Chapter 21: Dancing With Our Dreams.

"Tonight is the night of the Vytal Dance…are you sure you have everything down for how to do the HeartBound ritual?"

Erick grumbled to himself a bit. Yes, it was his fault that this whole lie was being told to his leader. But there was heavy irony in his eyes about his leader being the one nagging him to ensure he had everything remembered.

Granted, all he needed to do was simply 'disappear.' with Weiss for about half an hour without Winter noticing, and then he could remove this lie from his consciousness. And even if his leader ever found out the truth that he and Weiss had been HeartBound before the lie, the conversation Moon had with Weiss told him that he might have eventually had to bite the bullet and start finding one eventually.

"Yeah, I remember. You know me." He replied.

"I know she already confirmed it multiple times," Moon continued, "But just check with her one last time before you start it. It still just feels unnatural to me that Weiss would ever be okay with essentially tossing her life away for…us."

The genius kept quiet, and, as he expected, his leader had gone into his own little world as he essentially paced back and forth. Sarah and Sapphire were both watching them as well.

"I mean…I know now that her family life is not very good." Moon continued, Sarah shot Erick a nervous look. "But still, it just doesn't sound right. How poor could life be for her, and the potential future of the rest of Remnant if she thinks coming with us is a good idea?"

"Just remember," Sarah jumped in as Moon continued to ramble on without paying them much mind. "From what Dyson told us, the HeartBound should be painful. We don't know how it'll affect Weiss as a non PSI-User. We know you aren't technically one, but you have that energy around you. Try to ease the pain if she has problems, a simple kiss hold should work."

"Indeed, I'll remember that." Erick replied. "What about you three though?"

"We're going to the dance ourselves." Sapphire replied. "We gotta make sure no one follows you. Plus, maybe Moon can find some way to relax himself. You've heard him at night recently."

Erick completely ignored the massive blush on Sarah's face. It was very difficult for him and Sapphire to ignore the rather…interesting attempts to try and calm Moon down if he woke up from the nightmare problems. Did not help that their leader also tended to talk in his sleep.

"Okay…but uh…are you not going to dress up yourselves?"

"Not a chance." Sapphire deadpanned. "This is one of the few chances we do not have to wear this world's awful clothing designs. I hate the feeling of the suits here. I understand dress codes and shit. But the fact they make these dress outfit uniforms so uncomfortable is really stupid."

The ballroom dance was actually quite enjoyable, Moon had to admit, if he wasn't afraid of having a Dark side breakdown while being enjoyable with Sarah, he might have actually come to enjoy the dance. Sadly, that was not the case at this time.

Actually, this dance reminded him of his and Sarah's first "date." Though, calling it a date would be an understatement, they just happened to wander into a concert because they needed the help of a band to get through a tunnel like their adventure was some stupid video game. Not to mention that he had to put up with a rather unfortunate harasser to Sarah. Perhaps one of the less tragic losses of their world being destroyed. That being said, the harasser to Sarah reminded him quite a bit of Mercury in terms of looks.

"You don't want to go dance with Sarah?" Sapphire asked, taking a seat next to Moon at their reserved table.

"I don't dance." Moon replied, blowing his hair out of his nearly slash out silver eye that it covered. "Plus, you know exactly what will happen if we lower our guard."

"Yeah, yeah." His teammate replied. "Classic trope, when there's a ball, you know some shady shit or big twist is gonna be revealed. That's how these stories usually go."

The two boys sat in silence watching the dance floor. Sarah eventually joined them from the punch bowl. She handed both boys their own cups, which Sapphire promptly took one sniff of before simply pushing it away.

"Yeah…I wouldn't advise either of you two to drink this," he said. "Someone spiked the punch, and unlike my world, where alcohol drinking is quite common. I don't think your bodies would be accustomed to such a thing."

Sarah blinked in confusion, Moon wasn't really paying attention, his eyesight was directed at Cinder's teammates, Emerald and Mercury. Cinder was apparently not feeling very good so she didn't attend the dance.

"Truth be told, Lady Edelgard actually had a fit trying to figure out what to do with your husband. Traditional Fodlan drinks filled with stuff similar to this nearly sent Moon all over the place."

"I'm just glad Weiss was willing to accept Erick." Moon continued after a moment, watching the resident genius dance with the ice queen of Team RWBY. "Lord knows WHY she'd accept being soul bound to a person with an evil root in their brain. But whatever."

"Enjoying yourselves?" The three of them turned to the Headmaster, Ozpin. The man looked over at Moon, but he paid the man no mind.

"Very much so." Sarah replied sweetly.

"Really?" The headmaster seemed amused. "Your leader's rather stone demeanor suggests otherwise. Go dance, these opportunities to experience our culture don't come around very often. The Vytal Dance is quite the spectacle of culture."

