more, going for a powerful back-handed up-diagonal aimed at my midsection. The blow was coming in too low to be ducked by traditional means, so I dropped all the way down to the ground, narrowly avoiding Jaune's blow, his sword kicking up dust as it sliced into the plaster. From my spot on the ground I spun and swept Jaune's legs before kicking off the wall and leaping away to safety, returning to my feet before Jaune had fully hit the ground.

I had created significant separation before I dared to turn back around to put eyes on Jaune, expecting him to be picking himself off the ground, but not putting it past him to try to hurry to his feet and rush to me once more. What I did not anticipate was that he had turned to land on the flat of his shield, and then kicked as hard off the wall as I had. His smooth, polished shield glided near-silently across the polished marble flooring like a child's sled. I had turned around expecting him to be near the pillar and had missed him entirely until he slid into me and spun to take my own legs out from beneath me.

Taken by surprise, it had not occurred to me to steady myself with my Semblance and I landed flat on my back, which knocked out any air that I had managed to get into my lungs since having it all driven out not moments ago. Despite the mounting feeling of not being able to breathe, I reacted in time to Jaune's next attack. Standing above me to my side, he brought the full weight of his body down behind the point of his kite shield, and only by a desperate surge of my Semblance did I manage to veer it off course. It crashed into the marble floor, parallel to my head, not two inches from my ear. The force of the blow shattered the marble, sending large cracks out for several feet in any direction; I could feel the ground under my back shatter from the blow meant for my head. That isn't the sort of attack that Aura can save you from.

Briefly, my mind flashed back to a time when I had tried to bash in Jaune's head in a similar manner, and I couldn't help but wonder if that blow wasn't intentional.

With an aggravated and frustrated cry, I surged my Semblance forwards and knocked Jaune backwards several feet into the air, giving me more than enough space to get to my feet.

"Jaune, say something! Please!"

"Why?" his voice answered venomously. "What's it going to change now?"

"Jaune, please, just listen to me!" I pleaded desperately now that I at least had gotten him to respond. "I didn't want this—Ozpin tricked me! I never wanted to turn you in!"

"Oh, he tricked you, did he?" Jaune mimicked my words angrily. "I guess he just tricked you into that chamber and tricked you into those new powers, too, didn't he?"

"I—"

"Don't try to lie to me," he cut me off, glaring me down. "I can feel both of your Auras. I know what you did."

"He blackmailed me, Jaune!" I cut in finally. I was starting to get really nervous, and the way Jaune was acting was scaring me. It was like he had already convinced himself of what he was going to do. "He had me record our conversation, but when I wasn't going to give it to him and he found out, he blackmailed me into becoming his Maiden. He threatened to hurt you if I didn't do it!"

"Whose fault is it that Ozpin found out?" Jaune growled lowly, ignoring what I was saying and glaring me down when I didn't want to answer immediately. "Who, Pyrrha!?"

"It…it was mine," I muttered softly, averting my eyes and staring off down at the marble floor. "Ozpin lied about the recorder he gave me, and when I used it, it sent it straight to him. I-I didn't mean to betray you, Jaune, I promise—"

"But you did," Jaune cut in aggressively, before backing off and taking a deep breath, eyes closing as he did so. When they opened, the cut into me once more. "Even if I believed you, even in the best possible light, all of this is happened because of you!" Jaune finished in a shout, his voice growing angrier with each word. "It's all over because of you!"

"J-Jaune, we can still save you!" I fumbled out as he took a step towards me and I flinched, thinking him ready to attack me again. "Ozpin is on his way here to meet me, but we can get you out of here before Ozpin comes down. It's not too late for you to escape!"

"Ozpin's not on his way to meet you," Jaune cut back so confidently that I found myself believing it. Maybe it was just that I didn't want to do anything to contradict Jaune and upset him, trying not to set off a powder keg.

"Then we can get you out of here unnoticed! It's not too late to escape!"

"Don't you get it?" Jaune asked coldly, distantly. "The game is up, Pyrrha. My chances ended the moment you started recording me. I can't escape now."

"Jaune, listen to me!" I practically shouted. "There really is a way out of Ozpin's control. Yang already left to get help. All we need to do is get out of here and get away from Beacon!"

