SaurusRock625: Trust me, I am very much aware that Pyrrha is not invincible. No one, in any series is invincible. It's true, her semblance doesn't work against glass weapons, wood or those without weapons. Not even the mighty Godzilla is invincible.
Anyways, Disclaimers are the same as before, please enjoy.
Chapter 22: At the Dance
At long last the day of the annual Beacon dance had arrived. The entire ballroom was decorated with loud speakers, tables and balloons while students danced with each other in formal attire behind the girl at the podium keeping track of everyone who was attending the dance. Wearing a short yellow qipao dress with a golden dragon, long yellow gloves and yellow heels. Yang looked up as the door opened up and was thrilled to see her sister walk through the doors. "Ooohh, you look beautiful!" Yang exclaimed.
Wearing a red dress with black lace, belt and pumps, Ruby groaned as she arrived for the party. "Can we have a serious talk about how Weiss fights in these things?" she complained while trying to maintain her balance, much to Yang's amusement.
Behind her was Sun and Blake. Sun wore a black jacket with a white neck tie, though he still kept on his shoes, bracers and jeans. Blake on the other hand wore a dark purple halter neck dress with black pumps and a teal bow in place of her usual black bow.
"Wow, Sun. You do look good in a tie." Tammy complimented as she walked over. She wore a blue dress; white gloves and a white flower bow along with white shoes.
"Blake said the same thing." Sun said with a little blush. The two Faunus soon moved out of the way as Flay and Cardin walked in. The daughter of the late George Allster wore a strapless pink dress with white lines on the skirt and pink shoes. "You sure you want to be taking her to the dance? I mean, isn't she already spoken for?" Sun asked the leader of Team CRDL.
"I have no intention of falling in love with her. We just came as friends." Cardin answered while Flay looked around the room.
"Robert's not here?" she asked.
"I think he'll be arriving soon." Shinn answered from behind the next pair with Lunamaria's arm wrapped around his. While Shinn wore his standard uniform, Lunamaria wore a Black satin dress with a golden sash around her waist and black shoes while her Meyrin entered wearing a strapless green dress with a green scarf and green shoes. "I think he said he was coming with Coco and Velvet." Shinn added.
He then spotted Stella, sitting in a chair nearby wearing a sleeveless black dress with a slit down the left waist, long black gloves, a black choker and black shoes. "Go on Shinn," Lunamaria insisted. "She's your friend. Meyrin and I will join you two soon, but don't forget you're my date." She reminded him.
"Relax, Luna. I've told you a million times already, we're just friends. Besides, she asked Rey but he stayed back on the Minerva." He answered and walked towards Stella. As he sat down and started talking to her, Coco arrived wearing an elegant white strapless dress with white gloves, white choker and white shoes walked in.
"Though we may have started setting up for the dance, you newbies did a good job." She said impressively. "By the way, Yang. You look great." She added.
"Thanks, Coco. So, where's Velvet? So far Fox, Yatushashi, Arthur, Hanzo, Pyrrha, Jaune, Nora and Ren have arrived, but as for the leader of Team RATH and Velvet, they seem to be MIA." Yang asked. "You don't think Robert stood her up and she's crying her eyes out in the dorm room do you?" she thought.
"Nope, in fact I think they should be arriving now." Coco answered with a smile. Sure enough she was right and the two students they were talking about entered. Instead of the standard Beacon formal attire, Robert wore a military dress uniform similar to his fathers while Velvet wore an elegant black dress with slits down both sides, long black evening gloves, black lace stockings and matching high-heeled shoes.
"Wow." Wiess uttered in awe at Velvets dress before looking to her own dress which was just a short, white sleeveless dress with white pumps. "I didn't think you'd wear something like that." she added.
"Well, Coco and Flay helped me pick this dress. They thought it would be a good look on me." Velvet answered shyly while trying to hide her blushing cheeks as she walked in with Robert. "But I think what matters is that Robert likes it." She added.
"I think it looks good on her." Robert simply stated before walking with his date to the dance floor where Nora and Ren along with Blake and Sun and Jaune and Pyrrha were dancing. Bowing to Velvet, he took her hands and danced with her. "Just so you know, I don't usually dance like this but I got few lessons from Flay, just to make sure my skills aren't rusty." He explained.
"Somehow, I had a feeling you weren't the dancing type. Still, I am glad you asked me to the dance." Velvet admitted with a little blush on her cheeks.
As the two started dancing, Ruby who along with Wiess and Yang were glad that Blake decided to come to the dance was now wanting to change out of her dress and back into her hood. "Not enjoying yourself?" Ozpin asked young leader as he approached her.
"Oh, no, everything's fine! I'm not just much of a fancy pantsy…dancey girl." Ruby admitted, somewhat surprised by her Headmaster when he approached her.
"Well you can't spend your life on the battlefield, even in you may want to." Ozpin added.
"Yeah, that lesson's been floating around a lot lately." Ruby said, agreeing with her headmaster again.
Ozpin just looked to the dancing couples before he spoke again. "If you think about it, fighting and dancing aren't so different. Two partners interlocked, although one wrong move on the ballroom leads to a swollen foot."
