Coco: *Returns through the portal with her team* Wait we're back? Huh I guess we get to watch another chapter of this story. *Sees Sun join them*
Sun: wait what? What's going on? What is this place? Where's my teammates and why are you guys here?
Coco: Oh hey there….your Sun right? This place is where we can see a story going on. Speaking of which where are those two who brought us here?
*Comes through the portal with Keeper wielding Devil Sword Dante* Well, I had a good Christmas. Especially since we got to get these little gifts as well. How was yours?
Keeper: *Wielding the Yamato* I had a good Christmas too. And with the Yamato I can safely said that we can go destroy demons and maybe, just maybe go toe to toe with Mundus….the original one not the reboot one. *Sees our guests* Ah hey CFVY, welcome back. And Sun welcome to our story.
Sun: Story?
Yep! So let us start this off. *Turns to the audience* Welcome everyone, this is Kahlibear with Keeper and welcome to Against All Odds! So now, before we get into it I want to say a few things. If you noticed last chapter, it was called the Valeian Nightmare. That is actually based on a song name, a song of a band I recently got into the past year or two, then again I was into them but with the release of their new album it really kicked it into overdrive. Yep it was Ice Nine Kills with their song that was released first, based on the Nightmare on Elm Street movie, The American Nightmare.
Sun: The…the American Nightmare? Sounds a bit creepy.
Keeper: Well what did you expect with a song that talks about a dream demon. Honestly….it did fit with the last chapter, they saw a demon terrorize the faunus and break them. And then effortlessly take care of them with ease. But also you got to hear the Nature of the Beast. Speaking of which now this chapter combines the next two canon chapters to an extent while learning more about some characters.
Right so as you know we have some extracurricular while we burn the candle and-
Keeper: You did a pun again.
Oh god damn it. Anyways we come into canon and while I have to deal with making a pun….again…Yatsu want to take us away?
Yatsu: Sure. The disclaimer is in the first chapter and let us start this chapter up.
Sun: Wait what disclaimer? What chapter? I'm not following any of this!
Keeper:….Oh shit that's right we never discussed this with Sun. I'll do it during this chapter so Sun better stay with me ok? So basically it's like this…
Normal: Hey
Thinking: 'hello'
Music Insert: (Come with me now)
Music Lyrics: Whoa, Come with me now!
Place/Flashback: Beacon Academy
POV (Point of View): First Person.
Person talking in flashback: Test run
Texting: 'Yo!'
Spirit talking: "Hello"
Spirit Thinking: 'Interesting'
Chapter Twenty Seven: Burn the extracurricular candle
Sparring class a few days later
It's been a few days after the investigation as CKTN, RWBY and JNR were watching Pyrrha fight one on four with CRDL. For the boys they have learned from their lesson well and trained a bit more but balancing it out so they can hang out with their friends. Nave and Yang have been hanging out as much as she can, but she has also taken over preparing for the dance coming up with Weiss. She let him know a couple days ago and he was ok with it, all too happy for her without letting her in on who was the musical break for the DJ is. Tyler and Ruby have been hanging out the same time too, going on dates while Ruby was worried about his left eye, to which he tells her that he will be ok. What nobody knows is that after the investigation, he's been trying to find out more about who the dr. was and where his friends were, with him letting Nave know about his investigation and not going overboard with it. For the other four, it's a different story. Weiss tries to hang out with Kahel while trying to hang out with Neptune at the same time, but whenever she tries to hang out with both, the fox faunus would be the first one to leave, saying he has to do something else. Kahel keeps trying to be calm but every time that the heiress mentions the blue hair boy, he gets angry and leaves, knowing full well his feelings for her are going over the top and knows he does like her like how the other three boys like their three girls, he just doesn't know how to go about it. Weiss, knowing now who she wants to be with but still undeciding, always gets upset when he leaves, not knowing the truth of it all. Blake has been in the library trying to find out more about Torchwick and the White Fang, all the while Cobalt has been trying to spend time with her, more so after the faunus killer incident but to no avail. He was hoping that the dance would help out as he had a plan for both of them. But for now, all of them except for Blake was watching Pyrrha wipe the floor with CRDL as she just about finishes up taking down Cardin.
"That's the match!" Goodwitch calls out as Cardin groans and passes out. "Well done Ms. Nikos. You should have no problems qualifying for the tournament." Pyrrha smiles and nods to the professor.
"Thank you Professor. But I couldn't have done this alone." She looks at Cobalt first, who smiles and nods to her. Then to Jaune to which she hides a blush, same as him as he smiles to her as well.
"Alright now I know that was a tough act to follow, but we have time for one more match….and honestly I think of a couple people who can actually follow through with that but for now any volunteers?" she said as she already looked at the brothers as they looked to the sisters, with a back and forth silent questions as to who wants to go spar as Goodwitch sighs in an exaggerated tone but a joking one knowing those four would jump in given the chance but she wants to have someone else fight as well. She then looks to the black haired hidden faunus who seems to be in and out of sleep hiding behind a book. "Ms. Belladonna?" Blake snapped opened as she looked at the teacher. "You haven't been participa-"
"Hey teach I'll go." Everyone looked to Mercury as he held his hand, while Tyler narrowed his eyes towards him as Goodwitch looked at him.
"Mercury is it? Very well, how about we find you an opponent."
"Well actually.." He started as he pointed towards the invincible girl. "Can I take on her?" Goodwitch looked at Pyrrha then shook her head.
"No unfortunately. Ms. Nikos has already fought and she-"
"Then I'll take him on." Everyone was stunned when they heard the young archer stand up and crack his neck, looking at Merc with a smirk. "That is, if he wants to."
"So I have to fight him? Fine I'll accept." He stands up but then smirks at him. "At least I can beat down the guy who shouldn't be here and is a weak kid that couldn't fight the Faunus Killer." Dead silence, even Blake was wide eyed looking at Tyler who's smirk went to a blank look. He looks at Nave and Kahel as he motions for them to follow him. Ruby, seeing how this turns out, looks to Emerald.
"Your friend messed up. Big time." She tells him as Emerald raised an eyebrow. Then they heard someone who they never thought would defend the young Convel as the boys go to the locker room.
"Honestly…I have to agree." They saw Cardin being helped by his team who woke up as he said this, surprising everyone that's from Beacon there. "I made that mistake and I paid for it. And right now, your friend just made the same mistake." Emerald had an eyebrow raised as everyone sees Mercury walk in with his combat uniform as he waits for the young archer. A couple minutes later, Nave comes into the room as he smirks at the boy.
"Oh Merc, you really messed up underestimating my brother. I already told him the stipulation but I won't say it. Instead...I actually get the privileged to do this for my first time. I get to do this." He brings out his scroll and puts it on loud so everyone can here and hits the play button as fog starts to fill the area.
One, Two Dreams do come true
"Oh shit…" Jaune immediately said as everyone looked at him surprised as Ruby automatically knew the song that was about to play. "I can't tell you how many times I got scared just hearing this."
Three, Four see you at the morgue
"Ren? D-do you know what this is?" Nora asked, now a bit scared after hearing this part as even Ren is spooked after hearing this.
"No..no idea."
Five, Six He'll get his fix
"Huh, so what does he have in mind with this?" Ruby mused as she prepares for it to be loud.
Seven, Eight Now shake the twisted hand of fate!
Everyone jumped after hearing the screaming part (bold text), even Blake as that immediately woke her up to the point she wasn't tired anymore as she starts to take quick breaths hearing that, only for Cobalt to calm her down as everyone starts looking towards the entrance.
