Disclaimer: I own nothing of RWBY which belongs to Rooster Teeth and the late Monty Owm.
Chapter 11: Where there are no actual Dance Scenes
There was only an hour before the dance he had not managed to get in contact with his team for the entire time since the misunderstandings happened. Jaune was nervous, no that was a damn understatement. What the hell would his team sans Ruby think about him taking them all to the dance?
Cinder would fry his body…Pyrrha would do something unspeakable with to him her weapons. He was sure about that outcome as far as he is sure that they were under the misunderstanding that he somehow had the nerve to ask them out.
Even compared to Ruby (who was far too young for his tastes), the rest of his team-mates were stunningly beautiful women. And with the dance, they would probably dress up and put on make-up that would only enhance their beauty.
He was not looking forward to seeing and being stunned by them. The teasing that he would get…
"Ready for your dates?" asked Ren. They were waiting together for their teams mainly because they were the only guys between the two teams.
"Do you have to say it that way? There is no date. This is just another team outing. Nothing more!" he hissed.
The Asian male chuckled, "Keep saying that to yourself. Who do you think you went for advice yesterday?"
"And some help you were" he glared.
"It's not my fault that you somehow managed to get dates from your team-mates the day before the dance. If you didn't then you would've had time to clear up the misunderstanding."
"Yeah…" Jaune rubbed his forehead. He was just not looking forward to it. More surprisingly however was that no one actually managed to get the nerve to ask Cinder or Pyrrha. I mean, Ruby it was understandable considering the threat of Yang but the other two?
Cinder was beautiful in a seductive way while Pyrrha was equally pretty in an ironically untouchable way. Either no one actually asked them out or they had rejected everyone that asked him. He didn't know. And in fact, he preferred not to find out.
"They're here" said Ren suddenly.
Jaune snapped his neck to where his team was and as he expected as stunned. Remarkably, Cinder and Pyrrha were wearing similar dresses but in the colour of their hairs respectively. Sleeveless arms and was long down as a dress. Naturally Cinder decided to be more provocative with slits to her legs while showing more skin while Pyrrha was more conservative.
"Jaune!" another more childish voice snapped him out of his trance. He saw Ruby run up to him before giving him a twirl of her dress that in Jaune's opinion mixed childish needs and a mature look.
"How do we look?" she asked.
He thought about it for a moment before deciding on a 'safe' answer.
"Very pretty all of you" he complimented before glancing at Cinder again. "Though I wish Cinder would dress in something less…eye-catching for my sanity. I'm already getting enough glares from the guys as it is."
Cinder and Ruby giggled and he found it surprising that Cinder could giggle. She certainly was more guarded with her emotions at the beginning of the semester. Now, it looked like Ruby somehow managed to make a crack, enough for his partner to relax a bit.
"Figures that the only one you single out is your partner" Pyrrha joked.
"Oh but I can easily talk about how lavish you look in your dress Pyrrha" he purred out. It had been a while but it looked like it was time to flex the old Arc Charm a bit.
A gloved hand from Cinder held onto Pyrrha's shoulder as she agreed with him. "Yes, I can certainly see that. Why don't we all go into a private room and-"
"Ahh!" the red-head screamed momentarily before running away in her heels which was admittedly a level slower than her usual speeds. The blonde was more surprised that she could even move that fast in high-heels.
Now that he thought about it, a good portion of Huntresses wore and fought in high-heels. Insane, the lot of them.
"Why do I have a feeling that you're insulting me Jaune?" Amber eyes close in asked. "Do you have anything to tell me?"
"Not at all" he answered. He was not falling for that one ever again. There were simply too many times he thought Cinder was reading his mind when she couldn't which led to her gaining…unfortunate information.
"Like the time you decided to wear some of your sisters' heels and found them impossible to move in?"
"How the hell do you get this information?!"
Jaune wanted to scream. Seriously, how did his partner manage to get years' worth of blackmail when he made sure to never mention them at all?
