A/N: Oof, the last few weeks have sucked writing wise. Between work, drama, and life, I only finished the chapter now.

So, the dance chapter is finally here and happening. I decided to cram a lot of stuff into this chapter, and that was before I wrote 4.3k. So yeah.

I also apologize ahead of time...again. You'll understand in a bit.

Welp, that's it for the pre-chap notes, cuz I'm tired.

I don't own RT or RWBY.

Guilty Rose Chapter 45

It was finally the big night, and Weiss was ready, but nervous. Mostly because of how Yang was acting so secretive about Rose's dress and her imagination running rampant, again.

"So why can't we see Rose in her dress before the dance again? Oh, the peach scones go over there."

Weiss asked while directing the final setup of the dance. It was nothing major, just the catering services.

"Because it's supposed to be a surprise!"

Yang's voice rang back, far to laced with mischief for the heiress' liking. Unfortunately her mouth answered before her brain did.

"Don't you mean bad luck?"

A pregnant pause spanned several seconds. Finally, Yang responded with her distinct brand of humor.

"I didn't know my little sister was getting married. I know her semblance is speed and all, but damn that's fast."

Weiss blushed full force when her brain processed the joke.

"YANG!"

Her screech garnered the attention of all the workers.

"Kidding, kidding. But seriously, this dress needs to be a complete surprise to have it's full effect."

Weiss waved the workers on and took a moment to collect herself.

"That's acceptable, I guess, my sister did pick it out so I know it will be breathtaking."

Weiss heard a chuckle from Yang in response to that.

"Yeah, I've been meaning to ask about that. Why the hell is your sister not Remnant's greatest fashion designer instead of it's greatest specialist right now? Like, Oum, the dress she got for me after she saw what I planned to wear is gorgeous, and it took her literally five seconds!"

Weiss couldn't help but sigh at that. Yang must have heard heard it and knew what it meant.

"Let me guess, his name rhymes with jackass?"

Weiss loosed another sigh.

"Right in one. I take it Winter has discussed the cretin I call father?"

"Sometimes. She really doesn't talk about your family, besides you, just like you. I can't tell you how many times she started talking like a proud parent when it comes to you."

Weiss made a noise between a scoff and a giggle.

"I suppose that would be so. Well to make a long, and awful, story short, she wanted to be a fashion designer, but knew father would make every effort to ensure she'd never amount to anything. It was much the same with me and being a huntress. So when Winter met the good general at one of my father's charity event, we found out the military was our only escape from our father. Thus she's now his best specialist, and got the general to force my father into letting me be a huntress with some public comments on the Schnee martial prowess."

Yang remained silent for a moment.

"I'm gonna go hug and kiss Winter. Then I'm gonna come hug the daylights out of you, I let Rose do the kissing there, and then I'm gonna practice punching your dad so I'll be ready when I meet him."

This time Weiss did laugh.

"That's fine by me… give my sister an extra hug from me, will you?"

"Sure. And Weiss?"

"Yes, Yang?"

"I really would love having you as a sister."

Weiss choked up a bit at that, but still managed to squeeze a few words out.

"Thanks, that means a lot."

….

Ilia stood in what counted as her quarters, once again going over everything she packed. Her nerves were beginning to get the best of her.

She was truly going to go through with this. Planning and scheming were one thing, but now she was actually going through with it.

And what made things more complicated, was the image of Rose she now held in her mind.

She now could not unsee the adorable faunus girl from the bar covered in blood. Blood from her fellow faunus.

Ilia shivered as the image passed through her head again.

"I must be crazy. That's all there is to it."

Ilia sighed as her resolve, though shaken, still held. At least with Rose, she wasn't guaranteed to end up dead.

Plus, dying at the hands of Remnant's most adorable killer wasn't such a bad way to go. A final bit of eye candy and all that.

She had finally accounted for everything she owned being in her dufflebag. She hoped no one would notice her stuff missing until it was too late.

Ilia clenched her fists and reinforced her will.

"Alright, it's now or never."

She slung her bag on to her shoulder and spun on her heel.

She made her bed, it was time to sleep in it.

Hopefully with Ruby in it too.

….

"Here are the false schematics for Amity Arena. We've changed and relabeled it so that any White Fang members should be sent to one of several empty locker rooms where Huntsmen and Atlas soldiers will be waiting to apprehend them."

Ozpin said this while holding out a drive to Rose. This was the final part of the plan to prevent the White Fang from completing their objective. Luckily, it wasn't difficult to for him to acquire the adjusted schematics, nor arrange for the waiting security forces.

Rose nodded while she took the drive offered to her. But then she made a face full of uncertainty.

