Hello everyone and welcome to the latest chapter, It seems like forever since I last posted one but it's only been a week. This time round we actually get to see the dance itself. I hope you enjoy.

Jaune's palms were sweaty and his knees weak as he slowly walked along with Pyrrha towards Beacon's grand ballroom. The moon sat lazily in the sky above, its shattered majesty shining brightly down upon the young students. Jaune took one look over at his date for the evening and his heart began to flutter. It was the same Pyrrha he knew and yet it simultaneously wasn't. She seemed far more relaxed than usual. She turned and locked eyes with him, nervous blue meeting intense green. To the blonde it felt as though his heart might explode out of his chest.

Behind them followed on a procession both of team BRNY, the remainder of his own team and a collection of other students. All of them congregated into a crowd as they made their way across the campus to the ballroom. Jaune was eager to see what Yang and Weiss had collectively wrought. As they passed through the huge columns the gigantic wooden doors swung open on silent hinges to reveal the interior.

It was the very epitome of elegance, as though Weiss had managed to put a bit of herself into the décor. White silken sashes hung draped from the upper balconies and swayed gently in the breeze that blew in through the door. There were a number of tables set out around the established dance floor, each and every one covered in a pure white tablecloths and set in the centre of them was a single doily shaped remarkably like the Schnee family crest. Weiss' calling card it would seem.

Yet Yang's influence was not completely out of the picture. She had affected the arrangements in her own free-spirit kind of way. The gigantic speakers currently used to play subtle and classical music were perhaps the most obvious. The low layer of fog covering the dance floor also proved to be a nice touch appreciated by all, as was the punch bowl in the corner. It was assumed to be alcoholic in nature given the flock of professors gathered around it including a glassy eyed Goodwitch.

Yang and Weiss high-fived one another proudly as they watched the assembled students gasp in appreciation of their work before taking up their positions on either side of the door in preparations for greeting the arriving students in person. Their final attempt to fully and indisputably stamp their names on the event. Jaune had to hand it to them both, they had set up an incredible venue and the way things were going, he had no doubt that it would be an incredible event that many would remember for years to come. It had the perfect proportions of both romance and boisterous fun about it.

Jaune and his friends made their way over to one of the tables and set their things down on the table top. Jaune took the opportunity to wipe his palms dry on his tuxedo before turning back to his partner, bowed and offering her his hand with his signature nervous Arc smile. The self-same smile that he had smiled during initiation when the two had first met all those weeks ago.

"Pyrrha, would you do me the honour of this dance?" He asked in his most chivalrous voice.

"Why of course Jaune. I would love to dance." She giggled and took his hand, heading out for the dance floor. It took Jaune a moment but the music soon crept into his heart and his body took over shifting to the beat he waltzed Pyrrha up and down the dance floor. The knight led her into elegant pirouettes and graceful dips. All the while he began to relax, his smile became more natural and dare he say it, he actually began to enjoy himself as they danced through song after song in their own little world.

From the side of the dance floor, two silver eyes watched enviously from beside the punch bowl. With trembling hands their owner sipped from her glass and watched yet another pirouette, wishing with all of her heart that she might replace the red-headed dancer. Draining her glass, Ruby half walked half staggered towards the exit to the balcony. She teetered around wildly on her heels bumping into various students and half-drunken professors (it would seem that Yang's punch was a little more potent that originally thought).

She took a sharp breath in as she stepped out onto the balcony and the evening chill caught her before she could quite prepare. She shivered a little and stepped over to lean on the rail and look out over the campus grounds. Ozpin's tower loomed out of the gloom, shining brilliantly with Emerald light. It was an image of serenity and of peace, one which she wished might never end.

"Hey Ruby, you look amazing tonight... I mean not that you don't look great every day, cause you do its just that tonight you look... Wow~" Jaune's voice rang out and tore the little reaper from her silent brooding with a start. She immediately back-pedalled over what he had said and blushed brightly when she realised the meaning behind his words.

