"This is the final episode, after this everything is future material."
Ruby was now bouncing in her seat, back on her couch with Weiss, everyone having moved back to their spots. "Oooh, I wonder what the future has in store for us, the Vytal Festival, our graduation!"
Weiss reached a hand over in an attempt to get her partner to calm down. "Ruby, first of all, I find the Vytal Festival to be a given, second of all, I doubt it would go that far into the future."
"Who knows? We don't! Oh this is so exciting!!" Ruby completely ignored Ruby and returned to her small fidgets.
"It would be interesting to see what's going to happen, but that will be the next episode, not this one. This one will just show the night of the dance." Blake agreed with Ruby, but had to remind her that this wasn't a future episode.
"You guys ready?" Raider asked the group.
All of them nodded their heads in confirmation, but one was a little more hesitant, that one being Jaune's.
(Volume 2 Intro)
All of the students were having a fun time, talking with one another, dancing, enjoying the drinks, even the professors. Professor Ozpin and Glynda Goodwitch were standing next to each other, she gets a tap on the shoulder to show General Ironwood asking for a dance with her, albeit she hesitates lightly in accepting.
Ruby is standing by herself next to the punch bowl, that is until Jaune comes to join her. "I see you're hiding at the punchbowl too," Jaune comments, Ruby responding with a single 'yup', popping the 'P'. "To the Socially Awkward," Jaune raises his glass to Ruby. The small girl giggles as she happily clanks her glass with his.
Yang shakes her head with a fond smile at her sister, ooh Ruby.
"Oof, I hear you there!" People were surprised as they turned around to find Raider with a glass of her own, and in it was some kind of juice. "Don't worry, it's age appropriate."
All ignored her as they were finally getting used to her antics.
"Sorry things didn't work out with Weiss," she tells her friend mournfully.
"Meh, it's fine. Neptune's pretty cool, I get why she went with him."
"What do you mean?" Ruby's voice did nothing to hide her confusion as she faced him.
"Well, I mean, come on. How many people can pull off blue hair?" Jaune finishes, taking a sip from the drink in his hand. Ruby tells him she means that Weiss came by herself to the dance, Jaune chokes on his drink upon hearing this. "What?"
Jaune looks over to see Weiss depressingly trying to fix the one wilting flower in the vase. "Yeah, she said she had too much to focus on to worry about boys," Ruby explains what Weiss told her, the girl still trying to right the flower. It held up for one second before falling again.
Weiss sat in her seat, face blazing with embarrassment that they're showing this. She thought about hiding her face, but felt a sudden hand on hers. Unsurprisingly, it was Ruby, giving her a small, but effective smile. Weiss didn't want to admit to herself or anyone how fast that one little gesture did to ease her mind, because it scared her in all honesty.
Weiss didn't need to say anything, Ruby could tell she was saying 'thank you' without actually speaking.
Weiss hears giggling and laughing, looking over she sees Blake having fun with a laughing Sun and a goofing Neptune, the blue haired boy mimicking faces that had the other two doubling over.
Jaune's face morphed into a scowl, telling Ruby to hold his punch. She grabs it with her spare hand, as well as drinking from it.
"Oh, ew, Ruby!" Yang dramatically stuck her tongue out in disgust. While her sister was looking down, the flush all the way to the bottom of her neck.
"You drank from my cup?"
"I'm sorry, okay! I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing, I was focused on you walking over to them!"
"You do realize this isn't the last time we're going to speak of this, don't you?" Ruby groaned to herself, just wanting her sister to stop talking.
Jaune lightly pushed his way through, intending to have a chat with Neptune, but stopped as Pyrrha passed by, watching as she made her way up the stairs, alone. He looked back at Neptune, but now he had a new objective in mind.
"Hey, Pyrrha," Jaune greeted the girl, who was simply observing from the balcony. She greets him back, the dance music in the background halting. "You okay? I haven't seen you tonight."
"Arrived late, I'm afraid," She tells him. Jaune keeps the conversation going, commenting on how nice she looks. She thanks him for the compliment, and Jaune asks if her date is going to beat him up for it. She informs Jaune that he'll be safe for the night.