(The American Nightmare by Ice Nine Kills start at 0:18)
The door opened as Tyler had his hood on as he started to take a few steps forward with Kahel behind him. Both boys walked towards the stairs as everyone now noticed that Tyler was wearing his normal combat pants but a long sleeve shirt that seemed split, on the right side of the shirt it's striped with black and red stripes and the left side is a gray high collar shirt with a breast pocket, but everyone noticed he was also wearing one of Kahel's gauntlet with the claws out….on his left hand.
"Shall I remove the hood Fly boy?" Kahel asked as the archer nods.
"Yes. Go ahead." The fox faunus smirks as he takes off the hood, making everyone get creeped out by what he's wearing, even Mercury and Emerald.
"Wha….what the hell?!" The green haired girl asked as he does have face paint….only it's visible on his right side of the face but it was…different. He had snow white face paint with black paint around the eye with a black line going down and black lips on the right side and on the left side was a broken mask that resembles a certain Crystal Lake killer.
"Huh…So Freddy, Jason, Michael and the Crow all in one?" Cobalt mused as he was really interested in this look, mainly the Crow part as he read the book and saw the movie for it (RIP Brandon Lee). "This should be interesting." Everyone got an eerie feeling as Tyler pointed a claw towards Mercury with a grin as the lyrics came on with him mouthing the words.
Welcome to YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE!
Kahel then takes back his gauntlet as both boys nod as Tyler starts to walk up the stairs as the spotlight hits him with the fog surrounding him as the brothers look at each other. As the lyrics kicked in.
Fast asleep, it's all in your head now
Past the street where they cursed my name
But I won't be forsaken
Craven my revenge from the shallow
Grave, where I went down in flames
The beast has been awakened
"Heck of a song to chose brother. I think you shocked Blake awake." He said as he pointed to the cat faunus as the archer shrugged.
"Yeah well, this is for Merc and Merc alone. I'm going to show him what it means to call me weak." He said in a growl. Nave knows what he means as he looks at his opponent. He knew the investigation was still a sore spot for the boys, mainly Tyler seeing the broken faunus. So whenever someone brings it up, if it was them saying how brave they were or stupid, or even congratulating them for at least trying to stop the faunus killer, they try to avoid it or downplay it. But nobody would dare say anything bad to them, not even Cardin or his team, knowing full well it was a death sentence.
"Go get him brother. No weapons, no semblance. Show him your strength." He tells his brother as both boys fist bump each other as Nave went to stop his scroll as everyone heard the next parts of the song.
When night comes creeping
My cruel hand will rock you to sleep
I'm the American nightmare with American dreams
Of counting the bodies while you count sheep
I'm the American nightmare, yeah I'm living the dream
I'm slashing my way through the golden age of the silver scream
Tyler grinned at the gray haired boy as he made a motion of waving his imaginary claws to him as he said the next words.
Tyler: (Sweet dreams)
He then shut the imaginary door in front of him as everyone heard a woman scream due to the song, scaring most of the people there, including Goodwitch.
(Song end)
"You got this brother." Nave tells him as he gets off the stage as the archer heard his fox faunus teammate shout to him.
"Better not lose Fly Boy! Give him hell!" Both boys give each other a thumbs up as they heard Ruby from the rafters.
"Good luck my ghost boy!" Tyler looked to his girlfriend as he gave her a soft smile and nod before looking at Mercury and narrowing his eyes at him.
'And even though I rather not do it, I will hold back to save my full strength from him. I still don't trust him completely.' The archer thought as he got into his combat stance as Mercury raised an eyebrow and did the same. That's when Mercury really noticed his what he had…or rather what he didn't have.
'Wait….Where is his weapons? Doesn't he fight with them?'
"And begin!" Goodwitch called out as Mercury charges ahead as he tries a push kick to the archer, only for said archer to side step him and roundhouse kick him in the back. The gray haired boy was surprised but recovered quickly as he turned to kick him back in the leg. Tyler then saw it and blocked it with his leg, but not before feeling a bit of pain in his leg and jumps back as they go at each other, trading blows and exchanging kicks for kicks. Tyler jumps away as he starts to feel the irritation on his leg.
"Ok. Not bad." Tyler muttered as he gets back into his stance but makes sure he worked out his leg in secret. Mercury took this distraction as he went to attack the young Convel as he jumps and flips into an axe kick, only for Tyler to block it and grunt from the force. He sees his opponent smirk as he brings his other boot towards his face, making him widen his eyes with realization. But before he could do anything, Mercury used his boot's gun and shoots him in the face, blowing him back as Tyler rolled back onto his feet and cracked his neck. 'So he's like Yang with her shotgun gauntlets, only for his feet. Good to know.' He gets back into his stance as Mercury just chuckles.
"Seriously? This is all you have? I knew you were weak." He says out loud as he runs towards Tyler as he jumps and goes for another kick, only for Tyler to dodge the kick and leg sweep him. Tyler comes back with his own axe kick, only to his gut instead of the head like he tried to do with Nave back before the initiation. The boy's eyes widen as he got the wind knocked out of him as he sees Tyler then grab his one leg and try a submission move.
"I suggest tapping now." he tells her as he tries to add pressure to the leg all the while he kicks his gut for added pressure. The only thing is Mercury, while trying to get his breath, wasn't tapping for his leg as he kept his smirk on his face. Tyler raised an eyebrow in confusion as he begins to hear something that no one heard, not even Mercury as he was preparing to strike.
*SQUEAKY*
'The hell?! Was that his leg?! But…that would mean..!' He then let go as he dodged the up kick as Mercury got up and sighed. He was about to raise his hand to forfeit but didn't see the archer see this and run towards him.
"Hey teach I-" He started to say before he got kneed in the face, breaking his nose as the archer came back with a combo of his own. Starting with the Kazama 6-hit combo, to a spinning double kick, then to him taking a deep breath as started to punch him in the face and chest, first slow then speeding it up as he takes a step back and smirks, he then kicks him with his right leg to his side, then turns and kicks him with his left leg on the same side. He then repeats it a few more times before making the last two kicks go to his face, making the gray haired boy fly back and hit the floor hard. Mercury held his face and cried in agony from the broken nose as Tyler stood there and scoffed at him.
"You should know, the fact you tried to forfeit buddy, that would have been disrespectful. Now you know I belong here." He told him, with emphasis on 'buddy'. Mercury glared at the boy as Tyler smirked. "So much for me being weak right?" He tells him as he turns and walks away and throws a thumbs up to the crowd as Goodwitch came up to the stage.
"And with that, the winner is Tyler Convel. Well done." She tells him as he looks at the teacher and nods to her as he continues to walk off, as they hear Ruby cheer for her boyfriend as well as his friends cheering his win as Mercury got up and walked away, back to Emerald as Goodwitch continued on. "Also Mr. Black, next time make sure you decide a little harder when choosing an opponent. As well as try not to forfeit during a match. It will not be used during the tournament." Mercury sneers hearing that as the bell sounded. "That is all for today. Now remember students, the dance is this weekend, then your missions begin on Monday. There will be no excuses if you miss the missions. However have fun at the dance." She tells them as they all head out of the classroom with Nora yelling out.
"I'm rich, I'm rich! He broke a bone! Everyone pay up!" the others laughed at her reaction except for Blake, who was away from the group and the other people who lost the bet as they gave Nora the money. Mercury went to Emerald as he whispered to her.
