32

Penny was strange.

This wasn't new information for Ruby, she had known this from the moment they had met in that alley, the girl talking to them from the pavement. Despite the fact that Penny could, in fact, dance well, her movements were stiff. It was almost like she had read about how to dance but had never done it before.

But she also looked so darn happy, too. It was like she was having the time of her life and Ruby couldn't bear to step on that, even as she accidentally stepped on Penny's toes. Not that the other girl seemed to even notice when the tip of the heel dug into the top of her foot.

"So…. Penny…"

The redhead slowed down, thankfully, "Yes, Friend Ruby?"

"Just call me Ruby." She gently corrected it. She had never heard someone refer to their friends with a title like that before, this girl made her feel downright normal, "You came to Vale for the tournament, right?"

"Yes! As I explained previously, I am combat ready!"

"Right… So what kind of weapon do you use? Can I see it?"These were the important questions. You could tell a lot about a person from their weapon choice. Take crescent Rose, for example, it meant she was awesome. Because really, what was cooler than a scythe? Nothing, that's what. But that didn't mean other weapons were lame, just less cool.

"In combat I utilize wire guided blades attached to a backpack unit." She smiled brightly, "Father designed them to both attack physically and project energy."

Ruby couldn't help but let out an appreciative whistle, "That sounds really cool. Can you show me some time? I love weapons!"

"Hmm." Penny tilted her head to he side, "The General said I shouldn't 'show my cards' to the other school. Which is weird because I don't use cards but I think he meant to say weapons."

"But Penny! We're friends aren't we? Friends show friends their weapons!"

"They do?!" The girl gasped, "What about your weapon?"

"Of course I'll show you Crescent Rose, she's my baby!"

But Ruby!" Penny stopped in the middle of the dancefloor, causing Ruby to stumble, "Aren't you under the age to have sexual intercourse?"

She felt the flush creep up her neck, "Not my actual baby! Crescent Rose is the name of my weapon. I designed her so I consider her my baby."

"Ohhhh, I get it. Like my father."

Sheesh, Penny really could take things literally sometimes, but it looked like she got the idea, "Yup. She's a scythe with an integrated customizable high impact sniper rifle built into her. You'll love it."

"That sounds like it would be difficult to wield."

"Normally, but I had the best teacher." She bragged, feeling a surge of pride, "I'm pretty good now, I kick all the Grimm butt."

"Wouldn't it be more effective if you used your scythe instead of your foot?"

"It's just a saying, Penny. I can kill Grimm very easily with Crescent Rose."

Penny made a sound of understanding, "I see. Then does that mean you will be competing in the tournament as well?"

Was she? Ruby didn't know. They wanted to compete, or at least she did. She wasn't sure what Blake may have thought of it. Yang would be on board in a heartbeat and Weiss was always looking to make sure everyone thought they were the best team, which they were.

It was hard to tell if they could qualify, however. They were just a first year team but still at the top of their class in combat strength. The only others that were close were JNPR and mostly because Pyrrha was good enough to fight entire teams by herself. Jaune was on the lower end but with the others, their team was definitely up there as well, people would expect Pyrrha Nikos to compete. Did team RWBY have what it took to fight all of those other teams? She didn't know but she sure as heck wanted to find out.

"We haven't found out if we qualify yet, but we plan on it."

"Sensational!" Penny cheered, "I look forward to meeting you in the ring."

Ruby snorted, "Yeah, it should be fun. No hard feelings if I kick your butt?"

"Why would you want to kick my butt?" She blinked a few times, "Oh, that is an expression! I think it is I who shall do the kicking, Ruby."

Unable to help it, she started giggling and her strange, new friend. Penny was a very strange girl but she was just so likeable that her goot mood was downright infectious. They continued dancing for a while, chatting about what it was like to live in Patch or Atlas, and getting some strange responses from Penny, as well as family. It turned out that Penny was an only child, her father a little on the older side. From the sounds of it, she never knew her mother, which Ruby could sort of relate to.

She had memories of Summer, but only vague ones. Memories of fresh cookies and bedtime stories and a beautiful woman in a white cloak. A woman who looked an awful lot like Carmine, but she knew why.

