Hello again everyone, ready for a new chapter. I promise you that it will take you surprise.
Chapter 20
It's the night of the dance and everyone is having fun. "I told you that she would come." Yang said to the others, after just finish dancing with Blake .
"Mission completed." Weiss said with a small smile on her face.
"So...what do we do now?" Ruby asked, looking at her fellow teammates.
"Just have fun." Yang replied before walking away. Ruby turned her head to speak to Weiss but saw that she's disappeared.
"And I'm by myself." Ruby muttered under her breath.
"Hey." A voice called, causing Ruby to turn her head to see Sage walking towards her.
The sage green hair male is wearing a black suit. "Oh! Hello Sage." Ruby greeted with a smile on her face.
"Are you not enjoying yourself?" Sage asked, causing Ruby to smile slightly.
"Well...I'm just not a...dancy girl." Ruby replied awkwardly.
"I...see." Sage said before eyeing the room.
"Scarlet is having difficulties finding a dance." Sage said, causing Ruby to were Sage is pointing to and saw a male with red hair and green eyes standing by himself.
Ruby giggled slightly before wincing slightly. "Can you tell me how someone can fight in these?" Ruby asked, causing Sage to become confuse before looking down at the high-heels that the silver eye girl is wearing.
"Sorry, but I don't wear high-heels, so I can't help you with that." Sage replied and after a few seconds, both of them started to laugh.
"Yeah, I'm talking to the wrong person." Ruby said still laughing. A awkward silence descended between the 2 of them after they stopped laughing.
"So...do you want a dance?" Sage asked whilst rubbing the back of his head.
"Huh?" Ruby asked, staring at the slightly blushing Sage.
"I said do you want a dance?" Sage repeated, causing the silver eye girl to blink a few times.
"S-sure." Ruby replied, blushing slightly herself.
The 2 of them entered the danced space and started a waltz. The other couples in the danced space moved out of the way.
"This is...pretty fun." Ruby thought as she closed her eyes and leaned in Sage.
"Having fun, little Sis?" A voice asked, causing Ruby to snap her eyes open and jump slightly.
The silver eye girl turned her head to the side to see her lilac eyed sister dancing with Scarlet.
"I...er...I..." Ruby try to say something but couldn't as she became embarrassed.
"Glad to see that your making...new friends. Heh?" Yang said with a wide smirk on her face.
"Please stop Yang. Not tonight." Ruby wined slightly, red at the cheeks.
"You picked a good one Scarlet." Sage said to his fellow teammate. The red haired male smiled sheepishly.
"Well...it wasn't easily to avoid her." Scarlet muttered under his breath, but everyone heard him.
"Oh come on now, you look lonely, so I decided to give you company." Yang said with a smile on her face.
"...Your probably right" Scarlet said, causing Yang, Ruby and Sage to laugh slightly.
"One piece of advice Scarlet, don't you ever touch Yang's hair. Otherwise it will probably be the last thing you do." Ruby told Scarlet, causing the red haired male to nod his head.
"what's up everyone?" A voice said, causing the 2 pair of dancers to turn their heads to see Sun and Blake near them.
"How's your...cat friend been?" Scarlet asked, causing Blake to look at the monkey faunus with a raise eye brow.
"...She's been her usual self this evening." Sun replied, trying to avoid Blake's stare.
"I didn't really see you as a dancy person, Ruby." Blake asked, looking at the crimson hair girl.
"Well...Sage asked for a dance and I accepted." Ruby replied, trying not to blush any further.
"Everyone has a partner then?" Sun asked with a smile on his face.
"Where's Weiss and Neptune? I'm pretty sure that Weiss asked Neptune to be her date." Blake asked, glancing around the dance hall for the last member of team RWBY and team SSSN.
"Weiss is over there." Sun replied, gesturing to a line of seats.
Ruby, Blake, Yang, Sage and Scarlet turn their heads to see the white hair heiress sitting by herself.
"Not sure where Neptune is though." Sun said with a frown on his face. "She probably have sore feet." Scarlet said, causing the 3 girls of team RWBY to look at him confusedly.
"What so you mean?" Blake asked with a raise eye brow.
"Neptune can't dance." Sage replied calmly, causing the 3 girls to become surprise.
"Neptune...can't dance?" Ruby asked with wide eyes.
"Yeah, he hates water as well. You should have seen him when we were traveling here on the boat, wearing armbands throughout the journey." Sage explained, causing the girls to giggle as they thought of the mental image.
It was then that Scarlet snigger slightly. "Is everything okay, Scarlet?" Sage asked as he and everyone else became confuse.
"look over there." Scarlet replied, gesturing with his head at a direction.
The other 5 looked in the direction that Scarlet is gesturing and when they saw what made Scarlet laugh, Sun and Sage began to snigger as well whilst Ruby, Yang and Blake opened their jaws in shock.
