2 days until the party.

Ballroom (Day)

"I need you to pick a table cloth." Weiss told her partner as she slipped two square pieces of fabric to Ruby.

"Aren't they both the same?" the Rose asked, not seeing a difference in color.

"Weiss, stop torturing Ruby and help me with the balloons!" Connor said from across the room, trying (and failing) to inflate the decorations.

"Fine. This isn't over." the heiress said to Ruby as she walked to her brother.

Meanwhile, Dominic and Gregory were hanging up streamers. The younger of the two was dozing off, though. "Uh, are you okay? You look like you haven't slept in days." Dominic asked.

"I'm fine!" the Rose snapped, making Dominic's eye flash red out of shock. Seeing his brother's face, Gregory looked down. "Sorry. I'm just a bit on edge because of the dance." he lied. Since he used that Blizzard attack against the Paladin, his Nightmares had gotten worse. As a result, he'd been sleeping less in an attempt to escape them.

However, Dominic was unaware of this and assumed he was telling the truth. "Yeah, me too. I think I'm just not going to attend." the blonde explained, gaining the hydromancer's attention.

"Wait, what? I thought you loved to sing." Gregory said.

"Yes, sing. Not dance. You know I can't dance at all. The last time I tried, I broke my leg in three places!" Dominic clarified, recalling the unfortunate incident. "Besides, what would I even wear?"

"You could rent a suit. I think a few other students are doing that too." his brother suggested. "As long as it isn't purple."

That statement confused the blonde. "What's wrong with purple?" he asked.

"Nothing. Just, you don't really look good in that color." Gregory said quickly, trying to save face. While Dominic did look atrocious in purple, there was another reason the Blue Rose despised the color. As his mind was tormented by memories of a man who thankfully wasn't a part of his life anymore, he noticed the absence of a certain black-haired faunus. "Hey, do you know where Blake is?"

"Come to think of it, I haven't seen her since Combat Class." Dominic said, placing a hand to his chin. He was torn from his thoughts by his sister, who was yelling at Weiss about decorations.

"I thought we agreed on no doilies!" Yang said angrily.

"If I don't get doilies, you don't get fog machines!" Weiss shot back, just as outraged. Hearing the door open, she and the Brawler turned their heads to see Neptune and Sun.

"Your dance is gonna have fog machines?" Neptune asked, quickly gaining the attention of Connor.

"Nothing's been decided yet." the male Schnee said, his eyes glowing a faint green as he eyed the bluenette.

"Still, it's pretty cool." Neptune said, unaware of the death glare he was receiving.

"So, you ladies all excited for dress-up?" Sun asked as Dominic walked over to the group.

"Yeah right." Ruby said dejectedly, not wanting to wear a dress.

"Laugh all you want, I'll be turning heads tomorrow night." Yang proudly declared.

"In which direction?" Dominic asked with a grin before being punched in the face by his twin. "I deserved that." he weakly said from the floor, struggling to get back up.

"What are you two wearing?" Weiss asked Sun and Neptune.

However, the blonde faunus didn't seem to understand the question. "Uhh, this." he answered.

"Ignore him, for he knows not what he says." Neptune said, trying to save his partner's dignity.

"Hey, I may have moved to Mistral, but I grew up in Vacuo! It's not exactly a shirt-and-tie kinda place." Sun explained.

"Yeah, we've noticed." Yang deadpanned.

"So, what does Blake think of all this?" the monkey faunus asked. "Is she still being all... Blake-y?"

"Obviously." Weiss said.

"I still can't think of a way to change her mind." Ruby said, turning to Dominic. "Can you convince her to come?"

"What!? Why me?" the blonde asked.

"Because you have a knack for getting through people's heads." Yang told her brother. "If anyone can talk to her, it's you."

Dominic's eye turned red for a few seconds as he thought about what to do. After a while, his eye returned to it's normal hue. "Okay. I'll see what I can do."

Classroom (Evening)

After a bit of persuasion, Dominic managed to get Blake to agree to a meeting in Port's Classroom. "If you're going to try and tell me to stop, you may as well save your breath."

"Trust me, I know you won't. I just wanted you to try and relax for a while." the blonde said, sitting on the floor.

"We don't have the luxury to relax." Blake said, pacing back and forth.

"Really? Last I checked, humans and faunus require sleep to operate correctly." Dominic said.

"What we require is stopping Torchwick." the faunus retorted.

"That will happen. Eventually." Dominic told Blake. "Come take a seat and listen to me. I have a story for you." Not seeing a way out of this, the faunus sat down next to him.

"Ruby, Yang, Gregory, and I grew up on Patch. It's a little island off the coast of Vale. Our parents were huntsmen. Our dad taught us at Signal Academy alongside our Uncle Qrow, and Mom would take us with her on missions around the Kingdom." "She's truly the epitome of what it means to be a mother." "Remind me to give you one of her cookies." Dominic's eye flashed red for a moment before his face turned to a somber expression. "One day, ten years ago, I made a mistake and ended up nearly killing myself."

That got Blake's attention.

"I don't really remember much of it. All I know for sure is that I followed Mom on a mission, a dangerous one. I stowed away on a Bullhead and stayed quiet. When we landed, she sped out like a bullet." "That woman could outrun sound itself if it meant she'd be able to help someone." "It's just, she has a habit of acting without thinking. Something I think I picked up from her." "I gave chase for what felt like miles until I found her face-down in a crater, with a man standing over her." "The only thing I remember about him was the fact that he was a faunus, a scorpion one." "He poisoned Mom's leg with his tail, and intended to leave her there to die."

Blake's eyes went wide at that. 'So that's why he overclocked his Aura to kill the Deathstalker during Initiation.'

"I don't remember what happened next. I think I blacked out or something." "When I woke up, I was in the hospital with a bandage over my face." "The doctors said Mom's leg had to be removed so the poison wouldn't spread. As for what happened to me, let's just say I became half myself." Dominic knocked the right side of his face with a forced smile, a metallic sheen covering his right eye.

"(Gasp!) Did you...?" Blake asked, unable to finish her question.

"Yeah. It's a good thing I was friends with Connor. If I didn't have the right medical equipment from Atlas, I might not have been able to come to Beacon at all." the blonde said, remembering the painful installment of his prosthetic.

"Dominic, I'm sorry that happened to you. I understand what you're trying to say, but this is different." the faunus said. "I'm not a child without fighting experience. I can't just-"

"I already said you don't need to stop. You just need to relax." the one-eyed blonde said. "We'll find the answers you want. But if you end up dying along the way, what's the point?"

"You don't get it! I'm the only one who can-" Blake's rant was cut off when Dominic punched her in the stomach. Looking up at him, she noticed that his left eye's sclera was black.

"If you can't beat me, what makes you think Torchwick will fall to you?" he asked with his eye glowing red. Taking a deep breath, it's hue returned to normal. "Please... At least rest for tonight. You deserve to have fun." Dominic made his way to the exit before stopping. "Besides, there are people here who want you to live." he said before leaving.