Penny gushed about her father, how he was a brilliant inventor in Atlas and spent a lot of time helping build prosthetics for the people of Atlas and Mantle. He seemed really nice to her and she pictured a kind old man with white hair and glasses. Because you couldn't be a brilliant scientist without glasses.

N return Penny listened with rapt attention as she talked about Yang, her father, and her dog, Zwei. From what she could tell, Penny had never met a dog before, so if she could she'd have to get Dad to bring Zwei around Beacon to meet her friend.

It was at this point that her heel missed Penny's toe, which was good, but what was not good was the way her ankle rolled painfully as she stumbled. Her dance partner caught her, unmoving as she almost fell.

"Ruby! Are you okay?" Penny asked, she seemed deeply concerned.

There was a throb in her ankle, it wasn't too painful but it made her not want to walk on it, "I'm fine. I think it's time to sit down or something, though."

"Of course!" Ruby yelped as she was bodily picked up by her, swept off of her feet by someone her own size, "Out me down, Penny!"

"I cannot do that, Rubby." She explained with a reassuring smile, "You are injured so I need to get you off of the dance floor."

Paying no heed to her protests, they started making her way to the edge of the room, Ruby turning a bright shade of red as she felt the massive amount of attention they were getting. There were smirks and snickers and it was all she could do to close her eyes and duck her head. It felt like it took forever for them to reach the edge and she leapt out of Penny's arms, still unable to look her in the eyes.

"I need some air." She was desperate to get out of the hall, pointing towards the main entrance, "I'm gonna step outside for a bit."

"I would accompany you but I cannot leave without my escort."

She noticed the two guards who had been with her earlier, the two men watching them with bemused expressions. They noticed her looking and flashed her a sympathetic smile which had her groaning in embarrassment. The Beacon rumor mill was going to have a field day with this, especially since they had made a scene during the dance. It was hard to imagine people weren't going to talk about her.

"I'll come back in a little bit after I take a rest, okay?" Ruby activated her aura, the pain immediately dulling to a mild discomfort as it worked on her ankle. She put some weight on it and sighed in relief, aura really was amazing.

"I shall wait here for your return!" Penny saluted with more enthusiasm than she thought possible in a salute.

The cold air of the night felt incredible on her flushed skin as she left the building, finding a nearby bench to sit on and rest her feet. She'd have taken off her shoes if she wasn't convinced dirt or grime would get on her stocking and then into her heels when she had to put them back on. The thought of pebbles and such in her shoes made her shudder as she tilted her head back to lounge against the wooden seat. The music was down to a low hum and the bustle of conversation nearly drowned it out, the sounds of people enjoying themselves bringing a small smile to her face.

The night sky was beautiful and clear as well, the moon handing vibrantly in the deep black, shining its illumination down on them. A flicker of movement caught her eye and she sat up to look, squinting at the rooftops. It was hard to see against the dark sky but when the figure leapt from one roof to another she caught a clear glimpse of them. It was someone dressed in all black, like some kind of ninja, leaping from roof to roof. They were only ever visible when illuminated by the streetlamps below when the crossed the gaps. She stood suddenly, eyes narrowing as she watched them slowly making their way… where were they heading? It looked like they were going in the direction of the CCT tower.

It only grew more suspicious by the second and all embarrassment faded quickly as her mind worked. Some kind of burglar? What could they want with the CCT when they could just break into dorms? Instead her mind thought of the White Fang. Though there was no mask that didn't mean it wasn't them. And they might have wanted to do something to the tower.

Just a look.

She promised herself as she started making her way at a brisk pace towards the CCT tower. The figure disappeared from sight as she entered the alleyways between buildings but she had a good idea where it was going. Sure enough when she eventually reached the bottom of the massive tower, she noticed the lack of guards. Looking around Ruby noticed the dismantled bodies of the Atlesian robots that were meant to be guarding the entrance. Each's head was cleanly severed from its torso and drawn away to the side, behind the bushes, to draw less attention.

