Hey, guys. Allow me to start by saying I'm sorry. I'm sorry for keeping your hopes up. I'm sorry for committing to something that, in the end, I couldn't finish. Please understand that this isn't a decision I made lightly, or overnight.

I tried. I tried so, so hard to finish this story, because I knew that everyone wanted it to continue and eventually end. I tried to push past the fact that I had already quit the RWBY fandom. I tried to fight through what felt like mental cement as I typed page after painstaking page. In the end, I realized that I can't do it.

I have zero passion for this story anymore. Looking at the few chapters I did manage to type in the months since I went on hiatus, it's easy to see the lower quality compared to basically anything else I've written recently. Even plotlines I was mildly excited about, like the Seamonkeys subplot, became stale. I looked at how much of the story there was left, and wanted to cry every time I saw my outline.

I've barely gotten any original work done, because I kept telling myself that I had to work on "Wings" first, and ended up staring at a file for hours and only typing two pages by the end of the day. This fic became a wall between me and everything I wanted to do, and I realized that I just couldn't climb it anymore. The wall has to come down if I want to go anywhere.

I'm sorry that I didn't do this sooner. I thought that, if I kept telling myself and you guys that I absolutely would finish this, it would be enough to push me to do it. It wasn't. I'm constantly aware of the ideas I want to work on, the ideas I'm excited about, but haven't done anything for on account of this fic.

So, after months of agonizing over it, I've decided to end it. You may consider the story up for open adoption. If anyone wants to take it and continue it, you have my blessing. You're probably more passionate about this fic than I ever will be again.

For the sake of closure, I'm going to tell to you exactly what I had in my outline:

Basically, Cinder is seeking revenge for the Hybrid Purge, during which her original dragon, a wind/fire hybrid named Abaddon, was killed. Also working with her are Hazel and Tyrian.

Hazel is the boy from the article, who tried to save his sister's dragon, but ended up losing his dragon, his sister's dragon, and his sister.

Tyrian originally had a hybrid dragon, which was killed during the Purge. He enrolled at Mistral and was given a water dragon, who turned out to be defective and was set to be culled. Lionheart's dragon, Savannah, managed to escape and was killed along with Tyrian's dragon in a rescue attempt. This led to Tyrian's mind snapping. Lionheart denounced his dragon's actions in order to keep his position, and was eventually made dragonmaster.

This is brought to light during the fall of Haven, which happens right after Cinder's rogues stop a culling. Most of Haven's students choose to join her. The remaining students, including Emerald and Mercury, go to Beacon. Soon after, Tyrian forces Lionheart to hang himself, solidifying to many the image they have painted of him being a coward.

There, Jade sows unrest among the dragons, especially Mudslide, who finally snaps and flies away after injuring Cardin. The Winchester family threatens to sue. Soon after, all of the deformed dragons are revealed to the Council. Everyone thinks it's the Winchesters, but it was actually Cinder.

When the Council arrives at Beacon, Ozpin takes a stand, refusing to give up the dragons, and is shot and killed. The students immediately rise against the Council, who are killed by the dragons. Ragnar goes mad with grief and flies away, evading the Council as well as Cinder's rogues. This is when the main cast joins Cinder, and Ruby is given Penny.

Shade is brought down using the dragon cage fighting arenas. Since Shade actually supports the arenas, it's relatively easy to talk the dragons into rebelling. A full on siege is laid to Shade, during which Barracuda and Russel are killed.

Some of the cast is having second thoughts about Cinder. Meanwhile, Raven has outsourced to another group of rogues to kidnap Whitley and Glacier in order to blackmail the SDC into not injecting any more dragonry eggs. Whitley and Glacier escape together, but this is kept a secret from everyone but the rogues.

Weiss finds traces of an anti-Dust cream in samples of the Dust Cinder's group has been using, and realizes that Cinder has been using her plant in the SDC to sabotage the eggs, meaning that Cinder is responsible for the dragonet deformities.

Teams RWBY, JNPR, and SSSN try to flee, but Titan is killed during the escape. Soon after, the group is captured by the Atlesian military. One of the officers recognizes Penny, who hasn't left Storm's head since their reunion, and sends the group to Ironwood, who has gathered all of the remaining Riders to Atlas. He is totally done with both the Council and Cinder at this point, declaring that Dragon Riders are meant to fight Grimm, not each other. He has also discovered the truth about Ozpin's death by determining that he was shot by a sniper, not a Council gun. Cinder had him killed in order to provoke the Beacon students and make him an unwilling martyr for her cause.

