Jaune Arc: Dark Avenger

by DragonoftheEastblue

The boarders overrun, the castle's death knell, atop the tower where the Maiden fell. The Ring is fractured, the warriors scattered, the Knight who loved her; his soul now shattered. Self-loathing and penance, his pain is endless, now in his hand wields the sword of vengeance. The hunt has begun, by the Moon and Sun, he will resist and bite, until it is done-Arkos, Boop, RoseGarden

3. Chapter III: The Gathering Storm

Her Royal Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Daughter of King George V, has passed at 96. God Save the Queen, and may she rest in peace with her husband, Prince Phillip.

His Royal Majesty King Charles III, Son of Queen Elizabeth II, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of His other Realms and Territories King, Head of the Commonwealth, King of Canada, Defender of the Faith, has ascended the throne. God save the King, and long may he reign. Dieu et mont droit.

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Chapter III: The Gathering Storm

In the scriptures of Vóreios Astéras, the religion of Remnant, they spoke of three realms. Some philosopher clerics said there were more, but all agreed that the Three, the Realm of Light, the Middle Realm, and the Realm of Darkness, were certain. The first held the Gods and the good that had passed, the second was where mortal Men and Faunus dwelt in living, and the last were where the damned suffer and the Grimm are born. Whilst the Grimm were the Children of the Darkness, just as Humans and Faunus were the Children of the Light, many suspected that the dammed were turned into the Grimm, or at least had a strong chance of becoming one of them. There was nothing in scripture that supported this theory, yet there were still those who believed. It was here in this Realm of Darkness, sat a massive castle, appearing to be made of sharp black obsidian, and it too was not mentioned in any poem or verse.

Within the structure, in a hall in the Donjon tower, sat eight figures at a long refectory table. On the side that was parallel to the doors, sat four men. The first was a tall Bull Faunus wearing an asymmetrical black, long-sleeved, double-breasted stylized high-collared blazer with slit sleeves, along with red thorn sigils adorned with a white crest that lined up on his left shoulder. His suit jacket had crimson lining atop his red shirt, with red thorn sigils atop a black flap attached to the bottom of the left hem. His blazer was half-buttoned, exposing a red shirt with a black line running parallel beneath his collar. The modified White Fang Grimm mask with red symbols that he usually wore now rested on the table, revealing a jagged scar from his nose to past his left eye. Even with the scar he was still a handsome young man in his twenties, with a pair of black and red horns surrounded by spiking auburn hair and moonstone-blue eyes. While most of the world would not know him unmasked and dressed in casual wear, they certainly knew the name of Adam Taurus.

To his right was a tall middle-aged man with a slim build, slightly tanned skin, short black and gray hair, as well as a thick black mustache, and green eyes. He wore a grayish-blue overcoat with yellow linings, a yellow dress shirt, and black necktie. To his right was a very tall, broad, and muscular middle-aged man, with short brown hair, beard, and hazel eyes. He wore a two-tone olive green coat over a black ¾ sleeve shirt, and his hairy arms had some scars visible near the edges of his sleeves.

Beside him, perched on his chair, was a pale man with reddish-bronze eyes and a brown ponytail braided to resemble the tail of a scorpion. He wore a white sleeveless jacket, which he left open, exposing his bare and heavily scarred chest, and leather belts strapped to the jacket, along with matching white pants. His arms were covered with purple bandages and a pair of leather vambraces, leather boots, grieves covering his shins, as well as poleyns on his knees. At his waist was a Kriegsmesser, a curved, single-edged warsword, with a hilt constructed of two grip-slabs secured with tubular rivets. What made the hilt slightly peculiar, was that while it had a regular straight cross-guard, it also had a strange nail-like quillon on the right side. Of course, what truly caught the eye was not even the pommel cap fashioned into a skull, but the long scorpion tail that protruded from the base of his back. To make matters worse, unlike his compatriots, who all bore solemn and serious expressions, aside from Adam who always carried a small smirk, this crouching man had a wild and wicked smile on his face, his yellow eyes revealing an instability that would worry most.

On the other side of the table was a woman whose age was hard to determine, being anywhere between her mid thirties to her early forties. Her skin was as fair as porcelain, her long hair as black as raven, and her eyes a piercing crimson red, giving her a striking appearance of beauty and fear-inducing authority. To add to that presence was her red and black duster coat, as well as armour, and an imposing black metal plague mask helmet that enclosed the head, which sat on the table before her. The first half of the beak was blood red, as were the rings around the glass eyeholes, which were pitch black, making it impossible to see the eyes behind them. Above them was a human skull, drip painted in the same shade of red, with a pair of Perthro runes facing one another in the centre of the forehead. Lastly, raven feathers poured out the back of the helmet, joining to form a mantle that would rest on the shoulders.

Perched upon it was a large raven, large enough to be mistaken as a black eagle, though its plumage was as dark as night. It was over thirty inches from bill to tail, and though its wings were closed, they would have to be over five feet from tip to tip. Even the claws were larger and crueller, giving the bird a truly menacing appearance, though oddly there was a beauty to it, akin to its master.

To the left of this woman was another, and one that the world now knew as public enemy number one, even more so than Adam: Cinder Fall. However, she did not look as she did the day her message was broadcast to the world. An eye patch covered her left eye and part of her cheek, but failed to cover the entirety of the scar that lay beneath, part of which reaching past her jaw line and another reaching her nose in near the same manner as Adam's. What was even more jarring was her left arm. Glancing quickly would make most think that she was wearing some form of black leather evening glove. On closer inspection, one would discover something far more horrifying.

The arm was human in size and form, but was an ashen-black, and uncomfortably appeared to be made of the skin of Grimm. Leathery veins were visible in both the forearm and the bicep, and the fingernails were more akin to claws. There was something unsettling about the appendage, though it was hardly out of place with the setting it was in. But what made things slightly more macabre, was that despite the clothes she was wearing, black and red veins were protruding slightly past the color, suggesting that the arm was attached to her in an unnatural manner.

What was more unnatural still was the figure that sat beside Cinder. It was a cloaked figure with a hood drawn over its face and overshadowing it. Even seated, it was taller than the women, though shorter than Hazel, and its hands were hidden from view as it kept them folded within the sleeves of its cloak in the same manner as a monk. Standing beside its chair without any visible aid was a black staff. It was adorned with runes and marks of death, along with the skull of a Jacob's Sheep ram at the top. It too was marked, with black feathers and blacker gemstones hanging from it, giving off—which was no doubt the intent—a foreboding aura. On closer inspection, there were similarities between the staff and the first woman's attire, particularly the runes and honouring of death.

Lastly was the figure that sat at the head of the table, facing them to reveal a creature that was neither Human nor alive. It was a woman, or so it seemed, with her skin a deathly pallor, jet black sclera in her eyes, and glowing crimson irises that were amplified by her pale-white hair, tied in a bun with six offshoots wrapped together, suspending several obsidian-coloured ornaments. Dark purple veins lined her face and arms, and she bore a black diamond-shaped marking in the centre of her forehead. She also wore a ring resembling a spider on her right middle finger, which stood out as much as her long, jet-black fingernails.

This was a sight that none would consider normal, despite none present seeming to be bothered in the slightest...save for three.

Standing out of the way beside a massive vertical loom, where a mostly completed tapestry was fitted, were Mercury, Emerald, and Neo. The trio looked very uncomfortable, though unsettled would be a far more accurate description, unable to stop themselves from staring at everything before them. It was impossible to blame them, and it was clear to the adults that they were thinking they had bitten far more than they could chew, which Cinder had assured would not impede them from doing whatever tasks they were given. Mercury seemed to have his wits most about him, though his tense posture made it clear to his companions that he was on edge. Emerald felt it impossible to look at the demonic woman without averting her eyes after a short time, as if gazing hurt her in some way. Instead, she would look out the window, though the sight of the Land of Darkness was not comforting. Neo was certainly as uncomfortable as her cohorts, but also seemed to be somewhere else, mostly looking at the floor whilst gripping her parasol as if she was afraid it would be taken from her. Her other hand was holding a black bowler hat, with a red-tailed hawk's tail feather tucked into its red ribbon band.

"Now that we have all gathered safely," began the undead woman in a feminine but commanding voice, "we may begin our conference. What is the current situation on the ground?"

"Atlas is on high alert—as are all the Kingdoms" said the mustached man, placing his interlaced fingers onto the table. "My sources are telling me that the entire White Army have been running exercises since our attack, and are amassing resources for future battles. The Atlassian Council is not thrilled, but they dare not interfere."

"As to be expected. They were not pleased by how effective your trojan was on their beloved systems."

"Alas, they regained control by the end—sooner than I had hoped."

"And it was just enough for our plans to succeed. Well done, Doctor Watts."

Watts smiled and bowed. "Thank you, my Lady. It is an honour to serve."

"Ironwood's Paladin Project was turned into a laughing stock thanks to you" said Adam with a smirk. "I'd say he's lost his touch, though his splendid command of his forces by the end proved otherwise. What I would have given to see the look on his face when his flagship was taken."

"And what were you doing at that time?" asked the red-eyed woman in a cold voice. "Albion's defense systems were down for nearly an hour. That was more than enough time for you to utilize that captured attack-submarine of yours. What exactly were you waiting for?"

Adam eyed her for a moment in silence before smirking.

"That submarine is a secret weapon that I have special plans for. Once it is revealed, it cannot be hidden again, therefore I will wait for the right moment. Certainly it would have been a perfect time, given it would be assumed to be a result of the good doctor's trojan, General Ironwood would then realize we raised his precious Blue Marlin. You will be the first to know after Lady Salem when I plan to use it. You're more than welcome to join me on the bridge when that time comes."

"Given that I have my orders from Lady Salem to fulfil, I don't have the time for sightseeing or other such side-ventures" she replied, as she gained no satisfaction from his explanation. "I lost track of you in the battle. Where were you and what were you doing away from your White Fang?"

Again Adam remained silent. She was clearly testing him, but that was nothing new for them, and this time he had something special planned.

"Implementing the Lady's will, as always" he replied. "Her aid in my goals has proven invaluable, and I would loath to return empty handed. Ah, that reminds me. Forgive me, it completely slipped my mind, but I have a souvenir for you." Adam reached over to the side of his seat, and the sound of some form of container opening could be heard. "I regret to say that it might have spoiled somewhat during transport..." he said, before tossing something towards the red-eyed woman, which landed on the table with a wet slap, "but I'm sure you don't mind. Right, Raven?"

Everyone looked at what Adam had brought, which resulted in a varied number of reactions. Laying just off centre of the table was a bloodied, disembodied arm. Part of a brown sleeve was on the severed end, though it was now an indescribable colour after absorbing the blood that had been pooling at the bottom of the container. The black fingerless glove on the other end was just as bloody, as was the gauntlet weapon attached to the forearm. It was against the pale skin of the arm where the blood contrasted hardest, especially against the dark table where the blood was beginning to leak.

Raven looked at the arm with a stone-cold expression, as the bird perched on her helmet screeched in anger. Adam kept his eyes on her, his face laced with a victorious smugness, very intrigued on how she would react. The others looked towards her as well, now understanding what the Bull Faunus had done. Then, without a word, and keeping her eyes on Adam, she reached for the arm and tossed it gingerly off the table towards the window. Suddenly from the darkness, something sprung forth to catch the arm in its jaws, and after a few sickening snaps of the bones being crushed, was consumed.

"Not at all. How thoughtful of you. I'll be sure to get you something the next time I'm abroad" she replied at last, before leaning back in her seat.

Adam said nothing, never losing his smirk as he raised his wine goblet and took a sip. The other Faunus began to cackle in amusement, and reached over to dip his finger in the blood before licking it clean, clearly savouring the taste.

While the three teenagers were sickened by the sight of the bloody stump, they were very shaken by the creature that had been hiding in the shadows. It was an indescribable creature—past it being clearly a Grimm—as it was a strange blend of beasts. At first glance it appeared to be a large black dog, with segments of the skin surrounding the snout and jaw removed to reveal the white bonelike structure of Grimm. That structure continued from the head, forming a pair of horns akin to a blackface ram set close to the head, along with long black ears. Its large paws were more felidae, revealing terrifying partially retractable claws as it placed one on the gauntlet to pull free the remaining hand. Its withers were more raised like a hyena, along with long hackles, and pointed spinous processes that protruded to from spikes. As it crunched the bones, smoke began to rise from the jaws and nasal cavities, and ever so faintly a light could be seen glowing, like embers, in the back of its throat.

