RWBY RE:colored

by Royal-Harmonica

This is a re-imagination of the story of RWBY given as a pitch, a review, and a scene-by-scene style of writing. It's purpose is merely to adapt the series into a more cohesive and simple series for teenage and mature audiences. If you're not a nerd, your cringe discretion is advised. I post primarily on AO3, so this might be not be up to date.

5. Volume III (The Great Army of Steel)

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VOLUME III

I'm not sure if this volume will be good in terms of volume narrative, but the standalone stories are at their peak here. We will now introduce characters who are undeniably crucial to the story, including our main antagonist for the entire series. Stories and episodes will get their description increasingly more summarized, but a lot more stuff will have to be described, since now we're starting to thread new grounds. I have to admit that I'm not even remotely as competent as Celtic Phoenix is at his rewrite of the series. He's the kind of guy that I would trust to write the small things. For now let's just get on with it with episode one.

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Volume III starts a little more than a month after the end of volume II. It begins on an awful rainy and dark night, as we accompany a man in a red cloak entering the city, and getting soaked really fast. He's humming a song to himself as we watch him walk. Cars are passing fast by the road, and street lights poorly show the way ahead. The song he's humming slowly turns into an actual soundtrack, overpowering the rain as intrumental backing becomes louder. The man starts to sing, and soon his voice is joined by a female vocal. He seemed happy in that short moment.

Eventually, he catches a glimpse of something in the newspaper box. He pulls one out, and there he sees it, clear as day… Team RWBY. The four girls were in the front page, with a bunch of other Huntsmen. The news tells about how the day was saved from a terrorist attack by the efforts of Huntsmen, and how the council demands for them to be more involved with public safety now. Tensions abroad escalate as Atlas launches "the artificial army".

Right then, the camera focuses on Ruby's face. She was smiling despite bleeding from her forehead and looking obviously beaten. She and her friends look happy, but her smile made the man distraught. Upon seeing her, his fantasy is broken. The music ends, and he's thrown back to a disgusting and dark rainy night — completely alone. He pulls out his hood, and we see Qrow for the first time. He looks up to the clouds with a sad expression, and the newspaper slowly turns to mush in his hand due to the rain. Cut to black, and the new opening for the third volume.

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Not wasting a single second, we go straight to an action scene.

Team JNPR is fighting team CRDL. Jaune, Nora and then Ren get thrown off the arena thanks to CRDL team coordination. But as they try to all attack Pyrrha together, she somehow finds enough footing to fight all four of them on her own. The others get back up and the fight continues, as Cardin gets more blood thirsty to fight and beat the newly-titled "invincible girl" Pyrrha.

As for team RWBY, they have the job of running away from team CFVY while protecting a ragdoll dummy to simulate a rescue. They are being chased around until they decide to leave the danger room and go outside, a decision that Glynda praises them for. In her dialogue with Miss Lucy (who was just watching), she explains how the new laws being implemented will likely involve them fighting enemies like Roman Torchwick or the White Fang, so she feels compelled to train them to fight human opponents more. Not to mention, Ozpin intends to hold a Vytal festival tournament with Haven at the beginning of next year.

Glynda shouts at them, "You all still have a long way to go, you have no right to be tired yet!"

The action scene continues outside on the castle rooftops, as Yang, Weiss and Blake are tossed off, putting the entire team CFVY on Ruby's back. We get a long parkour sequence, but eventually she's cornered, and it looks like her team will fail the test once again. As the four are about to close in, just then, a silhouette falls down from above right in front of Ruby, shaking the ground.

It's Qrow. We get an amazing shot of him turning back to Ruby with a smile, which in turn makes her smile widely as well. He says, "hey kid."

The action scene is not over. Team CFVY instantly recognizes Qrow, calling him a professor. He also knows the kids by name, and demands to see if they got any stronger since last time he was around. And so, the entire team CFVY jumps in to get Qrow, all at once. We can get a pretty good showing of his abilities by the fact he doesn't even draw his sword to kick the ass of team CFVY, who so far have never lost or struggled against any opponents on screen. He goes full on fists and dodges, taking no hits as he quickly warms up. Though team CFVY was really excited for a rematch, it turns out they still can't beat him.

We cut to the danger room, as suddenly Yatsuhashi gets sent crashing through the wall, with Qrow following right behind. Once inside, Qrow says hello to all the new faces this year. He was truly surprised how many signed up this time. He started attacking team CRDL and JNPR without a warning, and they were forced to defend themselves. They stood no chance at all, just like team CFVY — this time Qrow draws his giant buster sword, of which he can hold to perfect precision and dexterity with just a single hand. With everyone on the ground, and team RWBY coming back to the danger room one by one, Glynda then presents everyone to Qrow Branwen, their honorary combat teacher for the next month.

Immediately Qrow and Glynda's subtle rivalry is made obvious by the dialogue, as Qrow wonders if she's still got what it takes to be number two. Before they can fight, Ruby jumps on Qrow's arm and we get essentially the same scene as volume three of the original. This simple interaction tells enough about Qrow's personality.

"Did you miss me? Did you miss me?!" Ruby asks.

"… nope." Qrow replies, patting her head.

Without any kind of personal introduction, he announces to everyone what will be their test for the following week. The three teams have to defeat Qrow in a battle. It doesn't matter when or where, they just gotta put him on his knees. They can attack all at once if they want, but if none of the new teams manage to beat him, then they will all fail the class and will be kicked out of Beacon. Though everyone thinks he's kidding, Glynda explains that Qrow does have the authority to do so if he thinks they are incapable of becoming Huntsmen. And so the games are on. Qrow asks Glynda if Ozpin is around, begging that she tell him as soon as she finds him.

...

The following episode follows Qrow as he literally crashes into team RWBY's HQ for most of the entire week. These sections are mostly about him either telling the girls new stories from his missions (the waitress in the bar one), or simply playing video games. Weiss is naturally the one most bothered by the huge creep lurking in a girls-only room. Qrow nicknames her "Princess" and nicknames Blake as "Kitty", which visibly annoys her every time he says it. These scenes showcase his personality, along with Qrow and Ruby's relationships, demonstrating how the two completely regress in maturity when next to one another. The reason he's been away for so long is that his missions are always really hard — he only receives confidential S-rank missions that are given only to the best of the best, and he pridefully boasts about it.

One very important scene here is Ruby calling out Qrow for lying to her. Long ago he said Ruby could only join the academy when she was as old as Yang, but then Ozpin found her one night and told her the truth. It's very important to make clear that Qrow was the one who sold this lie to Ruby, of which does not exist at all. The reason will be clear in the future, if it isn't already. For now he plays dumb and pretends that it is news for him too.

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The other half of the episode focuses on two attempts at murdering Qrow over the course of the week. Team JNPR corners him early in the morning, in a fight scene at the castle's corridors. Qrow wins by mostly using his speed to overwhealm them, but he compliments Jaune's encirclement strategy. However, Qrow is not as stupid as a Grimm. He needs to update his strategy pool if he wants to remain relevant. Jaune takes that as a lesson, thanking Qrow.

As for team CRDL, they simply corner Qrow as he went to piss in the bathroom. It's a barehanded fight scene in a closed space to negate his speed advantage. The bathroom was completely destroyed by the end, and Qrow absolutely wrecked their shit. Cardin does manage to deliver a strong punch to Qrow's face that takes him back a step, but that's it. Though they lost, he liked their style, and immediately ordered them to clean everything up.

The final fight comes on the final day of the week.

After hanging out with her uncle all this time, Ruby figured it was their turn — it is inevitable. She draws Qrow to the red forest and soon Weiss, Blake and Yang appear — not hiding at all their intentions. Qrow draws his sword menacingly, causing a fucking gust of wind as he swings it to the floor. In all their time training, Ruby has yet made a single scratch on her old master. He wants to see if that changed at all for the past seven months at Beacon. Now, it might be early to blow my load on this, but I have no other memorable moment for a high-budget fight in this volume. I really want RWBY vs Qrow to be the best fight in this volume, but making it center piece on the first episode will automatically cripple expectations for the rest of the volume. But alas, Qrow vs RWBY is the high-budget fight of this volume. No idea how it happens though, but one thing to point out is that this is the first time Ruby turns her scythe into red sword mode, just to match Qrow at his game. And so, it begins.

The thing that makes Qrow so strong and famous among Huntsmen is his completely reckless fighting style — titled, the drunken swordsman. He remains so open and so close that both him and the opponent are always at maximum risk. He really tests how willing the girls are to get hurt in a fight, but still keep on going. With one last team effort, team RWBY will use a signature team technique to defeat Qrow in one last decisive strike. Blake fires her grappling cord to Yang, and they form a slingshot for Weiss to shoot Ruby with an insane level of speed — impossible to dodge. Ruby spins around to get even more speed, delivering a spinning slash attack that creates a shockwave once Qrow blocks it. The sound of metal clashing echoes all around the red forest. Red leaves go flying everywhere by the wind, and so Ruby is launched away by the force of impact.

After the dust settles, it's clear that they didn't really defeat Qrow. But once he opens his eyes again, he clearly sees himself on his knee. He was forced down by the combined strike of team RWBY. They called this ultimate move "Hidden Gem". They are breathing heavily, and silently waiting for Qrow's decision. In the end… he smiles.

Class 144th officially succeeded on the Qrow test.

Suddenly, team JNPR and CRDL appear from the forest around them to celebrate. They were just waiting for a sneak attack in case team RWBY failed. Qrow congratulates Ruby for all she accomplished while he was away — it looks like she found more people to call family, just like he did. If they stay together, even he won't be able to match her soon enough. At the end of that day, Glynda finds Qrow and tells that Ozpin has arrived. Qrow tells everyone to go rest for the day, and goes to his meeting.

...