"T-thanks Jaune..." She said with a smile.

"Your... uh... date isn't gonna get mad about me saying that is he?"

"I-um... I don't actually have a date..." She sounded almost ashamed as she stared down at her feet.

"But your the first year prodigy! Entrance into Beacon two years early! Guys must have been clambering over one another for the opportunity to take you to the dance, so where is he?" Jaune chuckled. His heart sank however when he caught the look in her eyes. They shone with a film of tears and he realised that she wasn't kidding.

"Ruby... I'm sorry I had no idea."

"I guess you were the only one I wanted to go with..." She sighed "I-I gotta go."

A single tear rolled down her cheek as she jogged away, barely holding it all in. She didn't know why she felt so emotional, it was inexplicable that after so many years of dedicating herself to her training with the single-minded determination for the day that she would one day graduate signal and qualify for Beacon. In all those years she had never taken a day off to even so much as consider boys so... why was it all happening now. She fled back to the punch bowl and fixed herself a drink to calm her nerves.

Back on the balcony Jaune was left in turmoil, he could only watch as she left and his gut wrenched itself into a tight knot of guilt. His heart had truly sunken seeing her alone on such an important night. He thought back to the night he had asked Pyrrha and remembered her reaction to him telling her that he had already asked his partner, he remembered his promise. With a sigh he steeled himself and made for the exit to head back to his dorms. On the way out he was stopped by a firm grip on his shoulder. He snapped his head round and found himself staring straight into the cold ashen eyes of General Ironwood.

"Tired of the party young man?" he asked with suspicion rooted within his stern expression.

"No sir, I made a promise to my teammate. I'm just on my way to fulfil it."

"And what might that promise be?" the General cocked an eyebrow in curiosity.

"I uh... I promised her that if she was without a date tonight... that I would wear a dress." He blushed.

"I see." Ironwood said with a smirk on his face. "And you are going to change?"

"Yes sir."

"Very well, carry on then." The General chuckled and released his shoulder. Jaune shivered a little and set off at a jog out of the the ballroom and back across campus to the dorms. He quickly swiped his scroll across the door's lock and entered. Striding over to his closet he pulled out a suit carrier and unzipped it. He looked over the contents with a slight sigh before heading to the bathroom to change.

Jaune shivered as he walked back to the ballroom, shivering as the cool evening air met with his legs. Just how girls could walk around in these thing without freezing to death he would never know. Still, a promise is a promise and as his dad had always told him growing up 'A man's word is his bond'. Those words reverberated in his head as he walked, nestling themselves in his heart and helping to keep him warm against the evening chill.

His dress fluttered softly in the breeze, a classical number that came to just above the knight's knee. It was a light cream colour and a large pink bow sat upon his waist. He had snuck over to ask Yang if he could borrow one of hers in the eventuality that Ruby might end up without a date. At first the brawler had failed to take him seriously but had relented in the end and even gone so far as to help him choose one that he had actually looked good in. After a few rapid adjustments with the help of the heiress, it was all ready to go.

Before long, he had crossed the campus once again and stood outside the ballroom. He took a couple of moments to compose himself, deep breaths to quell his ever increasing nerves. Was he really about to go into a room filled with at least half the school in a dress? A brief image of Ruby's face flashed through his mind and disabused him of any notion of backing out. He had come too far for that, he was in the dress and stood outside the ballroom. There was no backing out now. He steeled himself and walked into the ballroom.

All around him the couples stopped dead and looked at him with disbelief and amusement. Many laughed or sneered at him as he worked through the crowds but he couldn't see them, he had eyes for only one individual. He found her camping out the punch bowl, on her fourth glass of the punch. He strode over to her, followed by the sounds of laughter. Turning round to investigate the commotion, Ruby got her first glimpse of the dress wearing knight. Her eyes grew wide in shock as she took in the sight. The rose looked at him for a few moments, held entirely by shock before shock gave way to amusement when all at once, she burst out into a fit of giggles.

