RWBY (c) RoosterTeeth

Rose Above The Clouds

Author's note

Look. I've written draft after draft for this announcement and I've just been unable to come out and say it because frankly, I feel that the time and effort could be put to more productive use. So here's the rub: I'm quitting this piece. And the show as a whole.

The why is a long and bloody affair that requires more effort than I'm willing to put forward. But here's the TL; DR:

Because I have given RWBY eight years of my life to capitalize on the wonderful and near limitless potential it had as a series concept, only to watch it get squandered by incompetency, idiocy and the crushing need to rip off some of the most beloved shows of our time. Put bluntly, I got a RT first subscription all those years ago to watch Monty's RWBY - I didn't get a first Subscription to watch Miles and Kerry's rip-off Avatar The Last Airbender.

I could talk about the controversies of the last couple years, but that's a very muddy very bloody subject and I have neither the time nor patience to pick through that malarkey. Suffice it to say, I can no longer tolerate the sheer stupidity, moronic and ass-end-backwards decision making that's gone into the story that's made it as insufferable as it is. How its made the characters into ghosts of their former selves because the protagonists have to be 'right' all the time, or 'right all along'.

And Heaven forbid another character take them to task for it without being framed as a 'bad guy'. I'm sick of it. The concept of nuance just doesn't exist in RWBY, and Black-and-White story telling has been and always will be a massive turn off for me.

Yes Ironwood is in the right. Yes, he is still in the right when he shot the Councilman. Why? Because the Councilman was an active incompetent hindrance in a lawful military defensive action, or because he was criminally negligent and stupid not to recognize the situation they were facing. Sleet was told about Salem, the immortal Grimm witch who controlled their mortal enemy and failed to make the leap of 'Oh shit, that Giant Whale might be her'?! If he couldn't figure out that one-plus-one-equals-two, then he deserves to be shot - if nothing else, to remove his stupidity from the gene pool.

Then again, I have every belief that in the hands of competent writers with more than two braincells put together, we would still be rooting for both sides. Or, better yet, this farcical conflict wouldn't exist in the first place.

Ranting aside because my blood pressure is high enough today: I figured that I could at least give you the highlights of the story meant to come as a parting gift. I'm also willing to clarify any points or answer any questions I've missed in the comments.

Plot:

Act One conclusion:

Thanks to Cinder's shenanigans with the lingering White Fang Remnants and usurping control from Icarus Charwood who was revealed as a Navy Intelligence officer, Mantle's Subterranean plate buckles and half of the City ends up into the catacombs below the city.

Cinder is killed in a battle between herself, Raven and Summer. Her human consciousness is killed and the Fall Maiden Powers pass onto Winter - who joined the battle at a later time. It would be a long and grueling affair that would have involved Summer using her magic to control Mantle's anti-air anti-Grimm cannons, Raven going full maiden and summoning a whole verdant forest with her powers while Cinder incinerates it all with firestorms. And a lot of support elements from Qrow, Clover, Icarus Charwood, Tai and others. Weakened, Cinder is not granted final words as Raven beheads her.

The Powers move on, but the Grimm arm turns full flood parasite, twists Cinder into a Grimm monstrosity that RWBY JNR take out.

Ironwood and Thorne both are pissed off at RWBYJNRO for concealing Ozpin's true nature and the Relics from them. And Thorne makes it clear that if it weren't for Ironwood's word, she'd have locked them all in the deepest darkest hole she could find at best - have them all executed at worst. As they came into her Kingdom, they were unknown threats that caused a whole slew of problems, including stirring up the White Fang which allowed Cinder to take control and ultimately facilitate the collapse of the Subterranean plate.

Act two:

Summer, Clover and Icarus as sent on a mission to Vacuo to retrieve the Relic of Destruction, the latter two acting as representatives of the Atlas Military and Mantle Navy respectively. Qrow opts to travel with them because there's no chance in hell he's letting his wife go to through that trauma alone.

At the same time, Tai and Raven are attempting to reintegrate the latter into the group, sort through issues and so on. Unfortunately, Raven's grasp on redemption is tenuous at best and her first instinct is still to run. Tai eventually forces her to sit down with Yang and put everything on the table. Raven was scared of Salem, and even fought the woman once. She saw first hand that Salem was immortal and ran like hell because how can you defeat something like that? Yang rebuffs her by saying the only other choice is to lay down and die. Echoing Tai's words to Raven in earlier chapters.

Meanwhile, Ironwood is seething with rage since he wants to put Raven behind bars for being a traitor to the cause, a backstabber who nearly let the Relic of Knowledge fall into Salem's hands, and murdering the previous Spring maiden. A girl that was in Ironwood's care for a time since he found her during a diplomatic mission to Haven and he grew to care deeply for her in that short time.

Meanwhile meanwhile, Thorne and Ironwood use Djinn's final question to ask what would happen if a relic was destroyed.

This is my major retcon for this story: The relics are akin to the world's foundation or the Jörmungandr - the Old Norse World Serpent who would manifest Ragnarok should it ever release its tail. In this RWBY story, destroy the relics would be the equivalent of starting Remnant's own version of Ragnarok. Souls crossing the veil to fight and all. The vengeful souls will cross over, and slaughter those foolish enough to destroy the Gods' holy relics.

