Fanfic / Destiny's Divide

The legends said that six Toa would one day come to Mata Nui, to save the Matoran and awaken the Great Spirit.
So why were there now thirteen falling stars in the sky?

Six Toa. Seven Huntresses. One Divided Destiny. ^note Artwork by IcarioArt on Twitter

The Via Magna Chronicles is a series of RWBY/BIONICLE crossovers written by Joey245 (The Bureau: Summer Declassified). Taking place after a slightly alternate version of the Battle of Atlas, the series serves as a loose retelling of BIONICLE's early storylines with RWBY characters thrown into the mix, and later expands into a continuation of the story in Remnant.

The first fic, Destiny's Divide ^note FanFiction.Net link , opens with Team RWBY fighting with Cinder in the space Ambrosius created to evacuate the people of Atlas to Vacuo, but this time things go somewhat differently and Emerald ends up joining our heroines (and Neo) on their plunge instead of Jaune. They then fall out of the void... into the skies over the island of Mata Nui as the Toa are arriving, and find themselves trying to help these new heroes defeat yet another force of ancient darkness and malevolence. In addition to the girls navigating the island and their own trauma, a newly-human Penny Polendina gets another chance at life...though it's contingent on constantly being near Takua, a strange little Matoran with no idea of anything besides his own name. It began on January 28th, 2022, and was completed on March 28th, 2023.

The second fic, Dutiful Destruction^note FanFiction.Net link , takes place three months after the conclusion of Destiny's Divide. As things gradually start to return to normal on both worlds, all hell breaks loose with the Bohrok awakening on Mata Nui and mysterious arrivals throwing a wrench into Vacuo's refugee crisis. The story promises to loosely follow the second year of the BIONICLE storyline, while also telling an original tale set in Vacuo. It released its first chapter on October 31st, 2023, and updates are promised to occur roughly every two weeks.

There's also a collection of one-shots called Tales from the Via Magna, which are all set in the same universe as the main story and take place between Destiny's Divide and Dutiful Destruction. They can be found here.

UNMARKED SPOILERS FOR RWBY VOLUME 8 BELOW. Additionally, the folders for Dutiful Destruction and Tales from the Via Magna contain unmarked spoilers for Destiny's Divide.

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Gathered friends...listen again to our collection of the Tropes:

Series-Wide Tropes

• 0% Approval Rating: One of the regular trials faced by the surviving Schnee family members (including Weiss after her return to Remnant) is that everybody seems to hate them in particular following the fall of Atlas. Vacuans dislike them more or less on principle, Atlesians who lived in Mantle hate them for their history of racism and classism, and even former members of Atlas's upper society see them as traitors who ruined their way of life. It's gotten to the point that Winter regularly gets complaints and curses from the people she saves, and even Weiss gets accosted by a Faunus family while out to lunch...though thankfully, Yang is there in the latter case to stand up for her friend.
• Action Prologue:
  • Destiny's Divide, as mentioned above, opens in the middle of the final battle for Atlas (with a few changes to canon), before slowing down and exploring the adventures of the Huntresses in Mata Nui.
  • Dutiful Destruction opens with Ruby and her allies fighting off a Grimm attack in Vacuo, one sparked by a riot happening between Atlesians and Vacuans.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade:
  • The members of Team RWBY are carrying a lot of baggage with them as they explore and survive Mata Nui, and that continues even after their return to Remnant. Justified, considering that the events of Volumes 7 and 8 are still fresh in their minds.
  • Unlike in the BIONICLE canon, Lewa is much more deeply affected by his time under Makuta's infected mask, as afraid as he is to admit it.
  • Takua, who is a lot more torn up about his missing memories of how he ended up on the beach outside of Ta-Koro than he (presumably) was in canon. This carries over when he evenually does remember his past...only now he finds that his quest to retrieve the Toa Stones and summon the Toa Mata was a little more morally ambiguous this time around, with a lot more burned bridges with other Matoran along the way.
• Adaptational Diversity: While the Matoran villages are all still mostly one gender, it's not unheard of to see, say, a female Ko-Matoran, since they're Mechanical Lifeforms that have no physical differences between male and female members.
• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • Hahli appears quite often during the Ga-Koro arc of Destiny's Divide, despite not appearing in canon proper until the 2002 Bohrok animations. A similar thing happens (albeit to a lesser extent) with Nuparu.
  • The Kanohi Dragon first appeared in flashbacks during the Piraka arc in canon, but in Destiny's Divide Makuta summons it to try and deal with the Huntresses before they upset his plans too much. In the same story, Makuta brings out the Kraata some time before when the canonical Rahkshi arc would have occurred, using them to reinforce his control over his troops even if their masks are removed.
  • Graalok the Ash Bear (of Mask of Light fame) makes an appearance in Destiny's Divide when Lewa and Emerald retrieve their Makoki Stone piece from Le-Kini.
  • Energized protodermis is mentioned near the climax of Destiny's Divide, instead of first making an appearance at the end of the Bohrok arc, with Makuta ultimately deciding against using the pool in his lair against the Huntresses, both to avoid possibly making them more powerful, and to make sure that they don't end up even uglier if they survived.
  • The Great Spirit robot itself appears in Penny's Vision at her Despair Event Horizon in the finale of Destiny's Divide.
  • Characters from the 2009 BIONICLE storyline show up on Remnant in Chapter 3 of Dutiful Destruction, after their ship crash-lands in Vacuo.
  • The Order of Mata Nui comes into play much earlier than they did in canon, taking a very special interest in Penny Polendina.
• Adaptational Gender Identity: In canon Wairuha, who is made up of the male Lewa and Kopaka and the female Gali, was described with masculine pronouns. Here, they're non-binary instead, using they/them pronouns.
• Affectionate Nickname:
  • The Toa call their Huntress partners by many names, such as:
    • Lewa calling Emerald "sprout-leaf," which seems to be treespeak for anyone shorter than you.
    • Gali seems fond of addressing Ruby as "little one".
    • Pohatu, not knowing Neopolitan's name upon meeting her (and having no way of knowing), takes to calling her "Pebble".
    • Tahu lets "little flame" slip for Yang once, though following a heart-to-heart he refers to her by name as a way to show respect. On the flip side, Yang usually calls him "Big Red", a nickname he's begrudgingly accepted.
  • Poor Weiss still gets called "Ice Queen" from time to time by her teammates, though among the girls it's shifted from Insult of Endearment to this. Same with her calling Ruby "dolt". The "Ice" gets dropped once she and Ruby start dating properly.
  • Following their Relationship Upgrade during the Kini-Nui meetup, Blake and Yang have taken to calling each other "kitty" and "firestar", respectively, much to the chagrin of Ruby and Weiss.
• Alternate Continuity: In play on both sides.
  • For RWBY, not only does Emerald fall in the final battle instead of Jaune, Neo's backstory and her first time meeting Roman Torchwick is not the same as the one outlined in Roman Holiday. (Largely because the author admits in the notes that they haven't actually read the book invokedand that they refuse to do so.)
  • For BIONICLE, while the Matoran types are still primarily one gender, you can still occasionally get a Le-Matoran or a Ko-Matoran that identifies as female, for example (on the logic that since they're Mechanical Lifeforms with no physical differences between the genders, it's perfectly fine for them to do so). There's also "pair-bonding", which is analogous to a romantic relationship, just without the physical aspects, and the post-Naming Day names have always been those characters' names in this story. A handful of non-canon Rahi species, like the Taoniho Tiger, are also present. Rahi can also reproduce on their own instead of needing to be directly created by a Makuta, on account of the logistics of the latter not making sense.
    • One of the side stories, "The Nameless Toa", further elaborates on this. Turns out in this universe Voya Nui stayed inside the Great Spirit robot; instead, the Southern Continent broke apart around it and scattered across the dome, isolated from one another by seas of protodermis. Turaga Jovan also ended up surviving the Great Cataclysm this time around, and his past association with the Mask of Life means that Brutaka and Axonn are more open with their presence on the island (though they still remain secretive about the Order of Mata Nui itself). The Brotherhood of Makuta is also revealed as being able to make brand-new Makuta members by evolving certain Kraata, instead of being limited to the original 100 they had to start - the Makuta group that shows up in Voya Nui is explicitly made up of members who are relatively young and inexperienced.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Penny and Emerald, who in RWBY proper only became prominent characters in later volumes, get equal billing in Destiny's Divide alongside Team RWBY, Takua, and the Toa themselves.
  • Matoran whose names were only revealed in Mata Nui Online Game II (or after the fact, like Midak) pop up all over the place, such as Epena being the Koli player who gets sick mid-conversation in Po-Koro, or Aiyetoro and Zemya being the arguing Guild Masters in Whenua's office. Notably, this also confirms that Ahkmou was the one selling infected Koli balls.
  • An interesting example in the case of Takua's Lightstone throughout Destiny's Divide. In the Mata Nui Online Game, it's only used a handful of times to help solve puzzles; here, it's not only able to extend Penny and Takua's connection, it's even able to dispel Makuta's shadowy apparitions...until it gets shattered, that is.
• Badass Adorable:
  • Ruby Rose, just like in canon. She has a silly streak a mile long, and can also give the Rahi (and later Makuta himself) a run for their widgets in a fight. Even when Tahu and Kopaka are about to fight it out at Kini-Nui, her getting in the middle of it and shouting at both of them is enough to make even them stand down. And by the time we see her again after the Time Skip between Destiny's Divide and Dutiful Destruction, she's gotten much more competent at using her silver eyes.
  • Penny is cheerful, upbeat (most of the time) and a Friend to All Living Things. She also gets terrifyingly competent with both her newly-made weapons and her Semblance as the story goes on, and by the end of it all she's able to make even Makuta afraid, thanks to having a new set of Maiden powers courtesy of Mata Nui.
• Battle Couple: Blake and Yang, especially during the Siege of Ta-Koro chapters in Destiny's Divide. Ruby and Weiss also fight well by each other's sides, becoming this after their Relationship Upgrade.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: From both sides. The biomechanical Matoran, Toa, and Rahi are all strange and mysterious to the human Huntresses, while the people of Mata Nui are intrigued - and at times, repulsed - by their otherworldly visitors. Poor Takua almost wishes he could lose his memory again, after some of the stuff he witnesses.
  • The Bohrok in Dutiful Destruction manage to one-up both the humans and the Matoran in this regard, especially the Krana (which have tentacles this time around when they're not piloting a Bohrok frame).
  • A more light-hearted example shows up in one of the side stories, "A Cat Most Curious", where the Toa are completely perplexed by the sight of Albus on a video call with Penny, trying and failing to draw comparisons to their own Rahi.
• Bloodier and Gorier: Compared to BIONICLE canon, at least. Unlike their peaceful counterparts, the Toa this time around have (almost) no compunctions with outright killing hostile Rahi, if the situation calls for it, or with using their Toa Tools as actual weapons instead of just conduits for elemental attacks. Notable exceptions are Gali, who tries her best to free the Rahi from Makuta's control, and (towards the end of the story) Lewa, who following his time with Onua starts to embrace his role as a Friend to All Living Things. Otherwise, this trope is in full effect for battles against the Rahi, and against Krana that aren't collected in the sequel fic.
• Breather Episode:
