Final Top Three Tally for the Fan-Favorite Duel of the Patch and Promotion Exams Arcs!
3rd Place: Taiyang vs. Adam - 9 Votes
2nd Place: Ruby & Weiss vs. Astral and Jaune vs. Mercury - 12 Votes
1st Place: Ruby vs. Penny - 13 Votes - Congrats to the official FAN-FAVORITE DUEL of these two arcs! (Gonna be honest, had a feeling this one would come out on top).
New Poll for the Fan-Favorite Duel of the Investigation & Dance Arcs is now on my profile!
"U–Uh, P–Penny? What Penny truly is?" Ruby coughed, swallowing what cookies she could and fidgeting with those left in her hands. "Wh–what you do mean, Ironwoo–general? Sir? She is a student at Atlas Academy–your academy–which I hear you are doing a great job of running."
"Thank you," Ironwood replied, his stern expression unaffected by the nervous flattery. "But I suspect you know what I'm referring to given how you've been trying to cover for her all night. Or would you like to 'send a report'."
Ruby deflated, clearly knowing the jig was up. Ironwood felt a twinge of sympathy for the girl at the sight of it. She was usually so endlessly peppy, and even if she did know Penny's secret, he doubted that she'd come by it maliciously.
Still, he had to know for sure. He had to make sure that intelligence was tightly controlled, or else The Queen could strike to jeopardize the project before it became a true threat to her forces.
"The first artificial intelligence capable of generating an aura," Ruby confessed. "That was how she phrased it at the docks."
"An Ignis. That's the official designation," the general said, his broad figure imposing over Ruby's shorter frame. "Have you told anyone else?"
"Uh…" Ruby pursed her lips. "You're not gonna kill me if I say 'no', are you?"
Ironwood chuckled. Then he saw that Ruby's face remained as serious as the grave.
"N–no," the general stammered, the veteran huntsman suddenly sputtering like he was the teenager between them. "I don't know what your uncle has told you–"
"My uncle?" Ruby interjected. "You know Uncle Qrow?"
"We've…" Ironwood paused, considering all he'd done with Qrow for Ozpin over the decades that Ms. Rose should not know about. "... worked together before."
"Cool!" Ruby exclaimed. "Wait, when he was sober or drunk?"
"Mostly drunk."
"I'm so sorry."
Ironwood let out a hearty laugh. He knew the silver-eyed girl wasn't joking that time, but she needn't have worried. Qrow may have been the most commonly drunk friend he had, but, most of the time, he was still a friend through and through.
"Don't blame Penny for me finding out about her," Ruby implored him. "She saved my butt at the docks and I saw what was underneath her skin when she got damaged."
"Did anyone else see?"
"No."
The general let out a sigh of relief. "Good. To be frank with you, Ms. Rose, I would not have chosen to trust you with this information if I had a say in the matter. The safety of Penny and the Ignis Project as a whole is paramount to the safety of humanity. The circle of those who know of it in this sensitive stage is minuscule. Not even Ozpin knows."
Ruby cocked an eyebrow in confusion. "Why would he? Isn't it an Atlas Military project?"
"Just want you to understand how serious this is," Ironwood said, internally kicking himself that he just accidentally implied there was a reason a Beacon headmaster should know about such a project. It was obvious that Ozpin was grooming Team RWBY to be his replacements for Team STRQ, but until that time, there was no reason for them to know about the inner circle. "If development goes as planned, it may be possible to manufacture Ignis hunting duelists on par with your uncle at a rate that can rival the Grimm's reproduction."
"Woah! Really?" Ruby gasped, her eyes twinkling with wonder. Only to dim right afterward as she nervously glanced around the general into the ballroom, the next Tag-Duel having drawn the crowd's attention. "Uh, there wouldn't happen to be some flaw in Penny's programming that would make it possible to… hide from her. Not forever! Just… you know…"
"Until the dance ends?"
"... yeah," Ruby groaned, her arms dropping to her sides, the devouring of her cookies halted.
"I did notice you're not a fan of the dance floor," Ironwood remarked.
"Why would I be? Even without death stilts, I've got two left feet. Two… less than normal knees," Ruby sighed. "Not that I've been all too great at the things I'm supposed to be the bees' knees in lately."
"I'm guessing I'm missing some context for this 'knees' matter," the general noted.
Ruby winced. "Sorry. It's just… I don't know how to summon my dragon when it's counting on me or help my friends with their problems. I'm dueling better than ever, but it's not helping anyone. That's why I never wanted to be Team RWBY's leader. I became a hunting duelist to duel and help people, not all this other leading stuff."
A spark of a long set-aside memory flashed through Ironwood's mind, a nostalgic, resigned smile ghosting over his lips as he looked down on the young student. "Join the club."
"Huh?" Ruby blinked, glancing up at him. "You didn't want to be a general?"