"I'm sure they don't." Sapphire deadpanned. "Why are you here anyway? I thought you and General Ironwood had business to discuss."

The headmaster just chuckled. "Even us adults can still find time to kick back and have fun, you know. I'll leave you 3 too in that case."

Once the man had left. Moon simply sighed and continued to scan the ballroom. Sun and Blake were sharing a dance. As were Weiss and Erick. Ruby and Yang both looked equally as bored. And god only knew what team JNPR was going to be doing as Jaune re-entered the ballroom now in a dress.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Ruby eventually stand up from her bored location after she had glanced in a general direction and left.

His eyes narrowed a little before he stood up as well, gripping Saphria's hilt hidden behind the cloak hood.

"I'll be right back." He said, turning to Sapphire and Sarah. "Keep an eye on those two cronies of Cinder." He motioned to Emerald and Mercury, who were sharing a dance on the far edge of the room.

His friends simply gave him a bored nod and let him go.

Moon hopped off the roof of a building he had used jumping off to follow Ruby. He found it weird that Ruby had sped off from the dance. After all, she had prepared the dance with her own team, and he had seen people approach the four girls to congratulate them or praise their work on the ball.

Ruby was still very notoriously fast, and had it not been for the trail of rose petals left by her semblance, he might have actually lost her on his way.

He used his levitation to stop his fall as he landed in front of a large white building. He tilted his head to the side a bit before looking at a sign next to the door.

Technological Base of the Kingdom of Vale; Sponsored by Andonuts Labs in Atlas.

"Why would Ruby come here?" he wondered. No offense to her, but Ruby didn't strike him as a technological genius. He couldn't see her doing much to hack anything.

"Halt Right There!"

He didn't flinch, but he did turn and was greeted with an Atlesian soldier. Just one though, the pearly white armor and dust pistol.

"You have no authority to be here. Please state your name."

Now that he was listening to the soldier speak individually, the voice sounded kind of robotic.

"My name is Moon Wolfe, I came here looking for Ruby Rose, we're both Beacon Students."

He watched as the visor seemingly flashed red before the soldier just lowered the gun.

"Okay…" Moon puzzled.

KA-BOOM!

He flinched as a rumble shook, seemingly below him. He ran inside of the building, and quickly took off down some stairs, and burst through a door just in time to watch Ruby be sent flying backwards and over two tech desks of computers and right next to him.

He quickly scanned the room and found his answer, at one of the computers he spotted a shadowed figure. By what little he could make out of this…disguise, it appeared to be a woman with red eyes.

"DANGER!"

His precognition kicked in as he quickly turned and slashed Saphria through the air, and was immediately met with the shattering of Pink and Brown glass as Torchwick's ice cream henchmen dodged his attack, before he felt a swift bash from her Umbrella.

"Fuck this shit again?!" He grunted as he stood up, he turned to Ruby, who was puzzled at his appearance, but just silently nodded in understanding.

He turned back to Neo as Ruby took off towards the woman at the computer. "Didn't think I'd get a round two so soon? I'd imagine that you're helping this…person…to get your boss back?"

Neo just rolled her pink and brown eyes as she tapped her umbrella in a taunting manor before smiling.

Moon quickly snapped his fingers as a bit of Black Flames erupted from his fingers. Neo's eyes widened a bit as the shadow flare brought onto her. He quickly jumped in and slashed Saphria in a cross-motion, the Ice Cream warrior of Torchwick took the slash before he kicked off her body to push her back.

"Just because you have a "get out of jail-free card." doesn't mean you can expect me to be unprepared for it."

Neo gave him a sly grunt before she took her Umbrella and pointed it at him, Moon quickly maneuvered his way as Neo began to fire bullets at him. He jumped around before channeling a bit of water into his sword.

"Hydro Slash." he slashed the sword as a sharp wave of water burst from the tip. The wave of water missed as the ice cream criminal did a cartwheel away from the hydro slash. Neo then ran into a wall as her body shattered like glass around him.

Moon quickly channeled his PSI energy into his foot before turning as he sensed Neo reappear behind him. He collided his foot with her umbrella as a blast radius shot through the building, shattering the screens on some of the computers.

"WATCH IT NEO! WE STILL HAVE A JOB HERE!" Now that the woman had spoken, Moon could definitely tell it was a woman. The voice sounded very egotistical, even a bit cocky.

Ruby's rose semblance sped around him as she quickly sliced through the Ice Cream warrior. Moon quickly doubled as he sent three gemstones in her direction. Neo dodged one but was quickly taken down by a second one.

Moon and Ruby both quickly turned to the woman at the computer, she grunted as she turned to both of them.