By this point, Emerald and Mercury are having their doubts and try to leave. Emerald is killed while Mercury, Jade, and Rudder escape.

Everything eventually leads to a huge battle between Atlas's forces and Cinder's rogues, which ends with Cinder and Strike being killed and most of the rogues surrendering when the extent of Cinder's sabotage is revealed. Raven's bandits manage to escape back into the wild. During this battle, Storm's wings are torn off, and either Tempest or York is killed protecting Taiyang. The remaining Riders refuse to submit to the Council anymore, and force it to disband.

There is an epilogue that details how the Riders have become a force unto themselves, serving all of the kingdoms in the fight against the Grimm, but having allegiance to no one kingdom. Dragons have been given citizenship status, and Ruby is training with her two dragons: Jade and York/Tempest. Storm, Nimbus, and Ao Guang, have opened a school for disabled elementals, where they teach them how to live with their disabilities and discover their unique talents. Ruby speculates that, now that the Riders are much more selective about who joins their ranks, another division of specialized fighters will be needed to combat the Grimm. She looks at a prototype of a sniper scythe she's working on, and thinks that "Huntsmen" might be an appropriate name for them.

Other plotlines include:

Seamonkeys actually getting together, largely because Nymph flat-out tells Neptune that Sun's in love with him.

Ragnar finding and bonding to Oscar after Ozpin's death. The two rescue Whitley and Glacier. Rich Farmers becomes a ship, and Glacier slowly learns how to speak and overcome his abuse from Jacques. In the end, Glacier rejects Jacques and claims Whitley as his Rider, while Ragnar does the same for Oscar.

Gemstone. The Emerald/Ruby ship would have obviously taken a tragic turn in this fic, with Emerald not leaving with the main group and then getting killed later on. Ruby's love for Emerald is one of the reasons she becomes Jade's new Rider after Storm is retired.

Penny gains full sentience and is used as a model for a series of simple dragon translators. All dragons have them by the end of the story. Penny herself is uploaded into a dragon-like mech, the only one of its kind, which Ironwood pilots. Penny declares "I'm a real dragon!" when she sees Storm and Ruby again, and considers Ironwood to be her Rider.

Pyrrha and everyone else dealing with the loss of Titan. Twiggy especially takes it hard. Pyrrha eventually gets a new dragon after a raid on the White Fang. An already-hatched hybrid wind/fire dragon is found, which was likely meant for Sienna Khan before the attack. Pyrrha wrangles and bonds to it. The dragon, who she names Harpy, is very possessive and aggressive, frequently butting heads with a bitter Twiggy, who refuses to accept her as a JNPR dragon.

Taiyang and Qrow go on their own journey to Atlas after the Fall of Beacon. York and Tempest travel with them, and one of the two dragons is killed during the final battle. I never decided which one.

Adam is killed by Sienna Khan, and Brand is taken in by Hazel. They end up going rogue after Cinder kills Emerald, and remain in the wild even after the Council is disbanded. They eventually join Raven's bandits. Sky and Mudslide, who became a team after the Fall of Beacon, also choose to remain rogues.

There's a scene where Neptune fully overcomes his aquaphobia when he and Nymph have to save Ren and Ao Guang from drowning.

We find out that Ironwood stuck with the Council for so long because his own dragon had been deformed, and was painfully killed in battle due to its overlooked disability becoming a hindrance.

Storm meets a brood dragon that had been stolen from the Violet Broodery, and realizes that they're siblings. This leads to a deeper comparison between the elementals and the broodies as Storm attempts to communicate with him.

There is also a scene where the Council debates the necessity of their strict dragon policies, with some pointing out the issues of the past, such as the hybrid dragons that once went rogue and the dragons and Riders who died as a result of an overlooked deformity, and others advocating more lenient policies, but being overruled.

Aaaaand, that's what I had figured out. There's still a lot of plot holes and characters I didn't account for. Can you see now why it was all too much, especially for a fic I had no passion for anymore?

As you can see, I did try. It took ages to outline this story, to figure out the intricacies of Cinder's plot, to come up with the sideplots. I hate to leave it like this. I really do. But I think this story might be better in your hands. Use as much or as little of this outline as you want. This story is yours, now.

In the meantime, I'm going to devote myself fully to my original works. You'll probably see fics from me every now and then, but they won't be for RWBY.

I hope you can forgive me for this, and I hope that you'll keep a look out for my original writing in the future. I can promise that it will be better than anything that's currently on this page. Of that, I'm positive.

Thank you for all the support you've given me as I struggled with this fic. I hate that I failed, but I know that I couldn't have gotten as far as I did without you.

Until next time, peace out.