AN: I recently realized that I forgot to post the pictures mentioned before to Facebook. I'll do my best to have them posted soon.

AN2: I've decided to change the team I'm going to have Jaune be on for this story…partly because I can't remember original team plan. I write down most of my ideas for a reason and when I forget to it causes problems. Anyway, I have some interesting team concepts for who to use.

The first is Adam. I finished season 6 and really feel that Adam was wasted and that they really screwed him over in universe. Honestly I feel Blake is in a large part to blame for how he turned out (I'll have a larger AN at the bottom of the story going into why I think that. It will be a bit lengthy but if you want to know why I think that then it's there). But This will be closer to the Adam I think we should have gotten. Granted, I will be introducing a few scenarios to allow him to join the team and will of course have Character growth, so he doesn't hate all humans, but I'll be treating him how I feel he deserved. But as I said, read the AN at the bottom if you want to know more about my opinions on this.

That still leaves one slot so let me know who you want and why. Doesn't matter who they are so long as they're in the show and close enough to be of age for Beacon.

Second Coming of the Reaper

Chapter 3

-Cinder-

Standing ramrod straight, not daring to move a muscle, Cinder stared down at the one to whom she had sworn allegiance. At her side stood Mercury and Emerald, the two of them still being forced to get used to the fact that there was someone above Cinder and that said someone was far more dangerous. Sitting at the table were the rest of the inner circle, the members who had all held their seats far longer than her. Ones she knew she likely couldn't beat without the powers of a maiden with their current difference of experience and skill. "Cinder," Salem's voice felt dangerously calm "you assured me that you would be able to succeed without the assistance of your superiors." Cinder winced at the not so subtle remark about her own place amongst the council. Without even looking, she could feel the confusion of Mercury and Emerald at seeing her being taken to task. "So, tell me. Was it hubris…or did you truly think you could lie to me and get away with it?"

"I…hadn't anticipated my plan failing mistress." Cinder weighed her words carefully, knowing she needed to be humble enough to deface herself convincingly but not so much that Salem felt she had no more use and would cast her aside.

"No plan ever survives first contact with the enemy." Watts scoffed, "I thought I was able to drill at least that much into your thick skull."

"I told you that you needed more experienced back up." Hazel sighed, shaking his head dismissively. The last two council members didn't speak but made their own responses, Tyrian cackling and the hooded figure at Salem's right hand letting out an amused humph.

"It would have worked." Cinder insisted hotly, never having taken "But the Fall maiden had help."

"Of course she did." Watts rolled his eyes, "Ozpin wouldn't let a maiden as young an inexperienced as Amber travel around without keeping tabs on her, keeping someone close enough to intervene if she was in danger."

"It wasn't a huntsman though, was it?" the cloaked figure, Morrigan, laughed "You were foiled by a Beacon applicant. One trained by a silver eyed warrior admittedly, but still a mere student."

Glaring at the one person on the council she detested more than Watts, Cinder forced her jaw to unclench, "My strike was planned when Amber was alone. I tracked her patterns and found the most isolated path possible. I had planned to recruit Marcus Black-"

"And failed." Watts piped in, clearly enjoying the fact that Salem wasn't stopping his barbed words for once.

"I got the less run-down Mercury." Cinder ignored the jabs, "And found the unexpected prize in Emerald. Mercury has extensive training under the hand of his father and Emerald has a powerful semblance. I planned a calculated strike using those assets."

"One useful trick does not equal a plan." Hazel grunted, "Perhaps if you recruited Marcus Black at his prime then your plan could have worked. Instead you recruited a couple children and left no room for your plan to change if something went wrong. You should have brought one of us with you."

"You've made your point Hazel, Arthur." Salem spoke up, holding a hand for silence, "I wish to hear exactly what happened at the ambush. And Cinder, do be aware that if you lie to me, I will know." Gulping, Cinder nodded and began explaining.

-Flashback-

Smirking, Cinder saw Amber kneel down and offer an apple to a child that wasn't there. That smirk fell when she saw Amber pause, the woman's gentle smile twisting into a frown, before shooting backwards. With a flick of her wrist, Amber brought out and expanded a collapsible staff, each end capped with a large dust crystal. Illusion foiled, Emerald shot forward, guns blazing only for their target to stop each bullet with her palm, not showing the slightest effort in doing so. Whipping her staff about, Amber summoned fierce winds, hurling the gale towards Emerald, sending the thief flying.