The sudden sound of her laughter was so unexpected that it gave him a start. Her giggles soon deepened into full blown laughter until she had tears streaming down her face and she was doubled over. She laughed and laughed for a good few minutes solid, every time it seemed as though she might have made it through the worst of it and finally be about to calm down again she would take a fresh look at him and start up laughing again.

A whole fifteen minutes had passed before she finally regained a modicum of control over herself again. Her lungs burned as they begged for oxygen and her hands trembled with suppressed energy. She looked at him for a moment, having relatively accustomed to his visage. A single question bounced around in her head.

"Why?" she chuckled.

"Because Ruby, I made a promise that if you came to this dance alone that I would come in a dress and dance with you and an Arc never goes back on his word." He responded proudly and puffed his chest out proudly.

"I didn't think you were serious!" she cried "Where did you even get the dress from?!"

"Yang..." he shrugged.

"Yang was in on this?! I swear I'm going to get her back for thi-"

"Do you want to stand there and rant about Yang or do you wanna dance with me?"

"Of course I wanna dance I just... I cant dance..." She sighed dejectedly. She was stopped though by him lifting her face to look him straight in the eyes. He smiled warmly to her.

"Ruby, that's alright. We can take it nice and slowly. I'll lead you, what do you say?"

She thought for a moment, staring into his cobalt eyes in wonder. Had he really gone to so much effort on her account? It seemed almost too surreal to be true. Not in all her life had someone, especially a boy, gone to such extremes to make her happy and in that instant, her emotions were set and the direction of her heart revealed in truth to her. This oblivious blonde would be hers.

She took his hand and followed on in trepidation and anticipation as he led her into the centre of the dance floor. He bowed low to her before taking her hand and leading her into a waltz around the dance floor. She stepped in close and despite stepping on his toe three times, he did begin to get better. She fell into the ebb and flow of the music, her feet soon learned their place at certain points and before all that long Jaune had her twirling and dipping along with him just as she had envied Pyrrha at the start of the night. In truth she found that dancing wasn't completely worlds apart from fighting.

"That's it Ruby, you're getting the hang of it now!" Jaune encouraged her as he sent her into a string of twirls. She grinned rather proudly and danced her way back over to him to carry on dancing laps around the floor. The crowds formed a large oval for the two teammates to watch them dance. As the music changed tempo, so did they. Together they danced a wide variety of dances from ballroom to Latin and back again yet still onward they moved with dogged persistence until at last, through mutual consensus the two teenagers retired to their table and collapsed onto their chairs with a sigh, their chests were heaving after such an exhausting few minutes. For a few minutes all was silent between the two dancers as they caught their breath and drank a little bit of water from the table's water pitcher.

"I would never have chosen you for a dancer Jaune." Ruby managed to say in between her ragged breaths.

"Well, I grew up in a house with seven sisters, they were brutal at times. One day they decided to set up a bit of a dance in my home's living room. Of course they all had to have dates so I was unfortunately the one that had to escort them. But in order for them to have the kinds of dates they wanted, my oldest sister had decided that she couldn't have a date if I couldn't dance, so they spend a painful afternoon of learning for me. With my sisters their attitude was very sink or swim. I guess fortunately I swam." He chuckled.

Blake finished her dance with Yang and smiled, she really did need this. After so long without any real sleep, meals or down-time it felt really good to kick back and relax. She made her way over to the punch bowl and fixed herself a glass, she took a sip and was surprised to find it so refreshing after nigh on an hour solid of dancing. In truth the faunus had no idea how Yang could do it. After the first dance she had been in need of a sit down and some rest yet the brawler had kept going.