"Why is Jaune wearing a dress?!" Yang exclaimed as she and the others saw the leader of team JNPR wearing a white dress.
"It suits him." Sun said, causing Blake to step on his foot, except a small smile is currently on her lips. They watch as Jaune asked Pyrrha for a dance who gladly accepts.
"Neptune's back." Ruby said, noticing that the light-blue haired male is sitting next to Weiss.
"Come on everyone, let's keep on waltzing." Yang said, causing everyone to agree with her.
"That was tiring!" A exhausted Ruby exclaimed whilst collapsing onto a chair.
"Well, at least you enjoyed yourself." A smiling Sage said as he sat down next the silver eye girl.
"It was my first time dancing. Never knew that dancing would be so tiresome." Ruby said, causing Sage to chuckle slightly.
"It was my first time dancing as well." Sage admitted, causing Ruby to stare at him.
"Seriously?" Ruby asked, causing Sage to nod his head.
"You...have good dancing skills, Sage." Ruby said, causing Sage to rub the back of his head.
"Thanks." Sage said, blushing slightly, causing Ruby to giggle slightly.
"Do you want something to drink?" Sage asked gesturing to the table where the punch bowl is located.
"Yeah, I am kind of thirsty." Ruby said, causing Sage to stand up. "I'll be back soon." Sage said before walking away.
Once Sage was away, Ruby let out a deep breath. "I wonder what Mum and Dad would act when they found out that I danced with a boy." Ruby thought whilst giggling slightly.
It was then that Ruby felt a flicker of familiar Aura, causing the silver eye girl to widen her eyes.
"What's she doing here?!" Ruby exclaimed in her whilst looking out of the doors which are close by.
The silver eye girl glanced around the ball room before silently walking out of the doors. When she walked far enough, Ruby started to concentrate on the fake Fall Maiden's Aura.
"Now, where's Cinder?" Ruby thought as she scanned the rooftops. After a few minutes of searching, Ruby spotted a figure standing on a roof.
"There's she is." Ruby thought before starting to walk towards Cinder.
She knew that trying to become discreet would be pointless as Cinder could sense and to prove her point, Ruby saw Cinder disappearing.
"Where's Cinder going?" Ruby thought as she continued to follow Cinder through the streets of Vale at a distance. After a while of following the fake Fall Maiden, Ruby saw that Cinder is approaching a familiar giant tower.
"I wonder why Cinder is going into the CCTS tower?" Ruby thought as she watch Cinder entering the tower once she knocked out the guards.
"I won't find answers if a hide here." Ruby thought before stepping out from behind the wall and started to head towards the tower.
However, just before she could get any where close to the tower, she had to jump back to back to avoid a shot.
"Nice reflex. It was a shame that it was only just to make you stop." A female voice spoke, causing Ruby to look up to see a female with mint green hair and red eyes and a male with matching grey hair and eyes. In the female's hands are 2 guns where one of them is smoking.
"Emerald Sustria, Mercury Black." Ruby said, causing Mercury to smirk.
"It like what Cinder said. The Winter Maiden does know our names." Mercury said, causing Emerald to scowl at him.
"Merc, we are here not to chit-chat." Emerald said, causing Mercury to shrug his shoulders. This caused Emerald glare at him.
"What is Cinder doing in the CTTS tower?" Ruby asked as she became tense.
"Yeah, like we tell you our plans. " Mercury said, causing Emerald to growl.
"He never listens to what I said." Emerald muttered under her breath before focusing on Ruby.
"Even if we told you, it won't like you can do anything with the information. You will be far away from here before any of your friends realized that your gone." Emerald said, causing Ruby to frown.
"So this an another attempt to capture me then?" Ruby asked whilst putting in 6 numbers on her Scroll behind her, causing her 2 enemies to nod their heads.
"Yep. I hope that you prepared to say goodbye to this place." Mercury said before he and Emerald charged at Ruby.
However, it was then that something crashed next to Ruby, causing Mercury and Emerald to stop and got on guard.
When the dust disappeared, a locker, planted in the ground, can be seen. The door opened revealing Calamity Rose and Ruby took it out.
"I hope that your ready for a fight then." Ruby said as she draw Rose's Hope and kicked her high-heels off her already acking feet.
"Oh well, I like a challenge anyway." Mercury said before making the first move.
Ruby raised Calamity Rose to block the kick that Mercury sent at her. Ruby shifted her wight to withstand the impact.
However, Mercury fired a projectile from his boot weapons, sending Ruby skidding backwards.
Ruby didn't have time to relax as Emerald run up to the silver eye girl, her guns turning into sickles.
Ruby attacked with Rose's Hope to deflect the attacks. "Pretty good." Emerald commented before jumping back and letting Mercury attack.