"I didn't even want to be in the military," the man in the sharp white uniform admitted, remembering how he'd sought to do for Winter what Fria had once done for him. "I came up during and right after the Faunus Rights Revolution, with a 'patriotic' mother who wanted me and my little sister to enlist under General Lagune. I couldn't run away to Atlas Academy fast enough."
"Hehe, you sound like Weiss," Ruby giggled. "Why'd you enlist then?"
"Bad timing. My mother passed just as I graduated and my sister fell dangerously ill," he replied. "The military was just starting up what would eventually become the Specialist Program, and the health insurance package was generous."
"Oh," Ruby flinched. "Did hunting duelist missions not pay enough?"
"I was fresh out of school. Those that were paying enough hired more proven talent or weren't ones I was morally comfortable with," the general explained. "My old team leader from school did bring me on one that he had, but it turned out the job was… less than scrupled."
His dark eyes flickered down to his hand, the white glove ever a reminder of how he'd lost the first part of his body and the lesson it'd taught him. He'd been even more awkward in school than he was in the present day. His team leader had been his only social lifeline. Charming, witty, roguish, a man of endless passions and sharp cunning. James saw a lot of him in Qrow, for better and for worse. When he called him and their other two teammates to do a job together right after graduation, a job that would pay for his sister's medical care in full, Ironwood had been elated.
He should have realized sooner that merely transporting some cargo for the Ebi family wouldn't pay so well. The Faunus Rights Revolution destroyed the efforts of the kingdoms' more conservative factions to exile and confine the faunus to Meangerie, and that led to a surge of immigration off the impoverished island. And that led to opportunity for any scum willing to exploit such desperate innocents.
It had been trafficking. And his teammates had all known. They just hadn't cared.
He didn't know if he could have brought himself to make the call he did that day if it hadn't been for his semblance. But he'd activated Mettle and it had cut through his doubts and fears about going against the only friends he had. He'd done what had needed to be done.
He'd killed his teammates to save the refugees from slavery that night. His team leader had taken his hand, lambasted him for his betrayal, and made to put him in the ground. If the eldest son of the Ebi family and his young mercenary hadn't been investigating his parents' shady dealings and arrived ust in time to distract the bastard, he would have died that night himself. His sister later would because he'd delayed joining the military to take the job in the first place, while the refugees were deported back whence they came when the authorities discovered them.
He chose his friends more carefully from that night on, Clover and Akira being the first.
"Once I was in the military, I played the good soldier, did what I was told, tried to keep my head down to get to the end of my tour," he recounted. "I made whatever sacrifices were necessary, no matter how much they hurt."
"But why stay?" Ruby asked. "I mean, after your sister passed away, why stay if you hated it there?"
Ironwood sighed, feeling a crushing weight on his shoulders as he always did when he asked himself that very question. He forced himself to stand tall despite it, to not betray the exhaustion within. "Whatever sacrifices are necessary, no matter how much they hurt. If I hadn't become general, someone else would have. And my competitors for the role made Jacques Schnee look like Ghira Belladonna."
"Ow."
"Very much so," the general nodded. "Ms. Rose, do you believe there were any better options to be your team leader?"
"Uh, I don't know," Ruby confessed. "Weiss and Blake both have issues, especially back then. And Yang can be… easily provoked. But that doesn't mean I'm a good option!"
"It also doesn't mean you can't do good in the role," Ironwood pointed out. "As general, I was able to go around the council to end segregation in the military, prevent a council appointee from taking over Atlas Academy when Headmistress Fria had to retire, and elevate other good people like Penny's father to flush out the corruption of my predecessors."
Ruby tilted her head. "Was everyone else really that bad?"
"They were. If anything, I didn't go far enough," the muscular cyborg said, clenching his flesh and blood hand into a fist as he remembered his greatest failure. "I let Arthur Watts stay on."
"Who's he?" Ruby asked.
Ironwood sighed. "A monster the world is better off without. Have you ever heard of The Lost Incident?"
"Uh, vaguely? I think?" Ruby said, scratching her chin in contemplation. "I think Uncle Qrow mentioned it once during one of his drunken rambles. Something about six kids from Mantle being kidnapped and… well, it wasn't one of his happier drunken ramblings. Dad told me not to ask about it."
"For good reason. They happened to be in the area and came to help with the aftermath," the general claimed. "Watts was well-connected in Atlas. An associate of Weiss's father, among others. He was always a pain in the ass, but he was undeniably brilliant, perhaps second only to Dr. Polendina. I thought firing him would be more political trouble than it was worth and just had him work under Penny's father on the Ignis Project. He took offense to that."
"Sounds like a jerk," Ruby scowled. "He kidnapped those kids just to, what? Get back at you?"
"To make a point. He decided that he would prove he was smarter than Pietro by proving that his methods could produce an Ignis first. The young faunus children he kidnapped were, in his words, 'necessary test subjects'," Ironwood revealed, his nose wrinkling in revulsion. "He tortured them, forcing them to duel against their will and punishing them whenever they lost. All to push their young auras to the absolute limit and record the data."
