DDI

Beacon's ballroom was beaming with life as Team RWBY finally finished setting up the dance with time to spare. They had successfully compromised with Weiss's doilies and Yang's fog machines.

"See? Fog machines help build up the atmosphere a bit better." Yang gestured as she watched Sun poke himself out of the fog and jump scare Neptune.

"Maybe a little too much." Weiss furrowed her eyebrows before holding her scroll up now. "Ruby, how's the monitoring of Emerald and Mercury going?"

"Oh, it's fine, over." Ruby answered.

"Ruby, you don't have to say-" the call suddenly ended when Penny approached Ruby with a smile.

"Can we dance together, friend Ruby?" Penny eagerly smiled.

"I would love to, Penny." Ruby took her hand.

"Ruby, report in…" Weiss paused for a moment before putting the scroll closer to her face. "Over."

"Chill Ice Queen, we've got eyes everywhere." Yang assured as she took Blake's hand while stepping out to the floor.

Looking around, Weiss sighed, seeing all her friends with dancing partners, except for her. "Hey, so it looks like you got the short end of the stick too with partners, huh?" Sun spoke up from behind Weiss.

Taking a deep breath, Weiss held her hand out. "Well how about we do each other a favor then?"

"Oh? Sure!" Sun grinned and took her hand, needless to say, she wasn't expecting Sun to actually be a pretty decent lead.

The party couldn't be livelier and even Pyrrha and Jaune were starting to have a good time dancing outside. "So, was this dancing a skill you picked up along the way?" she asked.

"Nah, I have a bunch of sisters, remember?" Jaune spun Pyrrha around as they danced, pulling her in closer. They were dancing on the balcony just at the edge of the ballroom. "Or did I not tell you that yet?"

"How many?" Pyrrha asked as she and Jaune moved closer to the balcony.

"Try 7."

"That's crazy." Pyrrha laughed a little.

"It's true though." Jaune admitted while they finally broke off from their dance and switched to staring out over the balcony.

"So, see anything suspicious yet, Jaune?"

"Nothing." he shook his head. "I'll go in to ask how the others are doing with observing Emerald and Mercury. Want some punch?"

"If it's not an inconvenience." Pyrrha nodded.

"Right away then." The blonde quickly went off inside.

Ruby and Penny danced to their heart's content before it suddenly stopped when they were by a corner of the room. "What's up, Penny?"

"I've been wondering something since I got here, Ruby." Penny looked at her quizzically. "Why are you watching Emerald and Mercury so intently?"

Looking Penny in the eyes, Ruby took a deep breath. "It's not something we can discuss here with all these people around." she dragged Penny along with her suddenly, just before Ironwood could catch a glimpse of them.

Just outside of the ballroom, Ruby looked her in the eyes, while she merely retained that look of confusion. "There are things I know… Things that my teammates and Jaune know that no one else does." she began.

"What kind of things?" Penny asked.

"Things that people at our level shouldn't know." Ruby began. "Look, I'll tell you what I know, but you cannot tell General Ironwood a thing."

"Why would I-" before Penny could speak anymore, Ruby did.

"Because I know your secret, Penny."

"My secret?" she paused for a moment before her eyes went wide. "Wait, you don't mean-"

"I know you're not human, Penny." Ruby took hold of Penny's hand tightly now. "But I don't care that you're not. You're still my friend. You've always been my friend, and there's just so much more I've wanted to tell you."

"Oh Ruby…" Penny held her hand back, making an effort to be gentle with her grip. "You can trust me with anything, because that's what friends do, right? I won't say a thing to General Ironwood or my Father.""

"Good. Look, there's not much time. But what you need to know is that there are bad people in the school right now, bad people that want to hurt you and everyone."

"You mean like the woman running on the roof over there?" Penny asked as Ruby turned around. "Exactly that." Ruby nodded and immediately took her scroll out, sending a message to everyone on her team.

In the ballroom, Yang had purposefully had the DJ switch over to a more upbeat and faster paced song, which made it harder to keep up with the people dancing around, although, it wasn't a problem for Blake, who was watching from the balcony as Emerald and Mercury floundered about in the crowd.

"Dammit, Em stop fumbling your moves." Mercury grunted.

"Hey, I'm trying to keep track of who's coming in and who's leaving." Emerald glared back while not so subtly stepping on his foot.

"Update, Emerald and Mercury." Cinder stated from her end of their line.

