Chapter 10: Dance Dance Transformation
Disclaimer: I don't own either series and we all know it.
Roman Torchwick had to admit, this wasn't too bad. He had a nice bed, a clean toilet, and a TV.
Shame about the bars in front of the windows and the locked door, but you can't have everything he supposed.
When he felt the small scroll he'd hidden on his person vibrate, he checked if the guards weren't looking inside and rolled over. While to the camera's it would look like he was asleep, he could read the message from Neo.
'Cinder doesn't know about them, but is confident.'
He snorted, Cinder would be confident even if she was lying in the middle of a bunch of Grimm without limbs.
'She doesn't have any proof she can handle them?' He sent a reply.
He'd paid a lot of money to an underground expert for two easily-hidden scrolls that had an untraceable connection to each other and nothing else. They lived up to his expectations before, so he hoped it would stay that way.
'She doesn't have anything, she's trying to find more information'
Personally, Roman needed no more information then 'Can rip open an Atlasian Paladin with their bare hands'.
'I'm betting on this side, get away from them and close off any mutual contacts.'
Screw Cinder, he helped her when she was the best option for his survival, but getting rid of her and keeping Vale in one piece so he could continue his simple life of crime was a much better option.
"Mr. Torchwick. I'd like to have a word with you."
He quickly hid the scroll again and turned to the voice, trying to make it look like he just woke up.
"Hmm, what do you want?"
Ozpin stood in the doorway, his eyes trained on Roman.
"I'd like to ask you a few questions, Mr. Torchwick."
Roman shifted from lying down to sitting, he'd been treated nicely enough for just surrendering, he might as well answer a few questions.
"Well, ask away then. We don't have all day; don't you have a party to host?"
"I do, but I would like to ask you something first. Do you happen to have seen an unusual gem recently? It looks exactly like this one."
From his pocket, he pulled the CPU memory still in his possession.
Roman's eyes widened. "That's the thing those two street rats found!"
"Oh, you know the people who found it? Would you also happen to know if they are a girl with green hair and dark skin, and a boy with grey hair and eyes?"
"Yep, that's the two brats. Emerald and Mercury, those two have been a pain to deal with for as long as I've worked with Cinder." The two little pests could die for all he cared, if he ratted their little group out now, he'd be safe from them.
"Cinder, Emerald and Mercury, you say?" How sneaky of her, he'd gotten a set of students from Haven with the exact same names.
Hiding in plain sight while waiting for a chance to unfold her plans right under his nose? He was getting old if he hadn't seen something like that coming.
"Yeah, Cinder's the one in charge and the other two are her little lackeys. Bunch of arrogant pricks, but strong enough to back it up."
Ozpin couldn't see any signs of Torchwick trying to trick him, so he followed his hunch and believed the man.
"Very well, thank you for your cooperation. I have some things to do now, but I will return later to continue this conversation."
He wasn't planning on confronting the infiltrators just yet, but some additional surveillance would let him stay one step ahead of their plans.
It was much easier to foil the plans of a person who wasn't watching their back all the time after all.
Meanwhile, at the beacon dance.
"Oh hey Noire! You're hiding at the punch bowl because you're alone too?" Ruby tried to start a conversation with the only other dateless person.
"N-no! I'm just waiting for Nep, she's late again! And you! Don't tell lies in the narrative!"
So, our lonely heroes (HEY!) spent some time talking about their friends.
"We aren't the only ones, Weiss came alone too. And Sun's alone until Yang's done with romancing Blake."
"Wait, I thought Weiss went out with this world's Neptune?" Noire looked around the room, spotting the heiress trying to even out some flowers. Her 'date' was standing with Sun, Blake, Jaune and Pyrrha. All of them were talking and laughing together.
Until Neptune excused himself and went to the balcony.
"I've been waiting for you." A voice called out from behind him.
He panicked, he and Sun had parked their new paladin on the other side of the school and he didn't bring his weapon to the dance.
Said paladin also had a snazzy new blue and yellow color scheme and was wearing a giant tuxedo for the festivities.
His panic lasted until the figure stepped out from the shadows cast by a large potted plant.
"Other other Neptune. I wanted to talk to you. About Weiss." She sounded strangely serious.
"Oh, it's just you. Wait, why did you say 'other' twice? And what do you want to talk about?"
His barrage of confused questions was expertly handled by a person who caused such confusion often.