  • Chapter 26 of Destiny's Divide, "Fading Lights", was meant to be a bit of a break from the last few action-packed chapters, and while it indeed has some light-hearted scenes, it also has some notable character interactions, like Matau letting slip to Takua that it's possible for some Matoran to become Toa, Emerald and Blake going for a midnight swim and bonding, and Onua talking with Lewa about what he can learn from this.
  • Similarly, while the following chapter (which is simply called "Partners") still has a few dramatic moments, like Yang venting her frustrations against the Brother Gods for mishandling things with Salem and indirectly causing the current crisis as a result, it's mainly light-hearted, with the Huntress pairs bonding further as they search for the masks with their respective Toa.
  • Chapter 34 of Destiny's Divide, "Every Star Is Watching" is intended as a final "cool down" chapter before the story reaches its endgame.
  • After all the stuff that happened in "The Nameless Toa", while there's a brief mention of Adam in the next story "Brushing Up", it's almost all fluff revolving about Blake brushing Yang's hair.
  • While "An Icy Reception" had a lot of negative feelings towards Weiss, "Team Building" is primarily humor and fluff, with a lot of humor on the Toa side from their failed attempts at forming Kaitas again.
• Cuteness Proximity:
  • Penny often slips into this around the Rahi of Mata Nui, whenever Pewku the Ussal crab or Mumu the tamed Muaka are nearby. Not even Ruby and Weiss can resist the latter.
  • In the side story "A Cat Most Curious", Ruby is once again unable to resist turning into a babbling mess around Albus, much to Weiss's chagrin. Yang apparently isn't immune to this, either.
  • Dew Gayl, one of the Huntresses in Team NDGO, has this reaction around camels.
  • In Chapter 12 of the sequel, Weiss immediately fawns over Mumu's kittens.
• Disabled in the Adaptation: One of the side stories, "Team Building", reveals that Ruby is autistic in this AU.
• Doorstopper: The first fic tops out at just over 420 thousand words, while the side stories (of which there are ten so far) total up to another 63 thousand words.
• Dynamic Entry: Shows up everywhere across the entire story collection. Whether it's Yang announcing her presence by punching out a Rahi, Ruby arriving at the defense of Ta-Koro by slicing through bugs in mid-air, or Onua entering any fight by the earth literally erupting... the heroes of both Mata Nui and Remnant love these kinds of entrances.
• Hope Bringer:
  • Vakama notes in his musings that both the Toa and the Huntresses fill this role, inspiring Matoran (who've been surviving for a thousand years in darkness) to finally dream of a better life. Makuta also realizes this, though he's far more annoyed that they'd so easily unravel his Xanatos Gambit and make the Matoran harder to subjugate.
  • Due to her being the one speaking during the worldwide broadcast in Volume 8, Ruby becomes this for the people of Vacuo upon her and the team's return to Remnant.
• No Biochemical Barriers:
  • The Huntresses can eat the fruit and Rahi on Mata Nui without much issue besides them noting the heavily metallic taste, and in the second story Penny can drink liquid protodermis like water, though she notes that it's bitter.
  • The Bara Magna residents on Remnant can eat the local food with no obvious problems.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Vakama notes in Destiny's Divide that Makuta summoning the Kanohi Dragon is a complete surprise, given how the Makuta had previously limited himself to the Rahi on the island, showing the Turaga just how much their foe instinctively fears the Huntresses and their ability to be a Spanner in the Works for his plans. Not that the Master of Shadows would ever admit his fear, however.
  • On the boat ride to save Ga-Koro early on in Destiny's Divide, Penny finds Ruby's sudden Heroic BSoD after the motor breaks extremely disquieting. Granted, the poor girl had every reason to be upset, considering she's blaming herself for almost everything that's gone wrong in the last few days. On both worlds.
  • All throughout Chapter 8 of Dutiful Destruction, Dew and Octavia of Team NDGO have been bickering and sniping at each other even in the middle of a strategy meeting. When Octavia doesn't respond to one of her post-battle barbs (on account of being in the middle of a panic attack), Dew instantly knows that something's wrong.
• Point of Divergence: Several, with regards to both RWBY and BIONICLE's canon storylines.
  • Instead of Jaune killing Penny to keep Cinder from getting the power, Emerald is the one who ends up next to her, and she realizes that Penny will bleed out regardless of whether or not someone gives her a Mercy Kill. She opts instead to use her Semblance on the dying Penny, letting her see the person she wants the Winter Maiden power to go to (Winter). Thus, Emerald ends up falling into the void with RWBY and Neo instead of Jaune.
  • Ruby falling in with the empathetic Ga-Matoran and the wise, caring Gali leaves her in a much better mental state for much of the story unlike her canon counterpart for most of Volume 9. Similarly, her encounter with Neopolitan ends with the latter having a Heel Realization and running off an emotional wreck after Ruby spares her life...again, unlike Volume 9.
  • Mata Nui notices the Battle of Atlas and (after failing to act quickly enough to save the civilians Cinder attacked) creates a new pathway for anyone who falls out of the portal dimension, allowing them to safely travel between worlds. Thus, the main cast arrives on the island of Mata Nui, instead of the Ever After.
  • Penny becoming the Maiden of Mata Nui, thanks to the power of the Great Spirit himself, draws the eyes of the Order of Mata Nui to what's happening on the island much sooner than usual.
  • Lewa's lingering trauma from being mind-controlled by Makuta's infected mask, along with Ren at his side advising caution, keeps him from getting Krana'd alongside his people in Dutiful Destruction.
• Prefers Going Barefoot: Like the last few episodes of Volume 8, Penny has spent almost her entire time on Mata Nui barefoot (much to Takua's disgust). In her own words:
  Penny: I have spent many years being unable to feel anything, even the ground beneath my feet. I wish to feel everything now.
• Pungeon Master: Yang. No matter the situation, no matter the danger, she almost always has a pun locked and loaded and ready to fire. Ruby and Weiss are usually the first to groan, with Blake either not reacting or engaging with it herself.
• Reasonable Authority Figure:
  • The Turaga in Destiny's Divide are instantly accepting of the Huntresses who fell to Mata Nui, and give them the same level of reverence and aid that they give to the Toa themselves. Vakama even goes one step beyond and forges a set of protosteel throwing disks from the tooth of a Kanohi Dragon late in the story, which the girls use alongside their main weapons from then on.
  • Unlike Leonardo Lionheart and James Ironwood before him, Headmaster Theodore in Dutiful Destruction is shown to be very friendly, helpful, and firmly on the side of good.
• Shout-Out:
  • The concept of "pair-bonding", the Matoran and Toa equivalent of a romantic relationship, but with no physical aspect, is something that the author admits is inspired by the science fiction novel Axiom's End.
  • At one point in Destiny's Divide, Blake references what appears to be the Remnantian equivalent of H.P. Lovecraft and his Cthulhu Mythos when talking about how Mata Nui might be the one responsible for their ability to use the Kanohi powers of the Toa via their Scrolls despite still being asleep. She's not wrong.
  • After the Toa split up and return to their individual Wahi in Destiny's Divide, Yang jokes about filming Tahu's post-Kini-Nui temper tantrum and uploading it to Remnant's version of the Internet, complete with a video title that wouldn't look out of place on a Dhar Mann skit.
  • When talking to Takua about how the Matoran had lost much of their past, Nokama paraphrases Kida by comparing her people to a stone battered by the ocean waves.
  • Emerald at several points compares Lewa to Tartan the Ape-Man, as well as casually referencing a handful of other idioms and metaphors. The most common response is for a Matoran to ask what that means, to which she responds by just going "Never mind."
  • A meta-example, from the Mata Nui Online Game. When confronted with what seems to be an underground sundial in the depths of the Great Mine, Blake briefly wonders if she'd need to find the centerpiece and shine a light on it to create the proper time. She almost immediately abandons the idea, writing it off as a solution that only works in "old point-and-click adventure games."
  • When she and Weiss are roughhousing, Ruby calls out "Oh no, the monarchy is trying to silence me! Help help I'm being repressed!" Weiss derides her for being childish, but bursts out laughing anyways.
  • As mentioned, Yang is decidedly not amused when being told that she and Tahu need the pieces of the Makoki stone to finish their quest.
    Yang: Another Fetch Quest? What is this, a video game trying to pad out the playtime? Next you'll be telling us that the only way to beat Makuta is to buy season passes and randomized loot boxes. Oh, sorry, "surprise mechanics."
  • A multi-story tall giant that appears late in the story, formed via Fusion Dance, laden with volcanic imagery, and who forms their signature weapon specifically by plunging a hilt into lava to create the blade...now, are we talking about Akamai? Or Obsidian?
  • "Team Building" shows that Remnant has several Expy-themed shows and movies such as Quartz Universe, Laser Team, and a thriving superhero genre.
  • At one point in "A Cat Most Curious", Tahu says a variation of the iconic line "I've only had X for a day and a half, but if anything happened to them I'd kill everyone in this room and then myself" after watching Albus for long enough.
  • In Dutiful Destruction, a legend of a Beowolf Alpha with a missing claw that commands his lesser brethren like a general is mentioned.
  • The Dustfruits are inspired by the scene with the lamppost in The Magician's Nephew.
• Technicolor Fire: Winter's flames when using her Maiden Powers are predominantly blue, while Penny's are green during her time as the Winter Maiden and upon becoming the Maiden of Mata Nui. Similarly, the Kanohi Dragon in Destiny's Divide uses flames that are a pure black, likely to signify just how dangerous it is.
• Tempting Fate:
  • Two examples of this show up in Chapter 35 of Destiny's Divide. During the fight against the Manas, the Huntresses take cover on a pillar. Yang assumes that it'll be fine since the Manas can't climb... only for them to start taking the pillar down. On the Kini-Nui side of things, Hafu swears off pair-bonding... only for Kotu to rescue him in a way that is implied to have made a mark on him.
  • This becomes a Running Gag in "Team Building", where Lewa loudly protests against anyone who "jinx-curses" their efforts to form the Toa Kaita at will.
• Two Lines, No Waiting / Four Lines, All Waiting: Many chapters are framed in such a way, to indicate that the journeys of the separate Toa and Huntress pairs (as well as Takua and Penny) are all happening simultaneously. In fact, it's more rare when a chapter takes place from a single Point of View, of which there are only two in Destiny's Divide.
• Signed Language: Just before the final battle with Makuta in Destiny's Divide, Neopolitan takes it upon herself to teach the basics of "Valean Sign Language" to the other Huntresses and the Toa. From that point on if she needs to communicate in the heat of battle (where it's impossible to type up a Scroll message), she does this to communicate. Yang and Blake aren't as skilled as her, but they're proficient enough to hold a conversation and understand what she's saying, and this becomes Neo's primary method of short-form communication with the rest of Team RWBY from that point onward in the series.
• Underwater Kiss: Blake and Yang share one before the final battle of Destiny's Divide, which eventually flows into a Two-Person Pool Party. Ruby and Weiss follow their lead in the sequel story.
• You Are Not Alone: A major theme of the story collection as a whole. For all the power each individual Toa has, often times they find themselves overwhelmed and in need of rescue from either the Huntresses or the other Toa. The character growth of certain characters in canon - for example, Tahu becoming a more level-headed leader, or Kopaka warming up to the idea of allies - is accelerated just from having people like Yang or Weiss by their side to help them along a path they've already walked. On the other side of the coin, the girls themselves - who all have trauma from the Battle of Atlas, or from what happened before - have found solace and healing not just with each other, but with the Toa and Matoran they've befriended. They make each other stronger just by being there.
  Turaga Matau: Unity, Duty, Destiny... it starts with Unity, always and forever.