"Learning is fun…we need to talk to Cinder now." Outside of the class the group saw the other two members of SSSN at the doors as they waved to them. One of them had red hair that comes down over his right eye, with a complete undercut with several red markings around his left eye. He wears a green, mulberry, navy color feather earring on his left ear and has a red military pelisse-like jacket draped over the left side. He also wears a gray bandanna around his neck. His right hand he wears a fingerless glove, and on his right bicep, he has a gray band. He wears a white sleeveless shirt and light gray pants while also wearing a pair of long, brown, laced boots. Around his waist, he wears a brown belt and a slightly slanted gray belt that his weapon holster is attached to and his name is Scarlet David. The other boy has dark skin and gold eyes. His hair is sage green, and he appears to have tattoos of wings on his chest and tattoos of Roman numerals, matching those around his neck. He also wears a white long coat with asymmetrical sleeves, a green wing design similar to his tattoos and no shirt underneath, displaying his tattooed chest and his jacket also has a golden pauldron on his right shoulder and a golden cuff around his left wrist. He also wears a pair of black pants fastened by a white belt with a yellow buckle. With name to round out the rest of SSSN is Sage Ayana. The group all joined in front of the door, except for Blake as she walks in front of them. Sun noticed this as he looked to Cobalt who looked at her with a sad expression as the monkey faunus begun to think about something then brighten up as an idea came to mind.
"Hey Blake!" Sun calls out as he runs to her while her head is in a book she has been…..half heartedly reading. "You uh, doing ok?" She sighs as she closes her book.
"I'm fine."
"Well you don't look fine, not to mention you haven't been hanging out with Cobalt as much." He retorts back as she looks at him annoyed.
"What does that mean? He knows that I'm trying to find out more about the White Fang Sun." she tells him as he shakes his head.
"Look the dance is this weekend. Truth be told I think it's going to be lame for….a reason I won't go into but you and Cobalt, going to the dance together won't be so lame." She stops and looks at the blonde haired boy.
"I'm sorry….what?"
"The dance! You and Cobalt should go together! Take a break from this investigation. What do you say?" He tells her as the others stopped behind and looked at her, not that she was aware of it as Cobalt looked at his friend surprised he's trying to get his girlfriend to go with him to the dance. He smiled at him but it changed when he heard his girlfriend's response.
"I don't have time to go to some stupid dance! I thought you of all people would know that Sun! And Cobalt would understand why I DON'T want to go to this dance." She scoffs and walks away, making him slump in failure as the rest of her team looked on in worry as Cobalt walked to his friend and put his hand on his friend's shoulder.
"Hey don't worry about it man. You did your best. Maybe I should try to talk to her ok?" he tells him as Sun looks at him and gives him a thumbs up. "You just be prepared to wear a suit and tie. And no getting out of it." The monkey faunus jaw dropped as he became pale as a ghost while the others walked by him as they think about a way to get her to the dance. Kahel however, noticed Neptune go up and try to talk to Weiss as he growled and walked away from the group, muttering that he needed to go relieve some stress as Tyler noticed this and looked at Nave.
"Hey brother I'll be back ok? Try to get through Blake ok." He starts walking towards Kahel as he stops. "And….if you need to, let her know about that time ok?" Nave sighs knowing the story as he nods.
"I will."
"Good. After all," He starts as he walks away as he whispers the last part so his brother can hear it. "It is my fault after all." Nave again sighs sadly hearing that, knowing that Tyler still blamed himself from before. He shakes his head as he follows the group while Tyler ran to Kahel and put his arm around him, shocking Kahel as he begins . "Hey buddy! How bout we go practice!"
"Practice?! What are you?!"
"We got to get your drumming up to speed with the couple songs we chose right?" He said in a cheery tone that says 'Hey how about we play music to work out your stress and anger', something that Kahel caught on and was grateful for it as both boys went to the music room to play some songs as Tyler would try to help Kahel one of the ways he can without really helping him with his problem.
In CKTNRWBY's Room
"You all want me to what?!" Blake asked everyone in the room. Everyone was making a semi circle around her as soon as they got back to the dorm room. When they did, Weiss noticed Kahel wasn't there making her sad about it and was wondering why he wasn't walking with her but also noticed Tyler wasn't with them either, to which Nave gave the excuse that they forgot something back at class and had to double back and then go train. When she asked why he didn't he say anything, everyone just looked at her like she was crazy and stupid and didn't say anything else. Ruby did ask why Tyler had to follow him back though, to which again Nave told her that he wanted to train with Kahel since they haven't done it in a while he whispered to her about Kahel wanting to relieve stress, to which she and Yang since she was close as well understood.
"Blake we want you to go to the dance. This investigation is messing with your head and it's really affecting your grades." Ruby tells her as she's been really worried about her friend ever since the White Fang investigation.
"Not to mention that you haven't slept or ate right." Weiss included as she too was worried about her.
"That's ridiculous! Do you really think I care about my grades?! When peoples' lives are at stake?!" she tells them and points to the window. "You all seen it! This is something we can't wait on!"
"Kitten we KNOW lives are at stake." Cobalt tells her softly and he walks towards her and puts his hands on her shoulders. "Please understand we do. But right now, we have all the info we can get. Thanks to us, we were able to find out that they are operating to the southwest of Vale, outside it even."
"Plus thanks to my company's records, we found out that they are targeting Vale heavily for Dust robberies, making it their primary target." The heiress included as the blonde brawler continued on.
"Plus don't forget the military tech and…well I know there was a place in the north but I think he meant the same area as outside the city." She said, remembering Lumiere's information but thinking he meant the same place that was southwest not the north unless there was another area north.
"When we went to our investigation spot we found out some more things too." Nave said as he went on. "According to Nyx, Torchwick actually has a couple paladins sporting White Fang colors and they are to the southwest….to a certain city of course."
"But that still doesn't answer everything!" Nave sighed as Ruby put her hand on her teammate's shoulder besides the Heir's hand.
"Blake you won't be able to do anything if you can't keep your eyes open. Even coming to back up the boys you were stumbling and having a hard time keeping up with us." Cobalt didn't know this as he looked at the young leader.
"Wait what?! How did I not know about this?" He then looked to Blake who didn't look at him as she was a bit ashamed that her boyfriend had to hear this, and hear how concerned he was to her.
"Right now let's not get into that ok?" Yang asked, begging to not get into it right now as she went on to speak about the dance. "All we are asking you is to take it easy just one day ok Blake? Besides this dance is going to be fun! Me and Weiss are planning the whole event!" Cobalt looked at his teammate's blonde girlfriend and raised an eyebrow as Blake narrowed her eyes to her.
"Wait I thought my sister's team was taking care of the dance?"
"They were." Weiss told him as she continued. "But their mission is taking longer than it should, that's why she hasn't contacted you in a while. But don't worry, she's ok and she told me to tell you not to worry ok Cobalt?" Cobalt, hearing that was worried but hearing that his sister was ok, he took a breath of relief hearing that. "Anyways, they already have a DJ and…I guess someone to cover for the DJ for a couple songs while he takes a break but we are taking care of the rest."
"Yeah it's going to be fun! Plus you get to have a date with Cobalt there! And you get to dress up for him! And after we are well rested and refreshed, we can continue to investigate them!" Yang tells her as Cobalt looks back to his girlfriend.