Jaune perked up at the mention of Yang, his features softening for the first time. Of course mentioning Yang would snap him out of it. Why hadn't I lead with that?

"She got away?" he asked, relief palpable in his voice. I nodded, and finally started to relax. That didn't last, though, as some new thought came over him and his face contorted in suspicion and dread. "Pyrrha… what do you mean she went to get help? Where did she go to get help?"

"I-I don't know exactly," I answered, which did nothing to help the tension Jaune was displaying now. "She called someone with my scroll and a…a portal opened up. She left through that. I…think the person was wearing a Grimm mask—"

"No…"

"—were they…White Fang?" I trailed off, watching nervously as Jaune muttered in horror. "Jaune?"

"No. No no no…" Jaune muttered, his voice growing louder, but also sadder. I couldn't tell if it was disbelief or heartbreak, but it sent chills down my spine to hear such raw emotion from him. "Fuck. No. Pyrrha. Pyrrha. Please tell me you're joking. Please tell me that you didn't just do that."

"I… that's what happened, Jaune; I'm… I'm sorry." The words felt strange as I still didn't know what was actually wrong, but his reaction was beginning to scare me. "What's wrong with—?"

"WHAT'S WRONG?!" He screamed at me, hatred and rage returning to him. "I'll tell you what's wrong! I was an idiot and trusted my partner, that's what's wrong! I thought you giving me up to Ozpin was bad enough, but you managed to outdo yourself, Pyrrha. Take a fucking bow." Jaune glared at me, the tip of Crocea Mors shaking from how hard he was gripping its handle. "Not only did you deliver me into Ozpin's clutches, but you also managed to do maybe the only thing worse than that! Now Raven has Yang!" He trailed off and frantically rubbing his sword-hand through his hair, unsuccessfully calming himself down. "I have no idea how you managed to fuck my life up so spectacularly, but you did. I hadn't even thought of Yang going to Raven like this. I don't think you could have destroyed everything I hold dear any more completely if you had been trying!"

"Jaune—!"

"No," he cut me off furiously, taking a step towards me and pointing his sword at me threateningly, "you don't get to speak. Every time you do, you make my life worse. Do me a fucking favor for once and die in silence!"

He charged at me again.


Ozpin's POV


Less than ten seconds after the Alpha Wyvern's roar shook Vale, I received three scroll calls. I answered them all simultaneously and put the calls on conference.

"Oz, we're going to need a fucking miracle. Tell me you've got one stored up for us."

"Ms. Nikos is only at half strength, both in terms of Aura and Fall's powers," I answered Qrow quickly, not caring at the moment if I was overheard by any of the evacuating civilians I was guarding. "If we can deal with her attacker and get her to full strength, she and I might be able to take the Wyvern down before it destroys the whole city. That's going to require knowing where that attacker is. James, what's going on with Atlas?"

"It's not us!" James' voice replied, an element of panic in his voice. "Something has infected our entire system. My flagship's been commandeered and has shot down most of my own air fleet, and all of our mechanized infantry has gone rogue!"

"Oh, you mean bringing your whole fucking army to Vale backfired?" Qrow cut back in angrily. Softly, Ironwood mumbled something about this not being his whole army. "Oz, we need to know who the other Maiden is, now."

"Agreed. Glynda, have Ms. Nikos meet me downstairs in the Vault. It's past time to pull out all the stops."

"What? She already—" Glynda cut herself off, but her words sent a strike of panic through me.

"She already what?"

"You already told her to meet you in the Vault earlier. I saw the message from you myself…"

"Glynda, I have been facilitating evacuation of Beacon's fairgrounds this whole time. I assure you I did not."

There was a brief pause as the severity of the situation hit us all.

"Ozpin, they're already in my system. Consider yours compromised, too," James cut in finally.

I ended the call right there, leaving the airships and civilians under my care unguarded as I sprinted back towards Beacon Tower—their lives were forfeit if we lost the Maidenhood and allowed that Wyvern to roam unchallenged anyways. Overhead, the black form of the Grimm Wyvern blotted out a large chunk of the sky as it flew past the school, dropping fresh Grimm puddles as it aimed for the highest congregation of negative emotion: Vale's suburban districts. If I didn't make it down to the Vault in time, all of Vale was as good as dead and I could add a hostile Fall Maiden to the growing list of mistakes made this time around.