Ruby's hands curled into fists. "He used dueling to torture them? You saved them, right?"
Ironwood looked away in shame from the righteously furious face. "Most of them. The one we couldn't save, a girl named Miyu Sugisaki, summoned a monster Watts wasn't expecting. It overloaded his systems, causing an explosion that killed him and destroyed most of his data. The cloaking systems were disabled, allowing us to find the hideout, but the strain of the monster she summoned combined with the torture she endured proved too much for Miyu."
It was a lie, but it was the truth that Ozpin wanted spoken. After all, Qrow and Taiyang hadn't just 'been in the area'. Fria had had the Beacon Headmaster send them specifically to deal with the circle's interest in the matter, her fading mind leaving her wary of collateral damage to the city if she attended to it personally.
If not for their long history and how much he owed his old school partner, Ironwood very much doubted Taiyang would still be on speaking terms with Qrow after what happened.
"Ergh! See? This? This is what I mean!" Ruby snapped, the young woman stomping over to the balcony railing, setting her plate of cookies down on it, and frustratedly kicking one of its pillars. "Bad guys like that, like Torchwick, are out there. They're hurting people. I don't have time to be messing up leading or dancing. Everyone keeps saying I can't 'live my life on the battlefield', but that's the point of me, right? I'm a hunting duelist! My job is to go out there, duel, and help people!"
It was at that moment that Ironwood decided that he liked Ruby Rose.
It surprised him. The older he got, the more mired he found his life in politics for the greater good, the less he found himself 'liking' anyone he hadn't known for years already. Back home in Atlas, he dealt with most people because he had to, with only brief reprieves from his few friends like Clover, Winter, and Akira. Some nights since he'd come to Beacon to help guard Amber, he wondered if some part of him hadn't ventured across kingdoms just to not have to deal with Jacques, Sleet, and their self-serving ilk for a few months.
Hearing Ruby's passionate, heartfelt exultation of what a hunting duelist should be, of what she burned to be from the very depths of her soul, it was a balm to his own turbulent mind. A reminder of just why he trudged through all the drudgery and muck to take action, to do what must be done. It took strength to make the sacrifices necessary to save people.
Ironwood placed his hand on Ruby's shoulder to comfort and reassure her, as he did many times when he was teaching Winter and building her up from Jacques' abuse. "Ozpin can be wistful at times. His decisions can be befuddling, and they don't always make sense."
"Like letting a first-year team take a third-year mission to Mt. Glenn?" Ruby teased, though her voice remained troubled, her silver eyes glancing into the dance hall where her fellow students were merrily milling about. "Like having a Slifer Slacker be 'leader' to a bunch of the best Obelisk Blues in Beacon. Everyone's talking about that one."
"Let them talk. I doubt any of them could have done better against Penny than you did in your Promotion Duel," Ironwood advised her. "People talk. They complain about things they don't understand. You can do everything in your power to try to save them and they'll just take the chance to stab you in the back for their own ends. Ignore it. Block it out. Don't let them make you think you're something you know you're not."
"And what am I?" Ruby asked.
Ironwood smiled down at her. "I believe you just said it. You're a hunting duelist."
Ruby chuckled, her eyes regaining a bit of their sparkle. "I guess I walked right into that one."
"Lack of caution is a symptom of inexperience," the general joked. "But inexperience fades with time. The truth is that these parties are not the restful things Ozpin believes them to be. They're just another battlefield, as is leadership itself. We may not enjoy it as much as the duel field, but it is just as much our responsibility. We are hunting duelists. If we show weakness, all we do is give all those we protect reason to doubt us, to be more negative. Even those who aren't after our heads will still attract more Grimm."
"If you're not always seeking to be at your best, why should anyone follow you?" Ruby murmured, sounding like she was quoting someone else.
"Precisely," Ironwood nodded, his smile only growing.
"Ruby! I found you!" Penny exclaimed, racing onto the balcony with the silver-eyed girl's weight in cookies on a pair of plates. "I could not find the general, so I brought new refreshments–oh! General! You found her first. Sensational!"
Ruby flinched at the sight of the excitable android, then immediately looked guilty for doing so. Ironwood gave her a soft pat on the back for reassurance.
"We've chosen to live on the battlefield," he reminded her.
Ruby gazed at him a moment before her gaze hardened. She nodded with determination. "Right. Thank you, general."
"It was my genuine pleasure, Ruby," Ironwood replied. He released his hand from her shoulder and marched up to Penny. "I've decided Ms. Rose will be your escort for the night, Penny."
"You have?" Ruby blinked in surprise.
"You have!?" Penny beamed. "Thank you, sir!"
"Don't thank me yet. You still need to be back in your room before curfew," the general lightly warned her. "Then, we will have a talk about not fully updating me on who knows what top-secret intelligence."
"Who knows what…" Penny's emerald orbs flickered between him and Ruby. It was plain to see that the Ignis girl figured out what he meant as her sunny disposition dimmed. "I'm sorry. I didn't want you to get mad at her."