"Blake, I know this is important to you, but your important to me too and your health is important. Please, let's take some time off this investigation. Let's go to the dance together and relax and have fun. I want my girlfriend there with me. What do you say? Will you go to the dance with me?" Cobalt asked her as he hoped she would say yes and to take a break from this investigation, as well as everyone hoped.
"I think…" Blake started as she looked at everyone except for her boyfriend. "I think this is a colossal waste of time and if you need me I'll be in the library." She breaks away from her boyfriend and starts walking away and to the door, making Cobalt upset and hurt that she won't just take a day away to spend time with him at the dance. As she opens the door, she heard someone that she wasn't expecting to stop her.
"Blake Belladonna!" She turns to see everyone looking at the Wolf faunus in surprise as he turns to her with a cold glare of his own. "I'm warning you right now, you're making a huge mistake wearing your body down. I suggest you do stop and take a breather before you seriously hurt not only yourself, but everyone close to you." He tells her as she was curious to who he was referring but still just kept going and left for the library as he growls in annoyance. 'She's as stubborn as Tyler that day…actually Tyler wasn't even stubborn just trying so hard to find them so I can't blame him.'
"Well that's just great." Yang says in exasperation as Nave wraps an arm around her.
"She seriously can't keep going like this." Weiss said to no one as Cobalt sighs sadly and went to his bed. "Cobalt don't give up ok? She will come to, I know she will."
"I know. It's hard seeing her like this guys." He tells her with his scroll going off and a knock at the door. The heiress went to open the door, only to see Jaune there in front of it. She went to close the door as he stopped her.
"H-hey wait! I just have one question!" He yells out as Weiss, thinking he's gonna ask her to the dance, sighs and just looks at him.
"What is it you want?" Jaune notices the irritated tone in her voice as he realized that she thinks he's asking her to the dance. "Does it have to do with the dance?"
"A-actually I was wondering where Tyler is. Have you seen him? I'm supposed to train with him tonight." His question surprised the snow white haired girl, with her having her eyes wide open and looking into the room for an answer as everyone sees how surprised and shocked she was.
"He's on the roof Jaune." Cobalt tells him as Jaune looks at the Heir. "He's finished up with Kahel and is waiting on you on the roof."
"Oh cool thanks! Oh and if you see Pyrrha, let her know that I'm only going to train with him tonight ok? I mean I may have let her know but just as a refresher to her ok?" Cobalt nods as the blonde knight turns to go up to the roof, but only for Weiss to stop him.
"Wait a minute! That's what you wanted to ask me? Nothing else?!" she exclaimed as he looked at her confused.
"Yyeeaahh. If you mean the dance I have someone else in mind, that's what I wanted to ask you about before but I made it seem like the opposite huh?" He says with a nervous chuckle with Weiss slowly nodding. "That's my bad. Besides I think someone else has an idea about asking you to the dance and more. Anyways see ya later guys!" he tells them as he started to walk as Weiss slowly closed the door, unaware that Kahel watched on and was surprised that Jaune literally confirm something that the fox faunus was wondering right then and there. But he simply just waited til he went upstairs to go to the door to listen in on the conversation.
"I…I'm surprised…" The heiress started with a deep breath as she looked at them. "All my life, any boys that tried to talk to me only talk to me because of my last name. They all wanted to date me to get into the family fortune. I can count only a couple boys that would be willing to talk to me and one of them I have planned on asking to the dance." Kahel was surprised to hear that coming from the heiress as he walked away, thinking of a plan to truly tell Weiss how much he means to her and ask her to the dance before the blue haired bastard in his mind took her away. But he didn't catch what else was said in the room.
"You mean Neptune?" Ruby said in a irritable tone, something that Weiss caught on and raised an eyebrow. "Not that it matters if Blake doesn't go."
"Hold on. What does that mean?" she inquired as the red reaper sighed and looked at her.
"What is it with Neptune Weiss? I mean really?" if Weiss wasn't shocked and surprised before, she was now from her leader's attitude.
"Wait what do you mean?"
"I mean you deciding to hang out with him instead of Kahel, deciding to talk about him instead, being head over heels, shall I continue?" everyone looked at the young girl surprised as she berated Weiss for her actions as she shook her head. "Whatever. What Kahel sees in you I don't understand."
"W-wait Kahel?! What does that mean? Ruby please come on tell me!" Ruby wouldn't say anymore as she laid down on Tyler bed with her back turned towards her as the others went to do their own things, leaving Weiss alone to her thoughts as she hopes she could talk to the fox faunus soon.
Dorm rooftop
Up on the rooftops where Pyrrha and Jaune had their talk and those two plus Tyler have practice with each other, training the blond knight, sits the archer as he looks to the sky and breathes in the wind breezing pass him. As soon as he and Kahel went to the music room, both boys let loose some steam by playing a few songs, not included with what they have in mind for the dance. After that, Tyler let Kahel rant about Neptune and how he couldn't believe Weiss would still let him do all the things she wouldn't let normal people do so he has been trying to stay secluded until he finds a way to tell her straight out how he feels, to which Tyler mentions asking her to the dance and see where it leads. The fox faunus found that it was a good idea so he went to go grab what he had in mind for Weiss as the young Convel went to the rooftop to train by himself. He was waiting for the Spartan and her partner when from the door comes out Jaune as Tyler looks behind him.
"Ah hey there Jaune. Bout time you got up here." He tells him as he gets up and turns to him. "Where's Pyrrha? Did she get sidetracked with keeping Nora in check with Ren?" Jaune nervously chuckled and shook his head.
"No I actually told her I was gonna train with you uh..understood I guess." He said with the archer raising an eyebrow.
"Ok then. Well are you ready for your lesson? This time I have a good thing for you to learn." The archer gets into his stance as Jaune sighs.
"A-actually, I was hoping we could have a talk. I'm not really into training right now." He tells him as he walks to him and sits on the side of him with his arms propped up and holding his head. Tyler looked at him then did the same without the arms propped.
"Alright then. What's up?" He asks him as he then guesses. "If it's about training, I know its frustrating but you have to keep trying. Plus I know with your semblance you haven't unlocked it yet but you will one day. Hell even Pyrrha knows it will happen soon."
"No it's not that." The knight tells him while looking down. "It….actually has to do with Pyrrha."
"Oh? Do tell." Tyler, now intrigued, watches his friend while he tries to explain the whole situation.
"I mean, I know she doesn't know about me having feelings for her. She thinks I still have that big crush on Weiss with what I said to her but I honestly did mislead her. I was gonna help Kahel with Weiss cause both of them make it painfully obvious but I don't know what her deal is. A-anyways, with Pyrrha, I want to ask her to the dance….and more but I really don't know how to go about it. I'm sure she has a lot of guys asking her out but I want to make mine more special and meaningful to her. But what if she doesn't feel the same way? I could be making a fool out of myself again."
"Ok so I'm going to stop you right there man." The archer interjects hearing the whole thing. While he is happy that Jaune found out about his feelings for the spartan but upset with how he thinks there are guys lining up for her and for him thinking he doesn't have a shot. "First off, congrats on finding out about your feelings for you and Pyrrha. Second, you want to impress her and ask her out to the dance and more?"
"Yeah? What do I do?" Jaune asked.
"Then just be yourself. Be the guy that Pyrrha likes a lot. No gimmicks, no overly dramatic reveal. Just be yourself." He tells him with Jaune still hesitant about it.