Pyrrha's POV


Jaune's weight crashed into me again, forcing me to brace his shield with my own and lean into him to avoid giving ground. He had been doing this consistently, leaning on me and trying to tire me out while also keeping our engagements too close for my spear to be of use, forcing me to keep Miló as a short sword. Every time he hit me, I could feel his anger spike all around me, and it felt like the very air around me radiated the rage he felt at all times, which did nothing to help my confidence.

I tried to force him back, surging with effort from my legs and combining that with my Semblance as I used it to shove his shield back, and once again it failed. Every time I tried to move his shield or sword, it would glow with his Aura and refuse to move—and I had already tried to use this against him, but had been unsuccessful. Every time I tried to surprise him with my Semblance, he always coated his weapons just before, and any time I tried to deal damage to his Aura while it covered his weapons, he retreated it back before I could.

My surge failed, doing nothing but wasting energy and tiring my legs out, unable to overcome his slight height and significant mass advantage. Seeing this, he did a surge of his own, forcing me off-balance and causing me to stumble backwards. I got out of range of his sword and he charged forward in pursuit, reversing his sword grip as he did so. He put all his momentum behind a massive left hook with his shield, and I dodged to the side and let it pass by me. With his back exposed to me, I brought Miló down on him and sliced into his Aura, before looking down and realizing that he had reversed his grip so that when his back was to me, he could stab backwards at me. I pulled up on my strike before it could do enough damage to matter—his Aura was broken not an hour ago when Ozpin captured him, too, so it's not like he has any more than I do. His sword still stabbed into my stomach, and I let out a yelp as I twisted to try to lessen the damage to my Aura.

Now, with his back to me and his sword stabbed blindly behind him, I had a chance to capitalize. Instead of holding his sword in place with my Semblance, I reached down and grabbed onto the blade to lock it into place, forcing him to either let go of the sword or remain with his back to me. I brought Miló back down hard into his shoulder, biting deeper into his Aura this time. It held, though, and before I could get a second strike in, Jaune made a move.

He let go of Crocea Mors, leaving me holding it with one hand and holding Miló up with the other, before spinning back around, shield first. It caught me on the side of the head with the full force of his spin and launched me onto my back, sending me skidding across the floor. My vision faded to black for a few moments and my ears rung, but I refused to let myself sit still, acting on pure instincts as I pushed myself to my feet.

I found that I had no weapons, save for Akoúo̱ on my back. My grip had faltered on both swords I had been holding, and I struggled with focusing my eyes until I could finally see clearly enough that Jaune had them both, and was coming to finish me.

Akoúo̱ slid into place on my arm as I brought it up to defend from Jaune's first strike, swinging from my left with Crocea Mors in his right hand. I brought my shield up to block the blow before it could get going, then brought it to the other side to cut off where he was swinging Miló low at my waist. Crocea Mors swung high for my face at the same time, and I ducked backwards enough to see the tip pass by my eyes, inches away. With his right arm overextended after the miss, I stepped in under his arm on that side and put what force I could into a punch with my shield against his ribs, but without the proper wind-up it ended as more of a push to create separation.

A dust round pinged off my leg and I looked up to find Jaune firing Miló one-handed, and I silently cursed all of those training sessions we had spent together. We taught each other everything there was to know about fighting each other, even going so far as to train the other how to use our weapons—or at least, I had thought he taught me all of his tricks. My dwindling Aura would suggest otherwise.

I yanked Miló out of his grip with my Semblance, with him unable to put up much resistance now that he was gripping with only one hand in rifle-form. As soon as it was back in my hands, I shifted it to a spear and aimed it over the top of Akoúo̱ aggressively, before deciding that this needed to end.

"Enough!" I screamed, gripping my weapons till my knuckles turned white as I built up my Semblance. He saw it coming and his sword and shield were bathed in white, but everything else on him that was metal was ripped away: Angau Glas, all of his armor, even his scroll. Angau and his armor didn't rip off so much as they came unstrapped, all of them looking to have been only secured loosely, so that if I had tried to stop Jaune by holding his armor in place, it would have failed. It only went to show how much more prepared for this he was.

Jaune didn't stop immediately, but did once he saw what I was threatening him with. Angau Glass and his armor swirled around him menacingly, and I released Miló and Akoúo̱ so that they could join the ring I was forming around Jaune.