"I understand, Penny. But I cannot protect you if you don't tell me when the board changes," Ironwood said, before placing a comforting hand on the metal girl's shoulder and flashing a smile. "But, I will say that if you had to disclose your secret to anyone, I approve of your choice."
Penny's face brightened up again, an even more effulgent sun than before. "Thank you, general."
Ironwood snatched a cookie from the Ignis girl's trove and strode off to give the girls some space. Ozpin was right. These children had potential, but as they were now, they couldn't win a war. While there was still the chance to do so, it was best to let them be kids. He'd take care of things until then.
He did need to check in on his men at the CCT Tower. Had they missed their last check-in?
RWBYRWBYRWBYRWBYYUGIOHYUGIOH
Mercury stomped out to one of the ballroom balconies, careful to keep the shadows and make sure none of the chattering academy students saw him stumble, saw his weakness. Only when he was safe under the light of the shattered moon did he finally allow his exhaustion to overcome him, leaning over the marble railing and commanding his lungs to get their shit together. Cinder's bitching and the echoes of his dad's beatings rang through his mind, his hands trembling no matter how much he tried to still them.
A comforting presence, or at least what he assumed was one (he didn't have much positive stuff to compare it to), radiated out from his Extra Deck. The first card he'd ever forged, the card his dad had stolen along with his semblance to keep it from being 'a crutch', did its best to give him the strength to navigate the chaos of his mind. Returning the favor really, since unlike his semblance, Mercury had been able to take it back from his old man.
Yet, it was the delectable smell of a hot golden eggwich that finally cut through the cool night air and his internal shitstorm. Mercury turned to see someone's right arm holding out the delectably savory sandwich towards him.
What he had not expected was who was extending the offer.
"Don't you have another match to run?" he snarked.
"Asked Sun to cover me again," Yang revealed, her golden gown glittering under the gentle moonlight. "You looked like you could use a friend."
Mercury scoffed. "We're not friends. And I don't need your pity."
Somehow, Yang smiled at his dismissal, her right hand remaining extended. "Just take the eggwich, handsome."
Mercury's scowl deepened. But he took the eggwich, diving into the delicious savory food. Yang brought out her own and slid up next to him.
For several minutes, the two stood against the railing in companionable silence, simply eating the golden eggwiches as the shattered moon shined down on them. It honestly wasn't an experience Mercury had ever encountered before. For whatever reason, his body cooled down as the meal continued, his heart no longer pounding, his thighs no longer swelling against his artificial knees.
It was… nice.
"Mmm, never get tired of eating these things. Was pleasantly surprised when the rest of the committee agreed with having them here," Yang licked her lips after both the sandwiches were devoured. She passed him one of the punch cups while greedily downing her own.
Mercury stalled at the sight of it. It didn't smell like one of his old man's but with what he just went through, he couldn't hide his flinch. And blondie saw it, to his irritation.
"I don't drink," he said simply.
"No worries. No alcohol. I enjoy a strawberry sunrise now and again, but I didn't want to risk Ruby grabbing a cup from the wrong bowl by accident," Yang replied, trying to reassure him with a light, joking tone. "Our uncle's usually great, but if he gets too far in cups–"
"What do you want, blondie?" Mercury snapped. "I put in a bit of effort."
"I saw what happened after the duel," Yang informed him. "And when I followed you, I ended up catching your talk with Cinder after."
"So you saw she's a bitch. Big whoop," Mercury snarked. "Or are you not happy with my performance either?"
Yang sighed. "She is a bitch. And, I'm not happy. She shouldn't have treated you like that."
"Cinder strives for perfection. And since we're her team, any failure on our part reflects on her," Mercury shrugged. "Or something like that."
"Still. You kicked the butts of two of Beacon's best with barely a scratch. Some appreciation is due," Yang complained on his behalf. "Especially with what you went through at the end to do it–"
"I did not 'go through' anything," Mercury snarled. "I just… didn't do the job. Emerald said we'd win without a scratch. And we would have. I just didn't expect the big guy to go that far when he was gonna lose anyway."
Yang smiled, a bright and sunny thing filled with emotions he just did not get. "You dueled him with all you had and he respected you for it. He wanted to leave it all out there, win or lose."
Mercury snorted. "His Burning Soul?"
"Well, he probably wouldn't phrase it like that, but same sentiment really," Yang joked. "He'd probably call it 'honor' or 'the perseverance of the dojo', or 'My parents are racist assholes, so I'm just gonna hit my opponents with everything I can while imagining their faces'."
"Hahaha!" Mercury sniggered. The energetic girl's playful impression of her upperclassman was surprisingly good considering the last one probably wasn't something the Superheavy Samurai duelist would ever think. Though he might want to give it a try himself himself. His monster punching the crud out of his dad again would be a sight to behold.
"He laughs!" Yang grinned. "Thought all you could do was crack wise and read comics."
"And eat," Mercury replied with a jolly air. "I eat too."
