Before anything else, I own nothing but the original characters, and content therein related to them. RWBY is owned by RT, and any mentioned creator's work belongs to them, and them alone. Rest in peace Monty, your vision lives on in us all.
CHAPTER 7
Nobody was particularly surprised to see Ruby and Clayton practically glued to each other, getting lost in one others eyes on the dance floor, they'd been doing that for over 4 years. Nobody cared that Blake and Sun were joking around with Neptune after the cat girl had her first dance with Yang, they were all good friends. No one batted an eye when during a slow dance, Halcyone swiped a kiss from Yang, which, after a moment of shock, was returned in kind, as the two happless blonds wouldn't have been expected to really put much thought into if this single night would turn into something more...
But what did make people question what they were seeing was Weiss Schnee dancing with Siniy Garnet. Dancing was a loosly fitting description. Weiss's hands were positioned oddly, having to reach up to shoulder level or higher to hold Siniy's slightly extended hand, and hold his lower back. Siniy was slightly hunched over to alleviate some of the awkwardness that came with holding Weiss's hand and upper back. Both of their teams took a second to stare at the anomaly before them. The heiress and the freed slave. At the beginning of the year if you told anyone those two would be on a date, you'd have been put in a mental ward, but here they were.
Neptune was for lack of a better word, concerned because of this. Had he known the giant would be the one to console the woman whose heart he broke, he would have accepted the public humiliation that came with his inability to dance, as now even if he could have salvaged his chances with her, she might not reciprocate any feelings. Still, Weiss looked genuinely happy... And Neptune guessed that in the end, that was probably more important.
Jaune was a little bit disappointed. Not exactly crushed, just disappointed. He'd missed his chance with Halcyone, and trying to pick up a date at the dance was either a mark of the desperate or the douchy. Sighing to himself, Jaune went upstairs and out to one of the balconies, only to find the Pyrrha was up there… Alone. "Hey, Pyrrha." He said. She turned around rather quickly and nodded.
"Hello Jaune." There was a brief moment where neither of them spoke.
"I haven't seen you all night. Where have you been?" Jaune asked, as he approached her, leaning against the railing with her.
"Arrived late I'm afraid." She said, looking off into the distance.
"Well, you look very nice." Jaune said, stumbling through the complement, unsure how that would sound.
"Thank you." Pyrrha said, holding a hand to her chest.
"Your ah, date isn't going to beat me up for saying that, is he?" Jaune asked, pushing off of the railing.
"You should be safe for the night." Pyrrha said, turning away from Jaune.
"So… Where is the guy?" Jaune asked, rubbing his hands together.
Pyrrha sighed. "There is no guy." Jaune blinked twice.
"Hhhmm?" He hummed in question.
"Nobody asked me." Pyrrha said, turning back to face her team leader.
"But… You're Pyrrha Nikos, how could nobody ask you?" Jaune was beyond confused. Pyrrha, without a date? (Not scientifically possible!)
"I've been blessed with incredible talent, constantly surrounded by love and praise… But, I've been on that pedestal for so long, I've been separated from the people who put me there. It's why I left Mistral… People there assumed I was too good for them, acted like I was some demigod, and that made it impossible to have any sort of meaningful relationship with people. I came to Vale hoping my reputation wouldn't proceed me, but it did… And that's why I like you Jaune. When we met, you treated me just like anyone else, you didn't even really know my name, and thanks to you, I've made friendships that will last a lifetime… I guess you're the kind of guy I wish I was here with." Pyrrha said, before she turned and walked away.
"Wait." Jaune said, turning to chase after Pyrrha, who'd already returned to the dance hall. Jaune huffed, and smacked himself for being such an idiot. "I know any girl would be lucky to have you... I guess you're the kind of guy I wish I was here with." Not even Jaune was dumb enough to miss that one. Catching up with the spartan at the top of the stairwell, Jaune grabbed her hand. "Pyrrha… I've been an idiot. A tall, blond and scraggily idiot… Would you like to spend the rest of the dance with me?" Jaune asked, hanging his head. Pyrrha was nearly moved to tears. It only took over half of the school year living with the boy, but he finally figured it out. With a smile and an uncharacteristically girlish giggle, Pyrrha gave her answer.