"Don't make me do this again, Jaune," I pleaded as it became clear to us both that we knew why this was familiar, harkening back to our first spar. "We don't have to do this! There's still time."

The feeling of hatred in the air around me only intensified, only serving to make the glare he gave me that much more terrifying.

"You don't get it, do you?" Jaune spat out, his voice dangerously low. "You don't get just how desperately I needed this all to work, do you?! This wasn't just about Ozpin, you idiot!

"This was my only chance, Pyrrha! I could have been free! I could have gotten away from Raven, from Ozpin, from everyone!" Jaune was shouting now, not fazed in the slightest by the weapons swirling around him that held him back. "But it's over! Ozpin knows, and there's no place for me in all of Vale now. The only thing I have left is to beg for Raven's mercy. Do you know how awful it feels to know that my best hope is that?!"

"Jaune—"

"I did all of this to get away from her!" Jaune screamed, tears starting to fall down his cheeks. "This was my once chance to control my own destiny, to prove that I'm better than her by breaking free of her. And it failed. I… I'm not better than her."

Jaune's eyes trailed down guilty. He was shaking, and the feeling of hatred and anger that had surrounded me was cracking, with fear, hysteria, inadequacy, and hopelessness seeping into the cracks.

"Do you know how much that hurts to say? Do you know what it's like to have your future shattered in front of you?" Jaune closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath as he wiped his tears dry. His hands fell back to his sides, and clenched into fists as the aura around me turned back to anger once more. "You will. I failed because of you, Pyrrha; my life is over because of you. Allow me to return the favor."

He started walking towards me, calling my bluff about the weapons swirling around him. His Aura shone all around him as his Semblance amplified it, making it clear that he was betting on making it through my attacks before his Aura broke.

"J-Jaune, stop! Please!"

Another step.

"J-Jaune, don't make me hurt you!"

Another step, and I brought Akoúo̱ in to smack him in the back of his head, damaging his Aura. He didn't so much as flinch.

"Jaune, I don't want to kill you!"

Another step.

"You already did."

Then he charged at me and, despite myself, I brought the swarm of metal down on him, tearing into his Aura without mercy. I had to break through his Aura and stop him before he made it to me.

It wasn't working, though. There was no way his Aura had recovered this much, yet no matter what I did, it wouldn't break. It should have been draining as it powered his Semblance so much, but it didn't so much as waver. I even began to become fatigued by using mine far quicker than I should have, and found myself struggling to keep all of the items afloat with my Semblance, which should only happen when I get close to running out of Aura. I let Jaune's armor and scroll fall out of the air, since they were taking up too much Aura to lift and did little damage.

I abandoned my strategy altogether and rolled out of the way at the last second, dropping all of Jaune's weapons and bringing Miló and Akoúo̱ back to me. Jaune was no worse for wear, and I felt like I was about to lose my Aura entirely—and I still hadn't figured out how to utilize Amber's Aura, which would have been extremely helpful right about now.

Playing defense hadn't done anything for me, so with no other option remaining, I went on the offensive. Jaune didn't have time to collect his weapons from where they had scattered, and he made the split-second decision to go after the closest weapon, Angau Glas, and left both parts of Crocea Mors lying on the ground.

I was on him moments later, slamming my spear down forcefully where he was standing and forcing him to roll away to safety. Ice shot out from my arm at the peak of my exertion, the frost just narrowly missing Jaune. Both of our eyes went wide in recognition of what that meant and Jaune's locked on to the flames around my left eye, and I took the moment to note that both times I had used Amber's powers had been when I was striking with some amount of desperation or adrenaline. Only for offense. Maybe Amber resonates more with lashing out then with defending.

Jaune didn't waste any more time staring at the magic ice deposit, rushing to put me on the back foot once more. He charged in, swinging high at my head with Angau's heavy blade, forcing me to bring my shield up and then brace to block it, cutting off my vision so that my follow-up stab with Miló would be blind. I stabbed out with the spear, taking care to do so overly-aggressively and putting desperation in the force of the blow; sure enough, flames erupted and traveled down my spear, shooting a blast just past Jaune. He had frantically spun out of the way of the blow and backed up a step, and this time, hadn't charged back in immediately.

