Fanfic / RWBY Zero

"There has been an interesting development... Saber has just walked into Beacon."

— Kirei Kotomine

Arturia Pendragon arrives at Beacon to retrieve her wayward son Jaune, but is unexpectedly reunited with her old teacher and learns that he is waging a shadow war against the Mother of Grimm. Cinder Fall is ready to burn Vale to the ground but worries her mysterious new teammate may have an agenda of his own.

All the while, a shadow falls over Remnant as the King of Heroes enters the fray to take back what is rightfully his.

A war that no one is ready for begins, and Ruby and Jaune must lead their teams to protect everything they love as they learn painful truths, loss, and above all what it truly means to be a hero.

RWBY Zero by TheMaster4444 is a crossover fic between RWBY and Fate/Zero that nigh-seamlessly blends the two series' respective lores and weaves a story that takes full advantage of the characters and concepts from both works. An epic and dark adventure unfolds where ideals are challenged, secrets are unveiled, and friends and foes alike all head towards one goal: The Holy Grail.

It is now complete.

---

Tropes present in RWBY Zero:

• Above Good and Evil: Vernal says she doesn't care about what's good and evil, right and wrong. She only cares about winning and surviving.
• Action Dad:
  • Taiyang. Despite mostly staying at home in Patch and providing for his family he has been stated to be one the best huntsman on the face of Remnant and makes sure to remind his eldest daughter of this during their spars.
  • Nicholas Arc. Jaune's dad who was quite the huntsman back in the day as well as Arturia's husband. He managed to impress the King of Knights with his charm and optimistic personality to the point that two married and had a family.
  • Jacques Schnee. He is still incredibly weak in comparison to the other men on this list, but he claims to have worked in the security department of the Schnee Dust Company where would defend against Grimm before becoming its CEO. It should be noted that his ability to take punishment is considerably greater than his son's who grew up in the lap of luxury and despite months of imprisonment and implied tortures his pride is as strong as ever whereas his son was left as a small shell of himself.
• Action Mom:
  • Arturia Pendragon obviously. She's Jaune Arc's loving and doting mother and she is also the Goddamn KING OF KNIGHTS who can blow way a column of Golitaths and not afraid to do it.
  • Raven Branwen, as in canon. She is the mother of Yang, a huntress on par with Qrow, and is the Spring Maiden.
  • Crystal Schnee. The mother of Weiss, Winter, and Whitley when her youngest daughter is being kidnapped she reveals herself to be the friggin' Winter Maiden and kills Tyrian before engaging Caster. She loses to the latter only because she's been drinking herself into oblivion for the past 20 years instead of training.
• Adaptational Heroism:
  • Raven, while still antagonistic, is presented a lot more sympathetically then she was in canon. In the canon Raven abandoned her family to become the leader of the Branwen tribe, murdered the Spring Maiden, and allowed her daughter to take the Relic of Knowledge because she was terrified about Salem's retaliation. In this version however she left her family in order to find away to kill Salem because she didn't want Yang to be drafted in Ozpin's war, goes out of her way to protect Yang when Gilgamesh attacks them in the Vault of the Spring Maiden and her killing of the Spring Maiden was a Mercy Kill after she deliberately attacked Berserker in order to kill herself.
  • Due to a conversation with Gilgamesh early on in the story, Adam becomes much closer to a Noble Demon who is genuinely trying to save his people in the best way he knows how as opposed to the Psychopathic Manchild he is in canon who does what he does for his own benefit. Notably he actually shows loyalty to Sienna Khan and chooses not to usurp her as Leader of the White Fang unlike in canon. He also develops a grudging respect for Diarmuid despite being a human which his canon self would never do. Finally he chooses to sacrifice himself in order to hold back Hazel and Saber Alter and entrusts his dream to Blake and Diarmuid which again seems an unlikely thing for his canon self to do.
• Adaptation Name Change: Willow Schnee is instead named "Crystal Schnee".^note This was before her name was officially revealed to be "Willow".
• Adaptation Origin Connection:
  • Raven trained Adam Taurus in this fic serving as an explanation for their shared preference in weaponry and their use of Grimm masks. There is no such connection between the two in canon.
  • In canon Oscar doesn't have any connection to Hazel beyond whatever Ozpin has due to being his reincarnation. In this fic however, Oscar's family was saved by Hazel's sister Gretchen, which is where she tragically lost her life. This serves to fuel Oscar's admiration towards Huntsmen and Huntresses as well as give him agency outside of being Ozpin's mouthpiece.
• Adaptational Superpower Change:
  • Since the story began before Hazel's semblance and past were revealed in canon, his powers are stated to be different, so far appearing to have something to do with gravity control. The author has stated they will try to bridge their version with canon's as much as possible.
  • More expansion than change, but Ruby's silver eyes are extremely deadly to Servants as well as Grimm. Though, it is also noted that the first time they are unlocked against a Griffon at Amity Coliseum, they also annihilate a great deal of the stands. The author recognizes this and claims that the change is key to a later twist. It is revealed that Ruby is actually Ea, the Sword of Rupture and ultimate weapon of Gilgamesh and that she is channeling those powers through her Silver Eyes as well as their standard ability to harm Servants and the Grimm.
• Advertised Extra: Arturia is one of the characters listed on the fanfic yet she is killed at the end of chapter 13. This is justified to an extent as originally the first 13 chapters where going to be a separate story before it was decided to make it one giant story. The author even lampshades this in the author notes pointing out that one of the four listed characters is now dead just 13 chapters.
  • Subverted though, as she returns in Chapter 26 as Saber Alter. Her uncorrupted self finally returns near the end for the final battle with Salem, via possession of Winter Schnee's body.
• Affably Evil: Lancer Alter is this surprisingly. He claims that just because you're evil doesn't mean you have to be rude about it as he tells Weiss.

  Lancer Alter: Evil is one thing, my Lady, but rudeness is inexcusable.

• All for Nothing: What all of Blake's actions and choices amount to at the end. She betrays her friends, and cuts off Yang's arm all to win the Holy Grail only for the Grail to tell her that it needs a method in order to grant Blake's wish of faunus-human equality. Unfortunately, Blake knows of no other method short of genocide and thus, shamefully gives up her wish to Yang who is beyond furious at her and would have killed her if it weren't for Weiss and Gilgamesh. By the end she has destroyed all of her friendships since starting at Beacon all for something that couldn't grant her wish. The chapter makes it clear that it really wasn't worth it.
• All Your Powers Combined:
  • Gilgamesh. His Gate of Babylon grants him instant access to the original of just about every Noble Phantasm. It's the reason he's considered the strongest Servant.
  • Archer. Unlimited Blade Works as per canon creates perfect but inferior copies of any bladed weapon he lays his eyes on along with their histories and the combat skills of their original owners. Though it will always be inferior to the original.
• An Arm and a Leg:
  • Gilgamesh loses an arm in a fight against the Alters in the Grimmlands.
  • Rather sadly, despite the changes to the timeline Yang still ends up losing her arm. To Blake to prevent her from powering by Rider with a Command Seal.
• And the Adventure Continues: For all of Remnant in the epilogue. In the five years following Salem's destruction the Grimm have been whittled down considerably, but with their destruction the Dead Apostles have returned to replace them as the new threat that Huntsmen train to fight.
• Anti-Hero:
  • Archer, as per usual. He constantly snarks at his allies, lies to them, and keeps secrets from them. He even tries to kill Ruby inside Unlimited Blade Works when her sees her falling into the same mistakes he did that led to him becoming a counter guardian. He also tries to steer her away from her dangerous mindset of running off to battle to seek a connection to her mother and expresses great regret when it seems that Ruby would become like him. He doesn't show these feelings even towards his younger self in his own story.
  • Arturia of all people. She was the image of chivalry in the Fourth Holy Grail War. Now her only concern is her family and friends. She repeatedly refuses when Ozpin requests her aid against Salem and even tells Pyrrha that she has no obligation to follow through with Ozpin's request to become the Maiden.
    • When the Grimm attack Beacon during the Fall her first concern is the life of her son and it is only after much urging from Ozpin that she decides to defend the school. And even then she threatens to hold Ozpin responsible should anything ill befall Jaune.
  • Blake and Lancer both become this by the time of the final battle. While Blake tried to uphold a Thou Shall Not Kill policy she decides to use the Contender on Emerald and changes that policy to not killing her friends. When it becomes clear that this policy jeopardises her chances of winning against Yang's superior Servant she decides to Take a Third Option and cuts off Yang's arm to prevent her from powering up Rider. Lancer himself realises that his honour has hampered his previous masters from winning the Grail multiple times and decides to throw it away so that Adam and Blake's dream can become a reality and goes along with Blake's plan to sneak attack Rider before he uses his Noble Phantasm. This is All for Nothing however, as the Grail still needs a method in order to grant their shared wish of faunus-human equality which neither of them know how to achieve short of genocide. A line that neither of them cross no matter what.
• Anti-Villain:
  • Raven is being set up to be this even more than in canon. She orders Heracles to not kill Ruby and the second she senses that Tai is danger she portals back to Patch leaving her fight with Qrow. She also doesn't have many qualms about killing her brother should the need arise and even less about the lives of Jaune Arc and the rest of her daughter's friends. Her selfishness disgusts even Adam.
  • Emerald and Caster (Medea) are shaping up to be this. Despite having committed similar vile acts themselves, even they are shook by Salem's cruelty, her goals for Remnant, and the glee with which she commits acts of violence, most notably manipulating Whitley into turning Weiss into Weiss Alter and then letting her kill him.
  • Adam's character development is about him becoming one after Gilgamesh mocks him for being willing to compromise on the beliefs he once held for human and faunus equality. Notably, his encounter with Blake and Yang at the Fall of Beacon consisted of him saving them from Mercury and then offering Blake a place at his side instead of what happened in canon.
• Anyone Can Die: While this isn't surprising for a Fate centric story the RWBY half is notable as even plot relevant characters that are still alive in the canon work aren't save from being killed off at some point.
• Arc Words: Variations of "People rarely get what they deserve" tend to pop up every now and then.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • Kirei is being set up as this for both Ruby and Yang. Yang for nearly killing her and Ruby for his role the deaths of Pyrrha and Penny, the near killing of her sister, all to make her suffer for his own amusement. The sisters' hatred for him has skyrocketed after he shot their father with an Origin Round.