The mysterious woman turned back to the two of them, Moon watched her slip something tiny into a section of her black robe.

"Roman really thought he picked a good one." She took out two golden swords and quickly jumped in on both of them. He and Ruby split up as they clashed their weapons against her golden swords.

The woman's eyes flashed gold as she twirled around and flashed her in a twirl, golden flames burst from the sword tips and pushed both teenage leaders back.

Moon quickly caught himself as the woman followed up an attack on him. Quickly he channeled his powers against his sword and clashed it against her golden sword himself. Looking under her hood, he could see that her eyes were an amber color.

"I don't know what she sees in you." Great, the woman's voice was distorted. Of course it would be. "One of these days, I'll show her."

He grunted as he spotted Ruby push herself up and envelop herself in her cloak for her semblance.

"Paralysis 𝛼?!" His fingers sparked as he touched the woman's hip before kicking off of her stomach. Just as Ruby tackled her and uppercut her with her scythe.

Just as Ruby landed next to him, both teens were frozen as they watched the woman surround herself in fire.

"One of you is naive, the other is cold." The woman hissed. "Both of you are wrapped in a conspiracy that dates back to before you could ever be born."

Ruby just blinked in confusion as Moon rolled his eyes. He'd love a snarky rebuttal to this, but he had some sneaky suspicion that she wasn't spouting nonsense for nothing. Sometimes it was better to just play dumb.

"What do you want from this place? More importantly, what is this place?" He asked.

"Monologue asking? Do you think I am that stupid?"

"You sound the part if you use a voice modifier. Isn't that how it usually works?" Moon ignored Ruby's confused looks.

The woman's eyes flashed gold as the fire surrounding her turned black. It didn't take an expert to know what she wanted, especially when Moon heard the glass of Neo shatter behind them but didn't sense an attack from his precognition.

"Ruby, how fast can you move? Also, how's your aura?" he asked.

"Pretty fast…my uncle, dad, and sister used to help train my speed control. My aura is doing well."

"Good, because I'm going to need you to do something incredibly dumb. Grab me, and use your semblance to charge right through her fireball for us to escape. My PSI Shield should protect you, but if it fades, your aura is going to have to help us."

"You have water powers! Can't you just…" Moon's deadpanned stare as the girl realized what exactly was in the area.

"Right…electrical hazard. Sorry, Weiss is getting to me." Ruby grabbed him and he felt light as he wrapped his arms around her as she shrunk both of them down into her cloak before taking off. Both teenagers could feel the heat as they blasted through the massive fire hazard, but Moon's shield felt their protection.

Ruby suddenly wobbled a little as they both fell against the concrete on the sidewalk outside.

"Sorry about the bumpy landing…" Ruby chuckled a little as both of them stood up.

"I'll take a few scratches I can simply wave off with my healing powers over being nuked alive in…whatever the hell that place is."

"I think this is some type of database communications center?" Ruby said. "Or…was." Moon looked over at the now lit aflame building that was slowly cackling in the night sky. "Odd isn't it though? You'd think with all the technology and stuff in there that it would've ex-"

KA-BOOM!

"-Ploded." Moon just simply facepalmed as the red girl hushed herself down.

"So…uh…huntress in training. What do we do now? Is there any chance that the explosion was loud enough for people at the ball to have heard and come running over right now?"

"Well, I suppose that we could always-"

"You could always explain yourselves." Moon just sighed as he and Ruby turned to face General Ironwood, as well as Qrow. Both adults had their eyesights directed more so at Moon rather than Ruby. For Qrow that was understandable, but for Ironwood, there was a bit more irritation.

"What the hell are you both doing here instead of at the ball?"

"I don't suppose saying we were both bored as shit would be a good answer?" Moon asked.

Both adults gave him a furrowed brow, as Ruby sort of gave a half-hearted giggle.

"Well…I saw some shady lady jumping from roof to roof, so I followed her here since no one was asking me to dance."

"No one?" Qrow seemed mildly amused by that. "Come on Ruby, you're two years younger than everyone at Beacon, that shouldn't surprise you. Don't you know how many students actually ditch the ball to go f-"

"QROW!" Ironwood scolded.

"I'm just saying Jimmy." Qrow chuckled. "You know damn well we both did when we were students."

"Anyway, can you tell us more about this…shady lady?" Ironwood asked. "What did she take?"

"I uh…I don't know." Ruby blushed. "I saw her clacking away at one of the computers. But I didn't see her take anything. She and that ice cream looking henchmen from Torchwick attacked me. So I didn't get a good look at her."

Both adults looked at Moon, who just shrugged his shoulders. He did see the woman, but he didn't know what was on the harddrive she slipped in her cloak.