"I ask your sisters. They were more than happy to tell me as 'payment' to keep you alive and well for them to shout at you when you decide to go home" she smiled.
Jaune gulped and was thankful that Ruby spoke up, changing the subject.
"So are we all going to the dance with Jaune? I mean he asked everyone to go together right?" she asked.
Cinder raised her eyebrow elegantly.
"That's the first I heard of this."
Pyrrha too had the same expression on her face.
"It's funny how you didn't mean to mention this to me Jaune. Asking someone for a date to the dance and not mentioning that two other girls will be coming with us?"
Actually, he would prefer for the conversation to go more about his embarrassing past and all. Hell he was willing to talk about the time he tried to swing a sword and somehow managed to trip over, fall over a chair, crash outside the door before the sword hilt knocked him out into sweet mercy unconsciousness.
"Ah-I…Umm-You know ahhh…." He managed to get that much out of his mouth at the moment.
"Jaune! I thought you told them it was a team date" Ruby pouted. "Why was I the only one who wasn't asked to the dance with you alone?"
He thought he heard Ren break down in a laugh behind him but he had bigger problems.
"Most likely you're a bit young for his taste Ruby" Cinder patted the younger girl's shoulder in (fake) sympathy.
"But I drink lots of milk!" she cried out. He wasn't sure but he was sure trying not to see if Ruby had tears in her eyes right now. Jaune already felt enough of a jerk. He didn't need more reasons to try and beat himself up.
"There, there. Don't cry Ruby" said Pyrrha. She was a lot better at the sympathy things than his partner at least. Or he could read his partner a lot better than the red-head.
Said red-head turned her head at him and shot him the most vicious glare he had ever seen from her.
"Right now we need to decide on how to punish this person who played with the hearts of three maidens" she declared.
Jaune took a step back.
"Of course. I hate those who want to use me and asking three separate people on the same date is someone only a scoundrel would do" said Cinder as a flame lit on the palm of her hand.
Having experienced what even a small flame like that could do to a target, Jaune took another three steps back and found himself to the wall. In a panic, he turned to Ren who was pointedly looking away. He would get no help there.
Looking back at the trio that would be his death, he noticed one important detail. Ruby was crying.
Team JCNR and Team RNBY were located next to each other.
The girls of Team RNBY were still in their room.
Yang was still in her room.
She would eventually come out to find Ruby crying because of him.
Jaune at that moment wanted to do nothing more than to bolt away from here as fast as possible. His body sweated in fear from what his team and Yang could do to him. And it wasn't even his fault! Everyone misunderstood him!
He didn't even have time to explain-
Click.
The next moment the expressions of his team turned amused of all things. Jaune had no idea what was happening. The glare from Pyrrha, the look of disgust from Cinder and the tears from Ruby all magically disappeared as if it never happened.
And off to the side he heard giggling and laughing.
"Team RNBY-Yang what with that scroll? What's going on?" Jaune looked startled as he failed to notice the door to the team room next door opened and more importantly, failed to detect he was being spied on.
He looked back at his team that was in the mist of giggling or outright chuckling intently themselves.
"Cinder? Pyrrha? Ruby?" he questioned.
Ruby was the first to answer him, "Don't worry about it Jaune. This was just a little prank."
However as she said that last word, her face froze before she quickly added, "Though this may be taking it a bit far, all of this is harmless. No one got hurt! Right everyone?"
"Of course. The only thing that may have gotten hurt is his pride and I'm sure I've beaten all of that out of his body already" said Cinder smoothly.
The blonde looked at Pyrrha next to see what she had to say but she all she did was smile mysteriously at him with far too much amusement in her eyes to what happened. He turned to look at the other team that seemed to have plotted against him as well.
"Don't worry about it too much. Ruby told Yang and my team-well then Nora heard about it and that was when I along with Blake were dragged into this mess as well" explained Ren.
Jaune sighed, "And you couldn't even give me a heads up that this was happening?"
"And ruin Nora's surprise? Never" the other male shook his head in amusement. Off to the side Nora and Yang in particular were chatting with Ruby. Nora was wearing a white and pink dress eerily similar to her combat outfit while Yang was wearing a similar style dress but was completely white instead.