"Or a twisted ankle." Ruby said looking down at her own feet.
"It's not every day that friends are able to come together like this. Time has a way of testing our bonds, but it's nights like these that can help keep them stronger than ever. Night's like these are ones well never forget." Ozpin added, leaving Ruby to think on her headmasters words of wisdom.
By now, everyone was attending the dance and enjoying themselves, including Mercury and Emerald. Everyone that is except Domon. After seeing Mercury and Robert's fight a few days ago, he had this uneasy feeling that Mercury, Emerald and Cinder weren't who they claimed to be. As such, he decided to look into those three while they were attending the dance, even deciding to poke around their room. "I could get into a lot of trouble for doing this. But I have a feeling that something is extremely odd about those three. Where is their fourth member?" he asked himself as he looked around the room for anything that could prove his suspicions.
"You are right, Domon. Something about those three is extremely off. I have sensed a great power from that girl, Cinder. A power that I felt here on the school grounds not long before the Dark Army attacked the kingdom. I sense a large amount of darkness coming from her, darkness that reminds me of the Dark Gundam. It's possible that she and her teammates are not who they claim to be." Master Asia said as his spirit entered the room.
"So, you have the same suspicions that I do?" Domon asked as he searched the desk for anything to prove his theory. "There is only one man with the name black that I know of; Marcus Black a skilled assassin much like what Kyral used to be. The man could steal someone's semblance with his own semblance and was known as a heavy drinker. I heard he died sometime ago, but no one ever mentioned that he had a son." Domon added.
"And you think Mercury is Marcus's son? That does seem likely. His skills do seem to be far more advanced for a first-year student. And what of Emerald?" Master Asia asked.
"Not a thing. I've asked a few students from Haven about them but they've never even seen them before. As for her family, nothing its like she was just accepted into Haven alone with Mercury without a proper back round. I've tried reaching out to Lionheart about those three, but all I get is a message saying he's in a meeting. Something's not right." The King of Hearts answered.
Believing he hadn't found anything that could prove his theory, Domon was about to leave when he spotted a piece of paper on the desk of the room listing every student competing in the Vytal Festival with the name of their semblance and mobile suit. The only one that didn't have their semblance written was Pyrrha while Yang's name and semblance were circled. "Seems like someone is trying to plan a strategy for tournament." He said before he opened one of the draws of the desk and to his surprise found a sample of Dark Gundam Cells. "Now where did those three get this from?" he asked himself before he took part of the sample while leaving the rest so as nothing stood out before he quickly left the room with his old master.
"You believe these three have something to do with the Dark Gundam?" Master Asia asked.
"Yeah, it doesn't make sense. Where in the world did they get DG Cells in the first place? Not only that, but they seem to have gotten the names of the mobile suits used by each team in the tournament. Its as if they are planning to use the festival for some thing deadly." Domon answered before he took one last look in the room and tossed a small spy camera developed by Rain which latched onto the wall. "It pays to be careful." He added.
Back at the dance, Glynda was offered to dance with Ironwood which she somewhat excepted while Ozpin stood with Admiral Halberton who continued to watch his son and Velvet. After all that he had been through, it seemed that Robert was finally starting to act like his old self. However, Halberton knew that wasn't true, his son was still unsure about how he would handle fighting Neo again especially since it appeared that she somehow was working with Torchwick. 'What could have made her believe that Robert didn't care about her?' he thought to himself.
While the Admiral pondered these thoughts, Pyrrha who was wearing a red sleeveless dress danced with Jaune while Nora who wore a pink strapless dress with a white skirt danced with Ren who was glad that for once, Nora wasn't acting like her usual happy-go-lucky self as she was known for.
Shinn, Stella, Lunamaria and Meyrin sat together at a nearby table while Coco and the rest of her team minus Velvet talked with a few of their classmates. As for Flay and Cardin, the two of them were currently dancing together and enjoying themselves.
Ruby and Yang watched the on goings from the second tier of the room while Neptune sat down and talked to Weiss after he had a good talk with Jaune, who found out that Weiss came alone despite asking Neptune to the dance, who revealed that he couldn't dance. "You know I think we really needed this." Yang said as she watched Blake and Sun dancing which made her smile.
"Yeah, and you did a great job planning it too!" Ruby added.
Yang then one arm hugged her sister. "Aw, thanks! It wasn't all me, though. Weiss did a lot too." Yang answered as her half-sister failed frantically before letting go. "Tomorrow its back to work." She said with a chuff.
"I'm sure we can handle whatever gets thrown at us." Ruby added before Yang smiled at her younger sister.
Back down below, Robert returned to Velvet with two glasses of punch which he placed down on the table. "Thanks." Velvet said.
"My pleasure." Robert answered with a smile. "I'm surprised you're not asking about the uniform I'm wearing." He added.
"I think I don't need to ask a question. Your father wanted you to wear it instead of the typical male student attire for the Dance, though I think you might have had say in that as well." Velvet answered. Robert chuckled and did indeed confirm to Velvet that is what exactly happened.
"So, exactly what happened on your mission. How did the Dark Army know where you were?" Robert asked, changing the subject.