"Well you see, there's another me from the other dimension back home. And that's not even counting the original game's canon or the spin-offs! But I wanted to talk with you about Weiss. About what you're doing wrong."
Neptune gulped. His secret would be revealed! He worked so hard on his cool guy image!
"You have no idea how to handle a Tsundere, do you! There's no use denying it buster!"
"Okay, I'll admit it I can't dance-! Wait, what?" Blurting out his big secret in blind panic, Neptune shortly after realized what he'd done.
Nep snickered. "Wait, really? That's it?"
"Don't tell anyone! I worked really hard on my cool guy image! If I ruin Weiss's day by making us look ridiculous, I'd never forgive myself!"
She gave him a thumbs-up. "Don't worry your little blue head about it! As a fellow Neptune, it's my duty to help you!"
He took a quick look at his watch. "But we don't have time to teach me how to dance!"
"That's easy to fix! Author! Initiate plan offscreen training montage!" Nep pointed at the fourth wall.
The author shrugged, he might as well help out.
Meanwhile
Ruby had just finished talking to Yang. She made to go outside for a while, having no date to worry about.
That was when she saw a person performing some strangely animated acrobatics on a roof in the distance.
She narrowed her eyes, this was something worth checking out.
While that happened, Cinder Snake was sneaking into the CCTS tower.
After luring a guard from his post, she karate-chopped him unconscious. Through a metal helmet.
"Argh! I knew I should have gotten thicker gloves!" She cursed, before sneaking further into the building.
And by sneaking, I mean she walked out into the open and got into a fight with every guard there.
She also summoned her swords, but decided to kick everyone unconscious so they could identify her later.
Good thing she wore a mask that hid her eyebrows and nose, no-one would see through that disguise!
"Hey man, do you know the Wi-Fi password?" Guard A asked his friend on the elevator.
"Yeah, it's Beacon, but replace the E with a 3 and add a # on the end."
As his friend wondered how Guard B had pronounced a symbol, the elevator doors slid open.
Cinder stood there for a while, the three just stared at each other. Then she walked into the elevator.
"Hey could you press the button for the top floor, please?" She asked.
"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure." Guard A turned around and pressed the button.
"Thanks." And with that, Cinder beat them both unconscious.
"As soon as I'm done here, I'll give Ozpin a Wi-Fi bill he'll never forget! She cackled evilly, finally the elusive password was hers!
Back outside, Ruby saw a guard doing an impressive imitation of the local tulips. While unconscious.
That was weird enough to justify carrying a weapon, right?
She quickly took out her scroll and called her weapon locker. Retrieving her trusty scythe, she went to investigate.
Back at the top, Cinder had just finished uploading her virus. She turned to leave when a strange painting cached her eye.
Removing it, she discovered a false wall panel behind it, and a safe behind that.
Burning through the door of the safe with her fire dust, she saw something really interesting.
Inside was a small purple gem, like the one Emerald and Mercury had found.
And beneath it was a stack of files. She took those and started to read through them.
"Party guest is leaving." Her earpiece buzzed.
She sighed, the report was just getting interesting. "Which one?"
"Ironwood." She cursed, knowing the man's paranoia and perfectionism, he'd come to check on things here immediately.
"Should we intervene?" Mercury's voice came through this time.
"No, I was already done. I just found something else that sparked my interest."
She'd have to look through these files later then. She put them away and made to grab the gem, she had no idea what it was, but if Ozpin wanted to keep it safe, she wanted to steal it.
It was then that Ruby arrived, scythe in hand.
She also nearly slammed face-first into the floor thanks to her high heels.
Curse that Weiss and her fashion sense! Combat gear was formal enough dang it!
Instead of sneaking around the girl and letting her take the suspicion, she decided to dramatically reveal herself.
She smirked, now she could test that girl-
"Author, back to me! I'm the main character, don't you forget me!"
Meanwhile back with the 'Main character' *sigh*
"Don't you give me that! I just had to teach someone my sweet dance moves!"
Neptune blinked. "But, nothing happened? You just yelled at the sky and-. Holy Oum! Why do I suddenly know how to dance?!"
Nep gave a smug smirk normally reserved for Noire's use "Goddess trade secret."
He could accept that explanation. The girl who shared his name had done weirder things before.
"I'll go and be an actual date to Weiss now." And with that, he walked off
"Now go! And remember, a Tsundere always denies her true feelings!" She yelled after him.
Before she suddenly realized she'd forgotten about Noire, she turned to a nearby student.
"Hey do you know where I can find some lonely people?"