"I'd be happy to." She said, before the two of them hurried down the stairs to catch the more lively "club music" tracks that Yang picked out for the evening.
The Crimson Couple walked out of the hall hand in hand. They'd had enough dancing for the night. Not that they didn't like club rap or edm, but with everyone out of the dorms, they had free reign to go and do another kind of dancing, the horizontal kind. "Are you sure you anchored the hammock right?" Ruby asked, an eyebrow raised.
"What, like I didn't learn my lesson last time?" Clayton asked, as Ruby leaned into his shoulder.
"We're gonna find out." She said with a grin, before she spotted a silhouette duck into the shadows from across the courtyard.
"Did you see that?" Ruby asked, as Clayton let go of her hand.
"Yeah…" He trailed off. The two looked at each other, and Clayton unbuttoned his suit jacket to free up movement as the two started walking in the direction of the silhouetted figure. The only thing important in that direction worth snooping around in would be Beacon Tower… Which would be for the most part, empty. Once outside, they found the door guard unconscious in the bushes, and without a word, Ruby and Clayton called their rocket lockers. Grabbing the two red weapons, Ruby racked the bolt on Crescent Rose, as Clayton one hand pumped the slide of King Slayer.
"Shit just got real." Ruby said, as the two moved to enter the tower.
As the two entered the building and elevator, they found more knocked out guards, and dragged them outside and away from danger. Once done, they rode the elevator up to the top floor, and Clayton took point, shotgun raised in the high ready. Ruby came out behind him, and then took left flank, while Clayton took right to canvas the room. The only place to hide would be behind the desks. Clayton got about three paces in, and then eyed the front desk. He wanted to let whoever was in the room know he knew they were there, and distract from Ruby coming up behind them, so he started whistling Soldier's Joy.
At about 10 seconds of whistling, a woman dressed in a black catsuit with an ovular face mask with only two eye holes stood out from behind the front desk. "You must be ugly as sin, or way too pretty to be wearing a mask like that. Why don't you get down on the ground and we won't rough you up." Clayton said. The woman tilted her head, only to look to her right, where Ruby stood, Crescent Rose raised.
In one fluid motion, the woman pulled a container of what could only be yellow sand off her belt, and through unknown means, turned it into shards of glass, which were sent flying at the gorilla faunus. Tanking the hits and sneering, Clayton pumped off a shell at the woman, only for her to evade, just as Ruby took a swing with her scythe. The woman now stood a little further back in the aisle, and simply blocked shots that Ruby started sending her way, only backflipping to safety when Clayton jumped at her, axe head ready to cleave. She formed a bow mid air, and let three arrows off at once, each of them exploding upon coming into contact with a surface. Two of them hit Clayton, and he shrugged off most of the damage. Just then, the elevator dinged behind the two students, and for no more than a moment, they both looked away. Clayton realized that moment was all an opponent needed, and swung his attention back around, only to see the room empty. Walking between the rows of desks, he confirmed that there was no way anybody could be hiding in the room. "Fuck." Clayton muttered to himself.
Meanwhile in team CMNE's (Carmine) room, Cinder was doubled over the toilet, upchucking her dinner. Neo a short assistant of Roman's, going by the allies Noir, had stayed in the room and wasn't there to bail Cinder out of the tower as originally planned if she was caught. Cinder was so confident she wouldn't be caught, that the extra need of a get away illusionist seemed unnecessary. However the alternative she was whisked away by was oh so much worse. When Black simply appeared, grabbed her shoulder, then disappeared with her, it felt like for a moment her insides were turned to her outsides, she was hung upside down, and falling sideways. This ultimately led to a wave of sickness she hoped would end soon. "What did you do to me?" Cinder asked. Black shrugged. "That's just what it feels like to do what I do." He said. Cinder looked at where his voice was, only to see he'd disappeared again.