Laughter erupted from the centre of the dance floor tearing Blake out of her musings. Her golden eyes grew wide in shock at what she saw, or thought she saw... It had to be an hallucination surely, brought about by the exertion of having danced for so long, but if that was the case why was everyone laughing? She closed her eyes for a few and took a couple of deep breaths before opening them again. Nope, it was definitely real. There in front of her very eyes, was Jaune in a dress dancing the tango with Ruby.

A giggle flew from her lips at the sight. It was just so unexpected that her fellow leader should don a dress simply to please his teammate for the dance. It was admirable in a way, that he would be willing to embarrass and make a laughing stock of himself for the sake of his friend. Ruby had told them about their agreement of course but she had never really granted any credence to it until now. It seemed the Arc truly was a man of his word.

After a fair few minutes of laughing, Blake finally adjusted to the visage in front of her. With a contented sigh she stepped out through the doors and into the night. The air held a certain chill that perfectly contrasted that of the ballroom. Her breath fogged up into great clouds that swirled around before floating up into the sky and dissipating again. It was wonderful, the stars were all out and shining brightly. She sighed, sending another wisp of cloud into the sky and looked out over the campus.

On one of the roofs across the campus she caught a flash of movement. Focusing over in its direction she could make out a woman in an entirely black catsuit leaping from rooftop to rooftop. Blake might have assumed her to be a common thief had she not had two large black swords slung across her back. She narrowed her eyes and set off in pursuit, she darted from shadow to shadow and maintained a safe distance. It wouldn't do to be spotted now. Fortunately, it was dark enough that only a faunus would be able to spot her at this distance and while Blake was confident that this intruder wasn't a faunus, she was taking no chances. Blake was grateful that she had not followed Yang's idea and dressed in white, her dress served now only to help her blend in.

The rooftop runner led her all the way across Beacon's expansive campus and straight to the Cross Continental Transmit tower... curiosity grew within Blake's heart alongside dread. Why would the intruder come here? More importantly where was she? The faunus' golden eyes glowed as she scanned the grand entrance to the tower and fell upon the prone body of a soldier. Any curiosity was swept away. There could be no doubt that the mystery woman couldn't possibly have been here for anything benign and the chances of her being a common thief had just hit zero.

Blake grabbed her scroll and dialled her rocket-locker in. Within moments she could see it streaking across the sky before it plowed into the ground in front of her. The paving slabs cracked on impact. The locker door sprung open to reveal Gambol Shroud sat in its weapon rack. She sauntered over and took her weapon, wrapped the ribbon around her forearm and turned back to face the Cross Continental Transmit with fire burning in her eyes. Yang would be proud.

She made her way slowly up the steps and into the central hub of Vale's world wide communications network. The ground floor held banks of terminals and swivel chairs at which the operators would work. A central column held the tower's elevator. Cautiously, Blake edged her way up to the elevator and summoned it. The doors opened with the visage of two soldiers lying unconscious and slumped against each other with happy smiles on their faces. BRNY's leader rolled her eyes and dragged the two soldiers out of the elevator and into the operations room. She left the slumped against a terminal before taking the elevator up to the main communications floor since that seemed the logical place to start.

The doors opened and Gambol Shroud left its sheath, better to be safe than sorry after all. The faunus edged out of the lift with her weapon ready to block an incoming strike. This mystery woman had proven that she was hostile through her treatment of the guards so it simply wouldn't do to throw caution to the wind now. Her fingers adjusted and then readjusted their grip on the hilt of her black steel katana.

"Hello? Is there anyone here?" She called out and took a few steps into the seemingly empty room, only the bleeping of the terminals answered her. In fact, she was just about to turn and board the elevator when a woman garbed entirely in black stood up from behind the administrations desk. Blake's eyes narrowed as the intruder took a few steps forward towards her. Blake backed up and levelled Gambol Shroud at her, the thin point of its blade hovering at chest height.

"You aren't supposed to be in here." The faunus said in her most commanding voice.