"So, where is the guy?" Jaune asks, rubbing both of his hands together. There's a pause before Pyrrha tells Jaune there is no guy with her.
Pyrrha's friends knew she didn't have a date, hence Jaune wearing the dress, but that didn't hurt them any less to see their friend so sad about this. She wanted to go with Jaune, but not only did he technically not go with her, Jaune planned on going with another girl and joked at the thought of Pyrrha not having anyone to go with.
Jaune gave a small chuckle, not believing her. She tells him again, more seriously, nobody asked her to the dance. "Y-you're Pyrrha Nikos, how could nobody ask you?" Jaune was dumbfounded, who wouldn't want to go to the dance with someone so great?
"I've been blessed with incredible talents and opportunities. I'm constantly surrounded by love, and praise, but when you're placed on a pedestal like that for so long you become separated from the people who put you there in the first place. Everyone assumes I'm too good for them, that I'm on a level they simply can't attain, it's impossible to form any sort of meaningful relationship with people. That's what I like about you, when we met, you didn't even know my name, you treated me just like anyone else, and thanks to you, I've made friendships that will last a lifetime. I guess, you're the kind of guy I wish I was here with, someone who just saw me for me." With that said, Pyrrha began to take her leave, leaving Jaune by himself.
And it took Jaune a whole other volume to actually see that Pyrrha liked him.
Jaune stared at the screen, speechless. She told him exactly why she liked him, even before she confessed, explaining again what she saw in him. But, it still won't take away the fact that Jaune couldn't fathom that someone as amazing as Pyrrha liked him.
Jaune looks down in thought for a moment, he turns around in plans to get Pyrrha's attention, but stops when Neptune grabs his attention. "This party's pretty lame, huh? I mean, ballroom dancing, pfft. Cute girls though, huh?"
Jaune kept giving him short answers, but his last question struck a nerve.
Weiss frowned, her arma crossing as she stared at the blue haired boy on the screen, feeling a little hurt.
Jaune had had enough, "Is that all you think about?" The question caught Neptune off guard, "D-do you even care about the girls you're hitting on? How they feel about you?" Surprised, Neptune asks where this is even coming from. "How could you just turn her down like that?" Neptune still isn't following, wondering who Jaune is even referring to, "Weiss!"
Neptune put his hand on the back of his neck, before telling Jaune it just didn't work out, which was obviously a lie. "What, you think you're too cool? Too many other options? Weiss Schnee asked you to the dance, what in the world could possibly keep you from go-"
"I can't dance," Neptune swiftly said, his voice small and embarrassed.
What? This was the question going through everyone's minds. Some confused, others surprised, and a little outraged.
Jaune doesn't hide his confusion, and Neptune repeats again that he can't dance. "But, you're…so cool." Jaune says, as if it were an excuse that he could do anything. Neptune thanks him, telling him he tries really, really hard.
"You would rather break a girl's heart and go to a dance alone than just admit to everyone you can't move in rhythm to music?" Neptune doesn't bother denying Jaune's claims, making Jaune feel a whole lot better about himself after hearing that.
Hearing this from his best friend, him and Neptune are going to have a few words once this is all said and done.
"Look, if you want Weiss, she's all yours, I don't want to get in your way."
The fact Neptune would so easily give her away to someone else made the stinging feeling inside grow much bigger. But, she held the same face she always did, cold and emotionless.
Jaune sighs as he turns around, leaning on the balcony rail, asking if Neptune liked Weiss. "Yeah, I mean, I don't know her too well yet, but she seems pretty cool," Neptune admits. Jaune advises that Neptune just go up and talk to her, no pick up lines, no suave moves, just be yourself, I've heard that's the way to go."
Pyrrha smiles as Jaune repeats the same thing she'd told him.
Neptune goes to say something, but Jaune beats him to it, "Hey, you don't have to look cool all the time, in all honesty, if you could be a little less cool I'd really appreciate it." Neptune nods upon hearing Jaune's guidance, "Go talk to her, I guarantee it'll make her night."