Destiny's Divide Tropes

• 11th-Hour Superpower: After the Toa get their Golden Masks (which allows them to use any collected Mask of Power with just a thought) upon their return to Kini-Nui, the Huntresses get two boons of their own - a reduced Aura cost for channeling mask powers through their Scrolls, and an upgrade to their brand new Deadly Disc weapons that allow the disks to mimic their own Semblances. Gali even notes that Mata Nui smiles on the warriors of both worlds... though considering that Makuta waits for them below, everyone agrees that they'll need the new powers.
• Ability Mixing:
  • During the initial attack on Ga-Koro near the beginning of the fic, Ruby starts using Dust Crystals to augment her Semblance (since she's missing Crescent Rose at the time). Weiss even compliments her on how she's gotten better at it later on.
  • When Gali is compelled to go to Kini-Nui, Ruby suggests combining Gali's Walk on Water power with her ability to command the waves and essentially surf there, which massively speeds up the trip.
  • During her all-out assault towards the end of the battle with infected Lewa, Blake seamlessly weaves the channeled mask powers with her own Semblance and Dust, which starts turning the tide of the fight in her favor... until her Aura finally runs out, at least.
  • When looking for Penny and Takua in Ko-Wahi, Ruby comes up with another exploit in which Gali removes the water in the air while Kopaka absorbs the snow, allowing them to dissipate a blizzard by that neither could do anything about on their own by breaking it down at a fundamental level. Doubles as foreshadowing, considering what Wairuha (a fusion of the pair along with Lewa) is able to do later in the story.
  • To get past a horde of Rahi surrounding Ta-Koro, Tahu summons his Mask of Levitation and uses gusts of flame to propel himself and Yang over them like a red comet. Yang notes that Lewa is going to be so jealous that Tahu figured out flying before the Toa of Air did.
  • Most of the above play into the first phase against the Makuta fight.
  • During the Makuta fight Gali unleashes a cone of water, which Ruby then enters with her Semblance and the Mask of Water-Breathing, spinning it to make it a giant drill.
• Accidentally Broke the MacGuffin: The lightstone, which allowed Penny to survive while not directly at Takua's side and has the ability to dispel Makuta's shadows, breaks during the battle for Kini-Nui.
• Achilles in His Tent: Between finding out that Vakama doesn't know how to get them home, butting heads with Tahu, knowing that the rest of her friends fell (thus turning her Taking the Bullet for Ruby into a Senseless Sacrifice) and learning that Penny died again, Yang spends the first night on Mata Nui sulking in Ta-Wahi and questioning both her own mistakes and whether or not she should even keep fighting. Luckily Jaller finds her the next morning to help snap her out of that funk.
  Jaller: My Duty is to protect my home. Tahu's Duty is to find the Masks of Power and defeat Makuta. Tell me this, Yang - what is your Duty?
• Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: In between all the island exploration and mask hunting and Rahi fighting, the girls ruminate on their failures during the Atlas Arc, and what lessons they can learn going forward.
  • Chapter 15, appropriately titled "Alone Together," serves as an extended one of these, as the girls and the Toa comfort one another after the meeting at Kini-Nui turns sour for the latter. Highlights include Ruby opening up to Gali about how Team RWBY struggled to come together in the early days, Yang sharing a cautionary tale to Tahu about being an abusive and arrogant leader, Kopaka explaining to Weiss why he's so standoffish and cold towards others, and Neopolitan finally getting a chance to say goodbye to Roman (thanks to Pohatu's stonework).
• Adaptational Explanation: A minor example, but the members of team CRDL other than Cardin not appearing in the Battle of Beacon is explained as them outright abandoning him due to lack of faith in his leadership.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: One of the main ways that the Toa show affection to the members of Team RWBY. Gali and Pohatu in particular seem fond of doing this with Ruby and Neo, respectively, while Emerald pretends to be upset when Lewa gives her the same treatment. Defied in the case of Yang and Tahu, however - as in canon, Nobody Touches the Hair applies.
• Alien Arts Are Appreciated: When Hafu uses the rubble of a landslide to carve a self-congratulatory self-portrait on the way to Kini-Nui, Takua and the rest of the Chronicler's Company struggle to find nice things to say about it. Penny, meanwhile, gushes about the symbolism and meaning behind the piece, which leaves everyone just about speechless.
• All Your Powers Combined:
  • The Toa Kaita, who appear in Chapter 35, have the basic elemental powers of their Toa...along with a few new tricks, such as weapons as big as they are.
  • Later on, during the final battle with Makuta, the Toa do this at Penny's urging to seal away Makuta in a cage of protodermis.
• Amazon Brigade: With Emerald replacing Jaune, all of the Remnantians that end up on Mata Nui are female, and all of them can kick serious Rahi ass.
• Amnesiac Hero: Like in BIONICLE canon, the Toa emerge from their canisters without much to go off of besides their names, their powers, and whatever feels right to them. Takua also starts the story off like this, unable to remember his past, but that process was a little more...traumatic.
• And Then What?: Part of Ruby's confrontation with Neopolitan is all about this, where she asks her would-be assassin what she'll do after getting her revenge. Neo doesn't have an answer.
• And This Is for...: The Toa and Huntresses each get one of these on Makuta near the end of Chapter 37, "Master of Shadows". Until Makuta gets tired of taking it, that is.
• Arbitrary Skepticism:
  • When talking with Takua about how he might need to write her as a Matoran when he's recording their adventures as to not confuse future generations with how weird she is, Penny suggests that he could write her in as a Toa. When he expresses disbelief that such a thing as a seventh Toa could exist, Penny only has to point at her own existence and presence on Mata Nui to prove that stranger things have happened, which Takua is forced to concede.
  • Lampshaded by Fox and Sun at the end of the story, who joke that they'd struggle to believe Team REWBYN if they'd fallen into a world based on fairy tales instead.
• Armor-Piercing Response: In response to Makuta trying to hit the Huntresses and Toa with a Breaking Speech, Ruby counters with one about how they'll do their best to stop him, regardless of whether it gets them home or not. She then turns it back on him by pointing out that, with all the Rahi and insults Makuta throws at the heroes, even when they're right at his doorstep, that maybe he's the one afraid of them, and dares him to prove her wrong, taking great pleasure in noting that his angered response doesn't actually deny said fear.
• Artificial Gill: The Kanohi Kaukau, the Great Mask of Water-Breathing serves as one for the Toa, as well as the Huntresses when they learn they can channel the Kanohi powers for themselves. It's noted to have a lower cost than most of the other mask powers, and not only does it let them breathe, it also lets them see through just about any water as if it's crystal clear. Of course, if they run out of Aura while diving...
• Attack Its Weak Point:
  • The Rahi, by and large, are a lot more durable than the Grimm that Team RWBY are used to fighting, forcing them to either do this to deal finishing blows, or find a way to pacify the beasts. At first they can simply knock off the masks that act as relays for Makuta's will, but this loses its effectiveness pretty quickly as Makuta catches onto their tactics.
  • After learning about the Kraata inhabiting the armor of the Rahi, both the Toa and the Huntresses start targeting them in this way. Gali and Lewa in particular find the slugs absolutely vile.
  • The Kanohi Dragon has one on the back of its head, which Tahu and Kopaka both exploit after dropping an avalanche on it.
  • The battle with Makuta in Chapter 37 has the heroes focusing in on his mask...until it shatters, revealing that it wasn't actually a weak point at all.
• Badass Boast:
  • Tahu throws one of these out every other breath, especially in the fight against the Kanohi Dragon.
  • Akamai carries this forward with this Pre Asskicking Oneliner just before unleashing his elemental power against the Manas:
  Akamai: These beasts have served in the shadows for long enough! Now they will burn in the light!
  • Penny gives one when she flies in during the last phase of the Makuta fight to save her friends, empowered by the newly-awakened magic of a Maiden.
  Penny: Listen well, Makuta, so-called Master of Shadows...know and ponder this in your blackened soul. I am Penny Polendina, Maiden of Mata Nui. I am alive. I am so much more than human. And I am nothing less than your worst nightmare!
• Badass in Distress: The Toa and Huntresses alike find themselves in over their heads on more than one occasion, usually at the hands of the Rahi (who are far tougher than the Grimm that the latter are used to). That said, they're all more than capable in a fight on their own terms, and they're equally adept at saving each other at the last minute.
• Bad "Bad Acting": At one point after the first Kini-Nui meeting leaves Gali feeling blue, Ruby does terrible-on-purpose impressions of the other Toa using woven grass masks, mocking the perceived character flaws and the friction they caused among the group. It's enough to lift Gali's spirits to the point where they can have a more honest conversation.
• Bag of Holding: Takua's rucksack, which can fit all the stuff he picks up on his and Penny's journey - including an entire lavaboard - in a single blue bag that's about as big as his torso. Then again, it seems to be a pretty standard method of storage on Mata Nui, if the conversation between Blake and Emerald is any indication.
• Braving the Blizzard: Chapter 29, "Snowblind", sees Penny and Takua doing this in search of Matoro (who's out hunting in the Drifts at the time)...and nearly getting lost and dying of cold exposure in the process.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Pohatu, the Toa of Stone, is even noted by the other Toa and Huntresses to be exceptionally friendly, especially compared to Tahu and Kopaka. But when Neo tries to trick him into taking her to Ruby so she can take revenge... it doesn't end well.
  Pohatu: I may not be the sharpest stone in the quarry... but do not take me for a fool.
• Beyond the Impossible: In a vision Takua sees of his past, we learn that he somehow set the snow of Ko-Koro on fire.
• Big Damn Heroes: Happens across the fic with characters regularly making their presence known via Dynamic Entry, but two egregious cases happen in Chapter 36: one where Wairuha catches the Huntresses before they can fall into the horde of Manas before they and Akamai clean house, and one where just like in BIONICLE canon, the other villages come to help Takua, Penny, and the Chronicler's Company defend Kini-Nui from an overwhelming Rahi attack.
• The Big Damn Kiss: Blake and Yang have one upon reuniting at Kini-Nui, at the end of Chapter 12. Ruby and Weiss get one of their own a few days (and over a dozen chapters) later.
• Big Eater: Admittedly she hadn't eaten anything in at least a day, but after she reunites with her friends at Kini-Nui Penny becomes quite fond of the Ruki fish Yang cooked, eating several of them even after just one is compared to devouring an entire turkey. She eats at least five before finally falling asleep. A similar incident happens with her in Po-Koro many chapters earlier, after staying up all night to follow the merchant selling infected Koli balls.
• Big Good: As in canon, the Great Spirit Mata Nui is seen as a benevolent deity by the Matoran, though he spends the entire story in slumber as part of Makuta's ultimate plan. That doesn't stop him from reaching out to save Team RWBY and their friends during their fall out of Remnant, acting behind the scenes to empower the Huntresses, or bringing Penny back to life and eventually creating a new set of Maiden powers for her.
• Blunt "No"/Blunt "Yes": Kopaka is quite fond of giving these, especially when the Huntresses are bothering him.
• Boxing Lessons for Superman: Almost literally, in some cases! Over the course of the fic the Toa and Huntresses find that they have a lot to teach each other, helping one another get some new skills under their belt. Examples include:
  • Emerald learning how to leaf-run like Lewa and the Le-Matoran.
  • Tahu getting coached on how to throw a punch from Yang.
  • Gali instructing Ruby on dive techniques to build up her lackluster swimming skills.
  • Lewa learning how best to use Dust crystals from Emerald, though at first he's a little disappointed that she only really trusts him with Wind Dust.
  • Kopaka and Weiss learning each others' swordfighting skills through regular sparring.
  • Takua being taught how best to fight with a spear by Penny, once he gets his Chronicler's Staff.
• Breaking Speech: In Chapter 36, "The Path of Valor", Makuta gives one to each of the Toa, and one collectively to the Huntresses, in an attempt to crush their spirits. It fails, with Ruby turning it around and even giving an Armor-Piercing Response.
• Brick Joke:
  • Neo is less than impressed by Pohatu choosing to go after the Mask of Water-Breathing first instead of a mask more useful in combat. Several chapters later, after Pohatu decides to have the two of them escape the collapsing Po-Kini by dropping them in the ocean, seemingly as a joke, he reminds her of how she didn't think much of his choice.
  • Another one involving Neo - one of her first interactions with the people of Mata Nui involved tricking the carver Hafu to get her weapon back, by casting an Illusion over herself to make it seem like she was knocking over one of his carvings. More than twenty chapters later, when Pohatu seeks to introduce her to Hafu (now part of the Chronicler's Company) at Kini-Nui, she recognizes him and vanishes completely.
  • When Team RWBY (and Emerald) first reunite at Kini-Nui, Emerald gives Weiss the coat from her Volume 8 outfit, which just so happens to contain Weiss's wallet (which she presumably stole off-screen). After they get there the second time and the Toa get their Golden Kanohi, Emerald tests whether or not she can still use the borrowed mask powers... by using the Kakama to take the wallet back. Weiss is incensed both times, but a good sport all the same.
• But Now I Must Go: After Makuta is sealed away, and after Penny realizes she can recreate the Gateway that brought the Huntresses to Mata Nui, the Huntresses return to Remnant after several tearful goodbyes with their respective Toa partners.
• Bystander Syndrome: After Jaller sends him and Penny to check on the Guard division in Ko-Koro in Chapter 28, Takua gets annoyed at how it seems like no one wants to go outside their villages to aid the others unless they have no choice.
• Call-Back:
  • Yang and Tahu's first encounter involves surprising the Toa of Fire with Ember Celica's grenades when he's secure in his invincibility. Over thirty chapters later, she does the same thing against Makuta. Tahu ends up feeling quite vindicated.
  • Weiss is not amused when her Aura is the first to break during the final battle, complaining about how tired she is of getting stabbed just to make a point, all but explicitly referencing the Battle of Haven from RWBY canon.
  • Way back in Chapter 6, Penny explains a hug to Takua as "something that friends do when they want to feel warm inside." Thirty chapters later, Takua gives almost the same explanation when he hugs Jaller.
