Author's Notes;
-Hey guys and girls! We've successfully made it to the volume 4 part of the story. Now, since the timeskip period has been chronologically imbalanced (ex- having Weiss's volume 4 part occur before RNJR's part), we're going to be starting in the actual winter part. This means that some of the canon Vol. 4 moments will be occurring later, if at all. I know it might be a bit confusing at times, but bare with me. This is not going to be easy for me to write...
-As I've said earlier, not all timeskip changes will be shown immediately. Again, just bare with me. In a way, however, this will also allow you, the audience, to see how the change occurs over time. We got a long way to go.
-Similar as to how the volume 3 post-credits scene has been changed, volume 4's intro is changed as well. I hope you like it.
And as such, I've given two characters new designs that will be fully shown in time;
Pyrrha; Her hair is braided into a waist length braid with her bangs brushed aside, rendering her forehead visible. She no longer wears her traditional circlet, but instead wears a pink headband on the upper part of her forehead with a small ribbon on the front in honor of Penny. She wears armor covering her entire chest, her neckline and her shoulders. Under her armor, she wears a red t-shirt with a phoenix design over her stomach with the short sleeves, lined with a golden lining, stopping slightly past her shoulders. She wears brown tights with her red sash wrapped around her to create a mini skirt. She wears knee high wedged boots with golden armor on the upper part of her legs, along with red bracers on both of her arms.
Sun; His hair remains the same, but he dons a red ninja bandana on his head with long tails. His jeans are ripped, exposing his right knee wrapped in bandages and he no longer wears his pendant or white shirt. Instead he wears a black unbuttoned shirt with a sun image on the right side of his chest and gold trim around the waist part.
-Also note that Ironwood does not have his volume 4 design (I made this choice because Roosterteeth butchered his new model when they switched to Maya models in volume 4)
Now, without further adieu, let's get rolling!
[cue revamped RWBY Volume 4 intro and music-Let's Just Live]
[The intro starts out normal until the wind blows Ruby's hood down, showing Pyrrha (in updated volume 4 attire) between Nora and Ren, and the five continue walking forth, with Ruby in the front and team JNPR in the back. The intro continues normally, but instead of zooming into Jacques's eye, Willow is shown drinking red wine from a wine glass before tumbling down and showing Weiss breaking down, the screen shattering along with a wine glass breaking into pieces. Afterwards, the image is shifted to Pyrrha, now with her red cloak and hood down, kneeling in the snow with one of Penny's swords in her hands, tears streaming down her face and falling onto the sword before transitioning to Blake fighting White Fang members with Gambol Shroud. The opening continues on as normal, until Yang falls with the shadow of Adam's visage in front of her, but instead of Fennec and Corsac gliding in front of her, she fades completely before Sienna stands angrily with her chain whip in her right hand swung around once in the air, then towards the screen before proceeding to Salem's faction. The intro proceeds the same until we see Blake glaring at Adam, their swords against each other, and Sun (in updated volume 4 attire) spinning his staff as he charges towards Adam. The scene transitions to Ruby+team JNPR fighting the Grimm, with Pyrrha slashing her spear against the Grimm before cutting to Pyrrha at Jaune's left. Finally, Qrow and Raven (in their bird forms) fly over the quintet of heroes, showing team RWBY and the title RWBY at the end in the tundra.]
Bring Me to Life/Wake Me Up Inside
The shattered moon showed fragments of light as a young woman with green hair sat beside a damaged woman, lying unconscious on the bed. Emerald sighed. She sat by Cinder's bedside everyday, hoping that she would wake up. Three months had passed since the Fall of Beacon, and still, nothing had changed. She looked at the magical wires that Salem created to keep Cinder alive, sustaining her with magic. Most of the time, she didn't even notice them. This time... it was different.
"Cinder... Please... wake up..."
Deep inside Cinder's conscious mind, she was trapped in an endless nightmare. One moment it felt like she had victory in her hands, and then the next thing she knew, she was being injured by an overbearing, suffocating light.
Ruby slightly levitated in air as white angel wings created the suffocating light. "PYRRHA!"
The malevolent fall maiden felt the white light sting and her skin felt like it was on fire. "What?!"
The light soon engulfed her and she felt as though she was being painfully shocked with something that wasn't electric bolts. As Ruby came to the ground her eyes still white, a tear fell from her eye and Cinder was blasted off the tower, some of the white light sticking to her and attacking her. She tried to scream, but it felt like the air was ripped out of her lungs as the light wrapped around her left arm and began to disintegrate it. The left side of her face, ear and eye also caught the white light and began to burn and disintegrate along with most of her hair. As she fell, she watched helplessly in horror as she suffered severe damage. Then her back hit the ground and everything faded to black.
As the scene shifted to Emerald watching over Cinder, a knock was heard on the door. The thief did not give a response and the door was slowly creaked open, revealing Mercury on the other side. He saw Emerald and looked at Cinder, saying nothing.