In comparison Blake was wearing possibly the most conservation outfit of everyone. While she certainly had a dress on, it in his opinion looked like she was wearing an apron on with a shirt underneath. Of course, her outfit was a lot prettier than a waitress would wear but Jaune had a feeling that the black-haired girl didn't want to particularly stand out.
This was in contrast to every single other dress the remaining females around him wore. All of them were made to be eye-catching and flashy.
"Are you eying up Most Belladonna now?" Cinder voice whispered next to him.
"Of course not" he rolled his eyes. He knew if he did then Yang would have double the reason to kick his ass. And that's before he team does it for her. "I'm wondering why…well I can't explain it well."
"You mean how she decided to dress up or rather dress down? Yes, she has some issues but I believe Yang is taking care of it. Don't nose into other teams problems. You already have enough with just us" she advised.
He thought about it before agreeing. There was no point in getting into more drama. At this point Jaune was more than happy to just get stronger to make his dream more real.
"About the date" he said suddenly, "You don't mind if it becomes a team date right?"
"Of course not" the usual smirk appeared on his partner's face, "Just know you will look like a player after this."
He sighed. He was worried about that.
-o-
The dance was fun! Sure there was none of that 'romantic' stuff that all the books promised her. No charming princes or princesses to make her night extra-special or even a true date to her name. Heck her year started out pretty strange and only continued to get stranger even if there were some things that in the end didn't come true.
She wasn't a leader of a team.
She didn't go on many adventures.
But she had friends and she was slowly becoming what she dreamt up for so long.
As such, Ruby Rose was quite a happy girl if she could say so herself. It wasn't the 'perfect' dream she had of Beacon but it was quite closer and even more in the most important ways. Of course that didn't stop some of the things she preferred from not happening from happening.
"Hey Yang, how was the dance with Blake?" Ruby asked her sister.
They were standing on the second level of the hall looking down at the other students whom were all still dancing. Off to the distance, she could see an excited Sun taking Blake to the dance. She wondered briefly if they would start dating…
Nah, Sun doesn't look like the type that would get along with Blake's personality.
"Fantastic! Didn't expect her to actually dance with me though. She's a bit awkward like that. A bit similar to you now that I think about it" Yang replied though she looked up in thought to her last comment.
With a grin suddenly plastered onto her face, her sister moved in and whispered, "You think I can get into her pants? We both know what kinds of books she reads."
"Yaaaang" Ruby moaned.
"What? It's not like she doesn't read girl-on-girl action from time to time" she barked out laughing. She paused then decided it was time to waggle her eyebrows while spilling out things she never wanted to consider before, "Though I haven't actually seen any books on boy-on-boy action…yet."
Unfortunately Ruby's mind of one of a teenage girl even if a good portion of it was filled with weapon related things and then with Huntress related things. And considering there were only two guys she knew in any level….
"Epp…" she squeaked out. What was that? What was that?!
Her face was red not only because she was embarrassed at what her sister just told her but rather also how embarrassed at how Yang usually acted. It seemed that being away from her in brief burst periods only made it worse.
Then again, being used to Yang's antics meant being exposed enough that she wouldn't react to it anymore.
"Did you just think of Jaune and Ren together? Our team leaders…doing the nasty" she teased, leaning close enough that their noses were touching each other.
"No! No no no no….no?"
Ruby couldn't help it. She placed her face into her hands and crouched down into her knees. Ren she didn't mind having…those images in her mind, sure he was a friend but he wasn't a close friend.
Jaune on the other hand…
"I'm not going to be able to look Jaune in the eye for a while" she grumbled. She rubbed her eyes in irritation before blinking at the look Yang was giving her.
"So…" said sister drawled out. "Mind if you can confirm any of the rumours surrounding your team? I mean, Ren has a couple of rumours of these big babies being close to him one too many times but all of that pales in comparison to the ones around Jaune."