We cut to Ozpin's office as he prepares a cup of tea after a long day. He turns his chair around to look at the night sky full of stars from his glass wall. But then he sees ripples in his tea, and turns around to see… Qrow. He was squatting on top of his desk, holding on the big sword in his back. The look in his eyes was of blank anger — his eyes were bloodshot. Ozpin smiles, glad to see Qrow after so long, and notes the smell of booze coming from him. Without saying any words, Qrow makes his intentions very clear. Ozpin welcomes him to blow some steam outside, and so Qrow's swing his sword towards Ozpin with insane speed.

We cut away to team RWBY's HQ, as they hear glass shattering somewhere. They look out through their window, and see it was Ozpin's office window that got wrecked. Not only that, but they feel a terrible pressure coming from two Auras outside, enough to make them paralyzed. They see two silhouettes fighting on the rooftops at a speed too great to be followed. All teams grab their weapons and leave the rooms in pajamas to see what was happening, only to meet with Glynda in the corridor. She tells them nothing is wrong, and that they need to go back to sleep. It was ominous, but they did as she ordered. Even so, they couldn't sleep. This pressure is too great for any of them to ignore.

...

Eventually, when the short battle is done, Glynda levitates through the window and into the rooftop. She finds Ozpin and Qrow sitting by a chimney. Both looked battle worn and tired, with a few sections of their clothes destroyed. Ozpin had a small slit in his cheek while Qrow was tying up a big wound in his own leg. Ozpin tells Glynda they got everything sorted out, and so she leaves while sighing in frustration. In inner dialogue, Glynda admits that she knew this would happen. The second she saw that Ruby Rose would join the academy this year, it was only matter of time before Qrow found out.

The two warriors sat there in silence for a moment, until Qrow asked, "Why? Why her?... You knew I wouldn't want this, and you went and did it anyway, you son of a bitch… Ruby's just… she's just a kid… I wanted to keep her away from this!"

"You know… I always wondered what happened to Summer Rose that year, eighteen years ago when she simply took a long break for no apparent reason. To think she had a baby and never even told me. It even seems that everyone was in some kind of ploy to make sure I never found out. May I ask why that is?" Ozpin asked.

"It was none of your goddamn business! Summer was not your soldier, or your savior, or your last chance, and neither is Ruby! I don't care about your reasons, Ruby didn't have to do this… she didn't have to fight!" Qrow replied, getting mad to the point he was ready to try and kill Ozpin a second time.

"Did you have any luck convincing her otherwise? Clearly not, you even trained her yourself." Ozpin said.

"I couldn't leave her defenseless!" Qrow shouted.

"The girl is special, Qrow… She's strong, talented, and so full of life. She loves all of this so much, she truly believes this is her destiny. I admit it was selfish of me, but now the best thing I can do is prepare her for what will inevitably come next… And I promise you, as long as I'm alive, I'll do anything I can to protect her, and everyone else. That will never change." Ozpin says.

Qrow grabs his sword and slowly walks off with a limp. "As if you were ever good at that." He says. With that, the first episode ends.

Commentary (spoilers): The episode might be a little too long despite not even introducing the true plot of the volume, so we might have to break it down to two. Qrow's introduction as a character is a very important part, not only because we're betting on him to be a fan favorite character, but he's also critically important to Ruby's story, and the series in general. He's the character we heard so much about and have so much expectation towards. It's only natural that his introduction needs to be as thematically powerful as possible. The third strongest Huntsmen in Vale; Ruby's uncle who taught her everything she knows; the Hydra killer; the wandering demon of the west — we used so many names and titles from him thus far. His first scene is just a cool and mysterious intro, but once we get a true understanding of Qrow's character in future volumes, this becomes tragic and downright depressing. By here we also had to showcase team RWBY's gains from their training and the growth of their friendship, seen by their impressive synergy when fighting Qrow and their new ultimate move. Hidden Gem is their iconic team technique — the one they performed in the original Nevermore fight. I probably won't mention it, but I would like to have several instances of them using duo combos or trio combos when they fight enemies now. Anyway, let's cover more plot.

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The main plot of this volume is the visit of Atlas in Vale. In midst of the political discussion between Vale and Atlas, General Ironwood, the leader of the military forces of Atlas and surrogate headmaster of their special forces program (the academy), asked Ozpin for the opportunity to make an amicable visit. Upon receiving the message, Ozpin tries his best to get his dumbass students and drunk combat teacher at the best possible behavior before Ironwood's arrival. At first there's this huge menacing idea brewing in all the students' heads that Ironwood was probably a hardass stereotype of a general, and if they offend him in any way they might cause a war. It's enough to scare Ruby and Jaune despite being ridiculous.

The actual arrival happens later that day, as the girls spot a giant fucking iron behemoth flying towards the castle, with white energy waves coming out of the bottom.

That was Ironwood's dreadnought.

It was almost as big as Beacon castle — it wasn't a masterpiece of design, but the sheer amount of technology coming from it (also its ability to fly) makes an immediate statement about the nation of Atlas. They are really damn pompous. The dreadnought finds a place to land right in front of the castle by the cliff side, instantly putting the castle and the ship face to face. The front hatch opens, extending a walkway down to the ground. Soldiers come running out and get in formation, at the same time Ozpin makes way to the ship with everyone on the castle watching behind him. Finally, Ironwood starts walking down with hands behind his back, towering over Ozpin as they approach. He wasn't that old though — looked more or less like Qrow and Glynda's age. From their introduction, it is made very clear that Ironwood is a clear-minded and chill person, with a flair of charisma that Ozpin wasn't expecting. However, the woman behind him (Winter) truly incorporates the stereotype everyone was expecting. She demanded that Ironwood ceases with his pleasantries while they are on a timer. With that, Ironwood goes ahead into the castle with everyone's eyes on him, and he even spares a glance to team RWBY. Qrow is the only one there to say anything, calling him "Jimmy" all the way from the back. Ruby realizes that Weiss had disappeared from their group, and we cut to see her hiding away from view, fearing the lady who was walking behind Ironwood.

Instead of focusing on that, we suddenly cut to something completely different. We change to this strange girl's perspective in the middle of Vale City, as she seems really excited to see some place other than Atlas city. She walks around, goes into stores, the park, and generally we get a good feeling that this girl ain't normal at all. She introduces herself as Penny to every person, stray cat, dog and bug she meets on the way. She's trying to be friends with everyone, but mostly fails for not understanding basic social situations.

After a few skits of this girl, we go back to Ironwood and Ozpin in the headmaster office.

Their conversation continues to be an aimless chit-chat of compliments, until Ozpin demands to know the real reason for his visit. Ironwood goes ahead and declares his hopes to make relations with Vale a little bit better, and make a better alliance with the Huntsmen Guild. Ironwood realizes that most people around the world believe that Atlas will cause a war over territory, and he was hoping to change that bad image. It wasn't an unjustified fear, however. After all, they are the only nation with an army aside from the police force; the only nation prioritizing the dominion over resources instead of trading; and the only nation that forces their warriors to join the military. Ozpin says that Huntsmen have a higher purpose — a true purpose in this world with their powers. They should not be bound by lesser men with selfish desires while Grimm are on the loose. Ironwood has no answers to that, he just stares at Ozpin silently.

Suddenly the office door is kicked opened by Ironwood's lady lieutenant. She had urgent news.

She says that the subject P2 had infiltrated the dreadnought before their departure. Ironwood's eyes open wide, "What?!" he shouts. Ozpin has no idea what this means. The lady suspects that this "subject" probably fled to the city upon arrival. Ironwood immediately told to dispatch all available units to find her, but then Ozpin intervened. His army won't be accepted hounding the streets of another nation. Instead, Ozpin has some people to help him.

And so, all the students are given a D-rank mission at once. This subject P2 (or Penny, as she rather be called) was actually some ginger girl, and they had the job to escort her back to the castle unharmed. All of them split up through the city's rooftops. We get this small montage of all the character searching for Penny, all the while we keep cutting to her, and she's just having fun in the city. After all her shenanigans, the one who actually finds her is Ruby. They literally bump into each other as they turn the street corner, falling in the ground. "Salutations!" Penny says as if nothing happened.

Penny also tries to befriend her, but once Ruby explains her mission… Penny runs away. Not just runs away, she runs really fucking fast. Ruby immediately understands that this girl has her Aura awakened, and runs after her. What follows is a cool chase scene, just like many we've seen so far (just now I realized I worked a lot of chase scenes in RWBY RE:colored for no reason). Eventually Ruby catches Penny with her speed… so Penny starts flying instead. Bursts of white energy blast from her boots like rockets, and she starts flying randomly through the sky as Ruby holds onto her. It was really random and messy, so eventually the two crash down through a warehouse rooftop, ending their chase on the docks.

It looked like Penny would just run away again, but then Ruby said the magic words, "please wait, I'm not gonna hurt you, I'm a friend!"

The prospect of making a friend immediately draws Penny back, what we foreshadowed in all her scenes. She seemed really happy all of the sudden — Penny wants to do a bunch of stereotypical girl things with Ruby, since she doesn't even know what friends are supposed to do yet. Ruby promises they can do all those things later, as long as Penny follows her back to the castle. Now we learn why Penny ran away from Atlas.

She always wanted to see the world outside of her nation, but was never allowed by her "parents". What truly drove her out was something she called "the inspection". They do that to her every month. They strap her to a table to dissect her body, and it hurts really bad every time. She tells them that she doesn't like it, but they ignore her pain. Penny begs Ruby to not take her back — she doesn't want to go through that anymore. Penny seemed genuinely scared and hurt just from thinking about it, and it made Ruby question what she should do. What does Atlas want with her?

In the end Ruby makes a very dangerous decision. We cut to Tai in his house, making his own lunch, when suddenly Ruby barges in with Penny. She doesn't explain shit at all, but begs that Penny stays in her room just for a day or two. Tai is a simple soul, so he's like, "alright, Ruby, but if daddy gets arrested, you know whose fault it is." Ruby gives her number to Penny and tells to keep in contact. She's gonna try to do something about her situation. Maybe they can convince her parents to let her stay.