"Well, I saw her looking through some folders and downloading some information. I'm assuming she used a harddrive of some sort. So unless you are willing to share some potentially classified information with us, I don't know what she stole."

"Uh huh." Ironwood muttered. "Well…we can potentially review the security footage and determine the tru-"

"Uh…General sir…the whole building is gone." Ruby said.

Qrow and Ironwood both looked past them, making Moon question why the fuck they kept their vision locked on him for so long, and saw the whole building basically destroyed.

"Oh…well then…" Ironwood grumbled. "We'll figure something else out in that case. You two get back to Beacon, let the adults handle this."

"If you insist."

Cinder landed on the roof of a harbor shipment bin, where Neo formed up next to her.

"Well done you stupid brat." Cinder grumbled. "Got cocky against those two kids did you."

Neo rolled her eyes before tipping her hat up.

"You're lucky my powers and backup were able to get us out of there."

"YOUR POWER!"

Cinder flinched and groaned as Pokey stepped out from the shadows. Methodically slow clapping his hands

"I'm sorry, little miss edgy autumn over here forgot how she got her damn magical powers of bullshit that could even give her a chance against those freaks."

Cinder's eyes flashed gold as Neo giggled at Pokey's response.

"Regardless, little miss maiden, you need to get back to Beacon before they find out your bitchass isn't in the room."

Cinder grunted before using her maiden powers and flying off, to which Pokey turned to Neo, who gave him a sarcastic sigh.

"I know, can't believe people like fucking Emerald think she's great." Pokey grumbled, "how can one be so vain about themselves? Even Seiros wasn't so fucking cocky about shit like this. I'd never met someone so fucking full of themselves. And she hasn't even fucking won yet!"

Moon opened the door to his dorm room, and he was greeted face-to-face with Sarah. She immediately stood up from the bedspread and walked over to him.

"Oh…the dance is still…going on?" Moon asked.

"Yeah." Sarah shuffled her feet a little. "Sapphire and I were talking to Emerald and Mercury before Cinder showed up…then I got…well…"

"Always around Cinder and her fuckers." Moon grunted. "Sapphire is still speaking to them?"

"Yeah, Erick and Weiss showed back up and started dancing again…you should've seen the weird dance Jaune and his team were doing. It was going well until Yang and Coco got drunk and started fighting over dancing with Cardin of all people."

"Sounds like a skit out of South Park. Did someone suggest that scene?"

Moon blinked as he finished. "Oh…so…yeah…I didn't get much out of following Ruby."

"I figured as much…your face said irritability and annoyance." Sarah blushed. "Is there uh…is there anything you want to do?"

Moon's own face flushed red, he didn't know what came over him, but suddenly, he just had the urge to just try. He grabbed his girlfriend's hand and moved her to the middle of their room. Ignoring her stunned reaction, he simply put his hand on her waist.

"I know this is kind of sudden…but…seeing as how we're alone. Could we maybe…um…" Moon felt his body heat up to the point he felt as if he was going to catch on fire himself if he wasn't careful. "C-Could we maybe…try and dance?"

He could see her awestruck face before her own face became red. "Um…sure…but what about…"

Both of them blushed as Astro jumped up on top of Sarah's head. "WEEEEE! Hello Momma Sarah Zoom!"

Moon just chuckled at the Mr. Saturn. "He can just be along for the ride, it's just a dance after all, with two people who don't know how. We'll learn as we go, and we can stop if it gets to be too much for you."

"Boing! Good Night Everyone! ZOOM!" Astro honked.

Happy Feburary everyone! I hope you enjoyed this chapter I had been talking about for way to fucking long now.

Not much to really discuss, though, I do find it weird that Ruby never got the best look at Cinder during that fight in that technology center place thing. So I threw Neo in here for good measure just so I could give her a distracted by two excuses.

Naturally, without Emerald, I had to try and figure out a way for Moon to not recognize Cinder's voice, so I just gave her a voice modifier for the hell of it. Probably could've used Pokey and Seiros for this scene, but honestly, I think Rhea alone would just smash Ruby's skull into the ground and knock through her Aura immediately lmao.

Then we get to see more of Irondaddy and Qrow too, honestly, I really liked the dynamic they had in Volume 3. Ironwood being the more professional, cautious man. and Qrow being the no fucks given, more immatures way of handling things. But still dependable. I could make a whole rant video about Qrow nowadays.

Speaking of which, Volume 9 news? Never thought I'd fucking see the day. Though...judging by a few...less than favorable comments I've received, I'll avoid giving my two cents on what has been shown and the drama surrounding this volume before it premieres.

Anyway, that's about it, if you have any comments or criticisms, I'm always open to listen provided its respectful. I do take feedback seriously.

See you all, next time!