"And how is the situation in Mistral?" asked Salem, pleased with how her generals were testing one another.

"Sienna is, as expected, denouncing me and my faction and being as...'transparent' with the authorities as possible" Adam replied sipping his wine. "She was also quite shaken by the amount of uproar we caused, but I have soothed her."

"How much longer will she be able to play the part?" asked the muscular man. "You had to do this before when you bombed Mantle. The Mistralese Council could vote to revoke the White Fang's status, freeze their assets, and arrest all members."

"Given that the world has their eyes on me, and with the main chapter appearing peaceful and the unfortunate deposing of the Vacuan chapter, they would have no legal authority to shut down the citadel. Fear not, my friends, everything is under control."

"What about Blake Belladonna?" said the hooded figure in a deep and unnatural tone of voice. "There has been no communication between her and Menagerie, and we do not know her current location."

"That won't be difficult" said Raven. "We'll have our contacts in Helike locate her, for she will be more than likely with the other students in Vale."

"But why hasn't she made contact or returned home?" asked Doctor Watts. "You were quite confident that she would run again, and we had spies set throughout southern Mistral and in Menagerie at the ready, and nothing has been reported in weeks. She is obviously still in Vale."

"Why indeed" replied Adam with a chuckle. "Why didn't she return when she deserted us after Mantle? She is too weak and broken to return to Menagerie now. All that she has left are her pathetic Human companions—no offense meant—and she will cling to them until none are left breathing. I overestimated her, it seems."

"We shall keep an eye out for her," Salem announced with an eye towards Raven who nodded in comprehension, "for I do not want any loose ends. Speaking of which, have we finally received more conclusive information in regard to Vale and Samuel Ozpin?"

"This has been more difficult than we anticipated" Raven admitted, a frown now on her face. "Vale has obviously been in a state of high alert since the attack. The army has been fully mobilized and spread across the Kingdom in order to maintain stability, along with a massive increase in volunteers lining up at recruitment offices in every city and barracks."

"Reinforcements were sent to Vacuo too" hissed the Scorpion Faunus in annoyance. "Regular infantry, plus cavalry and armour."

"Naturally, as well as Huntsmen coming out of retirement to reinforce the active teams. It's the Ozpin situation that puzzles me, however. As far as the public is aware, he's recovering from his injuries sustained from defending his academy with Goodwitch as Acting Grand Huntmistress in his stead."

"They're lying" retorted Cinder, clenching her fists. "I killed him. I broke his back, brought the ceiling down on him, and destroyed the elevator shaft as I left as a precaution, so that help couldn't reach him. I promise you he's dead."

"And because you failed to bring his head for confirmation, we don't know for sure" Raven returned with disapproval. "Ozpin is the greatest known sorcerer of this age, and without proper confirmation, he may have slipped away."

"There is no way he survived. I assure you."

"Then why has he spoken to the Council? I've been able to confirm that he has spoken with them at least several times."

"Magic! It has to be a spell of some kind to maintain this ruse."

"That could very well be possible" the hooded figure said, coming to Cinder's defence. "Goodwitch has studied the arcane as well, so she could be trying to fool the Council...and us for that matter."

"Or one of Ironwood's robots" Watts added as he ran his left thumb and index finger across his mustache in opposite directions. "I'm immensely fascinated in that robot he deployed during the Vytal Tournament, and I wouldn't put it past him to have something in place to cover for Samuel Ozpin."

"And if they do have a robot copy," the large man added, "how long will it take before they get discovered?"

"My thoughts exactly, Hazel."

"Then we must confirm what the situation truly is in Albion" said Salem.

"I'll speak to 'him' after this meeting" Raven assured. "He told us that Ozpin was indeed dead, but due to the nature of the radio silence at the moment, it could be that the Order trusts no one—not even their old friends. And if they now suspect him thanks to Fall and her...companions' impersonation as his students, then things will escalate rapidly."

"Yes, that does rouse a concerning thought. Thank you, Raven."

"There is still the issue of retrieving that tome" reminded the hooded figure. "If Samuel Ozpin is indeed dead, then that lore book is all we have to fill the gaps in our knowledge. That was indeed one of your mission objectives, Cinder. And while you did succeed in killing the former Fall Maiden—though after many months of delay—as well as Ozpin himself, your failure to secure that tome of Heidrian the Heroic is a great setback to our larger plans. Worse still, is the possibility of it having been destroyed by your eagerness to secure the other half of the Fall Maiden's power."

Cinder could say nothing, and clenched her teeth.

"That is indeed an issue," admitted Salem calmly, "but the blow that was given to the Order and the world cannot be undervalued. We shall deal with that tome of lore at a later date. For now, we must confirm whether or not Samuel Ozpin is truly dead. If he has somehow survived, then we must capture him and extract his knowledge and magic. He can conjure spells to locate the Maidens, so it is imperative we learn this magic."

"What about the Silver Huntsmen?" asked Hazel. "Can Ozpin's magic locate them?"

"Very little, I suspect, which is why after what Cinder has discovered—sadly at great personal cost—we must capture Ruby Rose."

"With your permission, my Lady!" announced the Scorpion Faunus with excitement, gripping the edge of the table as he leaned forward.

"Soon, Tyrian, but not yet" Salem replied. "Once we've settled things here, and I deem it right, you will be sent to locate our prey." Callows whined as he slumped back in his chair, impatient but unable to argue against her. "Now, do we know the fate of the Arc cub?"

"Not currently, no, my Lady" answered Raven. "We are certain the he survived the battle, and was spotted leaving with the rest of his team, however, his exact location is unknown. It's next to impossible to approach the Arc ranch to confirm if he returned home, but he shouldn't be hard to track down."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," remarked Adam, his eyes shifting to the injured Fall Maiden, "he did get away from Cinder, after all."

"He wasn't with Nikos when she followed me to the top of Beacon Tower" she shot back, glaring at him venomously.

"And there was no opportunity of any kind to kill him before hand?" asked Raven, looking at her fellow Maiden from the corner of her eye.

Cinder froze. There had indeed been a chance to kill him. He had been in the underground chamber below the academy, standing there pitifully with his sword and shield. She could have melted him then and there with her powers, even at half strength, especially after grazing him in the leg, and yet she had not. She had then been countered by Samuel Ozpin, who had proven to be far more powerful than she expected, despite having to simultaneously use his magic to keep the ceiling from collapsing. Naturally, he would protect the boy, which no doubt drove him to fight so desperately, along with her murdering of the former Fall Maiden. It had been her plan to force Pyrrha to fight her—to use Jaune as bait—and had been pleasantly surprised to have Pyrrha come to her when she had flown to the top of Beacon Tower to try and spot where she had run. And then Ruby Rose appeared...

"I had none..." Cinder replied at length, doing everything she could to hold back her tongue. Any excuse, no matter how true, would only make her appear weaker towards her allies—especially to Raven and Salem. "I killed Amber Calico, I killed Samuel Ozpin, I killed Pyrrha Nikos, I completed the special mission objective Lady Salem gave to me, and as I killed Nikos, Ruby Rose appeared and attacked me."

"Bit off a bit more than you could chew, eh?" said Adam in amusement, tilting his head slightly.

"Silver Huntress or not, she's fifteen years old," added Raven, reaching for her own wine goblet, "therefore if Roman Torchwick of all people was able to apprehend her, a full-blown Fall Maiden who was able to kill a Grand Huntmaster wizard, and the finest Huntress-in-training of this generation, has no excuse."

Cinder gritted her teeth in rage. How she hated those two. Since the beginning, they had looked down on her, seeing her as weak and pathetic. Even after returning mostly triumphant as the new Fall Maiden, though needed to be rescued by her subordinates, Adam did not see her as an equal, let alone Raven. Indeed, Raven had been the one to turn up and bring her back to the castle, only adding to Cinder's humiliation, as she did not want to be indebted to anyone other than Salem, but especially not Raven Branwen.

"That is enough" Salem said at last without raising her voice. "We must not squabble amongst ourselves when we have our enemies on the back foot. If you would like to settle things in the arena, you may afterwards. Understood?"

"Given that I can now test her grasp of the Maidens' powers, I accept" the elder Branwen twin obliged.

"That I would watch" added Adam, causing Callows to giggle with glee. Cinder could only remain silent.

"Good. Now, Tyrian, what is the situation on the ground in Vacuo?"

"Proceeding wonderfully, my Lady" replied the Scorpion Faunus with glee. "Our encampment in the Badlands remains undetected since we began to amass our forces there. Supplies are arriving without delay, and our numbers grow by the day. Blanco hasn't a clue of what we're doing."

"Excellent," Salem returned, visually pleased by the news, "and do you have an accurate number of Vacuo's forces—including Vale's reinforcements."

"Very difficult to nail down" Callows answered, his face falling with regret and annoyance. "Several thousand dragoons and light horsemen—not including the Ghost Rider squadron and their lancers—but they are spread out across the Kingdom. Then there're, of course, the dozens of Huntsmen teams, and regular infantry and Vacuan militia. The Valians are mostly in the east near the border with at least one battalion of medium tanks, but their navy is patrolling the coast. If we can attack while the majority of their forces are away, we can force them to create a long supply line back to Vale, and hit it with a detachment to instil chaos."

"How well-supplied is Paraíso?" asked Adam, the topic piquing his interest. "If the capital has well-stocked supply depots with war materiel, then the reinforcements will stream into the city as if Hell was at their heels—fuel be damned. Don't forget, while most of Vacuo is made up of smaller settlements, the capital is a fortress. Though still a shadow of its former self, they had been rebuilding it for decades. They have cannon shell to spare, a respectable air force thanks to Vale, their own tanks designed for desert conditions thanks to both Vale and Atlas, and they are very careful with their food, water, and Dust supplies."

Callows hissed as he pressed his mouth into his fists, his tail flexing as if he was preparing to strike.

"My spies are still working on that issue" he said in a low voice. "The Vacuans are very suspicious of foreigners until they earn their place—more so now after the White Fang was thrown out and our attack on Albion. I'll need more time to make sure of their stores. So many of the Vacuans are battle ready. They can join ranks with the defense forces at the drop of a hat, so we must break them beforehand."

"That won't be easy" remarked Hazel. "And then there's Blanco himself to deal with."

"We have been working on a plan for him, haven't we, my Lady?" informed the hooded figure.

"Oh, yes" Salem replied with a gentle eagerness that made the three teenagers shiver in disgust. "A fortress is but stone, just as Men are flesh and bone. Continue on, Tyrian. You have done very well."

Instantly the Faunus' face lit up and he bowed low, unable to contain his high pitch cackles of glee.

"What I think we must do now, is to turn our eyes to Mistral, especially the capital. Since Cinder impersonated a Haven student, it is more than likely that the Order will gather there in some capacity. We must keep our eyes peeled for their movements. General Ironwood cannot leave his forces or his Kingdom, so he shall stay put, though his precious swan may fly far in his stead. It is possible, however unlikely, that former members may retake their old posts, therefore we must maintain our spies shadowing them. That leaves us with your brother, Raven."

"The always dutiful fool" the fair-skinned woman remarked with a huff of disappointment. "He has always been Ozpin's scout, only recently joined by that Schnee girl. I can't reveal myself to him, nor can any one of the Branwen clan, for fear of him and the Order learning the truth—even sending Gildr would be going too far. We do have others in our network, and will be sent at once to trail him...as difficult as that can be when he wants to vanish."

"Then we shall plan accordingly, thank you. Now, I think that will do for the moment. You all have your tasks to address, and I shall leave you to them. We shall convene at a later date to decide whom will be deployed and where. You are dismissed."

They all nodded and rose to their feet, though Cinder and the hooded figure made no moves to leave. Mercury, Emerald, and Neo clearly wanted to get out of the room, but could not leave their station until Cinder dismissed them. It was Raven that was the first to leave, her helmet tucked under her right arm and her raven on her shoulder, revealing a long odachi attached to the left hip, covered in a black metal scabbard with thin red claw marks down the sides.

Once clearing the large double doors, she turned right, intending to reach the spiraling staircase to her private chamber, when she sensed someone was following her.

"What do you want, Taurus?" she asked without bothering to hide her irritation.

"I'd like a word with you" he replied, keeping pace with her.

"It can wait. I'm tired and I have other things to do."

"No, it cannot—not after your choice of words regarding what I've been doing while carrying out Salem's orders."

