On April 12th, 2021 SUGARCRASH was published and I had no idea that technically a full year has passed since I posted this story! So thank you all! Without you and your support, this story would be nothing! Seriously!
On Wattpad, this story has: 8.9K Reads, 234 Favorites, and 109 comments
On Fanfiction this story has: 167 Reviews, 522 Followers, 389 Favorites, is in 1 Community, and has a total of 71, 641 Views
On A03 this story has: 17 Comments, 185 Kudos, 74 Bookmarks, and 20131 Hits
Also, I am not doing the math for this many numbers, but I'm sure it's relatively big. But all of those things were because of all of you! So let me say it again, without you, this story would not be what or where it is as it has become one of the most popular stories I have written!
THANK YOU ALL! HAVE AN AMAZING AND WONDERFUL MORNING/DAY/NIGHT!
The Reviews!
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Theanimemaster9000: The answer to your question will be at the end of this chapter in the bottom notes!
Reader: Eh... we'll have to wait for the sequel...
Dragon Blaze-X: Your right, I could have built that up way better. However, I also wanted to gie a sneak peek at the whole "The Strong Survive in Vacuo" With Dews backstory because I felt it was right, but again you make a really good point that I could and should've built that up way better. As for your "May Zedong" Idea, I already had planned that out as I always saw her as a contrast to what Vacuo stood for, plus I love the ship as well! and your answer to a Jaune and May interaction will be at the end of the chapter. Also as for the Slice of life/building parts, I do plan on adding some since I know that the story can't be completely about training and fighting, and there will be chapters just focusing on a slice of life. Marcy will get her own parts as of right now, she is our only true connection to the bad guys and she will have more interactions with Jaune in the coming chapters (just not in this one, Sorry). And we will get more of the girls sort of fighting/working together/ scoping out competition/hanging out with Jaune even during certain Arcs (Again, due to penny's straightforwardness, the girls now know that they gotta make their moves and quick!).
X3runner: Very true!
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Anyway, back to the chapter!
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Before the ball, Cinder looked over to Emerald and Marceline, "Listen up you two, I'm going to get ready, I need you both at the dance as my cover when I get there, Understood"
Emerald nodded, "Yes Ma'am" Emerald said
"Got it, boss," Marceline replied
Cinder nodded and Emerald and Marceline made their way to the Ballroom. As she was walking, Marceline couldn't help but slightly hope that Cinder's plan for hacking into the CCT tower would fail, that way her endgame wouldn't come to pass. She had no idea why she had been feeling this way, but she just hoped that for some reason... they'd fail at what they were planning. Why? Because for some reason her heart and her soul kept thinking about those words that Jaune had told her when he saved her.
She was so conflicted about why she was so impacted by his words but, she also wanted to know why she believed his words?
She shook her head and kept walking down the hall. However, Emerald noticed her conflicted expression and was slightly worried about her partner.
"You ok Marc?" Emerald asked
"I'm Fine Em," Marceline said, "Let's just get to the dance," She said
Emerald nodded and they made their way to the dance.
Meanwhile, in the ballroom, Jaune and Penny had just finished dancing and were now taking a seat at a nearby table. Penny sat down and she had the biggest smile on her face as she had enjoyed dancing with Jaune.
"That was really fun Jaune!" Penny said, "Thank you so much for being my date to the Ball!" She said
"Y-Yeah... No... No problem P-Penny..." Jaune said through ragged breaths
He had been dancing with penny for what felt like an hour and he was tired, yet somehow, Penny didn't even break a sweat. Jaune was beginning to think that she wasn't human.
Penny was wearing a short, light green, short-sleeved dress with a narrow black detailing around her waist and a white collar alongside a pair of light green heels.
Meanwhile, he was wearing his uniform since that's the only formal wear he had.
"How's your dance going Jaune?"
Jaune turned his head to see that it was Reese, wearing a nearly bright glowing neon green dress, which also sort of made her hair glow dimly, which was actually really beautiful in a way, causing him to blush slightly.
"Yeah, Penny's a real good dancer, and she's really bursting with energy," Jaune smiled "How's the dance treating you though?"
"Good so far, the music is really good and Ars, as well as the others, seem to be having fun," Reese said
"Hey, there Lover boy!"
The three turned their heads and saw Velvet and Coco walking over to them. Coco was wearing a silky white short-sleeved shirt with an Asymmetrical coffee brown skirt and a pair of ankle-strapped heels. As for Velvet, she had her hair in a ponytail and she wore a shoulder-loose dark red dress with red heels.
"Ah! Hello Coco! Hello Velvet!" Penny said cheerfully,
Coco looked at her and smiled, "Hey Pen," Coco said with a smile, "What do you think lover boy~?" Coco asked gesturing at hers and Velvet's dresses.