  • In "Dutiful Destruction", Lewa's reaction when the Toa decide to celebrate after freeing all the Rahi is a reference to "Team Building".
• Call-Forward: The story occasionally references events that take place later in BIONICLE canon.
  • When learning how to read the Matoran alphabet with Sonya at the Ko-Koro Wall of Prophecy Weiss hears references to the Toa Inika and their mission to Voya Nui, the Bohrok, the Mask of Time, and Mahri Nui.
  • During a conversation with Gali about Kanohi powers, Ruby inadvertently lists half the Toa Mahri's mask powers - complete with a dramatic, over-the-top recreation of Kongu's Summon Bigger Fish ability.
  • Talking with Takua, Penny brings up the idea of a seventh Toa.
• Can't Live Without You: When an amnesiac Takua inadvertently revives Penny her Aura becomes tied to his being, so she can only go a limited distance from him before she weakens and risks dying once more if they don't reunite. They have a special lightstone that lets them extend the distance if need be, but it's still not very far, in part because it will only work for a limited time. The maximum distance and the lightstone's duration increase as the pair spend more time together, but getting separated remains a constant source of anxiety for both Penny and Takua. At least until the finale, where Penny gets a new set of Maiden powers courtesy of Mata Nui.
• Cast Full of Gay: Outside of Neo and Penny, all of the Huntresses on Mata Nui have expressed attraction to the same sex.
• Character Catchphrase: Penny has a tendency to greet every new Matoran she meets with her classic "Salutations!" and "It is a pleasure to meet you!" upon introducing herself. Takua seems endlessly amused.
  Takua: ...wow, you really just greet everyone that way, don't you?
  Penny: It is a force of habit.
• Chekhov's Gun: Several times during the fic, Penny mentions how her Semblance keeps feeling pulled towards something underground. During the final battle, upon seeing her friends about to be murdered at the hands of Makuta, she reaches out through her grief...and connects with Mata Nui himself.
• Clothing Damage: Downplayed. The Huntresses end up losing a lot of clothing during their fights on Mata Nui, mostly in the form of coats either being torn or abandoned in battles. Given the lack of tailors among the Matoran, any damage their outfits take are pretty much permanent.
  • Done on purpose by Ruby Rose just before she and Weiss separate during the Kini-Nui meeting, cutting off a piece of her own cloak to make a little scarf for her partner to symbolically keep her warm. Aww.
• Cooldown Hug: Penny is quite fond of giving these in addition to her usual hugs, especially when either Ruby or Takua are stressed out. It takes the latter a little while to really understand what it means.
• Convection, Schmonvection: Both averted and justified. The people of Ta-Koro (including Toa Tahu himself) are far more resistant to heat than most Matoran, to the point where the village itself sits on an island surrounded by lava. The Huntresses have Aura to help them mitigate temperature extremes, allowing them to visit and spend time there, but as demonstrated by Yang when she and Tahu retrieve the Makoki Stone piece from Ta-Kini, even that has limits - it doesn't completely protect her when she's that close to molten surface, and Tahu even explicitly calls out the toxic fumes that would make it hard for her to breathe. Not that it stops her.
  • Earlier, when Takua and Penny used the former's lava-surfing board to get to the lighstone cavern, the latter notes the board blocks the heat so well that she's able to make the trip with no shoes.
  • This is weaponized by Akamai in Chapter 36, when he fuses Pohatu and Onua's geokinetic powers with Tahu's mastery of heat and flame to essentially vaporize even the Manas.
• CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: When Penny nearly drowns during the events in Ga-Koro, Ruby manages to use CPR to revive her, disgusting the watching Takua (who doesn't fully understand what he's seeing). Downplayed due to Penny immediately spewing up all the water she swallowed while drowning, which Takua finds less disgusting than seeing two "maskless faces" make contact.
  Takua didn't know what "CPR" was, but he could only guess it was an acronym for "creepy, painful, and repulsive."
• Crossover Power Acquisition:
  • Ruby eventually discovers that the Huntresses can copy the Kanohi powers of the Toa without needing to use the physical masks, designating which available power to use via their Scrolls, though the power is still fueled by their Aura like a Semblance is. When Weiss questions how this can be possible, Blake offers the suggestion that Mata Nui is helping them somehow.
  • Weiss's ability to summon fallen enemies (which she thought only applied to Grimm) extends to the Rahi, allowing her to call forth extremely hardy reinforcements.
• Crush Blush: Poor Ruby. The prose often describes her as "turning as red as her namesake" whenever Weiss gets mentioned... not that her partner herself fares much better.
• Cuddle Bug: Ruby, Penny, Weiss, and Yang are all very touchy-feely and love giving (and receiving) hugs, both with other Huntresses and with the Toa and Matoran. Later on, Neopolitan reveals herself to be one as well, much to Yang's surprise and amusement. Reactions among the Matoran and Toa are...mixed.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: While Makuta ultimately gains the upper hand in the fight between him and the Toa/Huntress alliance, the heroes manage to get more than one good hit in before being overwhelmed. Luckily, they take long enough that Penny, empowered by Mata Nui, is able to arrive and direct them to seal him away.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Blake, as in canon, is associated with shadows but is still heroic. Her name for the disk Vakama made for her is "Krahkava", roughly translating to "swift and nimble shadow", and she uses it to aid the Toa and Matoran against Makuta.
• Deadly Disc: Throwing disks are the primary weapon used by the Matoran, usually hewn from wood, metal, or even obsidian (in the case of the Ta-Matoran). Later on, Vakama forges a set of protosteel disks for the Huntresses, in gratitude for everything they've done for them. After the Toa get their Golden Kanohi, the Huntresses find that not only do the disks focus on a target when their Aura is channeled into them, but they can carry their Semblances as well.
• Death by Adaptation: Sort of, while Cardin simply disappears after vol. 3, in ch. 15 Yang acknowledges him as MIA.
• Death World: Some of the Toa and Matoran see Remnant as this, based on the descriptions Ruby and her friends give them. When Takua asks Penny point-blank if their world has anything that isn't used to fight the Grimm in some way, the only thing she can name is penguins.
• Discard and Draw:
  • Penny loses her Maiden powers after her death and revival, but instead unlocks her Semblance. She also makes a new style of weapon instead of recreating her old blades, in part because of the limited materials available on Mata Nui, in part to represent her fresh start.
  • After her weapons and the lightstone that lets her fight while not at Takua's side are destroyed, and after she makes contact with the sleeping Mata Nui, Penny gains a completely new set of Maiden powers as well as a new title: The Maiden of Mata Nui.
• Dismantled Macguffin: The Makoki stone pieces, which are necessary to open the way to Makuta's lair. Yang is not amused upon learning that the Toa need to gather them, after having spent two weeks helping Tahu find his masks.
• Dope Slap: Neopolitan, after her Heel–Face Turn, finds herself as both the slappee (getting flicked in the head by Yang as "revenge" for their train fight) and the slapper (bonking Pohatu on the mask when he drops them both into the ocean to escape a collapsing Po-Kini).
• Dual Wielding: Blake and Emerald's preferred fighting style. Weiss uses it for a while at the beginning of the story (when she was still holding onto Gambol Shroud for Blake), but gives it up both after returning the sword and after Kopaka warns her that it sacrifices too much defensive power in favor of raw power.
• Elemental Rivalry: Tahu and Kopaka are the embodiment of fire and ice, respectively, and categorically do not get along with each other upon first meeting. At least part of it is motivated by this trope, though Yang points out later that just because their elements oppose each other doesn't mean Tahu and Kopaka have to. Indeed, their relationship and willingness to work together improves throughout the course of the story, especially after both of them prove instrumental in bringing down the Kanohi Dragon.
• Establishing Character Moment: The girls' first meetings with their respective Toa shed a great deal of light on their starting personalities:
  • Tahu and Kopaka both come to blows with their Huntresses, with Yang leaping to protect Ta-Matoran while Weiss fought in self-defense. Tahu is loud, boisterous, and confident all throughout his battle, while Kopaka is cold, calculated, and doesn't speak until after Weiss accidentally drops a stony avalanche on him.
  • Gali, Lewa, and Pohatu all end up saving their prospective partners, albeit in slightly different ways. Ruby and Gali meet each other in the ocean's depths and are utterly fascinated by each other - at least until Ruby suddenly remembers that she can't breathe underwater and nearly drowns, prompting Gali to rescue her and accompany her with gentle encouragement. Lewa saves Emerald from a Nui-Jaga and acts quite smug about it, which turns Emerald off of him and his care-free attitude...at least at first. Finally, Pohatu not only saves Neopolitan from a sandstorm, he also helps nurse her back to health and agrees to help her find her "friends", showing that he, like Gali, deeply cares about these strange creatures that have come to the island.
  • Finally, in stark contrast to his fellow Toa, Onua's first meeting with Blake doesn't take the form of a rescue, or a fight, but instead just two people talking things out and agreeing to work together. It highlights him as the most patient, thoughtful, and understanding of the Toa, and while he's curious about Blake and all her oddities, he still respects and trusts her implicitly.
• Evil Knockoff: The Kanohi Dragon that appeared during the Ta-Koro siege turns out to be a replica created by Makuta, as are the shadowy copies of the Grimm he glimpsed from Penny's mind. He created the former to intimidate the Matoran should they fall too far out of line, and unleashes the latter in order to try and tire out the Toa Kaitas and Huntresses when they assault his lair.
• Failsafe Failure:
  • The Toa have an auto-repair function that lets them heal at least some damage over time. When Gali is bitten by a Nui-Kopen when retrieving her Mask of Levitation, it stalls and leaves her unconscious as it ineffectually tries to fix a shoulder that's beyond repair. She does a lot better after Ruby takes it out and patches her up a bit with some spare parts.
  • The app that lets the Huntresses use the powers of their respective Toa partners apparently has a function where it shuts down automatically if the user's Aura takes too big a drop at once, to avoid wasting energy they'd need to keep themselves safe. Unfortunately, Ruby learns this when fighting the Tarakava Nui after retrieving the Ga-Kini Makoki Stone piece from underwater when she's using the Mask of Water-Breathing, so she would have likely drowned if not for Gali's intervention. Ruby even jokingly asks if Mata Nui accepts bug reports.
• Family-Friendly Firearms: Inverted. The Toa and Matoran appear utterly vexed when they see the Huntress's gun-based weapons; they're often described as "cannons" or "projectile launchers" in scenes from their POV. Best summed up in this exchange between Penny and Takua, upon finding Crescent Rose.
  Penny: This is Ruby's weapon - a long scythe combined with a customizable high-caliber sniper rifle!
  Takua:...a what?
  Penny: It is also a gun.
  Takua: Oh. [Beat] What's a gun?
• Fantastic Fruits and Vegetables: Well... for a given definition of "fantastic". Mata Nui thankfully has a variety of fruits and meats that Team RWBY and friends can eat, though the taste is often described as "alarmingly metallic". Justified in that the Matoran (and later, the Toa) don't actually eat the food - they absorb its energy through touch instead, so their flavor and texture are never considered.
  • One notable food is the Vuata Maca berry, a rare fruit used by the Matoran to quickly recharge themselves. Ruby discovers that eating a single seed can take an Aura from "broken" to "full" in less than a few seconds, though consuming it is often described as trying to eat a can of energy drink. Including the can itself.
• Fantastic Racism: Blake's fear of bringing Remnant's... less-than-tolerant attitude towards Faunus like her to Mata Nui is why, when Onua sees humans other than her and questions her cat ears, she just responds with a terse "I'm different" and refuses to talk further. Following the battle with a Makuta-controlled Lewa, however, she begins to open up a little more about her history.
• Fastball Special: Yang and Blake seem to really enjoy throwing each other while tethered together by Gambol Shroud's ribbon, if the defense of Ta-Koro and the fight against the Kanohi Dragon are any indication. Onua also does a variant with Ruby, using the Mask of Strength to toss her into the air so that she can snipe the Rahi from on high.
• Flaming Sword: Tahu's main weapon, which gets upgraded to a flaming greatsword made of lava when merged as Akamai.
• Flash Step: Done frequently by the Toa and Huntresses whenever they get their Kanohi Kakama, particularly during the final battle. Ruby's able to do this pretty much right off the bat, thanks to her Semblance.
• Fluffy Tamer:
  • After she frees a Muaka from Makuta's control by using her Semblance to remove the Kraata hitching a ride inside it, Penny has said Muaka acting like a housecat towards her, even naming it Mumu while she, Weiss, and Ruby pet it. Matoro, who has never seen one act like that in a thousand years, and who saw his pet Taoniho tiger Keiko acting in a similar way despite normally not being so friendly to strangers, notes that either Penny has a secret way with Rahi, or Mata Nui really is watching over her.
  • Lewa starts showing shades of this following his adventures alongside Onua, notably when he frees and aids Graalok the Ash Bear.
  • Ruby manages to get the aid of a pack of Takea sharks when Gali is fighting the Tarakava Nui.
• Good Old Fisticuffs:
  • Much like in canon, this is Yang's preferred fighting style, complete with shotgun gauntlets. Once he acquires the Mask of Strength (and after a little bit of coaching), Tahu comes to adopt this against enemies that resist fire.
  • Onua is no slouch in this department either, if his fight against an Infected Lewa is anything to go by, though he seems to prefer clever thinking and elemental powers over a full-on slugfest.
• Great White Feline: Keiko, a tamed Taoniho Tiger who accompanies Matoro while he's out hunting in the Drifts. Despite his species being temperamental in the best of times, he seems to adore Penny, even letting her scratch his ears much to his master's surprise.
• Heroic Mime: Once Neopolitan abandons her Revenge Before Reason mindset and begins her Heel–Face Turn, she fills this role for the heroes.
• Hook Hand: Gali's preferred weapon of choice is a pair of sharpened hooks, which are quite useful for tearing into armor as well as channeling her elemental power. She has actual hands as well, and unlike the other Toa (who either wear their weapons as part of themselves, or carry them like regular weapons) she replaces her hands with hooks when the situation calls for it. Ruby is suitably excited upon seeing it for the first time.
