AN: Hey guys! Great news! My dad was able to move back in after having only mild symptoms, and since he's a first responder he just got his first vaccine dose today! We're all good and healthy, and thank you all again for wishing us well!

I would like to return the shout-out from an Author named Vengeful Fate. He wrote a KH X RWBY crossover called Kingdom Hearts: Remnant, and I was so honored to hear that this story was an inspiration for that one! Check it out!

Anyway, without further ado, on with the story!

Chapter 34

Cinder looked uncertainly at Mercury, who was sitting next to Yang, the two of them engrossed in conversation. Cinder's own team, along with Teams RWBY, JNPR, and SSSN, were all gathered in the library, with the two Beacon teams helping the two Haven teams get caught up on the information packet that Aqua had given them, containing information about new creatures called The Heartless.

Blake was conspicuously absent, along with of course Neo.

It had been a week since Team RWBY, along with Sun and Neptune, had set out on their independent, unsanctioned investigation of the White Fang's activities in Vale, resulting in Blake and Sun being chased by Roman in a stolen Atlesian Paladin. Roman had assured her that he didn't say anything during the rally that could give away the plan, and the students had been tight-lipped in the week since about what exactly they had learned, despite Cinder and Emerald's attempts to discreetly get it out of them.

Now, the reason why she was uncertain about Mercury?

He hadn't been trying to get any information from them. He was just hanging out with Yang, the two of them having spent a lot of time together in the week since Team RWBY's confinement to Beacon's campus. She was starting to get worried for the blonde girl. She wasn't sure what Mercury's ultimate intentions for her were, and honestly, she wasn't sure what she'd do to him if he hurt her.

"Cinder?" Ruby asked, snapping Cinder out of her thoughts. "You okay?"

"Yeah," she answered, looking back at the packets. "It's nothing. Where were we?"

"We were talking about Invincibles," Ruby said, gesturing towards the picture of the humanoid, sword-wielding monster.

These Heartless creatures were really remarkable, especially given how varied they were compared to the Grimm. Despite them being creatures of Darkness, she had never heard of them before. She would have to ask her about them when she got back…

…Oh, yeah. She would have to go back when the job was done.

"So, Invincibles can turn themselves into little fires," Ruby said, "and they'll surround you and merge together."

"So you have to just move out of the way?" Cinder asked.

"Yup, but you have to time it carefully."

"Hey, are you guys going to the dance?" Nora asked, interrupting them.

"There's a dance?" Neptune asked.

"Yeah, it's in a couple weeks," Yang answered. "Right after that, we have our first mission assignments. It also means the end of our grounding, so I'm stoked!"

"Yeah, so are you guys going?" Nora asked again.

"I don't know, sounds kinda lame," Sun said.

"I'm definitely going!" Yang said.

"As am I," Weiss said.

"It sounds fun," Cinder said. "I might attend." To be honest, she was already planning for her team to attend the dance, as it would be easier to infiltrate the CCT to plant Watts's virus that night. "What about you, Ruby?"

"I don't know," Ruby said. "I might not go."

"Oh, you're going!" Yang asserted. "You are not sitting this out! Come on, get dressed up and have some fun!"

"I'm not a fancy kind of girl, though," Ruby said sadly. "It's not like it'll make a difference, anyway. No one's going to ask me."

Cinder narrowed her eyes. She stood up, grabbing Ruby by the hand, and dragging her out of the library.

"Gah!" Ruby cried. "Cinder! What gives!"

"What do you mean, 'no one's going to ask you'?" Cinder asked.

"I mean no one's going to ask me," Ruby said. "Yang is the one every wants. Not me. She's the pretty one."

"Ruby, stop that," Cinder said sternly. "You are just as beautiful as Yang is in your own way."

"S-Stop lying," Ruby said, blushing. "That's never how it went at Signal. People only ever wanted Yang. I was just her kid sister. It's no different here. People flirt with Yang all the time. No one ever talks to me."

"Are the people in this school blind?" Cinder asked. She sighed. "Fine then. You'll just have to take me."

"W-What?!" Ruby asked, blushing fiercely. "W-we can't go together!"

"Why not?" Cinder asked.

"What if someone else wants to take you? I can't take that away from them."

"I'm going to say no to anyone that asks me," Cinder said easily. "I've made up my mind. We're going to the dance together."

"B-but-!" Ruby said.

"But what?" Cinder asked. "What reason could you possibly have to say no?" Ruby continued her intense blush, nervously pressing the tips of her fingers together.

"I'm…I'm so plain," Ruby said quietly.