    • Though Kirei is only interested in fighting Ruby and barely even considers Yang an opponent. It is ironic thus, that it is Yang who ultimately kills him.
    • Kiritsugu and Kirei used to be this back in the day. Having drawn a great sense of purpose from that conflict and now having lost it, Kirei is hoping to mold Ruby into being the perfect adversary for him the way that Kiritsugu was in order to fill the void left by his nemesis' passing.
  • Ozpin and Salem.
• The Archmage: This is what Oscar becomes in the epilogue due to having been Merlin's pupil and is thus, in charge of training the new generation of Mages that have appeared in the years following Salem's defeat.
• Artistic License:
  • Diarmuid and Iskandar retain their memories of the Fourth Holy Grail War despite Nasuverse lore stating that Servants don't retain their memories from previous Wars (Arturia being the exception due being summoned from Avalon instead of the Throne of Heroes). Though Diarmuid himself notes the peculiarity of this but does not know the cause. And even Iskandar doesn't know if his spirit even resides in the Throne of Heroes anymore. So it may yet be explained.
    • That said, more recent Nasuverse lore says that if a Servant were summoned via a method other than the Fuyuki Grail, they may retain memories of previous summonings, so it's retroactively subverted.
  • In his own canon Assassin is a hypothetical version of Kiritsugu Emiya who never allied with the Einzberns for the Fourth Holy Grail War thus, never married Irisviel or had a child. In this fic, Assassin has been written as an amalgamation of every Kiritsugu Emiya in every timeline who took Alaya's contract, possessing all of their memories and experiences. This is likely to allow him to have more dynamic interactions with the major characters he has a history with in the timeline this fic takes place in.
  • In the video game Cu Chulainn Alter is a Berserker and his personality is that of cold and stoic killing machine. In this fic, he is a Lancer and his personality while more violent and sadistic is closer to his uncorrupted self appearing in Fate/Stay Night, making him more like the Cu Alter who appeared in Moczo's Chaos Theory.
• Asshole Victim: Jacques Schnee easily. While he tries to put up a fight against Hazel to avenge his son's death but when Blake questions him about Weiss he declares that she will "burn in hell" for what she has done ruining any sympathy there might have been for him. Suffice to say that that no one is sorry he is dead. Even Hazel who normally tries to avoid killing his enemies has no regret for killing Jacques.
• The Atoner: Raven. She blames herself for the death of Summer Rose and now wants to win the Holy Grail to wish her back to life. She is so hellbent on this crusade that she is willing to kill her own brother and allow her husband to die a slow agonizing death from getting shot with an Origin Round.
• Awesomeness by Analysis:
  • Archer. Just like in Fate/Stay Night his magecraft allows him to instantly analyze and understand any bladed weapon he lays his eyes on including their make and combat experience allowing him to have the same mastery over the weapon as its previous owners. There is also just the fact that he is master tactician in his own right.
  • Kirei. His tactical prowess was already highly impressive even before coming to Remnant, but having his Aura unlocked also unlocked his Semblance: Understanding. This allows him to instantly discern another individual's talents, abilities, as well as the application of their weapons. This combined with his own combat experience makes it nigh-impossible to catch him by surprise.
• Benevolent Boss:
  • Ozpin. He is essentially the ringleader for the war against Salem, the commander of the forces for good, and treats all of his followers with respect and kindness and even expresses remorse when his actions cause them harm.
  • Salem of all people. She is the harbinger of the apocalypse but is a surprisingly reasonable leader. According to her none of those in her inner circle follow her against their will and even expresses genuine sadness at the death of former protege Cinder. Indeed when Emerald suggests that Salem benefited from Cinder's death she became greatly angered and affronted by the notion that she would callously cast aside her own.
• Better to Die than Be Killed:
  • Once Salem has amassed all four relics, Raven realizes she's out of options. While she could easily flee to Avalon and abandon Remnant to its fate, she can't bear to damn Yang to such a horror. As such, she opens a portal and fits her head through it, gives the group a Dying Message, then closes the portal while her head is still in it, decapitating herself. Her last thoughts being on Yang, making Yang the new Spring Maiden.
  • Salem catches Kiritsugu with the Black Mud and starts corrupting him. Knowing he did his part by destroying the Relic of Destruction and injuring Kirei, he promises Salem that Ruby will save the world and shoots himself in the head.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Between Kirei, Gilgamesh, and Salem. All three of them have a desire for the Holy Grail and the wish it will grant. Though Kirei and Gilgamesh are working together to obtain their mutual goals. All three have taken very personal actions against our heroes and their machinations are responsible for the grief of many of our main characters as well a great deal of devastation across Remnant. Not to mention the many characters on both the hero and villain sides that are out for their blood. By the end of the fic Kirei betrays Gilgamesh and switches sides for Salem so he can have one final battle with Ruby. He is the first to die against Yang before he can complete his fight. Gilgamesh performs a Hazy-Feel Turn and helps the heroes once he finally accepts that Ruby is Ea. This leaves Salem as the Final Boss and the climactic battle is decided between her forces and the heroes.
• Big Brother Instinct: Jaune displays this towards his sisters when a few of them become infatuated with Archer. Mordred also starts displaying this towards him.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Adam, Ilia, and Lancer. Surprisingly. Just as Blake and Sun are about to be taken out by Vernal and Lancelot, Adam gets a chance to save his (or so he thinks) girl. Even Blake is relieved.
    • Even before that, Adam arrived just in time to keep Mercury from killing Blake and a comatose Yang during the Fall of Beacon.
  • Mordred. Nora is more than relieved when Mordred arrives in spectacular fashion via Jaune's command seal and drives away the attacking bandits before engaging Lancelot.
  • Jaune. He recovers just in time stop stop save Ruby from allowing herself to be killed by Archer.
  • Oscar/Ozpin. He barrels in full reinforcement magecraft activated to save Qrow from a Maiden-powered Raven.
  • Sort of an involuntary version, but Rider ( Iskandar) is summoned just in time to prevent Kirei from killing Yang.
  • Happens a lot during the Battle of Kuroyuri. Ruby and Jaune's group teleports in to reinforce the badly outgunned Blake, Mordred, Nora, Ren, and Sun, Sun pulls Qrow out when the Arma Nuckelavee gets the upper hand, Emerald saves Caster from Mordred's Noble Phantasm, Yang and Rider show up just in time to save everyone, etc.
  • Gilgamesh of all people get the biggest one in Chapter 93 where he opens up his Gate of Babylon all over Remnant and instantly destroys countless Grimm that were about to murder defenseless, innocent people. It seems he finally lives up to the title, King of Heroes.
• Big "NO!": Played completely straight with Jaune as he tackles Ruby out of the way of Archer's Mercy Kill.
• Blade Spam:
  • Gilgamesh. Pretty much his calling card as per canon. Him having nigh-unlimited genuine noble phantasms that he can fire at his opponents in a gatling gun fashion makes him pretty much the most powerful Servant. The only reason he doesn't finish every fight in three seconds is because he refuses to take any of his opponents seriously.
  • Archer. Once again as per canon via Unlimited Blade Works. Though his blade spam is ultimately deemed to be inferior to Gilgamesh's and even Ruby manages to guard against it (though Archer was holding back and Ruby was boosted by Jaune's semblance and even then could only barely keep herself from being torn apart).
• Blood Knight:
  • Kirei. He delights at the enhanced physical abilities granted to him by having his Aura unlocked in Remnant and desires to test them out against strong opponents. He is disappointed when he and Mercury are pitted against Coco and Yatsuhashi in the Vytal Festival and neither prove to be a challenge. He later tells Adam Taurus to make it "entertaining" when the Faunus threatens to kill him the next time they meet. He also looks forward to Ruby's development and fighting her but this has less to do with her strength and more to do with her character and personality, hoping that she develops a mindset that will bring him the most joy in crushing her.
  • Lancer Alter (Cu Chulainn). Much like his other counterparts across the Fate franchise Cu lives for battle but this blackened version of him is even more violent and relishes in slaughter and bloodshed.
  • Weiss, after her blackening due to Salem's manipulations. She finds her enjoying "battle and blood" more than she ever did almost as much as Cu. Even she is surprised by her newfound bloodlust and is actually elated at the thought of fighting against her old friends in Team RWBY.
• Body Guard Crush: Weiss Alter towards Lancer Alter. This eventually develops into more than a crush by Chapter 67.
• Bow and Sword in Accord: Though these are far from Archer's only weapons thanks to Unlimited Blade Works, they are the ones he prefers to use.
• Brain Bleach:
  • Jaune rushes to the bathroom and throws up when Ruby tells him that in another life, Archer was his mother Arturia's lover.
  • Yang struggles not to throw up when the Relic of Knowledge shows her visions of the past. In one, Raven suggests she and Summer have a threesome with Taiyang.

• Break the Haughty:
  • Mordred goes through this at the beginning of Chapter 45 when she tries and fails to unlock Excalibur's power herself, forcing her to admit that her treachery in life made her unworthy of Arturia's heirship and she only ended up doing exactly what Morgana created her for.
  • Having Archer's copies from Unlimited Blade Works perfectly counter his weapons from the Gate of Babylon and even managing to hold his own and even beat Gilgamesh in battle when Iskandar, Karna, Heracles, and even Saber couldn't invoke this feeling in Gilgamesh.
• Cassandra Truth:
  • Happens a lot with Mordred:
    • She refuses to believe Jaune is Arturia's son and thus her brother at first.
    • She doesn't believe Oscar/Ozpin used to be Merlin because she remembers Merlin as an obnoxious Dirty Old Man. Ozpin says he got over that long ago.
    • She is especially stubborn in her denial of Saber Alter being King Arthur because in her mind, her father is a paragon of perfection and would never allow herself to be corrupted by anything. She is forced to acknowledge otherwise after seeing Saber Alter use Avalon to heal Nicholas as only King Arthur's Prana can activate Avalon's healing powers.
  • Gilgamesh refuses to believe that Ruby is Ea.
• Chekhov's Gun: The author has a habit of mentioning certain details in passing only for them to become very important later on.