Nodding to Mercury, Cinder watched the him rocket forward, his kick stopped by Amber's staff before the maiden repelled the young assassin. Using Emerald's second charge, Mercury kicked off a fence and shot legs first towards the current Fall Maiden. Without pausing, Amber let loose a gout of condensed flame, going straight for a potential kill shot. Using his robotic legs and aura, Mercury flew through Amber's gout of fire, his prosthetics exposed as he landed a blow on their surprised victim. Amber rolled from the force of the blow, coming to a stop only for Emerald to come crashing down on top of her before Amber could rise back up. Her 'team' glanced at each other, their expressions hidden by the masks they all wore as a precaution.

Cinder smirked at the ease of it all. Clearly someone so weak had no business possessing the powers of a maiden. Powers that rightfully belong to her.

Thunk.

Surprised at the sound, Cinder looked to see a scythe in the ground in front of Mercury and Emerald, the base of the weapon glowing royal purple. That surprise, surprise shared by Mercury and Emerald, delayed their understanding of the imminent danger that weapon promised. Head snapping up, Cinder saw a blond around the age of Mercury or Emerald letting out a battle cry, being pulled by the scythe in his hand to the scythe imbedded in the ground. Mercury and Emerald were forced back, taking a couple of grazing wounds apiece as the newcomer reclaimed his second scythe and slid to a stop by Amber.

Not trusting the situation to stay in her favor with a new unknown variable, Cinder charged, readying her semblance and weapons to fight. On the opposite side of the target, Cinder saw Emerald and Mercury doing the same, having realized the importance of taking out the unknown adversary first.

Cinder saw the newcomer help Amber to her feet only for the Fall Maiden to begin to glow, the woman's aura shining brighter than anything Cinder had ever seen before. Amber let out a yell, waving her hand as a new blast of fire rocketed towards Emerald and Mercury, far larger than any attack Amber had used before. Cinder looked towards the newcomer and saw him glowing as well, his hand on Amber's shoulder. The man's aura pulsing and glowing as it spread from his hand to Amber, somehow enhancing the Maiden's abilities.

Eyes literally burning with power, Amber and her rescuer began to float skyward, a storm appearing overhead. Lightning struck and wind howled about them, ice turned leaves into frozen daggers and the earth cracked beneath their feat. The elements were obeying the whims of the Fall Maiden and showed no signs of stopping any time soon.

"We need to fall back!" Mercury shouted, his voice barely audible over the howling storm Amber had summoned. The newcomer seemed too stunned by the appearance of the storm and being suddenly brought into the air to do anything but keep channeling what must have been a semblance.

Gritting her teeth, Cinder's rebuttal died at her lips upon Emerald's scream as the illusionist dodged lightning only to be nearly caught by the sword of the infamous Qrow Branwen. Left no other choice, Cinder grabbed her assets and fled, Branwen staying to see to Amber and the blond man who had foiled her plan.

-End Flashback-

"So it wasn't just Amber getting help that caused you to fail." Watts snorted derisively, "Now the question remains, was the problem that you lacked the proper forethought to make sure nothing would give your little illusion away, or underestimating your opponent by thinking she would never pay attention to her surroundings?"

"Morrigan, you said that the one who intervened was a Beacon applicant yes?" Salem ignored Watts' comments, turning to her right hand, the position that Cinder craved, "Trained by a Silver Eyed Warrior?"

"I did some digging into the current batch of students joining the academies, looking for any that would stand out as Ozpin's recruits." Morrigan leaned forward, fingers interlocked, "The kid didn't attend one of the prepatory academies but was privately trained by the Grimm Reaper herself. Apparently Tock didn't succeed all those years ago." Tyrian's madness turned to a scowl at the mention of his beloved mentor failing in her final mission for Salem.

"Does he have the eyes?" Salem focused on that detail first.

"Baby blues according to his file and pictures, no silver eyes on him. He is an Arc though." Morrigan smirked as that drew the attention of the others at the table bar Mercury and Emerald, the rest of them knowing of the powerful family of warriors, all of them known for having powerful semblances. While powerful, they had before now remained mostly neutral. There were of course times when one was part of Ozpin's inner circle or Salem's, Cinder was positive there had even been a time or two when an Arc was one of Ozpin's bodies.