"Ruby," Cinder said, grabbing the girl's shoulders. "Trust me. I will handle everything before the dance. You'll be Beacon's Most Eligible Bachelorette when I'm done with you. So, what do you say?"

"U-Uh, sure," Ruby said. "Sure, we can go together."

"Great," Cinder said. "Now come on, we've got some more Heartless to learn about before Aqua's class." She walked back into the library, a red-faced Ruby behind her.

"Whoa, what happened?" Yang asked after seeing her sister.

"Um, uh," Ruby stuttered.

"She has a date to the dance," Cinder announced, intensifying Ruby's blush.

"What?!" Yang asked, engulfing Ruby in a hug. "Oh! I'm so proud of you!" She stopped hugging her after only a few seconds, realizing something. "Wait a minute…" She looked to Cinder questioningly.

Cinder only winked.

Ruby did her best to avoid making eye contact with Cinder when the teams had gathered in the Emerald Forest for the Advanced Combat practical exam. Her team had managed to track down Blake, and Cinder's team had found Mynt, making sure that everyone was in attendance.

Now, don't get her wrong, she was happy that Cinder had asked her to the dance (well, forced her to go with her, more like), but she was still super embarrassed by it. First off, she had never been asked on a date before, and second off, she had been asked by a gorgeous girl like Cinder.

…Wait, where did that come from? She shook her head. She should stop thinking about it like that. It wasn't a real date, it was a friend date to make her feel better. There was no way that Cinder meant anything romantic by it.

…Right?

Honestly, she still felt bad about it, since she was sure there were a mountain of boys wanting to ask a girl like Cinder to the dance, and here she was, a relatively plain-looking kid stealing her.

"Hello, class," Mom greeted, wearing her combat outfit for today instead of her teacher clothes. "Today is the day of your practical exam. Now, the returning students probably remember the game of Capture the Flag they played last semester. Well, this is going to be different." Sun raised his hand.

"So, what exactly is this exam, then?" he asked. "Capture the Flag doesn't exactly sound, you know, academic."

"This exam tests your ability to work together as a team. Capture the Flag worked as a good analogue for it. This time, though, we won't be playing Capture the Flag. Since you all have been working together as a team for at least a semester, we're going to do something a little more complicated. There will be two teams going head-to-head. One team will be offense, the other will be defense. One person from outside the participating teams will play the part of a hostage."

"Excuse me?" Weiss asked.

"The defense team will act as if they've captured a criminal and defend them from their gang coming to rescue them. The offense team will act as if the prisoner is a civilian that's been kidnapped, and will be rescuing them from a group of criminals."

"Sounds fun," Ruby commented.

"If the defense is able to successfully repel the attack and keep the prisoner from leaving the area, then they win. If the offense is able free the prisoner, and remove them from the area, then they win. I found a fairly large ruin in the forest that will serve as the defense's base. The structure is mostly intact, but please try not to destroy it. Any other questions?"

"Yes," Weiss said. "Who will be the prisoners?"

"A great question, Weiss," Mom answered. "You will."

"…What?"

"And Nora will be the other one."

"Let's do this!" Nora said excitedly.

"The prisoners will be tied up, and the offense will have to get them untied and help them escape the area. The defense needs to stop that from happening. Recapture them if they get freed, or stop them from being freed in the first place. Any other questions?"

"Do we have to be tied up?" Weiss asked.

"Yes. Now then, the first two teams will be Team SSSN on offense, and Team RWBY on defense. Nora will be their prisoner."

"Oh, I get to have four boys fighting for little old me?" Nora asked happily. "Sign me up!" Mom tossed two coils of rope to Yang.

"Tie Nora up with those and head to your base to set up the defense." Yang tied Nora's arms behind her back and tied her ankles together before lifting her up over her shoulder.

Yang dumped Nora harshly onto the floor in the middle of the ruins once the team arrived.

"You'll never take me alive!" Nora yelled dramatically. "My boys will be here soon, and then you you'll be sorry!"

"Quiet, villain!" Ruby yelled back, just as dramatically. "You will pay for your crimes!"

"NEVER!"

"Can we please focus, people?" Weiss asked.

"Yeah, they'll be here any second," Blake said, and Ruby did her best to ignore the fact that her Faunus teammate's eyes were starting to develop faint bags under them. "I just want to get this over with."

"Ugh, fine," Ruby said, annoyed that her teammates didn't want to have fun. Again. "Blake and Weiss, watch the door. Yang and I will guard Nora and stop anybody that gets past you."

