Hi everyone.
Long time, no see, huh?
I don't know if anyone really follows my stuff anymore since I've been gone so long. Hell, most of you might have forgotten this story ever existed. Part of me did; that's for sure. No updates in almost two years does that to fanfics. They're just buried under piles and piles of everyone else's unfinished tales and stories. Needless to say, Broken Home has become just that: unfinished. I had slowly realized my way of writing this story was killing my drive to complete it, and it more felt like a chore than a pastime to write it. It almost killed my care about RWBY as a whole too as I try to keep on building my version of its world as new information from the canon kept coming in and contradicting it (can't blame RT for that though, it's theirs and Monty's story to tell after all).
So yes, I walked away from writing for a while. I've since been taking steps to improve my mental health, and finally being done with college was a tremendous help with that, I've moved out of my hometown, I've found other fandoms to try worldbuilding for in stories that may never see the light of day, even brainstormed ideas for something original. It's nothing concrete, but for a while, it had my mind obsessed with it. All of it made me fall in love with writing again, and I'be since come back across notes of how I planned my trilogy to go. They're much less detailed than what I want to convey, but they more or less have the full layout of how Broken Home was going to end, so to any of you that still check back on this, hoping I'd return to update this, it's your lucky day. It's not how I really wanted this ending to be told, but hey, it's better than nothing. I hope you enjoy what I had planned.
We start with where Broken Home left off. We focus on Weiss' POV where most of her friends are battered, bruised, but holding out against the tides of Grimm coming their way. Weiss rises to her feet to help hold them off, but they start to get overwhelmed until a group of Atlesian soldiers led by Remy, Marron's husband, arrives. The two share a quick moment of joy the other is here and ok before continuing into the city. While simultaneously fighting through waves of Grimm and saving civilians caught out in the open, they're all thinking of ways to try and stop the Alpha Grimm's rampage. We also see a few smaller characters take up heroics to try and save others: Morrison ignores Silbern's orders and goes out to save some janitors getting attacked by Grimm at the SDC building's front gates, getting carried away by a Griffon in the process. The Grump brothers break out the Faunus in Little Menagerie and help them bunker down in the basement of their shop. Even Chains, who survived the prison's destruction as we learned before this fic went unfinished, shows up and saves the group from Grimm ambushing them from behind. Regrouping with Remy, Winter and Marron under his true name, Chad Aens, their former team CRSM (crimson) is reborn and start taking on the Alpha Grimm. Teams RWBY, SSSN, STRM and Mercury all assist as Qrow, Ironwood, Penny and Noel commanding remaining forces and organizing the evacuation. The fight is intense, and many are wounded along the way. Yang, most of SSSN, Mercury and Marron are all put out of action. Winter tried to summon some Goliaths using her Semblance, but to no avail. The Alpha Grimm defeats them and almost crushes Winter if Weiss' knight familiar didn't act quickly enough to save her sister. Completely open after saving a now out of commission Winter, the Alpha swats its claws down onto Weiss, but they don't make contact. Weiss looks up to see Chains had taken the strike instead, leaving a clawtip the size of a milk jug piercing through his back out his chest, holding the rest back with what's left of his strength. With his final breaths, he apologizes for what he's done, and finally uses his Semblance to give Weiss the last of his Aura, supercharging hers and causing her Knight to enlarge to the same size as the Alpha. Weiss is able to go toe to toe with the massive Grimm now, commanding her Knight to subdue it against a massive skyscraper. As it calls for more Grimm to save it, the rest of Team RWBY return with a revitalized Yang to fend them off as Weiss goes in personally for the killing blow...by jumping into its mouth.
Once inside, Weiss is surrounded in darkness when a visage of Violet Fall appears before her, begging Weiss to kill her. Confused, she demands Violet explain her actions; what was the point of all this? Using the White Fang, controlling the Alpha Grimm, all the death and destruction, what was to gain from it all? Violet can't answer. She only did as her father told her, then uses her Semblance on herself to show Weiss her fear: her own father, October Fall. She explains that her Semblance didn't work on him because October has no fear, and that Weiss is the only other person she's used it on that could break out of it, so maybe she would have a chance in defeating him. Violet then explains his plan to release the Alpha Grimm is to take control of their power for himself to use. Violet tried taking it over as a last ditch effort to beat the Huntsmen and Chess Initiative operatives, but the Alpha was slowly gaining control of her mind instead, but killing her will also kill the Alpha since their life forces had merged. It was becoming too much to bear for Violet at this point, now pleading for Weiss to end it, which she obliges. One strike of Myrtenaster to the chest is all it takes. As the Grimm dissipates around them, Weiss holds a dying Violet in her arms asking if there's a way to beat him, which Violet tells her "Ask Ozpin. They're the only two she knows of that know of her." When Weiss asks who "her" is, Violet tells her to also ask who the Fall sisters' grandmother is, and with that said, finally passes away leaving Weiss in free fall with her corpse. Blake catches her as Team RWBY regroup for a group hug. The remaining Grimm are also in full retreat, leaving all survivors to cheer and briefly celebrate their victory. The remainder of CRSM silently thank Chad for his sacrifice and mourn his loss together.