...

That afternoon all the teams had returned to Beacon, but none found Penny. Though they heard reports of the girl going all around the city and even flying through the air, they couldn't find her. Ruby did, but lied to Ironwood that Penny escaped. She explains that in their short conversation, Penny was in fear of some sort of inspection, and she didn't want to go back to Atlas anymore. Maybe if those inspections stop, she will feel compelled to return... or something.

That leaves Ironwood lost in thought. He thanks everyone for the help, but this is an Atlas issue now. He got permission from the Vale council to let the soldiers search the city. With everyone dismissed, and Penny sending Ruby about 999+ messages, the episode ends.

Commentary (spoilers): Penny and Ruby is merely one of the three plots that spawn from Atlas' visit. In the original, Penny had this vibe of a caged bird in almost every scene she is in, and I wanted to enhance that. Penny's fear of Atlas is the only way I could find to separate her, since being alone will shine through the most important aspect of her character — that being her strangeness to the world. Penny will still regularly leave Tai's house to explore the city more despite having the army on her tail now, and we can depict that in minisodes. One that I make sure to make is a minisode about Tai growing increasingly frustrated that Penny isn't a normal girl. She doesn't eat, she doesn't go to the bathroom, she never needs anything from him, and it makes him feel incompetent, like he lost his way of being a father in just six months apart from his children. Before I depict the conclusion of this plotline, I wanna talk about the other plotlines in this volume. They may as well come first in order.

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The sister's clash needs to happen.

I don't have it all planned out, but it is not so complicated as to need through planning. One day team RWBY was just walking through the castle's corridors, complaining that they can't leave the castle anymore after all that happened in volume II. Just then, they spot Ironwood's right-hand lady coming their way from the other end of the hall. Weiss immediately looks down nervously. Once in front of each other, the two stop, and the girls realize how similar the two are. And so Weiss says, "Sister…"

That woman was Winter Schnee. She was Weiss' older sister, and Ironwood's Major Lieutenant. The girls react in loud shock from the news. Winter stares daggers into each of them, even more so at Blake and her ears. They all looked and smelled like a bunch of hoodlums. She assumes this pathetic bundle is the little team she made in this pitiful place. Ruby was so glad to meet Winter, but she was immediately put down by her words. Winter warns Weiss against surrounding herself with fools — they will only make her weak and dependent. But maybe it doesn't matter. After all, this is what Weiss wanted.

Without even sparing a glance, Winter goes to leave. But at the last second, Weiss musters up courage from spite and shouts out:

"What did you say?!"

Now she turns around and looks her sister in the eyes. Weiss set her foot down — she wouldn't accept her or her team being shit talked like that. She challenged Winter for a duel, promising to destroy her with all the skills and strength she developed here, in the nation she hates so much. Winter calmly accepts, and the two walk in different directions.

This plot would actually be a two part episode, first focusing on Weiss training, some flashbacks, and the other one would focus solely on the fight. Ruby and Blake go on to help her train for the duel, each having their own brand of sword style that Weiss will come to utilize in her fight. Blake has a ninjutsu style that utilizes movement of the body more than the sword, and Ruby uses the same risky style as Qrow while using Crescent Rose in sword mode. While in training, Weiss gets progressively more nervous and angry, and it's ultimately Yang who helps her deal with stress. And on that role, she gets to be the one that Weiss tells most of her story to.

Weiss's flashbacks are also important to the first-part episode, as we get context to the two sister's relationships, and why Winter can be so cold and ruthless. Basically, she considered Weiss leaving Atlas as a betrayal of her whole history, as Atlas is the country that their grandfather fought for — the nation that gave their family wealth and all the pleasantries that Weiss was surrounded by since birth. She wanted Weiss to become a soldier but she refused, and ultimately the two clashed their swords in a duel two years ago. An inexperienced Weiss was defeated, but that wasn't the worst part. In a sudden move of anger, Winter ended up giving Weiss's iconic eye scar. That slash that almost blinded Weiss was the crux of their families destruction, and they hadn't talked ever since.

Two years later, now at 17 years old, Weiss wants to try again. Defeating Winter will be the ultimate proof that she wasn't wrong coming to Beacon. A proof of her growth. After huge preparation in the first episode, the duel takes place in the next one. It's literally all that happens, aside from some closure at the end.

...

Swords at dawn, and no Semblance. The fight took place at the intersection between Beacon castle and the stationed dreadnought, which is thematically perfect. Before and after the fight, we will continue to be bombarded with small flashbacks of the two sisters playing and talking in the past — from their golden days all the way to their grandfather's funeral. Nikolas died when Weiss was 10 years old and Winter was 15. Kid Weiss had locked herself in her room to mourn for several days, and each day Winter would come by the door and ask if she was alright. Those are the last good moments the two sisters ever shared. Soon after, Winter joined the army and left home.

As the fight goes on, we also see small flashes of their previous duel two years ago, put right next to the actual fight in order to contrast improvements that Weiss had made compared to last time. Music starts badass and exciting, but by the end it's just sad, as we begin to understand the tragic tale of how those two adorable sisters grew to hate each other.

Eventually, Weiss comes to use the styles taught by her friends, and the sudden shift was enough to surprise Winter during the duel. The true and decisive moment of the fight comes when, after all her efforts and damage taken over the fight, Weiss fights through the pain to get the upper hand one final time through sheer guts. She's able to sway Winter's guard for a single second, and has Winter at her mercy. She has the opportunity to inflict the same kind of harrowing scar that Winter made to her face…

But she doesn't.

At that moment, she and Winter exchange a glance in slow motion, and Weiss smiles. She jumps off, falling to her knee due to her bleeding injuries. Despite giving up the offensive, Weiss caused a lot of different damage. Winter's face wasn't of calm this time — her lips were trembling from outrage. "Why did you stop?! You could've won!" she shouted, but the answer was clear in Weiss's eyes. She wouldn't allow herself to be like Winter, and that was the ultimate victory.

Weiss was incapacitated, but Winter still wanted more. She wouldn't allow Weiss to get away after that — she felt something more humiliating than defeat. But as she wields her saber and steps forward to attack the wounded Weiss, someone interrupts the duel. Someone who doesn't give a shit about honor, or their little dispute, and was growing a little angry from seeing history repeat itself.

The drunken Qrow literally teleports in between them like a goddamn Dragon Ball character, holding his sword on his back to stop Winter's next attack. His sword is so wide that it acts perfectly as a shield as well. Everyone remains in silence as he finishes up his bottle and throws it away.

"I declare this little fight over… But, just in case anyone here wants to fight a little more, then come on… I will happily be your opponent." Qrow said. Everyone, even the nameless soldiers of the dreadnought have the same shocked expression after witnessing his arrival. Qrow and Winter were staring daggers at each other. Winter demands that he steps aside, but he refuses, and so their cool fight begins.

Winter won't hold back like she did against Weiss, as she will love to see the title of 3rd strongest in Vale tarnished by her sword. This is one of the highest-level fights we see on the show so far, and the fact we can barely see the two's movements will be a clear sign of that. They jump around so fast that in some instances they are nothing but lines and light. And the best part is, it's not even a close match. Qrow is literally toying with her, making her more mad, and in turn making her perform worse. She tries so hard to do as little as getting a single hit, but Qrow moves and blocks so swiftly — as if his giant sword was a light wooden stick. This small but powerful fight scene does one very important thing; it humbles Winter. Because by this point we have so much buildup for her being the biggest bitch of all time that we have, by contract, tear her down for the public's appreciation. Qrow goes so far as to pull his perverted antics on her midway through the battle, slashing her blouse and bra in half with a sword strike. It didn't cut her at all, but forced her to hold her shirt together to not expose herself to a hundred people who were watching.

In the end Ironwood comes back from his duties and immediately stops the fight. The big man pulls out his serious tone for the first time, scaring everyone away and ending the scene. Winter promises revenge, and Qrow answers with, "anytime, sugar. I'll add your name to the list." He turns back to the girls and helps Weiss up. She didn't seem sour like she often looks after losing. She had a faint smile.

...

That afternoon, the girls leave Weiss in the infirmary to be treated by Miss Lucy. Though she lost, Weiss is content for what she managed to do, and thanks her friends for all the help. Once everyone leaves her to rest, we get one final scene at the end.

Mirroring the flashback of the day of their grandfather's funeral (which is also a huge ripoff of Frozen), Winter lays her back against the infirmary door, and asks if Weiss is alright. They say very little to each other, but Winter told one very important thing in the end. She compliments Weiss for getting stronger, and tells her to keep it that way. She leaves, but at the other side of the door, Weiss begins tearing up in her bed, in a weird form of joy. Even if it was faint, she understood that her sister still loves her somewhat. With that, the two part episode ends.

Commentary (spoilers): Though Volume III lacks a clear volume narrative, it makes up for good standalone episodes. Weiss has not received much personal screen time since volume I, so this should bring a bit of fanfare. Winter and Weiss in RE:colored are not the best loving relationship, if you couldn't tell. I truly wanted this antagonism to shine through even from Winter, the family member that Weiss loves the most. In the end, the Schnee family itself is Weiss's personal main antagonist in the story. I didn't want to end on a bad note however; their ultimate reconciliation will be a powerful moment for the two characters eventually. Now the next episode is much more laid back than this one, and it is all about the character who I have not given anything to so far.

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Qrow is not a conventional teacher, which is made clear by the fact he hangs out with his students on a daily basis like he's a fellow kid. He's always drunk, a problem that everyone complains about, but Port, Oobleck and Ozpin never try to do anything about, and merely say it's for the greater good. In one of his drunken tirades and stories, he ends up saying stuff that he shouldn't.

It was clear and obvious for everyone that Ruby and Yang have nothing alike despite being sisters. Qrow finally explains the discrepancy, telling that they were simply raised by the same father, but have different mothers. Though he has a lot to say about Summer Rose… he plainly refuses to even mention Yang's birth mom. "We don't talk about her" he says, with his serious sharp eyes, immediately making Weiss drop the questions.

