Chapter Twenty: What Could Have Been

This chapter isn't a normal chapter, but a collection of plans and semi-written scenes that serve as the "bad ending" that I spoke of earlier. I must admit, these were the original plans for Goodbellas, but the official ending you've already read just grew on me too much to consider scrapping it. Anyhow, here's what I'd written at various points throughout the last two years, along with patch notes (denoted by the / at the start of them) that plug up the gaps in the writing.

Chapter Sixteen: Exposition

/Despite the evidence, Ozpin and Glynda agree to charge the pair.

Blake and Neo's first day in court gave the gang a first-hand view of the prosecuting counsel. The sight that greeted them would forever haunt their dreams. The prosecutor was a white-haired, pale woman in her late forties. There was an eldritch aura about her, which wasn't helped with her eyes being almost black, like burnt wood, and her skin being paler than Weiss's. She seemed to lord over everybody beneath her station in life, and held barely restrained contempt for those above and equal to her – as Ruby realised, this woman was the living embodiment of the phrase "starched vagina". The gang never got to learn her first name, which Qrow explained as she entered the courtroom.

"I don't know her first name, to be honest. Ms Taylor's always been referred to amongst other barristers as Salem, as in the witch trials. I tell you, no-one she's prosecuted walked away without feeling guilty of something – even if they were found to be totally innocent."

Neo sighed.

"Of all the people to come up against, it just had to be a career feminist."

The sight of Qrow falling off his chair in laughter lightened the gang's mood considerably.

/Charges and trial dates. Blake and Neo plead not guilty.

Chapter Seventeen: Development

/Jaune fled Canada in 1977 after a warrant was issued for a fraud charge. He gets cornered by Interpol not long after Cinder's demise, and promises to start building a case against the Bellas.

/Jaune kills Oscar with the same calibre of bullet as Blake's M16A1, then plants a Vytal restaurant receipt that Neo, working as a server, and Blake had touched.

/After framing them, he spends the lead-up to the buck's night in the Gold Coast collating a testimony spanning the whole of the Bellas history, as well as an instruction to apprehend them at the wedding reception. He drops this off under the door of Operation Rosewood the night before he leaves.

"Your honour," said Salem with considerable glee, "I now call the star witness to the stand."

Ironwood nodded. "Call for Jaune Arc."

Blake's resultant scream was the stuff of nightmares.

/Jaune speaks BS about how he witnessed Blake and Neo killing Oscar.

Blake was fuming. She bloody well knew who killed Oscar, and it wasn't her.

/Qrow and Ruby speak to Blake after Jaune's bogus testimony.

"What caused him to do this?"

Qrow shifted uneasily as he responded.

"Apparently, the death of someone he loved during the turf war caused him to regret his actions and led him to seek revenge."

After a brief moment of confusion, Blake's eyes steeled themselves in cold recognition.

"Cinder."

Ruby facepalmed.

"Of course," she groaned. "Cinder was living with the bitch when she was gunned down. Makes sense for him to take it out on us."

"All the same," Blake replied, "he bloody killed that man and framed us."

Chapter Eighteen: Recapitulation.

/Neo and Blake get twenty-three years without parole.

Chapter Nineteen: Cadenza

If Neo Politana and Blake Belladonna could sum up their prison experience in one word, then "tedium" fit the bill. Fortunately, the prison had allowed them both the privilege to stay together in the same cell – after all, they'd probably imprisoned quite a number of women during their service in the Bellas, and the guards weren't stupid. Of course, they never felt safe in any area that wasn't theirs, and they did their best to protect one another throughout the stagnation. However, there were a few unpleasant moments that burned in their minds throughout their time inside.

In 1993, a lone picture got sent to Blake. Asides from letters from her ex-employees, it was the only thing that ever got sent to her. Neo was awoken with a start to the sound of Blake sobbing over the image. Walking over, Neo beheld the cause of Blake's pain; it was a wedding photo. Standing tall and proud in the one suit he would ever wear was Sun Wukong, and next to him stood his bride bedecked in white; a visibly pregnant Velvet Scarlatina. Both of them were smiling harder than Blake had ever remembered.

"I would've married him, Neo," Blake said repeatedly between sobs. "If he hadn't been frightened away by her, then I'd be living it up with him."

Neo nodded, giving Blake a much-needed hug as her old friend regretted her actions for the only time in her life.

The next memory that scored itself amongst the tedium was the worst of the bunch. In May 1995, a monster called Kevin Callows murdered Lie Ren while the latter worked with his company. As it turned out, Tyrian was his brother, and Kevin shared the same craziness his brother had harboured. He'd tried to kill Cardin with a well-thrown kitchen knife; however, Ren jumped in front of him and died protecting his closest friend. Fortunately, Blake and Neo were allowed to go to his funeral under armed guard, alongside the rest of the Bellas.