With a final thank you, Neptune gives Jaune a fist bump, telling him he's really cool. Jaune just asks him to not lie to his face now.
Neptune takes his leave, and Jaune sighs to himself, "Alright, only one thing left to do."
"The beautiful transformation!"
"Yang!" Jaune shouts, his face red.
A few chuckles were heard around the room, this was something they couldn't not laugh at!
Yang is looking over from the second floor, overseeing the whole party. A moment later, Ruby is next to her side, "Y'know, I think we really needed this." Down on the dancefloor, Ren and Nora are dancing together, as are Blake and Sun. In between two guards is Penny, jamming to her own beat.
Ruby gave a little chuckle as she saw Penny dancing to herself.
"Yeah, and you did a great job planning it too," Yang's response was to bring Ruby into a headlock, thanking her but reminding her that Weiss should be told this as well.
Weiss is sitting down, an empty chair next to her, one that Neptune asks if he could occupy; she gestures for him to take it, allowing him to sit alongside her.
Yang sighs, "Tomorrow is back to work." Ruby reassures her sister that they can handle whatever's going to be thrown at them. Down below, all the occupants in the room start to laugh and chuckle. Ruby comments that that is the only thing they won't be able to handle.
"Introducing…"
"Yang…"
"His Royal Majesty!"
"Yang!"
"Princess Jaune Arc!"
"Yang Stop!!" Jaune yells for her to stop, but it only continued to go back and forth.
From Jaune's point of view, he walks through the crowd until he finally reaches Pyrrha, who says his name in utter bewilderment. Sticking to his word, Jaune is now presented in a white dress, an awkward smile plastered on his face.
"A promise is a promise," Jaune says with a tiny shrug. Pyrrha is silent for a single moment before she bursts into a fit of giggles, telling him he didn't have to do this. "Hey, and Arc never goes back on his word, now do you wanna stand there and laugh at me or do you wanna dance?" Jaune puts out his hand for Pyrrha to which she gladly takes.
Jaune pulls her close and twirls her on the dance floor. In the crowd is Ren and Nora, Ren holding his own punch cup. "Ren. This. Is. Happening!" Nora says with great excitement, but Ren is only confused.
Nora grabs Ren's hand and drags them both over to Jaune and Pyrrha, dancing all together as a team.
"Man, imagine how much more fun we could have had if we joined them!" Ruby whines, it would have made the night ten times better.
"Yeah, all eight of us busting a move together, it would have been awesome!" Yang agreed with her own sister, their enthusiasm and disappointment shared.
All four of them dance and move to the rhythm of the beat, kicking out their legs, shooting their hands in the air, every single one of their movements are synchronized, nothing is out of place.
Jaune spins Pyrrha to where it's just the two of them. "I had no idea you were a dancer," Pyrrha comments as her and Jaune continue to dance. The boy says it's inevitable when you grow up with 7 sisters.
"You have seven sisters!? Geez," Sun was the one to voice his shock, not having known much about the guy himself.
Some people wanted to say more, but they didn't exactly know how to properly voice it like Sun did; in all honesty, Sun did all the talking for them.
Jaune spins Pyrrha once more, following after her. "So, what made you change your mind?" Weiss questioned, but Neptune didn't quite get it so Weiss had to phrase it better. "You said you were embarrassed at first, what made you come talk to me?" Neptune sighed and faced the dance floor, telling Weiss that she's looking at him.
Both Jaune and Pyrrha are having a blast on the dancefloor, the whole crowd cheering them on. "You got some good friends looking out for ya." Weiss smiles softly, the look she gives to the two is enough of an answer.
The angle shown is from the second floor railing, presenting Mercury and Emerald.
"Damnit, and just when this episode was getting so happy and fun," Yang complains as soon as the two deviants appeared.
"It appears all the dancers have partners," Emerald evaluates. On another line Cinder asks how long she has, Mercury tells her they should be home by midnight, just to be safe.
"Ugh, so it was Cinder!" Ruby yells at the screen, remembering her encounter with a mysterious, masked woman that night.