"What about the members that won't be Amity Arena?"

Ozpin sighed tiredly. That was a question that also plagued him. Plans were already being set into motion, but they'd never be enough. There would be casualties still.

"We will have huntsmen and Atlas security forces scattered about Vale and Beacon Academy."

Rose just looked down at the ground for a moment in thought.

"Will that be enough?"

Ozpin took a sip of his coffee.

"We shall have to hope it will be. We have no other personnel to put on this."

Rose chewed her lip, this was beginning to bode ill for everyone. With a final sigh, she decided to just talk to her team after the dance.

"I guess that's all we can do then. I'll see you at the dance tonight then."

Ozpin smiled softly and nodded.

"I will see you then. By the way, Miss Schnee did an excellent job with your attire."

Rose smiled up at the immortal headmaster.

"Better than I deserve, but Weiss worked so hard on this dance. It's the least I can do."

Rose turned around after saying that and made her way to the elevator. All the while, Ozpin shook his head sadly.

"All this time, and we've only made so much progress healing the damage done to you."

Ozpin turned to look out over Vale before taking another sip of his coffee. His thoughts, once again trailing to the documents on his desk regarding Lionheart's current actions.

"I just hope we do enough by the time we need you to use your skills in the war."

….

Summer and Raven couldn't help but marvel at all that Weiss had accomplished with the decorations and food for the dance. Of course people heard from the volunteers about what it looked like, but believing was seeing sometimes.

Thus, there they stood at the entrance, waiting for students to begin arriving. Weiss and Yang were supposed to be here, but Yang had to do her hair after she helped with Rose's. Even Raven was shocked at how much of a nightmare that was, and her once snapped a hairbrush in two. And Weiss got called away moments ago when the catering messed up.

"We really need to ask Weiss to do our wedding design."

Raven's comment earned her an elbow, though Summer couldn't help but agree to at least the desire.

"It's in two weeks, I'm not doing that to that poor girl now."

Raven shrugged lightly at that before a mischievous smirk found it's way onto her lips.

"We could ask for one of her 'rejected' designs for her wedding. If I've learned anything about that girl, she plans ahead."

Summer glared at the taller woman before shaking her head.

"Maybe."

Raven snickered before seeing the encroaching crowd of students. She stood overly straight and hardened her expression before speaking in a deeper voice.

"Prepare, the youth are coming."

Raven received another elbow for her joke.

"Remind me to never let you read those books again."

Both women laugh before going about greeting the students. They signed them in and gave them all the warnings, including not to go into the screened off area. It wasn't long before Yang came up with Winter.

Winter was wearing a long ice blue evening gown that shimmered in the moonlight. She had her hair in an elegant french braid, draped over her shoulder. Yang wore an evening gown herself, except it was strapless and it transitioned from yellow at the top to a dark orange at the bottom with a black ribbon wrapped around her waist. The most notable thing about her though was her hair, which was done up in a neat braided bun.

"Oh, you two look gorgeous!"

Summer called out to them.

"How did you get your hair to do that?"

Raven called out, and then blocked the elbow aimed at her ribs. This was a serious matter, and she wanted to know how she could get her hair to do that.

Yang guffawed at her mothers while Winter looked away to hide her amusement.

"Thanks, and if you want the details on this, ask Jaune."

"Jaune? The blonde idiot?"

"That's not nice, Raven, he's trying his best."

"let's not fight about this again, especially not here."

Summer huffed before relenting moments later. She turned back to her daughter with an ear to ear grin.

"Fine, anyway, we'll let you take over here, I want to see everyone's face when Rose shows up."

Yang responded with a like grin.

"I know, she's going to text us in a few minutes so we can see too."

Winter rolled her eyes at the antics of her date, but still had a smile on her face.

"Well, we will let you get on your way. Please let my dear sister know that I am covering for her here. She needs to relax and enjoy the fruits of her labor."

"Will do, you just make sure Yang doesn't throw anyone off Beacon's cliff...again."

Yang gaped in offense at her mother.

"Cardin deserved that! Plus I made sure his aura was full before I sent him down."

Raven snickered and waved her daughter off as she and Summer left for the 'staff' section.

….

Weiss found herself sitting in the staff section with a cold glass of punch in her hand. Not by her choice, though. When Raven and Summer found her and told her told her to sit down and relax, she decided to rattle off all the things she still had to do. Summer didn't take well to that and simply dragged her off.

She huffed and took a sip of her drink, being extremely careful not to spill so much as a drop on the dress her sister got her. It was an exquisite white evening gown with silver snowflakes embroidered on the bottom and a blue sash around her waist with an engraved silver rose pin on it.

