The rest of Pyrrha's co-conspirators were supposed to be arriving today. They had been slated to arrive several days before Team RWBY's ill-conceived mission. However, personal issues had led to them postponing their arrival by a few days.
Emerald had made a call to Pyrrha on that first day back at Beacon. Thankfully it was after she had already left to get the frames made, so no one raised any eyebrows at her black scroll. Cinder had ordered Emerald and Mercury to take care of a White Fang deserter, and Emerald wanted to clear the hit with her. Cinder had nearly placed Emerald and Mercury's cover in jeopardy, and was it not for Emerald's loyalty to Pyrrha herself; they could easily have been compromised. After all, Pyrrha had given them unambiguous instructions to keep their heads down. Of course, Pyrrha had called the whole thing off. She knew Torchwick had his assistant in place to take care of the man in a more subtle manner. As little as Pyrrha trusted the man, she did trust his sidekick to get her man.
A large part of Pyrrha was reasonably sure it had been an attempt by Cinder to undermine her. Had Emerald and Mercury gone through with Cinder's plan, at worst, her two most valuable associates could have been captured, and her relationship with Torchwick strained. At best, she would just have a strained relationship. Yet, it could also be that Cinder was trying to help without thinking about the consequences. Without more evidence, Pyrrha could only punish Cinder for her rashness. Pyrrha had not spoken to the other girl since that conversation, and now they would all be working in close proximity again.
"Pyrrha? Oh my gosh, it is you!" Emerald was rushing up behind her as she walked to lunch with her team.
"No, it's fine. I know her," Pyrrha held Jaune back as he went to keep Emerald away as he had taken to doing whenever fans of hers that had trickled in for the Vytal festival attempted to harass her.
"Emerald, I was so worried when you just fell off the map. I was so sure you were dead."
Emerald blushed a bit, "Sorry, I lost my scroll for a while, and by the time I got a new one, your number was restricted by your manager.."
"Sorry, I suppose that would be a problem. Anyway, what brings you to Beacon?" The question was more for the benefit of those around them than Pyrrha herself.
"Well, the tournament, of course! I met some friends while I was traveling, and we kinda just stuck together. A few months back, we went to try for the license exam. We failed, but professor Lionheart allowed us to polish our skills at Haven. He admitted us to the fourth year class even though there were only three of us."
It had been hard to develop a cover story to explain how Pyrrha might know her associates, especially given Emerald's particular connection with her. Getting Emerald to call her Fyre when they were out on their missions was hard enough; attempting to get her to act unfamiliar with Pyrrha as herself, while probably not impossible, would, almost certainly, be even more challenging.
Eventually, Pyrrha decided to lean on Emerald as their connection. The two of them supposedly went to the same gym in Mystral when Pyrrha was just starting her tournament career and hit it off as friends. Emerald then just disappeared one day, apparently moving out of the city. Then the combination of Emerald losing her old scroll and Pyrrha's number becoming restricted due to her celebrity status led to them falling out of touch. This would allow Pyrrha to meet with Emerald and the others under the guise of reconnecting with Emerald.
Nora thought it would be a great idea to have team JNPR come up with and practice a coordinated number for the school dance in a few weeks. It was the worst idea Pyrrha had ever heard. Unfortunately, she was outvoted three to one after Nora introduced it.
Pyrrha was already stretched thin, between classes, homework, training Jaune, and "reconnecting with Emerald," she had no time to spare for dance practice. She probably could have gotten Jaune to say no until Nora brought up how good it would be for their teamwork once she said that it was over.
Pyrrha couldn't even rely on her false self to get through practice with a smile as it seemed to consider it just as much of a waste of time, the only encouragement it offered was that at least she was spending time with her friends. To which Pyrrha would only say they were not friends.
Despite what anyone said, dancing was not like fighting. There was none of the familiar rush that Pyrrha got when she was fighting. Sure she was acrobatic in her moves while fighting, but she dodged around blades and bullets in that context. Dancing was only movement for the sake of movement.
She would admit that there had been a slight increase in the rate of improvement of the team's awareness of each other in training matches, but that could have been accomplished just as well with extra team exercises. Another part of her recognized that their dance would be a fantastic distraction while Cinder was working during the dance. So, she persevered through their practices.
As the dance got closer, Pyrrha realized that she needed a date. There could be no doubts about where she was all night. It would not be hard to find a date, any of the boys would undoubtedly agree to accompany her. The only problem would be that none of those options would be believable. No, there was only one option that Ozpin and his group would believe. Unfortunately, he was completely infatuated with a certain heiress across the hall.
Pyrrha broached the subject during one of their rooftop sessions. "Why do you keep pestering Weiss?"