• Humans Are Ugly: On more than one occasion the Matoran, and to a lesser extent the Toa, are weirded and grossed out by the biology of the Huntresses. Takua in particular finds Penny's toes extremely repulsive, comparing them to worms stuck to her feet, among other things. In fact, part of the reason Makuta decides against trying to expose the Huntresses to Energized Protodermis in their fight is not wanting to see if it would make them look even worse.
• I Call It "Vera": Remnant weapons continue to have this treatment, from Crescent Rose to Hush. This applies to weapons that the Huntresses either find or make for themselves on Mata Nui, such as Penny building Vita and Luce.
  • When Yang and her friends are gifted Protosteel throwing disks by Vakama, they resolve to give them names in the Matoran language as a way to commemorate their time on the island. Ruby names hers "Naho-Gahi" (after the flowers seen in Ga-Koro, which translates to "droplets of protection"), Weiss calls hers "Hakoki" for "peaceful snowflake", Blake calls hers "Krahkava" for the prefix for Shadow and a word meaning "swift and nimble", Yang calls hers "Akuavo" for an archaic term for the Sun, Neo names hers "Shusano" for "silent precision", and Emerald calls her "Madumehi" for "tree-head" (Lewa suggested it and she said she liked it before he told her what it meant).
• I Choose to Stay: Penny ends up staying on the island of Mata Nui at the end of the story after everyone else goes home, though she promises to keep in touch with them thanks to imbuing Ruby's Scroll with some of her power.
• I Hate Past Me:
  • Takua can't remember his past before the Toa and Huntresses arrive, but in Chapter 28 he confesses to Penny that he's worried about what he did to get banished, wondering if it's something unforgivable like Ahkmou selling out his fellow Po-Matoran to Makuta, and that Penny would hate or somehow leave him if she finds out the truth.
    • After he regains his memories in "Vision Quest", he despairs on how, even though he managed to summon the Toa to Mata Nui, he had to do a lot of morally-dubious things to make it happen. It also doesn't help how he remembers how he seems to be a huge screw-up who ruined his friendship with Jaller when they used to be so close it was just short of being pair-bonded, wondering if he's doomed to wander the island, alone save for Penny, as a result of his past mistakes.
  • Emerald is continually disgusted by how blindly she used to follow Cinder, which is where most of her insecurities about doing the right thing come from now that she's (at least in her eyes) all on her own.
• Ineffectual Loner: Lewa and Kopaka are the two Toa most resistant to working with their fellow warriors. Lewa thinks that he's strong enough with just him and Emerald, while Kopaka at first just pushes away everyone. Needless to say, a lot of the friction of that first Kini-Nui meeting comes from them (though Tahu being a Jerkass didn't exactly help matters).
  • After that meeting, Kopaka tells Weiss why he feels that way - he believes it's in his very nature as the Toa of Ice, because unlike the other elements, his power can't bring life... only death. It also doesn't help that Nuju told him about the Toa Kaitas and he's worried about how the fusion will affect him and how the others will react to seeing him behind his metaphorical masks. He starts opening up after Weiss expresses hope that he can still be warm and welcoming in spite of his nature. After all, it happened to her.
  • Lewa, on the other hand, doubles down at first on his I Work Alone tendencies following the meeting, even getting testy with Emerald whenever she brings it up. It takes a Trauma Conga Line of almost losing his village, getting stuck with an Infected Mask, and nearly killing Emerald and Blake to break him of that notion, and even then he needs to have a tough but fair conversation with Onua to finally understand why this all happened because of his recklessness.
    Lewa: Being a Toa is... a much heavier burden than I thought it would be.
    Onua: It was never one we were meant to carry alone.
• Insufferable Genius: Hafu, a Po-Matoran carver who's very attached to his work, combines this with Eccentric Artist.
• Interrupted Intimacy: Poor Weiss and Ruby. The two girls finally manage to confess the feelings they've had about each other when left alone, they start smooching passionately... and then Gali and Kopaka come back with the mask they went off to retrieve. Awkwardness ensues.
  Ruby: Um... we can explain what that was just now.
  Kopaka: Please don't. The less I know about human rituals involving your strange mouth-worms, the better I'll sleep.
• Ironic Fear: Tamaru, a Le-Matoran who lives in the treetops, is afraid of heights.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: For all their abrasiveness towards each other and their Huntresses, it becomes clear that Tahu, Kopaka, and Lewa all care deeply about Yang, Weiss, and Emerald respectively.
  Tahu: You will not harm the Matoran or the humans! Not while the power of Mata Nui still flows through my being!
  Yang: (internally) Aww. He does care about me.
• Joke of the Butt: Neo and Yang get the giggles when Tahu points out that the frog-like Ghekula Rahi have their infected masks over their rear ends and the Kraata hiding in a hole nearby, meaning that they'll have to stab them in the buttholes in order to get the Kraata out. Tahu and Pohatu have no idea what they're laughing about.
  Pohatu: Forgive me. What is a butt, and... why does it have a hole?
• The Key Is Behind the Lock:
  • The system meant to drain the underground lava pools away from the lightstone cavern in Onu-Koro malfunctions, when a build-up occurs and no one is able to clear it, creating a lava river cutting off the cavern and causing a lightstone shortage. The problem is that Nuparu put the panel to control and fix it on the side of the cavern, on the logic that any workers trapped in the cavern in such a scenario would need a way to get out, but neglected to consider what would happen if no one was in the cavern. Another Onu-Matoran named Damek lampshades this once Penny summarizes the situation, telling her and Takua that he'd pointed out that the panel should have been on the other side, or that there should have at least been a redundant panel, but no one listened to him.
  • Gali notes that Makuta, with his twisted sense of humor, seems to like setting up scenarios like this with the masks, putting them in places that would be easy to reach... with said mask, like putting her Mask of Levitation on top of a large cliff, seemingly anticipating how the Toa would fail to work together properly.
• Kids Hate Vegetables: Discussed by the girls during the dinner scene at the second Kini-Nui meeting. Apparently Yang had to get very inventive to make her little sister eat anything other than sweets when they were growing up, to the point that Ruby hated her perogies because they always had "too much" spinach. Being on an island where all the food is somewhat metal makes her nostalgic for food she previously hated, however.
• Kill It with Ice
  • Kopaka's first instinct (at least at first) when meeting new people is to try and freeze them solid. He stops doing it when Weiss calls him out on it, though.
  • Part of the plan to bring down the Kanohi Dragon involves bringing a huge chunk of Mount Ihu down on it in an avalanche. Even after that, it still goes down fighting.
  • Wairuha, when using the elements of the Toa used to create them, has their combined powers manifest this way - first in a blizzard that turns into a Storm of Blades, then by forming a beam that can freeze even the Manas solid.
• Kindhearted Simpleton: Much like in canon, Taipu is... not the brightest lightstone in Onu-Koro, but he makes up for it with a love of adventure, exploration, and digging. He's exceptionally friendly towards Penny and Takua when they show up (even calling the former "beautiful," in stark contrast to every other Matoran thus far) and he uses his impressive strength to fight alongside the rest of the Le-Matoran in the Nui-Rama hive. Whenua specifically chalks this up to his relative youth among his charges - apparently, being only a few thousand years old is considered young for Matoran.
• Lava Surfing: Tahu does this when he and Yang go to retrieve their Makoki Stone piece. Yang is very into it.
• Le Parkour: Blake is well-versed in this from the start, and the Le-Wahi denizens (including Lewa) extensively practice a jungle-based version of this that could give Tarzan a run for his money. After a quick training montage, Emerald learns how to do this too.
• Let's You and Him Fight: Yang and Weiss's first encounters with Tahu and Kopaka, respectively. The former happens because Yang leaps to the defense of the Ta-Matoran (who had trapped what they thought was a Rahi, only for Tahu to break out and menace them) and ends in a stalemate, while the latter only happens because Kopaka had a habit of freezing anything that moved as a precaution upon arriving and ends with Weiss winning by a landslide.
• Living Is More than Surviving: At the end of their adventure in Le-Kini, Lewa emotionally asks Emerald to promise that she'll follow this philosophy when she gets back to Remnant, clearly dreading their eventual separation. Emerald blinks back tears as she promises exactly that.
• Machine Blood: Fighting the Rahi can get messy this time around. Coolant, oil, and other forms of liquid protodermis flow like wine during battles, often staining the Toa's armor as well as the clothes and weapons of the Huntresses.
• The Matchmaker:
  • During the Kini-Nui reunion, Yang openly teases Ruby about how her little sister used to write "I heart Weiss" in the margins of her "field journal." Cue flustered embarrassment from Ruby and a a soft blush from Weiss. Later on she also teases Tahu over how he seems to have nothing bad to say about Gali (in comparison to Kopaka, at least) although nothing comes of it.
  • When traveling with Emerald later in the fic, Blake suggests that the heartbroken thief try and get together with Ilia if/when they return to Remnant. Emerald calls her out on it at first, then shyly expresses interest.
• Mental Health Recovery Arc: The entire story essentially functions as one for Team RWBY, Emerald, Neo, and Penny, teaching them how to heal from the trauma of the Battle of Atlas. Ruby in particular, who suffered heavily from Break the Cutie during V8 and near the beginning of the story, finds the support and love she needs to keep moving forward in spite of her sorrow, which culminates in her being the only one strong enough to completely counter Makuta's attempt at a Breaking Speech.
• Midfight Weapon Exchange: Ruby and Weiss do this with Crescent Rose and Myrtenaster during the second phase of the Makuta fight, the logic being that the latter can't use the Dust to augment her Semblance with a broken Aura. This being Ruby and Weiss, it's of course done with a kiss between the two and a promise to come back to each other.
• Minidress of Power: Just like in canon, Ruby and Weiss and Penny are all sporting "combat skirts" for much of the story. Penny in particular goes one step further and gets a new one made at the story's end, to signify both her physical and spiritual rebirth as well as to better embrace her new role as the Maiden of Mata Nui.
• Mini-Mecha: When defending Kini-Nui from Makuta's encroaching Rahi hordes, Penny uses her Semblance to scavenge pieces from the fallen to create one, allowing her to tear through those remaining.
• Mix-and-Match Weapon: As in canon, the weapons of Team RWBY, Emerald, and Neo. After coming back to life, Penny uses her Technopathy and fallen Rahi parts to create Vita and Luce, a collapsible shield paired with a tonfa that transforms into a hooked spear.
• More than Mind Control: When we get a look at Lewa's thought processes under his Infected Mask, we see that Makuta isn't outright controlling him like a puppet, but has instead shifted just enough of his perceptions around that he thinks that what Makuta is doing is the logical and right thing to do in order to make the island a better place, like infecting Rahi masks so that Makuta can keep the dangerous creatures pacified. There is a part of Lewa that realizes the truth, but the mask combined with the Kraata hitching a ride on him lets Makuta keep it buried.
• Motor Mouth: Ruby has moments like these when she gets excited, whether it's about Penny's Semblance or about Kopaka's Mask of Vision. Weiss also has a very long run-on sentence while confessing her love to Ruby later on.
• Mundane Utility: Tahu and Yang both have fire-themed powers, either due to their own elemental affinity or due to their Semblance. They're not above using it to start campfires the easy way, generate light in dark caverns, or (in Yang's case) acting like a space heater for the rest of Team REWBYN.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Lewa has two revelations like this; once when he sees half of Le-Koro fall to the Nui-Rama attack due to his own recklessness, and the other during an argument with Onua following his time under Makuta's control.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Kopaka using the sword of Weiss's Knight summon in the battle against Makuta seems to be based on a similar occurrence in Volume 9, just with Yang in his role.
  • It's pretty common for the girls of Team RWBY (and their allies) to tease each other about the events of past Volumes, such as the Battle of Haven in Volume 5 or the more embarrassing moments in Volume 8.
  • During her confession to Ruby, Weiss brings up their first argument about who would lead the team after Initiation.
  • The final chapter has several references to the canon plot of Volume 9.
• Neck Lift:
  • Lewa does this to Emerald at one point while under Makuta's control. Her pleading with him to stop is enough to make him come to his senses in horror, if only for a moment.
  • This is one of Makuta's preferred tactics during the final battle with the Huntresses, doing it to Blake and Yang at various points in the first phase and a variant with Ruby in the second (by grabbing the collar of her Badass Cape). The former requires the aid of the Toa to cut through the cables, while the latter just unclasps the cloak to free herself while Makuta is distracted by the massive wall of water that Gali'd just unleashed.
• Noodle Implements: Takua's heist to steal Nuju's Toa Stone involved using two heatstones, four metal ropes, seven metal disks, and Pewku. When Takua's viewing the memory in a vision, even he's not sure how he pulled it off.
• Nothing Is Scarier: Mangaia is described from several POV scenes as being empty and cold. Yang and Blake aren't fans, though Neopolitan is at least glad that it smells better than Monstra.
• Objectshifting: When Blake and Onua are sent to retrieve the Makoki stone piece from an abandoned Onu-Kini, they are warned that a nameless Rahi with this ability lies in wait for them, likely disguised as an object inside the temple. It turns out to be the temple itself.
• Oh, My Gods!: The RWBY Characters usually drop "oh gods" or "gods-damned" when shocked or angry, in reference to the Brothers of Light and Darkness. Matoran and Toa, meanwhile, do the same with Mata Nui.
• One-Winged Angel: After the Toa and Huntresses shatter the rusted Hau he'd been sporting for most of the fight, Makuta finally stops playing and shapeshifts into a Humongous Mecha that breaks the former and shatters the Aura of the latter.
  • Yang's default response to having a nerve touched (especially during arguments) is to storm off and go very quiet. It's such a drastic change from her "projected" personality that even Tahu notices.
  • When Penny appears during the climactic battle, the embers of the Winter Maiden's power left in her being fanned into a flame once more by Mata Nui, Ruby notes that Makuta seems to be genuinely panicking for the first time since they arrived.