"Ah, yes! You do love those eggwiches," Yang laughed herself. She raised her punch cup and offered a toast.
Surprising himself, Mercury grabbed his own glass and klinked it with hers. They each downed their drinks.
The taste was surprising. But… not bad.
"I meant what I said earlier. Cinder had no right to treat you like that," Yang spat. "Even if you had lost, that was just wrong."
"She's a real piece of work. Wouldn't be my first choice as team leader, but eh," Mercury shrugged. "Doesn't matter in the end. I do my job, I get paid. That's what a professional does."
Yang's brow furrowed. "I actually wanted to ask. Why did you pick this job? A hunting duelist, I mean. I'm still all for giving you a duel you can enjoy at Vytel Festival if you're up for it, but with how you were at the end of that match–"
"I can handle any duel," Mercury lowly insisted.
"No arguments there," Yang said. "But if it can set you off like at the end there and you don't even like dueling, why become a hunting duelist?"
Mercury snorted. He almost wanted to sarcastically tell her the truth, that he was raised from birth to be an assassin and was now part of a terrorist cell working towards the destruction of the Kingdom of Vale. But no. Blondie and her team were investigating the White Fang. Best not to put any intel in the back of their minds that they could suddenly put together later.
"Because I'm good at it," he said instead, his words the truth in their own right. "I was raised on the frontier, so I don't know anyone. Never knew my mom and I am eternally grateful my old man's in the ground. All I've got is my deck and my skill, but I can make a living out of it."
"Not sure I get it," Yang replied. "There are other ways to make a living out of dueling than being a hunting duelist. Heck, most of them are safer than fighting Grimm–"
"Safer?" Mercury sneered. He shoved away from the railing and stood to his full height, glaring down at Yang. "Don't mistake what happened at the end of that match for weakness, blondie."
"I didn't say you're weak," Yang reminded him, calm even in the face of his shift. "I'm just trying to understand why you'd pick a job that requires you to duel with everything you've got when there are other options–"
"There are no options!" Mercury barked. "The job, any job, is to fill your role. Play your part, and you get what you want. If you're weak and fail, you're gone, hunting duelist or not. That's why you put all this effort into this shindig after all."
"Huh? What are you talking about–"
"Emerald talks a lot about what your little sis rambles about in your hang-outs. You messed up big time and this party was your try to put things back the way they were," he snatched up his punch cup and raised in a mocking toast. "Congrats! Judging by your partner's cackling at the end of your match, you succeeded. Team RWBY is back together! You still have your place in the world. And because you saved it, that means you're still needed. You can still pretend to be strong."
He downed what remained of the cup of punch, getting a rise out of Xiao-Long finally shoving herself off the railing and squaring up with him, her violet eyes narrowed and fuming.
"I did what I did because my friends were hurt and I wanted to help them," blondie insisted. "Also, pretend to be strong?"
"You wouldn't have been so skittish about summoning that Clear Wing dragon if you didn't know it," Mercury needled her. "They call you the team ace, but for how long? You lost to Nikos. You nearly lost to me when I was barely trying. You've built yourself up trouncing chumps like your sister and Winchester, but they're nothing compared to what's out there."
Yang's eyes finally flared crimson, grabbing the lapels of Mercury's suit in her furious fist. "Do not call my sister a chump."
"It's the truth. Signer or no Signer," Mercury snarked, not the least bit considered by the building flames in the gorgeous woman's golden locks. "And what does that make you, who's definitely not a Signer? Who was never considered worth it by the magic dragons who loved mommy, and daddy, and lil'sis so much? What is regular old you going to do when the cold, cruel world comes knocking?"
In a way, he pitied her, if only because he'd had to answer that very same question himself. He lived his entire life under his old man's thumb, brutalized and beaten, day in and day out. He'd been stripped of his legs, his semblance, and his most precious card. So he gritted his teeth, bore it, sharpened his hatred into a blade harder than iron, and finally killed the bastard. He understood then that the world had no mercy for the weak, so the only way to survive was to get just as mean and care nothing for the world. That was what had allowed him to reclaim his dearest card.
And immediately afterward, Cinder and Emerald showed up, and with them came another of reality's harsh kicks to the shins. Maidens, Legendary Dragons, God Cards, everything he'd thought to be myths and fairy tales were suddenly surrounding him like sharks circling for the kill. Fusion and Grimm Queens, things he'd never conceived of before, suddenly towered over him, making him and the skill he'd nearly be shattered forging… so small.
But he was strong. He was mean, and he was tough. And through those useful skills, he had a place on the winning team. So long as he was there, he'd have the power to survive.
Yang glared at him for several long seconds, her flaming hair conjuring mist in the cool night air. Mercury was sure that she'd slug him any moment now.
Yet, instead, she let go, his lapel snapping back into his chest. Her eyes faded back to violet, though for the first time, she looked truly hurt by his words.
"It's come knocking before," Yang confessed, her normally confident voice stifling a hint of a sob. "And if it comes again, I'll be strong enough. My Burning Soul will crush it."