She didn't know how much the dress cost, and for once, didn't even want to. She just put all her faith in her sister.

After her sip, she surveyed the staff area. While it was mainly for staff, other students had seen her, Penny, Blake, and a few other and tried to do so as well. The Atlas security that was tasked with Penny's safety took it upon themselves to keep those students out. Luckily, these were competent soldiers who managed to come up with a story about these students being personally invited in there by the staff in recognition of there efforts putting the dance together. Most didn't argue past that point, those that did found themselves on the wrong end of Professor Goodwitch's ire.

Besides that, there wasn't much of interest, Rose had yet to arrive. That was making Weiss and certain other girls a bit antsy.

The heiress' eyes once again turned to the entrance when she caught sight of both Yang and Winter.

"Winter, Yang, I thought you two were greeting people at the door?"

Yang shrugged.

"Winter here forced Sun and his date to take over for us."

Winter gasped and acted highly offended.

"I merely persuaded Mr. Wukong and Miss Katt that there services were needed. Besides, Miss Katt seemed to like meeting people."

Yang rolled her eyes before turning back to Weiss.

"Anyway, we're here because Rose texted us, saying we'd want to be here."

Weiss' eyes grew wide at that.

"You heard from her? what's been taking her so long?"

Yang looked past Weiss and smirked before pointing.

"That is what took her so long."

Weiss turned to the direction indicated, and the sight she beheld made her jaw drop.

There, at the hall's side entrance, was Rose. She wore a silk qipao dress that went to her ankles. The dress was a rich crimson with silver trimmings and rosevines. On her shoulders was a deep red bolero jacket with silver trimmings as well. The ensemble was completed by her hair being pulled into a neat braid and around her neck was her necklace with several new charms added to it.

Rose's attire hit Cinder, Blake, Neo and emerald just as hard as it hit Weiss. All of the girls were struggling to lift their jaws off the floor.

Rose took a few slightly unsteady steps forward.

"Hey."

No one responded immediately, which made Rose more and more nervous.

"Um… Do you like the dress? it's not too much, is it?"

Winter and Yang had to bite their tongues, knowing it was just nerves getting to the poor girls. Fortunately, Cinder managed to recover enough to speak the words on everyone's mind.

"Of course we love it, you look positively gorgeous Rose."

Rose smiled at that, and soon the other girls recovered and approached Rose, complimenting her dress and asking when they'd get to dance with her.

Neo tried to ask if she could help Rose out of her dress at the end of the night, but Emerald intercepted the short mute first.

Yang leaned over to her girlfriend.

"So, that had the desired effect."

Winter smiled wistfully.

"I told you to trust me."

Yang grinned at the specialist.

"Oh, I more than trust you. Now, let's enjoy this punch before someone spikes it."

Winter recoiled a bit in confusion.

"Wait, people actually do that, I thought that was some kind of joke?"

Yang simply shrugged and took grabbed a glass of punch.

….

Ilia wanted to laugh, actually laugh, for the first time since she came to Vale. There was no easier infiltration than when you are invited in.

Literally, they had a bullhead waiting to take her up. She still acted as if she was hijacking the aircraft in case Adam had sent any followers to watch her. The pilot was cool with the act when she explained.

So once they lifted off, she sat in the co-pilot's seat and began mentally preparing for how she'd face Rose.

"Girlie, I don't know what you're stressing about. But if you don't chill, you might pop."

The comment pulled Ilia from her musings and she looked over at the pilot.

"If you knew what I was doing tonight and who was meeting, you'd be just as stressed."

The pilot offered her a shrug.

"Maybe not, but I do know that if you worry about it too much, you'll be shooting yourself in the foot before we even reach the landing pad."

Ilia just narrowed her eyes, but couldn't actually come up with a retort. She knew the man was right, but she was still potential changing history tonight.

"Look, just take a few deep breathes and do what needs to be done."

"You make it sound so easy."

The pilot shrugged again.

"Not saying it is. Simple and easy are two different things."

The pilot glanced at his dials for a moment.

"We're landing in thirty, unless you want me to take you somewhere specific?"

Ilia shook her, the extra walk might do her some good.

"Alright then, I hope to see you again, under less trying circumstances, of course."

Ilia smiled at that.

"Same here."

Ilia waved at the pilot as she left. Soon she was greeted by the full majesty of the famous huntsman academy. It took her breath away for a moment. When she recovered from the sight, Ilia fished out her scroll and pulled up Rose's contact information. Her thumb hovered over the dial symbol for a few seconds.