Though Yang laughed and ignored at the moment, for the entire rest of the day she was clearly disturbed and mopey. As a role reversal, Blake is actually the one to notice it and talk to her. Turns out Yang has been sad and pondering, since she doesn't have a single memory of her real mother. Summer, Tai and Qrow have forever refused to say anything about her, even to this day. After all these years, she just wanted to know why she left — never knowing if she was still alive or long dead. All Yang knows is that they all used to be teammates at Beacon, 23 years ago. From there, Blake had an idea.

She wanted to help in her own different (illegal) way. Thus far she only did stuff for herself outside of team RWBY missions, but this is the first instance where she goes out of her way to help Yang. She plans on sneaking into the archive, find team STRQ's file, and discover the truth for her. Yang finds out about her plan, but instead of stopping her, she decides to go along and learn the truth. The plan was dangerous and could potentially get them expelled... well, as if that ever scared them before.

The mission involved sneaking into the offices of all teachers for information, even while they are inside the room. Blake searched for the castle's archive location and entrance password, while Yang served as a distraction. After failing to find anything, even in Ozpin's office, they figure just one other person must have the knowledge about the archive room, and that was Miss Lucy. What they assume will be the easiest one to sneak in ends up being the one they fail, as Miss Lucy's room has an absurd amount of protection and automated defenses, given her fear of Grimm. In the end Blake and Yang are caught, and so the only way out is to explain their motivations. Lucy has all the right to tell Ozpin, but instead she just says, "screw it, let's go! I'm curious now too!"

She allows the girls into the hidden archive — a secret room behind a fake stone wall in the empty backrooms of the castle. It had hundreds of years of files for all Huntsmen over the ages, stashed in iron drawers that go very high up. Here we see the files and young designs for all the older characters as they begin searching. Yang laughs about the commentaries that a certain "Silverclaw" made for all students — it seems they were absolutely horrible students. Just like them, three teams were coursing the academy at the same time as her parents. Team MRBL (Braun's team), team Glamour (Glynda's team), and finally… they arrive at the last file, that of team STRQ.

Yang opens it carefully, and along Qrow, Tai, and Summer, she sees…

Raven Branwen… Qrow Branwen's older sister. Yang didn't even know that much — she thought Qrow was her uncle purely on a friend basis. The photo of her shows a girl with red eyes, short black hair and a stern expression that foretells violent intent. Aside from her name and basic information, everything else was redacted by black boxes. The current status, which was stamped red, declares her as an "active renegade".

As in, a traitor. Someone who broke the oath.

Upon reading that, Yang involuntarily rips the paper in half. She didn't even realize she had done it until it was too late — rage just blinded her mind for a brief second. It didn't matter anyway. Being a renegade, her information wouldn't be preserved here, but rather the criminal archives of the city hall. She couldn't understand. What did her mother do? Why Qrow and Tai kept this a secret? Is she evil? And if so... how was Yang even born?

Yang had finally got the answers she wanted… but deep inside, she regrets it. At least… She knows her mother's name, and knows that she's alive out there. The whole quest only made her mood worse, but that night, Yang thanked Blake for the help. It was sweet of her, as Yang knew Blake rather keep things to herself. To Blake it was only fair that she helps her team, given that they helped her so much without asking anything back. They were... really nice poeple. It's a cute scene for Blake. The episode ends as Yang went to sleep. She was still disturbed — more bothered by the truth than she ever was from the mystery. That concludes the episode.

Commentary (spoilers): Yang naturally is a character that has few things going for her individually. The people that her backstory is connected to are more interesting characters in their own terms — they don't influence Yang's goals that much. I decided to only introduce her search for Raven here, because… it wouldn't matter in the first two volumes. Like I said, only focus on plotlines that you have a way to develop. It's also my signature way of writing, I do that a lot when I rewrite shit. For example, instead of having the White Fang turn radical before the series begins, I do it as volume II goes on. Instead of making the Dust ammunition into a commodity, I make it into a brand new thing so I can write about it more strictly. Instead of all the characters having complex weapons before they join the academy, they develop those during their time studying. And here, instead of having Yang search for her real mother all her life, she only starts questioning here, where it will soon factor into the plot. Raven was not alluded to or foreshadowed a single time so far, so this reveal actually comes out as a great moment. For now let's focus on the next three episodes, which by the way, are completely disconnected from the Atlas events, or Qrow's arrival.

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You know, I realized that once the plot gets going, it won't stop for anything. For that reason I decided to take some episodic storylines from the original and preserve them in early volumes where they will have room to be. This is a case of that. The Ren story from volume 4 of the original will take place here in the RE:colored version, with distinct differences due to timeline. Let us begin.

The episode starts with a scene that we erased from volume I. We get a 2nd person shot of Ren in the center of the screen, as Nora wakes him up in the morning and constantly acts like a spastic kid around him all day. Despite her borderline torturous annoyance, he remains cool and even cheery of her the entire time. The shot remains like that as we cut to different times of that day, and Nora has not stopped talking since she woke him up. It looks like another day for Ren and team JNPR… when suddenly we hear an ominous beep as they all pass by the main hall on their way to class.

Ren looks to see a new quest appear in the holographic notice board, marked in red as all others are white, blue and yellow (difficulty wise). It seemed like a really big deal, but the message only says one thing: the Horseman has been spotted near the east border.

Ren walks towards the message as it falls down to the bottom of the screen. The Huntsmen around look at it with discontent. They gossip that this Horseman appears every now and then, but once a team arrives to fight him, he's already gone. It seemed like no one would take the quest. The rest of JNPR looks puzzled as Ren stares directly at the red mission — carefully reading all the information below. He pulls up his scroll phone to scan it, but his current C-rank level badge doesn't allow him to take A or S-class mission. For the first time in the entire series, Ren displays an emotion. He snarls and then walks away. His team is still confused, and Nora's smile disappears.

The following scene will continue with the same 2nd person shot of Ren, but now every time that it cuts, he's visibly more angry as the day passes. Nora slowly starts to notice, and by the last shot she's silently following behind him with a worried expression. He didn't want to talk, and Nora had no idea what happened. Jaune and Pyrrha were straight-up afraid to talk with him. Ren was giving terrible vibes to everyone, because they never, not once in these seven months, have seen him make any expression other than neutral.

The thing is... Ren had made up his mind.

...

That night he waited for the other three to sleep, and made his move. He geared up, grabbed his bow, bladed knuckles and a strange new ceremonial dagger. He wrote a short letter, telling the rest of his team that he should be away for around two days. Nora was loudly snoring the entire time, and so Ren leaves through the window without ever making any sound. It doesn't take long for him to walk outside through the front gate…

and instantly be scared by Nora suddenly appearing behind him. "Where are we going?" she asks.

Somehow she managed to gear up and grab her hammer in the last thirty seconds. Ren tells her to go back, but naturally she won't listen. After all, what is he going to do that she can't do as well? Ren knows it's worthless to argue with her, so he just walks along angrily.

...

The next morning Jaune and Pyrrha find the letter, and no signs of Ren and Nora. Qrow will not allow them to take any classes without the rest of their team, so for that entire day they gotta figure out what happened. The only context clue was that weird moment that Ren had that morning. The note he left behind was made entirely by Ren, and at the bottom it was scribbled by Nora, saying that she was going as well. Clearly this wasn't a planned trip. For now they decide to head for the old orphanage of Vale City — it was the place they grew up, so they might learn something.

The rest of this two-part episode focuses on Jaune and Pyrrha discovering the horrible backstory of Ren and Nora, and the other is Ren and Nora on their way to Oniyuri (demon lesbian village). Ren and Nora sections are mostly comedic. We see a pissed off Ren trying to get along with his mission, while Nora tries everything she can to stop him from going. The only problem is that this version of Nora is perhaps too crazy, and she's too emotionally immature to simply sit down and have a conversation. Instead she simply impedes his quest by hiding his possession and taking too long in the bathroom. Ren gets more and more annoyed by her antics, and suddenly becomes angry and abusive to her. It noticeably hurts each time, but doesn't stop her from following along no matter how many times she's told to go away.

As for Jaune and Pyrrha, they have a meeting with the old man that takes care of the orphanage. And so, he tells the tale of how Ren and Nora first arrived, being two sole survivors of a village that was completely destroyed almost a decade ago. The old man doesn't know the full context, but we the audience will, thanks to the flashback that will play along.

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It starts off with a bunch of kids, playing pranks on a little ginger girl by putting food right in front of the barrel she lives in, only to pull it away from her grasp once she jumps for it. The boys keep being mean until she cries loudly, and out of the damn woodwork comes a young Ren, who thanks to his martial-art training can easily beat them and make them run in fear. Here we see a much different Ren, since before awakening his Semblance he had a very bratty personality, and he dressed mostly in pink instead of green. He steals the boy's food and shares it with Nora. While the girl eats, he questions if her family already came to pick her up again, but clearly they did not. It's a mean comment just to set the fact he was kind of an asshole. Despite him being just another bully, Nora considered Ren her only true friend from the get go.

Oniyuri was just a normal village that was at the east of Vale and west of Haven, serving as a stop point for trading. The design obviously caters more to Haven Asian aesthetic, making Nora a clear outsider due to vibrant orange hair and blue eyes. Ren's father was an old A-class Huntsman who never took any jobs at the guild — rather, he used his strength solely to protect the village. That day was Ren's birthday, and his father presented him with a sweet family dagger. The family enjoys the moment, but later that afternoon everything goes to shit.

Suddenly the Horseman appears, kills all four Huntsmen protecting the village, destroys the wall, and proceeds to 1v1 Ren's father. Dozens of other Grimm attacked the village after him, and soon enough the entire place was destroyed. People tried to escape of course, but Ren's mother wasn't one of those lucky few. She died right in front of Ren as their house collapsed on top of them, and rubble impaled her from behind. She was dead and couldn't even say last words to her son.