  • In Chapter 10, Kirei mentions that he including several psalms in the information he gives Adam regarding the Holy Grail War. This comes into play much later in Chapter 54 when Adam uses one of those psalms to give his Command Seals to Blake, just as Kirei himself did in Fate/Zero.
• A Child Shall Lead Them: In the epilogue it is the children who participated in the Holy Grail War that inherit Remant in the new era. Ren and Blake both wind up as headmasters of Huntsmen Academies. Weiss winds up head of the S.D.C. Oscar winds up inheriting all of the unclaimed land on Remnant courtesy of Gilgamesh and also is in charge of training the new generation of Mages who had begun awakening their magic circuits following Salem's defeat. Even Yang and Jaune both become world renowned Huntsmen.
• Climax Boss: The battle against the heroes verses Salem and her army of Grimm that concludes at the end of chapter 91 serves as the action climax of the story. After her death however, Gilgamesh pulls out the Holy Grail and the final conflict becomes concluding the Sixth Holy Grail War. The author even notes this at the end of the chapter.
• Cool Uncle:
  • Archer becomes a second one to Ruby after she learns his identity as Emiya Shirou, her grandfather's adopted son in another timeline. He eventually starts returning the sentiment referring to her as his niece.
  • Gilgamesh somehow ended up becoming this to Weiss and Cu's child Setanta, in the five years following Salem's defeat where Gilgamesh and Weiss worked closely together to restore order to a post-Salem Remnant. He is apparently Setanta's favorite caretaker and even gave the boy Gae Bolg to play with when he was just four years old. Weiss was not amused.
• Combat Pragmatist:
  • Assassin (Kiritsugu Emiya). It comes as no surprise that there are no methods of fighting that he considers beneath him and nothing about combat that he considers sacred. He will mock anyone who thinks anything noble can be derived from battle.
  • Archer (EMIYA). Naturally. He has no qualms about attacking the Master instead of the Servant to gain an advantage something that no other "honorable" hero would consider.
  • Mordred. Her sword technique is egregiously unrefined and thus makes up for it by being utterly ferocious in battle and doing anything she can to win, going so far as to throw her sword in battle if it's gain her the edge.
  • Ruby. Following the battle at Haven and the trauma from the deaths of Archer and Qrow she has adopted this mentality as a way to cope with all of her pain.
• Composite Character:
  • Merlin was Ozpin's first life in this story.
  • Hazel is The Last Hero and a future version of Waver Velvet.
• Crossover Relatives: Arturia Pendragon is Jaune Arc's mother, having married his father following the Fourth Grail War. This also makes him Mordred's half-brother, which comes into play when he summons her during the next Grail War.
• Cruel Mercy: This essentially what Yang does to Blake after being talked out of burning her alive for her betrayal. She is forced to live the shame and knowledge that she can't repair the friendships she destroyed and that she could not attain her goals either.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Arturia vs. Jaune, Ruby, Blake, and Ren (JRBR). It's so one sided it isn't even funny. Even with her massively holding back JRBR is utterly annihilated and Jaune and Ruby only manage to land a lucky shot by using the most unorthodox method they can think of. And even then, Arturia is hardly phased and proceeds to lay down the smack down.
  • Yang vs Kirei (First fight). Kirei takes her out in a single hit despite her charging at him with her semblance fully activated. She is left with several of her bones shattered and in a coma for months.
  • Archer vs. Ruby and Jaune. Despite being substantially weaker than Arturia, Ruby fully realizes that Archer could easily kill them with his bare hands and doesn't even need to bother throwing swords at her.
  • Assassin (Kiritsugu) vs. Yang and Taiyang. Assassin is greatly holding back and only keeping them busy so Kirei doesn't order him to kill them. Tai knows that if Assassin really wanted to, he could kill both him and Yang effortlessly.
  • Archer vs. Lancer Alter. Archer has never had a winning record against Cu, and the Irishman's new powerup just makes the fight even more one-sided. Best exemplified when the former needs a Command Seal boost to match Gae Bolg with Rho Aias, while originally he could do it on his own.
• Curb Stomp Cushion. Archer vs. Heracles. Archer is fully aware he has no way to overcome his opponent effectively, but he still manages to get in some good hits and even take one of his lives.
• Darkest Hour: Two major ones happen which, perhaps unsurprisingly, act as the curtain close of the various acts of the story.
  • Much like in canon the Fall of Beacon serves this role albeit in different ways. Unlike in canon Beacon is able to be recovered thanks to Gilgamesh killing the Grimm Dragon. Unfortunately Pyrhha still dies, the Sixth Holy Grail War is activated, and Arturia is accidentally killed when Ruby releases her Silver Eyes.
  • The end of chapter 65, AKA the battle of Haven, ends with Archer being killed after Kirei shoots him with an Origin Round in Unlimited Bladeworks right when he almost killed Gilgamesh to boot. Both of the Berserkers are killed and Raven is captured to be tortured by Gil and Kirei right after Yang found out that her mother truly did love her. Qrow is killed by Weiss Alter as part of her plot to take away the people she believes are 'corrupting her friends'. Finally Oscar is kidnapped by Salem's group and brought to her who then uses Rule Breaker to dispel the curse that causes Ozpin to reincarnate, effectively killing him, and separating the heroes from the last adult authority figure they have in this war.
• Dead Guy Junior: Happens in the epilogue of Chapter 94.
  • Ren and Nora's twins are named after Pyrrha and Mordred.
  • Weiss names her and Cu's child after his father's original name before becoming the Hound of Culann, Setanta.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  • Archer. He might as well get a Nobel Prize for how much sarcasm he can deliver in single sentence.
  • Qrow. Our favorite drunk is this to a T. Even though he's less offensive than Archer, he is no less restrained.
    • Interesting to note that both of the above men are in a roundabout way Ruby's uncle. Plus both of then slick their hair back. Hmmmm.
• Death by Adaptation: Several, namely from the RWBY side.
  • In canon, Qrow and Ozpin are still alive, albeit Ozpin is merged with Oscar. Here, Qrow is killed by Weiss Alter and Ozpin is destroyed after Salem uses Rule Breaker on Oscar.
  • Cinder and Mercury are still alive in canon, although Cinder is effectively exiled by Salem for failing her. Here, Cinder's turned into the Grail by Kirei, effectively killing her, and Mercury is killed by Adam while he's fighting Blake and Yang.
  • Sun's still alive even after the battle of Haven, but here, performs a Heroic Sacrifice to save Jaune from Arturia Alter.
  • Adam dies much earlier here than in canon. In canon, Blake and Yang kill him after he refuses to stand down and tries to kill them, whereas here he sacrifices himself to save Blake from Hazel.
  • Whitley and Jacques are both alive and well in canon. Here, Whitley is killed by Cu Alter once Weiss is turned into an Alter, and Jacques is killed by Hazel.
  • Tyrian and Watts are both currently alive in canon. Here, Tyrian is slain in battle with Crystal Schnee, the Winter Maiden and Watts is killed by Qrow during the Battle of Haven.
  • Raven is still alive, albeit MIA, last spotted fleeing to Patch in canon. Here, she pulls a Heroic Sacrifice to warn the others that Salem has all four relics, shortly before killing herself and passing the Spring Maiden powers to Yang.
  • In canon, the real Merlin is still alive, albeit trapped in Avalon, with his summonable self simply being an avatar manifested while he's sleeping in Avalon. Here, since he's a Composite Character with Ozpin, he's killed by Salem when she uses Rule Breaker on Oscar.
  • And easily the biggest death of all Ruby who sacrifices her physical form in order to blast Salem to pieces and turns back into Ea.
• Defiled Forever: As usual, Gilgamesh is absolutely disgusted by the sight of Arturia succumbing to the corruption of the Grail to become Saber Alter and considers her no longer worthy to be his.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: When Gilgamesh shows up in Chapter 60 to try to kill the Arcs as punishment for Arturia's "infidelity," Nicolas begins taunting him over how even if Arturia hadn't chosen him, she would never have gone for Gilgamesh due to his It's All About Me attitude. Of course, this angers Gilgamesh enough to skewer Nicolas with the full force of the Gate of Babylon, but this is fortunately undone by Saber Alter using her connection to Avalon to heal him.
• Dirty Coward: Mordred accuses Gilgamesh of being one after Kirei shoots Archer from behind during his and Gilgamesh's duel. Subverted, as Gilgamesh still acknowledges Archer as the victor and greatly disapproves of Kirei's intervention.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • Due to a lack of communication between Atlas and the rest of the world, Winter Schnee is gearing up for a rescue mission to save her father and siblings after learning that they got kidnapped by Salem. She is unaware that her father and brother are long dead and that Weiss has been corrupted into serving Salem.
  • Despite betraying Salem due to not wanting to become Alters, Emerald and Caster end up returning to Salem's castle to get the Relic of Creation (both because they don't want Salem's plan to succeed and so they can use the Relic to give Caster a physical body) and end up fighting and dying against Blake and Lancer to protect said Relic.
  • In the original show Yang lost her arm in a desperate attempt to save Blake from Adam by the end of the fic Yang losses her arm again... to Blake who cuts it off so that Lancer can defeat Rider without killing her friend.
• The Dreaded: Gilgamesh has more than earned this title. During the Fifth Holy Grail War he defeated Karna, who according to Ozpin could've wiped Vale off the map whenever he felt like it. Everyone dreads the idea of facing Gilgamesh as he is the most powerful Heroic Spirit and has been all but confirmed to be more powerful than Salem herself. Indeed the Mother of Grimm goes to great lengths to summon three Servants to her side to even the playing field, and it still might not be enough. Raven especially is terrified of him, despite being the master of both Heracles and Lancelot, because she somehow STOLE EA from him.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: A major theme of this work is that no matter how hard you try you won't get everything you want and how nothing will simply be handed to you. All the characters who receive happy endings (or something resembling a happy ending) had to make terrible sacrifices and suffer loss before they get there.
• Earth All Along: Chapter 7 reveals Remnant is a post-apocalyptic Earth thousands of years into the future, hence the name.
• Easily Forgiven:
  • Jaune forgives Mordred rather easily for betraying and killing Arturia during both of their first lives. This is justified by the memory cycle putting him in her place during the events, giving him a greater sympathy for her side.