However, Neo would never forget Weiss crying hysterically over her husband's resting place in Sanctum Cemetery, gripping the headstone while she lost her grip on sanity. And just after Christmas in 1997, an insane Weiss Schnee was transferred from her mental asylum to a new grave alongside that of her husband. Her medication overdose was so bad, they couldn't have an open casket funeral on account of her rotted teeth and bloodshot eyes. Weiss's shop floundered for a few hard years, before closing for good in 2001. The four crewmen under Weiss's command moved away after that, with Bolin and Reese moving to Japan, Arslan leaving for Adelaide, and Nadir vanishing to parts unknown.

The remaining Bellas had fared slightly better. Nora had to sell off the Aurora after Blake's imprisonment, and shortly joined the dealership as resident accountant, giving Pyrrha and Ruby enough freedom to raise their sons – Rowan Rose and Duncan Nikos – whom they'd had through IVF in 1992, with Pyrrha's mother and Qrow assisting when they could. Yang and Nora had also sired children of their own, again with the willing help of IVF, and always took them to visit. Conceived at the same time and born a day apart in 1994, Yang and Nora's daughters were named Xanthe Aurelia Xiao Long and Jocasta Violet Valkyrie.

The day was Friday, the 14th of November, 2014. The day had finally come for Neo and Blake to get freed from Anima Women's Prison. Neo's warm, crystalline features had faded, with her eyes having seemingly shifted to a melancholic grey-brown, along with a few strands of her hair. Blake's features had thinned along with her hair, and her warm smile and vivid eyes replaced with a look of submission and misery. Clearly, prison had snuffed the will to live from them. No words were exchanged between them as they were processed for the last time, and walked outside. They had enough change on them to take a bus back into the Vale, and away they journeyed.

When they got off on the corner of Vacuo and Patch two hours later, Blake and Neo beheld a monumental shift in scenery. The thriving treeline that had lined their shopping district was withered and faded, and the nature reserve at the southern edge of town had been hacked down for an apartment complex. The cheaper, friendlier shopping precinct along Vacuo Road was long gone, with every shop having either been replaced by one of a few supermarkets, or having gone more upmarket and sterile.

But perhaps the greatest travesty were the houses. A large number of the approved developments had developed structural issues during the 2000's, and the council responded by bulldozing all the defective buildings and replacing them with new, modernist ones. Unfortunately, the GFC wrecked any chance for the affected residents to reclaim their property, reducing the area to a soulless wasteland now inhabited by a mixture of blue-bloods and hipsters – exactly what Torchwick had wanted to achieve twenty-six years ago.

As they walked ever eastward towards Sanus Street, they beheld the urban decay that had seized the cheaper living areas. Blocks of flats now dominated the skyline, with the juxtaposition of extreme wealth and poverty a clear indicator of where this area was headed if intervention didn't come fast enough. The only familiarity to be found was Pyrrha and Yang's business, which was still going strongly in defiance of the gentrification – but even then, the old building had disappeared, replaced with a white monolith that boasted polished steel and high ceilings – a bastion of ivory amongst the drab surroundings.

As they stood outside the now glitzed-up dealership, the urban detritus that came during their absence caused Blake and Neo to turn to each other. No words were spoken, as the pair of women hugged and cried on each other's shoulders. Never before had the two of them ever felt so lost and invisible in their lives. After drying each other's eyes, the pair of ladies hardened up and walked into the dealership, ready to see their old friends once again. The town that Neo and Blake were born and raised in, the town both women gave everything to protect throughout their free lives, was no more; a distant memory of happier times that Blake and Neo felt imprisoned in, even though they were free women now.

Yang, Nora, and Pyrrha were all seated around their conference table, dressed nearly identically in businesswear. Their respective cream, rose pink, and tawny blouses were the only relief of colour against the black skirts and heels. Yang's hair was now only down to her chin, but managed to retain it's blonde hue. Nora's rich ginger hair had faded though, and Pyrrha had a long streak of white amongst her auburn coiffure. As they were set to start their quarterly review, the door knocked. "Who is it?", Yang called out firmly. The door opened, and the three caught themselves gasping as they stared down Neo and Blake. "We're finally free," Neo said softly. Yang, Nora, and Pyrrha all swarmed around their friends, with Pyrrha crying on Blake's shoulders.

After work that day, the five of them went to visit Weiss and Ren. They were buried together in the Vale cemetery at the end of Sanctum Drive.

/Sappy scene with lots of crying.

