Volume 2 Intro Song: Finale (Original Mix) by Madeon

Hedge and Anne are walking through the courtyard of the school toward the auditorium. They notice a girl having a hard time walking in her heels. As they get closer, they notice it's Ruby.

Ruby: "Ugh, I feel like I'm going to fall and break my ankles at any moment."

Hedge: "Need a hand there, Ruby?" The scythe-wielder turns around and sees the two walking toward her.

Anne: "Cute outfit, Ruby." Ruby seemed a little flustered, as she would always wear her hood with whatever outfit she wore.

Ruby: "I really miss my hood right now." She looks at Anne's dress. "Your dress is really good too, Anne." This causes the female hedgehog Faunus to blush.

Anne: "T-Thank you, Ruby." Ruby then looks over Hedge's outfit, and in the back of her head, making sure to not spoil Hedge's surprise to Anne.

Ruby: "And you look very handsome too, Hedge."

Hedge: chuckles "Thank you, Ruby. Shall we head inside?" All three of them are at the door of the auditorium. Hedge opens the door and Ruby walks in first then him and Anne. Yang, standing behind a podium in a white dress, looks up and gets a huge smile on her face once she sees her baby sister.

Yang: "Ohhhh, you look so beautiful!!"

Ruby: "Can we have a serious talk about how Weiss fights in these?" She stumbles a bit and catches herself. The older girl then turns her attention to Hedge and Anne.

Yang: "And you two…you lovebirds look so cute together. Love the ponytail, Anne. Our Uncle Qrow tried to give Ruby a ponytail when we were younger, but she met that with a pair of scissors." This caused the younger sister to punch her in the arm.

Ruby: "Yang!" The Faunus...couple? They weren't even official, nor did they think they might end up as such, but blushed nonetheless. They both laughed at the new information, much to the embarrassment of Ruby, then they walk further in. They look around trying to find Zion and Leonidas, to which they hear someone call out their names.

"Hedge. Anne. Over here." They turn their heads to see the 6-foot-tall dragon Faunus standing at a table waiving his hand to get their attention. They walk over to the table he's at with Zion sitting down drinking some punch. Soon after, they hear the doors to the auditorium open and they see Blake and Sun enter.

Yang gives a nod over to the DJ to start playing some music, to which they oblige with a thumbs up. They start up with some ballroom dancing music. Students and their partners including Yang and Blake walk into the center of the dance floor. Hedge then looks over to Anne and stretches out his hand.

Hedge: "Would you like to dance?"

Anne: Blushes "I would love to dance." She accepts his hand and they walk onto the dance floor close to Blake and Yang. Blake, for the first time in a while, had a huge smile on her face as both parties danced together. Even when her and Yang had finished with their dance, and Sun joins in, she started to laugh and look over to the rest of Team RWBY. Meanwhile, Anne, being at eye level with Hedge thanks to her heels, looks him in the eyes and smiles, and blushing the whole time. They then place their foreheads together and close their eyes, both thinking how after three years, something like this happened.

Zion and Leonidas are sitting at the table drinking their punch, while watching their leader and teammate dance.

Zion: "They look so cute together, don't they Leo?"

Leonidas: "I'll admit, they do." Shortly after, they hear the auditorium doors open and they hear Yang say hi to two students.

Yang: "You guys made it just in time."

The boy responds, "Wouldn't miss it for the world."

Leonidas: "Is it just me, or do you have a feeling something is amidst?"

Zion: "Ask me again later. Too early to tell."

--

Some time passes and more students have arrived to the dance. Quite a few people are conversing around the edge of the auditorium. Even General Ironwood is at the dance, and taps on Professor Goodwitch's shoulder to get her to dance. Ruby is seen standing over by the punch bowl, and Jaune joins her.

Jaune: "I see you're hiding at the punch bowl too."

Ruby: "Yuuuuup." Popping the "P" of the word.

Jaune: "To the socially awkward." She chuckles, they cheers, and each take a sip of their drinks. Soon Zion walks up to them to get a refill of his drink.

Zion: "The leaders of both Team RWBY and JNPR. No dates?"

Ruby: "I could ask you the same thing, Zion."

Zion: "Touché, Ms. Rose. And you, Mr. Arc? Any luck with Ms. Schnee?"

Jaune: "sighs No."

Ruby: "Sorry things didn't work out with Weiss."

Jaune: "Meh, it's fine. Neptune's pretty…cool. I get why she went with him."

Ruby: "What do you mean?" Zion too looks on intrigued.

Jaune: "Well, come on. Not many people can pull off blue hair."

Ruby: "No I mean…Weiss came to the dance alone." Both boys, mid sip of their drinks, start to cough at the new information.

Jaune: "What?"

Ruby: "Yeah, she said she had too much to focus on to worry about boys." They see Weiss trying to fix a flower vase where one keeps falling. They then hear laughter from Sun and Blake as it looks like Neptune is telling them a story. This then appears to upset Jaune.

Jaune, to Ruby: "Hold my punch." He hands her his cup and starts to walk over to Neptune, leaving Ruby and Zion. Ruby then takes a sip out of Jaune's cup.

Zion: "You did not just take a sip out of his cup." Ruby looks down and notices that she did in fact do that.

Ruby: "Eh, whatever. So, please tell me I heard correctly from Yang that Hedge plans to propose to Anne."