  • This is lampshaded by Archer when Ruby forgives him for trying to kill her. The only thing he can do in response is burst into a laughing fit before deciding to just roll with it.
    • Averted with Jaune and Qrow however. They take a lot longer to forgive Archer but eventually come to see him as an ally and even a friend.
  • Upon regaining her memories as Ea, Ruby's hatred for Gilgamesh dissipates completely as she remembers all the good times they shared as he grew up. This is justified by Ruby's memories of her time with Gilgamesh greatly outnumbering her memories as a human, and likely knew him longer than anyone else. Though she does smack him upside the head for being an imbecile. No one else is so lenient with him though, mostly steering clear because he's simply too powerful for them to actually to anything about.
  • Averted BIG TIME with Yang towards Blake at the end of the story. Yang is literally burning Blake alive for cutting off her arm and betraying her for the Grail and is only just talked killing her by Weiss and Gilgamesh. Even after being given the wish by Blake, Yang makes it clear that it is too little too late and there is no forgiveness to found from her. Five years later, Yang has only begun considering talking with her again if only for the revived Ruby's sake.
• Enemy Mine:
  • In the distant past, Ozpin and Salem as Merlin and Angra Mainyuu teamed up to stop TYPE Mercury from destroying the planet.
  • With Ozpin/Merlin erased by Rule Breaker, Oscar has no choice but ally with the recently betrayed Gilgamesh in order to stop Salem and Kirei.
• Entertainingly Wrong: When Ruby summons Archer, she automatically assumes from his eyes that he is a Silver-Eyed Warrior from the past and asks him to train her to use her Silver Eyes. He immediately bursts her bubble as he knows nothing about the Silver-Eyed Warriors and his eyes don't have their powers.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Gilgamesh may be a narcissistic tyrant who sees everyone in the world as dirt beneath his feet but he keeps to the few standards he sets for himself, one of which being that he refuses to accept help in any battle even as he is about to lose. He was furious that Kirei interfered in his battle with Archer even though Archer was about to kill Gilgamesh.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Mordred eventually confesses she is in love with Nora. Nora says if she wasn't already in love with Ren, she would take Mordred up on her offer.
• Evil Counterpart: Kirei to Archer (EMIYA) as Ruby begins to realize. Both of them are empty beings only capable of finding fulfillment in one thing; equal yet opposite in their determination; two sides of the same coin. It's how Ruby knows that as long as Kirei still breathes he will continue hounding her no matter what it costs because just like Archer, he does not care about himself at all.
• Exact Words:
  • When Nora, Ren, Blake, and Sun are attacked by Raven's bandits and Lancelot, Jaune uses a Command Seal to send Mordred over to help, ordering her to protect Nora and Ren. Mordred arrives to find Ren unconscious, Nora fighting the bandits, and Blake and Sun losing against Lancelot. Nora asks her to help Blake and Sun, but she points out due to Jaune's wording, she has to protect Nora and Ren. Nora then points out the bandits are cannon fodder and she needs no protection from them, freeing Mordred to take on Lancelot.
  • Ruby's Command Seal on Archer was worded to keep him from harming from her friends, but not her. She uses this to try to prove Archer's trustworthiness since he hadn't tried to kill her since the battle in Unlimited Blade Works even though he has had plenty of chances.
    • The Command Seal works against them as well however, because he is unable to help if Ruby's friends try to harm her. Shown in Chapter 42 where Archer is unable to attack the Blackened Weiss when she and Lancer Alter attack them because his Master still sees Weiss as a friend.
• Fallen Hero:
  • Archer, as per canon. Ruby's slowly helping him get better.
  • It's strongly implied that Hazel used to be a hero before joining up with Salem. He is actually The Last Hero, the last person to become a Heroic Spirit. He also used to be Waver Velvet.
  • Chapter 24 reveals this to be the case with the Grimm, as their origins turn out to be Heroic Spirits summoned by Salem in imperfect blackened forms.
  • Weiss ends up becoming this as a result of being pushed into the Grail's corruption by Whitley.
  • Salem revives Arturia as Saber Alter, which, as anyone whose played through the Heaven's Feel route can attest, has gone through this trope.
• Foil:
  • Archer (EMIYA) and Qrow. Both of them are talented and experienced warriors who in a roundabout way happen to be Ruby's uncles. They also slick their hair back and have a notorious sarcastic streak. However, while their experiences on the battlefield have left both men jaded Qrow still holds out hope that everything can work out while Archer scoffs at any kind of idealism.
    • On a side note Archer is noted in his own canon to possess horrible alcohol tolerance while Qrow consumes the stuff like water and it doesn't affect his performance in combat in the slightest.
  • Archer (EMIYA) and Assassin (Kiritsugu). Both men are Counter Guardians who wear red and are known for their pragmatic approach to combat. The overuse of their respective magecraft has resulted in both of them having their complexions darken, their hair turn white, and their eyes turn silver. While Archer is absolutely tortured by his existence as a Counter Guardian, Assassin is actually content with it even though it doesn't bring him any joy. Whereas Archer possesses only vague and sparse memories from when he was alive, Assassin is the amalgamation of every Kiritsugu Emiya in every timeline and world who took Alaya's contract possessing complete recollection of all their memories as well as their emotions. There is also the fact that Archer is Assassin's son.
  • Archer (EMIYA) and Rider (Iskandar). In addition to being the Servants of sisters Ruby and Yang, both have as their main Noble Phantasm a Reality Marble that embodies a facet of war, but while Rider's Marble symbolizes the glory and friendship between the armies that fight, Archer's represents the weapons and skills wielded in battle by those same soldiers, resulting in it resembling a war-torn battlefield. Also, Rider believes in The Power of Friendship and sharing the battlefield with comrades, while Archer believes in fighting alone so nobody else gets hurt.
  • Raven and Crystal. They are both Maidens who specialize in using ice and snow, but while Raven is in peak fighting condition able to easily overwhelm Qrow when using her powers, years of drinking and lack of training have resulted in Crystal being greatly weakened to the point that she has great trouble killing Tyrian (who is a fighter equal to Qrow). Also, despite the Maidens being existences capable of matching any Servant in combat Crystal is defeated by Caster (Medea) the physically weakest of Servants due to her own poor physical condition. Both are mothers to a member of Team RWBY and possess a strained relationship with their daughters. For Raven it is because she abandoned her daughter when she was a baby. For Crystal it is due to her constant drinking making her unable to provide the emotional support that Weiss needed. While Raven saved her daughter only once and has declared that is all she will get, Crystal fought with everything she had to keep Weiss from being kidnapped despite her poor health. Later in the hospital despite not having fully recovered she declares to Ironwood that she will personally storm the Grimmlands to find her children (Luckily Ironwood stops her, telling her that she will only get herself killed).
  • Mordred and Nora. Both are small girls who pack a big punch. Both girls love beating the hell out of anything that moves and both have an affinity for lightning. Though whereas Mordred generates it to increase the power of her strikes, Nora absorbs it to boost her strength to the point that she can push back Lancer (Diarmuid). Also while Nora is incredibly friendly and loves giving big hugs, Mordred is incredibly foul-mouthed and offensive and does not like hugs. Despite this though, the two getting along very well.
• Fountain of Youth: Kirei was able to infiltrate Beacon Academy as a student by consuming Gilgamesh's herb of youth, turning himself back into a teenager.
• For Want Of A Nail: The catalyst for everything that happens in the fic is when Kiritsugu orders Arturia to destroy the Grail, he decided to comfort her, as her anguish reminded him of Illya. He tells her that he wishes that there was a world where heroes could make a difference. As he says this within the vicinity of the Grail, it accepted it as a wish, unleashing Angra Mainyu and wiping the world clean, giving way to the world of Remnant.
• Forgot About His Powers: Ruby and Archer have a discussion with Kirei and Assassin. After they part ways, Archer starts kicking himself for forgetting he could have used Rule Breaker to sever Assassin's contract, which would have freed his father Kiritsugu from having to serve Kirei.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Assassin is this upon joining Ruby's group after forming a contract with her. As Lancer states so eloquently:
  Lancer: Everybody who knows you tolerates you at best and despises you at worst.
• Gender Bender: Salem used to be Angra Mainyu.
• Godzilla Threshold: With Salem having assembled all four Relics and only an hour and a half away from eradicating all of humanity, and Oscar left on his own after she killed Ozpin/Merlin, Oscar has no choice but to ally himself with the recently betrayed Gilgamesh, and ultimately must reunite Gilgamesh with his sword Ea. Sadly, said sword is Ruby now.
• Good Can Not Comprehend Evil: Kiritsugu who believes War Is Hell can not comprehend how Kirei thinks. This is something that has been eating at him ever since their final duel at the end of the Fourth Holy Grail War.
• Good Parents:
  • Taiyang, of course. He watches over a comatose Yang until she wakes up, repeatedly encourages her to get back on her feet and catch up with Ruby, and in the epilogue, advises Yang to try and forgive Blake for her actions, if not for the Faunus' sake, then for her own.
  • Kiritsugu to Summer. Their time together may've been short, but he made her the Huntress that became the leader of Team STRQ, and Qrow says that Summer had nothing but good things to say about her adoptive father (but also gave off the impression that he was the most dangerous man on Remnant.)
• Go Out with a Smile:
  • Despite being unable to kill Gilgamesh due to Kirei's interference, Archer dies with a smile on his face in the arms of his father and his niece, and passes on the remainder of his power to her to carry on their shared ideals.
  • Assassin does a Grin of Audacity version before turning his Contender on himself to keep Salem from turning him into an Alter. Both to enrage her and because like his son, he fully believes Ruby will beat her.
  • Saber Alter ultimately dies with a smile on her face after Mordred kills her once her son realizes her true self as a Knight of Rebellion and passes away proud of her "Prince of the People".
  • Kirei despite utterly failing at everything he tried to do once he betrayed Gilgamesh leaves the world with the same Psychotic Smirk he always had, reasoning that a life spent in debauchery and sin is good enough for him even if he'll never know true satisfaction.
• Heroic BSoD: Mordred becomes depressed when she gets her hands on Excalibur, but cannot activate its powers because the sword does not consider her worthy. She concludes this means Arturia was right and she never deserved to be King, thus her rebellion was meaningless. Jaune snaps her out of it.