"I don't care if you were offended—it was the truth. Don't get angry with me that your claws weren't as deep in Belladonna's daughter as you thought they were."

Raven suddenly stopped dead in her tracks as she felt Adam grasp her left bicep, and she quickly looked over her shoulder.

"Get your hands off of–"

"I'd be careful of calling the kettle black, Raven" he growled in a low voice, leaning in close to look her in the eyes. "I find it very hypocritical that you take issue with me trying to discipline a rogue subordinate, when you're the one going out of your way to mingle with the enemy."

"What nonsense are you spewing, boy–"

"Don't play coy with me, Branwen. I'm fully aware that it was you who stopped me from cutting off your daughter's head."

Raven instantly froze. How could he have known? There was no way he could have recognized her with how fast she was moving. Did he actually know, or was this just a bluff in order to make her confess?

"Yes, I know it was you, and I would almost be willing to let it slide, for even a cruel creature such as you may have fleeting feelings for your own child. But this was the second time you've done this—first on the train and now during our attack on Albion. I have specific reasons as to why I pursued Blake, but what you're doing is far more grievous. You've been part of this since the beginning, and now you're starting to let your emotions make you abandon the mission?"

That was the last straw for Raven, and she pulled herself free to face him with her eyes burning bright red. Gildr leapt off her shoulder and took flight in anticipation of bloodshed. However, his master did not drop her helm to reach for her sword.

"Watch your tongue, brat" she hissed venomously. "I am Salem's second-in-command, and therefore your superior, so do not question my loyalty, especially without proof."

"And what if I were to bring you more than an arm as a souvenir?" Adam asked, leaning even closer. "Instead, I bring your daughter's head—and your husband's for good measure?"

"Go right ahead. They'd make a lovely matching set on my mantle. Let me make something abundantly clear. You are the newcomer here, so you have no idea what you're talking about. If you continue to act in your own self interests and try to sow discontent in our ranks, then you and your little White Fang are through. You are not in charge here, we are, and you are at the bottom, just above Fall's entourage of brats. Never threaten me again—not with words, or with weapons, or with blackmail. Am I completely clear?"

The air became incredibly heavy as Adam said nothing, only adding to the possibility of violence breaking out between them. After a time, Adam finally cracked a smile and stood straight.

"I would never dream of threatening you, Lady Raven. You were concerned about my actions, and I was concerned about yours. If it came across as a threat, then please accept my apologies."

His tone was nothing but false pleasantry, as there was no way that the proud young revolutionary would genuinely prostate himself before anyone other than Salem, and Raven knew it. Nevertheless, it was good enough, and she accepted it without uttering a word. Turning her back to him, she continued towards the stairway, allowing Gildr to fly back down and perch on her shoulder. Adam's smile faded almost instantly, but he kept his eyes trained on her like a beast hunting its prey. How he hated her.

"Is something wrong?" asked Watts who had at last left the hall.

"I don't understand her" Adam admitted, choosing not to speak too honestly given Raven could know more than she was letting on.

Indeed, despite having acted compassionately to defend her daughter's life in two separate occasions, she had made no reaction to seeing the disembodied arm, and had been fully honest in wishing for him to go back and finish the job, as well as to take her husband's head for good measure. From what Adam had learned, Raven had abandoned her family and friends to return to the Branwen clan to broker an alliance with her clan and Salem. This had led her to become Salem's second-in-command and designated Maiden Hunter, until she found her target and became the new Spring Maiden. He was very aware of her body count and cruelty. Why would she start showing compassion now?

"She is indeed mysterious, but that is the nature of all Branwens" Watts remarked. "I've learned it's best not to pry into her business if it doesn't have any bearing to our grander plans. She is ruthless, efficient, calculating, and wise—very much like our Lady."

"And have you ever thought, even for a moment, that she might be unreliable?"

"...No" the doctor replied after a small pause. "Have you?"

"Perhaps..."

"What do you think, my friend?" asked Watts, looking up and over his shoulder at Hazel, who had just joined them. "Raven was the one who recruited you several years ago. What do you think of her?"

"She's a ruthless warrior with impressive magical power and great skill in poisons. I'm glad she's on our side" he said bluntly. "Why do you ask? Did Adam and Raven have another argument?"

"Other than the one they had just now in the war room? Possibly" Watts answered with a chuckle. "Commander Taurus?"

"No, no, just a word or two to clarify a few things" the Bull Faunus lied. "She doesn't seem to like me very much, so I wondered what could be the cause and if it would impede us working together."

"Well, you certainly don't make it any easier for yourself with how you enjoy antagonizing her. I would suggest getting a food-taster if you decide to continue on this path."

"Or you could halt this childish behaviour and focus on our war" said a voice, causing them all to look behind Hazel to see the hooded figure and Callows standing in the hallway. "You have been unwilling to work with Raven since the start, and while you are right to criticize Cinder's performance, Raven's results are unquestionable. Trying to create mistrust and turn us against each other is what we do to our enemies, not within our own party. I recommend for you to settle things directly without resorting to blows, or to put it aside."

"Is she then off-limits to criticism?" Adam returned. "You've known her the longest, and she's clearly most friendly with you after Lady Salem, so is this just a case of authority granted privilege, friends watching out our for one another, or even her being Lady Salem's favourite? Bear in mind that I was sought after—quite fiercely in fact—to aid you in this war. And yet, my military advice was ignored, which I point to as to why the Valian and White Army managed to crush our Grimm horde and quickly retake the city, and despite that fact, as well as succeeding in my missions, I seem to be given little respect for my contributions."

"Indeed, your results are also unquestionable," admitted the hooded figure, "and if you continue producing those results, you shall be rewarded with what you were promised. However, impudence is not something that wins over your allies. Yes, we are the forces of Darkness, made up of traitors and assassins, but even we must trust our allies. You were welcomed into our world, Adam Taurus, but you must earn your place, just as everyone else has. As for your grievances with Raven, that is up to you to solve. You have both been taking shots at one another since the day you met, and I know the reason as to why—our shared past. Raven is indeed right that you are keeping a foot in the past, so take care to not call the kettle black. Focus your energy on keeping your White Fang in line, and we'll provide your rewards. You have great potential, Taurus. Don't squander it."

The other members walked away from the revolutionary, with Callows cackling to himself, leaving Adam to watch them with his blood boiling beneath the surface. He did not like being this exposed. Not only did Raven know more than he wanted her too, but so did that necromancer, which was not at all comforting. Adam could not be sure if she had been the one who told him, or he somehow already knew, for that comment about them sharing a past caught him off guard. He was certain he had no memory of having ever met such a person, though given that he had yet to reveal his face made it even more difficult to identify him. Adam's past with Raven was though unfortunate circumstances. How then did this necromancer come into it? It was also very likely that Salem knew the truth as well, yet given her great willingness to help him, as well as speaking to him at length in private about their arrangement and greater plans, she did not appear to think of it as an issue. At least, for the time being, which made him wish he could knock Raven off her perch.

The frustrating truth of the matter was that despite the fact that he had rather damning evidence that Raven was not as loyal as her associates thought, he had no proof of that evidence. One of his subordinates that had escaped the White Army's clutches, had seen Raven appear through a portal to scare off the mute girl, sparing her daughter's life. This subordinate had obviously not known who Raven was, and it was only by describing her had Adam deduced that it was the Spring Maiden. The word of his own men was not proper evidence of fraternizing with the enemy. As for Raven stopping his attempt to decapitate her daughter to finish the job, all his senses had failed him, having not heard, seen, smelled, or sensed her, therefore having nothing but his intuition to point the finger at her. If he dared to try and accuse her before Salem and the rest of their associates without solid evidence, his future, and therefore, his master plans, would end before they had truly begun. The punishment Salem would no doubt give him would be a fate worse than death, and the chances of him being able to flee from the castle and Land of Darkness were close to nil, if not zero.

As wounded as his pride was, it was better to focus on keeping his focus on Sienna. There would be time to settle things properly. Getting even with Raven by finishing what he started by dismembering her daughter, and taking Blake back. In silence, Adam walked down the hall to his chambers, needing to fully prepare to return to Helike at a moment's notice, gripping his mask tightly, but the hilt of his sword even more so.

'Humans...'

---

Author's Note:

I have been waiting to get to this one for a long time. For those of you who have not read DDCT, there are some very important changes here that you have not seen before. They, like all changes, are not different for the sake of being different, but rather to make better sense of the mess of RWBY, both before and after Monty's death, as well as write something entertaining and at least halfway intelligent.

I would also like to apologize for the rather short chapter. This was done purposefully, as I set out with JADA to keep chapters shorter, thus allowing me to edit them faster and release them sooner. The unfortunate result in this chapter is that my notes have become obscenely long in comparison. They were not so long at first (less than half the length of the chapter), but the release of V9 changed that. I have made it a point with my stories to comment on the state of things as they developed, as well as my general qualms with RWBY. That is half the point of my mission here. Unsurprisingly, many of you have been asking me privately for what my thoughts on this volume were, and where do I think things will go. Since I did not release chapters alongside V9, it has all accumulated here. I apologize for that. I can only hope my commentary answers your questions and informs you of RWBY and RT's latest treachery, as well as make up for the lack of updates.

Without further adieu, let us begin.

Raven's Redesign

The first change is Raven's wardrobe. Raven's canon attire is rather comical with a bulbous helmet and school girl outfit. It looks like the result of an old Western business man's understanding of Anime and wanting to appeal to the kids. When I learned that Raven had not changed her clothes in at least twenty years (RWBY's timeline is VERY flimsy and incoherent, so I am assuming), I burst out laughing. When I learned that she has been trying to hide for all these years, I laughed even more. Were they just that in love with her design that they did not want to change it from her school days, were they unable to come up with a better design, or was there a budgeting issue that impeded them?

It is hard to know the truth, as this bizarre notion of maintaining a character's clothing from their youth to adulthood is not uncommon in modern media. They, of course, did this with Qrow and Taiyang, along with Jaune, who has not changed his clothes since he was a young child, only buying larger sizes. Is this laziness, or are the writers afraid that you, the audience, will not recognize the character unless they have their defining clothes? As I said, this trend is not limited to RWBY, and it appears to be the result of being part of contemporary creative circles.

Given what we saw in V7, though we saw problems with that starting with V4, it is clear that they were never capable of redesigning anything. It does not help that Raven's model is Yang's with a palette swap, which you would think would be fine given they are mother and daughter. However, the problem that no one else has noticed is that Yang gets her ahoge bang from Tai, not Raven, so when Ruby suddenly gets it in V7, it becomes very confusing as who gets what from what parent. These are the things I notice.

In any event, as I showed back in DDCT, I changed Raven's design; not only to pick something less ridiculous, but also to make it believable that she is trying to hide her existence. This redesign takes inspiration from Renaissance Plague Doctors, which complements her corvid base, as well as being a partial reference to The Masque of the Red Death. I am also making a connection to the Branwen clan, which, as I established in DDCT, is very different to what it is in the show. That too made me laugh hysterically when I was made aware of it in 2021, for not only was it incredibly stupid, but it created plot-holes, undermines stakes and character struggles, and retcons lore. I also introduced a raven familiar named Gildr, which on its face seems appropriate, but his purpose will be made clear in time (if you have not read DDCT).

I hope that my descriptions of Raven's redesign were clear enough for you, and that you find it better than her original.

Raven's Allegiance to Salem

I can only assume that this is a shocking revelation to you, for it certainly was when I revealed this in Chapter XI of DDCT, much to my confusion. I say this because I thought Raven was part of the enemy's inner circle. Going all the way back to 2015, my assumption was that Raven was thought to be dead by her family and friends, and it would be a major surprise that she was actually still alive. The reason to why she was alive and working for the enemy was born out of my rewriting of the Branwens after quitting the show when V4 finished airing, and I was quite pleased with what I came up with. I had learned in passing that Raven was the Spring Maiden, which was exactly what I came up with as well, though I knew the circumstances had to be worlds apart. It was only when Chapter XI revealed she was working for Salem and it caused such an uproar with my readership, did I learn that things were not as I had thought. I then learned the truth through a fan-fic written by one of my readers, which I at first said to him, "Wow, this is not very good—no offence", and then he told me the Branwen-bandit plot was from the show itself, not his invention, and I guffawed.

So, the question remains. Why is Raven working for Salem—as her second-in-command no less? Why did she fake her death?

As I said, there are familial reasons to why she is in Salem's service, which will be made clearer in time, as I have to reintroduce this lore from DDCT, and delve deeper. There is also a major plot point as to why she is working for Salem, both as a Maiden Hunter and as the Spring Maiden, along with why she faked her death.