I kept my spear pointed out towards him and he charged in suddenly, swinging the tip of his sword down from above his head to knock Miló aside, taking care to keep it between him and Akoúo̱ so that I couldn't counter-strike with my shield. Once past the end of my spear, he tried to bring Angau Glas' tip up to swipe at my throat as he ran past me, half-swording as he did so to guide the blow better. It was a standard pass, so he would be counting on me either trading the damage or blocking his attack and losing the chance to counter as he ran out of measure; with my Aura so low, I chose the latter, bringing Akoúo̱ up across my chest to guard my neck and face. His blade scratched across it as he made his pass.

Akoúo̱ blocked my vision and Jaune took advantage of that, winging me with his elbow as he passed by. It caught on the flat of my shield and his momentum smacked Akoúo̱ into my nose, sending a shooting pain through my face as my Aura had been unprepared, and that was if I even had enough to have done anything about it. I staggered back and reflexively brought my hand to my nose, before my instincts screamed at me not to take my eyes off Jaune. My head whipped around just in time to find Jaune stabbing Angau Glas at my stomach, still in that same half-sword grip.

I panicked and summoned whatever energy and Aura I had left, stopping his weapon outright with my Semblance, before yanking it from his grip and throwing it aside.

Jaune didn't miss a beat and before I had even flicked my eyes back towards him, he was already underneath my guard, delivering a sharp punch to my nose, going for the same spot he already knew he had weakened. I staggered backwards and he kept pace, making sure to stay so close to me that I couldn't use Miló or Akoúo̱. In fact, holding on to both made trying to counter or avoid Jaune's punches more difficult, and in frustration I dropped them as I continued to backpedal under Jaune's furious assault.

Jaune threw a right hook and I swatted it across my body, taking a step backwards as I did so to make sure the tail-end of the punch didn't reach me. Jaune took one step forwards to keep pace and threw a left cross. I caught this on my right elbow and took another step back. Jaune took another step forward and attacked.

Step back. Punch avoided.

Step forward. Punch thrown.

Step back. Punch evaded.

Step forward. Punch thrown.

Step back. Punch negated.

Step forward. Punch thrown.

Step back. Punch blocked.

Step forward. Punch not thrown. Hand reached behind back.

Step back. Prepare for whatever he was reaching to grab.

My back hit the plaster wall of one of the square pillars, taking me by surprise and disrupting my defense momentarily. Jaune had led me into it, cornering me. He hadn't thrown a punch because his hand reached behind his back and grabbed something there. A hidden weapon, I realized, as it dawned on me what his plan was.

Jaune's arm twitched, grabbing a dagger from behind his back and lunging forwards with it, knowing that he had timed everything and had a window to strike while I was staggered. Unable to defend, I closed my eyes and drew on all of my Aura once more. Despite being so low, it responded, surging to life and pulsating as I powered my Semblance, pushing out to stop Jaune's dagger.

There… there was nothing there. There was nothing for my Semblance to grab onto. Nothing to stop. No metal to interact with, nothing magnetic to stop.

I opened my eyes in horror, just in time to watch the ceramic dagger bury itself in my ribcage.

A sharp breath of air was forced out of me, accompanied by a shooting pain in my chest. Every little breath I tried to take only sent new waves of pain as it jostled the knife, made worse by how I was sputtering for breath.

"J-Ja—" I tried desperately to call out his name, but a new level of agony shot through my chest as I tried to speak with a knife in my lung. All that came out were sputtered, pained coughs, the last few of which contained slowly increasing amounts of blood.

Jaune backed away slowly, eyes wide in shock and uncertainty plastered on his face, leaving the dagger in me. I slumped against the wall, doing my best not to disturb the wound and cause myself any more pain.

"P-Please, don't do this," I croaked out through the sharp breathes and the inability to see through the tears that had formed. "I'm sorry, Jaune. I'm so sorry. Please don't do this."

I couldn't see Jaune's face through my tears anymore. All I could see was that he was staring down at his hands, not saying a word. He looked back up to me and I couldn't bear to even try to look into his eyes, leaning my head back against the wall in despair and letting my tears fall unchallenged.