Jaune blushed a little and nodded, "Y-You both look really gorgeous," He said with a smile
"Th-Thanks Jaune," Velvet said with a blush and hind her face a little
Coco just smiled and then looked around before looking back at the other three, "Where're the others?"
"Right here!"
Velvet and Coco jumped a little and they quickly turned around and saw Sun and Neptune.
Neptune was wearing a tux with a dark blue tie, and Sun was wearing his usual jeans, however, he was wearing a black t-shirt with rolled-up sleeves and a white loose tie hung from his collar.
"Hey guys," Sun said
Coco looked over them and how they were dressed, "Nep, you look nice, Sun, you really need some fashion sense but I will say that black looks really good on you," Coco said
"Thanks... I guess?" Sun said
"Ah, there you two are,"
They all turned to see Arslan, who was wearing a red and gold cheongsam dress and a pair of red kitten heels. And her hair was in a braided bun with gold hairpins in the bun. Jaune blushed a lot more when seeing her and couldn't deny that she was stunning.
"Hey, Ars, looking really good tonight~!" Coco said with a smile
Arslan smiled, "Thank you Coco, and glade you made it," she said
"So, how's everyone enjoying the dance? Took me a lot of time to set it up,"
"This dance is my first one and I must say it is spectacular!" Penny said cheerfully
"It's awesome Coco," Jaune said with a smile
"Damn right! Really digging the music!" Reese said,
"yeah, you really knew what we needed for this night!" Sun cheered raising a cup of punch in the air
"You did an amazing job, Coco," Arslan said with a soft smile
"Thanks, guys!" Coco said with a slight blush.
As most of them were there, they all began talking and chatting as others around them grabbed drinks, chatted with other students, danced on the floor, or just stood in the corner being awkward. Yep. this was definitely a school dance.
As Jaune was taking a sip from his cup, he looked outside real quick only to see an interesting sight. He saw a woman in all black sneaking along the tops of the roofs and then saw her jump behind one roof and he couldn't see her anymore. Jaune had a feeling that was telling him that whatever he just saw, it couldn't be good.
So in a split second Jaune disappeared from the table and everyone saw this and was confused until Sun sensed his presence and looked over to the ballroom entrance only to see Jaune running toward his room.
Penny looked at Jaune's empty seat and was shocked, "Jaune Vanished!" She said with a surprised voice.
Arslan looked around but couldn't see him, so she turned to Sun, "Sun, you're the only one here with advanced Aura sight, did you see where he went?" She asked
"he left the room and he's running like a mad man... Somethings up," Sun said
Sun got up and Ran out of the Ballroom and Arslan now also began to feel that something wasn't right. She turned to the others and told them to stay where they are as she ran after Sun. 'I really need to train Aura Sight and Aura Step or else I'll be lagging behind these two,' Arslan thought as she raced after them.
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Meanwhile, outside of the dance, Cinder made it to the top of the CCT tower and made her way to the head control panel and she then hooked up her own scroll to the control panel. She saw that it was going to take a few minutes to fully hack into the network. Suddenly, she heard the Elevator ding and looked over at it with a glare.
'What now!?' She thought to herself
She quickly hid and peeked over a desk to see who was coming up to the top floor, and when the elevator fully opened, she saw none other than Jaune Arc. He quickly stepped out of the elevator and looked directly at her, which sort of gave her a shock.
"Come on out! I know you're behind that Desk, I can see your Aura color!" Jaune told her as he unsheathed his sword.
'How did he see my Aura!?' Cinder thought. She then stood up from behind the desk and looked at him with a cold glare and saw that he had his weapon, which wasn't good because that meant he might use that slicing attack of his, Arcus Mortis if she remembered correctly.
Jaune looked at her and saw that she wasn't talking nor did she act as if she had just been caught red-handed, "You know this isn't a masquerade ball, right? So why don't you-"
However, before he could finish his sentence, Cinder took out a vile of dust, opened it, and swung it across the air, and they instantly transformed into large sharp shards aimed at him. She sent them flying forward and Jaune disappeared and then reappeared behind her with blinding speed, he pulled his sword back, ready to stab at her, but Cinder turned around quickly and dodged Jaune's attack.
Cinder then formed two scimitars out of thin air and prepared to engage Jaune. Jaune looked at her but then noticed something that shocked him a little. When he first saw her Aura, it was orange, but now it was like a reddish-orange, almost like the color of a flame.