Zion takes a sip of his punch. "You heard correctly. Anne has always had a crush on him, to which both Leo and I had thought it would be her asking him out first before any marriage stuff came around."

Ruby: "Wait, are you telling me that they haven't even dated yet? I thought you would at least have to do that for a while before marriage even becomes a thought?"

Zion: "For someone that is 15-years-old, you sure do know a lot about that, but yes that is correct. To answer your first question, no they haven't dated yet. I even brought that fact up to Hedge Friday night."

Ruby: "And what did he say?"

Zion: "Well first he brought up about the whole dangers of this profession, how drastic things can turn in the blink of an eye." Ruby understands this. Her mother went out on a mission and never returned. She shook away those thoughts allowing Zion to continue. "As for depending on what Anne says, he would respect whatever decision she chooses, whether she says yes and they officially become fiancés, or they stay as just teammates/friends. Just a word of advice," he starts to turn away, "whoever you do end up having a strong connection with, go on a few dates and be a couple for a few years before you even think of doing marriage." He walks away to head back to where Leonidas was, while Ruby heads off to find Yang.

Back with Hedge and Anne, the two Faunus are still dancing together, hand in hand.

Anne: "Hedge, I'm glad we're doing this. I haven't seen you with a smile on your face for a long time."

Hedge: "You know why that was the case. My past still haunts me to this day, and my future…" His gaze turns to the side away from her and toward the ground.

Anne places her hand on his cheek and turns him back to look her in the eyes. "Then how about we write a new future?" She starts to go in for a kiss, but it's interrupted by some laughter of the other students. They turn and see Jaune in front of Pyrrha, dressed in a white dress.

Pyrrha: "Jaune?"

Jaune: "A promise is a promise."

Anne, holding back laughing as well, "Why is Jaune in a dress?"

Hedge: chuckles "He said he would wear a dress if Pyrrha came to the dance without a date. I'll admit, he's pretty jacked for someone that doesn't have a lot of fighting knowledge." Soon, the rest of Team JNPR join in with their leader and teammate and do a full team dance in front of everyone. The two Faunus cheer on their friends, and Hedge starts to become a little thirsty, as they had been dancing for quite some time. "Wanna get some punch?"

Anne: "Sure." They head over to the punch bowl, and Hedge starts to pour some for Anne and then him next, but when he looks up he sees Ruby outside. That isn't what concerns him though as he also sees someone running across some of the academy buildings in stealth gear. Anne can see that concern in his face. "Hedge?"

Hedge: "Stay here. There seems to be some trouble." Anne looks at him with worry, but then tells him to be careful. He rushes behind Ruby and places his hand on her shoulder. "Let's go." The scythe-wielder nods back at him and they head off in pursuit. They follow along the path the stealthy figure runs to and it leads them to the CCT.

Hedge: "The CCT? What could they be planning?" Their suspicions grow more when they find an Atlas soldier knocked unconscious outside of a brush. Both team leaders know that this is much more serious than they originally thought, both taking their scrolls out and calling their weapon lockers to their positions. When they enter inside the CCT's bottom floor, they find more guards knocked out.

Ruby: "Whoever this person is, they know their ways in combat." They enter inside the elevator to find two more guards unconscious and head up to the top floor of the CCT. When they get there with their weapons drawn, they find no one there. "Hellooo?" Ruby then stumbles some more with her heels.

Hedge: "Just take them off," chuckling at the same time he says it. Ruby just gives him a look. The stealthy figure then appears from behind the main desk of the CCT's communications room with their back turned to Hedge and Ruby.

Ruby: "Excuse me. You know this isn't a masquerade party, so why don't you take off that…" Before she could finish her sentence, the mysterious woman grabbed something off her belt and swiped it in the air, creating glass crystals in the air, then swiping again to send them towards the two leaders. They both block the crystals, Ruby then taking some shots with Crescent Rose. The mysterious woman blocks them with her hands, her clothing lighting up in flames with each block. Hedge notices this and remembers where he had seen that before. Before he could say anything though, the woman spins around and creates two swords, jumping in to get into melee range. Hedge snaps out of his thought and jumps in front to block the attack, creating a small crater in the floor from the force of the attack. He then activates his lightning spears to get the woman off of him and show some offense, but when the woman jumps off from the clash, she then creates a bow and fires arrows off at Hedge and Ruby, causing them to jump back away from the exploding arrows. All of a sudden, the elevator beeps and opens. To both of their surprises, General Ironwood is the one in the elevator, though when they turn back around to look at the mystery woman, she's nowhere to be found.

Hedge: "Where did she go?"

Ironwood: "Where did who go?"

Meanwhile back at the dance, Anne was back at the table with Leonidas and Zion. She told them that Hedge had noticed some trouble and ran off to help Ruby. The two boys look at each other.

Zion: "Yeah, something is definitely amidst."

At the CCT, more Atlas soldiers arrive outside, talking about what direction they believe the woman had ran off in. In the communications room, both Hedge and Ruby explain some of the events that occurred that led them to being there in the first place to the General. While the bells sound off striking midnight, unbeknownst to them, the main computer screen of the communication room lights up with a chess piece, the black Queen.

Author's note: I originally planned on having Hedge actually go through with the proposal this chapter, but I remembered I still want Hedge to have an interaction with General Ironwood. Don't worry, I still plan to have the proposal happen, but it will occur in a later chapter. Just a few more chapters left of Volume 2.