In Vacuo, Tyrian has tracked down and promises to kill Summer Rose slowly and painfully for her escaping Salem's captivity. Unfortunately, he declares this in front of her little harem. Qrow, Clover and Icarus have objections to this. Clover and Icarus make it a point to state that this fight is personal and they remove their badges of office to emphasis the point. All three men are out for Tyrian's blood. Battle is joined, Tyrian breaks one of Icarus' wings and scores a long wound on Clover from his stomach to his neck - invoking the canon impaling wound that killed Clover. Tyrian manages to disarm Qrow and break his aura while Summer is retrieving the relic. Icarus casts a distraction and then a severely wounded Clover comes in from behind and impales Tyrian through the back. He rips Harbinger upwards, more or less cleaving the mad man in two.

They recover from their wounds and go home to Atlas with the sword in hand.

Act Three:

Atlas is on a war footing as Salem's Monster Whale approaches. Final battle is joined.

A lot of shenanigans ensue. Watts is executed by Thorne without mercy or means of compromise. Penny becomes the Winter Maiden and goes with Winter to the vault so they can both use their maiden powers to help the defense effort by manifesting more defensive options.

Through various means and subterfuge, Salem obtains the sword and begins carving a path through everything Atlas can throw at her before boarding the fortress and destroying everything along side her Grimm. Emerald has switched sides at this point and Mercury is chasing after her.

Eventually, Salem is tricked through Emerald's illusion semblance that what she's destroying with the Sword is some important component of the Atlas Battle Fortress that will bring the entire thing over the ocean, drowning millions. What she struck instead was the Relic of Knowledge, set there as a trap.

The broken relic explodes, shooting a beam of light into the heavens which tears the whole sky asunder in a flurry of rainbow light. The roof of the world is shattering into pieces and on the other side, vengeful spirits of the dead and passed come rushing forward. Just as Djinn prophesized, the souls of the dead all but slaughter the Grimm assaulting Atlas and drag Salem kicking and screaming into the realm of the dead.

Because she is a being of eternal life by the Gods' own curse, she cannot experience the relief of death unlike other poor souls. So, she is sealed within the realm of the dead where souls and the very realm itself forever more attempt to tear her atom by atom. The split in the heavens seals shortly thereafter and the relic is reconstituted, but a massive glowing scar akin to an Aurora light event is perpetually present in the sky all over the world as a lasting scar.

Epilogue:

The Grimm have run rampant, Huntsmen and Huntresses, Armies and civilians alike have endured all forms of merry hell for the six months since Salem's defeat. Without their master, the Grimm have become a wild uncontrollable threat. Peace and sleep are rare commodities. The Atlas Battle fortress along side Amity tower, similarly converted, move to provide support where they can.

Raven and Yang journey together for a long time, Raven seeking atonement for what she's done and Yang going with her to keep her on the straight and narrow. As a Maiden, Raven is also helping throughout the world to stem the tide of Grimm or decimate larger groups before they can hit huge population centers.

Summer travels as well with the Sword of Destruction in hand, performing her duties. Ruby and Qrow travel with her. Winter and Weiss are working with Atlas. Blake returns to Menagerie and the new White Fang her father is building and acts half as Huntsmen protection and half as an ambassador between Menagerie and Haven. (What she actually did to earn this position? Don't ask me because I have no fucking idea. Nepotism probably.)

Some months later, when everything settles down marginally. Summer and Qrow have two more children. Twin boys named Kieran (meaning dark haired one and after Summer's brother) and Larkin. They're identical twins, save for Kieran inheriting a white version of the Rose black-to-red hair style. The white coming from his Paternal Grandmother.

Thorne retires after receiving a career ending injury. Icarus becomes the Admiral of the Mantle Navy some years later. Oh, by the way, Icarus is Thorne's son.

Ironwood gets together with Glynda after they reconnect during the Vale reclamation efforts.

STRQ and RWBY (if desired) are invited to Clover and Icarus' wedding. They later adopt a young orphan girl from Mistral and foster a few more orphans in Mantle.

Final Causality list:

Cinder Fall, Jaune Arc, Hazel Reinhart, Tyrian Callows, Salem (permanently incapacitated), Headmaster Theodore, Arthur Watts, Professor Peter Port, Ozpin, Scarlet David, Sage Ayana, Neptune Vasillias, Coco Adel, Fox Alistair, Harriet Bree, Vine Zeki. Hundreds of Thousands of Soldiers. Billions of civilians.

Final notes:

Salem's punishment for her crimes of orchestrating one planetary extinction while actively orchestrating another is to suffer in perpetuity.

Tyrian gets cleaved in half. Cinder gets incinerated and her body deformed into a puppet with exactly as much respect given to her as the vile wench deserves. Watts gets the reward every traitor deserves. Hazel? I don't know, gets eaten alive by a Grimm or something - or he's dragged to hell along side Salem when she shatters the relic. Mercury and Emerald are charged for their complacency in bringing down a nation and charged with war crimes. Mercury in for more counts of murder while Emerald is also charged with thief on top of that.

If you wanted me to give them more charitable endings, then blame RT for making their crimes as disgustingly severe as possible. These people have committed crimes that cannot and should not be forgiven. Anyone who thinks they deserve a redemption arc at all are delusional.

The good guys do win, but the cost is great and the world has a massive wound that will never heal because of it.

So, yeah. This was where my story was going to go and I have no issues if anyone wants to use these concepts in the future because - in the word of the classics - I'm out.

Regards,

Aurora313