Much to Ruby's further irritation, Yang squeezed her breasts just showing much more…developed she was. She had two cups sizes over her and it better not turn to three any time soon.
"What rumours" she managed to get out.
"You know" Yang waved her hand. "Jaune having a harem. Cinder being the true evil overlord of the team. Pyrrha having sex with Cinder after every time they fight. Oh and every one of you except Jaune being sadists and having S&M fetishes."
With each 'rumour' Ruby blush went redder and redder.
The sad part was that without seeing all the 'action' close up, it was quite easy to misunderstand what was happening. Every single rumour was false but had some ground in truth…somewhere.
"And I bet the 'team date' thing doesn't help with the harem rumour" she muttered.
Ruby didn't really know where she stood as part of her team. Jaune was the lovable goofy leader that everyone needed to take care of, Cinder was the mysterious slightly-evil shadow leader and Pyrrha was a kind comfort sister-like figure to her when Yang wasn't there.
She was friends with all of them but it was a different kind of friendship which each of them.
The one with Jaune was where she was equal to him where they both goofed off together because they were found out. It was fun hanging out with him when they both had the time. Cinder was a mean dictator when it came to their studies.
The one with Pyrrha was similar to her relationship with Yang and not at the same time. Yang was fun-fun embarrassing to the point she didn't know whether they were related or not. Pyrrha was like mixing Yang's caring nature with…Blake.
Yeah like a mix of Yang and Blake together. Someone who cared but someone who really didn't know how to reach out. Ruby nodded to that accurate description before making a mental note to make Pyrrha more open. Well, that is if Jaune doesn't do it for her.
And there was Cinder.
…She didn't know how she managed to befriend Cinder but it was like dealing with that white-hair girl from waaay back except the threats were hidden only to be spun at the worse possible moment. But Ruby was sure she managed to loosen the fun out of her.
Moments later, her thoughts were cut short when Jaune appeared with Pyrrha asking for another round of dance with her.
Oh and Yang as well.
-o-
"I wonder where Cinder went. She looked as if she was in a hurry" Jaune mused.
"Who knows" Pyrrha shrugged. "She's probably about socialising with other teams. She did make a point that one time about how having connections can lead to unsaid assistant in one form or another."
"That's just like her" he sighed.
Standing on the balcony, the (could've been partners) two members of Team JCNR stared at the bright and broken moon of the world. They had danced, together, with their team and with complete strangers one or two times before getting bored. Ruby had headed to where her sister was and Cinder disappeared on her own.
Of course, this Pyrrha in this kind of setting, her mind led to the conclusion that she was probably enacting some scene from a romance novel. She would need to get Blake's advice on some though, as she never had the chance to pick up a habit aside from training.
"The moon sure is bright" she heard Jaune mutter.
"Indeed. It isn't every day that we can just spend time relaxing like this. It's almost like we're on vacation."
He chuckled, "I'm sure she will work me to the ground later on. You better step up your training or else I might surpass you."
"I'm sure I can figure a trick or two to make sure you stay below me" she took the joke in strides. While Jaune was admittedly making rapid progress being slightly above average compared to the class, she expects him to eventually hit a wall in how far he could go soon.
There was so much training could do to help you to fight and there was so much fighting a small group of people can do to help him prepare to fight everyone else. Eventually Pyrrha would expect Cinder to draft in other people to help Jaune get a variety of people to spar against.
"So how do you feel about Beacon?" he asked suddenly, "I now know that you're pretty famous back at your home so…"
Seeing the nervous expression on her leader's face, Pyrrha could not help but to stare at him. That is, before she ended up giggling because of how little he seemed to have changed even after everything.
"Better than I had ever imagined. I was quite alone because of my fame you know. And yet there happened to be a few people who didn't know who I was at all or didn't care" she smiled.
Jaune blushed remembering their first meeting, "Yeah…man I looked like a fool back then."
"You mean besides casually trying to flirt with Weiss Schnee?"
"Who?"