"But what if-"
"How about I make you a deal?" the blond looks at the brown hair boy. "If you do what I say and she says no, then I'll wear a dress to the dance. I'm sure Ruby would get a kick out of me doing that but I digress." He offers as Jaune looks at him surprised then laughs.
"Right, right. Then I'll wear a dress if she says yes. An Arc never goes back on his word. I hope you like wearing a dress buddy." Tyler laughed along with him as they shook hands.
"I wouldn't be celebrating yet buddy. You need to ask her first before anything else." He then gets up as well as Jaune. "Now that that's out of the way, let me show you at least one move before bed alright? Me and Nave know this one and can do it."
With Cinder and her group
"Well there is Pyrrha Nikos." Emerald started as she was sitting on the floor with the scroll while Mercury was sporting a bandaged nose and a grumpy look reading a comic book with Cinder sewing her black dress. All three of them got together to go over all the students at the academy.
"The invincible girl." Cinder recalls with Emerald nodding.
"If I had fought her I would have known a lot more about her." Mercury said, irritated and sounding stuffy as the mint haired girl grinned.
"Oh? But I thought you wanted to fight your 'buddy'? wasn't he a good enough challenge?" he glared at her before returning to his comic. "As I was saying, her semblance is Polarity. Not that we got a good glimpse of it with those four bozos fighting her. She barely used it on them but from what I've heard around, she's smart and doesn't really broadcast her power so it puts her opponents at an disadvantage. Only a few people know how to counter it." That caught Cinder's attention.
"Oh? While she will be put on the list who is the other people who can counter her?" While Emerald tapped on her scroll, Mercury closed the comic book and threw it on the other side of the room.
"I fought him. That Tyler Convel. I can tell he wasn't trying. He didn't have his weapons and yet he was able to figure out my strategy. I don't know if he thought I wasn't trying but to me I know he wasn't going full speed. He didn't even use his semblance which apparently, he calls it his Ghost Mode. And he didn't use it during out match. I don't know I think he suspects something." Mercury tells them as both of them look at each other as Cinder nods to her partner.
"Put him on the list as well. We have plans for him and hopefully our new friend will help us out with it. But for now, we should all relax. We do have a dance coming up." The other two nods with the gray haired boy groaning about waiting to which black haired girl tells him. "I know you hate waiting but in due time, we won't have to wait to strike. To take away what power they have, and we will take it away."
A couple days later in the ballroom with RWY and CTN
A couple days later and with it being a day before the dance, the girls and boys have been working hard to prepare for the dance, rather Yang asked the others to help them out with the final touches so they agreed. Everything was working out, except for Ruby who was trying to figure out how to get Blake to the dance. So there she was sitting at a table as Weiss, who has been thinking a lot these past couple days, came up to her and asked her.
"Hey, can you please choose between these two dollies?" she asks as she brings up the dollies and shows it to her leader. Ruby raised an eyebrow seeing this and questioned.
"But…aren't they the same thing?" Weiss sighs as she hangs her head.
"Why did I bother asking you?" she then sees the archer helping his brother bring in one of the massive speakers to the ballroom, grunting at how heavy it is as the heir was actually by the DJ area, plugging all the cords for the DJ and all the while making sure his teams equipment for the break is all prepared.
"Ok..where..do you want us..to put it Yang?!" the archer grunted out as the brawler, who had the other one and lifting it with ease thanks to her semblance and drops it on the ground, looks to the boys and points to where they were standing…on the other side of the room.
"Right there boys. That's perfect!" She tells them as they put it down and set It up for the girls, all the while sighing in relief as they had to carry other heavy things before the speakers and they got a break.
"Hey doofus, can you help me? Can you choose between the dollies I'm holding?" the boys look at the heiress as she brings up the dollies in front of them.
"Weiss I thought I said no for the dollies!" Yang yelled out in exasperation in which the heiress looked at her teammate and gave her the stink eye.
"Hey if I don't have my dollies, you don't get your fog machine!"
"Wait there's supposed to be a fog machine?" Nave questioned, as Sun called out to them.
"The dance is going to have a fog machine?!" He said while coming in…without Neptune. Weiss was a little surprised seeing that Neptune wasn't with him but shook her head not thinking about it.
"Well we will if someone allows me to have my dollies, which still need to be chosen by the way." The heiress exclaimed with Ty just looks at them.
"Truthfully, both look somewhat the same from a distance Weiss." He tells her, making her deflated a bit. "But if I were to choose, I'd say the dolly on the right. At least that has somewhat of a better color scheme with a pale blue." Weiss looked at the second dolly then to the first as she looks at the archer.
"A-are you sure?"
"Positive. Now if you excuse me." He makes his way to his girlfriend while the others, surprised by his choice, went to the red reaper.
"What are we going to do? About Blake?" Ruby asked sadly. "It won't make a difference if she doesn't go."
"Is she still being….Blake-y?" Sun asked the others as Yang simply smirked.
"Oh don't you worry Ruby. I have a plan to get her to the dance. Just trust me!" She says as she walks out. "And wolfie, Isn't there something you and your brother forgot to do?" She asked coyly, knowing the brother haven't asked the sisters yet to the dance. Nave raised an eyebrow along with Tyler as they both looked at each other.
"Nnnooo? We don't think so?" He questioned, but mentally he was smirking as both he and his brother had a plan for both sisters that night.
"We should focus on getting Blake to the dance right?" Tyler mentioned, making Yang look hurt but waves it off. While Ruby looked at her boyfriend with a questioning look as she shrugs and Yang heads out the door.
"Oh…oh well, at least we'll get our friend to the dance and some rest tonight." She tells them as she leaves the auditorium as Nave looks at the others.
"That reminds me, I need to do something else and since we are done. Tyler, I'll see you later tonight brother alright?" His brother nods as they watch him leave out the same door. But before he does, he looks at him. "Hey…I think it's time." Tyler's eyes widen then looked to his girlfriend, then back to his brother who had a look that said, 'Yes, it's time to tell her the truth'. He sighs and nods to him as Nave finally leaves as he looks to Ruby and gets up.
"Hey Ruby, I need to talk to you. It's….a serious topic." Everyone noticed how he sounded as Ruby looked to her boyfriend as she stands up.
"Uh..sure Ty."
"Come on. Follow me." He says as he leads her away from the auditorium as the others looked at each other and simply shrugged. Both the Ghost and Rose both walk towards the training area with people walking around them, talking about the dance and how much fun it's going to be. They enter the training area, not knowing if anyone was in there but for Tyler, not really caring at the moment as he takes a deep breath.
"Hey is everything ok Ty?" He turns to his girlfriend, who is looking at him with a worried look for him, not knowing why he was acting like this as he turns to her and lightly smiled to her, unaware of who else was in the training area.
"Yeah I'm ok…I figure…it's time I told you the truth Ruby."
"Huh? The truth?" She asked confused as he nods.
"Yeah…the truth about why me and Nave were gone for a week back at Signal. Before me and….well you know." He chuckled remembering the past mistake he made all the while frowning at what he was about to tell his longtime friend. "Its something that we, as a family, promised not to say to anyone unless we we're able to get over it…or something else goes on that reminds us of that time. Right now Blake is doing that." He sighed as he looked at her. "It's time I told you about my own investigation…into our friends' disappearance."
In an empty Classroom with Yang and Blake
Yang managed to find her teammate at the library, doing the same thing she's always done the past few weeks, looking into the White Fang and Roman. It didn't even take much to get Blake's attention, just a lazar pointer and that was it. She got her to a good point and dragged her to a empty classroom with the hope of getting her to finally resting up and getting herself better.
