It is almost funny how one person's decisions can change the fate of the world they live in, either for better, or for so much worse. In this timeline, there was never a team called RWBY. The heroes were not strong enough to repel the forces of darkness. White Fang was free to bring Remnant to its knees... and then remake it in their own image.
— FanFiction.Net summary.
An alternate-timeline RWBY fanfic written by Tharkun140
. In this story, Blake, instead of leaving her partner Adam as per canon, decides to accompany him on his quest to bring humanity down to its knees. Without Blake, and by extension team RWBY to protect Remnant, the world falls into a bloody war, followed by a victory for the forces of darkness. And that's just the beginning.
The story is told from multiple perspectives, heroes and villains alike, keeping a grim tone all throughout. It features multiple dark themes and is generally much less light-hearted than its source material
Currently ongoing.
Can be read here at FanFiction.Net.
The work contains examples of:
- Adaptational Badass: Thanks to some butterfly effect, the White Fang goes from a terrorist group with limited numbers and resources to a conquering force that attempts and ultimately succeeds in taking the entire Remnant over. Special mention goes to Adam Taurus, who goes from being viable to be defeated by two huntresses-in-training to a One-Man Army capable of annihilating entire armies all by himself.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: While he is still unambiguously evil, Adam exhibits some Affably Evil tendencies he lacks in canon. He shows a measure of respect towards his enemies, seems genuinely concerned about Blake's well-being and generally acts like a sane person in contrast to an Ax-Crazy, Narcissist madman he was in the original canon series.
- Adaptational Villainy: As per the premise of the story, Blake decides to stay with Adam and the White Fang despite seeing them become more radical and violent. While she is reluctant to commit evil deeds at first, she eventually turns into a remorseless killer on par with Adam himself.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Weiss is subjected to various means of torture for months on end. She was eventually left a complete wreck both physically and mentally.
- Death by Adaptation: Quite a few characters. So far the list consists of Taiyang Xiao-Long, Ilia Amitola, Winter Schnee, Cardin Winchester, Coco Adel, the entire Beacon staff and probably Jacques Schnee.
- Fate Worse than Death: Weiss and Yang both think that death would be preferable to the things they have to endure - constant torture and being blinded and imprisoned respectively.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Cinder clearly envies Adam his position as Salem's right-hand-man and considers him an enemy, even though the two of them are technically on the same side.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Weiss, though by Ilia's hands instead of Cinder's.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: Two of those in short succession. Weiss manages to kill Ilia when she is distracted giving an apology speech and Adam kills Winter as she taunts him, though the former spent a couple of moments silently bleeding out.
- La Résistance: The "Valean Resistance Front" with team JNPR as the leading figures.
- Made a Slave: After White's Fang victory, a good portion of humanity has been subjected to slavery. That includes Weiss after the White Fang got bored of torturing her that is.
- Modest Royalty: Blake feels somewhat ashamed at not being that and fully enjoying the luxuries that come with her new position. Lionheart plays it straight, at least in terms of his choice of living quarters.
- One-Man Army: Thanks to receiving "help" from Salem, Adam becomes an unstoppable monster capable of slaughtering Huntsmen with little effort and regular soldiers with even less effort.
- Pragmatic Villainy: For all their Fantastic Racism, the White Fang are willing to accept help from humans and avert Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves by treating the defectors as equal to the Faunus in their regime.
- Rebel Leader: Jaune assumes this role after Vale falls to the White Fang. He finds the role unsuited for him and extremely stressful, but he manages quite well.
- Shut Up, Kirk!: After hearing Yang call him a monster repeatedly, Adam gives a lengthy lecture in which he points out that her species is guilty of all the things she despises the Faunus for and that, in spite of what she might claim, there really was no other viable way for the Faunus to fully break free of oppression. Despite her deep hatred of the man, Yang fights it hard to argue.
- Slave Brand: The scar on Adam's face is confirmed to have been made by Schnee Dust Company when he was enslaved by them. Weiss also gets multiple marks before being Made a Slave, but in this case, this is not as much a way of marking her as simply a method of inflicting pain.
- Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Of all the things the White Fang has done, reintroducing slavery to Remnant is treated as a
Moral Event Horizon for all of them. Even Adam himself doesn't appear happy with the idea, but he reasons that forced labor is necessary to keep the regime going. - Spared By Adaptation: Since the villains had a much easier time than they did in the original, Roman Torchwick, Leonardo Lionheart and Adam Taurus are all alive and well over two years after the original storyline begins. On the plus side, Pyrrha Nikos appears alive as well.
- Surrounded by Idiots: While Adam is certainly glad that he was made a new ruler of Remnant, he does not enjoy having to deal with Salem's other subordinates like Cinder, Lionheart, or Tyrian.
- Take Over the World: The White Fang attempt and ultimately succeed in subjugating the entirety of Remnant under their rule.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Various members of Salem's cabal find it hard to work alongside one another. Blake despises Cinder and Roman, Cinder resents Adam for being chosen as Salem's Number Two over her, nobody likes Tyrian very much and Adam feels like he's Surrounded by Idiots, not to mention has his doubts about Salem's plans.
- The Revolution Will Not Be Civilised: Adam's revolution is certainly not one of the good sorts, as it involves mass murder, slavery, assassinations, torturing prisoners and killing innocents as a means of terror.
- Tragic Bigot: Yang muses that most of the "loyalists" are hateful or at least resentful towards the Faunus, but it's just a natural consequence of having fought the White Fang for so long.
- Villain Respect: Yang and her team managed to earn that from Adam after making a decent attempt to kill him.
- Villain World: What the setting turns into after the White Fang's victory.
- War Is Hell: The war between the White Fang and the Kingdoms was a nightmare for both sides. That said, what came to pass after its end isn't much better.
- We Have Reserves: While it's not their only advantage, White Fang has some major reserves that they utilize during the invasion of Atlas.