I cannot explain why just yet, but I assure you that it is very different than what CRWBY came up with, or will come up with. This should already be clear given my complete erasure of Ozma, and as the story progresses, everything will be made clear. Well...almost everything. I am still unsure if I want to make that public. We shall see.

I can only hope that you find this better than the show, and think it far more intriguing.

Raven Saves Yang Once Again

This is a major change, not only because of what occurred in the show, but because of its implications. I have been dying to get to this for a long time.

I took great issue with Yang losing her arm during the original airing of V3. Not because she was my favourite character at the time (though she was), but because it was her arm that was taken. With everything that had been set up, from the situation Adam and Blake found themselves in, to the history between Adam and Blake, to Adam's racism, Adam should have cut off Yang's head, rather than her arm.

The decision to only cut off Yang's arm, not only fully undermined Adam's evil and presence as a major villain, but also undermined CRWBY's positions as storytellers by giving Yang tremendous plot armour. There is no explanation as to why Adam did not kill her, given his hatred of Humans and wanting to punish Blake for her treason, but the line he says just before, "And as I set out upon this world and deliver the justice mankind so greatly deserves, I will make it my mission to destroy everything you love, starting with her", is the perfect layup for the murder-stroke. Yang then leaps forward, Adam sidesteps, and is in the perfect position for an executioner-style chop to the back of the neck. It could (almost) not have been better written, as well as adding more to Adam's mockery that he knows Blake will run away again after staring into the lifeless eyes of her friend's disembodied head. Alas, nothing of the sort occurred.

What makes this all so much worse is that there is the direct and immediate comparison to Pyrrha's death. Whereas Yang's death was near perfectly set up, every character is acting in character, and we feel the same dread Blake does, Pyrrha's death was a result of the entire plot breaking to make it so. Surely when writing this, CRWBY knew how bad this looked, right? How could they write it properly with Yang, though refusing to follow through, whilst doing everything wrong with Pyrrha?

The sad answer is that Pyrrha was of no further use to them, whereas Yang was their literal golden calf. At the time I thought it was due to the fact that she was voiced by Barbara, who was the Goddess of Victory for the community, so if her character died, there would be severe backlash. In reality, CRWBY have their favourites, as well as wanted Wasp to happen, therefore Yang must be protected at all times and at all costs. Was it so that they could hit an intersectional triple, that being a lesbian couple, a cripple, and with PTSD? I would put nothing past them by this point. This also dovetails into CRWBY's favouritism in regard to how characters die, for the characters they do not like (Pyrrha, Roman, Adam, Lionheart, Ironwood, etc) die either brutally or stupidly, and the characters they do like (Penny and Neo) die gracefully, or inexplicably survive (Yang and Blake), or change allegiances (Emerald and Illia).

I should make it clear that I am not saying this because I hate Yang. I cannot deny that I hate her as she is now, but at the time "Gods and Monsters" was airing, she was my favourite character, and I still believed she should have died. That sentiment has never changed, other than deepening. However, with all that has happened since V3, including her killing of Adam without taking a single hit, despite not being any stronger than she was at the Vytal Tournament, and perhaps even weaker—the same goes for Blake—she has now become my second-most hated character.

It is why that during my full rewriting process, I had it that she gets saved at the very last minute. Her saviour is her squad leader—an OC from my full rewrite that mentors teams RWBY and JNPR—who upon learning from a grunt of the White Fang that Adam is going to deal with "the traitor", he begins to try and find Blake. It is there that he sees Yang being baited into attacking Adam, and the only way for him to save her is by throwing his weapon at him. It is not fast enough to stop the swing completely, but it diverts Adam's sword enough that it takes Yang's arm rather than her head. It is here that he rushes in to protect the girls, and is caught in a bad place, needing to stabilize their bleeding, recover Yang's arm, and fend off Adam. Adam, realizing that he is about to be overwhelmed and his window to escape shrinking, decides to abandon Blake, but makes sure to take Yang's arm as a memento, as well as to taught Raven with it, which means it cannot be reattached in time—something that Adam will pay for in future.

This is how we end up with JADA, where the reason why Yang lives, despite everyone involved knowing it makes no sense that she does, is because Raven saves her once again. She is the only character that could have done it without the existence of Yang's squad leader, and it dovetails perfectly in the story I wrote for her in the full rewrite, which will be here also. This does not pass without consequence, as Adam is aware she is responsible, as well as it being the second time, and will add to their unpleasant working relationship.

There is, as always, much more to this, but we will get to it in time. Funny enough, this chapter was originally Chapter V, with Chapter IV revealing how much things have changed regarding Yang's injuries, which means it will not be until the new Chapter V that you will learn the truth.

Nevertheless, I hope you will find this change to be a major improvement from the show.

P.S. A thought just occurred to me. Would it have not been more significant and better written if it had been Weiss that found Blake? She sees the monster responsible for terrorizing her family and Kingdom torturing, or in the process of killing, her friend, thus causing her to jump in to attack him, and Adam, wanting to have fun with carving up the pretty heiress of the "evil" Schnee Dust Company, cuts off her arm when she over-lunges. He would have then done more if he were not interrupted by some form of backup for Blake and Weiss (Qrow, Winter, or Ironwood), thus Weiss having to return home works, as well as her reflecting on her shortcomings with her Glyphs. This then hits home for Blake, that the "evil, racist, Human heiress" paid a heavy price to save her, thus she runs away in shame, and agrees to destroy the White Fang when her family and boyfriend are attacked. Weiss then gets a cool arm thanks to her family's technicians, Blake grows as a character, their friendship blooms, Human-Faunus relations strengthen, and no Wasp. There is always a better option than what CRWBY go with. Always.

The Perceived Rivalry of Raven and Adam

This is another one of those strange phenomena in the RWBY community that seemed to have come out of nowhere, yet is widely accepted without explanation. I fully admit that I am also guilty of this, and in earlier drafts of the full rewrite, I tried to play with it in different forms, before settling on what you saw and will see in time.

With that said, I want to touch on this perceived rivalry between them before I explain more of what I am setting up. There was this strange sense that there had to be something between Raven and Adam, with many differing theories, ranging from bitter allies to scorned lovers. And now that Adam has badly hurt her daughter, surely if there was something between them, it would rise to the surface given what he has done, right?

Yet with his death and beyond, nothing has come of it, meaning it was nothing more than a figment of the community's imagination. *insert clip of Jonathan Frakes mocking you*

So, why did this happen? My theory is a simple one. Raven and Adam share colour palates, so there is an instant visual connection, or at least, a perceived one. Then there is the shared design of a white mask, Japanese sword, and Iai like quick-drawing and slashing fighting style. There is also an unmistakable inspiration from Vergil, the son of Sparda, of the Devil May Cry series, which is rather hilarious to me, for if Raven is Vergil, then Yang is Nero, given she has an augmented arm like Nero (Devil Bringer then prosthetic), has connections to motorcycles (Nero's Red Queen), both are wildfires that cannot be tamed, both have a cool uncle that is a twin, both had better older designs, and both have stoic parents that abandoned them because they do not love them. Ha!

While I will admit that I have drawn inspiration from Nero for Yang's character in the past, it does not mean that there is any connection between Raven and Adam. It was merely an invention through the tried and true trappings of RWBY: assuming and implicating. The community saw a pattern and ran with it, which they are very prone to do, for both better and for worse, given how little there is to work with in this show. They usually fall into the category of theory-crafting, given the repetition of symbols and similarities between two items (two emblems, two weapons, two names, two designs, etc). My response every time is that they are nothing more than recycled assets, thanks to CRWBY's lack of time, skill, planning, and budget.

To be as fair as possible, could there have been something to all of this, and yet again CRWBY have dropped the ball by abandoning plot threads that began with Monty? I personally think it is unlikely, but there can always be a chance of that. However, given that Adam's story was meant to be about Blake, I cannot imagine Raven being in any way a part of it, especially since we can strongly assumed that with Monty alive, Wasp would not have happened, meaning Sun would have been even more involved than he was. If any parent would have been involved, it would have been Ghira, and if Yang was hurt, it would be Tai.

In the end, the community was trying to be a fanbase, theory-crafting and being hopeful of what was to come. Whilst I remain steadfast that the show died with Monty, thus trying to make sense and expect more of the show past V3 frivolous, I cannot fully blame them for seeing more than there was. I know, strangely understanding of me. Do not get used to it.

As to what I have done instead, there is indeed a shared past between them, though not in the way one would expect. I have hinted at it before through DDCT, and I did a tad more in this chapter, but only in future installments will it become clearer.

I should now inform you all that this focus on Raven is why JADA is taking so long, for she is one of the three "main characters" of the story. My plan from the beginning was that JADA would break down into three main parties—Jaune, Oscar, and Raven—with the relevant characters around them knitting the threads of the story into ribbons that will be braided together. That does not mean that they are the main characters in the same way Team RWBY are in the show, but rather their storylines are the main veins of the story. Here, I can at least show what I have been writing for Raven's story for the past seven or so years, and given that CRWBY have now "at last" begun to hint at the story of Team STRQ (that no one asked for), I need to build upon what I began in DDCT. Alas, this is why JADA is taking longer, as I need to make sure that everything fits correctly, which was easier in DDCT, for it was quite linear. You will understand why in future chapters.

I can only hope you will find it as intriguing and satisfying as I do.

With Villains Like These

At last, the fundamentally breaking issue for this chapter. Aren't these fun?

It is no secret that the villains in RWBY are quite awful. Other than Roman Torchwick, who was more loveable than villainous, none of them, not even Salem herself, have succeeded in making us fear them and what they are capable of. As we saw with Adam, whilst CRWBY will say that the villains do terrible things, we never truly see them do them. It is as if CRWBY are unable to commit to having evil people be evil. This is not at all new, as many—if not most—of contemporary creatives handicap themselves in this regard. Stormfront from The Boys is a perfect example, for despite being a Nazi, she (originally a man in the comics) refrains from using racial slurs.

The reasons as to why and how it bleeds into the rest of the show I will explain in a moment, but I first want to explain the realization as to why the villains are so terrible.

I am rather ashamed to admit that it took a long time for me to piece together why the villains in RWBY are fundamentally broken, despite making the right changes in my full rewrite, as well as making accurate comments on the matter in previous stories. And that is indeed the issue, not solely that they lack the menacing presence and quality of villains to be feared, but that from the ground up, they were unsound.

What I mean by this is that the characters that these villains are based on are not villains from fairy tales, but heroes. Whilst Salem draws inspiration from Maleficent, Cinder is a perversion of Cinderella, Adam is a perversion of Prince Adam, and Robyn is a bastardization of Robin Hood. I cannot speak for Hazel, Dr Watts, and Tyrian, other than Tyrian is the only traditionally evil character of the three. This decision to twist heroes into villains transfers over into the actual heroes, with Leonardo being a perversion of the Cowardly Lion, General Ironwood being a perversion of Nick Copper (The Tin Woodman), Ozma being a perversion of Oscar Diggs (The Wizard of Oz), Qrow being nothing like Scarecrow, Ren being nothing like Mulan, David being a perversion of Peter Pan, Penny being a complete misunderstanding of Pinocchio, Blake being a bastardization of Bell, and Weiss being a perversion of Snowdrop (Snow White)—and by proxy, turned Santa Claus (Nicholas Schnee) into a "Capitalist pig". That last one has stuck in my craw for a long time, for I take it personally.

Instead of simply using actual villains from the fairy tales and stories these characters are based on (Sienna is the only example, yet was still poorly written), Monty and CRWBY decided to take the heroes and warp them into deplorable people at best, and monsters at worst. Why? The simplest answer is that none of them care for heroes, as proven by their statements on the subject, as well as their contemporary pseudo-intellectual desire for the morally grey. Yet this goes further, as people of CRWBY's ilk openly appear to relate with the villains, which is why we see films such as Maleficent and Cruella, trying to paint these monsters as merely "misunderstood"...something CRWBY are sickeningly doing with Cinder, Emerald, Neo, Illia, Robyn, and to an extent, Salem herself. For them, good is boring. Furthermore, there is no doubt in my mind they gave her that name because of the Salem Witch Trials, meaning they did not do any research on the subject.