That response only made her smile widen even more. It took a long time but it seemed like she managed to erase the presence of that person who once tried to persuade her into a partnership. Of course, Pyrrha was sure she was a good person inside but that didn't change how she acted like a raging bitch to everyone.
"Hmm, you don't need to worry about that" she said before turning her attention back to the dance.
"Say…" she started to say before pausing. No, she knew that Jaune didn't actually have any feelings for her. There was no time for it to even start to develop and there was the issue of Cinder and even Ruby in her way.
"Do you want to grab Ruby and Yang for another round of dancing?" she asked.
Jaune looked at her in thought before agreeing, "Sure! I was a bit bored with nothing exciting happening."
The next tens of minutes would be some of the happiest memories Pyrrha would have, only to be surpassed by even more important memories years from now on.
Pyrrha would fully admit had her fears when coming to Beacon. Sanctum was a place that was filled with competitive attitude. If you were strong then you were respected but if you were weak than all you would get is disdain. And in that place she rose to the top. No, she role to the summit where she matched against even her teachers and eventually defeated even them.
But at the same time she was seen as something no one could compare to. How could a person befriend what they fear? She was strong but at the same time she wanted to give mercy to her opponents as much as possible. With her skill, experience and semblance it was so easy to strip down a Hunter into a novice when fighting her.
She did that once.
She never tried ever again.
And while she was famed as the four time winner of the Mistral Regional Tournament, she was also feared as a fighter. Back there, her reputation already became one that made her look like a monster that liked crushing her foes. That was something she didn't want at Beacon.
Unlike Sanctum…Beacon was warm.
She had met people who cared about her. People like Ruby who saw beyond the fame and found a friend, people like Cinder who could care less about her reputation and challenged her and people like Jaune who saw her nothing more than a normal person that he could befriend.
Pyrrha was telling the truth to Jaune that Beacon was better than she ever expected. Finding someone like Jaune was like a dream when she first saw him. Finding Ruby and later Cinder was bonus she never expected. The latter was a bigger surprise because she didn't expect someone so skilled to appear in her life like that.
And her stagnated skills had finally started to move forward again.
Still, if there was one thing that didn't happen that she hoped was any notion of romance. Pyrrha was still a teenage girl no matter how mature she seemed to be in the outside. Jaune was the obvious target with the only other males she knew at her age by name were Ren and Cardin.
She wasn't close to the former and the latter…well life as a single woman would be interesting if that was the case.
Looking back, her small crush on Jaune seemed so shallow. She liked him because he thought of her as a normal person. It was a ridiculous notion to anyone she could tell this to but it was serious for her. For years she was seen as something extraordinary and special and all that did was isolate her from everyone else.
Why would she want someone to treat her as a special person based off her name and achievements? Jaune…was a much better choice for her heart simply because he could come to treat her special because she was she and nothing else. But there was a slight problem.
Jaune didn't share her feelings, and if anything the most likely person he would develop feelings to was Cinder. That thought gripped her heart in a way she never experienced before. Jealousy was something she rarely experienced and a first in the romance department.
But even worse was that it seemed that the more she interacted with Jaune the more she fell for him. He was the opposite of her. All those expectations people held for her? She achieved them. Jaune on the other hand failed them. And yet, he still moved forward. Pyrrha didn't know if she was strong enough to do the same if she ever failed.
Failing was frightening to her. She was invincible and yet she still lost to Cinder a few times didn't she? That was another thing she had to grudgingly thank the other woman for. That feeling only made her admiration towards Jaune even stronger.
And whether her leader would eventually choose to romance someone like Cinder, Ruby or even someone else, she was fine as long as she had a place in his heart. After all, there was no reason for him to choose some stranger as a girlfriend.
Pyrrha had never expected to have the happy ending in her dreams, but anything close was more than enough for her. She was sure that Cinder had made some plans for their leader to fall into her hands. All she had to do was make sure that those plans failed and that Jaune would fall for her.
Even if she had to share, Jaune was hers whether he knew it or not.
A giggle slipped out on how she would do that.