Back at the CCTS, top floor
The two clashed fiercely, Ruby was troubled by her heels, but Cinder could only use one hand, the Memory was held in the other.
After an attempted attack from Ruby left her stumbling, Cinder delivered a sharp kick to the young girl.
Ruby was sent sprawling on the ground, Cinder made her way over and prepared to finish the girl off.
Ruby decided that this was the perfect time to reveal her new technique.
And so, she kicked Cinder in the shins. Hard. Really, really hard.
"Argh! You little brat!" She dropped the memory thanks to the surprise of pain.
Right into Ruby's mouth.
"Tch. I guess I'll wait until you're done choking before I take that back." Cinder was back to being smug instantly.
If she knew what she just caused, she really wouldn't be.
A bright pillar of light blasted out of Ruby's body, Cinder was sent flying into a nearby wall.
She gasped as the light vanished to reveal a figure.
Completely red hair, almost as long as Cinder's own, crowned the head of the woman before her.
A black and red bodysuit covered her, two circular bits floated behind her shoulders and a cape of light fluttered between them in a nonexistent wind.
A set of blade-like objects formed a skirt around her waist, two metal roses hovered around her head.
The woman gave off an intimidating aura, Cinder had only felt such pressure and fear from her mistress before!
It was kind of ruined when her first words were:
"Oh! Now I get what Nep and the others are always talking about!" Rose Heart (creative, I know.) said.
Apparently, being a Goddess made you aware of the fourth wall. Penny probably thought such a thing was normal for humans, they were so weird sometimes.
"Ah yeah, I almost forgot! You! Mystery intruder! I will take you into custody now. Come quietly or prepare yourself."
Cinder scoffed and materialized her other sword, just because the girl got older didn't mean she could-.
She stopped that line of thought when she only barely managed to avoid a large beam scythe, at the cost of her swords.
She quickly reshaped the remains of her sword into her bow, maybe range was the better option.
As she nearly got fried by a giant laser that shot from the new CPU's scythe, she realized there might not be a good option.
They clashed for a while, but Cinder quickly realized this wouldn't end well. Her opponent seemed to be getting better every swing.
She never thought she would be grateful to Ironwood, but his sudden appearance distracted her foe long enough for her to jump out of the newly made hole in the windows.
"You! Are you the one who did this to my men?!" Ironwood drew his revolver and aimed at the mysterious woman.
"Ah! Sir Ironwood, was it? It's me, Ruby! I'm a student here, and I came to investigate when I saw someone sneak around."
She held back her urge to say heavily accented one-liners about clothing. Why did she get an urge like that when he asked something?
"Nice try. But you look a bit too old to be a student here." Ironwood was having none of this. Ozpin and Glynda should be here with backup soon, he just needed to keep her talking.
"Oh yeah! I forgot I'm still in this form!" And then the woman turned back into a young teenager.
"What." Ironwood used the standard reaction to Neptunia weirdness.
"Have no fear, backup is here!" Port tried to sound as heroic as possible as he and the rest of the Beacon staff arrived via elevator.
Ozpin was much calmer on the outside. "Miss Rose, I'd like it if you told me what happened before we got here."
On the inside, he already knew. The hiding place of the first CPU memory that they found was wide open.
He already knew exactly who was responsible for everything here too.
Cinder Fall had reappeared at the party shortly after Ironwood sent him a message about the intruder.
Having some people watching their movements paid off. But now there was another matter at hand.
"Sooo, do you think they'll be mad that I accidentally used one of those memory things?"
This was going to be a long day.
A few hours later, Ozpin's office
Ozpin and Ruby waited in the former's office, the others should be here any minute now.
"Hey Ozzie! So why'd you call us here?" Nep was the first to enter and the first to speak.
The rest of the CPU's came in as well, followed by the rest of RWBY and team JNPR.
"Earlier this evening, Miss Rose spotted an unknown intruder at the CCTS. She followed this person, and they fought at the top of the tower."
Vert was the first to understand. "Isn't that where you hid the CPU memory that you found in the forest here?"
Ozpin nodded "Exactly. This intruder tried to escape with it, but Miss Rose interfered. However, this caused a more complicated situation for us. Miss. Rose, if you would."
Ruby got ready, but then realized something "Err, I don't know how. Author, little help here please!"
Her plea did not fall on deaf ears. A single line of text later, she suddenly knew how to activate HDD.