The modern term for this cheapening of evil is "moral relativism", though I quite enjoy quoting Isaiah 5:20, "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil". This leads us to the final nail in the coffin, which is that CRWBY celebrate the evil acts of their heroes as being good, even when they are worse than what the villains, or perceived villains, do, or other heroes do the same evil acts as the main cast, yet are condemned. With "heroes" such as these, who needs villains, though to compound this problem further, CRWBY will also celebrate certain villains as heroes, followed by shaming any rational person who wants to stop said villains. Whilst there are ways to make more understandable villains, the cost of humanizing your villains, is to dehumanize your heroes, and that is not a cost that I am willing to pay—neither as a writer nor as an audience member.

Because of this desire to twist heroes into villains, combined with the inability to write said villains as villains, and the celebration of evil acts by heroes as morally good, we are left with a fundamental story-breaking flaw with the story of RWBY. How is one to champion the characters the writers want to lead the story as the heroes, when it would be better for them to also face justice? To make matters worse, because CRWBY have zero comprehension of what is good and what is evil, you will have "villains" such as Raven, Jacques, and Ironwood, actually be correct, in spite of CRWBYs condemnation.

Once again, this is par for the course with contemporary storytelling, for there are characters such as John Walker from Falcon and the Winter Soldier, who has every trait of a hero—and acts like one—yet the writers and the show demonize him, whilst celebrating terrorists such as Karli Morgenthau (aka Freckle Jesus) as morally good. Furthermore, and just as jaw dropping, Baron Zemo is the voice of reason in that show—and to this day, I do not think anyone involved realized they wrote him that way. Wandavision is the same, for Scarlet Witch, who imprisons innocent men, women, and children, yet her acts are hand-waved away—which happens again in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness—whereas Director Hayward is labeled a villain and a traitor for doing the right thing. The list of examples such as these is obscenely long, though to add two more, we have Jaune Arc and Sun Wukong; good boys doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do, and shamed up and down for it to this very day, with V9 being the worst thus far.

Yet again, in the words of G.K. Chesterton, "A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author". I should also point out that the trope of all of one's allies betraying the protagonists first started—or I first became aware—with The Legend of Korra; a show that sadly inspired a number of things in RWBY, which is obvious given that it aired during RWBY's inception and initial run.

What I find to be so amusing about all of this, in spite of the cheapening of evil being the greatest evil of all—and the simultaneous cheapening of goodness—is that they succeeded in creating a complex villain where there was more that what was on the surface with Roman Torchwick. And yet, he is the one that dies in comedic fashion, with us getting a grotesquely overrated mute in his place. To be fair, they never intended for Roman to be so popular, therefore whatever plans—if any—Monty may have had for him, died with him. Nevertheless, I thought Roman had immense potential; in fact, if you were to read DDCT, you can see that potential in motion. Alas, it cannot be the exact same here, though since Neo is part of Cinder's entourage at the start, those of you unaware of my new lore will have to wait and see it.

The question that remains is why have I not placed my money where my mouth is and replaced the villains with ones from the fairy tales and other stories? Other than Salem, Cinder, and Adam, who cannot be changed, as well as the addition of a new secret villain, I left these in place for one reason: to swap them out with new ones would be such a massive undertaking that it would take away from the point of this story, which is the hunting down and killing of Cinder Fall. If this were a full rewrite, then it would be a fairly simple task to replace them, meaning that Cinder would be played by a different character. Then there is the issue of Adam Taurus, who should have always been Sher Kahn, rather than suddenly introducing Sienna as Khan's avatar, and then rightfully killing her off due to the redundancy of Adam being Khan in practice. Since I would never have allowed things to transpire as they did by V3, I can get away with reusing these subpar villains. Well, all of you will be the judges of that, so please let me know if I failed or succeeded in this venture.

Instead, I will try to do the best I can with what I have, making small, yet significant changes in order to tell a better story. Already, Tyrian (whom I am calling Callows, for I abhor the laziness of solely referencing content from the past decade) is more than a mere psychopath, having a hyper rational side to him, which allows him to be calculating and methodical, and therefore a proper commander on Salem's staff. This is why he leads the campaign in Vacuo—which he is preparing for in this chapter—something that takes place after the Mistral Arc in my full rewrite. That was not my original plan back in 2016, but naturally, as all things do, I went further than surface level. Of course, I have thoughts on Insect Faunus—or Arachnid Faunus in this case—but that is a conversation for another time. Also, I can never forget how Salem showed him compassion and concern, which is more than I can say about how the "heroes" treat one another.

Adam is following suit to how I wrote him in DDCT, as well as the scar on his face. As I showed both here and in DDCT, Adam is far more savvy and tactical, with a clear goal in mind that Salem would like to facilitate. Having your villains be idiots does nothing but ruin your story, so despite not liking the character, I still plan on making him a formidable villain. As for the scar, I always thought there was some kind of scarring under that mask. In my stories, it is from being tortured when he was a child soldier after being captured by Silver's men—those of you who are new have no idea who that is, but you will. What is funny about my change is that in the original artwork of Adam, the Nazi death camp tattoo on his face was a scar until the show was well underway. Lovely.

Cinder, however, has not changed much, other than being fully able to speak without restrictions. I had originally thought that the reason as to why CRWBY had made that decision was due to Jessica Nigri not being able to voice act her way out of a paper bag, and perhaps in preparation to replace her, though that sadly has proven not to be the case. All the more sweet when she meets her demise, I suppose.

I hope that this examination of the villains of Remnant has at last shone some light as to why they have never been anything to be interested in, let alone to be feared. Just as I want my heroes to be heroic, I want my villains to be villainous, and not have it written that both share ideology, and the writers are the ones to praise one side and shame the other, especially when the ideology they share is an evil one. It is so simple a concept, yet it is so far beyond the understanding of contemporaries in this age of anti-wisdom, leaving us to sigh and imagine what could have been. V9 went further than ever, and that only convinces me to double down yet again on my projects and my views.

I just hope you enjoy the stories in the end.

Thoughts on V9:

For the past several weeks now, I have received many private messages on FFN and Discord, as well as open questions on Ao3, regarding the situation with V9. You wanted to know my thoughts on it, given that I have normally provided commentary on each episode during the publishing history of my stories, as well as never being shy on voicing my opinions about the show overall. Since I have unintentionally cultivated a community fellowship of likeminded people, whilst unsurprising, it is nevertheless touching to hear from you all, so thank you.

If, however, you are not interested in hearing me complain for arguably too long about what transpired in V9, then skip to Plans Going Forward to see what will be happening next with JADA.

So, what are my thoughts? Good God, CRWBY, you outdid yourselves. I am beyond impressed.

Visually Deafening and Thievery from Their Betters

Despite seeing the wacky images that were leaked last year—I immediately guessed, and guessed correctly, that it was meant to be Wonderland—I did not think I was going to be so wrong in my predictions. Now, in my defense once again, I was not expecting for things to go this far off the rails. The introduction of a completely different world, immense retconning, time-travel, and the breaking of all rules—past and current? Cut me some slack, please. Nevertheless, I was right about a few things, and given that Vacuo is still the final battleground, all my predictions—and some new ones—are still in the running.

Visually, the volume looks awful. It is nothing more than vomiting colour on the screen—possibly a response to the criticism of how grey and bleak the show has become over the past few years—and a great insult to Lewis Carroll's (real name Professor Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, literally copy-and-pasting it wholesale—they have the book there to read for goodness sake. Yet, what else is new with how CRWBY treats fairy tales, fantasy, and similar stories? This is precisely why they delayed this volume, not to make sure that the story was good, but rather to make, from the ground up, all of these new assets. They are not good, not by a long shot, and despite having nothing to do but copy lazily, it still took them ages. Perhaps firing all those animators was not such a good idea. And even after all this time, they are still making animation errors, not catching them before sending off the final masters.

Furthermore, I must comment to a greater extent on the fact that they just used Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as if it were in our world. Yes, that is beyond lazy, but what I personally find hysterical, is that this is what happens often in fan-fiction; using references from our world wholesale (songs, movies, books, games, products, and slang), usually resulting in the breaking of verisimilitude. As funny as that is, it is even more humorous because I did the same thing in DDCT.

In Chapter VII "Gods and Monsters", when Sam asks Pyrrha about her favourite fairy tales, the tales she lists—as I wanted her to list more than a couple—are real fairy tales. The Little Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty), The White Cat (La Chatte Blanche), The Goose-Girl (Die Gänsemagd), The Valiant Little Tailor (Das tapfere Schneiderlein), The Princess on the Glass Hill (The Maiden on the Glass Mountain (Jomfruen på glassberget), The Black Bull of Northern Way (The Black Bull of Norroway), The Norka, The Golden Branch (La Branche Dorée), Snowdrop (Snow White and the Seven Dwarves), The Seven Foals (De syv folen), Heart of Ice (Le prince Courtebotte et la princesse Zibeline), The Dragon of the North (Põhja konn), The Beast of Gévaudan (true werewolf story from France), The She-Wolf and the River Twins (The Founding of Rome), and Sigurd the Dragon Slayer (Siegfried).

I did this for three reasons. One, to have Pyrrha be knowledgeable about fairy tales, as well as develop her character, along with her mother's. Two, to flex about my own knowledge on fairy tales. And three, to show how much material there is to work with for RWBY, yet CRWBY are too lazy to go through it. The difference between me and CRWBY is that I am a fan-fiction writer who is criticizing them, whereas they are the "real deal" wasting their time on allegory. And since the "Story of the Seasons" proved they could not write their own fairy tales, they just decided to copy one of the most famous—line for line—just as your average teenage fan-fiction writer will use pop-culture references at will. They pulled a song-fic, but with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Lord have mercy.

Oh yeah, "Alice" is there as well. She does nothing of value. Suggestion: Why not have it that she is the Summer Maiden and keep her around? As dumb and lazy as it is, at least it would have given purpose to this dumb volume.

More Tone-deaf Than Ever

The tone is cacophonously facetious, which has been the case since V3, as is the personal investment and emotions characters have regarding loss, tragedy, and each other, though now to a much larger degree. Either they care too much about nothing, or have no emotions about something immensely significant. Weiss, for example, suddenly expresses sadness for Atlas' destruction. My problem with this is not that she suddenly cares, but rather that she should have always cared. Also, instead of bawling her eyes out about the loss of her entire Kingdom, company, and fortune, not to mention her grandfather's death, she is rather tepid towards it all. This is why I made that change in DDCT, as well as characters giving a damn about their Kingdoms, and Weiss and Jaune talking about it (see Chapter XIX).

This is precisely why I am writing JADA, and specifically why I wrote Chapter I as I did; not merely to set the tone for the story, but to show the characters behaving like living, warm-blooded, decent people. They grieve for what matters to them, which are things that we, the audience, can understand, as well as sympathize with. V9, however, makes you question the humanity of the writers as much as the characters.

"We're better than Monty"—CRWBY

Chapter 4 was just RWBY Chibi, in that CRWBY will point out the terrible plot-holes and bad writing, meaning they know how bad this show is, yet refuse to improve, or at least avoid repeating these mistakes—as if they are saying that admitting their flaws is the same as fixing them. Yes, darling, I did cheat on you with the neighbour, and while I will not stop cheating on you, I am being honest with you, thus I am a good person. As expected. Though, if I can be charitable for a moment, the chance to correct the mistakes of the show passed them by a long time ago, and only by restarting or turning the show into something else, could they improve. And I said "improve" not "fix" deliberately. Any of you who have read DDCT know how deep the rot goes.

And this chapter shows how rotten CRWBY truly are, as they decided to have the current versions of Team RWBY face their originals...somewhat. It was disconnected from itself and from reality—as always—since CRWBY have no idea who these characters are, or were. And boy, did they prove it this time. However, what made it far worse, was what CRWBY made the characters say in response to their past selves: a flat out rejection. I must say that I agree with Adel Aka, though I did disagree with him plenty this volume, that this was nothing more than CRWBY denouncing the Monty era, calling it "simple", meaning it was infantile compared to their "complex" and "mature" takeover. My-oh-my, how these buzzards fly, with wings that are not theirs. Well, Rooster Teeth is hardly a buzzard, but a bloody Cockatrice now. Nevertheless, my point stands.

There is a great deal of difference between "simple" and "simplistic", the latter being what CRWBY ooze from every pore. These simplistic simping simpletons selling snake oil since 2016 send shivers down my sack.