After a long moment of silence, Emerald turned to him and asked, "Any good news to report?"
Mercury answered, "Well Tyrian has arrived, if that tells you anything."
The thief frowned. "I said good news."
"It is good news."
"You don't know what good news is." She twirled her chair around so that she didn't have to see him. "I don't give a damn about our so-called cohorts. I just want Cinder to wake up. I just want her to be okay..."
Mercury looked at his boss, still unconscious. He gave her a slight poke. No reaction. "I hate to say it Em, but she's not waking up. It's been three months, and nothing's happened. She could be like this forever..."
Emerald balled her fist in anger. "You just don't care, do you?!"
"Of course I care! But it's not going us any good to mourn for the dead." Mercury looked at his partner. "You have to move on."
"But she's not dead, you tin canned idiot! She's in a coma!"
"Enough." a stern voice said.
The two orphans turned to find the mistress of the Grimm standing before them in the doorway, her arms folded and an annoyed look on her face. "Mistress Salem." Mercury greeted.
"Madame Salem." Emerald said simultaneously.
"She hasn't stirred, has she?"
"Not one sign of movement, mistress." Emerald said sadly.
"The current treatment has been keeping her alive and slowly healing her, but it is not working fast enough. I was hoping that I would not have to do this, but if I want to hasten her recovery, I have no choice. Stand back." Emerald and Mercury backed away as Salem conjured a purple lightning bolt in her right hand. Before she could take further action, a soft moan was heard. Cinder's eyes twitched before slowly opening up, taking in the light as her eyes were slightly blurry.
"Cinder!" Emerald run to her side as Cinder sat up and Salem dissipated the magic in her hand. The young thief then threw her arms around the injured, formerly comatose woman. "I..." She began to choke up, her words threatening to fail her. "I thought we lost you."
Emerald broke away from the hug after Cinder returned the embrace. "Cinder? What happened?" Mercury asked.
Cinder tried to speak, but when she did, only very soft, barely audible sounds came out. She mentioned for Emerald to come forth, to which she complied. She whispered into Emerald's ear. She nodded as Cinder finished.
"What did she say?"
"She said that she can barely speak, and that she was somehow blasted off the tower and injured by Ruby."
"Basically what we already knew."
Salem turned to Cinder. "Given your current condition, I don't desire to interrogate you to no end. Just answer me this-Did you kill Ozpin?" Cinder nodded in confirmation. "Good." The Grimm Mistress turned to Cinder's subordinates. "Regarding her failure to defeat her opponent and retrieve Beacon's relic, it is a setback, but for the most part, Cinder succeeded in her objective." Cinder gave a weak thumbs up with her remaining arm. "Now come, I believe it is best if we leave her to recover."
Emerald and Mercury walked out, and soon thereafter, Salem did as well, leaving the damaged fall maiden to her thoughts.
What happened to me?
Taiyang was climbing up the stairs with a tray in his hands. On that tray was Ruby's breakfast- a plate of strawberries, warm croissants, an overeasy egg, a bowl of cinnamon apple oatmeal and a mug of warm hot chocolate. Through the opened door to the other room, he saw Yang nibbling on a piece of toast.
He turned away and knocked on Ruby's door. "Ruby... I made you breakfast. Are you okay?" He knocked on her door. No answer. He slowly creaked open the door with his back, only to find the room empty. "Ruby?" Tai saw a note on her bed, so he balanced the tray on his left hand and picked up the note in the other. Upon seeing the note, he dropped both the note and the tray, creating a loud crashing sound.
His eldest daughter came running to the site of the crash. "Dad? Is everything alright?" Yang noticed his worried silence. "Dad?"
Yang's dad picked up the note and showed it to Yang. "Ruby... She's gone. She left with team JNPR on a mission to Mistral."
Yang clinched her fist, shaking in silent sorrow. She thought to herself, How could she? How could she leave us with no warning?
Without another word, Yang left, retreating to her room. Taiyang sighed. "What am I gonna do now?"
All the teachers at Beacon are currently trying to fix Vale and Beacon, and with Yang in the current state that she is, there's no way I can leave her here to try and find Ruby and bring her back home. Or aid her in her mission. I can't just drag Yang out there either.
If only I could contact Qrow... but most likely he's away doing important work for Ozpin. He's probably out of contact boundaries. Still, I suppose there's no harm in trying.
He whipped out his scroll, scrolled through his contacts list and found Qrow Branwen towards the top. The contact was even starred. He pressed the button and dialed up his number, hoping that he'd be close to enough to receive the call.
After a few seconds, it started dialing and the first ring was heard. Taiyang looked up hopefully. Maybe Qrow would answer. Then a second ring came. A third. A fourth. After the fifth, it went to voicemail.
"Hey. It's me, Qrow. I honestly don't know why you're calling, but leave your name and number I might get back to you."