It took time for the imprisoned pair to integrate into the new Vale. While Blake's managerial skills were put to good use at the helm of her old restaurant, Neo found herself looking after a slightly senile Qrow with assistance from Ruby and Pyrrha's sons. Two decades of worry and excessive boozing had taken a heavy toll on the old barrister, and his degradation was painful for everyone.

As Neo walked towards the local supermarket a few days after release, a familiar voice called out to her. "Didn't realise you'd been set loose, Rainbow Reaper." Neo spun around, and instantly felt nauseous. Standing there were the two people who'd put her away for nearly a quarter of a century; Sun Wukong and Velvet Scarlatina. Sun was starting to go bald, and Velvet's hair had grey streaks, but they otherwise looked as fit as they did during the eighties.

/Sun and Velvet discuss Jaune and Ironwood, having realised how shit things got without the Bellas around.

"And I've got it on good advice that on every anniversary of the arrest, Jaune and Ironwood meet at the Walkley Bar on Vacuo. If you wish to see how he's doing, meet him there."

/Neo relays this to Blake after getting home.

"The Walkley Bar," Blake murmured as she typed it in on her brand new phone. After the results showed up, Blake gasped. "Neo, the Walkley's near where … w-where Weiss and ..."

"Ren used to live?", Neo completed as Blake fought back tears. Blake nodded as Neo gave her a couple of tissues to clean up.

"Well," Neo said, "that anniversary's coming up in three weeks. I've got some idea as to what we can do."

Blake looked up at her old friend.

"What would that be?"

Neo smiled horribly.

"Vengeance, my boss."

Chapter Twenty: Coda

True to form, the 7th of December played host to the annual "reminisce and bitch" meeting that a lawyer and a judge always partook in at the Walkley. At the stroke of seven, the lawyer entered confidently in his black suit and blue tie. The intervening years had been kind to Jaune Arc, QC; the only indicators of his age were a slightly thinner hairline and a tidy, greying beard. The judge, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky. Ironwood had retired some time ago, and he'd gone totally grey and wrinkly.

/A drunken argument breaks out over Jaune's role in the whole Bellas story, with Jaune threatening to kill Ironwood.

As a frighteningly drunk James Ironwood staggered back to his car, he was too buzzed to notice the piece of metal underneath his car's bonnet. Entering his car haphazardly, he fumbled repeatedly with the key until it went inside the car.

"Ha-ha!" he exclaimed in slurred tones. "Let's fire this baby up!"

The car's igniter worked flawlessly. As did the other igniter, which blew up the last of the Bella's explosives, pulverising the car and Ironwood with it. Blake and Neo had retrieved the device from Blake's backyard, planting it there as they walked past half an hour earlier. The rest of the Bellas had long forgotten that the device was still in her yard to begin with, and their presence at the dealership when the explosion happened kept them above suspicion.

As an equally drunk Jaune Arc walked out of the restaurant to find the wrecked Mercedes, the bystanders looked in horror as he recognised Ironwood's mangled corpse and pissed on it. What had been a mere act of drunken stupidity quickly escalated into a murder charge. The waiter who bore witness to Jaune's confession and their subsequent argument was the last nail in the coffin for the bent lawyer, and his immunity was revoked while Blake and Neo had their convictions quashed. As his activities were exposed and aired out to the courts in excoriating detail by Salem Taylor throughout the following year, Jaune's sanity began to slip badly – but not enough for the system to even consider the mental hospital route. Indeed, on the 3rd of May, 2015, Jaune Arc was sentenced to life behind bars for the murders of Oscar Pine and James Ironwood, QC, along with a whole swathe of fraud and conspiracy charges. In a cruel twist of fate, the lawyer was sent to the same prison that Kevin Callows was contained within. Jaune only lasted a week before his eyes were gouged out and shoved up his backside by Kevin, who'd left him to die in the infirmary. He lived, unfortunately.

After seven months had passed, the coastal NZ town of Whangerei played host to a calm wedding party of ten.

/Ruby and Pyrrha get married, along with Yang and Nora. Blake is the celebrant, while Neo takes photographs and the four kids serve as witnesses.

As they soaked in the warm summer coastline that summery evening, the six of them made a silent, dutifully observed pact; never again were they to speak about their exploits to anyone outside their employ, and never again were they to fall so far as to do that kind of work for a living. On the 24th of December, 2015, after exactly 37 years of raising hell and wallowing in despair, the six women vowed to confine the infamous legend of the Bellas to the annals of Sydney's history. They were to become a mere rumour, never to be seen or heard from again.

A/N: Thank you to everybody who liked, followed and reviewed this work. I'm relieved that this massive two-year-long undertaking has finally finished, and I'll be back with new stories and new ideas soon enough.