• Heroic RRoD: Ruby damages her body every time she traces a weapon. Despite her affinity with weapons, her body is not compatible with the Unlimited Blade Works she inherited from Archer with Kiritsugu even stating that if it had not been crippled by the Origin Round it would have killed her outright. She also seems to be suffering from something similar from using too much of her silver eyes', and by extension Ea's, power, with a glowing silver scar appearing on her face after she pushes herself to purify Nicholas.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Many over the course of the story, but the most prominent occurs in Chapter 91 when Ruby attempts to unleash Ea's full power on Salem, her already ravaged body unable to survive using so much of the Noble Phantasm's power. Made all the more heartbreaking when she spends the previous scene expressing just how much she doesn't want to die before resigning herself to the fate to save everyone else from the Mother of Grimm.
• Hero Killer:
  • Saber Alter makes quite a splash in her first appearance. She takes everything Mordred and Diarmuid can throw at her, would have killed Jaune if not for Sun taking the blow in his place and finishes off Adam after he is wounded against Hazel.
  • Blackened Weiss also has a Hero Killer moment of her own in Chapter 61, killing Qrow in order to "save" Ruby and Yang from being raised to become Ozpin's soldiers against Salem by him.
• Hope Spot:
  • Chapter 63 has Archer fighting Gilgamesh inside Unlimited Blade Works and is even winning against the King of Heroes. Then Kirei shoots him In the Back with an Origin Round.
  • Chapter 81 has Ruby stabs Weiss Alter with Rule Breaker, turning her back to normal. Unfortunately, the Black Mud is still inside her body, and Salem quickly turns her back into Weiss Alter.
• I Hate Past Me: Archer hates himself to the point that he can barely speak his own name (Shirou Emiya). Even in his own thoughts. He refers to his past self as that boy. The fact that Ruby reminds him so much of his past self doesn't help much.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Penny is still torn apart in the singles' rounds by Pyrrha's semblance due to Cinder's manipulations.
  • Pyrrha is still killed at the Fall. Though there is something left to bury this time. Whether that's good or bad is up to the reader.
  • Ozpin is still "killed" by Cinder and later reincarnates into Oscar.
  • Despite being blasted who-knows-how-long into the future to Remnant, Kiritsugu still ends up saving a red-haired child from a fire before adopting said child as his own. Lampshaded in text:
    "A fire. In every world, in every timeline, there was always a fire. But it seemed that boy was not the only one who was ever found." Archer broods over how Summer Rose was saved by Kiritsugu in a situation almost identical to his own.
• I Will Fight No More Forever: Weiss seems to have taken this stance after Salem's defeat and being freed from her corruption at her hands. She can no longer bring herself to hold a weapon without shaking due to her actions under Salem's thrall and even gave Myrtenaster to Gilgamesh to be stored in his vault as she no longer bare to even looks at it. Instead, dedicating the rest of life to the S.D.C. and politics in the post-Salem Remnant.
• Just Toying with Them: Gilgamesh treats every battle like this. His pride will not allow him to use his full power against an opponent unless they earn his respect in some way. And the number of people who have done that can be counted on one hand. Terrifyingly enough, he can still blow away virtually any opponent without having to move at all.
• Kill It with Fire: What Yang begins doing to Blake after her betrayal before she is stopped by cooler heads.
• Killed Off for Real: Anyone Can Die here, but while some don't have their deaths stick, others are dead for good.
  • On the RWBY side, we have Summer, Pyrrha, Sun, Cinder, Mercury, Adam, Whitley, Jacques, Tyrian, Watts, Qrow, Ozpin, and Raven.
  • On the Fate side, we have Karna, Archer, Lancelot, Heracles, and Merlin (since he's Ozpin).
• Kryptonite Factor: Ruby's silver eyes are this to Grimm as per canon, as well as to Servants. They are powerful enough to kill Arturia by accident and force Kirei to reinforce Gilgamesh with FIVE Command Seals in order to survive it. Justified in Chapter 24 when Salem reveals to Weiss exactly what the Grimm are: Servants summoned in sub-par blackened forms.
• Kung-Fu Wizard:
  • Kirei. This is justified since his skills in magecraft are actually greatly limited and the only one he can use in combat is some rudimentary form of reinforcement. He makes up for it with brutal hand-to-hand combat and is so skilled that the only ones he believes he has to fear in Remnant are the Maidens and Ozpin. This might actually be true if his fights so far are any indication.
  • Ozpin. He is the reincarnation of the ancient wizard Merlin who makes use of magic and just straight-up bashing his opponents with his cane.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Kirei spends the entire fic manipulating and backstabbing everyone around him including betraying Gilgamesh once he realised Ruby's true nature as Ea. In the end joining Salem's side ultimately leads to his comeuppance twofold. Firstly he gets hit with numerous Origin Rounds from Kiritsugu putting Kirei on a clock that will run out before he can see Salem's new world, much like how he himself put Taiyang on deaths door with his own Origin Rounds. Secondly he never gets to finish either of his duels with Kiritsugu or Ruby, which is the reason he betrayed Gil in the first place and decided to find Ruby himself instead of recovering and potentially living long enough to see Salem's world. Instead Ruby is teleported away from their Final Battle by Oscar's spell and Kirei is killed by Yang, the woman he dismissed multiple times throughout the fic, and emotionally manipulated. All things considered Kirei takes his death fairly well.
• Laser-Guided Tyke-Bomb: Upon learning that Ruby is Ea, Yang and Weiss both begin to suspect that her entire life was set and based around her being the weapon that will deal the final blow to end Salem. Weiss outright says this to her during their fight in Chapter 81 as part of a Breaking Speech.
• Last Request: In the Fifth Grail War, before Gilgamesh finished off Karna, Summer Rose's Lancer, Karna asked that he let Summer and her allies go free. Gil was highly tempted to break that promise when Summer tried to attack him out of grief, but honored Karna's request and let them leave.
• Loose Lips: Yang in her anger accidentally reveals that Raven is one of the participants in the Holy Grail War... to Gilgamesh who, until that point, thought she had been killed by him for stealing his treasures. Yang is naturally horrified to realise her mistake once Gilgamesh decides to hunt her down.
• Mama Bear: Arturia.
• Man of Kryptonite: Hazel's powers are actually a Noble Phantasm that increases an object or person's weight the older they are. Since Servants are from ancient times, this ability actually affects them more severely than regular people.
• Manipulative Bastard:
  • Kirei Kotomine. He successfully manipulates Cinder Fall into becoming the Fall Maiden only to betray her resulting in her becoming the vessel for the Holy Grail effectively killing her to kick start the Sixth Holy Grail War.
    • He is also trying to emotionally and psychologically torture Ruby into becoming the perfect adversary for him like Kiritsugu used to be.
  • Ozpin. A benevolent example but nonetheless operates on need-to-know basis with most of his allies. Even his closest lieutenants don't know everything about him while he sends them off to fight battles bigger than he's willing to inform them of.
  • Salem. To a horrific level. She kidnaps Weiss, Jacques, and Whitley keeping the latter two imprisoned and barely alive to coerce Weiss into becoming her apprentice. And when Whitley is brought before Salem his mental state has greatly deteriorated and seeing how well his sister has been treated in comparison to the torture he and their father were subjected to, he is driven to try to kill Weiss by throwing her into the black mud of All the World's Evils. And all of this was to successfully twist Weiss into coming under her thrall to summon Blackened Servants to fight for Salem's side against Gilgamesh.
    • Not to mention that the new Weiss Alter had Lancer Alter (Cu Chulainn) murder Whitley without a second thought. Salem does nothing to conceal her satisfaction with her new apprentice's transformation.
• Manly Tears: Ironwood stoically sheds tears when he finds out Qrow is dead.
• Mercy Kill:
  • This is how Archer sees his actions towards Ruby in Chapter 32 and even he is deeply regretful of it knowing that it will not change his own fate. But after Ruby admits she would become a Counter Guardian herself if it means she can defeat Kirei, Gilgamesh, and Salem he reluctantly attempts to do so. Even Ruby doesn't resist at this point. This is only averted thanks to Jaune's timely intervention.
  • Raven killed the Spring Maiden because she lost her nerve and attacked Berserker Lancelot. He left her body mangled and Raven finished her off to ease her suffering.
• Mistaken for Gay: Nora throws everybody for a loop by revealing she thought Taiyang and Qrow were a couple. Everybody quickly corrects her and moves on.
• Mistaken Identity:
  • When Gilgamesh meets Ruby for the first time, he mistakes her for her mother Summer Rose. Kirei has to remind him that he killed her already.
  • When Jaune summons Mordred, he mistakes her for Arturia due to their resemblance. This earns him a punch to the face.
  • Lancer also mistakes Mordred for Arturia.
  • To make it a heartbreaking three for three, Jaune's youngest sister Amber also mistakes Mordred for Arturia when they run into each other in the Mistral marketplace.
• Money Is Not Power: Weiss Schnee, her father Jacques, and her brother Whitley get kidnapped by Salem. Jacques thinks this is about ransom and asks Salem how much she wants. Salem says this is not about him, this is about Weiss. Confused, Jacques says Weiss has been disowned and has no access to the family fortune. Salem mocks him for thinking this is about something as insignificant as money. What she wants are Weiss' powers on her side. With Jacques and Whitley imprisoned, it will reduce the chances of Weiss running away, as even though she hates them, she still cares about them on some level.
• More than Mind Control: Salem could have easily thrown Weiss into the black mud herself and saved months of time but instead chose to manipulate the girl and her father and brother to the point of turning the latter two against Weiss. This was done to create genuine feelings of betrayal to secure her complete loyalty through truth as well as magic.
  Emerald: Why didn't you just throw Weiss into the pit yourself?
  Salem: How could I make her see things my way if I did to her exactly what I said others would? Showing her the faults of humanity through her family made her more, agreeable.
• Mundane Utility:
  • Mordred uses her Red Lightning to sanitize her hands.
  • Kiritsugu - ever the pragmatist - is perfectly fine with using his Time Alter Magecraft to smoke a cigarette at super speed. Even Rider is bemused by this.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Ruby sees herself as a monster when she found out she accidentally killed Arturia with her Silver Eyes. Qrow snaps her out of it.