Now, none of this is surprising to me, as they have been doing this for years already, but I am glad they are being as blatant as the community has been that they do not like Monty. I honestly do not believe that they were ever his friend. They are truly carrion sycophants, which explains how quickly they executed their coup d'état. It gets ever more sickening when you realize that Monty's own brother has been in on this. And they dare to preach morality? To make matters worse, CRWBY, as well as most of RT, are perpetual children, never maturing or taking responsibility for their own actions. The irony is heavy enough to make steel, though hardly good enough for even cheap utensils.

My readers have asked me many times what would I do if I was given the chance to write the show going forward, and my answer has always been, "If I cannot hard-reset to V1C1, have the power to veto anything, and release each volume only when ready, then I would never accept such an offer". That said, this would have been the one chapter I would have loved to write, but only to write the lines of the old Team RWBY. I would have given them no quarter.

I should also point out that my prediction about Yang was spot on, even if the context was not, as she says to her "former self" that she does not want her old arm back. Yes, CRWBY are making her say that as a "sign of growth", when the reality is that they do not want to be called "ableist" for Yang wanting, let alone getting, her real arm back. It is deranged, I know, and my arguments with RWBY zealots on the matter, proves as much.

Last minute thought, I wonder if the reason why they did this, as well as to parade the corpses of other beloved characters like Pyrrha and Roman, was just because they upgraded all the old models for the RWBY x JL stuff, plus other weird crossovers? Smoke if you got'em, and no doubt they were made with cheap tobacco shavings swept off of the factory floor.

The Never Ending Hate for Jaune Arc

I was very annoyed with Jaune's "redesign" as the Rusted Knight. Utterly shocking, I know. Leaving aside him still having bad armour in design and arrangement—that helmet is God awful; Barbuta forever—as well as not being able to look after his gear, my gripe is with the hair change. Everyone mocked CRWBY's redesign of the cast, mainly Jaune, Yang, and Blake, with Jaune looking like a child. We all wanted him to look more manly and knightly as he got older, and him having longer hair and growing some facial hair was part of that. That means this was an overcorrection for that initial redesign—or so I thought—and the result is just as bad.

CRWBY have had this problem since V4, where if a male character was not designed to have facial hair, it looks as if any new facial hair is glued on, rather than grown out. Jaune has that problem as well, especially since he does not look older—and does not fight like he is an experienced warrior—despite being older. Of course, this is a problem for most characters, as the hair and art style of RWBY has been terrible for a long time, and CRWBY have not improved; though to be oddly charitable once again, a number of designs look decent on paper, but when they are turned to 3D, look quite ugly.

His hair is now too long, and is tied in a feminine way with a feminine bow, which is meant to be a memento of Pyrrha, despite being the wrong colour—definitely not from her sash—though the size is exactly right in how little she matters to him. What struck me was that his hair and ponytail is reminiscent of Ken Masters from Street Fighter Alpha/Zero, though if you see what that looks like, it is much better on the true Fire Shoto. Furthermore, I have seen fan-art where he carries the ponytail on his chest, which is a hairstyle called the "Motherly Side Plait", or in meme world, the "Dead Anime Mom Hairstyle". I do not know why they did that, other than to humiliate him, despite the fact that the art was meant to be supportive. In any event, I do like the hairstyle (on housewives), and I will go against the tropes as required. Still awful on Jaune, though.

As always, fans do a better job than CRWBY, with many examples of rugged rogue Jaune emerging over the years. And while that is what we wanted in the situation where Pyrrha was murdered, what we craved for years, it being the best case scenario, was for Jaune to turn into SoulCalibur III Siegfried. CRWBY even gave him the scar and put the sword on his back! Alas, this is the closest we are ever going to get outside of fan-fiction. We wanted a Knight, and they gave us a hobo. My response: just kill him off! If growth, warrior skill, and revenge for Pyrrha's murder are verboten, then put this man out of his misery. No doubt you will keep ruining him, even in death, but at least he cannot be paraded around as the court jester.

By the way, I should point out that in DDCT, I made sure to include that Jaune knows how to look after his gear, whereas he does none of that in V9. Just wanted to remind people of that.

In the end, it does not matter, given that they just reverted everything back to pre-V9, without fixing Jaune's design in any way other than a white lock of hair, and despite aging him up, he has not matured in skill or in personality. Par for the course, if a bit worse.

I am now forced to ask the age-old question: why keep him around anymore? Many people were expecting him to be killed off this volume, and given that he served no real purpose in V9, and Luna is no longer head writer, why have him brought along? If the point of aging him up was not to make him a better fighter without doing the regular years of training, and you just de-age him back to nineteen, then why even bother? Was this done merely because this volume was a copy of AAIW, and they needed someone to be the Rusted Knight, so they picked Jaune since he has (had) a Knight archetype?

I am unapologetic that Jaune is one of my favourite characters, but either kill him off, or actually allow him to be who he was always meant to be; and even that latter part was in dispute this volume, for everyone kept telling him he was wrong to try and be a hero. It is beyond inconceivable and insulting that Jaune would even hang about with these "friends" of his, but we have been voicing that complaint for years now.

Then there is the Blake crushing on the Rusted Knight...so is she a lesbian or not? Bi-sexual confirmed? She can grow out of it then? Blake is a LUG ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). Also, if Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is one of Blake's favourite books, why has she not mentioned it before? Oh, that's right; it wasn't her favourite until this volume, not to mention this is only the third book she has read. In comparison, I have now crossed 1500 books in my personal library. The incompetency is mind-numbing. Also, I hate this weird flip-flopping of Jaune being a loser kid, yet also a sex symbol. It is beyond infantile, and rather insulting.

Ruby Rose: 9 Volumes Without Direction

I am also quite frustrated with this introduction of Ruby no longer wanting to be a Huntress. The first reason is that I have always doubted Ruby's choice to be a Huntress—excluding any social requirements to be one by having powers, though that is my own invention—seeing that she suffers from what I like to call "Ash Ketchum Syndrome". Just as Ash Ketchum is gung-ho about being a Pokémon trainer, yet is shockingly ignorant of what that entails, Ruby badly wants to be a Huntress, yet is always naive to what the job is, in spite of her upbringing. That, of course, ties into her hollow position as main character, as well as the questionable status of the Huntsmen in Remnant, but we will touch on that another day. It is funny, I once thought that V2C9, "Search and Destroy", was my favourite episode of the show thus far, and was very well written. Looking back, it revealed how unserious everyone was, and how poorly thought-out it was too.

The second reason is that this very topic is present throughout my full rewrite, where there are many questions to whether or not she is up to this, and even after reaching great heights by the end of the war, she speaks candidly with her brother-in-law that she is done being a Huntress, admitting he was right years ago. There is obviously a lot of context missing that I am not writing for the sake of spoilers, but I felt that I had to mention it. Also, it only took a decade for emblems to be referenced in this story. Not explained, just referenced. *throws water bottle*

In short, it makes no sense, and bears no real consequence, even if it further shatters whatever team cohesion and friendship these characters have left.

Predetermined Laziness:

I should note that the introduction of pre-determinism was just copied from the Loki series, which only those critical of modern media realize that it destroys the entirety of the MCU, though it was Avengers: Endgame that opened Pandora's Box. And since CRWBY are no doubt still enamored with Disney—especially politically—they think it is all 4D chess, and copied it; just as they do with everything else that has come out in the past twenty years. It is immoral, it is gross, and it is lazy. That woman blacksmith is just a copy of the Armourer from the Mandalorian too.

What is not so easy to dismiss, however, is their creepy promotion of suicide. They even go as far as to shame Jaune for being against suicide and giving up, continuing their streak of immorality, and their hatred of him, not to mention heroes and heroism. This was not as surprising to me as it was for others, however, for CRWBY and people of their ilk are deeply Nihilist, so choosing to end it all is not an unpleasant option. Yes, there is this nonsensical "reincarnation" plot, but this is nothing more than your common secular understanding on such matters, as most good religions are very against suicide, as well as Team RWBY's illogically blind acceptance of what they are being told and shown. Thank you for the Kool-Aid, Reverend Jim. We're glad to leave behind their world of sin.

Just as CRWBY are too immoral to understand how sick they are, they are too stupid to realize that establishing pre-determinism destroys the show, as without freedom of will, no one can be blamed for their failures or successes, thus removing any reason for us to care. Then again, they have gotten very good at that. It also shows they learned nothing from taking away General Ironwood's freewill with the dumbest Semblance to date. I cannot wait to get to that chapter.

Oh, and do not think for a moment that we cannot see that this inclusion of pre-determinism was also to further iterate that everything thus far was preplanned...completely ignoring how many times CRWBY made retcons and admitted they have had to keep rewriting things, as well as getting new writers to help. And Monty died in 2015.

I always said that CRWBY where so bad that they could not even write a suicide note, and I was proven right. Again.

Dude, Where's My Raid?

To make this abundantly clear, I am not angry about Wasp. It was inevitable, it was inexorable—as I predicted—and I felt nothing when it happened. The story was destroyed over the years in order to facilitate it, so, of course, it happened; despite the fact they were baiting BlackSun for more than half the series, and had Blake kiss him in V6 with the promise to see him again, whilst sabotaging it and forcing Wasp through. Just add them to the list of straight characters forcibly changed to be gay for The Message™—they are a dime a dozen these days.

Given how awful a person Blake has become, not to mention she is an abuser, Sun is too good for her, so I am more worried about how much more he will be humiliated when he finds out. There are so many ways to mock Yang, Blake, and this crack-ship—mainly that it only came about when Monty, the creator of RWBY, died and could not object, and that RT threw out anyone that would, as well that it happened in a filler volume—we will save that for later. None of this is canon, so why get bent out of shape? Just make sure to remind everyone of that when CRWBY and the community parade them around this June, as they are nothing more than purse puppies to show off to their friends and deflect valid criticism. Identity is a cheap substitute for character, hence why these characters are so heavily mocked.

What I wish to do is take the opportunity to christen BumbleBY by its new name. I have been calling it Wasp for a long time, as they are pests, thus it is an accurate term for the ship and its zealots, for they infested and killed the show and community. Yellow jacket was on my list as well, but I dropped it, given that it was a bit of a mouthful. I am changing it, however, as I stumbled across a yellow jacket removal video (I have done enough of it myself on my country property to be interested in learning better methods), and I belly laughed when I heard the following:

"So, this species is the southern yellow jacket, also known as Vespula Squamosa, and is by far one of the most aggressive yellow jacket species that I deal with here in PA. They are absolutely relentless when they're attacking something to defend their colony. And with them being a subterranean yellow jacket species, no one knows they're there until they stumble upon the nest. While yellow jackets can't distinguish the difference between a threat and a non threat, so everyone is treated like a threat."

—Hornet King, Angry and AGGRESSIVE Yellow Jacket Ground nest!

If that does not describe BumbleBY shippers to a tee, then I do not know what does. And since yellow jackets are part of the wasp family, this is a sensible "upgrade". Plus, southern yellow jackets are polygynous. What a shock.

Then there is the bonus that Yellowjacket sounds reminiscent of the Blackshirts, they being the Fascist Paramilitary group under the direct control of Benito Mussolini. "How immature of you!" you must be saying. How could I compare shippers to Fascists? Well, I was not comparing the two, merely that the name invokes it. And yet, since we are here, I might as well. Yellowjackets will bully anyone who disagrees with them, using intimidation to subdue dissent, and will send death threats to even CRWBY if they do not get their way. Sounds like the Blackshirts to me. Then there is the rather hilarious similarity between Blake's emblem and the emblem of the Blackshirts. Belladonna is Italian for "beautiful lady" as well, and when you compare an actual example of the belladonna flower in heraldry to Blake's, you have to wonder why Monty designed it that way. For the record, I AM NOT saying Monty did that on purpose and wanted Blake to be a Fascist (she is a racist Marxist and a terrorist), just that I do not understand why he green-lit that design...or Yang's...or most of them...or why have them in the first place.

If you still think it is wrong of me to make such a comparison, I would ask you to consider this. Given how thuggish Yellowjackets have behaved for years, calling anyone who disagrees with their crack-ship racists, bigots, homophobes, and yes, even Fascists, as well as doxxing artists and critics, trying to shut down charities, sending death threats to those people, and CRWBY themselves, I believe that is the appropriate response. I can only call balls and strikes, and as an Italian who has lost family to the Blackshirts, as well as the Mafia, I know it when I see it. I have also been studying Communism for years, starting in college, so I do not say any of this lightly, or with any sort of relish.