"An Arc." Salem mused, drumming her fingers on the council table, "One who now has the attention of Ozpin and a Maiden." Salem's gaze turned back to Cinder and her two assets, Mercury and Emerald both gulping nervously at the ancient immortal's gaze. "Cinder, I've decided to give you a chance. One…more…singular, chance. Ozpin won't let Amber out of his domain now, so you'll have to go to Beacon as well. Leo will make transcripts for you to go to Beacon as transfer students for the Vytal festival."

"Thank you Salem," Cinder let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding, "I won't fail you."

"I know." Salem nodded, "Because you aren't going alone…and you aren't in charge. You and your recruits are going under the command of Morrigan." Mercury and Emerald both backed away from Cinder nervously, able to feel her shocked rage that the woman couldn't keep from her face, the expression amusing not only Salem but the person who had the position that Cinder craved and deserved.

"Fear not mistress," Morrigan pulled back her hood as she stood, "I will not fail you." Cinder grit her teeth at that, knowing the barb was directed at her. Morrigan merely smirked at Cinder's rage as Cinder stared into the cold Silver eyes of the Summer Maiden.

AN: Alright, for those who care, this is my opinion on the Adam situation. We know that Adam is powerful and dangerous, the man is shown to be leagues beyond the power of the protagonists shown back when he was first introduced. When we first meet him in the Black trailer, he's calm and focused. Adam is apathetic towards the lives that will be lost when the train blows up and just focuses on getting the dust and getting both himself and Blake out alive. Now this is meant to show him as a villain but honestly it comes across more as a field commander. He has his mission and takes it seriously, at the time we didn't know he was in charge of that branch of the White Fang, just that he was in charge of the mission. And if one train car had that much security, imagine how much the rest would have. Blowing up the train would have killed the workers but would also help keep the white fang agents on the mission alive but hide the evidence more to delay people learning about the theft and give the white fang more time to get away from the scene of the crime.

The next time we see him is the cameo after volume two where he simply says he can get the white fang to listen to him again as opposed to them listening to Cinder. This is the beginning of the downfall for how Rooster Teeth portrayed him as it goes against how they wanted him to appear, hating anything to do with humans, more so when in the next season, he initially refuses to help Cinder as he doesn't want the white fang members dying to help a human cause. In that scene, many white fang had just died for what could be seen as a human's cause. The wisest idea would have been to take the diminished fang and lay low, hiding somewhere outside the main city to recover and rebuild their numbers, especially as now that Cinder was a known face at the school, she couldn't dedicate time to tracking him down.

During the attack on Beacon, Adam is shown to be more psychotic and obsessive over Blake but that partly ties into how I think Blake has a large chunk of the Blame for how Adam turned out, the other major factors being Ghira, Sienna, and the SDC.

After that we see Adam in season five where he's a screaming ex-boyfriend of Blake's that's swan dived into the crazy pool and doing laps with instability. He gets taken out in one hit by Blake at Haven and was willing to risk his own people's lives to go above and beyond to help Salem, even murdering Sienna who we know he used to obey without question.

Finally we see Adam's character short showing his 'descent' into the monster that Rooster teeth wanted and then Adam's presence in the climax of season six where Blake and Yang murder him to death.

To start with, do I think Adam in the show is some unsung hero who should be the main character? No. Do I think he's an abusive and possessive ex-boyfriend in the show? Yes. But that's because Rooster teeth went with a bit of an easier route.

When it comes to power and skill, Adam is leagues beyond the members of teams RWBY and JNPR. Even back in the Black trailer, he was able to disintegrate a spider droid tank with a single attack. The sheer destructive capability Adam possessed was beyond anything ever shown, even compared to Yang's first use of her semblance. Added to that he was shown to be a lot more focused than Blake was. When Blake was panicking, Adam was still keeping a level head.

During the season three flashback we see that he runs a pretty tight ship and his primary focus is his people's lives and the mission. Furthermore, he not only hears out Cinder but allows her, Mercury, and Emerald to leave. Super violent raging Adam would have killed them on sight for being human but the original Adam, who is closer in line with what I plan to write, is willing to hear them out. He also doesn't plan to go after Blake, writing her off and acknowledging that he has to focus on the mission, not his own desires.

During season three when Blake and Adam meet up again, Adam is calling Blake 'my love' which does go along with the later reinforced idea of them having once been lovers rather than merely mentor and student like Blake said before, which would put Blake as having lied to her team about that aspect. But while he wants to hurt Blake for abandoning him and tries to do so when he sees her, he doesn't chase Blake down, focusing on the mission.