Beep. "Hey Qrow. It's me, Tai." Taiyang began his message. "I know you're busy with Ozpin's duties, or you're just trying to forget about your troubles, but if you're in the area and you're not horribly busy, I need to ask you a really big favor. If you're able, come to the house as soon as you can. Thanks."
He sighed. Then he saw the mess on the floor, sighing again, this time louder.
It was less than an hour since Cinder had risen and returned to the world of the living. She looked at herself in mirror, seeing the new outfit that Salem had given her to replace the old damaged one. Her outfit consisted of a long, dark red dress with one long, wide sleeve hiding her left arm. For the right arm, the edges of the collar and the opening were gold-colored, and the upper chest and left sleeve were decorated with golden designs.
The right side of her dress was open from the hip down with two gold-colored straps made up of interwoven ropes connecting the front and back halves of her thigh. Under the dress, she wore black pantyhose. On the right hip, the dress had a black rhombus-shaped gem set in a gold-colored metal of the same shape, with feathers of varying shades of blue. On her right arm, she wore a long, gray glove, the top of which has a gold-colored metal ring with curvy branching extensions going up her arm. Over her missing left eye, she wore a black mask made of black glass, and the scarring from said injury extended into a slight x-shape over the bridge of her nose, as well as having deformed and degraded the tissue of her left ear. Her right ear had a new, ring-shaped earring higher up than the dangling black gem earring.
As she stared at her new crippled self in the mirror, she briefly imagined her previous more beautiful self replacing her reflection. This was the Cinder that killed Amber and became the fall maiden. This was the Cinder that defeated Ozpin. The Cinder that almost killed Pyrrha Nikos.
She remembered that Pyrrha was bleeding out from her sacrifice. She was laughing at the warrior's misery before she was defeated. The image of Pyrrha Nikos came to her mind. Was there a chance that she was still alive?
Considering that Ruby is alive, it is likely that Pyrrha survived as well. I'm in no shape to face either of them. Not after being injured like this. But both of them could come after me. I may be weakened, but I'm not completely helpless. At least, that's what I would like to believe.
She suddenly felt fatigued and had to lie back down on her bed.
I need answers. But how will I get them?
Meanwhile, in Kuo Kuana, a White Fang messenger in Menagerie climbed up a long set of white steps to the top of a mountain. He heaved for breath as he trudged up the steps. By the time he finally got to the top, he was gasping for breath. After taking a moment or two to catch his breath, he knocked on a white door and continued panting as he waited for a response.
A few moments later, a bat-winged faunus, Yuma, answered the door. From the entrance, he could see a dark wooden floor, a yellow ceiling at least twenty feet from the floor, a hall that led to a living room/kitchen area, an open archway leading to another room on his left and a wooden staircase on his right.
"Letter to the Albain brothers." the messenger spoke.
"Excellent." He took the letter from the messenger's hands. "Would you like a glass of water and a place to rest?"
He readily accepted the invitation and went inside. "You are too kind."
As the messenger walked through the hall, Yuma flew over him, got the messenger a glass of water as he sat down on a white sofa and flew off to deliver the message. In front of him was a carpet and across from him was a grey haired, blue eyed spider faunus named Trifa, who payed no attention to him as she combed her hair.
Down in the basement, Fennec and Corsac stood before a shrine in a candlelit ominous looking room, candlelit, with White Fang banners hanging along the walls. The Albain brothers, Fennec and Corsac stood in front of a painting of a shadowed fox eared figure with an orange hood.
"I still can't believe how we rose to power." Corsac stated.
"While it is a tragedy, we can take advantage of the occurrences that occurred because of it." Fennec responded. "What's the old expression? 'When life gives you lemons, make lemonade?'"
"Masters Fennec and Corsac." Yuma said, still in air. He landed and bowed before them, extending the letter in his hand. "A letter addressed to you both."
Corsac took the letter from him and the bat winged faunus left as quickly as he entered. The Albain brothers looked over the letter. They both smiled as Fennec said, "It seems that Brother Taurus has finally responded."
Corsac's tail moved slightly. "We haven't heard from him in quite a while. Not since the Fall of Beacon."
"It seems he doesn't even know what happened here."
"I guess we will have to inform him that Diane fell ill and died. Since Aunt Diane died without any successors, as her nephews, we were the next in line."
"Unfortunately, Menagerie doesn't have a CCT tower like the rest of the world. It'll take forever to respond back."
"Even if we had one, it wouldn't do us very much good. Beacon's CCT tower fell, which means the entire CCT is down, remember?"
Fennec's ears drooped down in sadness. "Oh... Right..."
"Who knows? Perhaps we will be able to get a CCT tower one day."
The fox-eared faunus laughed. "Ha! That's a crazy thought!"
His brother folded his arms and pouted. "It is not!"
"It also seems that Adam could use assistance, with his troops being taken." Fennec scratched his head in confusion. "But what can we do?"
"Perhaps we could send one of our specialists to find him and aid him in his mission."
"We could, couldn't we?" Corsac nodded in agreement with Fennec's question. "Now for the real question- who do we send?"