Chapter 24: The Dance

He stared in awe at the gruesome sight before him. The three men looked like they had been tortured: They had blood all over them and their skin was shredded. He brought his gaze down to Vayla, who seemed unaffected by anything.

"What have you done?" He asked, still trying to comprehend how such a small girl could do something like this.

"I have gotten payback on the people who ruined my plan." She replied simply, briefly glancing up at the bodies.

"What could they have possibly done to deserve this? What plan are you talking about?"

Vayla studied his face and replied, seemingly finding him either trustworthy or easy to manipulate. "I kidnapped someone so that I could use them as bait for someone else. These people helped in the rescue of the person I kidnapped and the capture of me. I escaped and returned to find them already very injured, so I took the liberty of wounding them more and stringing them up."

The whole time she had been talking, he had been staring at her with an expression she could not place.

"Makes sense, but what plans do you have for me?"

"I intend to use you as a method of bringing a girl named Blake Belladonna here for me."

"Who is that?"

"Not important, but are you aware of the Vytal Festival that is going on right now?"

"Yes, of course."

"We will take her then."

"And why should I help you?"

"Because when we bring her to a specific location, we recieve ten thousand lien."

"Woah, that's a lot of money, how much will I recieve?"

"Three thousand, more if you are efficient."

He thought about it for a while. Three thousand lien could really help both him and his family. It was the thought of his mother's face when he got home with that kind of money that decided it for him.

"Deal."

"Here it is, Training Room Seven." Weiss said, looking around at the interactive environment.

"The lucky one." Krystal muttered.

"You ready?" Colton asked her.

"Of course."

"How do you want to play? Tournament or Freestyle?" Weiss asked.

"Just for fun, freestyle."

"Then let's go."

The only difference between Tournament and Freestyle was the amount of people that had to fall into the red before the match was called. In Tournament, you only had to get one while in Freestyle you had to get all.

The two walked together to one end of the field, while Ruby and Weiss took their position on the opposite.

"Are all fighters ready?" A robotic voice said over the loudspeakers.

"Good to go!" Ruby yelled in return.

"Initiating countdown. Three. Two. One. Begin."

Ruby leapt up into the air, catching her feet on one of Weiss' glyphs and propelling herself off towards Colton and Krystal. She was quickly met with a storm of arrows all around but she was able to dodge them and swing Crescent Rose at Krystal.

"Watch out!" Colton was able to yell just in time for Krystal to back-handspring out of the way.

She landed on her feet and nocked an explosive arrow while Ruby stopped in front of her. They had reached a bit of an impasse, and both were furiously thinking of a way out. It was Ruby who came up with a way to end it. She knew that Krystal did not have the ability to weather explosions like Aurora could, and Krystal would hit herself as well as her if she fired. Ruby decided to charge but was met immediately by Krystal kicking her in the face and backflipping as Colton smashed into her from behind.

"Wha?" She exclaimed, confused by the turn of events.

What Ruby had failed to see was that Colton had knocked Weiss down into red aura and had ran back towards her. As Krystal was flipping away, he had taken the opportunity to shove Ruby to the ground and leap back, giving Krystal the time and target necessary to shoot the explosive arrow without fear of hitting herself. Ruby was able to look up in time to be hit by the arrow and get pounded into the ground in the subsequent explosion.

"Good game." Colton said as he helped her out of the hole.

"Nice one, Crater Face." Weiss laughed as she staggered over. "The name really applies now."

The laughing students made their way back to their rooms to change, all of them thinking about the dance.

"You guys ready to go?" Sun asked, looking around at the rest of his team who were all splayed out on their beds.

"Yep!" Krystal leapt into the air and high-fived Colton as he stood up.

"Uh, yeah." Aurora nervously got up, casting a quick glance towards the mirror.

Sun raised an eyebrow and continued on.

"Well then, let's go enjoy ourselves. Aurora?" He held out his hand and she took it tentatively.

Colton and Krystal smiled knowingly the pair, having already guessed what was going on between the two.

"You coming?" Sun asked over his shoulder as he lead Aurora out of the room.

"On the move." Krystal said happily as she followed them out with Colton in tow.

Teams RWBY and JNPR walked down the hallway together, with each and every one of them growing more excited as the music started getting louder.

"I can't wait!" Ruby was bouncing off the walls in her excitement.