  • Jaune nearly breaks down when he realizes he absorbed some of his mother's (Arturia) prana with his semblance as she lay dying. Effectively accelerating her death. Ruby and Archer calm him down with a well needed pep talk
  • Weiss briefly has this moment in Chapter 34. She feels guilty for killing her own brother but it is stamped out by the black mud within her. She similarly experiences this again in Chapter 67 for killing Qrow but once again is pacified by whispers of the Black Mud. It is implied that Salem's influence is actively preventing her from feeling guilt for her actions.
    • She has it worst in Chapter 81 when Ruby and Winter briefly sever Salem's hold over her with Projections of Rule Breaker and she is assaulted with full guilt of her actions under Salem's thrall. She breaks down into a sobbing mess, begging Ruby to kill her for all that she has done. Once she is fully freed from Salem's control she officially crosses the Despair Event Horizon and is only able to go on when she agrees with Mordred's plan to summon Arturia in order to make amends for what she did.
  • Hazel has such a moment after Ruby destroys him with her power as Ea coming to regret her weakness in submitting to Salem. Ea ends up assuring him that he did the best he could in a world such as Remnant and that he lasted far longer then anyone else to Salem's whispers allowing him to die peacefully.
• My Greatest Failure: Kiritsugu considers his to be that he couldn't give his children anything more than his foolish ideals to cling to when he saved them from their respective tragedies.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: Arturia has adopted this mindset in regards to serving Salem after her Blackening and returning as Saber Alter. While she still loves Jaune and her children and says as much to him, she holds that she is honor bound as a knight to serve her new Master and that her oath supersedes all other other vows. She is however, not above questioning Salem nor unaware of the possibility that she may back out on their bargain - that her surviving family members be allowed to live free if Salem wins - when it no longer benefits her.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • Weiss Alter wants to corrupt her friends and turn them into fellow Alter's so they can be together forever. She actually succeeds in submerging Ruby in the mud but instead of corrupting her it fully awakens Ruby's memories as Ea and kickstarts her powers into overdrive allowing her to blast herself out of the mud and fully burn Salem's corrupting influence from within Weiss Alter's body turning her back into Weiss.
  • Emerald assaults Blake with visions of the deceased Adam and Sun during their climactic clash for the Relic of Creation asking her if her morals are worth more then truly helping her people and if their sacrifices were for nothing. Hearing these taunts is what ultimately makes Blake decide to do what is necessary and shot Emerald with the Contender.
• No-Sell: Ruby proves to be the only person in the story completely immune to Salem's corruptive mud due to her past as Ea who will only allow Gilgamesh to wield them.
• Odd Friendship: Though "friendship" might be a strong term when they are forced to team up, Oscar and Gilgamesh work surprisingly well together; enough that Gilgamesh is actually happy to continue their partnership for the next five years as they work together to restore some order to a post-Salem Remnant.As they part ways, Gilgamesh notes that he is actually proud of how far Oscar has come and even Oscar admits their time together has "been interesting".
• Offing the Offspring: Although she still loves them, Saber Alter has no problem trying to kill Mordred and Jaune. Of course, this is only because they are working against her new master Salem and has no problem allying with them against a common enemy.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Ozpin, Arturia, and Qrow when Arturia remembers Kirei was a master. Especially when they realize he is working with Gilgamesh who Arturia recalls vividly from the Fourth Holy Grail War. As does Qrow from this timeline's Fifth.
  • Archer has this moment when he is about face off against Heracles.
    • He has another one when facing off against Cu Alter. Understandable, considering the regular Cu Chulainn killed his past self and this version is far more powerful and psychotic than that one.
  • All the heroes present have one in Chapter 53 when it's revealed that Salem's revived Arturia as Saber Alter who is now Hazel's Servant.
  • Archer and Ozpin both absolutely freak out when Raven reveals she somehow stole Ea from Gilgamesh.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Rider Alter (Darius III) has this attitude towards Iskandar due to Iskandar being the one who overthrew his kingdom in life with him being unable to do anything about it due to being betrayed by his governors.
• Only Sane Man: Emerald feels that she is the most normal of all of Salem's faction and is both disgusted and/or annoyed by the rest of the group. She also does not exhibit their unwavering loyalty towards the Mother of Grimm.
• Only the Chosen May Wield:
  • Excalibur is this kind of weapon as per its legend. It won't allow anyone not up to its standards to make use of its abilities. When it is presented to Jaune, the sword deems him unworthy to wield it. He does not disagree. It also rejects Mordred for obvious reasons. In Chapter 71, after Mordred has developed into a more compassionate person, Jaune presents Excalibur to her and she is able to draw it.
  • After stealing Ea from Gilgamesh, Raven tried to wield it, but even with Lancelot's Knight of Owner, it wouldn't let her use it. Even Salem herself is unable to control Ea when Ruby is submerged in the mud as Ea will only allow itself to be wielded by Gil and forcibly destroys the mud to free Ruby.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Nora becomes somber when they reach the crossroads between Kuroyuri (Ren's destroyed hometown) and the path up the mountains. This actually causes Blake to become terrified and Mordred to acquiesce to Ren and Nora's desire to take the longer path through the mountains.
  • Mordred, normally undeterred and excited at the prospect of facing any opponent becomes serious and alert when facing Lancer Alter due to being concerned and unnerved by his Blackening. She barely reacts when he mentions her gender. This lets the others in the party know just how serious the situation is.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Ren feels this way following the battle in Kuroyuri due to being unable stand up to Servants like Ruby, Jaune, and sometimes Nora. He is snapped out of his self-pity by Ozpin and Qrow.
• Papa Wolf: Assassin/Kiritsugu, big time. He repeatedly strains against Kirei's Coomand Seal that keeps him from killing his master, both out of their prior enmity and because Kirei killed Summer, his adopted daughter. When Archer dies after using Rule Breaker to free him, the first thing Kiritsugu does is attempt to kill Kirei, his son's murderer. He also becomes a grandfather version to Ruby once they forge a contract; his main motivation throughout the final battle isn't revenge, but to give his granddaughter a chance at a better world, regardless if he dies for it.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Ruby. It is finally revealed in Chapter 64 that Ruby is actually the Sword of Rupture Ea, given human form by Summer's semblance. Thus, since Ruby is technically an Anti-World Noble Phantasm, she can potentially destroy the world. Raven outright refers to her as a "weapon of mass destruction" when she is created.
• Portal Cut:
  • Gilgamesh kills Heracles by tricking him into leaping into a Gate of Babylon portal, then closing it when he was halfway across, slicing him in half. He comments he recently developed that technique to stop thieves of his treasury.
  • Raven closes one of her portals on her own head to keep Salem from extracting the Spring Maiden powers from her.
• The Power of Love: Nora is immune to Lancer's Love Spot because she is already in love with Ren.
• Power Parasite: Jaune's semblance allows him to transfer his Aura to another person as per canon but here, it also allows him to steal Aura (or any energy tied to the soul) from another along with any abilities tied to it i.e. their Semblance. The first time he used it, he accidentally absorbed some of his mother's (Arturia) prana, allowing him to use Strike Air.
• Rags to Riches: Happens to a number of characters in the epilogue.
  • Oscar starts out the story as a farmhand and by the end of the story winds up as one of the richest people on the face of the planet, courtesy of Gilgamesh, who started a land trading and development company in Oscar's name by buying up all of the unclaimed land on Remnant overnight.
  • Due to their role in the war against Salem, Ren and Blake are made the headmasters of Haven and the newly opened Wukong Academy respectively.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Kirei gives one to Yang about her aimlessness. He points out that while everyone else at Beacon has a dream they're working towards, she's just sticking with them out of fear of being abandoned and he states that it will cause her friends to do just that when they have to choose between her and their own dreams. Mentioning Raven right after provokes Yang into attacking him and leaves her wide open for a counter attack that puts her in a coma for over a dozen chapters.
  • Kiritsugu gives one to Diarmuid about his "knight's honor" which is eerily reminiscent of his confrontation with Saber in the Fourth War. Though, unlike Saber who responded with pity upon realizing that Kiritsugu must have been through great suffering to think the way he does, Diarmuid sneers at Kiritsugu that his methods have failed to save or help anyone.
• Related in the Adaptation:
  • Arturia Pendragon is the mother of Jaune and his sisters in this story. This also makes Mordred their older half sibling.
  • In this timeline, Kiritsugu Emiya rescued and adopted a young Summer Rose. Making him Ruby's adopted grandfather and Shirou her kind of uncle.
  • Dr. Arthur Watts is Jacques Schnee's brother, making him Weiss' uncle. Though, the former doesn't care and the latter doesn't know.
  • Illyasviel von Einzbern is revealed in a Flashback to be the progenitor of the Schnee line.
• Retcon: At first, the story treated Vernal as actually being the Spring Maiden. When the show revealed that she was a decoy and Raven was the real Spring Maiden, the author rewrote several scenes of Vernal using her powers as Raven using them.
• Revenge Before Reason: After seeing Salem's madness and horrifying plan, Emerald and Caster decide to escape the Grimmlands. Just as they are about to escape in a Bullhead, Emerald finds out Kirei is there to make a deal with Salem. Ignoring Caster's protests, Emerald comes out and attempts to take revenge for Kirei's murder of Cinder.
• Rousing Speech: Iskander shows off his Charisma Skill at the end of Chapter 74, by giving a strong, inspiring speech to the forces of Atlas as they reach the Grimmlands.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After hearing Salem's plan to wipe out most of humanity and turn the remainder into Alters, Emerald and Caster wisely decide that the time has come to duck out.
• Self-Duplication: According to one flashback, Summer's semblance is the ability to create clones of herself out of weapons. When combined with Ea's sentient weapon properties, it instead turns the Sword of Enuma Elish into a baby version of herself - Ruby.
• Sibling Team: Jaune and Mordred become this.
• Shout-Out:
  • Being exposed to The Relic of Knowledge in Chapter 62 causes Yang to catch glimpses of several different universes, specifically The Legend of Korra, Gravity Falls, Steven Universe, Dragon Ball Z, One Piece, Naruto, and My Hero Academia.
  • After he learns about Qrow's death, Ironwood has an exchange with Winter that channels Roy Mustang after a certain funeral.