• Our Dragons Are Different: The Hikaki fire dragons appear at several points in Ta-Koro, although they behave more like packs of velociraptors than proper dragons. A more classical example would be The Kanohi Dragon, which shows up later in the story.
• Outside-Context Problem: For all of Makuta's scheming, a group of seven organic females with strange soul-based powers and crystals with elemental energies falling onto the island is something that the megalomaniacal manipulative mastermind could never have predicted, and despite his best efforts he's forced to keep adjusting his plans to try and counter their presence. This eventually leads to him going so far as to set loose the Kanohi Dragon, despite having previously limited himself to Rahi already in Mata Nui, in order to try and compensate. It doesn't work.
• Painting the Medium: Beings of great power relative to the Toa and Huntresses (such as Makuta, the Toa Kaita, and Mata Nui himself) almost exclusively have their dialogue portrayed in italics to represent how Power Echoes.
• Pinocchio Nose: Just like her robot body, Penny has a tendency to hiccup whenever she knowingly lies. Takua seems curious a few times, but has no comment, and when Yang asks, Penny tries to pass it off as a minor case of the hiccups.
• Place of Power:
  • Something about the Mata Nui island not only makes it so that the Dust Team RWBY has is significantly more powerful than it would be on Remnant, allowing them to stretch their supply farther, but even their Aura seems to recharge faster than it would normally.
  • Kini-Nui serves as one for the Toa, able to send out a telepathic message that compels them to gather when one of them touches it. It also serves as the gateway to Makuta's lair, as well as the place where the Toa get their Golden Kanohi.
• Power Crystal: Dust, as in canon, which is part of what makes the Huntresses such an Outside-Context Problem. Kopaka can even tell via his mask that it's basically solid elemental energy. Ruby, Weiss, and Blake use it to add extra effects to their Semblances, while Emerald prefers to just throw chunks of the stuff and shoot it to make explosions.
• Puppeteer Parasite: To combat the Huntresses, Makuta sends out Kraata to hitch a ride on various Rahi, reinforcing his control even if the Toa and Huntresses get the masks off.
• Rage Against the Heavens: When talking about the differences in the ways that their respective creators made them in regards to how humans and Toa/Matoran eat/absorb energy, Yang goes into a rant about how the Brother Gods caused all the current troubles on Remnant due to how badly they handled things with Salem, Ozpin, and the Relics.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Jaller, as the Captain of the Ta-Matoran Guard, is the highest-ranking officer within the village (second only to Turaga Vakama himself). He's also an accomplished warrior in his own right, fighting and killing several Rahi during a mass attack on Ta-Koro.
• Revenge Before Reason: Neopolitan only wants two things upon landing on Mata Nui: she wants Ruby Rose dead, and she wants to escape so she can gouge out Cinder's other eye, and by the time she encounters Ruby at Kini-Nui she's a wreck because she'd neglected taking care of herself in her drive to track down the red reaper. It takes Ruby calling her out at Kini-Nui and Pohatu breaking her down (and building her back up afterwards) for her to finally abandon the first.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Under Penny's direction, the Toa combine their powers and seal Makuta into a protodermis prison, trapping him indefinitely.
• Sense Freak: As a former gynoid who only experienced things through data, Penny is very excited to try out new sensations. The primary manifestation of this is her preference for going barefoot, but she also finds Vuata Maca berry seeds delicious, much to Matoro's surprise considering that he's heard Weiss compare the taste to licking a car battery, and wants to discover other flavors after eating the Ko-Matoran's soup.
• Sequel Hook:
  • Although Makuta is (seemingly) defeated and rendered Sealed Evil in a Can, Mata Nui informs the Toa through Penny that he cannot yet be awakened. Also, while Penny has to stay on the island as Mata Nui's new Maiden, she enchants Ruby's Scroll so they can stay in contact, or even come back through portals made by Penny's powers, opening the door for new adventures between the Toa and Huntresses.
  • Chapter 40, "Divided Destinies" is practically "Sequel Hook: the Chapter." To wit: The Order of Mata Nui catches wind of Penny's Maiden awakening up on the island, Makuta turns out to have slipped out of his armor just before the Toa Seal was created, Ozpin seems to know something about Mata Nui, Vacuo is in chaos after several thousand refugees showed up out of nowhere, and also the Bohrok are waiting for the right time to strike.
• Shapeshifter Showoff Session: Once Makuta (or at least a shadowy extension of himself) reads Penny's mind in the Nui-Jaga lair during the Po-Koro arc, he can't help but delight in rapidly swapping from one creature of Grimm to another. This includes most of the Atlesian bestiary seen in Volumes 7 and 8 of RWBY, as well as the iconic Hound sent to track her robot body down, before finally culminating in Cinder Fall herself.
• Shield Surf: Kopaka's preferred method of moving across the island, combined with his elemental power to create a constant path of ice for him to slide across. He doesn't do it as often once he finds his Mask of Speed, but he still does it occasionally, such as when he and Tahu are trying to outrace an avalanche they caused.
• Shoo the Dog:
  • Lewa first does this with an Auraless Emerald during the Nui-Rama assault on Le-Koro, giving her the task of keeping the uncaptured Le-Matoran safe and to keep her away from whatever Makuta has planned for him. He even blows her away with a gust of wind when she begs to stay.
  • Later on, Gali does this with Ruby when the latter is at the bottom of the sea with almost no Aura left to fuel her own Mask of Water-Breathing ability, after a blow from the Tarakava Nui nearly breaks it in one hit. Unlike the above example, Ruby comes back with help.
• Shot-for-Shot Remake: A number of scenes are almost word-for-word recreations of classic moments from early BIONICLE storytelling, obviously changed by the inclusion of the Huntresses. The biggest examples are Weiss's meeting with Kopaka in Chapter 2 (where she fills the role of Pohatu) and Kopaka finding his Mask of Shielding in Chapter 8 (again, with Weiss filling in for Pohatu), both of which are drawn from similar scenes in the very first comic. A great deal of dialogue from the Mata Nui Online Game also makes its way into the story in some form, usually during Takua and Penny's scenes.
• "Shut Up" Kiss: Done by Ruby to Weiss, when the latter starts babbling during her confession. Doubles as a First Kiss for the girls.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: Ruby perceives Blake and Yang as this in the island-wide group chat, getting especially frustrated by the sheer number of kissing face emojis. She manages to turn the tables on them once she and Weiss have a Relationship Upgrade of their own, even one-upping their teammates in chat.
  Ruby: Come back to me, Weissssss. I miss youuuu. T_T
  Weiss: I'll come find you later, dolt. ^3^
  Ruby: Awwww, okaaaaaay. :( I'm gonna give you so many kisses though...
  Weiss: I look forward to each and every one. :)
  Emerald: Ugh, this is all so sweet I think I'm gonna puke. Is this what eating ten pounds of raw sugar feels like?
  Neo: Yes :P
  Emerald: Of course you would know, Neo. -_-
• Silent Snarker: Neopolitan, both before and after her Heel–Face Turn.
• Soft Water: The girls, for the most part, are no worse for wear after landing in the ocean (save for Ruby, who nearly drowns due to a combination of being unconscious for the trip, poor swimming skills, and being fascinated by a chance encounter with Gali). Justified, as it's revealed near the end of the story that Mata Nui was doing his best to shield them all from the impact of landing.
  • When a semi-conscious Gali and an unconscious Ruby take a nasty fall into the sea from the highest cliff in Onu-Wahi (after both are poisoned by a Nui-Kopen), this trope is fully averted.
• Spanner in the Works: Makuta may be a schemer who has woven his plans so that even his defeats simply get him closer to his ultimate victory, but the Huntresses are such an Outside-Context Problem that he couldn't have planned for them at all, and he's forced to constantly adjust his plans to try and counter their presence. After he unleashes the Kanohi Dragon in an attempt to get his plans back on track, Vakama compares the girls to a Nui-Rama that flew into his web by mistake and are disrupting it and tearing it apart just by trying to survive.
• Speak Ill of the MIA: Yang does this to Cardin in ch. 15.
  *After Yang finishes telling Tahu about Cardin*
  Tahu: …my condolences, then.
  Yang: Eh, you don't gotta apologize - he was a real asshole, anyways. Always pushing people he saw as 'weaker' around, just because he could…there are probably folks who miss him, but I'm not one of them.
• Stab The Nui-Jaga: Neo literally pulls this off this with Penny when the two are in the Po-Wahi scorpion nest.
• Stargazing Scene: Tahu and Ruby have one just before the final battle, in a quiet moment of comparing the night skies of Mata Nui and Remnant, as well as the Toa of Fire exhibiting his Character Development by admitting how much he respects her.
• The Stoic: Kopeke, who is noted to be extremely quiet and hard to talk to even by Ko-Matoran standards. Eventually he warms up to the others within the Chronicler's Company, though he's still as quiet as ever - unless he's laughing, of course.
• Superpower Russian Roulette: Lampshaded by Makuta, who briefly considers trying to knock the Huntresses into his Energized Protodermis pool, but decides against it both because they might just get more powerful from it...or possibly become even uglier.
• Taught by Experience: After the last time he was sealed in a Toa Seal, Makuta is crafty enough to sneak out of his armor on the sly before it's complete.
• Team Chef: Yang serves this role whenever the girls are together. She spends most of the story working out how to make the metallic food of Mata Nui more palatable for human taste, which is definitely appreciated by her non-Matoran companions. Neopolitan and Penny in particular appreciate her cooking.
• Technopath: Penny's newly-discovered Semblance lets her to send "strings" of energy into machines that allow her to interface with/"wire herself into" them, up to and including physically moving them like she does with her new weapons, Ruby even dropping the "Technopath" term when Penny first unlocks it. She can't fully control biomechanical beings for very long at the moment and can only cause the equivalent of "muscle spasms" in Rahi that Makuta is puppeting, though her skill only continues to grow as she constantly experiments and becomes more confident. As Ruby points out, it's an incredibly useful power on an island where almost everything other than the Huntresses is partially mechanical.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: When the Toa pair up to search for the remaining masks, Yang and Neo start off like this... at least at first. A few chapters later, their dynamic changes to something akin to Vitriolic Best Buds.
• Teleport Spam: Makuta seems to be doing this at first during the second phase of the final battle, but Ruby notices that he's actually just moving his mask really quickly under the blanket of spare parts across the battlefield. Once she hits him with her disk, he stops doing this in favor of a more "fair" fight.
• Temporary Blindness: This is one of the first tricks that Emerald learned with her Semblance, and what her disc is capable of causing in those it hits.
• Threatening Shark: Averted with the Takea sharks in the oceans surrounding Mata Nui, as they're more aloof and distant than outright hostile. Fully inverted when Ruby tames an entire pack of them late in the story, even jumping out of the water and playing with her once she's back on the surface.
• This Cannot Be!: When Penny intervenes in the battle against Makuta and reveals that she's been empowered by Mata Nui, a noticeably panicking Makuta claims that it's impossible.
• Troubled Fetal Position: This seems to be the Huntress's go-to pose whenever things go wrong or whenever things feel overwhelming for them. Ruby does it the most, usually in response to her own darker thoughts getting the better of her. Yang also notably does this when Tahu shouts at her following the Kini-Nui meeting, which instantly makes him worried compared to how confident and cocky she usually is.
• Underwear Swimsuit: The Huntresses do this whenever they need to go for a swim when their clothes would weigh them down too much. Emerald, Blake, and Yang in particular seem fond of this, as does Penny whenever she's in Ga-Koro. Justified, considering they all fell straight from the Battle of Atlas.
• Unusual Euphemism: Yang seems fond of these, particularly when it comes to Toa anatomy. At one point, when Tahu and Kopaka are at each other's throats in the middle of a battle, she irritably asks if they can measure "crankshafts" some other time.
• Verbal Backpedaling: Matau does this when he accidentally lets slip to Takua that some Toa started their lives as Matoran, then tries to chalk it up to him being drunk off Bula wine. Takua just mentally files it away after a brief moment of existential panic.
• Vision Quest: After talking to Nuju, Takua eventually goes on one of these to regain his lost memories. The chapter where this happens is even called this trope.
• Voice of the Legion: How Makuta introduces himself properly before the final battle and his subsequent Breaking Speech. Doubles as a Mind Screw with how he mimics the voices of everyone the Toa and Hunteresses know in an attempt to freak them out.
• Walk, Don't Swim: Penny does this during the Ga-Koro arc to save Ruby from drowning (and from Makuta's shadowy tendrils keeping her pinned down). Justified in that she admitted moments earlier that she couldn't swim and that she's using the lavaboard in Takua's rucksack to sink to the bottom.
• We Used to Be Friends: When Takua finally recovers his missing memory, he finds out that he and Jaller used to be this, before he struck out on his own to steal the Toa stones against the wishes of the Turaga. The resentment carries over on both sides until, while gathering members of the Chronicler's Company, Takua tries to patch things up with Jaller by apologizing.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Almost said word-for-word by Onua at one point, asking Blake (who had just made out with Yang in front of everyone, teammates and Toa included) about the feelings that "organics" like her and her friends possess. It also serves to highlight the differences between human and Matoran biology and psychology, with some Matoran and Toa "pair-bonding" with others, akin to human romance but without the physical aspect.
  Onua: We are all crafted, built, and given life by the Great Spirit himself; why, then, would we need the power to create more of ourselves?
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
  • Lewa does not like water. Imagine his delight when he hears where his Mask of Speed is...
  • Ruby spends a good chunk of the story being afraid of the ocean, on account of the poor girl almost drowning every time she sets foot in the water. Landing in Ga-Koro and being teamed up with Gali is like a nightmare come true, but a little coaching from the latter (and eventually being able to use her mask of Water-Breathing) helps turn that around.
  • If the Le-Koro arc is anything to go by, Takua hates heights, flying, and the jungle. Naturally, he finds himself in all three of those situations.
• Wrecked Weapon: Vita and Luce are destroyed during the Kini-Nui siege.