"Perhaps not, and yet here we are..." Came the mysterious woman's answer. Her voice was cold and yet silky smooth. It chilled Blake to her very bones, set her on edge and made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. Blake opened her mouth to speak but before she could utter so much as a single syllable the intruder drew her twin swords and launched her self in Blake's direction.

Blake left a clone and threw herself back by the sudden nature of her foe's attack. That was the final straw. The faunus threw herself into the fray, swinging her sword in calculated strikes to force her enemy onto the retreat, yet no matter how many times Blake swung the mysterious woman always seemed to be one step ahead. She dodged every one of the leader's attacks with what seemed to be ease and an amused, smug grin on her face before following up with an attack of her own to keep Blake at a distance. It seemed to be nothing more than a game to her as they wove their deadly dance in between the terminals. Blake kept her eyes locked on those of her opponent, they were chilling and burned with a fierce intensity the likes of which the faunus had never seen, even after years with the White Fang.

Seemingly having had enough, the woman raised one of her swords and caught Gambol Shroud solidly on the blade. Her weapon seemed to morph itself around the katana like a liquid before solidifying around the blade and locking it in place. Her eyes widened in horror as she knew she was caught. The woman wrenched Gambol Shroud from her grasp and threw it across the room, with a grin of triumph she brought her knee straight up and into Blake's stomach.

The faunus doubled over with a low groan of pain as stars danced before her eyes before taking a series of punches to the face and the side of her head. Through a haze of pain she heard her nose break accompanied by a wave of pain so intense that it sent her sprawling to the ground dazed. She coughed up globules thick with blood, staining the carpet. Through a blur of pain the faunus looked up and into the eyes of the intruder, they burned with a malice hitherto unseen by the young faunus.

Yet Blake wasn't done yet, even when she seemed to be at the mercy of this fiend, she wasn't about to give up. She leapt to her feet and lunged at the catsuit-clad stranger in an attempt to tackle her to the ground. Unfortunately her senses were still a little addled and her enemy lazily sidestepped out of the way. Before Blake could try again, an insurmountable pressure could be felt on her back, pinning her to the ground. She froze in terror as she felt the woman's remaining sword rest against the back of her neck, the point of its blade digging into her flesh ever so slightly, though not enough to draw blood.

"Well, well, my little heroine. Looks like this is the end of the line for you." She said, her voice going straight through the trapped faunus and setting her teeth on edge. This was a moment she had long since been preparing for. Being in the White Fang had accustomed her to the idea of her own death. By no means did she desire it, but neither did it hold any real fear for her anymore. Her only regret was not having been able to do more for the faunus movement. She had at least hoped to see an improvement through peaceful methods. Tears welled up in her eyes as she awaited the end.

Quite suddenly she heard the sound of the elevator door opening with a hiss. As it did, the pressure was gone from her back. Though she seemingly didn't leave without saying goodbye, she drew the point of her sword across the base of her neck nicking the skin and drawing a single bead of blood. It burned against her skin and tickled as it spilled over and rolled down her neck and dripped onto the floor beside her.

She raised her head weakly and looked over to the elevator with bleary eyes. To see a man dressed entirely in white. The figure walked over to her and gradually came into focus, showing him to be General Ironwood. Firm yet gentle hands checked her for injury and slowly helped her into the sitting position, the drops of blood from her neck staining his glove.

"Are you alright?" He asked with a hint of concern in his voice.

"I-I think so..." She groaned, her throat felt like sandpaper.

"I know you're hurt but do you think you can tell me what happened here."

"T-there was a woman dressed in black... she was doing... something in here when I got here and then we fought, she disarmed me... Her sword flowed like water but was solid. S-she was about to kill me when you got here..." Tears welled up in the eyes of the faunus. The General gave her a reassuring squeeze, gentle enough so as not to hurt her further but enough to emphasise his presence.