"I'm not-"
"Yes, you are. She has very clearly told you every single time you ask that she is not interested in you. There isn't some magic key that will make her go out with you that you will find by just changing the way you ask. All you will do is make her more angry."
Jaune looked taken aback, "So you're saying I need to give her some time to cool off?"
Pyrrha huffed in exasperation, "No, I'm telling you that you need to stop entirely."
"I should just give up? That's your advice."
"Well, yes, I suppose, but you shouldn't think of it like that." Pyrrha was trying to be diplomatic. "Instead, think of it as respecting her. By continuing to make advances, you are essentially telling her that you don't trust her ability to make her own decisions, that you know her heart better than she does."
Jaune sputtered for a few moments, "Is that really what she thinks of me?"
"Of course, I don't know for sure, but as a girl who has had her share of persistent suitors, more than likely it is something along those lines." Pyrrha faked a reassuring smile.
"I never really thought of it that way before. My dad always said you just have to be confident, and you can get the girl."
"Well, I'm glad you understand." Pyrrha was ready to move the conversation past this point, "Anyway, now that you are over Weiss, you can go to the dance with me."
"Umm. What! I'm not- with you? Me?" Jaune was stumbling over his words, and if it weren't so, exasperating Pyrrha would have laughed.
"Yes, Jaune, I want you to go to the dance with me." Pyrrha rolled her eyes.
Jaune seemed to recover slightly, "Why me? Surely, you aren't lacking in options."
"Jaune, how many other guys do I really know?"
Jaune hesitated for a moment, "Umm Ren, oh, that guy on Emerald's team, and hmm, I guess that's it. Isn't it?"
"And both of them are already going with other people." Pyrrha smiled at Jaune, "So would you go with me."
Jaune cleared his throat, "Are you asking me as a partner, or are you asking me for something long-term?"
Pyrrha had actually thought about this beforehand. Either option would work for her, so she would let him decide the pace since Jaune would be the one most invested. "I know it's a little sudden, so we can do whichever is more comfortable for you."
Jaune stood up and held his chin for a few seconds, seeming to be lost in thought. Then he shook his head and said, "Umm, could we go on one or two dates before the dance just kinda see how things work?"
"Well, there is still one weekend between now and the dance," Pyrrha pulled out her scroll and pretended to check her schedule, "I suppose we could fit something in then. Should I plan it, or do you want to?"
"Umm well, you asked me out," Jaune seemed hesitant, "So shouldn't you plan it?"
Pyrrha smiled, "I didn't want to step on your toes. As I said, we will do this how you want."
"Oh! In that case, I'll plan it!" Jaune then dissolved into unintelligible mumblings.
Pyrrha turned back out to look at Beacon Tower, her mind in its own turmoil. Her false self was screaming for her to ignore her responsibilities and enjoy this time with Jaune. Eventually, she smashed down those soft feelings and turned back to Jaune to finish their training. However, it quickly became apparent that Jaune was far too distracted for any more serious training, so Pyrrha packed their stuff up and walked back to their dorm hand in hand with Jaune.
Pyrrha's play at the White Fang Rally turned out to be far more reaching in its consequences than she could ever have imagined. Based on the recordings from Team RWBY's dorm, the perceived failure was driving Blake mad. This was only compounded by the sudden drawdown in both the dust robberies and White Fang activity in general. Blake wasn't sleeping and hardly eating, her resulting moods dragged the rest of the team down with her. Even Weiss's grades had slipped a few points as the team dealt with the drama.
Ruby was only barely managing to keep Blake from running off to Vale to play detective. Every time one of the shipments Weiss was monitoring was due to come in, Blake had to be nearly physically restrained from checking on it. Even the fact that every shipment was making it to its destination unmolested did nothing to ease Blake's mind. If anything, it made the situation worse as she tried to work out what the White Fang was planning.
There was one through-line Pyrrha detected from the recordings that concerned her, Blake was not planning on going to the dance. It wasn't out of any sense of concern for Blake Pyrrha was only concerned about what Blake might do. It was most likely that Blake would head into Vale for the night, but there was no guarantee that she might return at an inopportune moment and catch Cinder sneaking around.
It wasn't like Pyrrha was worried that Blake would be able to stop Cinder. In Blake's fatigued state, she couldn't stop an especially determined fly. No, Pyrrha was more concerned that if Blake tried to stop Cinder, Blake would end up dead, and that was an incident best avoided. Pyrrha would need to ensure that Blake was at the dance, which meant talking to Team RWBY.
Pyrrha knocked on the door across the hall.
Ruby opened the door only partway, "Pyrrha! What can we do for you?"