Dutiful Destruction Tropes

• Absurdly Sharp Blade: Properly-made Exsidian weapons can be sharp enough to split a hair down the middle while being durable enough to last a thousan years without polishing. When Nebula picks up a small shard, it manages to prick her thumb despite her Aura being up.
• Adaptational Badass: The Boxor machines in this AU have a laser Nuparu and Penny designed added to them, giving them a ranged attack.
• A Day in the Limelight: Team NDGO, a group of Huntresses with only one appearance in Volume 3 and a secondary role in Before the Dawn, get a full adventure of their own in Chapter 8, "Lost Girls".
• Aliens Love Human Food: During their first dinner on Remnant, the Glatorians and Agori are extremely enamored with the local food. Gresh in particular calls bread a "miracle of taste and texture."
• Aliens Speaking English: Blake lampshades how the Toa and Matoran, and then the Glatorians, all speak the same language despite coming from different planets, with Oobleck also noting that the writing system of the Matoran has 26 characters just like the language on Remnant.
• Alpha Bitch: Chapter 8, "Lost Girls", reveals that Team NDGO made the conscious decision to become this for Shade Academy after seeing Vale and Beacon fall, becoming not only bullies for the new students but fraying and falling apart as a team. Much of Kiina's part in that chapter involves breaking down the reasons behind this, and attempting to set the girls on a new path forward.
• Applied Phlebotinum: The Drive Cores that the Bara Magna inhabitants use in their ships seems to use energized protodermis, and besides allowing for faster-than-light travel, it apparently does not like the Grimm. Once Azina stabilizes the Core of the crashed ship, it energizes the terrain and creates an energy field that disintegrates the Grimm if they enter it.
  • The Bohrok also use it as a power source.
• Badass Normal: Glatorians, at least compared to the Toa of Mata Nui and the Hunters of Remnant. They may not have elemental powers like the former or Auras like the latter, but they can still pull their weight in a fight due to their skill with martial weapons and raw stamina.
• Beach Episode: Ruby and Weiss's part of Chapter 9, "Maiden Days", involves them going swimming together near Ga-Koro (which, thus far, has gone untouched by the Bohrok).
• Big Friendly Dog: Much like his Wizard of Oz allusion, Theodore has a black dog named Toto...although this Toto is a huge hulk of a beast that often forgets he's not puppy-sized anymore. Pretty much everyone is charmed to meet him - except Blake, that is.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: Thanks in part due to alterations by the Great Beings, Agori and Glatorians have metal in their bones, are born with a set of bio-mechanical implants called a "bio-frame" that give them greater control over their bodily functions, both the males and the females can carry and deliver babies, with gestation taking a decade, and Kiina also mentions having redundant organs and triple-layered muscle weaves.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Nora, much like in canon. She practically jumps at a chance to go to Mata Nui alongside Ruby, Weiss, and Neo, and the first thing she does in the battle against the Bohrok is make a crater in the swarm and boldly proclaim that the island's new queen has arrived.
• Breaking the Fellowship: The first chapter of the story sees Team REWBYN (reluctantly) splitting up, with Ruby, Weiss, and Neo returning to Mata Nui to help with the Bohrok while Yang, Blake, and Emerald stay on Remnant. While Ruby protests the arrangement at first, citing the events of Volume 8, she eventually relents when Ozpin reminds her that they won't be doing this by themselves this time, as well as after the girls promise to come back to each other.
• Book Ends: A minor example in Chapter 14, "Legacy of the Schnees." It begins with Whitley having a verbal (and almost physical) altercation with a Vacuan Huntsman, and ends with Whitley personally delivering a crate of Dustfruits to that same Huntsman.
• Brought Down to Badass: Ruby, having left her Scroll on Remnant in order to make sure that Penny could still contact the others there, lacks the app that lets her channel the mask powers, and Neo's Scroll is similarly destroyed later, but they're still badass Huntresses regardless.
• Collateral Damage: It's noted a few times that the Bohrok seem slightly careless about other Bohrok get caught up in their actions destroying the island, such as Nuhvok getting swept up in floods created by the Gahlok.
• Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: Winter finds herself on the receiving end of a lot of these, especially in Chapter 12. It's implied in the prose that she's used to it at this point, given the populace's overall opinion of the Schnee family.
• Crazy-Prepared: Weiss has, apparently, been carrying around amenities like bandages and towels ever since Team RWBY got back to Remnant, just in case they ever needed to return to Mata Nui for an extended period of time. Said amenities include swimsuits for at least her and Ruby, citing that she didn't want a repeat of last time.
• Darker and Edgier: "Dutiful Destruction" promises to be darker than "Destiny's Divide", and has an M rating on both sites where it's hosted (as opposed to the T rating for the other stories).
• Disaster Dominoes: Qrow invokes this in Chapter 7, to bring down a dam the Pahrak are building to try and flood a volcano. He makes the water that the Bohrok built up sweep them away instead.
• Do Wrong, Right: In Chapter 14, Whitley criticizes a man who insults him by calling him "half-pint", pointing out how unoriginal it is compared to other insults he's heard.
• Eating the Eye Candy:
  • Poor Ilia isn't going to shed the "useless lesbian" label anytime soon, given how she completely zones out while talking to Emerald in Chapter 10.
  • Winter isn't much better, as while on patrol with Robyn Hill she catches herself staring at the muscles on display, wondering when Robyn herself became so distracting.
• Empty Promise: To negotiate an agreement to work with the Order of Mata Nui and refurbish Metru Nui, Penny requests that a message be sent to her friends on Mata Nui to explain what had happened to her. However, the secrecy-minded Toa Helryx tells the Order agents to covertly observe her friends first to gauge their rationality, to only deliver Penny's message if they could be calm and rational about their friend's disappearance, and if not... well, they'll never know there was a message to receive.
• Failure Is the Only Option: Tuma's opinion of Salem's plans, and why he has no trouble allying with her despite her goal of destroying Remnant so she can die. Either the methods that Ozpin has been using against her since the dawn of Remnantian history hold up and the heroes are able to keep her from getting the Relics, or, if Salem does get the other two Relics, and causes Remnant to unite against her to stop her from destroying the world... thus fulfilling the conditions of the God of Light, so even if she does summon the gods they'll spare instead of destroying them.
• Fantastic Fruits and Vegetables: The "Dustfruit" plants that Whitley manages to make from the Vuata Maca seed pod brought back to Remnant from the last story not only share the Aura-replenishment properties of their progenitor plant, but can act as renewable sources of Dust. It tastes a lot better than the original too.
• Fell Off the Back of a Truck: Berix claims that this his how he got his seemingly-endless supply of macarons - from a crate that fell off a caravan vehicle, and he simply couldn't let all that food go to waste. Emerald isn't convinced, but doesn't press the issue.
• Figure It Out Yourself: Emerald notes that Salem always took this approach with Cinder in regards to her Maiden powers, just telling her what to do and expecting her to figure out how herself.
• Gatling Good:
  • Pietro found a way to incorporate twin point-defense cannons from a gunship into his robochair, giving him an emergency weapon should he find himself in danger. While they were originally installed to protect him and Maria when Amity crash-landed in Volume 8, they're also quite potent against the Bohrok, though he notes that its ammo is quite limited and valuable.
  • Coco Adel, as in canon, has an entire minigun that transforms into her purse. Metus immediately asks to buy it, upon seeing it in action.
• Ghost City: Metru Nui, much like its counterpart at this point in canon, is almost entirely abandoned after Makuta unleashed the Great Cataclysm - save for Turaga Dume and the Rahaga.
• Giver of Lame Names: Downplayed. Nuparu, while polite about it, clearly doesn't think much of Ruby's suggestion of "Blue Orchid: Xeno-Organic Rigging" for the Boxor.
• Gladiator Games: The Glatorians, like in canon, did these back on Bara Magna to settle disputes within the tribe. They saw it as fair and equitable, an opinion not shares by their new friends from Remnant.
  Blake: That...sounds a lot like the Agori making you fight each other. For sport.
  Metus: Not sport, problem solving! [...] Much more honorable than just slaughtering each other…and considerably more profitable.
  (Death Glare from just about everyone at the table.)
  Metus: N-not that I ever cared about that sort of thing…
• The Glomp: Penny greets her father this way when she catches up with him on Mata Nui (during a Bohrok attack, no less!), then gives Ruby the same treatment once the attack is routed.
• Good Is Not Nice:
  • In Metru Nui, Penny struggles to make friends with the Order of Mata Nui members, as they're all very dour and serious and not very patient with her antics. Brutaka and Dume in particular are quite thorny, and Helryx gets unfavorably compared to Ironwood in Penny's narration segments. At least the Rahaga (thus far) are friendly enough, as well as eventually Toa Pyrrha.
  • Despite the fact that they're all on the same side, the representatives of Vacuo and Atlas do not get along with each other, as seen during the Council meeting in Chapter 10. Yang puts her foot down once she's had enough.
• Happily Adopted: Azina is a Jungle Tribe Agori and Raanu's adopted daughter, and neither of them show any sort of strife over the arrangement.
• Heroic BSoD: When the last Shambler gets the upper hand on Team NDGO in Chapter 8 , Octavia just completely freezes up and can only watch as her friends start to fall one by one. It's only the timely arrival of Kiina to deal the finishing blow that saves the girls.
• Heroic Fire Rescue: Winter does this in Chapter 12, "Great White Hunters", to rescue a pair of Faunus children trapped in a burning building. Downplayed in that, even with the magic of the Winter Maiden, she almost doesn't make it out.
• How Do I Shot Web?: Petra, the young daughter of Headmaster Theodore, is completely unable to use her powers as the Summer Maiden. When others try to unlock her Aura (as seen in Volume 1) it fails, and not even Winter's lessons have been successful in activating her magic thus far.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Played for Laughs. In her frustration at failing to use the magic of the Summer Maiden, Petra chucks a rock at what she thinks is an empty corner of the classroom...only to bean Emerald right in the forehead, through a Hallucination no less. Emerald is as impressed as she is annoyed.
• Innocent Swearing: Played for Laughs in Chapter 9, wherein Petra (under Emerald's encouragement) repeats the phrase "Miss Winter is a bitch!" with gradually increasing confidence and enthusiasm...only for Winter to walk right back into the room. Subverted in that Petra knows that what she's saying is bad, but she's so exhausted from the Winter Maiden's Drill Sergeant Nasty routine of learning how to use her powers (and failing) that she needs some kind of outlet.
• Insistent Terminology: Berix isn't a thief, he's a collector! Doubles as a Mythology Gag to his counterpart from BIONICLE: The Legend Reborn.
• Internal Reveal:
  • In chapter 6, "The Summer Maiden", the Bara Magnans learn about Salem, her goals, and the Maidens and Relics. Salem also learns that Ruby is alive, and that Cinder knew that but kept it from her, neither of which she's happy with.
  • Helryx tells Penny about the Order of Mata Nui, the other elements besides the six that she's familiar with in the Matoran Universe, and more, much as she clearly dislikes it.
• It Can Think: The special power of the Krana Xa is that it lets Bohrok with it to think and adapt to new situations. Neo is reminded of Alpha Grimm.
• Jabba Table Manners: After being forced to eat Thornax fruits for their journey through space, the Agori and Glatorians positively scarf down the food they're given during their delegation, to the disgust of the watching Huntsmen and Huntresses. Justified in that they come from a barren wasteland where food is scarce.
• Keeping Secrets Sucks: When Kopaka calls Nokama out for how she and the other Turaga are keeping secrets, she makes it clear that they don't like having to do so, but feel that they have to.
• Kidnapped by the Call: Early in the story, Penny finds herself "recruited" by the Order of Mata Nui and taken to the Matoran Universe, where they explain that they think she can help restore Metru Nui to a functional state. While she's a little salty about being abducted, she ultimately agrees to help them.
• Living Clothes: "Shamblers" are a kind of Geist variant in Vacuo that get close enough to ambush travelers by possessing the clothes of those that die in the desert and pretending to be a human to sneak up on caravans. They get their name from the fact that when it's dark and the sand is blowing, the main way you can tell that a figure is a Shambler is that when they're pretending to be human they have an unnatural gait. Octavia Ember of Team NDGO is revealed to have lost her nomad tribe, and her mom, to a pack of Shamblers.
• Let's Split Up, Gang!: The Toa and the Hunters again pair up and split into groups across Mata Nui, in order to track down the Krana they need as quickly as possible. Gali and Ruby have reservations, but unlike the last time Tahu proposed the plan there's no arguing about the decision.
• Longest Pregnancy Ever: Glatorian pregnancies last ten years, which NDGO is shocked to learn. Nebula, remembering how sick her mom was of carrying her little brother after only six months, can't even imagine it.
• Loophole Abuse: Salem gets around Ambrosius's one-creation limitation by showing him a working Grimm pool and a set of modified schematics for an Atlesian builder drone to make the "Gray Widows", spiderlike cyborg Grimm that can create new Grimm with ease, including more of themselves. While the old creations will disappear if she uses the Staff for something else, the things that those creations make will persist.
• Mama Bear: Mumu very clearly loves her kittens, to the point that she remains in her den, despite the Bohrok in the area, because her kittens are too young to survive the cold of the blizzard outside.
• Meta Guy: Fox Alistair combines this with Deadpan Snarker, notably after the battle to protect the Agori:
  Fox: So, is this the part where you guys are all "we come in peace" this and "Take Me to Your Leader" that? Because if there's gonna be any probing involved, count me out.
  Neptune: Whoa, you watch those old sci-fi movies too?
  Fox: Well, I do more listening than watching. On account of the whole, you know...
• Mini-Mecha: The Boxor machines get created in Chapter 15, with Ruby and a laser Penny helped make contributing to Nuparu being able to make them more powerful than in canon.
• Mister Seahorse: For Magnans, both the males and the females can carry and deliver babies, Kiina's father having been the one to carry her.
• The Mole: It's revealed in Chapter 6, "The Summer Maiden", that the Skrall have an informant among the heroes, though their identity (for now) remains a mystery.
• Multipurpose Monocultured Crop: Upon experimenting with the Vuata Maca seed pod that was brought back from Mata Nui in Chapter 14, Whitley finds that the seeds can be infused with Dust to create what he calls "Dustfruit" plants, growing quickly with Aura. The resulting plants are a plentiful food source that replenishes Aura, can be used as a renewable source of Dust for weapons and other uses, and the ones made with Water dust allow for fresh water to be constantly available in the Vacuo desert.
• Mythology Gag: Ruby's reunion with Gali involves leaping to hug the Toa's arm, then hang from it while asking if she missed her - just like she did all the way back in Volume 3, to greet her uncle. Qrow even pretends to get jealous, saying he thought it was their thing.
• Original Character: Petra Zephyr, the seven-year-old daughter of Headmaster Theodore, plays the part of the (as-yet-unknown in canon) Summer Maiden. She's spunky and rambunctious, but doesn't have any idea how to use her powers - and even her Aura refuses to activate, which just baffles and frustrates the main cast.
• Overworked Sleep: Oscar starts Chapter 10 by waking up at his desk, something that Ozpin notes is becoming a bad habit.
• Parental Substitute: Weiss notes in chapter 12 that Kopaka has been more of a father figure to her that Jacques ever was.
• Percussive Maintenance: It's noted that most Bara Magna technology is built so that it only needs a few good hits to make it work like new. Azina manages to get a console online to stabilize the Drive Core this way.
• Puppeteer Parasite: The Krana as in canon, which is made worse by how they can produce tentacles to help them move around, and made worse by the possibility that, since they're organic, they might be able to work on the Remnantians as well.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Aside from the Skirmishers for the Skrall to ride, all of the new Grimm types Salem debuts in Chapter 16 have names tied to Norse mythology. The Valkyries are feline/bird creatures that provide aerial support, the Nidhogg are giant serpents with insect wings and sharp talons, and the Svalinn are mobile fortresses and transports.
• Revealing Cover Up: The Skrall take a crate of Exsidian that fell of the ship when it crashed, remove the material, then put it back in the sand and have some Grimm guard the empty crate to hopefully kill anyone that comes looking for it. But Kiina and NDGO manage to defeat the Grimm without casualties, and the fact that the crate can only be opened by a Magnan and the lack of any signs of a fight makes them realize that Salem and the Skrall are working together.
• Shaming the Mob: Yang delivers a brutal speech to the squabbling representatives of both Atlas and Vacuo during a council meeting in Chapter 10, calling out Winter for trying to still defend Ironwood after everything while also lambasting Theodore for taking potshots at the former general. She then pivots to how fighting each other is exactly what Salem wants, and how it's time to start proving her wrong - complete with the beginnings of a plan for a new united city that uses the Ark's Drive Core as a cornerstone.
• Spanner in the Works: As Mercury points out, the new Dustfruit plants will allow Vacuo to greatly alleviate the strain on their resources, reducing the stress that drew Grimm to the city and allowing the defenders to take greater measures against the Grimm without needing to worry about conserving Dust ammunition so much. Strontius points out that they still steal some seeds and use the Dustfruits themselves, but it's still more of an advantage for the heroes, especially in the short term.
• Take Me to Your Leader: Lampshaded by Fox (see above), then played straight when the Agori agree to form and send a First Contact party to the city of Vacuo.
  Metus: In other words...I believe this is the part where we ask you to take us to your leader.
• Tastes Like Friendship: In Chapter 10, Berix cements his friendship with both Emerald and Petra by offering them packs of macarons that he'd "collected" from an abandoned shipping container. Emerald is suspect, but takes the offering all the same, while Petra is enamored.
• Terrestrial Sea Life: Two of the new story-original Grimm seen in the opening chapter fall into this category: the Thresher Fins, which can grow up to forty feet long, and the Mobulas. Both of them are quite adept at swimming through the desert sands of Vacuo.
• Tranquil Fury: When Salem finds out that Team RWBY, Emerald, and Neopolitan are still alive and that Cinder hid the truth about their fate from her, Salem doesn't raise her voice, but is quite obviously furious with Cinder and decides to torture her as punishment for lying to her.
• Victory by Endurance: Tuma is a great warrior, but since Salem is immortal, she can outlast his attempts to fight her in a spar. Tuma later deconstructs this, pointing out that blasting her foes with magic and using her immortality to work them into exhaustion is basically her entire fighting style, making her overconfident and reckless.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: In Chapter 13, Penny, after days in Metru Nui with no food, tries eating a preserved piece of the Morbuzakh in the Archives. Her body rejecting said offering, which is apparently poisonous, and forcing her to find a metal urn to throw up in goes in is described enough to picture it rather well.
• We ARE Struggling Together: One of the major conflicts the heroes face on the Remnant side of things, as it's clear that Atlesians and Vacuans still struggle to get along and find common ground. This is most evident in the opening chapter (where Ruby and friends have to fight off a Grimm attack sparked by a riot breaking out in the Glass District, and where Joanna and Harriet are still at each other's throats) and during the Vacuo City Council scene in Chapter 10. By the latter, Yang's seen this happen enough times that she's completely sick of it.
• Wrench Wench: Azina, a Jungle Tribe Agori who seems to be in charge of the Ark's systems. While the other Agori are all focused on the battle with the Grimm raging outside, she's more concerned with making sure that the Drive Core doesn't kill everyone anyway.
• Wrong-Name Outburst: In Chapter 12, when Weiss and Kopaka get into a disagreement over how to handle the situation with Mumu and her kittens, who are too young to handle the cold of the blizzard outside. Weiss wants to get the kittens to safety somehow, while Kopaka wants to focus on tracking down the Bohrok in the area so they can save the island. The idea of leaving someone behind causes Weiss to snap out, calling Kopaka "Ironwood".
• Xenofiction: Part of Chapter 11 is from the viewpoint of a Bohrok/Krana Xa during the attack on Po-Koro, as it contacts the Bahrag to get permission for a retreat.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Pietro Polendina gets a pretty raw deal. Upon traveling to Mata Nui to help his daughter against the Bohrok threat, he gets one good hug with her after seeing her alive and in the flesh for the first time... and the moment he takes his eyes off her, she's abducted by the Order of Mata Nui with no clue where she went.
• You Didn't Ask: Botar noticed that the Bohrok were active on Mata Nui, but said nothing to Helryx because he considered it "unimportant". Said Toa chews him out for that.
• Youthful Freckles: Penny Polendina and Petra Zephyr both sport these. Incidentally, both girls also happen to be Maidens.
• Zerg Rush: Both the Bohrok on Mata Nui and the common Grimm in Vacuo employ this tactic, focused on overwhelming anything standing in their way with sheer numbers.