"For once I have to agree." Weiss replied, everyone noting a faster twinge to her step.

'Weiss excited to go to a dance with Ruby? Good.' Yang thought as she added another mental checkmark to her evaluation of Weiss.

"I still want to go to the Amusement Park, but this will still be fun!" Nora saw the doors leading into the auditorium and she sprinted forward to barge them open.

"Whoa!" Tyger, a member of Team BOLT, exclaimed as he was thrown across the room by the door he was about to go through.

"I'm sorry!" Pyrrha yelled after him, even though she had nothing to do with it.

The whole room took in the flying figure as he continued to sail across the room.

"He's still in the air!" Someone yelled as Tyger finally began the descent back to the ground.

He was a few inches from a painful landing when he felt an arrow pierce the sleeve of his shirt, sending him flying sideways. The combined momentum of gravity and the arrow provided a slightly less agonizing crash when he inevitably hit the ground. One thing the arrow did, however, was it made rolling difficult because it impaled itself in the ground.

"SKEET SKEET!" A voice came from behind Teams RWBY and JNPR.

Everyone in the room turned to look at the person who had "saved" Tyger. To nobody's surprise, the person strutting into the room was none other than Krystal of Team SCAR.

"All bow before your queen." She said with a glimmer of amusement in her eyes.

The room started to rise in tension as some students didn't like the way Krystal was going about her success.

"A queen that, somehow, always figures out how to go the wrong way." Colton said as he turned his eyes skyward. "Just look at the time we got here, we would have been here a few minutes ago."

Krystal shot him an unamused look, but the tension in the room lessened and some friendly catcalls were issued at Krystal. She took them in stride and walked over to where Tyger was struggling with the arrow.

"Sorry." She said sheepishly as she carefully pulled the arrow out of the ground, making sure not to twist the head.

"It's fine." Tyger responded with a smile.

"You done flirting Krystal?" Lance called out with a grin as wide as an ocean.

Krystal just laughed and backflipped over Colton to land behind him.

"I don't need to flirt, I've already got an idiot to attend to." She replied as she hugged Colton.

'This is going to be a long night.' Colton thought before amending it. 'But I get to be with Krystal, which more than balances it out.'

The dance went by under the footsteps of the many party-goers. The music was constantly getting louder and louder and with it the people did the same. It was almost the end when the DJ announced that a special song was coming up. When the song came on, a slow one, everyone looked around for someone to dance with.

"No." Yang told the fifth guy to come up to her looking to dance.

He walked back dejectedly and Yang turned to Blake, who was clearly enjoying the amount of people getting turned down for her.

"Wanna dance kitty?" Yang asked as she held out her hand.

"Of course." Blake took it and they began on their way around the room.

They saw Colton and Krystal go by less-than-gracefully while Ruby and Weiss exhibited beautiful dance skills.

"Blake remind me to tease those two later." Yang muttered as they continued on.

Ren and Nora swooped past, with Nora looking more excited than usual. Their eyes eventually landed on Sun and Aurora, who were going slower than the rest.

"Aurora, I need to ask you something." Sun said, catching a glimpse of Blake and Yang listening in and rolling his eyes at them.

"Yes Sun?" Aurora replied with hopeful eyes.

"Have you ever cared about anyone?"

"Not really, I've been an outcast for my whole life."

"But do you feel better here? With the rest of your team?"

"Of course, I feel more secure with you guys. I feel like I'm actually important to someone other than me."

"Do you know why you sense that?" Sun asked with a glint of mischief in his eyes.

"No, why?"

"Because you're very important to me." Sun leaned down slightly and kissed her on the lips.

They held it for a long moment but, like all other great things, were interrupted by a certain annoying blonde.

"I KNEW IT!" Yang leaped over and hugged them both before high-fiving Blake.

Sun smiled at her bravely with a hint of annoyance in his eyes while Aurora stared at the ground sheepishly.

"Thanks Yang, I always knew you would be there when I told her." Sun sarcastically said.

"Glad you know me well!" Yang replied.

"Let's go, I have something special for you." Blake pulled Yang away from the new couple and into a nearby closet.

"Always able to find one when you need them, unlike anything else." Yang muttered as she was pulled inside.

Sun watched the two disappear, then turned to Aurora.

"Want to dance?"

Author's Note:
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