Velvet sipped her punch before putting her glass down. "I honestly don't know. It was supposed to be a simple mission; eliminate the Grimm Nest with the 7th Panzer Division and we would return to Beacon for the dance. We didn't expect the Dark Army to arrive and destroy our ship. We fought when we needed to while trying to get back to Vale and call for help, but our transmissions didn't get through until we made contact with the Minerva. Its almost like someone led us into a trap deliberately." Velvet answered.
"That's been happening a lot lately." Robert pointed out. He then took a sip of his own punch before putting his own glass down. "You think you want to dance again?" he asked the rabbit Faunus. Velvet smiled, took his hand and followed him to the dance floor and once again danced.
Put his hands in the right place, Robert started off slowly while Velvet soon followed his lead. They were soon joined by Blake and Sun, Jaune and Pyrrha, Ren and Nora, Flay and Cardin and several other pairs who started to join with them. From above, Ruby started to get tears in her eyes. "Aw, that's so cute!" she complimented before taking out her scroll to get a picture of the moment.
"You're going to tease Robert about this?" Yang asked with a smirk on her face.
"No! Come on Yang, why would I tease him? He's our friend and it doesn't seem right to tease him. Besides, he wouldn't do it to us." Ruby stated. "I just think its good moment for a picture." She added before taking the picture.
While everyone was dancing, Emerald and Mercury were observing the dance from the second tier before Emerald spoke into her ear-piece. "It appears all the dancers have partners." She reported.
"How long do I have?" Cinder spoke from the other side.
"You should probably be home by midnight." Mercury added.
Outside on the roof on one of the buildings, Cinder wore a black sleeveless jacket, black gloves, stiletto heeled boots and a black mask she had sewed a few days ago. Several containers of powered Dust lined her pants while the gloves, boots and jackets had a mosaic design on them. "I'll keep my eye on the clock." She said before heading for the CCT tower. She was unaware that both Ruby and Domon had spotted her and went to check out what they had seen.
When Cinder arrived at the CCT tower, she silently approached one of the guards and knocked him out and dragged the body into the bushes nearby before she entered the tower. The guards inside the tower tried to stop her but Cinder was able to defeat them all with hand-to-hand combat and two black blades she created with fire-dust before she knocked out two more soldiers in the elevator which gave her the password for Beacon's Wi-fi.
Outside, Ruby saw the body of the unconscious guard and called for her RPL and Crescent Rose which she grabbed. Domon had already entered the building and took the stairs too avoid being seen by the intruder. He soon spotted the intruder sitting at one of the control consoles, from what he could make it out they had their scroll out and were downloading something into the systems. "What are they doing?" he said to himself.
As he watched, Cinder heard from Emerald the Ironwood was leaving the party and asked if they should intervene. However, there was no need for them to do so as the screen of the control terminal turned into a Queen chess piece which soon appeared on the other terminals as well.
Ruby soon entered with her weapon brandished and stumbled a little bit in her shoes before Cinder got up and walked towards the young leader. "Excuse me? You know, its not a masquerade party, so why don't you take off that-!" Ruby began before Cinder took one of the dust canisters and turned into glass shards which were sent towards Ruby who deflected the shards before opening fire with her weapon only for Cinder to block each of the shots she made.
"Hey!" Domon shouted and lunged towards the intruder landing a series of powerful kicks on her and sending her back a few feet. "I don't know who you are, but no one attacks one my student!" The King of Hearts said and drew his sword.
Cinder then summoned another pair of blades and soon started to clash with Domon who blocked each of her attacks before managing to swing his sword at her leg, cutting a part of her pants before she formed her blades into a bow as her outfit and eyes glowed. She then sent three arrows towards Ruby causing the red head to stumble back a bit from the explosion before she stared at Domon and Ruby.
"I'll give you one chance. Tell me who you are and I'm sure the police will be easy on you." Domon demanded, gripping his sword tightly. Cinder didn't say anything as General Ironwood arrived causing both to turn around, who Ruby was glad to see only to turn around and see that the intruder was gone.
As quickly as she fled the scene, Cinder discarded her bracelets and mask before her disguise changed into an elegant black evening dress as the dance continued. The two soldiers that were following her unknowingly crushed her bracelets before they left the dance believing they had lost the target.
Cinder than tapped Emeralds shoulder and started to dance with Mercury who wanted to know if they should be worried about anything. Thinking that Domon had arrived with Ruby, Cinder assured him that everything was under control and said to just enjoy the rest of the evening.
Cinder was wrong and after Ruby left the tower, Rain arrived and scanned the towers systems after what Domon had told her. "Looks like someone planted a virus into the tower systems. This will give them a back door to everything connected to the CCT." She stated as Ironwood turned his gaze to the Queen symbol.
"Can you remove it?" Ironwood asked.
"I can and I think I have an idea as to find out who uploaded it." Rain answered and quickly added a trace program to the virus and removed it from the system, making sure that it still looked like the virus was still in the systems. One way or another, they were going to find out who planted the virus.
And that is the end of this chapter. Again, this is completely different from the official canon of RWBY so I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Please read and review. Oh and a late May the Fourth be with all you Star Wars fans.