"That girl you told us about?" Weiss asks, attempting to clarify.
"Wait, what girl?" Sun was a little confused.
"On that night, I went out to escape the party, but then I noticed someone hopping off the roofs of Vale. I went to investigate, then bam! It will be explained better by watching what happened."
Through her earpiece, Cinder tells them she'll keep her eye on the clock.
Ruby has clearly had her fair share of the party. Slowly, she steps out of the ballroom to get away. Out in front of her was Cinder, bounding across the rooftops.
"Okay, let's be real for a second, Cinder sucks at being inconspicuous, like, it is clearly obvious that someone is running on the roofs." Yang said, a slight chuckle coming out at the situation.
"Yeah, how did no one else just look out the window for a few seconds and not see that?" Nora added. One could argue that it was dark out and everyone was distracted, but it's really clear to see someone running on the roof.
Ruby frowned the moment she saw and immediately ran after her. Cinder hid behind one of the pillar walls in front of the CCT Tower, swiftly running to the other side, catching the attention of the soldier guarding the door.
Quietly walking behind him as he inches forward, she karate chops on the neck, leaving him to fall limp as he's now unconscious. Cinder then drags the body to a nearby bush, leaving him there before going inside.
Cinder simply walks through the entrance in stride, resulting in all the guards in the area to spot her. One of them tells her that she shouldn't be in here, but she ignores him and keeps on walking, speeding up when he yells for her to stop.
That guard makes an attempt with his weapon, but fails as Cinder slaps him, grabbing the arm containing the gun. Another guard comes charging forward, though it doesn't do much as Cinder kicks him in the gut. Not only that, she uses the power of the gun to knock him back along with the kick.
"Is it just me or are they bad at their job?" Yang puts out the question with a wince on her face as she watches all the soldiers getting their asses kicked.
"I wanna go with that, and that she's just a good fighter in general." Jaune had a similar wince as he witnesses the utter beatdown of the guys.
With the same guard that she took hold of, she throws him into the stair railing. The only two guards left standing rush forward. Cinder creates two black blades out of her own flames, easily taking care of the first guard, but the second one was more stubborn, it took a few more attacks to finally take him down.
Inside the CCT Tower elevator are two more guards; one of them asks if they know what the wifi password is. "It's Beacon, but the 'E' is a three and add a pound symbol to the end."
Everyone in the whole room did a simultaneous facepalm, this explains why so much dust gets stolen.
"Morons," Weiss groans with frustration. These are the kind of people who are trained in the Atlesian Military? Unbelievable.
The elevator door opens and the guards just openly stare at their beat up men on the floor with Cinder right in front of them, even letting her get on the elevator. As soon as the doors closes, both of the men grunt as Cinder gives them the same treatment she gave the others.
"They just let her walk in the elevator, I mean, seriously?! They just stood there!" Everyone was on the same boat as Sun yells in astonishment.
"I'm not even going to bother saying anything," Blake mumbled, their actions speak for themselves.
Ruby frowns as she walks up to the building, gasping when she sees the unconscious body out front. Quickly taking out her scroll she summons her locker containing her weapon, the door opens to present Crescent Rose.
Cinder hums to herself as she comes out of the elevator, putting her scroll back in pocket, commenting on how it was handy to now have the wifi password. The door closes as she sits down in front of the main computer up front, typing away.
On the earpiece, Emerald tells Cinder that a party guest is leaving. She sighs, "Which one?" Emerald tells her it's General Ironwood while she's dancing with Mercury. The boy himself commenting on how the general has had too much fun for one night.
"Should we intervene?" Mercury asks as Cinder has hacked into the tower's systems, all of the video screens in the room showing a black queen chess piece. She tells him that they're done and gets up to leave, but hears the elevator door open, revealing Ruby with Crescent Rose in hand, looking around the room.
"Pfft, you gotta admit that seems a little funny, right? The elevator door opening and Ruby appearing with Crescent Rose in a dress, ready to fight." Sun tried to lighten the mood a bit, but it didn't really work the way he thought it would; everyone was focused on the fight they knew was coming between Ruby and Cinder.