"Nothing- Oof… Of note. Just some rough dancing on this floor." Mercury grit his teeth as he was elbowed by a couple of dancers moving by him.

"Keep me updated." Cinder affirmed.

As Ruby and Penny made their way towards the CCT, Ruby's locker was already waiting there on the ground before them. She had her scythe out and ready while Pyrrha was also present to approach the pair, stepping out in her prom dress, but with her weapons already in tow.

"So we're doing this, Ruby?" she asked.

"We are." Ruby affirmed, glancing over at Penny who was kneeling next to an injured soldier.

"They're only unconscious." she assured. "But I do have to report something like this to General Ironwood. I'll be sure to tell him that you two went ahead to investigate." she nodded.

"Thanks, we'll need all the help we can get if we're up against who I think it is." Ruby nodded while walking with Pyrrha to the CCT lift. The flats were definitely a smarter choice here.

As they rode the lift up the CCT, Pyrrha looked nervous. "You know, when Jaune told me I died at the CCT… I-"

"Don't think about it, Pyrrha. This isn't that fight, and besides, you're not going into this alone." Ruby assured her with a smile while slinging Crescent Rose over her shoulder.

"You're right. But we should still exercise caution." Pyrrha nodded as the door to the elevator opened finally..

Cinder stood up, as if she were a deer in headlights when the two girls stepped out of the elevator. "Stop right there!" Ruby aimed Crescent Rose at her back and Pyrrha did the same with Milo.

A slight smile spread across Cinder's face as she raised her hands up, though she clearly looked to be holding a canister of dust in one hand.

Narrowing her eyes, Ruby immediately fired a shot that was ducked under as Cinder ran forward, launching shards of glass her way that Pyrrha deflected with her shield easily.

Ruby then leaped over her shoulder and swung Crescent Rose downward at the disguised Cinder who backflipped away from her attack.

Pyrrha ran in next and clashed weapons with Cinder, who quickly formed a pair of glass swords in her hands.

The two fought close ranged with Pyrrha being adept enough to block and parry each strike that came her way, but Cinder wasn't faring any worse than her. At least that was until Ruby came in with more shots from her sniper. Those shots were dodged around and a glass sword was thrown Ruby's way that she shattered with a swing of Crescent Rose while running for the fighting pair.

With only one sword left, Cinder put her back more into this next swing.

Narrowing her eyes, Pyrrha blocked the next strike of Cinder's with her shield, shattering the sword.

Ruby was about to near the pair when she saw that the shards of glass on the ground around Pyrrha began to heat up.

She froze for a moment while her eyes started to brighten now. "Not again… No… I'm fast enough this time…" she felt Crescent Rose drop out of her hands as everything seemed to slow around her.

Cinder's gaze fell onto her for a moment, slightly widened in shock at the sight of Ruby's eyes brightening. She attempted to detonate the glass shards immediately with a raise of her hand.

Things felt even slower for Ruby now as the glass detonated and she could see the effect the explosion had on Pyrrha's aura. A tear streamed down her face as she dove forward and sure enough, was able to tackle Pyrrha just in the nick of time.

The glass detonated in a fiery explosion, while Ruby tackled Pyrrha out of the way. The two girls landed across the floor while Cinder quickly formed a glass bow in her hands and aimed it at Ruby, clearly viewing the girl as a threat.

The door into the CCT opened and Ironwood was there waiting with Penny at his side.

Cinder grit her teeth and dropped the aggression, slipping her way into the shadows again as Ruby looked over at Pyrrha. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, thank you." Pyrrha affirmed as the pair got up and stood before Ironwood and Penny.

Back at the ballroom, Cinder arrived, looking rather troubled just after losing the guards tailing her.

Upon finding Emerald and Mercury they knew something was up from the serious expression on her face.

" Did something exciting happen tonight, Cinder?" Mercury asked.

"Something troubling." the half-maiden admitted. "While I was successful, another factor may jeopardize everything. I'm going to have to ask for some help."

"We'll help wherever we can as well." Emerald assured her.

"Not for this." Cinder stated. "Not when that would jeopardize our main plan. I need to make a call."

Commentary: And here we have the dance finally! The CCT hack did still happen here unfortunately, especially since our protagonists never quite understood what the full extent of the hack was. But they did give Cinder a tougher time and very much scared her with what Ruby nearly did there with her eyes.