"Yang, if your going to tell me to stop, just save your breath." The cat faunus tells her as Yang shakes her head and calmly talks to her.
"I don't want you to stop. I want you to slow down."
"We don't have the luxury to slow down Yang." Blake replies irritably. "Not with torchwick out there. It's a necessity to stop him!"
"We will Blake. While your right about stopping him, it's also a necessity to take it slow and take care of yourself. So please sit down and listen to what I have to say ok?" Blake looked at her as she pats a part of the table so that she could sit down. She finally relents as she goes and sits down while Yang goes on to tell her partner a story, a story about herself not knowing Nave entered the room and was waiting at the top of the stairs. "As you know, Ruby and I grew up in Patch and you know it's the island off the coast of Vale so I won't go into it. Our parents were huntsmen with our dad teaching at Signal with the brothers' mom and our mom taking on missions around the Kingdom." She had a bittersweet smile remembering her woman who took care of her. "Her name was Summer Rose. Super-mom; Baker of cookies and slayer of giant monsters, honestly in my opinion the greatest person in the world aside from Dad and my sister at the time." She then grew a sorrowful look on her face as she looked down. "One day…she left for a mission and…she never came back." Blake looked at her surprised and sorry for her hearing this as she had no idea her partner went through with this
'I remember Dad and mom being sad hearing about her not returning…they always mention her whenever Mr. Xiao-Long wasn't around.' Nave thought as he looked down in sadness hearing about how Summer never returning as she went on.
"It was tough for us. Ruby was really torn up but…she was too young to really understand what's going on but she had that connection with her you know? My dad just…shut down. But it wasn't long before I learned why." Nave looked at her confused the same as Blake. "Summer wasn't the first love he lost….she was the second. The first? It was my mother." Both of them were shocked and amazed to hear something like that come from the brawler, with Nave thinking about it.
'Then again it does make sense. Ruby and Yang are half-sisters after all…'
"He wouldn't tell me everything, but I learned that the two of them were on a team with Summer and our uncle Qrow, that she'd left me with him right after I was born….no one had seen her since." Blake, who had been silent through all that, only had one thing to ask her.
"Why did she leave you?"
"Why? There's that question…why?" she sighs and turns to the chalkboard and picks up a piece of chalk. "I really didn't know the answer but I was stubborn and determined to find out. It was all I thought about and I tried asking anyone I could about what they knew about her." She began to draw on the chalkboard as she continued on. "Then one day, I found something. A clue I thought that could lead me to answers, ha maybe even my mother. I waited for dad to leave the house…put Ruby in a wagon and headed out. I walked for hours, with cuts and bruises and was totally exhausted but that didn't stop me from finding the answer."
'Damn sunshine….it almost identical to Ty's situation.' The wolf faunus thought as he started to rub a part of his back, remembering the pain of the past.
"When we finally got there, I could barely stand but it didn't matter to me. I made it to the house….then I saw them….those burning red eyes…" The brawler shuddered remembering that part with a shaky breath before she regained her breathing. "So there we we're; a toddler sleeping in the back of a wagon and a stupid girl too exhausted to even cry for help. We might as well have been served on a silver platter. But luck would be on our side that day, as our uncle showed up just in time." She finished her drawing of a clockwork eye as she exhaled. "My stubbornness…should've gotten us killed that day Blake. And yet, we got lucky."
"Yang…" Blake started, after hearing this story, knowing that her partner went through this, felt sympathy towards her but still didn't see the parallels of her investigation and Yang's, or rather she did but was stubborn to really look fully into it. "I'm sorry that happened to you, and I understand what you're trying to tell me but this is different! I'm not a child and this isn't just a search for answers…this-"
"Then how about you take it from two people that had this happened to them that WEREN'T children?" Both girls jumped as Nave finally starts going down the stairs, while glaring at the cat faunus.
"Wolfie?! When…when did you get here?!" Yang exclaimed, suddenly realizing she exposed a big secret that she hasn't even told Nave about and feeling scared about it.
"I've been here since you started that story. And honestly Yang?" He looks at his girlfriend and gives her a soft smile. "I understand completely. You wanted to find your mother. What child wouldn't want to know about where their parent is?" he then sighed and frowns. "But…I believe it's time I told you the truth as well. About our….'vacation' our family took in Signal. I rather not have history repeat itself again." He then looks at Blake again and narrows his eyes at her. "And Blake, you are VERY close to repeating history again." Blake looked appalled by this and immediately glared at the wolf faunus.
"I'm not repeating this so called history! I'm trying to stop Torch-!"
"And YOUR being like MY BROTHER!" Nave yelled at her, making Blake and Yang's eyes widen, with the cat faunus shrinking back with his girlfriend looking at her boyfriend shocked. Nave gritted his teeth as he growled at Blake before taking a deep breath.
"Wolfie? What do you mean by that?" He looked at the blond brawler as he went to the chalkboard himself.
"I mean…Tyler was exactly like how you and your partner we're like back at Signal." He then looked back to the girls as he looked at the black haired girl. "You already know about us and how us Signal Four were created. But after awhile, we began to gain new friends. People that we can really trust, Yang you know them as those three."
"You mean…them?" She asked, feeling like she knows the friends her boyfriend is mentioning. True, she was also wondering what happened to them, but she chalked it up to them moving or something around that.
"Them?" The cat faunus asked.
"Yeah. Their names are Rosu Dota, Mango Stein which mind you has no relation to the other jackass so don't worry. And the last one of the trio was Max Zanos, heh we always called him 'Bad Luck Max' because he always gets blamed for things he never did but he did like the nickname and the infamy in it and took it in stride. Anyways, those three came up to us after we formed due to us helping them out with schoolwork and asked if they could hang out with us. We agreed and accepted them, seeing how they weren't bad people. From there, the seven of us always hung out after school and during school, whenever. We trained and gotten stronger together, then we gotten a couple more friends but I won't get into them cause after a few weeks, I believe a couple months at the time…well, one day they disappeared." Blake looked surprised hearing that. "Most of us thought they moved and didn't say anything because they were sad and everything…everyone…except for Tyler." Yang was surprised hearing this as she begins to think about that time too.
"..You know, the more I think about it, he was being really weird and strange that day. But I honestly didn't think anything of it."
"I didn't either, but Tyler thought differently. He always did. Anyways, from what I found out he was searching for clues about their disappearance and trying to find them…for over a month and a half." That surprised both girls hearing that he spent that long trying to find out more about the disappearances of the three friends.
With Ruby and Tyler
"You spent all that time trying to find our friends?!" Ruby exclaimed at her boyfriend as he solemnly nods to her. She didn't know that her boyfriend at the time was trying to find them all this time when she thought they had moved away, even though she was sad about it.
"Yeah. I didn't believe they would move so quickly to the point that they wouldn't tell us. Plus they were all happy one day but always looking behind their backs another, especially the day before they disappeared. You guys may not have noticed but it was really unnatural for them to act like that, even Max was extra suspicious." He stood up and went to a punching bag. "So I began to look for them. At first it was after school, once I heard that Austin, another one of our friends disappeared the same way as the others I knew something bad happened to them, to all four of them. So I began to look harder. As soon as he was gone and after school wasn't working, I began to go out more and more. Before school, after school, at night, any time that I could go out. I'll always make an excuse to them, saying I'm going to go study or something else, I can't remember all the ones I used. It did fool mom and dad at the time, even Nave…but then….he began to find out."