"I… I really am no better than her." Jaune's head dropped low, and he stared off at the ground in silence. "This—this was a mistake. I shouldn't—Pyrrha, I shouldn't have—"

"Now, now," a new, female voice called out from somewhere off to the side. I tilted my head in that direction, blinking to try to see this new person—anything was better than trying to meet Jaune's eyes right now. "That was quite the performance. Don't tell me you're having second thoughts…"

Jaune stiffened at the sight of this new person. She strode forward arrogantly, walking with what looked like a gray replica of Ozpin's cane. She twirled it around, making a show of it, before it dissolved away in a flash of orange. There was a clear tension in the air between her and Jaune, belied by the way their eyes locked on each other.

"I would say you more than delivered on your end, Jaune. Collect your things and run along before I change my mind, and before you do anything you'll regret."

She had meant that he would regret saving me, but Jaune's feet stayed rooted where he was, unwilling to leave me to this woman. I had finally gotten through to him! Jaune was unarmed, but this woman wasn't paying any attention to me, and Amber's Aura was still fine. If I could be aggressive enough, I maybe could use Amber's powers and hit this woman with enough of a blast to buy Jaune time to—

Jaune stepped aside, dropping his head guiltily as he turned his back on me and let her have me. He sulked away, cowed. Any will to go on I had remaining died right there.

She gave me a smug look and began monologuing over me, but I didn't bother listening to the words she said. I didn't care if she was gloating over me, or pitying me, or mocking me. She got angry at my indifference and grabbed me by the chin, forcing me to look her in the eyes and pay attention.

Her anger soon died out as she realized that I just didn't care anymore.

"You… didn't want these powers, did you?"

I weakly shook my head.

"A shame, then. Giving such power to someone with no will to utilize them? Ozpin has grown careless, or senile. I suppose decades of peace will do that to even the best of us." The woman took a step back and looked over me, a trace of pity in her eyes, but only a trace. "It's unfair that you were dragged into this by authorities you thought you could trust. Rest assured that Ozpin will share your fate."

Jaune walk by behind Cinder on his way to the elevator, fully armed once more. He even had Milóand Akoúo̱, though his arms drooped and his shoulders slouched as he carried them. His head hung low as he walked by, and I tracked him with my eyes, desperately holding out hope that he might change his mind and forgive me, that he might still come to my rescue. He did his best not to even look my way, avoiding even looking at the same half of the room.

His feet stopped for a moment, though his head remained hung despondently. He turned just enough to see me, to make eye contact once more. He opened his mouth to speak, but the words died in his throat. I hung onto hope for what he would say, that his words would signal my salvation. It was the only thing I had left to hang on to.

Cinder's eyes watched mine, noting that I had stopped moving them and, thus, Jaune too had stopped moving just behind her. A knife formed in one hand at her side, hidden from Jaune's view and tensing up in anticipation of a move.

Jaune tried to speak again, but the elevator door pinged off in the distance, cutting him off. All of our heads turned, watching as the doors opened to reveal a furious Ozpin. Panic washed over Jaune and Cinder.

She hastily slit my throat the very next moment.


Closing Thoughts: Not the Redheads!

Things are happening. Non-canon things. Things have shifted. Big things are different. That's all I have to say about that.

Those two moments were Yang desperately offering herself to Raven to try to save Jaune, and Jaune taking Pyrrha's breath away, by force. Originally, I was going to have Pyrrha panic as Jaune tried to kill her with his Aura projection, only for Pyrrha to shatter his Aura and leave him unarmed, then have Jaune break out the ceramic dagger. Sort of a false-Chekov/flag, but it didn't fit the shape of the fight.

Cinder had better hope that Pyrrha bleeds out quickly. I can't imagine that she wants to face Ozpin (with or without Jaune against her too) as only a half-Maiden. Full Maiden Cinder kills Ozpin and makes it seem pretty easy, since she handles Pyrrha afterwards without being tired, so I would say this is actually an even fight. Which is not what Cinder wanted when she planned this all out.


Author's Note: by Eating Upside Down

"Oh I get why I don't like the story, it's over dramatic and over analytical on angst and feelings. I was hoping for an adventure story when I read the summary instead of a corny melodrama filled affair. I mean causing a broken ankle in combat school for monsters is not a big fucking deal. A lot of this story is just drama to have drama. It's not meaningful or purposeful at all. And the humor is for weebs or the socially awkward. I can't tell if I'm reading either middle schoolers having lunch, preschoolers at the playground, or a self insert Rwby fic.