Weiss stood next to Blake, both girls with their weapons at the ready. Weiss looked at Blake with concern, noticing the bags forming under her eyes. Whatever her partner had been doing, she clearly hadn't been getting enough sleep. She hoped it wouldn't hurt their performance in this exam, in addition to the health problems sleep deprivation could cause. She wanted to ask her about it, but this was definitely not the time.

She heard the crack of a gunshot, and was able to roll out of the way in time, the bullet impacting the wall where her head once was.

"Charge!" she heard Sun yell, and Neptune and Sage charged them from inside the forest, while Scarlet and Sun fired their guns at the girls to keep them on their toes. Sage swing downwards at Weiss with a large sword, while Neptune swung his spear at Blake. "Let's go!" Sun yelled, and he and Scarlet stopped firing and charged past them, heading for the ruins. Blake kicked Neptune away from her, and fired her gun at them, but her aim was uncharacteristically off, missing the boys by a wide margin, her targets disappearing into the ruins. Blake was struck by Neptune, the boy activating an electric shock function on his spear.

Blake screamed as she was electrocuted.

"Blake!" Weiss called, but had to roll out of the way of Sage's sword. She switched Myrtenaster's chamber to ice Dust, and freezing the ground below his feet, making him slip and fall. She disengaged from Sage and ran towards Neptune, swinging her sword at him to get him off Blake.

"You okay?" She asked.

"I'm fine!" Blake snapped, getting back into a combat stance.

"Watch out!" Ruby yelled, summoning her Keyblade to block a strike from Scarlet, who freaking flew into the room. Yang fired a blast from Ember Celica to stop Sun at the door, and the blond boy retaliated with shotgun blasts of his own.

"Oh, help!" Nora yelled jokingly. "Save me!"

"Don't worry, Nora!" Sun yelled. "We'll rescue you!"

"Over our dead bodies!" Yang yelled back, firing her gauntlets behind her to launch herself at Sun. Ruby backed up from Scarlet, locking onto him with her Shotlock.

It was overkill, but hey, she had a prisoner to defend.

She unleashed her attack, striking him at least a dozen times, and she heard a shattering sound as his Aura broke.

"Scarlet!" Sun called out, and the redhead walked out of the ruins, dejected at having been defeated so quickly. He clapped his hands together, and three bright yellow clones of himself appeared.

Two of the clones went for Ruby and Yang, while the third ran past them towards Nora.

Ruby swung at the clone headed towards her, but it ducked low and tackled her to the ground. She watched the third clone pick up Nora bridal-style, and run towards the exit.

"Oh, my hero!" Nora said happily, before all three clones suddenly disappeared, causing her to drop to the ground.

Ruby looked up, and saw that Sun had been wrapped up in Blake's ribbon, breaking his concentration. While he struggled to break free, Yang walked up to him and cracked her knuckles.

"Uh, be gentle?" Sun asked, smiling nervously. Yang didn't answer him, instead punching him in the gut, breaking his aura.

"Boo!" Nora said. "Some heroes you turned out to be!"

"Well done, girls," Aqua said when everyone returned to the group. "Team RWBY wins. Once again, all four of you pass."

"Booyah!" Yang cheered.

"What happened, guys?" Sun asked Neptune and Sage.

"They were too strong," Neptune said.

"That's it! We're doing extra drills!"

"Pyrrha, here," Aqua said, taking the ropes that once held Nora and tossing them to her. "Use these to tie up Weiss, and your team will be playing defense. Team FMBS will be offense." Weiss sighed.

"Let's just get this over with," she said, putting her hands behind her back.

Cinder and the rest of her team approached the ruin, seeing Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora out front, meaning that Jaune must have been inside guarding Weiss.

She really wasn't sure why they trusted him with that job, but this would give her ample opportunity to observe and evaluate Pyrrha and Nora. There was a strong likelihood that those two were being considered by Ozpin as potential candidates, so she needed to see what they could do. She turned to her "teammates".

"Emerald, you and me will lay down covering fire. Mercury, you and Neo—sorry, Mynt—will charge the group. We'll join you after a few seconds, and then Mynt will charge into the ruins the second she sees an opening. Understood?"

"Got it," Emerald said.

"And remember, Emerald, no using your Semblance. Actually, Mynt, since Team RWBY has been investigating Roman, you shouldn't use your Semblance or weapon either, in case someone recognizes your fighting style." The girl nodded.

Cinder used her Semblance to conjure her bow, aiming it at Pyrrha.

She created an arrow, nocked it, and fired.

"So, Weiss, you, uh, doing anything later?" Jaune asked the heiress, who was sitting on the floor in the middle of the ruins, her hands tied behind her back and her ankles tied together in front of her. She looked at him incredulously.

