Null: Fragments

**Null: Fragments** is a derivative work by Star\_Sage for *Null* published on Archive of Our Own and FanFiction as a five chapter anthology between 2021 October 31 to November 27. The work focuses on a series of alternate scenarios where the point of divergence follows the death of Juniper Arc in chapter 26 and other subsequent interactions up until the Battle of Beacon in chapter 42. The pieces were written with the intent of Star\_Sage expressing their opinion for how specific narrative elements should have gone.

## Background

### Null Narrative

Coeur Al'Aran published *Null* to replace *Forged Destiny* on 2020 February 3 focusing on a worst-case-scenario for Jaune Arc where his semblance is a powerful asset sought by the Atlesian military as an anti-hunter weapon. The narrative follows Jaune as he is kept in an experimental facility, rescued by Adam Taurus and Blake Belladonna, follows them on White Fang expeditions, unexpectedly accompanies Blake to Vale, and is left behind by Blake as a wanted criminal for multiple perceived murders. Over time, Jaune grows desensitized as he starts with regretfully killing people in self-defense to contemplating killing a driver to avoid a witness. He manages to find Roman Torchwick, discovers Neopolitan who was in close contact with Juniper, and collaborates with Cinder Fall to facilitate the recovery of Juniper Arc and Amber Arc. Eventually, Jaune hijacks an operation at the Docks to send several White Fang agents and Juniper to Menagerie, but they are intercepted by Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Yang Xiao Long, and Penny Polendina, who decided to venture out of Beacon Academy in opposition to a curfew order on Weiss. The scene culminates with Penny being hijacked by Chivalric Arms, blasting a laser and bisecting the Bullheads while Jaune can only watch in horror while Yang restrains him. Jaune attacks with intent to kill, inducing substantial damage and trauma onto Team RWBY, Raven Branwen, and Penny. Later, Team RWBY accompanies Jaune on a mission to kill Matthew Fields, CEO of Chivalric Arms, who has inserted many semblances into his body. The group successfully dispatches Matthew and cremates his body to eliminate his valuable genetics. Jaune also accompanies Cinder during an attack on Beacon, where Jaune ends up killing both Cinder and Ozpin. Jaune also engages in a battle with James Ironwood, whose semblance gives him extra mental fortitude at the exchange of morals. Jaune manages to use his semblance to disable Mettle, removing James' induced neurodivergence, and the two fake his death. Despite the perception by everyone, including the remaining Arc family, Jaune and Neo are still alive working in a secret death squad for James to root out corruption in the Atlesian government, Chivalric Arms, and the miltary.

### A Raven's Broken Wing

#### Author Motivation

Star\_Sage believes Raven was one of the worst match-ups against Jaune's semblance since she lacks viable ranged options and has to fight with melee. If Jaune maintained appropriate distance with Raven unable to detect his location from Neo's illusions, she would have been killed fairly easily. Star\_Sage, in particular, wanted to emphasize how Yang would have been affected by Raven's death as few characters have an incentive to mourn her loss due to Raven's tendency to burn bridges. In a divergence from the original narrative, the White Fang accompanies Jaune during the attack on Matthew Fields and have greater incentive to share raw data since the Atlesian military-industrial complex was conspiring to involuntarily sterilize the Faunus.

#### Raven's Death Narrative

Raven had been shot by Jaune after he capitalized on Neo's semblance to gain an upper-hand. Raven attempted to evade Jaune and put him down quickly, but fell for one of Neo's illusions and was stabbed by Neo. Yang witnessed the display and was dismayed to see Neo evicerate Raven. Jaune walked up to Yang, bitter about how the universe seemed to want to ensure Yang's survival, commenting that the world was unfair to him and that Yang does not deserve fairness in return. Despite Raven likely being dead due to blood loss, Jaune still decided to shoot a bullet into Raven. Yang expressed sadness at this before being knocked unconscious by an unhealthy case of boot on her face.

Yang woke up later in hospital, dismayed that she would never find answers to her long-lasting questions about Raven's unexpected departure. She was particularly angry at Jaune, swearing vengeance for killing Raven and injuring Ruby despite Ruby's efforts to de-escalate her sister's anger. Yang was also frustrated at Blake for not informing them of the situation despite Blake's legal obligation to not mention her past with the White Fang or Jaune, swearing that she would get Blake off the team or kill her in trying. Shortly after, Ruby was kidnapped by a doctor from Chivalric Arms for the purpose of human experimentation, which Yang blaked Blake for. Blake soon elaborated that Jaune wanted Chivalric Arms destroyed, which Yang saw as a useful opportunity to attack Jaune in retribution. Yang ventured through the Atlesian battleship to pick up ordinance for an impromptu suicide bombing. Yang acted politely to Blake, but had ulterior motives, and attempted to kill Jaune via an explosion when he arrived at The Club after he briefly activated Null.

Jaune was not impressed by this effort and killed despite his belief that she did not approve of Yang's plan. The local news blamed Jaune for the circumstance, but could not explain how he convinced Blake and Yang to head to The Club. Jaune accompanied the White Fang special operations team, or the Black Ops, to hunt down and kill Matthew Fields while collecting incriminating evidence. When Matthew recognized Jaune and the White Fang were recording, he attempted to back-track, but Jaune killed him before he could go further. According to Jaune, the second Faunus Rights Revolution was underway as the Faunus revolted across Remnant ranging from Menagerie unlocking Faunus Auras' against international treaties to Beacon students and staff acting in opposition to Headmaster Ozpin. Jaune was apathetic as James, controlled by Mettle, executed Saphron Arc and Sable Arc publicly. Jaune recognized the silver lining, which was that Amber was saved along his other sisters in Menagerie, and cared little for the wars going underway.

## Reception

On 2021 November 2, Le MAO noticed the story on AO3 after the publication of "Quote the Null, Eat Shit and Die" and before the publication of "A Rescue of Qrow's", commenting that the story had pacing issues and leaned in favor of Jaune despite his behavior. SlayerOfTears, reading from Le MAO's commentary, decided against reading the piece since he was disatissfied with readers not understanding dramatic irony.

## Null: Fragments Library Archives

### 2021

* **Sunday, October 31**: Star\_Sage publishes "A Raven's Broken Wing"
* **Unknown date, before November 2****:**
	+ Star\_Sage publishes "A General's Last Order"
	+ Star\_Sage publishes "Quote the Null, Eat Shit or Die"
* **Unknown date, after November 2:** Star\_Sage publishes "A Rescue of Qrow's"
* **Saturday, November 27**: Star\_Sage publishes "Enough Rope to Hang Themselves With"

1. ↑ Anyway, the story is called "Null: Fragments" by Star Sage. Again, many pacing issues and perhaps leaning a bit to much into Jaune being in the right after everything he's done, but hey. If anyone's interested, there it is.
2. ↑ Oh man, that's a hard pass for me. I've already gotten sick of reviewers clamoring for Team RWBY's heads, and claiming Jaune was in the right, to last a lifetime, I don't need to read a fic on it.
3. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20220112061519/https://archiveofourown.org/works/34850962/chapters/86780029
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 https://web.archive.org/web/20220112073731/https://www.fanfiction.net/topic/189701/179699523/55/Null
5. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20220112063055/https://archiveofourown.org/works/34850962/chapters/86830873
6. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20220112063233/https://archiveofourown.org/works/34850962/chapters/86886526#workskin
7. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20220112063346/https://archiveofourown.org/works/34850962/chapters/86992060#workskin
8. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20220112063457/https://archiveofourown.org/works/34850962/chapters/88140385