Also the word count is super misleading. A lot of content is author notes that reek of needing attention. Like, reply to comments via pm. Only reason you'd write so much additional content is if either there is pressing questions that the story itself can't answer, or if there's confusion or misleading information.

This author writes so much about their opinions and justifications for elements in the story, that they should tag themselves as an OC. Not to mention that there's bashing in the story that's pretty tasteless and immature, a wannabe edgy plot, bullshit empty drama, literal chapters discussing the drama, and 2D characters that all seem to react and feel the same way.

I will say I thought the fight scenes were dope. I think that's the part that makes me mad the most, because it's like finding a diamond in mountains of shit. You have to ask yourself if it's worth it, and I'm sure there's someone who's willing to. But I'm not willing to dig up half a million words of edge lord emo Jaune and his very important problems to find 10 or so scenes."

Fuck me, if this isn't the best thing to have come out of MoNT, I don't know what is. This surpasses normal hate reviews and transcends to its own plane. I honestly want to frame this thing. I'm not really being facetious about that, either.

(As a rule, don't harass this guy or anyone else who leaves negative reviews. Or leave reviews trolling this guy, unlike the shits in the Discord, who I cannot control anymore.)

This review is the absolute perfect takedown of my ego. A few of these things would have really stung, but the fact that they all nailed the mark is just down-right incredible. This deserves a full breakdown of just how great it is:

Paragraph 1: "over dramatic and over analytical on angst and feelings"

Yes. Right off the bat, you've hit the nail on the head. I am dramatic. I like drama (that doesn't involve me directly). I feed on the edge.

"the humor is for weebs or the socially awkward"

Okay now this fuckin' hurts because it hits too close to home. I am not a weeb, dammit, because RWBY is still not an anime. Technically. This one throw-away insult absolutely nails the mark, although to be fair, you are accusing me and anyone who likes the humor here to be a weeb and socially awkward. Was that not established by the fact this is RWBY FANFICTION?

lmao this review is so great and we haven't made it to Paragraph 2.

Paragraph 2: "Also the word count is super misleading. A lot of content is author notes that reek of needing attention."

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Sorry, I guess. I'd say it's fair to assume that a solid 15% of the story length are ANs. That leaves you guys with, what, only 450,000 words of story? My bad. lmao

Reeks of needing attention? Me? What ever made you think that?

Paragraph 3: "This author writes so much about their opinions and justifications for elements in the story, that they should tag themselves as an OC."

This is, quite possibly, the single most effective burn I have ever been subjected to. I hate OCs. Can't stand them. In one sentence, this man has revealed that I should hate myself.

Too late there, buddy!

Dammit all, this review just keeps giving.

"Not to mention that there's bashing in the story that's pretty tasteless and immature, a wannabe edgy plot, bullshit empty drama, literal chapters discussing the drama, and 2D characters that all seem to react and feel the same way."

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Paragraph 4: "I will say I thought the fight scenes were dope. I think that's the part that makes me mad the most, because it's like finding a diamond in mountains of shit. You have to ask yourself if it's worth it, and I'm sure there's someone who's willing to. But I'm not willing to dig up half a million words of edge lord emo Jaune and his very important problems to find 10 or so scenes."

Man, the absolute roller-coaster of emotions these few sentences sends me on is awe-inspiring. The funniest part is that the fight scenes had nothing to do with why the story was created. It was entirely for the "edgy, bullshit empty drama." The fight scenes were just an accidental byproduct of me having watched a lot of HEMA videos on YouTube around the time I started writing this, combined with how much I play For Honor. Wish fulfillment in writing, and - aww fuck, I really am a weeb.

Also, Edge Lord Emo Jaune and his Very Important Problems would have been a fucking fantastic name for this story. The current title was just a hold-over name I put down because I couldn't really think of anything at the time and it sounded profound. Fortunately, it fits the narrative, but oh boy, did I miss the opportunity there.


Yes, I felt that the only appropriate way to respond to his review complaining about my long Author's Notes was to write a long Author's Note about it.

I really do want to print this out and frame it. I'll keep you guys updated on how that goes.