'Her Aura changed color? how is that possible?' Jaune asked
Cinder then formed a bow out of the two swords and unleashed two arrows from her quiver. Jaune blocked the arrows with his sword. Cinder undid the bow form and prepared to cross blades with him, that was until Cinder got a warning from Emerald over her intercom.
Jaune looked back to her and took a closer look at her, 'It's not unusual for some people's Aura to change color when they use their Semblance, but when they do, the color of their Aura slowly fades into the color of their semblance, but her's didn't, it was a sudden and quick change, and there was no special ability, which lets me know her semblance didn't activate, but now I'm even more confused... this was unheard of' Jaune thought to himself
[Ironwood is leaving, looks like he's had enough fun for the night,] Emerald notified her.
Cinder growled, 'Damn! I thought I would have more time!' Cinder said with a glare.
Her blades shattered and the pieces floated in the air before they were reformed into a spear. She then threw it at Jaune and he quickly dodged the attack, however, as soon as Cinder threw the glass spear, she made a run for her scroll.
When she arrived at the control panel, she quickly picked it up only to see that the upload was at 100%, which surprised her, but was thankful that it had worked. She took her scroll off the control panel and smiled wickedly.
'Seems like that old fool truly does still have what it takes' Cinder thought as she made a run for it.
Jaune saw her running and went after her, but Cinder ran straight threw the window and landed right on the side of the CCT tower, which shocked him. He watched her run away and then entered one of the buildings. Jaune was going to go after her but was stopped as he heard the sound of a hammer being pulled back. Jaune turned around only to be face to face with the barrel of a pistol, and the person holding it was none other than Headmaster and General himself... James Ironwood.
"Ah... crap," Jaune said
Suddenly the elevator dinged and they both looked to see who it was as the doors opened only to see Sun and Arslan with their weapons.
"Jaune we're here to-!" Sun began only to see the General and he froze like a deer in headlights.
Arslan saw the Headmaster/General and realized how this must have looked to someone like him.
"Oh... crap," They both said
Ironwood turned back to Jaune and gave him a blake expression befitting someone of his status. "You three have a lot of explaining to do," He told them
Back with Cinder, now in a black dress with a pair of black heels, rejoined her fellow teammates in the Ballroom and smiled at Emerald and Mercury as they sat at the table.
Emerald looked at her, "Did it work?" Emerald asked
"Despite a few hiccups, it did," Cinder said as her wicked smile appeared on her face again, "However, we now have a problem,"
"What is it?" Marceline asked
"Arc interrupted me while I was connecting to the network," She told them "He gave me a little scare, but thankfully I was able to escape, but even so, it seems he will be a thorn in our side, and with his new techniques, it makes him quite a big problem," Cinder said
"Do we have to deal with him?" Emerald asked
Cinder shook her head, "Not now, but when the time comes and when we are in phase 3 of our plan, then yes, he will need to be dealt with," Cinder said
Hearing this scared Marceline, as now, Cinder saw him as a threat, which meant he would have to be possibly dealt with when the time came, wither by Cinder's hands... or her own. But she didn't want to harm him or have any harm come to him. She... she cared for him, it was odd as she hadn't spent much time around him as his other friends, but she really cared about him. However, if she began showing any sign that she cared for Jaune, Cinder would use that, and she wouldn't allow that to happen.
'I need to figure something out... I need to make sure... that he stays alive,' Marceline thought to herself
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Cinder had successfully hacked into Beacon, however, will her plan be the same? As for Jaune, Sun, and Arslan, what kind of questions does the big bad General have for them?
I'm excited that the dance chapters are over as now we can move on to Chapters 18-20 as those are the chapters where a few big events take place and will affect the story!
So in order for you guys to get excited about the next chapter, here's a small summary of what to expect for Chapter 18!
Jaune is paired with BRNZ on his first huntsmen mission! Oobleck returns with Alyx's journal, hoping to find more secrets within it! Oobleck ask's Jaune a very important question. Jaune comes face-to-face with a sleeping Wyvern. Adam Taurus finds an unconscious Jaune Arc.
Also, yes, in Canon RWBY some Aura and Semblance colors can change. This explains the sudden shift in Jaune's Aura color in the show, as it is white, while his Semblance is a pale yellow. (however, I will be keeping Jaune's Aura and Semblance fully white).
As Jaune stated when a person does have a different Semblance Color from their Aura, and when they activate their semblance, their Aura color slowly fades into their Semblance color.
Of course, this is apparently not the case with Cinder, which is of course due to her stealing the Maidens powers (as Amber's Aura color was a Yellow-Orange) this is why we see a combination of their two Aura's a Red-Orange.
Also, this is just this story's Canon, but if one has a passive Semblance, like Qrow and Clover, their Aura and Semblance Colors will stay the same.