Tales From The Via Magna Tropes

• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Ghira and Kali Belladonna end up being this for Blake in "All In The Family," offering to either show Yang their daughter's baby pictures or let her read the (presumably gushy) letters she sent while in Atlas. Yang just asks if she can see both, to Blake's horror.
• Armor-Piercing Question: In "An Icy Reception", after Henry Marigold blames Weiss for the fall of Atlas, Ruby asks him several, all centered around the big one of where he was when everything went wrong. He can't give a reply, with the trope name being dropped in the narration.
• Asleep in Class: In "Lost in Translation," Kopaka is eventually revealed to have fallen asleep during Penny's language lesson, prompting her to Face Palm and call it a day.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: It's revealed in "Tea Time" that this is a significant part of why Neo made a full Heel–Face Turn, as both Ruby and Pohatu showed her the same kindness that Roman Torchwick once had.
• Big Brother Instinct:
  • Winter has shades of this early in Ruby and Weiss's relationship, as revealed in "All In The Family". She's a fair bit more prickly towards Ruby at first, and ends up triggering her Maiden powers during dinner after Ruby accidently blurts out that she and Weiss are currently "shower buddies". Eventually they manage to smooth things out, once Winter realizes just how good the two are for each other.
  • Weiss serves as the catalyst for another one in "An Icy Reception". Upon learning that Weiss got targeted by Henry Marigold earlier that day, Kopaka almost immediately requests that Penny make a portal to Remnant so he can give him a piece of his own mind...or his sword. Ruby and Penny end up talking him down, though it takes several hours.
• Book Ends: "Tea Time" begins and ends with the line "Maria Calavera did not trust Neopolitan."
• Brick Joke: A minor one in "Team Building" - Blake and Sun are having a spar with Neptune and Nora at one point, and the scene ends with Nora getting supercharged and Blake trying to block it with Krahkava. Several scenes later, when Neopolitan and Fox are meeting each other in Team CFVY's dorm room, Blake and Sun crashing the scene by literally crashing through the wall.
• Came Back Strong: In "The Nameless Toa", Pyrrha is somehow revived as a Toa of Iron after her death at Cinder's hands, ending up on Voya Nui.
• The Cameo:
  • Ilia and Sun make brief appearances at the beginning of Yang's portion in "All in the Family."
  • Neptune gets a cameo in "Brushing Up", whereupon he tries hitting on Weiss - to predictable results.
  • After being absent for most of the side stories, Takua finally reappears near the end of "Team Building."
• Continuity Nod: Multiple through lines from "Desert Rose" show up in "All in the Family", such as Ruby's struggles with her mental health and Weiss's outpouring of support.
• Cute Kitten: Albus, a stray kitten Whitley brought home in "A Cat Most Curious", is absolutely adorable, quickly charming pretty much everyone In-Universe.
• Drives Like Crazy: Poor Weiss goes along with Yang in a dune buggy in "Mix and Match", only to deeply regret it as Yang drives like a maniac. According to her, Ruby when learning to drive was even worse.
• Fake Defector: Maria is worried that Neopolitan is one of these in "Tea Time", only for a genuine moment of vulnerability (physical and emotional) between Neo and Ruby to start proving her wrong.
• Foreign Queasine: Explored in "Desert Rose". As seen in After The Fall, Vacuo's main sources of protein seem to come from cave beetles and "mud crabs". Ruby finds that she keeps getting sick from the food, which is just one of many things that keeps stressing her out, only to realize after talking with Weiss that she's actually allergic to the keratin found in Vacuo's wildlife. Yang just thinks it's a shame.
• Fusion Dance: The focus of the Toa side of "Team Building" is the Toa trying to figure out how to form their Kaitas deliberately, in case they're needed. At one point they even try actual dancing.
• Fuzz Therapy: It wasn't an intentional example when Whitley brought him home in "A Cat Most Curious", but Albus helps cheer up the Schnees more than once, like when Willow is lying awake at night, unable to sleep.
• Gilligan Cut:
  • A Running Gag in "All In The Family" is that one-half of Team RWBY feels confident about how things are going, only to cut to the other half feeling the exact opposite.
  • Shortly after rescuing a kitten from a small flash flood, Whitley vehemently tells the cat that he's not bringing it home. Cue a scene cut where it's immediately apparent he did, in fact, do just that.
• Godzilla Threshold: After they finally figure out forming Kaitas in "Team Building", the Toa decide, with the focus and purpose that holding said form requires, they should only use them in this kind of situation.
• Hypothetical Fight Debate: Yang and Emerald have one of these during the restaurant scene in "Mix and Match," where they discuss whether Indigo June could take on Tartan the Ape Man. It's not clear who the winner is, but the loser is almost certainly Weiss.
• In a World…: In "Mix and Match," Ruby comes up with a movie trailer parody in this style on the spot, describing the socially-awkward misadventures of Crater Face and Vomit Boy. Jaune is suitably amused, saying he'd watch that and point out all the inconsistencies with the source material.
• Literal-Minded: Discussed during one of Yang's stories she shares with the Belladonnas during "All in the Family", wherein she and Tahu were in a precarious situation and she yells at him to "use his head" when he asks what to do against fire-resistant enemies. Tahu then proceeded to trigger his Mask of Shielding and start running through the mob of enemies, splattering them against the barrier and allowing them to get to safety. He even boasted afterwards that he was doing exactly what she told him to do, much to Yang's amusement.
• Man of Kryptonite: The titular character of "The Nameless Toa" is a Toa of Iron, and while a powerful ability in a universe where almost everything is partially metallic, they're particularly devastating to Makuta, who need an armored shell to hold their essence. This means that when a group of five New Meat Makuta and dozens Rahkshi arrive on Voya Nui looking for the Mask of Life, Pyrrha is able to defeat one of them in a one-on-one fight in seconds, and then manages to defeat the rest offscreen, at the cost of severe wounds.
• Meet the In-Laws: This is the premise of the fourth story, "All in the Family". Ruby meets the Schnees (minus Jaques, of course) while Yang has dinner with the Belladonnas.
• Mood Whiplash: The first short story in the anthology, "Desert Rose", is a Hurt/Comfort Fic where Ruby struggles to keep it together in Vacuo, partially due to the harsh conditions in the desert and partially due to her lingering trauma from her time in both Atlas and on Mata Nui. The next one, "Lost In Translation", involves Penny teaching the Toa how to read in the Remnant Alphabet.
  • Similarly, after the Wham Episode of "The Nameless Toa", "Brushing Up" is mainly fluff about Blake brushing Yang's hair, through it does get serious a bit thanks to Adam getting mentioned.
• Mythology Gag: "Mix and Match" is full of these on the RWBY side of things, from the old family car being namedropped as "Zippy" to Jaune cringing over his past attempts to flirt with Weiss using an innocent guitar.
• Nobody Touches the Hair: As in canon, Yang is very protective of her hair. In "Brushing Up" Blake joins the ranks of those Yang allows to do so (after Summer, Taiyang, and Ruby).
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: In the climax of "The Nameless Toa", Pyrrha is able to defeat four Makuta (technically five, but we saw the first one) and numerous Rahkshi, while managing to just barely survive, in an epic offscreen fight. Even if the Makuta were relatively young and unskilled, and Toa of Iron have an inherent advantage over Makuta due to how much they depend on their armored shells, that's quite an impressive feat given how the previous story showed what just one Makuta can do.
• Tempting Fate: In "Team Building", Gali says that finding out how to form the Toa Kaitas again can't be so hard since they did it once, much to Lewa's horror. Then Pohatu says What Could Possibly Go Wrong?... Later Penny gets in on it. After several failed attempts, Kopaka has to admit that it seems like he has a point, and Pohatu can't really argue.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: After Henry Marigold blames Weiss for the fall of Atlas, Ruby gives him one, centered around the question of where HE was when things started to go wrong, finishing off, after telling him that men like him are the reason Atlas fell while women like Weiss are why it'll rise again, by saying that she'll arrest him and press charges if he causes another disturbance like that again.
• Shipper on Deck: In "Mix and Match", Ruby goes to a weapons shop where Ilia is an apprentice, clearly trying to help set them up.
• Ship Tease: "All in the Family" and "A Cat Most Curious" both have hints that Winter Schnee and Robyn Hill are falling for each other, though neither of them are quite aware of it just yet.
  • "Mix and Match" has some mutual flirting between Ilia and Emerald.
• Shower of Love: The first part of "Desert Rose" concludes with Ruby asking Weiss for one of these, which (after confirming if that's what she actually wants), Weiss eagerly accepts, and the scene cuts to the next morning with Ruby feeling much more positive and open about her troubles. The follow-up oneshots suggest that this is their preferred way of getting intimate.
• Sidetracked by the Analogy: In "Lost in Translation", the Toa repeatedly overanalyze the stock sentences that Penny is using to help them learn the Remnantian alphabet.
• Stating the Simple Solution: In "Team Building", after all the Toa and Penny's efforts to figure out how to form a Kaita on command fail, Takua suggests that they try talking to each other. It works.
• Survivor Guilt:
  • Ruby shows shades of this in "Tea Time", during a one-on-one conversation with Neo about people they lost during the Fall of Beacon. Seeing Neo genuinely try to comfort Ruby (and her heartfelt Scroll message afterwards) is enough to convince a hidden Maria Calavera that maybe Neo's Heel–Face Turn wasn't just for show after all.
  • "Team Building" shows that Jaune also suffers heavily from this, just as in canon, and while he didn't have to Mercy Kill Penny or spend decades as the Rusted Knight waiting for his friends while dealing with the guilt in this continuity, he was still beating himself up the entire time the team was on Mata Nui, to the point where he felt like losing people was all he ever did.
• Weather Manipulation: As first mentioned in "Desert Rose", Winter has been using this aspect of her Maiden powers to make it rain in Vacuo every few days. "A Cat Most Curious" sees her doing this at the start of the story, though there's still a water shortage in spite of her best efforts.
• Wham Episode: "The Nameless Toa" reveals that Voya Nui remains in Mata Nui in this universe, the Southern Continent having broken apart and scattered across its dome instead of rocketing to the surface, that the Brotherhood of Makuta has the ability to create new members compared to canon, where they were limited to the original 100 they were made with, and most importantly, that Pyrrha was somehow reborn as a Toa of Iron, the titular "nameless Toa".
• What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: Said by Pohatu in "Team Building" regarding the Toa's plans to try and figure out how to form a Kaita again, after Gali has already had a case of Tempting Fate, to Lewa's utter horror.
• Xenofiction: A portion of "A Cat Most Curious" is from the perspective of Albus, the cat Whitley finds.
• Your Favorite: Invoked in Ruby and Weiss's side of "All In the Family" when Klein reveals the dessert to be chocolate chip cookies. Ruby is suitably amazed and delighted at one of the desserts she longed for in "Desert Rose" being right in front of her.

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