When Sun got no response, he awkwardly chuckled to himself.
Ruby continues to ask if anyone is in the room, complaining about her heels in the process, while Cinder hides behind one of the desks, that is, until she makes herself known with a smirk. "Excuse me, you know it's not a masquerade party, so why don't you-" Ruby was cut off by Cinder pulling out a capsule, releasing dust into the air, and making fire shards to project at her. Ruby uses her quick reflexes to deflect them with Crescent Rose, sending her own attack back, but just like when they first fought, Cinder uses her powers to block each and every one of Ruby's bullets.
"This is giving me serious deja vu, remember when we saw this for the first time back at volume 1? And is it just me, or did the animation get a little bit better?" Yang asks the group as she recollects Ruby's first fight with her with Professor Goodwitch next to her.
"Has to be due to time and getting better at the animation," Weiss says in an analysis way.
Just wait till you see the contrast from volume 3 to 4, that definitely blew my mind when I first saw it.
Cinder creates her two blades again, and Ruby swings her scythe around, bounding into the air. Cinder bounces back as Ruby slams Crescent Rose into the ground; while in the air Cinder creates a bow and three arrows, firing at Ruby, and causing an explosion. Ruby herself wobbles back as she avoids detonation.
Cinder stares up at the elevator, the doors opening to reveal General Ironwood. As Ruby looks back, she smiles, looking forward, thinking Cinder had been caught, only for her to be gone, showcasing the empty floor.
"Ugh, that bitch," Yang growls under her breath, a flicker of red appearing in her eyes. Yang felt Blake give her side a light jab with her elbow.
Cinder parades through a pair of doors, using her semblance to create her dress before bursting through another set of doors, a pair of guards behind her but they were too late to actually witness her.
The two guards look around the ballroom, only to find nothing out of place, Cinder was nowhere to be found. All guests were either chatting or moving to the soft melody of the music with their respective partners. Emerald and Mercury were dancing with each other until Cinder tapped on Emerald's shoulder, asking if she could cut in.
Emerald steps aside to let Cinder in, the girl going somewhere while the two dance. As the two moved, Mercury asked Cinder how her night has been. "A little more…exciting than expected," this response led Mercury to ask if they should be worried. "Hardly, they'll be scratching their heads long after what we came here for." Mercury then asks what they plan to do now, "Enjoy the rest of the night…this is a party after all."
"Sadly, this episode barely gave us any information on how to stop them, we don't even know the data they gathered from the CCT Tower." To say Weiss was unhappy would be the understatement of the week.
"We'll get that knowledge soon enough, we just have to wait until the episode that shows us will come," Blake's intent was to get Weiss to calm down a little. All good things come to those who wait after all.
It did some good as Weiss eased up, but only a minuscule amount.
Pyrrha and Jaune were sitting at one of the party's tables, Sun and Blake were dancing.
Yang visibly winced as she watched the two. Note to self, when things are a bit more calm, give them some pointers on how to dance. Yang wasn't intending to mean that in a bad way, but it kinda hurt to watch.
Outside of the CCT Tower were a group of Atlesian guards, and Ruby was sitting on a bench with a very displeased Ironwood. On one of the screens, a black queen chess piece appeared, before flickering away. The screen went black to show the episode's end credits.
"Ruby was literally kicking butt in there, fighting off an intruder, and he's going to be mad at her!?" Nora was peeved, and Ren was next to her trying to calm her down.
"He asked me questions of why I was there, but still, in any case no one would be happy with the outcome of what happened. A student not where they're supposed to be or a break in in the CCT Tower where some crook successfully gained information that they shouldn't have."
With what they just watched, it was not a nice situation to have gotten little to no information on any way to stop Cinder and Torchwick. "Well, from this point onward is going to be the future. We're the only ones seeing this, so we can totally use this to our advantage and stop them before Cinder and them even think about moving to the next step of their plan!" Nora yells with her fists being pumped to the air with great fervor.
"YEAH!" The more childish ones of the group did the same, but that didn't mean the more calm ones weren't equally as excited.