-o-
Cinder would admit that she was a bit cheerful. After all, one stage of her plans was complete with the virus being implanted without anyone noticing that she had snuck in. She had taken out many of the guards without them seeing her and those who did barely managed to see a blur that knocked them out.
Sure Ozpin and General Ironwood would suspect that she was at play but with so many suspects, would they consider a student at Beacon if a student at all? Resourceful and intelligent they may be but they are not omniscience when it came to what happened in every corner of the school.
Still, her infiltration was a good workout and one she needed badly. It was difficult restraining, restraining and restraining herself at Beacon to keep her cover. The fact that she broke some bones here and there was really only telling how close she was to snapping.
There would be a mission to clear some Grimm with her team soon but this was just something she needed to indulge in. And so she did. She couldn't use her abilities as freely as she liked though.
Bow and arrow and swords that appear out of nowhere were a big no-no now because that was what Beacon Student Cinder used and no one said she was stupid enough to forget that. Therefore she took a clue from Yang and solely used her body and fists to beat the guards into submission.
Of course, it only took someone of her level a few short minutes at best to plant the virus onto the network before she creeped back into the dance without anyone suspecting anything.
"Now all I have to do is wait for the perfect opportunity for the second stage of my plan to start."
And she knew what it was. The Vytal Festival was something that was broadcast internationally once a year via extensive technology allowing every Kingdom to see the 'unity' of the world.
But there were still a couple of months until then. Of course, she had other plans to occupy her time. The 'Breach' mission task that she gave Emerald and Mercury to work on together should be coming around nicely by now.
Being no need for them to sneak into Beacon where she was, the pair would have much more time to focus on their tasks and arrange for her plans work out perfectly. She expects that much from them. She ran through her plans for a few more minutes while sending a couple of discrete messages to her subordinates to update her on their statuses before Cinder's thoughts inevitably turned to her team.
There was really not much else to think of. Everything else was accounted for.
To say anything of her relationship could be summed up as one word. Complicated.
Her relationship with Pyrrha and Ruby were simple enough. The former was admittedly a rival and she had a suspicion that she could be one of the people Ozpin was considering transferring the other half of the power of the Fall Maiden into. She was a skilled foe she doubted even with the incomplete power she had, she would be able to beat her if both of them went all out.
Ironically that was one of the reasons why her outfit suddenly lacked any metal for the red-head to use against her. Even her earrings were converted to plastic and glass as she rather not deal with bloody ears.
Ruby was a pleasant surprise to Cinder. The younger girl was like a puppy in how she wanted to please everyone around her. It looked like she had her own doubts that she could be in Beacon being two years younger than everyone else. In a way, she was the same as Emerald though a younger and much more innocent variant.
Still, she had silver eyes and one of the things Salem wanted her to do was keep track of any with that eye colour and report if she couldn't eliminate them. Cinder had a feeling that Ruby would be the key if she ever decided to get away from her mistress's control.
And every day that seemed like a better idea than before.
Finally was her relationship with one Jaune Arc. To say it was complicated was the least of it. They were formally partner and he was her 'leader' at Beacon. Informally she was his teacher, peer, punisher and someone who pushed his everything to the limit. He was…
Well she had no idea what Jaune was to her. That was the problem. She fitted everyone else in carefully placed slots, making sure none of them moved away from what she expected but the idiot blonde was the hardest one to pin down. She could just say he was her student, her leader or even her friend but none of them truly fit.
The fact that she felt irritated of the thought of Jaune being with Pyrrha had nothing to do with it.
Nothing at all.
Cinder didn't care what Jaune did or hook up with as long as he didn't interfere with her plans.
Still it wasn't like anything drastic would happen to force her to change her plans.
-o-
"This is Lisa Lavender from Vale News Network here for a special report. Today, the illegal terrorist group known as the 'White Fang' have dissolved after massive infighting where the current and disposed leader had lose support from the majority of the Faunas. This as from the reports from the Vale Police from investigations from its members came from the mental instability of the leader of the now defunct White Fang."