"Come on Ilia, she's just a cute girl… who literally has the largest kill count on Remnant… no pressure… Absolutely no pressure."

Her scroll suddenly lighting up and ringing startled her. She actually lost her grip on the device and spent several seconds scrambling to catch it. Once she got a solid hold of it, she saw the caller was Rose. She tapped the accept button and shakily held the scroll to her ear.

"H-hello?"

"Ilia? Are you okay? You were supposed to call when you got on the bullhead."

Ilia winced at that.

"I know…. I just… got sidetracked?"

"Oh, okay. Well then, I'll meet you at the top of the CCT tower. I got the schematics for you to send to Adam."

Ilia tensed up, before answering.

"T-that's fine. U-um, what about the guards and the dance?"

"The guards all know you're coming and I have a dress for you."

Ilia got hung up on that last part.

"You have a what for me?"

"A dress, it's not much. You don't mind wearing green, do you?"

Ilia's brain was still processing the information.

"Green is fine….but why am I getting a dress?"

"The dance isn't going to end for a few more hours, and I'd thought you'd like to enjoy it with the rest of us."

Ilia's brain finally caught up to the present, not that she understood what was going on. But she decided to at least go with it for now. She was already in too deep to back out.

"Green is fine, I-I'll see you at the top then?"

"Yeah, I'll see you there."

Ilia disconnected the call and then began her trek to the tower.

It wasn't long before she reached the entrance. As Rose had said, the guards were expecting her and let her right in. Once she got in the elevator, her nerves returned tenfold. As the doors closed her foot began tapping rapidly.

"Alright Ilia, calm down. She isn't going to hurt you. She may have punched your lights out, but that was to protect… she also then killed all those people."

As the elevator rose, so did her breathing and heart rate.

"She's trying to get you away from Adam… who is still trying to kill her."

Ilia jumped a straight foot in the air when the elevator dinged to indicate that she had arrived at the top floor. After a few calming breathes, she scanned the room only to find it completely empty.

She had to admit that made her feel a bit odd. They knew her original mission, and they were just letting her be here all alone.

"Do they actually trust me this much or do they trust Rose this much?"

Ilia couldn't help but look around for whatever security they did have around. She noticed the cameras but it was apparent to her that they were off. That really threw her off. It was one thing to leave her alone up here, an entirely different thing to turn off security cameras too.

Ilia was buried too deep in her thoughts to notice the elevator open behind her and Rose to walk out with a dress in her arms.

"Sorry if I made you wait, Blake's favorite song came on and she wanted to dance with me."

The sudden voice caused Ilia to jump again, this time she changed a few different colors. Rose immediately laid the dress on a console and approached the other faunus girl.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I've been trying not to sneak up on people. I thought you would have heard the elevator."

When Ilia saw the girl saw reach for her, her knee jerk reaction was to recoil in fear. She knew Rose wasn't trying to hurt her, but that night still played in her mind. Waking up in a pile of bodies played in her mind.

The fear of what this girl could do was already instinctual.

Rose watched the girl recoil, she saw the look of unadulterated terror flash across her features, and it broke her heart.

She pulled her hand away and stumbled back.

"I'm sorry."

The words were barely above a whisper. But Ilia heard them, and realized how hard her expression must have hit Rose. She tried to school her expression, but it was almost useless.

"It's okay Rose, I was just startled, t-that's al-ll."

Rose shook her head at that.

"No it's not."

Ilia bit her lip and took a few deep breathes.

"No, it's not, but it's me, not you. I'm still a bit shaken from the other night."

The two just stared at each other for a few long moments. Finally the silence was broken by Ilia clearing her throat.

"So...the security cameras are all off, any reason for that?"

Ilia internally screamed at herself, but the deflection seemed to break the atmosphere.

"I asked them to turn them off so you could change up here… Was that not okay?"

Ilia blinked owlishly.

"Um, no, that's fine. Anyway, you said you had some schematics for me to send Adam?"

Rose perked up at that and began digging in the inside of her jacket. After a second, she found what she was looking for. Which turned out to be a drive that she then offered to Ilia.

"Here, just let me know what you want me to do."

"Um...just wait for me to finish sending this to Adam?"

"Okay."

Ilia nodded and plugged the drive into her scroll and began sending it to Adam's scroll. After a minute, her scroll began ringing with a call from Adam. She swallowed thickly before answering the call.

"Good work, sister. I've received the schematics. Now what about your other mission?"

Ilia glanced over at Rose and clenched her scroll harder.

It was time to test her acting skills.

She got up and walked towards the elevator.

"I'm getting on that one now."