"ACCESS! Also thanks!" The now very often happening pillar of light shot up in front of the surprised group.
"SEE! I told you this would happen!" Nep's words from the previous chapter came true.
"Another one?! Will we even get a single one back, or should we just start handing them out?!" Noire... honestly expected something like this. Nep wasn't wrong often if she guessed randomly.
"Pain in my ass little kids, almost as much trouble as Rom and Ram." Blanc's angry words were not matched by the nostalgia-fueled smile that came afterwards.
"First Penny and now Ruby, maybe we should wait to see if any other surprises will happen soon." Vert crossed her arms to accentuate her overly large bosom, which had nothing to do with what she said.
"Yaaaayyyy! Now we can be friends with Penny and Ruby foreeeeever!" Plutia chimed in, the two named girls felt a chill run down their spine. They didn't know Iris Heart yet, so the poor girls would never see it coming.
"Heh, in a few years you might not see the difference between you and your new form sis." Yang looks at her sister appreciatively, Ruby might be mistaken for the older sister when she's like that.
Uzume tries to join in on the happy mood "I don't think you'll have to worry about that, she's not gonna grow up anytime soon."
"Oh, what do you mean by that?" Weiss was curious, Ruby should actually be hitting a growth spurt soon.
"CPU's don't grow. Physically or mentally. They stay exactly the same as the moment they became CPU's." Noire clarifies.
Yang seems taken aback by this. "What's that mean?"
Nep takes her turn expositioning. "It means that Rubes isn't going to get older. Like, ever. She's just going to stay young for like, a gajillion years! I thought we told you guys all of this in the beginning of the story?"
"SHE'S WHAT?!" Yang's shout silences everything in the room.
In team Cinder's room
Cinder walked through the door to her room, Emerald and Mercury trailing behind her.
As soon as she reaches her bed, she collapses, exhausted.
She took the files she stole from their hiding place in her dress, she'd figure out exactly what happened.
"So, err, Cinder? What happened? Who managed to hurt you this badly?" Emerald was worried about her boss/idol.
"Ozpin's little Rose had a surprising trick up her sleeves. I had to take some drastic measures to get away.
By that she meant jump out the top floor window of a giant tower. Good thing Salem made her learn all those landing strategies.
As she looked through the files she stole, she discovered many interesting things.
"So that power was in my grasp all along?! Well then-!" Her monologue stopped when she saw a small line of text.
'There is a chance that the person who uses a CPU memory will turn into a hideous monster.'
Cinder didn't like that. But she did like the idea she got afterwards.
If she took the Fall Maiden's full power, it should protect her from something like that, right?
"This changes little then. Emerald, Mercury. We will continue our plans as if nothing happened. Everything went according to plan regardless, so we should be fine.
She still had a nagging feeling that no matter what she planned, someone would throw things off the rails.
But before anything else, she was going to abuse the hell out of the Wi-Fi.
AN: And just like that, this story does what you've expected since the words 'CPU memories' appeared in the summary!
Cinder's got Vergil levels of 'need moar power' going on, but she's not entirely stupid. even in this timeline.
Review time! *WARNING* HEAVY spoilers for megadimension neptunia VII ahead, if you don't want to be spoilered, you've been warned.
Guest: That's what i imagined when i wrote it. I originally planned to get more robo-references like Robocop and Glados, but i stuck with Arnie.
mactavish1208: If they join Beacon, they would give him some more headaches. But i'm not that heartless. Maybe.
As for Good!Arfoire, re;birth 1, the original HDN and HDNU: Action Unleashed are a separate universe known as the Super dimension. It's a different canon from the other main games, so we don't have to worry about her showing up here. The dark CPU's were more just a thing to say 'the HDN crew has experience with big robots.' They can't really appear in the story, since Kurome is back to being happy Uzume.
DaToskin: DID SOMEONE SAY CONQUEST ENDING? But in all seriousness, tell that to the CFW's. they're all as dead as disco.
Nep's more resilient to such things then people think, She does help kill Uzume in the normal ending, and had no idea it wouldn't be permanent in the true ending either. The CPU's are all the leaders of a nation and warred with each other for a long time in the past (Not in Celestia, because that doesn't exist in the hyperdimension timeline.) they're probably used to it. There will still be a serious threat, no matter what anyone in-story thinks.
IF it actually gets that bad before everyone gets mobbed by half of Gamindustri's playable cast.
Also conquest wasn't that bad, was it? The VII bad ending was short, but it was a lot worse in my opinion.