The crying Ren fled outside desperately. People were being torn apart left and right, everywhere was on fire for some reason, and his father was fighting a big centaur monster with long arms. His dad's last words were telling Ren to run away.

Grimm were everywhere, and he couldn't escape. luckily, Nora found him running around, and managed to pull him away so the two could hide inside her barrel. Grueling hours of silence passed, as the two were stuck staring at each other, trying to not make any sound with their sobbing. Once they left, the village was in complete shambles, and the fire was out. The little Ren walked around the empty village and back to his house, only to see his father lying dead next to his mother. Seemingly he carried himself there just so he could die next to her — he was covered in brutal wounds.

That sight completely broke Ren. Like, really, one of those psychotic anime breakdowns where the pupils are shaking and he screams blood at the top of his lungs. Nora was terrified from the level of despair that Ren was exerting. He fell to his knees and yelled out even louder. He clenched the grass, he hit his head against the floor, he cried — yet none of that made the pain stop.

But it was then and there, at the most fucked up moment imaginable, that Ren awakens his Semblance.

Tranquility… A power that allows Ren complete control over his own mind and emotions. Pink Aura surrounded his body. From one second to the next, he literally became a different person. He picked himself up as if nothing happened, and he calmed down. He removed his parents from the rubble and buried them both, alone. He didn't even cry anymore as he covered them with sheets and filled their faces with dirt, and later made a small tombstone of broken planks. After that, he took his father's weapon and went with Nora to the path ahead. Eventually they meet with Huntsmen that would take them to Vale City.

This flashback is so impressively fucked up, because it essentially tells us that Ren isn't actually Ren. He's literally a broken shell of who he once was, kept together by literal magic. He could control himself with his Semblance, but this time he chose not to. He must have felt pathetic to try and shrug his hatred for the monster who killed his parents. Even if he knew it wasn't the right thing to do, he has to do it. The end of the flashback is the end of the first part.

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The second part is all about the fighting.

Upon hearing the story, Jaune does the math and figures that Oniyuri is exactly one day of travel away (at least for super fast huntsmen), plus one day to return. Ren could only have gone there in order to fight the Horseman, and if so, he and Nora are in trouble. They had to go as fast as possible, so Jaune and Pyrrha gear up to leave that same afternoon. However, they bump into Yang in the corridor, who is keen on all they are doing. She simply hands them the keys to her bike, and tells them to bring Ren and Nora back safely. With that, Jaune drives out of the castle gates in the sweet yellow bike with Pyrrha on the back seat.

That morning, Ren and Nora wake up from camping atop a tree, and arrive at Oniyuri after an hour of running. Now we can see the destroyed village, with nature slowly taking it over from the cracks. Ren's old family house is still destroyed, and his parent's grave is covered in moss. The Horseman was nowhere to be found, so there was nothing they could do — or so hoped Nora. But Ren didn't have enough. The Horseman could still be nearby, so the quest continues. He'll go towards that mountain, and if he doesn't find it there, he'll go beyond it. Nora tries to say anything to make him stop, but he won't listen anymore. Ren only looks ahead. He tells her to shut up one final time.

And so… she just starts crying. Nora falls on her knees and cries loudly like a baby, and that seems to wake up Ren from his edgy state. Through her tears she complains that there's nothing she can do to stop him. She tried so hard, but in the end Ren is just going to get himself killed, and she won't be able to save him. It's been eight years and she's still completely and utterly worthless to him. She can't help him a single time, out of the hundreds that Ren helped her. Finally Nora understands why her parents just left her behind to die. She's useless. "I'm (sniff)... I'm still no better than a dumb kid who lives in a barrel!" she cries out with tears clogging her nose.

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At that moment, Ren starts having a moment of clarity. He realizes that Nora will not stop following him… for the rest of his life. She was always there, since the beginning. There's nothing he can possibly say or do to make her abandon him, because he is the only person who ever cared about her. If he continues on, he might end up getting Nora killed — he will kill the closest thing to family he has left, the only small semblance of the past that wasn't destroyed. At that moment, Ren's mind was literally taken by another entity, who spoke to him in his mind. There were two Rens; one that is angry and bloodthirsty for revenge, while the other prays for the good things they still had in life. After a battle in inner monologues, the good Ren wins.

At that moment, he gives up on his quest by dropping his weapons. Ren turns back and hugs Nora, saying that it's over now. He was being foolish, and he should've listened. He promises to never be this stupid ever again, hugging her even more tightly until Nora stopped crying. "Nora, stop saying those things already, they aren't true! I'm not going to throw away my best friend... forgive me..."

…

Nora now opens her teary eyes to look behind Ren…

The Horseman was menacingly standing there… in creepy silence, just looking down at them with his red eyes. A huge Grimm with the bottom of a horse, and the top of a humanoid with lanky arms that stretch out, and spikes for fingers. Nora manages to grab Ren and jump away, just as the monster swings its sharp arm at them. The sudden fight begins. The monster truly proves to be a high A-level threat — a Grimm covered in white layer armor and possessing a speed that doesn't match how clunky he looks. Ren and Nora try to fight it, but are completely defeated. However, halfway through the fight, they hear the sound of an engine.

Suddenly Jaune and Pyrrha drive in with Bumblebee, and instantly join the fight. Ren could ask for forgiveness later, now they have to survive.

The fight that follows is chaotic as all hell, because this fucking Grimm is an abnormal, and can't be underestimated at all. Many times Jaune purposefully throws himself in front of Nora and Ren so they won't get any more hurt than they already are. He conjures a plan to pin down all of its legs and arms to stop it from moving so fast, and that's all they have for now. They try, but fail miserably due to the pure and simple level gap. They needed much more power if they hoped to survive this.

At that moment, with herself being heavily wounded, and with her friends not doing any better, Pyrrha made her choice.

She stepped up, tossed her spear and shield to the ground, and held up her arms. Suddenly, the rubble of the ruined village begins to shake. Metal objects, tools, weapons and scraps start to pop out from the ground, looking rusty. Before anyone could understand what was going on, Pyrrha flails her arms towards the Horseman, and so all the metal objects go flying towards it, plunging the monster from all sides — especially its eyes. While the beast is stunned from the pain, she uses the big metal pieces to stab the Horseman right through the four horse legs. Jaune and Nora follow suit, rushing ahead to hold the monster's arms in place. Ren had to deliver the final blow.

He walked forward, pulling his birthday dagger. In his mind, his inner edgy voice came back, telling him to make the enemy suffer; he has to enjoy every second of this.

But in response, Ren himself says… "no."

He jumps in with astounding speed, and slices the Grimm's head clean off. "You're not going to torment me for a single second more… and neither will I."

Just like that, the team of newbies killed one of the biggest bastards in the entire world. The monster just melts away on the floor like all others, and so goes the 1 million Lien bounty that comes from it. Jaune realizes he forgot to take a picture of it just as it becomes unrecognizable black mush. They have no proof, not enough clout for it to be believable, all the while being on a mission that is greatly above their rank. That sucks.

Despite their injuries, Jaune, Nora and Ren suddenly circle Pyrrha, asking what the hell was that. She takes a deep breath and reluctantly explains that it is the Semblance she purposefully kept a secret from everyone else. An ancestral Semblance; the power to fully control metal.

Though they are bewildered at the news, Pyrrha immediately looks them in the eyes and begs that they don't tell anyone. Her father always said that something really bad will happen in case people knew, and that is why she never told anyone before. They look among each other for a second, and so the three make the promise. If it makes her feel better, then they will be happy to keep it a secret. She used to save their lives anyway, so this is the least they can do. Pyrrha is thankful, finally allowing herself to get this load off her chest.

The three prepare to go, but Ren still has one final thing to do. Now that he's stronger and has tools, he is able to slice a stone wall in proper shape with his blades, and carve names in it. He used it to remake two new tombstones for his parents, and these will last much longer. Now as they return, they wonder… How will they fit four people on a bike?

Hard cut to Jaune driving away in the dirt road, with Pyrrha at the back seat, using her Semblance to levitate Nora's long hammer beside the bike so then she and Ren can sit in it. With a final closing shot of Ren and Nora resting on each other's shoulders, holding each other's hands, the two part episode concludes.

Commentary (spoilers): Though it is good, I put no pride in this one, all kudos go to Miles Luna for once. I just made a few tweeks to fit the story in two episodes instead of a full (worthless) volume. Ren's story is really good, the only problem… This is the last highlight from one of my favorite characters. He'll remain on the show until the damn end, but this is the last we get out of his or Nora's personal stories. From now on it's all JNPR or simply Jaune and Pyrrha plotlines. I do promise you though, his powers are gonna get insanely broken really soon. I slightly changed the "Tranquility" Semblance's basic idea so then I can work a way to give Ren other powers. He can control people's emotions, soon he'll evolve to control their minds as well and even achieve a form of telepathy. But by far, Pyrrha revealing her Semblance to her team for the first time is the moment that actually makes the ending more iconic. I almost regret putting it right next to Ren's character's conclusion, which steals a bit of the moment, but I had to include it somewhere in the main story. They already knew she was great, so it's not shocking for them to learn she's even greater than expected. Given their rural background, it's pretty much impossible for them to understand how broken Pyrrha's powers truly are, and how important she is.

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Before proceeding to the last three episodes, let me just note one episode that I'm in doubt about producing. It's a follow up to an idea presented in volume II, but reversed.

The story starts with Cardin bored out of his mind, after they barely passed all the boring tests they made. Here we see the team CRDL room for the first time. The room is mostly empty to give space to their stupid shit, such as a punching bag, and drawing board to detail their goals. The room is painted dark, and the window is shut with nails. Sky is the only one to sleep in a bed, while Cardin sleeps sitting on a chair, Russel just sleeps on the floor, and Dove literally lives in their closet with a bunch of hot girl posters.