In the trailer short we see him fighting a group of humans who are trying to murder him and the other white Fang members, including Ghira and Sienna. The ringleader of those humans, who openly says that he's shooting at them for being Faunus and going through the town he lives, is about to kill Ghira when Adam kills said human. What's important to note is that the half dozen other shooters, Adam incapacitated without killing, he reacted to this man about to get around the white fang's cover and murder Ghira and who knows how many other Faunus if he got the chance. Adam reacted and used moonslice to kill the man. Adam was shown looking initially guilty for the action, implying this was his first kill. Ghira screws the situation up though by chastising Adam, not only saying that killing the man wasn't necessary but that him ending a life in defense of his own and others is why people think they can treat Faunus like animals. Ghira practically said that Adam should have let the man kill them. Sienna steps in and praises Adam for his actions, calling him a hero and rallying the other fang that are there. This is clearly a power play by Sienna and likely a stepping stone for her resting control of the fang away from Ghira to put herself in charge. Ghira was wrong to condemn Adam and Sienna shouldn't have just done bold praise as the other fang said, 'it was awesome'. They should have taken Adam aside, thanked him for saving them, and made sure he understood that one should only kill when it's the last available choice. Don't condemn, don't heap praise, but educate. Sienna and Ghira were the extremes and this situation abused what appeared to be Adam's desire for belonging. Adam was shown to be very protective in the beginning; protecting Blake in the Black trailer, protecting Ghira in the character short scene, White Fang on missions. He is trying to protect what he still has and to feel their acceptance which allowed Sienna to manipulate him.

He was also a loyal soldier. In the scene during Adam's character short when he and Sienna are attacking an SDC or Atlas facility, Adam is not only always at the front, but he was taking down many of the human guards in non-lethal ways. The last one, the one he was about to stab while down, was still very fit and could have fought back. The man could have likely further sounded an alarm or fought back once he got a new weapon. In that situation it would make sense for Adam to kill the man to mitigate risk to the White Fang on that mission.

Now to how Rooster teeth messed up Adam. We know besides strength and protectiveness Adam has charisma. He inspired loyalty amongst many of the white Fang to the point he was able to perform a coup against Sienna without any visible resistance. That Charisma goes out the window to be replaced with more rage like a blind angry bull. In Haven he was acting like a screaming idiot rather than a gifted and experienced soldier.

Finally, the matter of how Blake is largely to blame for how Adam is. I already explained why I blame Ghira and Sienna and the SDC go without saying given the brand on Adam's eye. But Blake was an enabler. She abandoned her parents to stay with the Fang even after they were violent, but we only see her mildly chastise Adam once and she seemed more annoyed than truly filled with righteous fury. Adam calms her down and makes a good point in that scene in his character short. They were on dangerous missions, at what was basically war with Atlas and the SDC and they're were likely to be casualties on both sides in those intense fights. Adam up to that point hadn't been shown to be going out and looking for people to butcher but he didn't hesitate to kill if the need arose on a mission.

I see Blake as an enabler as she represented what Adam wanted from Ghira. She was someone Adam was close to that he could protect and who cared about him. The fact that she was the daughter of the man he was so driven to protect before would only exacerbate this. Adam stated he was terrified of losing Blake but everything he did he did to protect his people and in which he has a point. With his brand and the statements that Faunus were frequently killed in various ways without people caring, it would take bold action to change things or to get that ball rolling. Adam clearly lived in Atlas at the time and if the SDC could get away with branding Faunus and face no penalty then Atlas was clearly turning a blind eye and saying the law didn't apply to the powerful family. If Blake didn't want Adam killing so much she should have not only confronted him about it but offered other solutions instead of simply frowning, saying he shouldn't kill, then insisting that she wasn't going to abandon the cause like her parents. When she does abandon Adam it's with no real warning, in the middle of nowhere, and after he was in an intense fight where he was protecting her. She goes straight to Vale and joins Beacon where Ozpin doesn't even question letting in a terrorist (something that will be a valid reason to why Adam is allowed to join Beacon in this story). And in the end, Blake lied to her team about her history with Adam, wrote him off as an embodiment of spite, abandoned him to die in the middle of a Grimm filled forest with no backup, and then killed him with Yang. This was after they broke his aura and removed his weapon which was stated in fight to be needed for him to use his semblance, I.E Adam was defenseless and relatively powerless, but he still died because they deemed it too dangerous for him to stay alive, the same reasoning Adam gave for killing people early on.