"Umm, is everything alright in there?" Pyrrha tried to peer around Ruby, who shifted to obscure her view into the room.
"Yep, everything is perfect. No need to worry. We have everything for the dance under control." Ruby was a bit too cheery to be adequately convincing.
Pyrrha put on a shaky false smile, "Anyway, umm, everyone is worried about you guys. So, is there anything we could do to help?"
"Nope! We are allll good."
Pyrrha frowned. Ruby's drawn-out "all" implied the opposite. Yet, she would still need to be careful how she played this. Pyrrha carefully schooled her features into a sheepish smile. "Err, sorry, but I still don't believe you." A flicker of worry passed over ruby's face, but Pyrrha continued, "Everyone in the school notices when one of the top teams in our year starts slipping. In team fights, you spend extra energy covering for Blake, and she is noticeably slacking. Something is going on."
Ruby deflated, "Fine, you got us, Blake is dealing with some, umm," she paused, seeming to search for a word, "Family stuff, and it's getting her really down. Yang's been trying to talk with her and get her to go to the dance and just chill for a while. It hasn't really been working, though."
"Do you want me to talk to her?" The words were out of Pyrrha's mouth before she could stop them. What could she say, 'don't worry, the White Fang isn't an issue anymore. I sent them to Mountain Glen, where they are preparing a way to bring a bunch of grimm right to the city center."
Ruby, it turned out, would save her from what would have promised to be an incredibly awkward conversation. "No!" she yelped, "Don't talk to her! Umm, I just mean I already said more than I should have. She can't know I talked about it to someone. I'll just umm, let her know you are concerned."
Ruby gave her a half-hearted smile that Pyrrha returned.
"I suppose that will do," Pyrrha said as she turned to leave, "I hope she makes it to the dance. After all, your team is in charge of planning it."
Pyrrha made her way down to the study rooms. She wanted to hear what was going on in the Team RWBY dorm after she left. She scrolled back the recording by a few minutes until she heard a door slam.
"What was that about?" Pyrrha was pretty sure that it was Blake speaking.
"Pyrrha was just worried about us, is all. That was definitely Ruby. Supposedly, people are noticing our team having issues in class."
"Well, of course, she noticed!" Weiss spoke up. "I've been saying it for weeks now; your lack of sleep is dragging us all down, Blake. Every time Professor Goodwitch calls our team up, we spend more and more time covering you since you can't keep up."
"Is that all you can think about, our grades!" Blake snapped, "The White fang is somewhere out there doing who knows what, with enough dust to equip a small army, and you are sitting here whining about your grade! Or is that you only cared when your dust is being stolen, Schnee!"
It was quiet for a few seconds after that outburst, but eventually, Weiss spoke up, "You know that isn't true. I just don't know what you expect us to be able to do about it. We. Are. Students. It's not our job to take down a major criminal organization. If anything, we are supposed to be learning those skills to do that in the future. However, right now, we should be worrying about our grades so we can graduate and help in an official capacity."
"How are you guys so calm!" Blake was starting to sound frantic. "Can't you see that something suspicious is going on? We have to figure it out!"
Yang spoke next, "Look, you are both right. We'd have to be stupid not to see that something is going on, but unless you know of some nefarious secret White Fang base Blake, we can't do anything. Obsessing over the problem is not going to magically give you the answer, partner. All you are doing is hurting yourself and us. The best thing you can do right now is rest and train for whenever they make their move because eventually, they will, and if you keep on going like you are now, you won't be able to stop them. So, come with us to the dance, and then we will go on our training mission, and just be students."
It seemed that Blake had relented to her partner's arguments because the conversation after that point turned to some specifics for the dance, such as the decorations and what each of them was going to wear. Ruby fought valiantly, but eventually, her partner and her sister got her to agree to wear heels.
Pyrrha closed the app on her black scroll and stowed it in the hidden pocket on her thigh. All in all, her intervention seemed successful Team RWBY should be sufficiently distracted the night of the dance to give Cinder room to work. All that was left to do was confirm the final plans with Cinder herself.
AN: Hey, a one-month turnaround is not too bad! I thought this chapter would contain the dance, but as I wrote, extra scenes kept finding their way in, so the dance got pushed out. The next chapter should be Pyrrha talking with the rest of the Villain Crew, an Arkos date, and the dance. Pyrrha accidentally triggered Blake's intervention early and had the whole team involved. I thought it was a fun little change; thoughts?
As usual, I'm on Twitter Accipiter_Ater if you want to find me there, and thanks again to KeithMontalbo for the cover art for the story!
See you in another month (hopefully).
Signing off,
Accipiter_Ater