"Really?" She asked. "Are we really doing this now?"

"Yeah?" he said uncertainly. She sighed.

"First off, I don't want to, and second, my team still can't leave the campus."

"Well, we could something on campus," he said hopefully.

"…No," she said.

"But—"

"No," she repeated. Before he could push the issue, he heard gunshots from outside. He knew that was his cue, so he raised Crocea Mors in a defensive position.

Mercury and Neo charged at the group of three, under the cover fire of Cinder and Emerald. He ran right towards Pyrrha giving her an axe kick that was blocked by her shield. He flipped backwards, using his hands to balance himself while he spun around to kick her again.

But his kick missed.

Interesting.

He rolled out of the way of submachine gun fire from Ren, before a green chain wrapped around his waist and pulled him backwards towards Emerald. Cinder and swapped out her bow for a pair of scepters and rushed at Pyrrha.

"Get Nora," she ordered. "Mynt, go!" He disengaged from Pyrrha, firing a shot from his greaves at Nora, freeing up Neo to rush inside.

Jaune raised his shield when he saw the short girl, Mynt, he thought her name was, rush into the room. For some reason, she wasn't carrying a weapon.

He swung his sword art her as she ran towards him, but she jumped onto his sword and kicked him in the face, knocking him on his back.

She sat down on his chest as he lay there, giving him a playful wink.

Cinder backed up from Pyrrha, disintegrating her weapons before superheating dust particles in the air with her Semblance, creating a lance. She thrust several times at the champion, but Pyrrha blocked them with her shield before Cinder swung low to try to take out her legs. Pyrrha jumped over the attack and threw the shield at her.

Cinder quickly conjured a glass wall in front of her to block the shield, and destroyed both the wall and her spear, replacing them with a pair of daggers. She rushed at Pyrrha, noticing that her shield had somehow returned to her hand.

The two traded blows for several seconds, until Cinder kicked Pyrrha in the legs, dropping her guard and allowing her to swipe at her with one of the daggers, causing the redhead's aura to flicker.

Pyrrha stepped back, looking at Cinder in shock, before her face turned into a smirk.

Cinder returned the look, and the two charged each other again.

Weiss was astounded at what this girl could do. Even without a weapon, she was treating Jaune like he was no threat.

Now, as much as Weiss hated to admit it, Jaune had vastly improved since last semester, and he still stood no chance.

This was just a testament to how strong this Mynt girl was. Weiss could only wonder how strong she'd be with a weapon.

Mynt kicked Jaune in the chest three times, spinning around and kicking again, knocking his sword away. It embedded itself in the ground a few feet away from Weiss. Jaune tried to best to keep fighting with just his shield, but Weiss knew he wasn't going to last.

Weiss, for her part, saw her opportunity to escape and started scooting herself along the floor towards the fallen sword.

Cinder pressed her swords up against Pyrrha's, the two of them smiling fiercely at each other.

Suddenly, she saw a white blur out of the corner of her eye, and saw Weiss bolting towards the forest.

She smirked. They had won this.

"Well done, Team FMBS," Aqua said. "You win. Although, I do need to point out that Weiss essentially freed herself. And I'd like to ask, why didn't Mynt use any weapons?

"We're hoping to compete in the Vytal Tournament," Cinder said. "We'd of course be competing against all of you, so we'd like to keep a few secrets. Besides, she clearly didn't need one."

"Either way, well done. I hope you all learned something today about teamwork. Now, for next class, we're going to be discussing the Heartless again, so I expect that you all read over the booklets I gave you over the break. Class dismissed."

"So, what have we learned?" Cinder asked when her team returned to their dorm.

"I fought Ren, so I got nothing," Emerald said. "What about you, Merc?"

"I got nothing on that Nora chick," he said. "She pretty much just has a hammer and hits stuff. The redhead is a different story."

"Ah, the Invincible Girl," Cinder said.

"I wouldn't say invincible."

"Go on."

"After she made contact with my boots, she was able to make subtle changes to my next strike so I'd miss."

"Are you sure you didn't just miss?" Emerald asked. Mercury just glared at her.

"We'll keep a closer eye on her," Cinder said. "For now, add her to the list."

They needed to figure out which girl was going to picked as Ozpin's candidate. And they needed to find out soon.

AN: I had a some fun writing this chapter, especially since the exam was a different challenge than last time. I chose to have Weiss and Nora be the "hostages" because I thought they would be the funniest.

So, Ruby will be going to the dance with Cinder. We'll have to see where this is going.

We also got an earlier Pyrrha Vs Cinder. At least a brief one.

As always, thanks for reading, and I'll see you all next time!