Cardin was upset because he heard that all the girls had a really fun girl's night a month or so ago, and he wanted to do the same with all the boys of his class. And so he basically kidnaps Ren and Jaune, forcing them to partake in a boys' night out in the city. However, their personalities are so awfully contrasted that they fail to have fun, and mostly fight all the time.

The night ends short, as they find a nice soothing pub and start drinking while bored out of their minds. Here we get a first taste of team CRDL's backstory. Jaune questions why they are like this, and so Cardin explains. It's nothing complicated, they were all just street kids in Planice, a city far away in the west. They managed to survive thanks to Cardin, since he was building a gang, and his family was quite rich. Despite being just four kids, people feared them because of their awakened Auras naturally while young. It was an easy life of petty crime and no regrets.

But eventually… they got their asses handed to them by a Huntsman. He taught them an important lesson. There's always a bigger fish, and all they were doing was child's play. It was pathetic for a group so strong to prey upon the weak. From then on Cardin decided to go out in the wild and fight real monsters, and the other three simply followed out of respect for their leader.

Eventually the conversation goes into girl territory — after all, men have to fight for someone, right?

Everyone just expects Jaune never had a girlfriend, and they are right. Jaune thinks all the girls at Beacon are too good for him — romance is the one thing that Jaune isn't extremely self-confident about.

Ren never, not even for a second, thought about Nora in a romantic way. He doesn't even know if she's smart or mature enough for such thoughts. Now he really starts thinking stuff over.

Sky is prone to attract the female population. Even the girls of their class can attest how pretty he is, and how much game he has. However, as long as he doesn't find a perfect replica of himself of either gender, he remains single. He refuses to lower his standards.

Dove has a taste for ladies that unfortunately do not exist outside of visual novel games.

Russel insists on the idea of having a girlfriend back home, who is the most beautiful woman in the world. He even goes so far as to show them a random photo from his pocket of a blond girl, but just like Jaune, no one believes him. Even if she was ugly they wouldn't buy it.

When it comes down to Cardin, despite claiming he has no time for such things, everyone comically knows he's head over heels for Velvet. He denies it with anger, but simply thinking about her seems to shut down his brain for a bit. Not only is she pretty, but that kick she gave him when they met… he never met a girl so cute and deadly at the same time. And so, in a weirdly competent assembly, the boys decide to make a plan to give Cardin a date with Velvet.

The following episode would be a mission impossible spoof, as Jaune and Dove formulate this stupidly complex plan just to get two people to bump into one another. It wouldn't be easy — the hardest part was finding a way to make Coco unglue from Velvet for just a minute so she and Cardin could interact. I don't have anything about the plan worked out, but it has to be comedic in nature. Also, Fox and Yatsu find out about the plan, but they get so offended about not being called to the boys' night that they actively try to stop the plan from working, throwing another wrench in the plan.

In the end they succeed, not because the plan worked, but by pure luck. All the other girls find Russel creeping up in their rooftops with some stuff he stole from their rooms, and they all gather up to beat the shit out of him, creating the perfect distraction. Cardin and Velvet meet in the corridors as she went to grab some nightly pudding. The big guy manages to use all his power to fight through teenage awkwardness, managing to say a single "hey" to Velvet as she passes by him.

That actually surprises her, as she believed all this time Cardin was scared of rabbits, and that's why he would never talk to her. She congratulated him for fighting through his fears, and wished him goodnight. It was a fifteen second conversation, but it was enough for the boys to yell in excitement from their success, hugging each other and shaking hands and shit. With Cardin completely paralyzed due to nervousness, and Russel being thrown off the window by Yang, the episode ends.

Commentary (spoilers): I just needed one team CRDL filler episode for the record, and also a simple-minded fun episode as well. These guys will have a lot of fights in the next volume to build each of them as separate people. So far, something even the teachers will agree, is that team CRDL is likely the best team of the class outside of CFVY, just from how easily they work together and respect Cardin's decisions. Despite their history and motto, they never actually get into any trouble, at least not nearly as much as team RWBY. Their backstory doesn't tell us anything about them, but it is a huge setup for what will happen in later volumes, specifically within their hometown.

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Allow me to briefly include a list of minisode ideas as well. We introduced Qrow into the story, so now we can have shorts and skits about him interacting with team RWBY. We should get a lot of other minisodes of Penny exploring Vale City like I said before, which will be really cute and full of character.

Ruby's birthday is also a must, since we did Weiss's birthday last volume.

Another one that I want is about Glynda enjoying her time off as teacher to go buy cute stupid shit like toys and plushies, showcasing that despite being a nightmarish woman, she still has a few typical lady traits. Another one would involve her taking a morning coffee at the city, only to be approached by a previous student of Beacon who quit due to the absurdly tough training. He actually came to thank Glynda — being a warrior wasn't really his thing, but he could still find work thanks to having some superpowers. He managed to find a wife and is expecting a daughter soon. He thanks her for the wake up call, which allowed him to find a better life. It's not even funny, it's just a really sweet short story in which Glynda is smiling in the end for once. Being a tough teacher can pay off in more than one way.

Another minisode would be Qrow doing combat teacher things, when suddenly the kids start speculating if he ever lost a fight. He lost a bunch of times indeed, most of them against Glynda. But he did beat her a single time before, and we cut to a flashback of 23 years ago, when Qrow was 18 and so was Glynda — back when they were academy Huntsmen. Qrow was always the same bastard personality wise, while Glynda was more inclined with Weiss back then. They had fought several times so far, and she complains that Qrow doesn't know when to quit their unfair rivalry. The fight was actually a single head-first clash that ended with young Qrow rolling on the ground. It looks like Qrow lost again, but that time he tried a different approach to his technique. Qrow was not aiming to hit her at all. He opens his fist and shows Glynda what he stole in that clash… snow white panties, with a cute panda sticker on them. Glynda's face turns red like a tomato as she immediately drops to the floor, pulling her skirt down. That was the only time Qrow ever defeated her. The minisode ends as he says, "and she never wore a skirt ever again", and then Yang grabs him by the cheek and tosses him out the window for being a pervert.

Lastly, I want one minisode about Sun being tortured by Leo and Corazan in training, just so we get a heads up to what he's doing. Also, the Tai and Penny one that I depicted earlier.

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Now, for the last three episodes. Let's conclude Penny and Ruby first.

At the beginning of this episode we are introduced to something new and crazy, that suddenly made Atlas much scarier than before. It is actually the reason a special meeting between the two nations was held. Somehow these motherfuckers managed to create functional android soldiers, who among their many advantages, don't seem to attract or stipulate Grimm unless they directly attack the monsters. Atlas uses them mostly to search for Penny in the city, while the normal soldiers take care of the dreadnought. Their existence is a huge part of Ozpin and Ironwood's talks, as the general believes they are the best chance to eradicate and control Grimm without sacrificing any life. Ozpin thinks that's silly. If Ironwood thinks those hunks of metal could ever defeat the true enemy, then he's dead wrong. Here is revealed the reason why the number of Huntsmen have been steadily declining in the last few decades. With the advance in technology and weaponry, dealing with Grimm has become way too safe and automated. Soon they might not need to train children to fight monsters. Still, Ozpin is extremely against that idea. He knows something that Ironwood does not.

From then on, we follow Penny exploring the city once again, when eventually the robot soldiers find her. She runs away, but there's a damn army of them everywhere, and they have perfect communication through a shared database. Eventually she comes to hide inside a farm caravan — Oscar's caravan no less, as he makes a stop on the City market. He was scared by the weird girl, while Penny only asked to take her to Ruby. It's funny because she thinks everyone knows everyone, and thankfully for her, Oscar knows Ruby. Afraid for his life, Oscar does as she asks while the scary android soldiers make him cry.

Oscar finds a way to drop her off in a flying ferry ride to Beacon castle, but the android soldiers follow all the way there, and they start invading the castle to capture her. Penny was able to quickly find Ruby, and she takes her to hide in RWBY HQ. Naturally she has to break down to her friends why she's harboring a wanted fugitive in their room, but once Ruby explains the whole abusive parents situation, they allow her for a day at max until they get this sorted out.

Unfortunately they don't have such time, as suddenly the robot soldiers start roaming the corridors. They demand to enter their rooms and search, and naturally Cardin is the first to start swinging. He punches the robot's head off as tries to enter their room, and they all suddenly enter aggression mode. Some beta testing glitch occurs, and they identify the students as enemies. Suddenly the blue monitors in their faces turn to red, and fight back against Cardin. More and more androids start coming in from the city and breaking through the windows of the castle to fight. They don't have guns — they go full on punching and kicking here. They don't listen to any of the students at al, so they have no option but to destroy all the robots. Qrow didn't even attempt to control the situation upon arriving, he was like, "fighting robots? Alright, I'm in."

Penny can't allow the fight to go any longer because of her, and comes out of hiding. Just then, Ironwood, Winter and Ozpin arrive, stopping the robots with his command. Penny takes full responsibility for running away, and doesn't even mention Ruby helping her. She opens up to why she escaped, and the reason actually surprises Ironwood. He was promised that they would not do more experiments with Penny, but it seems like his own council lied to him. In an odd moment of dad and daughter tone, Ironwood kneels down to her level and promises that he won't allow Penny to be hurt anymore.

It kinda comes off as a shocking moment, since we build it up to make it seem like Ironwood is the one that Penny is afraid of. Turns out he's not actually a twist villain. From there he allows Penny to stay at Beacon castle, and naturally she crashes in team RWBY's room, sleeping inside their closet. It doesn't bother her at all apparently. Between Ironwood and Winter, the way the androids behaved is unacceptable. They would need to have a talk when they go back home. With that the episode ends.