With Nave, Blake and Yang
"What do you mean Wolfie?" Yang asked as Nave sighed and began to explain.
"It was after a month that I began to figure out his excuses, mainly because he used the same ones but worded it differently. I noticed his grades began to fall but I covered that for him as I noticed him being tired and sleeping through class….ring a bell Blake?" He looked pointedly at the cat faunus who looked down as she got the implications…she was doing the same thing the young archer did. But she did look at him.
"But…why go through all this? For a couple people?"
"Because to him, aside from myself, Yang and Ruby, he considers friends precious to him and doesn't like to lose a single one, hence why he went after you and Kahel back when we found out about you two being in the Fang. He hates losing friends and sometimes blames himself for when that happens." He sighs as he looks sadly at her. "I know because he still blames himself for not finding our old friends at Signal yet….and giving our family a scare…from what happened." He starts to unbutton the upper part of his uniform as Yang raised an eyebrow.
"Wolfie why are you taking off your blazer and shirt? I mean, not that I mind but I figured we wait til we get b-"
"It's because I need to show you two something." Once he's undressed, he turns his back to show the girls his back…mainly his deep scar. "You see the scar? This is what I mean. Because one day I confronted him and he said some….hurtful things and ran off to the forest to follow up on a clue he had. Unfortunately he said it in the living room where our dad heard it and was questioning it but I didn't answer him. I just grabbed my sword and ran out after Ty, he's my brother and while he did say hurtful things, I understood where he was coming from but he was going at it the wrong way. I must have ran for awhile before I found him again."
"W-wait…..what did he-" Yang started before her boyfriend went on.
"He didn't attack me if that's what your thinking….no he was attacked by Grimm. A good dozen of them, which…normally it would be no problem…but he was having trouble with them, couldn't take on one of them due to his tiredness. His aura was low that much I know….and he got hit…badly." He looked at them. "Remember seeing his scar in front of his chest? He got that from getting knocked down and attacked by a beowolf. Got slashed by his left lung badly. He was bleeding, a lot while…..while…." He sighs as he looks at Blake. "A deathstalker came up to give him the finishing blow. I took the opportunity to go out to him and take out some more grimm….of course I was rushing them and took some hits here and there. When I got there the deathstalker….already went for the kill. But instead of..hitting him, well…" Yang gasped, now realizing what he was referring to while Blake's eyes widen at the implication. "Yeah…wasn't a pretty sight. Sure I had my aura up but not quick enough..it stung like hell when it happened. We were gonna die if it wasn't for my dad's quick actions. He showed up, along with mom and killed the rest of the Grimm together. They saw us and took us to the hospital, no questions asked…the rest is history." He sighed before he looks at the cat faunus. "This is what I'm trying to say Blake, don't make the same mistakes as my brother did. You have friends here. People that care and want you to be relax and safe. Just take it easy ok? Plus I know Cobalt would love to still take you on that date." He looks to his girlfriend and nods to her as he walks up the stairs, putting his upper uniform back on as Yang went and hugged her partner.
"We're not asking you to stop. Just please, get some rest. Not just for you, but the people you care about." She then steps away and walks towards Nave as she looks at her partner and winks at her. "If you do, I'll save you a dance." And with that, the Burning Wolf couple walked out of the room and into the hallway. Both of them walked in silence before Nave stopped and sighed.
"Hey..Yang?"
"Hm?" Yang looked back and saw that her boyfriend stopped and was looking at the ground.
"I'm sorry..for not saying anything back then. About why we had to go on the vacation and not talking more about it before. Our family promised to not speak about it, unless we all felt comfortable saying." He gritted his teeth, waiting for her to be angry at him and yell at him…only for him to be surprised by his girlfriend hugging him.
"Hey I understand. I mean, I wasn't comfortable telling my story about me and my mother. Not to mention I was honestly scared about letting you know about it. It's…good to know that I didn't have to worry about it at all." Nave looked at her before he hugged her back.
"Yeah…plus…it wasn't my only biggest secret I've kept from you." They broke the hug as Yang was confused about his words, thinking about what else he's kept from her. He sighed as he looked out the window.
"Oh? What else did you keep secret? What, you had planned on joining the White Fang at one point and be like Blakey in there?" She joked while pointing to the room they left. He froze, even though he knew she was joking, he was surprised hearing that she just exposed another secret he was keeping from everyone, even his brother and his parents. When he didn't respond, she looked at him confused before it clicked in her head and her eyes widen. "Wait….Wolfie really? When?!"
"Back at Signal, or at least…before the first day of Signal." He looked at her shocked expression as he continued. "As you know, we all have been harassed and bullied because of our family. Sure our parents are huntsmen but that didn't stop them from harassing us, let alone me and Tyler….mainly me." He looked away, ashamed of what he's going to say next. "I overheard some faunus talking about being apart of the Fang and a rally was about to happen after the first day of Signal. Honestly I had planned on going to it and joining the Fang after school. Hell the bullies the first day pretty much sealed the deal for me."
"But….if you decided to join the Fang, but now are here…..what made you change your mind? What stopped you?" The brawler asked, now confused and curious as to what changed his mind from joining the White Fang, the group that they are trying to fight. That's when he looked up and stared right into her lilac eyes.
"You did Yang." Her mouth opened a bit as Nave continued. "If you didn't try and stop those bullies, then I wouldn't be here right now. Again aside from my brother and mother, not every human is nice. And I always thought the worse in them, and I always questioned why my father married my mother. It just….seemed really hard. At the time I thought that being in the Fang would help out our family." He then took her hands with his and brought them up. "But then you stopped those bullies and became my friend. You didn't even care I was a Faunus and was alright with me. I can never thank you enough Yang. And with this…there's one last thing to do today." He started to lead her away, as she had a smile on her face knowing she helped out him change out but was now curious as to what he has in mind.
With Ruby and Tyler
Ruby didn't know what to say, she had found out her boyfriend had almost died trying to find their friends and he struggled a lot during those days and that he still blames himself for letting it go that far. She watched as he put his upper uniform back on after seeing his scar as he sighs.
"And the rest…is history. After coming back, having to deal with Kat at the time, up to the point where me and Nave told you guys about what I had planned on doing. However what you and Yang didn't know was that I've been searching all this time. For those three and Austin. I was close to finding out at that moment at Signal….but at what cost? And I almost got my brother killed." He chuckled humorlessly. "I'm a failure at trying to help my friends aren't I?"
"That's not true! That's not true at all!" His girlfriend exclaimed as started to have tears in her eyes. He looked at her stunned at her outburst as she continued. "You have been trying so hard to find all of our friends! You care so much about all of them! How can you even think you're a failure when at least your searching for them still!?"
"She's right you know." Both jumped at the surprised voice as they see someone they weren't expecting to be there, with emerald eyes.
"Pyrrha? What are you doing here?" the archer asked as Pyrrha, who was in a workout outfit, walked towards the couple.