  • In Chapter 74, among Ironwood's troops are Grif, Simmons, Sarge, Caboose, and Donut from Red vs. Blue. Donut is dating Cammie from gen:LOCK.
• Skeptic No Longer:
  • Seeing Saber Alter use her connection to Avalon to heal Nicolas after being skewered by Gilgamesh forces Mordred to realize that this is indeed her father after all.
  • Gilgamesh finally accepts that Ruby is indeed Ea when Oscar uses the teleport spell that links the two to transport her to the battle with Hazel.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Vernal survives the battle of Haven and joins the group for the rest of the story, even playing a big part in getting them to Atlas. The epilogue shows she became the combat teacher at Menagerie's new Wukong Huntsman Academy.
• Suicide by Cop:
  • It's revealed that, unlike in canon when Raven killed her but left ambiguous as to why, in this story Raven actually did train the Spring Maiden to use her powers. Unfortunately the fear and pressure of being a Maiden eventually lead to her deliberately attacking Berserker in order to have Raven kill her and inherit her powers. She even thanked Raven as she died for doing so.
  • After realizing the Grail is unable to grant his and Blake's wish of faunus-human equality without a method they know of, Lancer in shame and grief launches a half-hearted attack on Arturia so she will kill him and they can at least conclude their duel and he can die with some semblance of his honor in tact.
• Sympathy for the Devil:
  • Weiss can't help but feel this way for Salem after learning of her origin as Angra Mainyu in spite of her cruelty.
  • Averted for Ruby with Kirei. She doesn't express any pity for Kirei when he tells her of his inability to derive happiness from anything other than evil acts and the pain his condition causes him. Of course, Kirei isn't bothered by this in the slightest and is actually pleased that Ruby has such hate for him as he wants them to be enemies.
• Take a Third Option:
  • Ruby is torn between using the Holy Grail's wish to either defeat Salem and the Grimm or cure Taiyang of the damage he took from the Origin Round. Despite himself, Archer suggests if they win, she use her wish for one and he use his own wish for the other.
  • Yang wants to wish for Salem's defeat or to heal Taiyang, while Iskandar wants to wish for reincarnation. Eventually, the pair runs into Gilgamesh, and Iskandar convinces him to try to kill Salem, freeing Yang to potentially wish for Taiyang's health.
  • A rather cruel version in Chapter 92. Blake knows she has to remove Yang as a Master so she can't power her Servant to win the Grail, but cannot bring herself kill her. So she doesn't; she removes her command seals by cutting off her arm.
• Take Up My Sword:
  • Adam entrusts Blake with his Command Seals thus, making her Diamuid's new Master in the hopes that they will fulfill will his dream of faunus - human equality even if he will not live to see it.
  • After getting shot by an Origin Bullet by Kotomine, the dying Archer has Jaune use his Semblance to transfer Unlimited Blade Works from himself to Ruby.
  • Perhaps not fully intended but as Raven is dying she thinks of Yang and thus, passes on the powers of the Spring Maiden to her.
• Taking the Bullet: Lancelot shields Raven from a Gate of Babylon barrage and dies from it.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Assassin (Kiritsugu) with everyone in Ruby's group except Ruby herself. His cold demeanour, dishonourable approach to combat, and history as the (unwilling) Servant of one of their greatest adversaries makes them all more than a little wary of him. Diarmuid outright hates the man for he did to him in the Fourth War and can only just tamp down on his urge to kill him. Assassin for his part, doesn't actively dislike any of his new allies or even deny that Diamuid has more than enough reason to hate him, but his attempts at clearing the air so far have devolved into him deriding the idealism of his allies and making things worse.
• That Man Is Dead: Salem has this attitude about both her previous identities as Angra Mainyu and the anonymous villager that was sacrificed as a scapegoat in the first place.
• This Cannot Be!: Gilgamesh is shocked and flabbergasted when Archer is able to match him blow for blow and eventually overpower him with nothing but Projection magecraft.
• Time Master: As per canon, Kiritsugu's Innate Time Control (Time Alter) magecraft can speed up the time in his own personal space enabling him to move at higher speeds. When he reappears as Assassin in the Sixth Holy Grail War his abilities are no longer limited by the weak human body allowing him to use his magecraft at a level that he theorizes can allow him to outpace any of the other Servants, making him nigh-unbeatable in close combat.
• Tragic Keepsake: In the epilogue, Yang wears the remaining piece of Summer Rose's white cloak — obtained from Gilgamesh's vault — in the style of Raven's headscarf as a way of remembering both of her mothers.
• Unstoppable Rage: After Blake cuts off her arm for the Grail, Yang begins literally burning her alive with her Maiden powers and is just barely talked out of killing her by Weiss and Gilgamesh.
• Villainous Breakdown: Gilgamesh starts undergoing one in chapter 66 after the Battle for Haven after he almost died to Archer, a "faker", and only survived because Kirei killed Archer with an Origin Round. Archer being able to fight against him despite being a "faker" shatters his ego and he starts harbouring doubts about himself. He even refuses to believe his clairvoyance when it tells him that Ruby is Ea because acknowledging that Ea might be flawed means that he will have to acknowledged that Enkidu, the only other existence in the universe he completely trusts, is flawed as well and he doesn't want to disrespect his friend like that.. He suffers from another one in Chapter 76 after Kirei betrays him to Salem and he is nearly killed by the Alters.
• Villainous Friendship: Kirei and Gilgamesh have had this sort of relationship since the beginning of their partnership. Kirei is one of the few people that Gilgamesh doesn't refer to as a mongrel and is capable of holding a casual conversation with him. And Kirei is pretty much the only person who appreciates the King of Heroes' unique personality and style of socialization. Though most outside observers simply assume that Kirei is Gilgamesh's minion. The idea that he might genuinely consider Kirei a friend doesn't even cross their minds. Indeed, Gilgamesh lets Kirei get off scot-free with a lot of things that other would be killed for. That said even Gilgamesh has his limits and his friendship with Kirei takes a massive hit after the latter shoots Archer with an Origin Round thereby dishonourably saving his life. He even refers to Kirei as a snake in his thoughts afterwards. Their friendship is broken completely in Chapter 76 when Kirei betrays Gilgamesh and nearly forces him to kill himself with his command seals when their goals are no longer mutual.
• Villain Respect:
  • Gilgamesh still possess this for Iskandar. When he brings him up in a conversation with Adam and the terrorist dismisses him as a fool, the King gets truly angry with him for the first time. He also acknowledges that Pyrrha has "the foolishness of a conqueror" after he stops Cinder from killing her. He is thrilled when Iskandar is summoned for the Sixth War, glad to have at least one worthy opponent.
  • He also gained enough respect for Karna after their battle that he granted his request that his Master and her allies be allowed to leave alive. A request he fulfilled even after Karna's Master attacked him to avenge her fallen Servant.
  • Gilgamesh unwittingly gains some respect for Archer for defeating and nearly killing him. The only reason Gilgamesh survived is because Kirei used an Origin round on Archer before he could land the final blow. He even allows Ruby and her friends to leave alive to make up for Archer's dishonorable loss.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Ruby interestingly enough. She most definitely wants to protect Remnant and fight off the Grimm but is also desperately seeking a connection with her deceased mother and believes she will find it living the way she did and becoming a hero.
• Wham Episode: We seem to get one every few chapters.
  • Chapter 7. It's even lampshaded by the author. This is when things take a dark turn with Kirei insulting Yang by using her mother before nailing her with his most powerful Bajiquan strike leaving her out cold in a single blow and barely alive. It doesn't get much better in the following chapters.
  • Chapter 12. Kirei and Gilgamesh finally betray Cinder just before she can kill Pyrrha and kill her to kickstart the Holy Grail War. Ruby and Arturia both arrive to try to help, but all three are knocked off the tower and Arturia chooses to save Ruby when she sees Command Seals appear on her hand. Oh... and Kirei calls the new war the SIXTH Holy Grail War, implying there was another that took place before the story began but after the Fourth Holy Grail War of Fate/Zero.
  • Chapter 13. Following up on the events of the last chapter, Emerald, Adam, Jaune, Ruby, and Raven are revealed as Masters, and Raven indicates that she has done it before, with a still present Berserker (Lancelot) supporting her. Oh yeah, and the aftermath of Ruby's silver eyes are shown, Gilgamesh is badly injured despite Kirei reinforcing him with Command Seals, and Arturia dies in Jaune's arms. Repeat, Arturia Pendragon, Saber, THE KING OF KNIGHTS, is DEAD not even halfway through the story.
  • Chapter 24. The Reveal that the Grimm are in fact Heroic Spirits summoned in imperfect blackened forms and that Salem herself is Angra Mainyu.
  • Chapter 26. Whitley shoves Weiss into the Black Mud, causing her to become corrupted and serve Salem willingly. She summons Ch Chulainn Alter and has him kill Whitley.
  • Chapter 33. Yang is revealed to be the final master and summons Iskandar as her Rider-class Servant, right after Taiyang is shot with an Origin Round.
  • Chapter 35. Follows up on the events of Chapter 33. We learn that Taiyang's Aura has been impossibly warped leaving him in a state of perpetual agony and in need of constant sedation. To top it off the man now has AT MOST two years to live.
  • Chapter 54. Sun sacrifices himself to save Jaune from Saber Alter's attack. Adam decides to transfer his Command Seals and contract with Lancer to Blake before sacrificing himself to stop Hazel so that Blake and her friends can escape. Adam manages to slice Hazel in half before getting mortally wounded by Saber Alter, but Hazel pulls himself back together and reveals he is actually The Last Hero, The King of Aura and the first person to awaken a Semblance.
  • Chapter 63. Salem's minions capture Oscar/Ozpin and prepare to deliver him to Salem. Archer battles Gilgamesh with Unlimited Blade Works and defeats him, but before he can deal the final blow, Kirei mortally wounds him with an Origin Round. Before Archer dies, he manages to free Assassin/Kiritsugu from Kirei's control with Rule Breaker, then has Jaune transfer Unlimited Blade Works to Ruby. Kiritsugu disarms Kirei of his Contender and tries to kill him, but Gilgamesh and Kirei escape and capture Raven, trapping her inside Gate of Babylon. And the heroes aren't even aware yet that Weiss has killed Qrow.