The flames in her hair had died down, but the shattered moon's light still illuminated the fractions of tears she held at bay in her eyes.
Mercury had intended his next words to mock her. Yet instead, he found they left his lips as a warning.
"You think your soul burns hotter than the sun, but it's a matchstick," he whispered, gazing over the dance hall where lights glittered and teenagers laughed. Unaware that that very night, Cinder Fall had accomplished the next step of her plan to kill them all. "You've lived behind a veil your whole life, all the real terrors kept out of sight and out of mind. But eventually, you're going to have to peek behind the curtain. And we'll see just how 'fun' you find dueling then."
He stalked back into the ballroom, leaving the party's architect to flounder in a taste of isolation, listening to the happy chatter of her classmates within.
And for some reason that infuriated and terrified him to no end, Mercury almost turned around to keep her company at that thought.
RWBYRWBYRWBYRWBYYUGIOHYUGIOH
"Oh, man! What a night!" Nora exclaimed, breathless for once as Team JNPR returned to their dorm room after the night of feasting and festivities.
Pyrrha could only agree, she, Jaune, and Ren still laughing as they filed into the room, closing the door behind them just as Astral floated in through it. The Invincible Girl's heart was still pounding from all the fun at the dance, including lighting up the ballroom with her partner.
"I still can't believe you two never told me you were such good dancers," she laughed at the male half of the team. "Weiss is classically trained and even she was struggling to keep up with you."
"Not always," Ren pointed out, looking to Jaune. "There was that one song where she took the lead and you struggled."
"Oh! That," Jaune exclaimed, scratching the back of his head in nervousness. "Just wasn't my song. Plus, you know, I'm trying to put my crush on her behind me, but it was still a bit of a shock to have her offer to dance with me."
His words sounded believable, but they were a lie. Jaune had offered his body to Astral for that song to experience the dance, but it turned out the ballroom was the one place the ghostly being was far less skilled that his blond partner. Pyrrha herself was no ace of the ballroom and Ruby was toughing it out already with Penny, so Weiss, as the most experienced dancer of those in the know, had offered to lead the specter through his debut. By the time ended, both came away smiling.
"But come on, Pyr," Jaune joked. "I know Nora hadn't gotten around to the story of how Ren saved their lives by schooling Branwen bandits in a dance-off–"
Nora shot up from her bed. "How did you know about that?!"
"-Woah, that really happened?"
"It was our second craziest Thursday," Nora revealed.
"Woah," Jaune remarked. He took a second to process how wild his friends' lives were before turning back to his partner. "But Pyrrha, you were talking to my mom a ton over break. She was even showing you photo albums. Did you not get to the one where the twins both wanted to enter the town dance competitions and I got volunteered into being the practice partner for both of them?"
Pyrrha bashfully shuffled in her scarlet gown, her cheek flushing the same color. "We admittedly didn't get past baby pictures."
"Ergh, that makes sense. After so many other kids, Mom knew she wanted as many of those as possible," Jaune shuddered. "But hey, I guess that means you'll have the rest of the albums to check out next time you visit."
"Y–Yes…" Pyrrha stammered, her blush dying as her body went cold. "Next… time…"
"Pyrrha?" Jaune queried.
Nora hopped off her bed with concern. "What's wrong?"
"I… I…" Pyrrha stuttered, the warmth of her team suddenly feeling like an oven. Tears squeezed from her eyes, the muscular woman withdrawing into herself and glancing away from her friends. "I… I'm sorry. But I don't know if there's going to be a next time."
"Huh?" Jaune said, cocking a confused eyebrow. "You don't want to come back to Ansel next semester break? That's fine. My folks won't be offended if you want to go home and see your mom–"
"No, that's not what I mean," Pyrrha cried. "I mean… I love you all so much. I love this team and being here at Beacon with you all and Team RWBY. And after graduation… I'm going to leave here."
Jaune and Nora blinked in befuddlement. They turned to each other, the more excitable members of Team JNPR trying to decipher what their teammate was so upset about. With… mixed results.
"Uh, Pyrrha, I admit, I've never been to a school other than here, but I think that's the point of graduation," Nora gently reasoned, before glancing back to Jaune. "That is the point, right?"
"Uh, yeah. But it's nothing to be scared about," Jaune tried to comfort his partner. "I mean, it's not like it's the end of the world. The CCT exists, we'll still see each other. Hell, if we want, we can stay together and keep doing missions as a team once we're full-fledged hunting duelists."
Pyrrha smacked her hands to her face, sobbing. "But I'm going away. I'm going where I'm needed on the frontier."
That was the reality of the situation, one that no nights of dream dances could change. She had the financial freedom to go where she was needed, to defend villages who couldn't pay a substantial salary and weren't important enough to the council to support through bounties. But Ren and Nora were attending Beacon on scholarship stipends as it was and Jaune's family had nearly a dozen mouths to feed. She couldn't ask them to limit their careers because of her. She had to go it alone.