Furthermore, it is because of that behaviour that I honestly wonder how committed CRWBY truly are to Yellowjacket, for while there are decisions they made in V3 to begin the devolving of the show, as well as destroying Blake's character in V4, which includes her mistreatment of Sun, they did keep showing her blushing and smiling at Sun's flirting till V6—not to mention that kiss. After all, it was Sun that went after Blake and saved the day, not Yang. If it were not for the backlash that would arise from the Yellowjackets if they made BlackSun official—they learned their lesson after being accused of "queer-baiting" with Qrow and Clover—would they still have slapped Yellowjacket together at the 11th hour? V10 may not happen, so this was possibly their only chance. We may never know.

In any event, I am more worried about poor Sun Wukong than I am about an awkward and unhinged affair between coworkers. And in the words of Eddy, my editor, "Reject modernity, return to monke".

White Knightmare

What I am angry about, however, is the forced White Knight lunacy. It is no secret that I am very wrothful with the undermining and humiliation of Pyrrha Nikos, as well as the invalidating of her relationship with Jaune Arc. While I do not want to go into who Jaune could be with past Pyrrha's death here—we absolutely will in time—none of us that cared about him getting revenge wanted him to be with anyone until the job was done, and even then it would rest upon what kind of person Jaune becomes by the end. Do we want him to be happy? Yes, but this is also fantasy, where we want him to get his revenge, and perhaps take the black. I bloody hate Game of Thrones, but that is basically what we expected.

The fact that CRWBY had the gall to pull this is impressive. Yes, it is awkward, and yes, it is out of nowhere, and yes, it is as sudden as it is in fan-fiction written by people that have never been inside a woman, or had a man inside them (that loved them), but what brings my piss to a boil is that it is a spit in the face of Pyrrha. If Jaune and Weiss were decent people, they would feel it to be very inappropriate to enter a relationship given their past, especially with Pyrrha's murder. That alone has been enough to make the notion of White Knight to leave a very acrid taste in my mouth, not to mention there has been no development between them to insinuate romantic feelings—not even after Jaune saving Weiss' life.

It is why I touched upon it in DDCT, for whilst Weiss admits that Jaune's maturing has made him a better suitor, it was under Pyrrha's guidance and love that he became who he was by the end of the school year. At that same time, she was falling in love with Neptune, with him proving to be more to her tastes, meaning that ship had long since sailed. I sensed that how I had rewritten Jaune and Weiss that it could arise the possibility of White Knight again in the eyes of my audience, so I made sure that I wrote things correctly. In my full rewrite, it becomes a running joke, ending with Jaune and Weiss chatting over an Atlassian op-ed lamenting that they had not gotten together, and teasing each other that their lovers (Pyrrha and Neptune) are better.

Go fuck yourself, CRWBY. And how in God's name is Jaune "so mature" to Weiss, being a hobo in his 40s or 50s? Let that sink in. I thought they learned that RoseGarden is gross enough thanks to this Ozma nonsense, but nope! Also, people get bent out of shape regarding Snowbird, yet this is fine? CRWBY also had the gall to parade Pyrrha before Jaune, when they have fought so hard to force us to forget and tell us to stop caring. Shameless cretins.

And yet, I cannot help but grin wolfishly at this, for it shows that whether it be straight or gay, CRWBY have absolutely no idea how to write relationships. After all, they themselves cannot maintain a healthy relationship, being repeat divorcees, cheaters, abusers, and predators, Miles and Arryn (Jaune and Blake's VAs) being ex-lovers (which might explain a lot about how their characters are written), and Barbara having an OnlyFans despite being in a long-term relationship (that makes four—her, Arryn, Meg, and Nigri—as far as I know). I suppose they will need the income sooner rather than later. In the revealing words of Grace Randolph, "I don't think there's money in dignity". I applaud the baiting of doing a sexual photo shoot to celebrate Yellowjacket, by the way. I have seen the leaked images (nothing sexual about them), and they are as awkward, unhappy, unnatural, empty, and forced as their characters are in the show. Perfect cosplay. As a photographer, those sets are awful, by the way. Also, I think I understand why Yang's boobs shrunk XD.

Hey, Barbara, remember when that guy asked where the booth babes were, and you said that you were the booth babe, and he disagreed given your looks, and you flipped him off when he left? My, how the turn tables. Is it Bimmy or Bimbo?

All of this only further proves that CRWBY's era of RWBY is nothing more than bad fan-fiction, and that does put a smile on my face. Alas, I did think that Weiss would end up with Neptune's brother as a way to mock him, and given that nothing in this volume matters—and even that is uncertain—White Knight is more than likely not to be solidified, let alone consummated, by the end anyways. It seems to be played for laughs more than anything. Why would Jaune ever be allowed to be happy or successful? And Pyrrha continues to weep.

Based Ruby

I must say, as much as Ruby has become beyond insufferable these past four or five volumes, I must give her points for being based enough to mock Yellowjacket—going full Christian Bale on'em. Without a doubt she speaks for us all, as no one but lowlifes on Twitter cared about this, and her negative reaction is how everyone around Yang and Blake would and should react—and Kali weeps, for she will never have grandchildren.

What I must point out, however, is that Ruby's comments are what I expected from Sun—or one of several reactions—therefore, will he be even worse, or will he applaud them? Maybe CRWBY will make him go the Neptune route where he is already balls deep in another woman (or a man), thus making Blake's infidelity "moral". Sounds about right for them, as portraying/turning him into Gaston, when he acts like Bram Bones, is right in line with the rest of their moral relativism. So, as much as I want to like Ruby's reaction, as well as people from across the board fully turning on her and cheering for her death, I can only suspect worse things are to come. And to those who actually believed she was dead for good, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I would like to sell you.

To those who think I am being exceedingly harsh, please know that I have refused to be critical of Ruby as a character for years, mainly because of how she looks and acts like my younger sister (before Ruby went nuts, of course). I can now no longer allow my heart to hinder my mind from seeing what she has become, which all of you know, has not been reflected in my work. Just as I do not hate on Yang and Blake in my stories despite deeply hating them in the show, I extend that to Ruby. Again, all that CRWBY have done, is written awful fan-fiction, bearing no resemblance to Monty's work, and therefore I can separate them into three camps: the originals, what they became, and my versions.

Time-Travel: The Bridge Too Far

There is no greater admission of failure, and that a writer has no idea what they are doing, when they decide to introduce time-travel at, or beyond, the half-way mark. It is a confession that they have written themselves into a corner that they cannot escape from—a prison of their own making—and must break their own rules and world in order to flee. That is the usual score, but what is even more pathetic is that they are just copying the trends set by their masters, as we have seen with Disney in Avengers: Endgame, and every movie and show since from the House of Rat, Amazon, Netflix, CBS, Paramount, and HBO.

I know that this example will bother some of you, but RWBY has gone full-Naruto; something that I have said in the past, but now it is complete. Just as Kishimoto admitted to not knowing how to kill off his major villain, Uchiha Madara, and "had" to introduce a new God to deal with him, forced villains to change sides, brought characters back from the dead, "convinced" characters to join forces despite having no reason to, and retconned whatever else he needed going back to the very beginning of the story, CRWBY have mirrored him stride-for-stride in V9. If memory serves, time-travel was introduced as a new ability related to the Sharingan or some other bloodline ability as well. Then there are all the similarities in characters, immorality, plot contrivances, toxic relationships, and so forth, which we can get into another day, though Naruto did do its tournament arc better than RWBY, as well as nailing one long-awaited relationship (ShikaTema). Hilarious.

To be fully transparent on this, I actually had plans for a time-travel RWBY fic. For those of you who remember, I mentioned a project titled "FOSAD". It stood for "For Our Sons and Daughters", but was also a play-on-words with "facade", meaning "an outward appearance that is maintained to conceal a less pleasant or creditable reality". The plot of that story was that the children of the main characters from another world have come to correct the mistakes of this one, revealing that Salem and Ozma are working together to trick the world. It would have been rather offensive to all the right people, and more of a rant than an exercise in constructive criticism and creative storytelling. I even say in the introduction that I do not like time-travel stories, other than Terminator and Back to the Future, as well as a handful of other smaller examples such as Katekyo Hitman Reborn, Inuyasha, and Psyren. It has been a year since I last worked on that MS, and back in September of 2022, I came to the conclusion that it was better to scrap the story by dividing it into two new ones; one being a one-shot that tackles a major fundamental flaw about RWBY, and the second one set 18 years after the final battle, now called "Project THEA".

In short, I realized that Project FOSAD was subpar to what I usually write, and despite how much fun it would be for me, I recognized that it was juvenile, and it would be better to invest my time in other stories. CRWBY have no such shame, however, nor did they ever, hence them going full circle to retcon everything, even their own retcons, and breaking the world completely to do it.

I have said this before, and it is more than appropriate to bring it up again: one of the major reasons as to why RWBY is such a terrible show is that it does not have any rules. Whilst all stories must adhere to both real world logic and internal logic, that goes tenfold for fantasy, for it, more than any other genre, requires a strong level of suspension of disbelief, or verisimilitude. You need to convince your audience that the fantastical world you are showing them can be believed, and that is no small task. Just ask the greats like Professor J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Robert E. Howard, Llyod Alexander, Robert Jordan, and Brandon Sanderson.

CRWBY, in comparison, have done everything in their power to make RWBY completely unbelievable; not only for not writing and sticking to logic from our own world, but for not writing internal rules that make sense, and sticking with them. Every rule they have introduced, they have subsequently broken or retconned. First it would occur within a couple of volumes, then as soon as the next volume, then as soon as the next chapter, then within the very chapter they introduced this new rule or lore. This means that RWBY is neither realistic, nor believable—and that is a death sentence. No one but an unhappy few will say anything about it, and in regard to time-travel, which is the straw that has broken the back of this dead horse, it seems to be only people like me who care, and we are a critically endangered species.

Simply put, the introduction of time-travel breaks everything, and takes away any and all stakes, especially with what we saw by the end, for the obvious question is, "why not give the characters whatever they need to win?", and there being no real answer as to why not. Definitively, RWBY is over.

I now want to make the following clear as crystal: never again do I want to hear a RWBY cultist cry to me like a toddler that cannot get their way about my changes from the show, when CRWBY have made far more changes than I ever did, starting from V3 and never stopping. When you tell me that my stories are unrecognizable to the show, it is the best compliment you could give me. Why would I want for these characters to be anything like the monsters CRWBY have created? Furthermore, that is a tacit admittance that you do not re-watch the show—which you tend to do anyways—usually by misremembering the past, and quoting or citing things incorrectly. That is, of course, all by design, as CRWBY do not want you to go and re-watch the show, because if you have even two brain cells to rub together, not only you would realize the numerous amounts of changes they have made, but how nonsensical they all are. Think for a moment and try taking the new information we have been given, everything from character back-stories to lore, and drop it into the older volumes, and tell me that it all fits perfectly. I dare you.

And yet, in spite of that, I know that the community loves what has happened in V9—either because they got Yellowjacket and nothing else matters, or they are just that mindless and loyal. I know Orthodox Christians and Jews that are nowhere near this dogmatic.

Since I know that what I have said will draw ire, though by merely writing any fan-fic that does not affirm the RWBY community's beliefs, regardless if I voice my thoughts and opinions in note form or not, RWBY cultists will lash out at me, so I will just be myself. Enjoy your Pyrrhic victory, your fan-fiction, and your porn. I will keep doing what I do, and any personal attacks will be returned in kind.

I must confess that I have imagined (more than once) how fun it would be to stand on a stage with CRWBY and grill them about all of this and more, though now I wonder if it would even be productive. I can only see them throwing me out of the convention if I were to hit even one of the million hot-button topics, but it would be pointless not to ask some hard questions for once. Would they even answer my questions honestly, even though they have nothing to lose at this point? I would love to ask Michael Jones of what he thinks of the humiliation of his character, yet I know he would never speak candidly with me. If he did, he would be canceled as a homophobe, and given that his wife is Ruby's VA, despite the fact that she is no longer the main character, he would remain mum, or lie. Perhaps when this nightmare is all over, and they have nothing to gain or lose, given RT's inevitable collapse, they will speak truthfully; though who will still care, I wonder?

I have said it before and I will say it even louder now: CRWBY's hijacking of RWBY is nothing more than your average fan-fiction from an unstable teenager, and no sane person can deny it any longer. From crack-ships, to plot-holes, to OOC, to Mary/Gary Sues, to breaking of lore, to Death of the Author, to relationships portrayed by people who have never been with someone, to the plot not mattering—only the shipping, to erratic release schedules, to time-travel, to admissions of not knowing where to go with the story, and my favourite tenant, that the "fan" in "fan-fiction" is never there, given how little respect the writers have for the original fiction that they are writing their stories from, RWBY is just like every other fic on this website, and others like it.