"It's alright, you're safe now. She's gone. We're going to call the medical staff in, I can't see any major injuries but I'd like to have the doctors look you over just to be sure. I'd like to speak with you about this once you feel able. But for now I'd like you to just try and relax." His voice was comforting and strong yet held an air of ingrained professionalism. From within his pocket the General drew his scroll and tapped a few buttons before holding it to his ear. The conversation was a brief one, he simply stated where they were, the assistance he would need and a brief description of what he gauged her injuries to be.

Beacon's paramedics were with them within five minutes. With great care they lifted her up and onto a stretcher and wheeled her away. The faunus couldn't help but grit her teeth in pain as the adrenaline left her system. The paramedics soon saw to that, giving her a small dose of morphine to dull the pain. It was a strange feeling as her whole body began to feel numb and fuzzy. The most daunting aspect was when she lost the ability to operate her limbs properly. Everything seemed so surreal and blurred together as she was wheeled away to the school's infirmary. One thing was for certain; when Yang found out there would be all hell to pay, and nothing would prevent the brawler from collecting.

The General remained on the communications floor of the CCT for a long while after he had watched the young girl stretchered away. He walked his way around looking over the various signs of combat, pausing for a long while over each one to take a photograph and jot down all the details in his scroll with both military precision and accuracy. It seemed so extreme that an enemy of the kingdom would strike at so strong a target during an influx of military personnel. The fact that hidden enemies were striking at them so unabashed actually frightened him. It could only mean one thing in his eyes, they were working towards something big and it was going to happen soon.

He thought back to the injured student's story and pondered her words carefully, searching for any potential clues hidden within them. He hadn't wanted to press her too hard for details given the severity of her injuries, but once the doctors had declared her fit he would be seeing her again for a more in-depth explanation.

The final piece of evidence he documented was her lost weapon. It was found some distance away from where the two women had been fighting and intrigued him. Wrapped seamlessly around the blade of the unfortunate student's katana was a second sword. He photographed it and picked it up for a closer inspection. The material from which it was made was unlike anything that he had seen before. It was black as pitch and composed of what appeared to be tiny crystals the likes of which only came in the form of one substance, dust. He scratched some off with a finger and scanned it with a small device from his pocket. It bleeped for a few moments before displaying a read out of its identification details and chemical composition. It proved to be a rare kind of dust only found in a particular region of the Atlesian mountains, it proved most useful when used as a conduit for aura. By channelling one's aura into it, it can be manipulated with a fluidity rarely seen, it had proved stable enough to be forged into a variety of weapons. However, for someone to get hold of enough to produce the weapon would prove financially ruinous, although it was not entirely unheard of.

Taking the weapon with him, the General made to leave. Giving the room one last fleeting glance he hit the button and began the descent to the ground floor, still studying the unusual dust weapon. No sooner had the doors closed and he disappeared from view that the computer at the administrations desk powered up, its screen a blank green. All around the room, the computers powered up and lit up a solid green colour. The gloom was permeated by the eerie green glow of the computer monitors, and then all as one an image faded into view, slowly and fuzzy at first but soon gaining definition until at last there was displayed a single queen chess piece.

Cinder sauntered back into the ballroom with a confident spring in her step. She cast away her mask and with a wave of her hand changed her catsuit into an elegant black and gold dress. Sifting through the crowds she found her fellow conspirators and cut in on their moment. She danced with an amused smirk as those around her danced on without any idea of what would be about to happen within a matter of days, after all... Phase three had begun.

There it was, for the next couple of chapters I plan on introducing the characters of team BRNY in a little more detail and add a little more depth to their characters. I hope that you enjoy the next couple of chapters even as I enjoy writing them.

Let me know what you thought of the chapter in the reviews, if you like this fic then please do favourite or follow, updates every Monday. For those of you that don't know, I AM CONTEMPLATING RECRUITING A BETA READER, so if you are wanting to apply, please PM me about the role.

Thank you all very much for reading and as always; I'll see you all in the next chapter.