"Oh! That's what you meant by 'people on the frontier' back at the training arena," Jaune realized. "Why didn't you just say so? We'll go with you then."
"What?!" Pyrrha exclaimed. "No, Jaune, I can't ask that of any of you–"
"What do you mean 'ask that of us'?" Nora queried, befuddled. "We are talking about the Mistral frontier, right? That's where Ren and I were planning to go after graduation anyway. All those Spiders and Brawen punks are gonna shit their pants when we come back as full-fledged hunting duelists! Hehehe, and they thought they were safe–"
"You–you were planning to go there anyway!?" Pyrrha stammered. "Since when? Why didn't you tell me?!"
Nora cocked an eyebrow. "You didn't ask. Heck, you've been so mega-focused on training lately that you've barely told us anything. Let alone where you were thinking of going after graduation."
Pyrrha blinked, her tears trickling down her cheeks. All her inner turmoil, all her inner conflict for weeks… and her friends just cut through it and provided a solution the second she told them even the slightest bit what was going on.
She was surrounded by warmth and yet she felt so cold. Cold and ashamed. Was she really so foolish that she'd get in her head so much and make everyone worry about her?
"I'm sorry," she mumbled. "I'm so stupid."
Jaune and Nora's expressions immediately warped to show their intense shock and disagreement with that sentiment. And yet, neither of them was the first to comfort her.
Ren slipped in at her side and placed a firm hand of support on Pyrrha's shoulder. His stoic face, which had been almost unnaturally painted with joy since his Tag Duel, was not affronted by her statement like their teammates were. Instead, he met her shame with serenity, her imbalance with understanding.
"You're not stupid. You're strong," he consoled her. "And when one has had to be strong for a long time, it becomes comfortable, like… old leather. It becomes hard to tell when you have to let your guard down so others can help you."
"I just… meeting you all, and Team RWBY, it was the best thing that ever happened to me," Pyrrha confessed, her shivers steadied by her teammate's gentle grip. "I have been on a pedestal for so long and I hated it. But there is power in it, power that I have whether I like it or not. I can't refuse to use it to help people when it could save lives."
"Then use it. No pedestal could raise you high enough that we would not move Remnant itself to reach you when you needed a rest. Wherever you go, whatever you need to do, we will be by your side. All three of us…" Ren spoke, only to pause all of a sudden, his brow furrowing with contemplation. His serenity flickered, fear peeking through his face. And yet, with only a brief glance at Nora to steel his resolve, he spoke again with firm certainty. "All four of us."
Pyrrha's eyes widened, unsure if the implications of that deliberate word choice were what she thought they were.
But such confusion was swiftly dashed when Ren turned his head again and looked right at Astral.
"So, you can see me," Astral noted, as if it was just one more observation to log.
"Wait, what?!" Jaune yelped, hopping back in shock and whipping his head back and forth between his teammate and his ghostly partner.
"You knew?" Ren inquired to the spirit.
"I suspected," Astral clarified. "You were quite skilled at acting like you couldn't see or hear me, but you did slip up and respond with the context of my previous statements a few times. I couldn't be sure it wasn't just coincidence with so few samples however."
"Wait! Wait! Hold up!" Jaune stammered, frantically pointing his fingers between his friends. "You–Him–Since when–"
"Oh! We're not hiding that you can see the ghosty guy anymore? Finally!" Nora exclaimed, leaping for joy. The ecstatic girl dashed over to Jaune's side where Ren was looking, stepping her head into Astral's spectral leg and extending her hand to shake behind his back. "Hi, ghosty guy! You've been hanging us for months now, but we haven't been properly introduced! I'm Nora Valkyrie! I hope we can be friends. First question, are you actually a ghost and, second question, if so, are there pancakes in the afterlife?"
Even with Team JNPR's sunniest member unknowingly standing in the middle of his leg, Astral's lips slipped into a sly smile. "My memory is still of variable quality, so I'm afraid I do not have a credible answer to either query."
"What'd he say? Do the afterlife pancakes have automatic syrup on them?"
"Well, I guess she can't see or hear him," Pyrrha remarked, turning back to Ren. "But, for how long? And how?"
"Since the beginning, I think. I was awake in bed the night you and Jaune came back after his off-the-books duel with Cardin," he replied, digging around in his deck box. "As for how I can see him, I suspect through a similar situation as you."
He pulled out a Rank Four Xyz Monster from his Extra Deck, one he'd never shown Pyrrha or Jaune before. Within the black-bordered card was a brilliant golden archer, sharp wings balancing it among the stars as it drew back a bow of celestial light.
"Number 102," Ren announced. "Star Seraph Sentry."
"Remarkable," Astral whispered, floating through to marvel at the new monster. "To think my partner would find himself on a team with two Emperors. The probability is so minuscule as to border nonexistence, and yet still it has come to be."