Ruby tried to jump backwards to avoid Mercury's roundhouse kick, however, the dress prevented her. "Owch!" Ruby exclaimed as she felt Mercury's foot connecting with her, causing her to be sent flying.
"These 2 are tough." Ruby thought once she could stand properly.
Emerald suddenly appeared in front of Ruby and started to attack her with her sickles again.
"You know something, you'll fight better if you don't wear that dress." Emerald said as she swing a sickle, causing Ruby to become confused as she deflected the sickle with Rose's Hope.
"And how I'm suppose to do that when you 2 are attacking me?" Ruby asked, causing Emerald to smirk.
"It's very easy." Emerald replied before suddenly slicing the skirt of Ruby's dress slightly.
"What did you do!?" Ruby asked, very annoyed.
"Make it easy for you to fight." Emerald replied simply, causing Ruby to glare at her.
"She's right though, it will make things easier for me." Ruby thought before activating her Semblance, disappearing in a burst of red rose petals.
"Where did she go!?" Mercury exclaimed with wide eyes.
"Must be her Semblance." Emerald replied, eyeing the area around them. It was then that bullets started to be fired around them.
"When did she had a gun on her!?" Mercury asked as he did his best to avoid the bullets.
"That shield of her's have 2 gun barrels on it. A very creative weapon she has there." Emerald said as she avoided the bullets as well.
"So then. Let's turn the tables then." Mercury said before doing some break-dancing like moves whilst shooting many projectiles, causing them to fly around the air.
"And now to hold her down." Emerald muttered to herself before turning her sickles into their kusarigama form. The mint green hair women waited before the silver eye girl came close to them.
After a few seconds of waiting, Emerald suddenly lashed out her weapons, letting the chains wrap around Ruby.
"AAA!" Ruby exclaimed as she crashed onto the ground. However, it wasn't over as the projectiles came raining down onto the crimson hair girl.
Ruby grunted in pain as the projectiles hit, being thankful that her Aura is protecting the bulk of the impact.
"And there we have it. One captured Winter Maiden." Mercury as he and Emerald stood over Ruby.
"I'm not...done yet." Ruby said before activating her Maiden powers, causing the chains of Emerald's weapons to start freezing up.
Ruby managed to break free of the chain and dash to her discarded weapons.
As Ruby got ready to fight again, she sensed a familiar Aura. "The Spring Maiden's here!?" Ruby exclaimed in her head as the she, Mercury and Emerald fought each other again.
However as the 3 battle each other, Ruby noticed something. "Why isn't she coming to help? Is she going to help if I get into trouble, like last time." Ruby thought as she block a attack from Mercury with Calamity Rose and swing Rose's Hope at Emerald.
"Let's end this, shall we?" Ruby asked as she transformed her weapon into Utopian Rose.
"...That's one big sword." Mercury commented as he stared at the big sword.
"Yep." Emerald agreed whilst nodding her head.
"Here I come!" Ruby shouted before running towards her 2 opponents.
"I try to at least cut Mercury's legs off, since they're fake." Ruby thought before stopping and swing Utopian Rose from the side that Mercury is on. However, Ruby stopped when a familiar tiger Faunus appeared in front of her.
"Mama?!" Ruby exclaimed with wide eyes as she stare at the smiling women.
"How did...!" Ruby began to think but realized that Emerald activated her Semblance. It was then that Ruby sensed someone behind her, causing her to quickly turn her head.
However, the next thing that Ruby knew is darkness as she fall unconscious.
"Good work, you 2." Cinder said as Ruby fell into in her arms, the silver eye girl letting go of her weapon.
"No problem. She put up a fight though. Did you put the virus into the network?" Mercury asked, causing Cinder to smirk.
"Yes. Everything is going smoothly to plan, even with the alterations." Cinder replied whilst staring at Ruby. It was then that Emerald thought of something.
"Where are the White Fang? Weren't they suppose to help us?" Emerald asked, causing Cinder to sigh.
"I guess that the other Maiden that I encounter that night kept the White Fang foot-soldiers busy. Come on now. We need to get going." Cinder said as she hoist Ruby over her shoulder.
"Where are we going?" Emerald asked in a confused tone of voice.
"You'll find out soon." Cinder replied before walking away, causing Emerald and Mercury to follow her. The only things that remained are Ruby's locker and Utopian Rose, still laying on the ground.
Everything was silent before hurrying footsteps echoed in the silence.
A women with red eyes and black hair appeared. When Raven spotted the discarded weapon, she growled. "We were too late." Raven muttered under breath.
And there we have it and I hope that you'll enjoy what happens next. I hope that you enjoy the interaction between Ruby and Sage and the small appearance of Raven at the end. Please review and until next time everyone.
Trnz: I had the same idea as you and I will put it into the story. However, I think that Ruby will find it a difficult because she hasn't been trained in duel swords.