Commentary (spoilers): Yeah I just needed to conclude this plotline in classic fashion. Naturally Penny couldn't remain at Vale forever, but she's gonna be on the next volume anyway so it doesn't matter. I needed to set a lot of things for later, such as Ironwood's rivalry with his own council, the robots acting obviously racist, and also the fact that Ironwood isn't actually a twist villain (that's the vibe I would like to sell from him in all his scenes). Shit is gonna go down in the future, so by default, this volume's greatest weakness is that it serves mostly as set up to what will happen in volume IV. Depending on when we decided to put this episode, we can have Penny appearing in other episodes and even a few minisodes about her interacting with other students. Anyway, let's go to our volume finale.

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Somewhere, and it doesn't have to be any episode in specific, we will surprise our audience with a different intro than usual. We will actually see the perspective of Roman Torchwick in the morning.

His underground bunker has an amazing design, full of trinkets that he stole throughout his life — his many prizes. It even looks a bit silly, like an underground mansion for six year old pimps. His wardrobe is full of the same style of white trench coats except with slightly different tints of white. He walks into his living room, where he is surprised by Neo (mind that here she is still the hot tall girl with full pink hair that we saw at the end of volume I). She's watching TV on the couch, dressed in skimpy underwear and posing seductively once her partner walks in. However, Roman doesn't even bat an eye to her, and merely tirades about a bunch of plots they have in motion currently. Not once does Neo talks back, so we just gotta assume she's mute.

At the end Roman receives a phone call, saying that someone wants to hire him. So we accompany Roman through the back alleys at night, with Neo literally being his shadow. Her illusion powers are put into display here. Eventually he enters the backrooms of an abandoned house in an empty street. The room ahead was dark, with a single candle light above the table. The person sitting across from him, covered in a dark red mantle, is obviously a woman by the voice and sexy physique. Her face is covered in shadows, but we can see black hair covering the right side of her face. She smiles softly, just like Roman — the two share the "I'm in control" vibe.

The job she wants from him is very dangerous but rather simple, and she's willing to pay whatever he wants for it. He has to sneak inside Ironwood's dreadnought, and put a little storage device inside the ship's main frame. It will do all the work for him, and after a few minutes he just has to take it off and bring it back to her. The best possible time to strike will be in X days, as Ironwood and his lieutenant will leave the ship for their final meeting with the council of Vale. There will be no Huntsmen inside to fight them if they don't cause alarm. Roman is awfully tempted by the idea, since the lady simply accepts no matter how many times he raises the price during the conversation. It looks like he will be taking the job.

We introduce this early in the volume, but we will only kick start this plot at the end of it (this might be a two part episode too). Roman will use careful planning and Neo's broken powers to infiltrate the two as illusions of soldiers. It is surprisingly easy, thanks to Atlas gear hiding as much humanity as possible from its soldiers — no one truly recognizes each other with the helmets on. Roman even manages to learn the entire layout of the place by talking with soldiers and offering them his cigars. He searches the ship, passes by the huge armory hall, and eventually finds the main frame of the ship in some dank closet. He inserts the storage device, and he goes ahead to turn off alarms and communications while he's at it, just in case he triggers alarms.

...

Just then we cut to Penny, opening her eyes and quickly blasting out of team RWBY's closet, scaring them with the sudden outburst. She says something strange just came up, and she has to go. Ruby decides to follow, and so do the other three. Penny destination is Ironwood's dreadnought, as it seems some form of sixth sense allows Penny to feel that communication signals were cut off for some reason. Soon they are face to face with Roman, who unmade his disguise for a smoke break. "Ah, Fuck me…" he says.

Ruby immediately tells Penny to leave, and so team RWBY engages against Roman. She also tells Yang to go and call help from the castle, clearly learning from her last defeat. Yang runs, and so it's a three versus one. This time Roman promises to not hold back against little red. The two stare each other in this ominous stand off, and so… he uses the secret Joestar technique, and just runs away really fast. It completely ruined the moment — Ruby just watched him go until it clicked. "Huh? HEY WAIT, COME BACK HERE!" Ruby shouts.

He was not actually planning an escape, he simply led them to the ship's armory (of which he and Neo passed by previously), where he found a nice little trinket. A giant fucking mecha armor with guns up the ass. He pilots it with the stolen ID card, and so begins Ruby, Weiss and Blake vs the Titan Mecha. Soon soldiers see what the fuck was going on from all the explosion, but are incapable of helping in the superhuman battle. With communications turned off, they simply decide to call a Huntsman on the castle to help.

At the same time, Yang was suddenly attacked in the corridors by Neo, who had to stop any more support from coming in. Yang taunts her, but Neo is a mute, so they simply start to fight. Neo is surprisingly good at dodging, and her umbrella works as a powerful shield made of a hard and flexible component. She fights Yang for a little while, dominating the 1v1, until Yang is able to land a single punch at the pretty lady by surprise.

But then something strange happens.

Neo's face begins to crack as if she was made out of glass, and so her illusion was broken. Yang looks again to see that the tall bombshell with nice curves… was actually a flat, short, boring-looking girl with long brown hair. all this time she was using her Semblance to alter her appearance and look more mature. The revelation makes Yang laugh really hard, realizing how adorable she actually looks. Neo is now mad, and draws the hidden sword from her umbrella. The fight got surprisingly bloody, as now Neo had the intent to kill. She slashes Yang on the legs and arms, ending with a kick to the face so hard that she passes out.

Neo is about to shove that sword in her gut when… more bizarre things happens.

Suddenly, between the minuscule space of Yang's back and the floor, a red light begins to emanate. Suddenly a silhouette jumps out from the light, holding a katana and wearing a mask, covered in red armor. The red aura she's emanating makes Neo step back, and be visibly scared. It was like staring into a demon. Before they could fight, an explosion rings out in the entire dreadnought, and Neo leaves to go save Roman.

The lady in red mires over Yang's body for a bit. She kneels down, caresses her face, but then decides to leave before anyone sees her. She just calmly walks down the dark corridor, until we see red light appear in the darkness again, and finally disappears. The few soldiers who left were able to find Glynda in the castle. They enter the ship and encounter Yang on the ground.

Now, we find out what Roman was up to.

Turns out that the Mecha is really fucking strong, easily defeating team RWBY with an array of counters to their techniques, tools, and weapons. They get really hurt, and by the end Ruby loses possession of her weapon. When it seems like defeat was close, she turns around and sees Penny standing there. She asks if Ruby wants to switch. Ruby denies, but then realizes there's no one else who can take down Roman. She was going to lose again, and didn't want Penny to risk herself.

"Don't worry, I'm combat ready!" Penny says, and so she goes to fight. So far we understand that she is weird. She has strange abilities, but here is where we confirm the obvious. Penny is a robot. In fact, she fights exactly like Ironman, flying around with jet boots and unveiling weapons that simply pop out of her arms and legs — most notably being her ability to fire green energy blast out of her hands. She is absurdly strong just with these, not even needing a weapon to fight. It even seems like her punches are as painful as Yang's.

By the end she defeats Roman in his Mecha, causing the explosion we heard from Neo's fight. He's still okay though — that trench coat is best quality armor, quite like Neo's umbrella. Penny was still going to fight him, but she was mistaken to think Roman was weaker than the Mecha he was piloting. Now he opens his white coat, and reveals a lot of weapons hiding underneath. He was armed to the teeth this entire time. Turns out his proficiency was long-range combat all along.

He draws two revolvers at insane speed and shoots down Penny with pinpoint accuracy. He was using Dust bullets too — probably because he kept a lot of them for himself since volume I. The energy bullets go through Penny's body, and she falls to the ground. Ruby started crying for a moment, as it seems like she died. But then she gets up, and we can literally see the backgroud through the holes in her body.

Neo suddenly jumps in, showing Roman that the storage device already did what it was supposed to. Now it was time to run. Just then Glynda arrives, and gives chase to the criminal duo. She was incredibly fast and deadly with her powers, forcing Neo to use illusions to give them a better chance to escape. Roman suddenly gets a phone call, telling him to escape to the top of the ship, which is a landing zone for other ships (forgot to mention but the dreadnought's design is essentially the helicarrier from Marvel).

Before we reach the end of the episode, we get this cute scene as the heavily damaged Penny finally reveals to Ruby that she was a robot all along. She begs Ruby to not see her as any less because of it, like everyone else does. Her emotions are not fake, and she still wanted to be friends. After that whole month of seeing Penny's fear, her sadness, her joy — to Ruby it doesn't really matter if she's a robot or not, because either way, she is real. She still exists, and so do all the fun moments they had.

Ruby hugs Penny, glad that she didn't die.

...

Roman and Neo fled to the landing zone, but Glynda also arrived at the same time. They try to fight her, but it is absolutely hopeless, ending with Neo knocked out by having an entire small ship being smashed against her. The beaten team RWBY and Penny also arrive to watch the fight. It didn't seem like it would end right there though. Just then, Roman's escape plan arrives. That same woman who hired him (still dressed the same mysterious way) now came with a small helicopter, and he jumped inside with Neo. They could finally escape, but Glynda uses Psychokinesis to stop the helicopter from moving. It started to vibrate and break apart, so the woman got out of the pilot seat and said, "I'll take care of that."

She walked to the side entrance of the helicopter and stood there menacingly, staring directly into Glynda's soul. She raised her hand, and so a small light appeared.

A flame.

It started to grow more and more until it looked like a ball of pure condensed explosion. Glynda's eyes went wide, "it can't be… YOU…!"

The ball was getting bigger and bigger. Just when it seemed like she would release the fireball towards Glynda… She slightly aims towards team RWBY in the back, and fires. That thing would kill them for sure. They simply froze as they saw a bright ball of incoming death heading towards them. At the last second, Glynda jumps in and sets a purple psychic barrier to block the fire ball. The two attacks collide — the clash between the two ladies was shaking the entire ship. Glynda's braided hair came undone and stood straight up, and a vein sprung in her forehead, just to demonstrate the sheer intensity of this struggle. In the end she was able to block the explosion, but not the following shockwave.

