Thank you all for reading until the very end. This story has reached its conclusion, and while I hope the ending provides enough closure, I know it may leave some bad taste or feel rushed to many of you. For that I apologize. I want to give you a summary of what I originally intended and for you to understand the reason for the sudden ending.
Originally, this fic was meant to span 188 chapters, with a much more elaborate journey. Ashborn and Amazo were supposed to travel through five different worlds, with RWBY being the last (as you saw). One of the cut arcs included a Nier: Automata crossover, where Amazo would have met A2, but I ultimately scrapped it to keep the story more focused and to wrap things up sooner. The outline was:
- 1 chapter case close
- 4 chapters invincible
- 5 chapters Battle Angel Alita
- 8 chapters Nier
- 14 chapters RWBY'
Battle Angel Alita and Nier were needed for the original ending, it was going to be focused on purpose, emotions and cycle of life and how bonds and family makes everything worth it in the end.
There were also plans for Lucifer and Death (Didi) to play bigger roles:
Death was meant to revisit Ashborn, revealing that he had actually met her years ago (back in Chapter 2). Their dynamic would have been sibling-like, with Amazo and Ace calling her "Aunt Didi."Lucifer would have met Ashborn after Darkseid's defeat, discussing the nature of the world, the Presence, and other cosmic truths. They would have become close friends, with Ashborn helping Lucifer finally find the Presence and resolve his comic-book questline. As a final act, the Presence would have restored Rex's soul.
Lastly, Ashborn will realize thanks to the world traveling and Lucifer's quest that the memories of the original owner of the bodies acted as a seed that slowly undone the mental damage he went through when he was with the system and will finally know why he heard that voice at the beginning of the story (ch 21). This was supposed to tie and complete the portion of his answer to Tea about why they exist (ch 68). In the same arc, Tea would have met Blackfire and the two would become friends.
Unfortunately, all of these were cut because I'm officially married by the time you read this, meaning I won't be around for quite sometime and later my free time for writing will be drastically reduced. (The single guy with too much time at hand is no more)
Still, I didn't want to leave this story unfinished or put it on indefinite pause, so I did my best to give it a proper ending, even if it's not as I originally planned when I started nor delivered the message of the story 🙁.
In the end, Ashbon is overpowered and already at the endgame from chapter 1, so the story was his mentality development or to be more accurate his revert to being normal. He started as a cold blooded monster that didn't mind killing children, amused himself at the expense of others and only cared about his indulgences, he abandoned Jinx because of it (the sex was not originally part of the story when I started) and declined any relation with Kara, he made Raven live in fear for years.
Later on, he began caring about Rex, showed empathy to Ace and Amazo, gave Tea a chance and many things over the years. He truly began to value and care about others. The androids from the other worlds were supposed to show him the true value of memories and emotions and for him to relate himself at the start of the FF to them when they were first created. The memories of the original Ashborn and the strange family he built was what truly saved him from his own self-isolating apathy and gave a new meaning to his existence.
I know this sounds a far cry from the comedy the series had, but it was always the original intent. For those who read my other stories, they know all of them follow a theme/idea from start to end.
What is next?
whatever free time I manage to find and won't release it till I have truly finished it, I am not going to release another story without making sure the full thing is finished again regardless of my situation.
Final controversial take on DC:
If you know enough about DC, Batman is the least relatable character and, by far, the most ridiculous. Don't get me wrong, I like Batman (he's one of my favorites), but only in Gotham. Outside of it, he's basically plot armor personified, stripped of most of his grounded complexity.
Stop and think about it. The dude's a walking meme disguised as a serious hero. The moment DC shoved him into the Justice League, he became a certified gag character. The sheer absurdity of the feats he pulls just to justify standing alongside gods, aliens, and meta-humans? Ridiculous. His gadgets and fists can cause pain to Darkseid, someone Superman needs to give his all against to hurt. He can dodge attacks the Flash couldn't. He can think faster and better than godly intelligent beings and speedsters who literally live entire lifetimes within a second.
Batman is the least human character in the entire Justice League, aliens included.