"Evidence have that the named leader, Adam Taurus had executed several former members of the group brutally. This was just the beginning of the loss of support as further evidence showed that said leader had planned on opening the tunnel between Vale and Mountain Glenn to invite massive hordes of Grimm into our city via the mass of Dust that had been stolen throughout last year. The criminal Torchwick along with Adam Taurus had been captured by Atlas after information on his whereabouts has been given by former White Fang members."
"The SDC have advocated for the capture and sentencing of all White Fang members former or not to be handed to them for punishment. This has been opposed by many including the Headmaster of Beacon and the Atlas military in an act of unity of the supposed Dust monopoly that the SDC holds over Vale and Atlas. Rumours have it that the influence of the SDC had a hand in the formation of the now defunct terrorist organisation from their actions against the Faunas people in general."
"Here with have a segment of an interview with a former White Fang member."
A clip of a blurred out face appeared on screen.
"It all started peacefully you know. Protest to get our voices heard but then nothing really changed and Adam took charge. At first it was small things like getting food and medicine for our people. Simple basic stuff we need to survive you know."
"But then it he suggested us to ruff up some people. Nothing anything dangerous or anything but those who are really scum-bags of society. Those who treat us real bad. That kind of stuff. I think that was the start of the conditioning he put us through."
"Eventually we went onto to threatening people, stealing valuables and arming ourshelves before we knew it. Some of us left, we called them cowards and traitors back then and hunted them down but they were right in the end. The second in command left a while back. That was when Adam really snapped."
"You heard of the plan to cause this 'breach' right? That was all him and while we knew it was crazy we couldn't refuse. I mean later the second in command was brought back to him and you know what the first thing he did was? Make her beg before cutting her head off. Made us all question him a lot when he continued to execute people left and right."
"I think that was really then we saw what was wrong with him and what he was turning us into. I mean, what kind of sick fuck gets off killing someone once close to them?"
The clip ended and Lisa's face reappeared on the screen.
"In other news-"
Cinder clicked off the news and pinched the hinge of her nose in an attempt to not scream, seek out the two idiots that ruined all of her carefully placed plans. The White Fang while disposable were meant to be a major card in weakening Vale.
And more importantly any plans on causing a breach would well and done for. The Kingdom would be well more alert for any kind of sabotage now and she was lucky that there wasn't extra security at the CCTV Tower.
Dozens on dozens of plans were suddenly become useless. It would take months for her to sort out anything that could be called a decent plan and by then the best moment of opportunity would be missed and she would need to wait for the next opportunity which might as well take years.
"You know what? I'm going to throw my lot with Jaune for now. It's bound to be better than dealing with this."
A/N: Well I had to make sure Cinder had an excuse to not kick-start the end of all things. Well even if Cinder managed to successfully do her evil stuff, the rest of Team JCNR being well...good people would probably end up enacting one of those stories where they try and eventually save their 'good' turned evil team-mate.
I find it more hilarious that Emerald and Mercury managed to somehow break up the White Fang into small fractions. Some fics like to portray Cinder as insane maniac with the other two as the sane ones that feel like randomly killing people is bad but don't do anything. Here, Cinder pretty much controls them so they don't screw up. And without her they do screw up. Small but gradually something big happens.
Also. I had some interesting thoughts on how everything changed because of Cinder appearing as a student at Beacon the way I did it. Well relationship wise at least. Cinder took the place of Weiss as someone who 'motivated' Ruby to do better while said youngest girl also get extra support in the form of Pyrrha. Pyrrha got a rival and actually someone who could push her to her limits. Jaune actually didn't change that much except that his training started a bit earlier.
Oh and Ruby is the connector between the two teams rather than Jaune which has its benefits and drawbacks.
Anyway this is the second-last chapter and the epilogue should be coming tomorrow-*looks at unfinished epilogue draft*. Cough. Would you all believe me that I had intended on finishing writing this series a week ago? Yeah, time really disappears quickly.
I hope I can give a satisfying ending (even though I know that I won't. This series is way too short for that).