  • Chapter 64: Salem reveals she plans to flood the entire world with her Black Mud, which will kill a majority of the population but turn the survivors into Alters. She then stabs Oscar with Caster's Rule Breaker, destroying Ozpin's soul. It is revealed in a flashback that Summer Rose turned Ea into baby Ruby Rose.
  • Chapter 68: Since Ruby inherited Unlimited Blade Works from Archer, she is able to restore Crescent Rose and Trace several Origin Rounds. Crystal Schnee is still hospitalized, but Dr. Polendina is able to transfer her Winter Maiden powers to another person. Winter Schnee is the Master of Ruler.
  • Chapter 72: Everyone realizes Salem has already acquired Atlas' Relic of Creation, meaning she'll be able to summon more Alters and accelerate her plans.
  • Chapter 76: Gilgamesh and Kirei give Salem the Relic of Knowledge and Raven. With Salem's help, Kirei uses the Relic to learn that Ea became Ruby Rose. Not wanting Gilgamesh to interrupt his intended final battle with Ruby, Kirei betrays him and uses his Command Spells to order him to commit suicide. Emerald and Caster stab Kirei with Rule Breaker, saving Gilgamesh, then blow up Salem's castle and escape. Gilgamesh battles Hazel and the Alters, but without a Master, he is weakened and loses. Oscar manages to escape with his unconscious body. Raven attempts to escape via a portal to Yang, but when Salem stops her, she commits suicide to keep her from getting her powers. With her death, Yang becomes the new Spring Maiden.
  • Chapter 91: The entire chapter is just one gut-wrenching farewell for Ruby. She prepares to unleash her full power as Ea and cast aside her human form and does so with great splendor. The Grimmlands are annihilated and Ruby (as Ea) and Gilgamesh finally pass judgement on All the World's Evil and destroy it for good. With the Alters and Salem gone all that remains is for the remaining Servants - Arturia (in Winter Schnee's body after being pulled from the Throne of Heroes), Lancer, and Rider - to have one last battle to decide the victor of the Sixth Holy Grail War.
  • Chapter 92: With Salem finally eliminated and Remnant saved the only remaining Masters - Jaune, Blake, and Yang - prepare to have one last struggle for the Holy Grail which still needs a winner. Blake - both due to her guilt over Adam and Sun's deaths and being influenced by Lancer's curse preventing her form tolerating any harm to him - tearfully cuts off Yang's arm along with her Command Seals preventing her from supplying Rider with Prana and allowing Lancer to kill him easily. Then, she and Jaune grapple at the end but Jaune cannot bring himself to kill her and Blake makes it to the Grail, thus winning the Sixth Holy Grail War. But at what cost?
  • Chapter 93: The penultimate chapter of the work. Since the Grail needs a method by which to fulfill Blake's wish of faunus-human equality, Blake is devastated since she knows no method short of genocide and realizes she betrayed her friends in the previous chapter for nothing. Yang start to burn Blake alive with her Maiden powers and is only barely talked out of killing her by Weiss and Gilgamesh. Blake gives her wish to Yang and Lancer gives his to Arturia in shame. It seems that Blake has destroyed all of her friendships with her betrayal, permanently shattering Team RWBY. Yang uses her wish to heal her father after Gilgamesh implies he may be able to restore Ruby to existence after she transformed back into Ea. Arturia proceeds to wish for a new body for herself after Gilgamesh gives a vial of his Herb of Immortality to restore Winter's soul which was shattered by Arturia inhabiting the woman's body. In the closing moments of the chapter, Gilgamesh activates his Gate of Babylon all across the world and destroys a large portion of the remaining Grimm and saving countless innocents. Finally, he beseeches that the survivors spread the word that it was Ruby Rose who saved them all, no doubt solidifying her as arguably the greatest hero in Remnant's history.
  • Chapter 94: The finale and epilogue. Where to begin? A new Huntsmen Academy is opened up, the Wukong Academy name in honor of Sun Wukong who died in the War with Blake as its first headmaster at the age of 18. Ren is similarly named headmaster of Haven for his defense of the school during the War. Oscar becomes the owner of all of the unclaimed land on Remnant courtesy of Gilgamesh buying it up in his name to prevent the kingdoms from fighting over them and starting another war too soon. Oscar also starts training a new generation of Mages due to a number of people awakening their magic circuits after Salem's defeat due to the planet restoring itself in the spiritual sense. With the Grimm being wiped out the Dead Apostles have returned replacing them as the threat the Huntsmen train to fight. It turns out the Weiss and Cu actually had a child, which she named Setanta as that was Cu's name before becoming the Hound of Culann. Ren and Nora also had twins named after Pyrrha and Mordred. Weiss, Oscar, and Gilgamesh summon Ruby's spirit from the Throne of Heroes into the King of Heroes' body finally giving her the ending she deserves.
• Wham Line:
  • Chapter 7. Ozpin (Merlin) relates Remnant's connection to Earth with a single line- "It's called Remnant for a reason." Arturia, and the reader had thought the grail had sent her to the RWBY Universe like most crossovers, but it actually sent her impossibly far into the future, making Remnant a post-apocalyptic Nasuverse.
  • Chapter 12. After the ritual at the top of Beacon tower, Kirei's summation of the consequences could have been partially predicted from prior foreshadowing, save for one detail that raises many questions since the story began from the Fourth Holy Grail of Fate/Zero.
  Kirei: And so begins the Sixth Holy Grail War.
  • Chapter 56. Archer and Ozpin both figure out what Raven stole from Gilgamesh and both usually calm men immediately start freaking out. The scene cuts away before they tell the others, but Gilgamesh's thoughts at the end of the chapter reveal it anyway.
  Gilgamesh Ea. Just hold out a little longer. I am coming for you.
  • Chapter 60. Hazel, having interrupted the battle between Rider and Rider Alter has his true identity finally revealed by the former:
  Iskandar: You know, when I suggested you put on a bit of muscle, this wasn't exactly what I meant.
  Hazel: You...did I know you? At some time?
  Iskandar: Yes. Yes, you do know me, Waver.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Arturia tears into Ozpin (Merlin) both for allowing Jaune into Beacon despite knowing his transcripts were fake and for trying to convince Pyrrha to take the burden of the Maiden. In response, Ozpin vents that he agrees with her, but feels he has no other option in his war against Salem.
  • The entire reason Arturia had come to Beacon in the first place was to rip Jaune a new one for running off to Beacon without a word and for deceiving his way into the school. She was planning to drag him back home before Pyrrha stepped in.
• Worf Had the Flu:
  • Mordred and Lancer's (Diarmuid) fight is far more one sided that it would normally be, as Mordred is suffering from a lack of Prana from fighting literally a continent away from her master.
  • Not actually having been seen, but Hazel has stated that he believes Gilgamesh is not at full power due to Raven and Summer having stolen something from him years ago and that in his current state he believes he could defeat him.
  • Gilgamesh loses against Hazel and the Alters in the Grimmlands because Rule Breaker cutting off his Master connection with Kirei limits his Prana to what he can generate on his own. This makes him unable to use the Gate of Babylon to its full capacity in the Grimmlands due their nature of preventing distortions in space.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • Kirei looks back on Kiritsugu as one, so much so that he wants to sculpt Ruby into another. Though, there is also the pleasure he takes in breaking her down to that level.
    • After he summons Kiritsugu as Assassin, he views them being forced to work together as a punishment from God for placing his perfect foe so close, but as allies. Though he still finds ways to emotionally torture Kiritsugu.
  • Kirei also considers Summer Rose to have been one as well.
  • Gilgamesh has felt this way towards Iskandar ever since the Fourth Holy Grail War and is genuinely excited at the prospect of fighting him again when he is summoned for the Sixth. He even express anger when anyone else disrespects Iskandar as Adam did, telling him that the King of Conquerors was far greater than the terrorist. Which is a huge deal considering that the number of beings that Gilgamesh doesn't consider forgettable mongrels can be counted on one hand.
  • Gilgamesh also felt this way toward Karna, when he managed to fend off Enuma Elish with Vasavi Shakti. His respect was great enough he allowed Karna's master Summer and her allies to leave the site of their battle alive.
  • Hazel considered Nicholas Schnee to be one and had enough respect for him that he allowed his allies to take his body back home to be buried by his family. It says something that right before he kills Jacques he tells him that he doesn't deserve to die the same way his father-in-law did.
  • Gilgamesh is forced to acknowledge Archer as one when the latter defeats him their battle.
• Wrecked Weapon: Despite having been recently upgraded by Archer to be capable of firing Origin Rounds, Crescent Rose is utterly destroyed in battle against Gilgamesh in Chapter 60.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are:
  • Ruby gives one of these speeches to Jaune in Chapter 4 when they are about to lose to Arturia for Jaune's continued enrollment at Beacon and he is about to give up. Ruby reminds him that no matter how he go into Beacon, he is a huntsman, the leader of Team JNPR, and damn good at it.
    Ruby: Because, news flash vomit boy, you're good at this. You just need someone to remind you every now and again.
  • Jaune gets to return the favor in Chapter 32 after Ruby is about to allow Archer to mercy kill her when she finally breaks down due her feelings of self-loathing from blaming herself for the tragedies that befell her family and friends. Jaune reminds her that everyone is in fact inspired by her example to always push back against a bad situation no matter bleak, and that her team will need her to lead them when they all finally reunite. He reminds her the same way she reminded him that she is a huntress, the leader of Team RWBY, and damn good at it.
    Jaune: Because, news flash crater face, you're good at this. You just need someone to remind you every now and again.
• "You!" Exclamation: Emerald gives one after spotting Kirei at the end of Chapter 60.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: When their goals are no longer mutual Kirei uses his command seals to try and force Gilgamesh to kill himself. The only reason it doesn't work is due to Emerald's intervention.
• You Killed My Father:
  • Gilgamesh killed Ruby's mother Summer Rose and believes he killed Raven long ago.
  • Hazel also killed Nicholas Schnee, Weiss's grandfather. But she doesn't know this yet.
• You Monster!: Ilia and Diarmuid both refer to Kiritsugu as a monster for his brutal strategy of defeating Kayneth in the Fourth War which involved having Diarmuid kill himself.
• You Remind Me of X: Archer muses that the Blackened Weiss reminds him of a more psychotic version of Rin.

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