The alarm bells in her mind started ringing as she quickly pulled out her scroll and summoned Crescent Rose to her. If the White Fang were in the tower, she couldn't waste any time calling for help. She could handle a lone agent enough to foil their plans and the longer she waited the more damage they could do, whatever it was they were trying to do.

-SY-

Jaune Arc flexed his fingers as he moved his grip on Crocea Mors. It was suffocatingly silent in the CCT, the lights off and the only illumination coming from the moon outside. He had been waiting for hours in tense silence, ever since the tower had closed down operations for the night.

He'd been left alone to wait in the silence for the person he knew was coming. He'd known for a long time Cinder was coming to the tower. Ruby had told the story a few times back in Beacon and the date was easy enough to remember, since she did it on the dance. With his Ruby keeping an eye on the dance that left him free to deal with Fall.

The plan was relatively simple. The entire system had been air gapped from the rest of the network by Ironwood's technicians. All he had to do was let Cinder insert her virus so that could at least have a sample of it for the the General's cyber defense folks to analyze. As long as he let her do that, he was free to engage and the anticipation of the fight was eating at him.

In his time, he hadn't been the one to kill Cinder, that had gone to Ruby and her silver eyes. The woman had fully given herself to whatever Grimm parasite Salem had given her, slowly consumed by it and becoming some type of feral beast. In the end it was team RWBY that had slain her.

A part of him had regretted not being the one to do it. This was the woman who had kicked off the events that had ruined his life. Cinder had been the mastermind who caused the fall of Beacon, the murderer of his partner, and had done so gladly as she watched the world burn around her. The woman was a monster in human form.

Jaune Arc had promised to kill Cinder Fall,m and an Arc always kept their word.

The elevator dinged, getting his attention as the display showed that the carriage was ascending. It was time. He forced his breath out, long and slow, as he shrank back into the shadows, out of sight behind a terminal. Ironwood had given him info on how a virus would need to be uploaded in order to infect the entire system. There was only one terminal that had full access to the rest of the system and so she would need to utilize that on.

And so, Jaune waited, watching from his hiding place.

-SY-

The elevator pinged and the doors slid open, letting Cinder Fall into the CCT control room. It was dark and silent, like she had expected. So far the infiltration had been smooth. The

'guards' at the entrance were stupidly easy to dismantle. It was easy enough to make her paranoid. She had her aura up as she stepped further into the room, scanning it carefully. There was no movement, no last set of guards to stop her, simply a silent bank of computer terminals.

She waited for several moments for something to happen but nothing did.

The longer she lingered the higher the chance that someone would notice. Cinder slipped behind the desk, pushing the power button to turn it on. Or rather wake it up. Arthur had prattled on about the exact function of the terminals in the tower but the man loved to hear himself talk far too much. She only retained what she needed to know. Watts had supplied her with the administrative identification and password that she typed in from memory, the screen flickering to the nondescript background of the standard user interface.

It was a simple task to insert her scroll and only once it was plugged in, the flash of the black queen icon the only indication that Watts' virus had taken hold, that she breathed a sigh of relief. The mission was successful. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up, her instincts screaming at her in alarm.

Cinder trusted them and threw herself backwards blindly as a silver glint descended where she had just been standing. She rolled to a crouch, summoning her glass blades her her hands, ready to fend off a follow up.

The huntsman figure pulled his sword from no ruined terminal where it had bisected clean through both the computer and a desk. Her brain worked rapidly to take in this new threat. The man stood tall and powerfully built, though not as much as the freight train that was Hazel. He wore a trench coat that covered a breastplate, gauntlets, and greaves. In his hands was a gleaming silver blade that had some small nicks from use over many years and in the other hand a shield adorned with some crest. A crest that had her eyes narrowing. It was on that idiot Arc's shield but this was obviously not him. The shield was different to what she'd seen in the combat classes, slightly bulkier and with golden filigree.

The most stark detail was the mask, or would it be better to call it a helmet. At first it evoked the mask of the White Fang, white with red accents, but it was clearly in the shape of some kind of rabbit or hare. The gleam of light beneath denoted that he was glaring at her, though it was too dark to see anything beyond that.