General Nicklaus Schnee returns on his dropship, telling everyone it's not over yet, as his men tracked the White Fang that attacked the prison to a decommissioned base at the docks. Any able bodied fighters go along to investigate, finding that most of the remaining Fang had either perished in the prison attack, escaped. SSSN, STRM, and Penny easily fend off or capture what little WF remain, leaving RWBY and Qrow to rush into the control center to find Nickel Schnee of all people, on the phone with October Fall, demanding they come back and get him safe passage for all the data he gave them in both Vale and Atlas. This is all RWBY needs to hear that the Winter as a double agent wasn't the real spy, but Nickel was. While Yang and Qrow subdue Nickel, October congratulates the four young Huntresses on their victory today, but that it will be the last of their victories. Each of the Hunters in the room speaks directly to October, Ruby being the last to tell him that they would stop him. October simply chuckles and looks at Qrow, saying "He and your mother tried that once. Ask him how it went." and hangs up, leaving Ruby and Yang shook and Qrow mortified. They are able to snap out of it long enough to get Nickel back into custody, with a disappointed Nicklaus in disbelief his own son was the real traitor.
They return to Atlas City where they drop Nickel into the custody of Commissioner Slate. Generals Noel and Ironwood have also arrived with the remainder of the cast where Mercury is passed back into custody as well, but not before being given a begrudging thanks from Yang for the help today. Silbern steps up to thank Ironwood and his brother for their service in saving the city, but they tell him to pass it on to Weiss and her team. He hesitantly gives a half hearted thanks to RWBY with no apology as to what happened the day before, which they don't accept to the surprise of no one. Weiss steps up for herself and snaps at him she doesn't need his thanks for what he's done to her, that she doesn't even care about him disowning her anymore because she has her own family now in Team RWBY. Silbern sneers at her that she's lucky he doesn't have her hauled off his property for talking to him like that. Slate steps in and puts him in cuffs via Winter as he explains while they took shelter in the SDC's security office during the Grimm attack, he found interesting security camera footage from yesterday, including taking Faunus against their will with hired cops, unreported disturbances, and using a glyph produced in his hand to slap Weiss across the face, which led to reopening her scar. Silbern defiantly claims he can't be arrested for disowning his daughter, but Noel steps in and says he can for assaulting her, slapping him across the face as he's taken away. The three Schnee women all share a hug as Slate takes Silbern, Nickel and Mercury back into custody with Ironwood and Penny following along.
We cut to later that night as recovery efforts go underway in Atlas as Team RWBY prepare to return home, just as a task force from Beacon arrive led by Ozpin, Goodwitch and including Team JNPR that are all relieved to find that they're okay. Ozpin and Ironwood have a small chat about what happened as the surviving members of CRSM load Chad's body to a bullhead for burial at a cemetery near Beacon that many fallen alumni are buried at. In the end, Goodwitch stays behind with most of the task force to help with the recovery effort as Ozpin returns to Beacon with all the Huntsmen and Huntresses that were involved in this mission. Before they go, Penny shows up to say farewell to her friends and that they'll talk again at the Vytal Festival later in the year. With that said, the group finally return home.
In the epilogue, we would see CFVY waiting for the lot of them to return, returning Thorn to Ruby and Emre to Marron and Remy. A mass debrief is held in Ozpin's office after Chad's funeral, where Raven and Taiyang have also arrived, as well as Ironwood, Noel, and Goodwitch on a conference call for their own input. We also learn that in the absence of Silbern, Winter is taking her time recovering from the wounds she suffered in the attack to assume control of the SDC for the time being. She has also put forth a motion to Atlas' council called "Aens' Bill" to end the discrimination of Faunus in the city, which was unanimously accepted and ended in the planning of redeveloping Little Menagerie into a true home for Faunus kind, to the pleasure of Blake.
As the debrief ends, Weiss is one of the last to stay along with Ozpin, Qrow and Raven. She asks them who October Fall's mother is. Ozpin doesn't give her an answer, saying he'll explain in due time. She skeptically accepts the answer and rejoins Team RWBY in the lobby, where JNPR, Taiyang, and Neo's team await them to spend some rest and relaxation time together. Back in his office, Ozpin and the Branwens discuss what this could mean for October's next move. Speaking of October, the final scene shows him, Viridia, and Kai all together in the White Fang's undisclosed headquarters discussing what their next move will be. October says he has his plan, then turns as a Seer Grimm floats towards them and breaks apart, smoke billowing out as a pair of glowing red eyes stare down upon them.
And that is where Broken Home ends.
Once again, I truly wish I could've finished this, but this is better than waiting until halfway through Volume 9 of RWBY to get to that point. Let's face it, my updates were still few and far between from a combination of writer's block, real life, and a mess of other complications and distractions. Maybe I could go back one day and truly update this story: Get it all out in detailed chapters and give it the ending it deserved. There was so much more to discuss, so many plot holes to patch...eh, maybe if being quarantined kept getting longer, I could.
For now though, this is all I can give you. Will I come back to writing? Will we see the third part of this trilogy. I wouldn't hold your breath, but crazier things have happened. Look at the first quarter of 2020 for example. We almost had WW3, a continent on fire, a new plague, and that was just a fraction of this year so far! My money's on a wormhole opening up and spitting out alien robots to happen next.
I'm getting off track. Back on topic, will I come back to write? Not sure.
Will the third part of this trilogy ever be released? I refer you to the last question's answer.
Is the world fucked if we vote for Trump or Biden this year? Let's just see if we can all just make it to November first, then I'll get back to you on that.
For now, lads and lasses, that's all she wrote. Stay gold.
-Dust2dust17