"Well, I wanted to have a quick workout and was about to leave when I overheard you two talking. I'm sorry if it did seem intrusive." She apologizes as she looks at the archer. "But you aren't a failure, far from it. I can't even tell you how many times a friend that I had that weren't as a good friend as you, or even close to it. Then again I never had too many friends to see them try as hard as you." He breathes as he looks at her. But before he could retort to her response, she speaks again. "And before you say it, yes you do care about your friends, not to mention the friends you have here." She puts on a devious smirk and puts a hand on her hip. "Like a certain blonde who decided to 'Be himself' and ask me to the dance." Both Tyler and Ruby were surprised to hear that, moreso Tyler as he didn't think Jaune would do it. "Yes he did ask me and I said yes, but let's not forget that you yourself have been helping him grow along with the rest of my team and the others, including your girlfriend. So don't ever think you're a failure. After all, you helped out a lot of people, I know you will help your friends." She heads out with saying the last few words in a cheery tone, leaving the two alone as Ruby then looked at the archer.
"She is right you know. Ty, you've helped so many people, it kinda makes you look like a superhero from my books. I love you and I know you will help them out, well whenever that might be." She gives him a small but sweet smile as she takes his hand into hers. "And if you ever have any more bad days, don't be afraid to come and talk to me, or any of us ok?" he gave her a smile and nod to her as he was grateful to have Ruby as his girlfriend and to even have the friends that he has. That's when he got a message from his scroll, so he grabbed It from his pocket and looked at it, seeing it's from Nave.
'It's time brother.' Tyler knew what that meant as he closed his scroll and looked at the red reaper who was now wondering what is going on.
"Thanks for your words my Rose, but there is one thing left that I need to ask you….well two things. One, mind coming with me?" She nods to him.
"Of course, anywhere you go, I'll be right behind you." They both then left the training room, hand in hand as for Tyler, it's a weight lifted from his chest and shoulders, finally able to get rid of the secret that he and his brother had kept from the girls for so long….at least one of them anyways.
In the courtyard with Jaune and Kahel
"So…all I have to do is just ask and be myself? That's all?"
"That's all Kahel. Heck if it worked for me, then it will work for you." With White Roses in his hand and a knight to his left, Kahel made his way to the courtyard with Jaune to find Weiss and ask her to the dance. While yes he did want to take the archer's advice, he started to get nervous again with how wanting to ask when he met up with Jaune and gave him the same advice and offered to go with him when he does ask her. So now both boys are walking out in the open as Kahel was looking for Weiss to ask her to the dance. They kept looking for her until they heard someone call out…and something that they weren't expecting.
"Neptune? Neptune are you here? I need to talk to you!" They heard Weiss, looking around and calling out for the blue haired boy. Kahel, hearing this and feeling heartbroken, hurt and angry at the same time, simply threw the roses down and started to walk away.
"H-hey Kahel wait up!" Jaune called out as he went after him. He caught up to him and started to apologize. "I'm uh…sorry about this. I hope your not-"
"If your about to say 'I hope your not angry with me', don't. It's not your fault Vomit Boy. I just…it was a foolish thing to think that it could work." He told him sadly as both of them walked away, not noticing the brothers leading the sisters towards the courtyard at the same time.
"Ok Yang, I need you to keep your eyes closed until I say so ok?" Nave tells his girlfriend on one side of the courtyard, away so the others don't hear him, except for his brother using the wind who was telling Ruby the same thing.
"Ok, ok Wolfie. But this better be a good secret!" Yang playfully scolds him as he had a grin on his face. The brothers led them to the front of the courtyard. Then, they let go and sneaked away from the spot. Now both girls were kinda surprised that their boyfriends let go as Yang was being impatient. "Ok real funny Wolfie. Where are you?"
"Yang?" that surprised the blonde as she opens her eyes to see the silver eyes of her sister staring at her in confusion.
"Ruby? What are you doing here?"
"I can ask you the same thing. Ty told me to close my eyes and to wait until he told me to." That got Yang really confused.
"Wait…Nave said the same thing. What is-" She was cut off as they both looked to the left and right respectively, towards where the statues were looking to see candles lit, like a walk way towards the air port, with them hearing something on loud speakers as they start to follow it.
(Can't Help Falling In Love With You by Elvis Presley/Book of Life Version)
The girls followed the candles all the way..until they both gasped at what they saw. What was in front of them was a banner with the words 'Will you go to the dance with us?' written on it with the candles surrounding them with flowers of their own. Red roses in Tyler's hand and Yellow Sunflowers in Nave's as they had gentle smiles on their faces
Wise men say
Only fools rush in
But I can't help falling in love with you
But I can't help falling in love with you
(Song End)
"Wolfie….What is this?" Yang asked softly, with her sister nodding slowly to the question as both started to get a tear in their eyes.
"Well…it's what we had planned out when we heard the dance was coming. We knew what we wanted to do, it was just hard to keep it secret from you two." Nave told her as he handed her the sunflowers.
"Not to mention having to let Ozpin and Goodwitch know about our little plan. We did get the ok from them, kinda surprised Goodwitch even let us do this in the beginning." Tyler then said as he gave the roses to Ruby, who took them and held them tight. "Now, with that out of the way, we know you see the banner but we rather ask you now." He coughed into his hand as he held a hand out to Ruby, with Nave doing the same to Yang. "Ruby Rose…"
"And Yang Xiao-Long…"
"Will you go to the dance with me?/Will you go to the dance with me?" The brothers asked at the same time. Ruby and Yang both took their respected boyfriends' hands as they nod.
"Wolfie you sure know how to make a girl happy…and spoiled…and loved. Of course I'll go to the dance with you."
"And my loving Ghost, I say yes as well! Besides Yang just took the words out of my mouth." Ruby joked as Tyler chuckled hearing that as they hug each other, with the girls knowing that they will have their boyfriends at the dance…unaware of a couple of people who don't know what will happen next.
OK! I'M STOPPING HERE BECAUSE WE ALMOST WENT OVERBOARD WITH THIS CHAPTER! I swear to god I kept adding more and more to this chapter that's why it took as long as it did. 20,000 words now condensed back to….what at least 13,000? Sheesh!
Keeper: Yyeeaahh….not to mention that we kept adding on more and more. Thankfully, these guys know the finished product. Not the continuous words and whatnot. Besides, I think Velvet liked that little end.
Velvet: *has a tear in her eye* It truly was a sweet thing. It's a shame nobody ever really thought of it back in our first year.
Coco: Well think about it, most of the guys were either being cheesy or being assholes during the process. It's a damn shame that we can't watch the dance. I really wanted to see what happens during the dance.
*Looks at Keeper then back to Coco* You know what, stick around. You too Sun. We will have everyone watch the dance. Besides, I think you will like it!
Keeper: Definitely. So yeah next chapter will have the dance….finally. Hell after seeing Volume 8 which, yes we DID watch and laughed and cried and cheered at certain moments, I think we all need a breather from it. Also I need to ask something Bear. That…outfit during the spar with Mercury and Tyler….what inspiration was that?
That I can answer. If you guys look up Ice Nine Kills for google images, you'll see Spencer and the band, who I had the honor of meeting live with a VIP pass, and they dressed up in horror characters. Spencer would don a half broken Jason mask with the split shirt, combining Freddy's shirt and Michael Myer's shirt. Or it could be Don Sugarman wearing a Mike Myer's mask etc. They are down to earth guys but like I said, they dress up for their concerts so it was a blast seeing them live. So I based the outfit on the mini series/music videos for the Silver Scream album. You'll see them in it, especially the face paint. Anyways, now next chapter is the dance. Finally. Now we will get into that now so you all know the drill! Like, Comment, Follow etc and we will see you all in the next chapter! See ya then! Now…Keeper I have an idea of one more thing.
Keeper: I'm listening. Oh by the way guys there's a fridge in the back, get yourselves some food.