Glynda was sent flying back, but Ruby was able to catch her. She was unconscious. The second strongest in Vale was defeated in one attack. That sight shocked Ruby and made her stutter in fear. She looked back at the woman, still standing there as if it was nothing. She smiles, and with Glynda out, Roman is able to fly the helicopter out of there. The mysterious womans puts her finger between her lips and smiles, what sent a chill through Ruby. They were completely powerless. Glynda wakes up moments later, only to realize she lost.

Ironwood and Winter arrive just then, and that scene was terrifying to them. Their ship was destroyed on the inside and out, and everyone was wounded. There was a shocking silence, and slowly the scene started fading to black, ending the episode.

Commentary (spoilers): This finale is mostly about fighting, all the while taking elements that I removed from previous volumes. I continue making Roman more deadly to keep up with the main characters — not by getting stronger but simply showing off new tricks. I said I was gonna make him a beast, and I'll keep my promise. Yang being saved by her mom, and also Cinder helping Roman escape are two things that I had to use somehow; I wanted to introduce our main villain in the same ominous and badass way as the original first episode. But this time I decided to give her a previous introduction, so her sudden reveal as a powerful warrior will make it even more cool. Same deal for Raven's first appearance, I just wanted to make sure to introduce her on the same volume as the questions about her begin, so there's an immediate story payoff. We know jackshit about her though, and she says nothing; it's literally a deus-ex machina in every sense of the term. Unfortunately I don't feel like giving her a better first introduction than the original series. We don't know Cinder's plan either, but eventually it will all fall into place like fucking clockwork. Literally, all that has been building up so far will come to conclusion in the next volume.

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That's not actually the finale.

We cut to literally a few hours after Roman escaped, in Ozpin's office. Ruby is alone, looking down in shame. A few bandages and patches are covering her wounds. Ofscreen, Ironwood proclaims that no archives were stolen, no one was killed, and nothing was implanted either. Something was copied from his ship database, but what? There's no information in there that can be used against Atlas, only the inner workings of the ship itself. He asked Ruby if Roman had said what he was after, but Ruby doesn't know any better. She can go away now, but lastly Ironwood thanks her for helping defend his ship, and hopes to one day repay her.

With Ruby gone, the real deal begins between Ozpin, Qrow, Glynda, Port, Oobleck, Ironwood and Winter.

"So she's back after ten years, huh?" Qrow said. Ironwood didn't know shit, so he asked if Qrow knew who that woman was. Qrow knew damn well. He said, "There's only one other woman in this world who can make miss glasses over there fall short." Suddenly Qrow was taken by rage and punched the wall — shaking the tower and causing cracks to spread across the office. He was snarling. He then made an angry stride to the door and said, "I'm gonna find her…"

With Qrow leaving the room, Winter got mad and demanded answers from them. The teachers remain mysterious, as I personally don't want to exposite about her in this volume. Ozpin went ahead and prepared a paper folder, and gave it to Ironwood. It contained all they knew about her, which is fuck all. Ozpin warned him to keep an eye out. That woman is the most powerful renegade in the world — they do not know what she wants, but clearly she's acting towards a goal now, and Atlas seems to be in the middle of it. He has to be careful, and that concludes their meeting.

...

The air was somber during lunch for team RWBY, as the four almost died, and saw the most powerful person they know be defeated in one attack. The other teams asked questions, but they couldn't answer anything concrete. It was somber, but by the end they received a new motivation. They need to get stronger faster. Ruby hated the feeling of being a sitting duck as that fireball approached, and so did the other three. They needed to get themselves together, because it seems like their enemies only get stronger and stronger by the day.

Tomorrow was a day of many farewells. Qrow's period as teacher ended, and now he's also leaving all of the sudden for a reason he refuses to tell. He promises Ruby to be back much sooner this time. She has to get a lot stronger until he comes back, and so they share one final hug.

With negotiations concluded, it's time for Penny to return to Atlas along Ironwood and Winter. They actually have a surprise for her. Ironwood may have figured a way to keep Penny safe from being experimented on, but in order to do that, she would have to sign up to become a special soldier under his tutelage. Penny accepted on the spot, because she believed it would be a cool life of action, and she would have the chance to make friends with the other cadets. She says her farewell to Ruby, and promises to always sneak along Ironwood whenever he comes to Vale, so they can see each other again. It seems Penny did not learn her lesson. Winter tells her to not worry about her new friends, as it seems they will be back sooner than she expects.

We cut to a talk Ironwood had with Ozpin. It seems like Ironwood succeeded in his goal to become buddies with Ozpin — honestly he was much more friendly than the previous general of Atlas that Ozpin had to deal with. But before they left, Ironwood wanted to make some sort of arrangement that could make their friendly relations more apparent to the public, and asks Ozpin if Atlas can participate in the next Vytal festival they will hold. The Vytal Tournament is the key event of the Vytal Festival, which is a competition between Huntsmen from different nations in a non-war way. For the first time since it started, Atlas will join Vale and Haven in the tournament with their own fighters — the first proposition that the council of Atlas has ever agreed with Ironwood. Ozpin thinks it is a marvelous idea, since they were planning to make one in just a few months now. They will keep contact to see what to do, and he wishes Ironwood good luck in order to convince Leo of the same thing; it might be hard.

...

As our heroes recover, so do our villains. In the end Roman gives the storage device back to the mysterious woman. Roman states that it was fun, but he doesn't plan on working for her ever again after they both almost died. As a matter of fact, he didn't even want her money anymore. It wasn't a job he considered worth the effort, and he didn't want to get rewarded for a stupid job. He tries leave the dark basement with Neo, when suddenly the door right in front of him… is set on fire.

He looks back in shock to see glowing silver eyes from under the woman's hood. She tells him that the job isn't over… not at all. Roman still has much he can help her with… that is, if he wishes to stay alive. Neo is too weak to fight or escape — she just looks at him in distress. The woman stands up and slowly walks up to the two. Roman puts up his guard, but this random woman is exerting such terrfying presence that he can't move. She walked right past him as he remains paralyzed. "I'll see you again, when the time is right" she says, walking through the door in flames as if it's nothing. Roman is screwed, and so ends the scene.

...

After that, we join the characters and background Huntsmen as we see the Atlas dreadnought take flight and slowly leave into the distance. Ironwood, Winter and Penny wave them a final goodbye before they disappear from view. Soon there is a silence, and Jaune asks, "what do we do now?"

"Now we start again. We still have a long way to go, right miss?" said Ruby, mirroring the same line that Glynda said at the beginning of the volume, what makes her smile.

"Come on… Juniper, Cardinal, Coffee, Ruby, there's no time to waste! I got four months to make each and every one of you twice stronger than now. I don't want to hear anyone slacking, understood?!" Glynda said, to which everyone screamed in unison.

From there we get an awesome music score, along with a huge montage of our characters. We get small scenes of their training in quick succession. We see Jaune getting the upper hand against Pyrrha for the first time in their sparring. We see Yang training to nurture her other Semblance through anger. We see Ren's semblance getting slightly stronger through meditation — and many other snippets of our characters doing heavy and insane exercises. Most notably, our characters' weapons are getting upgraded by Miss Lucy with welding tools. Now all the characters who used stock weapons have acquired totally new designs, which closer to the originals — such as Nora's hammer, Cardin's mace, all of team CRDL in general, and Blake's sword. This montage is also accompanied by the volume credits. Eventually the cuts of the montage become too fast for us to understand what's happening.

The screen goes black, and then appears… Four months later.

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We see Ozpin looking out into the cliff to the red forest, with a cup of tea. It's only him and the breeze for a while, when suddenly Leo walks from behind him and joins in silence. Eventually he says, "okay I'll bite… what is the surprise for this year?"

"Well… I allowed Atlas to host the tournament this time." Ozpin replied.

"Really? But you said it would happen here in Vale!"

"It will. I'm quite curious about what they are planning, myself." Ozpin says.

Slowly they see something pop behind the mountain in the distance. It looked like a cloud at first, but it wasn't. Much like Atlas has a flying fortress, they are bringing in a flying coliseum.

"Bunch of show offs" said Leo, as Ozpin laughed.

With the coliseum slowly approaching, volume III concludes.

Commentary (spoilers): Yeah just one short final episode to close it up and hook everyone to the next Volume, which is (by expectation) the most popular volume of the show. Figuratively speaking (since it's not real) this next volume is where we will bet all our chips. Team JNPR and RWBY have now fought enemies that almost killed them, the Horseman and Roman Torchwick respectively. I really want to hit home that they wish to become stronger — it's a battle shounen anime after all. The montage placed right before the time skip will be the definitive moment of change that sets the three first volumes apart to the following three. The "Beacon Saga" is essentially over now, and it begins the "Fall Saga". As in Cinder Fall. Clever, I know.

Every three volumes equals a year more or less, so next volume our characters will have aged (Ruby and Weiss both being 17 while Blake and Yang are 19), and they will also receive new designs that don't branch too far off the original. It's a game with marked cards, let's be honest here. If a writer have even half a brain cell, it's impossible to fuck up a tournament saga in an anime. The only new character designs I want to specify is Weiss, adopting a more bluish dress, but still with a clear, bigger portion of red in her design as well.

This might be a tangent, but the red is a very important design thingy; the red signifies that she's rebelled from Atlas desires. Though she dresses white and blue, she's no longer part of them. The same effect goes for Ironwood, having a red tie instead of a blue like all other higher ups. The red color scheme shows how much Weiss engrossed herself with the team. Red is not only Ruby's color, but it is an important color to all our character's relationships and aspirations. Red was the main color of Weiss's grandfather; red is the main color of Raven and the Branwen tribe in general; red is the color of Adam for Blake, and red is both Cinder and Summer for Ruby. For a show called RWBY RE:colored, I feel like it's our duty to keep color theory and meaning as consistent as possible.

Okay I'm yapping too much. See you next chapter.