The fact that he snuck up on her while she was preoccupied was concerning. It implied premeditation but if the man had been here the whole time, why not attack from the beginning. Instead he had waited to ambush her and had done so in a way that was clearly meant to be lethal, even if he could tell she had aura. The strike, had it landed, would have taken a massive chunk of her aura with it and it had been done without prior announcement.

That meant only one thing. This man was not with Beacon or Ironwood. A huntsman with either of them would have tried to arrest or stop her immediately. But as the enemy before her raised his sword to point its gleaming tip at her it left no doubt in her mind as to what it meant.

This was to be a battle to the death, he meant to kill her. She felt the power of the maiden, the fragment that she had, rise up within her, begging to be let forth like a hungry flame desperate for more fuel.

If this man thought he could kill her then he had another thing coming. She had not spent her life gaining power to fall to some unknown huntsman. She would survive and she would come out on top. That was all that ran through her mind as the man moved, lightning fast but not fast enough to get through her guard.

His blade descended like a meteorite and she grimaced at the force behind it as she blocked with her twin blades crossed. Even with her aura enhancing the glass blades she felt the spider webbing of cracks from in them, nearly shattering them from the force of the blow. Cinder kicked out with her foot, catching the side of his knee and causing a brief stumble so she could move backwards, semblance heating the blades to repair the damage that had been done.

As the glow faded, she struck. As quick as a viper's sting, Midnight slipped towards him, their twin points aiming for his throat and flank. Her effort was thwarted by the shield coming up to block and deflect her weapons even as he attempted to slam it into her face. Cinder was far too quick for that, however, and spun to the side, score a pair of vertical slices against his shoulder.

The huntsman punished her attack though, his blade biting into her aura as it tried to bite into her thigh. She withdrew with a hiss, transforming her blades into a bow to fire a quick shot at him. She hadn't expected much but was disappointed when he whipped his shield around to shatter the arrow. The blades came back to deflect the follow up strike from his, turning the sword away from her body.

The first exchange was a flurry of lightning fast blows that ended in a near draw. Cinder was only able to land a few superficial, glancing blows on him and the same for him to her. Having gained some distance she watched him warily as he did the same, both starting a slow circle as they assessed the other. Around them lay the victims of their battle, dessicate terminals lay with their internal components exposed and sparking.

While she still had some tricks up her sleeve it was clear the man was skilled, a top tier huntsman but she didn't recognize him, his presence both confused and worried her.

She made to turn Midnight into a bow, but smiled to herself when he dashed in as they glowed. Instead they reformed as blades, the feint working to draw the man in and she deflected his thrust, sending her blade skittering up along his to strike at his cheek. Her edge slid along his face and she noticed a small flash of white aura just before it made contact, right before he turned aside and threw his entire weight into her in a vicious shoulder check.

It was followed up by the rim of his shield impacting her nose and she saw stars for a moment, but she swung up just in case, superheating the air as she did so and leaving a trail of flame in its wake. She felt but didn't see it connect and when her eyes cleared she saw him standing away from her, rotating his wrist with his sword slowly as if to shake away pain.

She poised to attack and he took a stance with his shield up when they both heard a ping. As one they turned their gazes to the elevator as it opened and a small figure stepped out, holding a weapon and looking at the two of them. The small girl's silver eyes going from one to the other, taking in the scene of carnage that their fight left behind.

"Ruby?" It was the first word that the man had spoken the entire time. Of course she recognized the girl as well but it was interesting that he did as well, on a personal level no less, "What are you doing here?"

"Huh- Look out!"

Of course Cinder wasn't going to look a gift distraction in the mouth. She didn't need to win the fight, she simply had to get away without revealing her identity. Midnight was in bow form before he could turn his attention back to her, firing three arrows out at him. The man dodged as they impacted the floor but she hadn't been aiming for him. They glowed red hot as they superheated the metal they were stuck in, sublimating it into a molten explosion that had him crying out even more.