The bottom of the barrel has been scraped so many times that CRWBY have dug a grave for it—one foot for every volume removed from Monty. What a new low.

So, What was the Point?

What is most insane about all of this—and that is saying something—is that this entire volume is filler, something that CRWBY admitted to, and was apparently known to everyone except me. The reason why this is mindboggling to me is that one of the major fundamental problems with RWBY is its runtime. RWBY is a fantasy epic—or was meant to be—yet it never takes the time to explain anything or develop its world and characters. It is precisely why my chapters are so bloody long, for not only am I having to address the problems that have persisted for the past decade, but to install my corrections and new ideas. It is also why I get very salty when some people refer to scenes in my stories as fluff, as if they had no importance to the plot, when I wrote them specifically to develop the characters. That stuff depresses me.

What has made things worse for RWBY, is that even when they increase the number of episodes or increase the runtime, they constantly insert genuine fluff and nonsense to pad it, rather than using the time allotted to world and character build. This has happened again and again for years, and I am beside myself at how they never change. Vital content and information about the world is left out to be used in YouTube playlists that no one watches, as well as in books and comic books that no one reads, leaving CRWBY to inject breaks from the plot to do whatever it is they wish to push, hence why when they said that V9 is the "plot taking a break", I guffawed. When have you not taken a break from the plot, exactly? Then there is the issue of the timeline being terribly managed and imprecise, with nine months between V1 and 3 being poorly utilized, and V7 and 8 occurring over only a few days, yet being both rushed and slow at the same time—just like Naruto. Remember, it is not just the length you need to consider, you also have to consider girth. Also, please do not forget that the White Fang-Faunus nonsense took up 50% of the show's runtime and "plot"; the same nonsense that Miles Luna himself admitted was bad, and both he and Shawcross admitted the Faunus as a race were poorly executed.

And here is the kicker: despite having this time-travel "Get Out of Jail Free" card, they did not bother to fix the major problems from V7 and 8—even the easy ones—or the problems that have plagued the series for years and years. Give the characters new and better weapons and gear? Nope. Fix the awful V7 redesigns? Nope. Use the time to train everyone up to standard, given how behind they all are? Maybe for Ren, Nora, and Oscar, but not for Team RWBY and Jaune, and I fear what will be revealed.

This, of course, raises major questions regarding what has happened during the time-skip, such as why has the world not been destroyed given what Salem has at her disposal, as well as the strongest Kingdom, Atlas, being in ruin and unable to provide support, not to mention the Schnee Dust company being unable to provide Dust. Then again, if CRWBY actually cared about their own lore, then they would never have done this. They have now gone all the way, and with no one to check them—neither the community nor the critics—they can just make any change off-screen between the volumes, or right away at the start. Will they make the right ones given they have that freedom from the standards of their betters? Not on your life.

And yet, even if they did do the right things, albeit in the most cockamamie way possible, they would not be able to—if this really is filler. The Oxford dictionary says that filler is, "an item serving only to fill space or time in a newspaper, broadcast, or recording". This has, of course, evolved regarding TV shows, with filler meaning, "as the name implies, 'fills' an episode with non-canonical material which has been written usually by the same company which animates it". This is in reference to Anime, and whilst I would no longer classify RWBY as an Anime, it nevertheless works perfectly, given the pointlessness of it all. In my opinion, the only filler that matters is the tripa, the filler tobacco leafs that give a cigar its profile, flavours, and aroma.

To reiterate, this volume introduced the One True God, a new dimension/world/afterlife, pre-determinism, established the Yellowjacket crack-ship, aged Jaune by at least 30 years, maybe have put him into a relationship with Weiss, and introduced time-travel. If this IS filler, then none of this will be the case at the start of V10, or does CRWBY actually not know the definition?

I believe it is the latter, because as Shawcross admitted, "It's gonna be a low point and it was gonna be a lot. I think we all kind of felt, like, let's, let's take a little bit of a breather, you know, and, and do something different".

It was about them feeling like the show was too sad—the show has been depressing since half-way through V3—and because they thought you would be too sad by it, they wanted to take a break and have "fun". I have no idea how you can consider what happened in V9 uplifting, but what it does explain is that CRWBY are children. They cannot handle what it is they are doing, so they had to literally hit the brakes. Then there is that last part, "do something different". Oh, you did something different alright, as in it is the same shit but with a different smell—but only just. I take this as a tacit admittance that they are done with RWBY, and would rather be working on Gen:Lock, or any other project. Given how lazy this volume was, I am convinced of that.

This compounds with the previous comments he and Rivas made with V8 that the rules do not matter and that the show is dumb. Who cares? It's just a silly show. We can do whatever we want. That is the takeaway that all of you should muse over. CRWBY does not care. And if they do not care, why should you?

Here is something to consider regarding CRWBY's flippant disregard to lore and genre. Fantasy takes time to write, as well as tell, and it cannot be confined the way it has been in RWBY. You need years of planning before going into it, and if you rush it, it falls like a house of cards. It requires a great deal of passion and commitment, hence why it is not easy to write—I think it is the hardest genre, in all honesty. Just compare The Lord of the Rings and The Wheel of Time to A Song of Ice and Fire. The first two were made by people (Professor Tolkien and Robert Jordan) who adored fantasy, storytelling, and their work, whereas Martin stopped caring years ago, openly says he does not care if he dies before his last two books are completed, and regularly attacks his own fans. Remember, Martin is the only LotR "fan" to ask about King Aragorn's tax policies, rather than thinking upon the never-ending struggle of good against evil. CRWBY have become the latter—or always were, plus most of them loved Season 8 of GoT—and even with a two-year hiatus, cannot do anything but create nonsense and destroy what little goodness remains of this series. It is pathetic and dishonourable to say the least.

The fact that they can waste all this time and resources makes me want to believe that CRWBY know where Warner Bros buried the bodies. Remember, this was over two years in the making, and I legitimately thought it was the final volume. And yet, was it really filler? Yellowjacket in filler? Retconning your religion and origin of Remnant again in filler? And are we actually getting V10, even though I was told they got rid of all of their animators and the voice cast was openly fighting amongst themselves and attacking the company? What in the name of God? Either they are lying or they are stupid. Probably both.

If I were to put money on it, I think Yellowjacket was the real point of V9, as a type of insurance if V10 does not get green-lit; Warner Brother's may not want the backlash of canceling a "pro" LGBT show right after making Yellowjacket "canon", thus forcing them to give them the final volume, or that Yellowjacket is all that matters, so that was their top (or only) priority. Again, probably both. That said, there are so few people that know RWBY even exists, let alone cares, that Warner could easily get rid of it without even a whimper, let alone a bang.

To end this segment on a story, I was driving to work the other day, and it was raining, and I saw on the curb a broken upright piano of some kind, waiting to be picked up and taken to the dump. My immediate thought was, "That is the perfect metaphor to RWBY". This show is a badly maintained musical instrument, that in the hands of a skillful musician, they could make exquisite music with it. I am not saying that I am that musician, but I know when an instrument is out of tune, when it is being played poorly, and I know when its owner does not value it, which tends to happen when you get something without having paid for it with your own money. Can it be salvaged and repaired into its former glory? Possibly, but you have to have the time, the skill, and the passion to do it.

That said, I cannot say that I am angry exactly. Yes, in the moment, the things that I see awaken the love that I have for RWBY, and I curse CRWBY for their audacity, but it quickly fades. The only things that get to me is the fear that they will touch on elements that I thought of and planned out years ago, but because of my lack of passion to write and my laziness, they got to them first and did them poorly. Without spoiling anything, they did indeed get to themes, subjects, and plot-holes that I wanted to, and whilst that rubs my fur the wrong way, for it convinces me that when I get to them in my stories, people will think I am just copying CRWBY, I will do them anyways. It will shame CRWBY in any event, as well as entertain my readers, and that is what matters.

While there is so much more to say about V9, I have wasted enough time as it is. Honestly, spending weeks to write and edit my thoughts on it was time I could have used in writing the story and even relaxing for a bit, but given the number of people asking me questions about it, I knew I had to. That said, I would like to avoid doing it this way again. I can only pray that either V10 is a long way off, or that the show gets cancelled. I still think CRWBY have dirt on someone, though what gives me some hope is that Warner Bros have completely squandered what little goodwill they scraped back, and projections of their financial stability look bleaker by the day. Alas, I have been proven wrong before, and all we can do is wait. I will stick to my story predictions, as the ones that could happen, did, and the rest are ready to happen, as well as some new and ghastly ones that have since entered my mind. God help us all.

Plans Going Forward

Given everything that has transpired, I should provide better clarity to what I plan to do. I now hope to get more chapters out as I complete Book II of JADA, whilst shouldering the shame and consequences of whatever plot inconsistencies arise from doing so without a completed full draft. I am not thrilled by this, as I actually care about continuity, whereas CRWBY do not, but I feel as if I have no choice, thus leaving me the only option but to update the published chapters accordingly. Whilst there is no guarantee that V10 will even come out given Warner's continuous tail-spinning, as well as the current economy, we live in a sad state of affairs where anything can happen—though the recent writer's strike might just tip things in our favour. Even the accusations of being homophobic that would come for cancelling a "pro-alphabet" show so close/during Pride Month may not be enough to spare RWBY from the ax. And since I would continue to write, regardless of what CRWBY do—it would probably drive me forward in all honesty—I can only move forward.

Since I cannot show you on FFN (though I can on Ao3), JADA's MS is currently at 284,180 words, which, in reality, is far below where I wanted it to be by this point, with even the tolerable 350k mark being months away. I wish there was a way to prove that everything has been planned from beginning to end, merely requiring me to put it to paper, but any attempts to do so would spoil everything. If DDCT was proof that I know what I am doing, then please extend that good will to JADA.

With that said, thanks to the foul baboonery of CRWBY's recent actions, it has ignited a fire in my heart. I have since returned to my BlackSun one-shot and wrote over 11,000 words, written over 7500 words of new notes for DDCT, completed another chapter of JADA (not including the preparation of this chapter), and have begun writing an essay about Jaune Arc, consisting of 12 chapters, and possibly more. Since I have at last found the missing piece of the puzzle as to why Jaune is so hated by CRWBY and the community, as well as doing research on Jeanne d'Arc herself, I felt that it was time. When that one will be released, and where, remains to be seen.

Nevertheless, I have a lot planned for all of you, and I am now more motivated than ever to complete them. Project THEA is one I would love start working on immediately, as there you can see my completed versions of the cast, and what they do with their lives after their victory over Salem, but in admitting that, you now know it has to come at the end of my planned RWBY projects. Forgive my laziness, but bear in mind, whereas CRWBY are paid to be this lazy, I work full time and do this as a hobby.

There are a number of mottos that I follow when writing RWBY fics, the main one being "Quod me destruit me nutrit (what destroys me nourishes me)", in that the degeneracy and impudence of CRWBY, though breaks me, fuels my passions to write. However, there is also this one: "In the absence of passion, vitriol is an entirely viable substitute".

That one very much lines up with my mission as of late, and if CRWBY can do what they do whilst being vitriolic to the nines, so can I; and why stop at nine when I can go for ten?

I apologize once again for how long it took to release this chapter, for there have been many things that have been going on outside of the V9 nonsense, as well as for ranting to the point it was not long in the tooth, but long in the tusk. I actually went on for far longer, but I cut it out, and will be releasing it as its own chapter, for I was made aware of a video by CRWBY themselves that reveals why V9 was such a disaster. I could not stop myself from going through it, and it was only after consulting with my editors, beta readers, and a few of my regulars, I was outvoted 2:1 to cut the extra commentary. You can either check it out, as I go over how CRWBY admitted they have given up with RWBY, not to mention that they have no idea how fairy tales and fantasy work, or skip it for the real Chapter IV. In that chapter, we will be returning to Jaune's story, and it is a chapter I have wanted to get to for a long, long time.

Finally, I would like to know your thoughts on the state of RWBY, not only in reviews and PMs, but in raw data. There is a poll at the top of my profile where you can vote on whether you consider what CRWBY have done is canonical or not. Private conversations, as well as this latest volume, have truly made me curious, so why not use this often forgotten feature?

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, in spite of my monologuing, and I will see you next time. Happy belated Memorial Day.