She pressed the call button and the elevator immediately dinged.

"What? You! For our fallen brothers, traitor!"

Ilia the threw her scroll to the ground and watched it shatter. She released a long sigh and turned back to Rose.

"Well, it's done."

"I guess so… how do you feel?"

Ilia shrugged ambiguously.

"Hasn't really sunk in yet…. You, um, mentioned a dress earlier?"

Rose's eyes opened wide and she grabbed the dress from on top of the console. She then showed it off to Ilia. It was a long rich forest green dress.

"What do you think? I had to estimate your size, but it should fit."

Ilia didn't respond as she was too busy being impressed with the dress. It was really close to her size, and she loved the color. She immediately scooped the dress from Rose's arms.

"I love it, thank you! I'm going to change into...it...now."

Ilia realized suddenly that she was supposed to change in here. With Rose right there with her. She turned mechanically towards Rose.

"Um… Are you just going to stand there and watch."

Rose stared at her blankly for a moment.

"I mean, I can stand somewhere else… but why would I watch you change?"

Ilia stared at for a moment.

"I actually don't have an answer for that. Would you just turn around?"

Rose shrugged and complied, much to Ilia's relief.

Though something Ilia failed to notice was that Rose could still see Ilia's reflection in the glass nearby. So when the chameleon faunus began shedding her clothes, Rose got the full view. She nearly giggled when Ilia quietly fussed about having to remove her bra because the dress was strapless.

Rose did try to look away, but she couldn't help glancing every now and then. Mostly because she noticed Ilia having some trouble getting the dress on. One of the zippers wouldn't move.

"Rose...um… Could you get this zipper for me? It's stuck."

"Oh, sure."

Rose turned around as Ilia was still fiddling with the zipper while the rest of her dress sagged away from her semi-exposed chest. Rose just sighed and walked over. Ilia then turned away and held the dress to cover he modesty, not having realized she was showing off so much.

"Ehem, yeah…. The zipper."

Rose lightly shook her head as the chameleon faunus showed off how well her entire body could mimic the color pink.

"It's fine, I had trouble getting my dress on too."

Rose got up to Ilia and took over trying to get the zipper up, though it still didn't budge. The faunus turned a brighter shade at the proximity, and decided a subject change would be better for her heart.

"Um, I forgot to mention before, but you look very beautiful tonight."

Grey met silver briefly. Which was a bad idea for Ilia because Rose smiled at her. Ilia immediately turned away and Rose went back to work on the zipper. After a few seconds, she noticed that some of the cloth was caught in the zipper.

"I am going to unzip this, okay?"

"Um, what?"

"The cloth is in the zipper, I have to undo it to fix this."

"Oh, well, be careful then."

Rose nodded and tried to pull the zipper down, but again it wouldn't budge. Gradually, she added more strength to her tugs. Until finally, the zipper gave.

And the dress was pulled from Ilia's hold.

And the elevator opened to reveal Professors Goodwitch and Greene.

A/N: soooo… cliffhangers are a thing that weren't invented by me. I just use them every now and then.

I don't really have any big notes so let's just go to recap time.

Recap Time!

So the first scene was me having fun again. I wanted to show Weiss and Yang's relationship as it has really developed to that of sisters. Also I wanted to expand on an idea I had. Winter as a fashion designer. I wanted to give her a hobby that she was really good at like Weiss and her singing. So yeah, character development! Woo!

Nothing much to say about the first Ilia scene. I just needed to do that extra bit of set up.

Ozpin and Ruby scene, that was to lay out a part of the plan explicitly. People hounded me last time so here it is, in the story. Bite me. Also, foreshadowing.

The Summer and Raven scene was because I enjoy writing them. Again. And people enjoy their fluff scenes. Win-win peeps.

Rose's dress reveal. I've had this planned for over a year...and I definitely like how it turned out. No, it wasn't what I originally planned, but that was because the story has evolved and taken on it's own life. Before people ask, I do not have art for the dresses, I wish I did, but I can't afford to pay anyone and I'm too out of practice to do it myself.

Last scene. Yeah. That was a big one. And a lot went on in it. So first, kudos to IcyDoom and Hellwyrm for their help with this particular scene. Hell helped me with Ilia's actions and reactions to meeting Rose again after the last time. Icy gave me the idea to have a more intimate part in the chapter, though I definitely made it more PG. Also I couldn't resist the comedic timing and the cliffhanger.

End of Recap Time!

So, normally I'd have more to say, but I'm too tired to remember. PM or leave a review, as usual.

Well, see you peeps next time!

Please, follow, fav, and review! Those are love people, and I need all the love I can get.