The weapon in the girl's hands barked but she was already moving, shots missing and Midnight's blades deflecting the ones that would hit her. Cinder dashed towards Ruby, closing the distance instantly as the huntsman was recovering. The weapon in the girl's hands spun as it started transforming, blocking her first strike but one more got through, impacting her shoulder.

Cinder wasn't able to capitalize on the blow as she was forced to dodge aside as the man roared, swinging down with a suddenly larger, two handed blade. The massive object smashed into the floor as she danced backwards. She pulled one of the containers off of her thighs, popping the lid and scattering the dust into the air. A touch of her semblance and aura and they formed into crystals that she launched at the pair.

It was clear that the man not only knew Ruby but was concerned for her safety. She was his weakness. A plan quickly formed in her head.

She followed up the crystals with an array of more arrows, this time they were wary enough to dodge away from them, as they exploded but that was their mistake. They had dodged in different directions. More arrows were sent at the huntsman to keep him back as she closed in on the little girl.

The girl was quick, she would give her that. She was even good for her age, clearly worth her place in Beacon. But Cinder was better. The scythe, far too big to be used effectively as the close range she operated in, was all but useless as she block the strike by stopping the haft of it. The girl pressed down on the firing lever, the blade barking and jumping down at Cinder from the force of it. What she didn't notice was Cinder grabbing the haft of the weapon and flowing towards her with it.

Midnight came up, striking painfully at her hand and making her release the weapon. Unarmed the girl was hardly a threat, the oversized weapon she chucked at the huntsman who had to block it with his shield, stopping him for a moment longer. Red petals floated about as the girl blurred, she tried to dash past her to get to her weapon, but Cinder was ready for that, too. She hadn't spent the past weeks studying the combat classes for nothing and Ruby made no attempt to disguise her semblance.

Her fingers closed around the straps of her dress, yanking her back towards Cinder. Ruby struggled and writhed as she was grappled, feeling the hand wrap around her throat. To his credit, the man had stopped short, not wanted to strike when she could just move the girl in the way. That was what she had been aiming for.

Tightly, she gripped the girl's throat and activated her semblance, heat rushing through her palm.

"Aaah!" The girl cried out as her palm started to heat her skin, even as her aura resisted. She kept the temperature up, a visible glow coming from her palm. The struggling ceased as her entire body flashed red, her aura failing and Cinder cut off her semblance. Ruby slumped, delirious from pain and rapid aura loss, her hands grasping at Cinder's firm grip on her.

"Ruby!"

"Stop right there!" Cinder snarled, "Take another step and I turn the girl into ash."

The man froze instantly, a sharp breath sucked in.

"Yes, that's right. She has no aura, you know what will happen if I superheat her throat now, yes?"

The man said nothing, stabbing the tip of his blade into the floor before releasing it and stepping away. His shield clattered to the ground and he held his hands away from his body. She noticed the scroll in his hands almost too late and launched a glass dagger at it, spearing it out of his hand and impaling it to the wall.

"Now, now." She purred, more confident now that the situation was firmly in her hands, "Let us keep this between us."

"You're not getting away from here."

"Then I guess I have no use for her." She pulled back sharply, earning a cry from the girl.

"Wait!" He started forward, almost taking a step, "Don't.."

"The do not push me!" She hissed, starting to move the girl around the room, dragging her away from the elevator, "I am leaving and you will not pursue me."

"And how do you expect to get out of here? The elevator?"

"Not quite." She smiled as she reached the wide, floor to ceiling window. Her hand touch it, superheating the glass and causing it to shatter, though she kept some of the glass in her hand, behind her back.

"If you kill her, I will hunt you down." The man threatened.

"You're going to do that anyways." She spat back, stepping towards the edge. "YYou're going to come after me not matter what happens-"

"Wait!"

"-but I know how to fix that!" She finished, bringing out the small glass dagger she had formed from the window's shards. Without hesitation she drove it into the soft neck of the girl, dragging it across the girl's throat. With a shove she sent the girl tumbling towards the man.

And with a smirk she dove out of the window.

A/N: Well then that was interesting! Surprise! I thought that a special event deserved a special update. I still plan on updating this coming weekend as well, so look forward to seeing how things pan out.