"But that means you're in danger here, Ren," Pyrrha pointed out. "Mr. Xiao-Long's warning. If Ozpin finds out you have that–"
"That was a factor in why I waited so long to tell you about all this. I assumed that the compartmentalization of information would protect us both," Ren admitted. "But, at the heart of it, I think I was just scared, just as you were. A long time ago, I lost everything. And since then, it's just been me and Nora. But here, despite the danger, there was also you all, and that was something I didn't count on. I didn't count on having more to lose. I didn't count on being happy."
"Ren…" Pyrrha murmured.
"Let's be happy, Pyrrha. All five of us," he offered. "We'll stick it out here until graduation and then run off to the frontier where Ozpin will never bother to look for us. We'll be hunting duelists, together."
Pyrrha laughed, just as warmly as he had with Blake after their final clash in the Acrobatic Circus. "Yes. Yes, I think I'd like that."
"Alright!" Jaune grinned, throwing up a fist pump of victory. "If we're gonna be frontier hunting duelists, we should start tailoring our training to it! I think I saw an away mission to help a sheriff of a further out settlement that'll be great for that. We can leave tomorrow morning."
"Yes!" Nora cheered. The redhead dashed over to her partner and engulfed in a loving embrace, picking him off the ground with euphoric strength. "Oh, Ren! I am so happy that you've had so much emotional growth today! I told you we could trust them! Nothing bad is gonna happen ever again! Ever!"
"Well, I wouldn't go that far. But things do seem to be turning up," Ren giggled. He waited until Nora set him down and held out his Number card to Astral. "I admit I've only caught bits and pieces of your connection to these cards, but I believe you need to touch them to have them help put your memories in order."
"That is accurate of what we've observed thus far," Astral nodded. He reached out for Number 102. As his spectral blue fingers neared, a soft red glow began to emanate from the golden archer's card.
Only for that same glow to fade when he suddenly pulled away from it.
"Tomorrow. It will be safer to reforge the connection with it when we're out on our mission. Less chance of any connected phenomena being noticed if it's done out on the frontier," Astral said, though the fond smile on his face, as he looked over his four friends, suggested ulterior motives. "Besides, this is to be a night of merriment, not mundane magic. The dance may be over, but the night is not yet done."
"That might be the best idea you've ever had, partner," Jaune grinned. He pointed to each of his opaque teammates in turn. "Dungeons Dice Monsters? Dungeon Dice Monsters? Dungeon Dice Monsters?"
"Dungeon Dice Monsters! Yeah!" Nora hollered. "The Queen of the Castle is gonna crush all of y'all suckers with my Thunderball!"
"Nora, you realize going for the same monster and using the same tactic every time just means we'll use the same techniques to counter it as we have before, right?" Ren pointed out.
"Thunderball!"
Overlooking her friends and their excitable chatter as they broke out the board game, Pyrrha couldn't help but allow her smile to grow.
'You want so badly to be normal. To be just another face in the crowd. You're not. And you shouldn't want to be.'
"You were right. I shouldn't want to be normal," Pyrrha responded to the echo of Ilia in her head. "How else could I be worthy to call such special people my friends?"
She was glad to have met the chameleon girl. Despite the faunus duelist's current loyalties and the turmoil their encounter had brought Pyrrha, the Argus woman felt like she had grown from the harsh truths she'd forced her to confront, about herself and the world. The Invincible Girl was her burden to bear, her weapon to strike down evil. But if her friends could find their own ways to near the height of her pedestal, then perhaps her loneliness would not devour her as it nearly had before. She had just to protect them for as long as it took for them to gain that power, like how her victory against Ilia had provided Blake with the opportunity to heal as she had at the dance, summoning that Pendulum Synchro and smiling more than the redhead had ever seen.
Perhaps one day, Ilia herself might be one of her friends gathered around for a game of Dungeon Dice Monsters.
"Hey! Pyrrha?" Jaune called, holding out dice to her. "You ready to roll?"
The redheaded champion grinned, striding over and taking the dice from her partner, tossing them across the empty board.
She had a good feeling about this game.
RWBYRWBYRWBYRWBYYUGIOHYUGIOH
"Are you sure you're okay, Ruby?" Penny inquired.
"I'm alright. Just gotta… keep trucking," Ruby replied, limping in her exquisite suit down the halls of Beacon Academy. Dancing truly was a battlefield. "Being your escort means I've got to bring you back to your room, right?"
"It does. Though there are other connotations according to the books my team leader shared with me. Admittedly, I'm not sure I fully understood them."
"Yeah, Yang had some romance novels back in the day that she tried to share with me, but I didn't get them," Ruby waved off. "Your team leader, does she know–"
"Oh, no. That information is kept to a tight circle. Though the general did put us together in hopes that any danger would be minimized should something happen and she finds out."
"Ooo, that's smart," Ruby nodded, only for a guilty look to flash over her face. "I'm sorry I couldn't keep him from figuring out that I knew. I know it all turned out okay in the end, but I promised you."
"And you've kept that promise. You haven't told anyone. Not even the general," Penny pointed out. "He only figured out that you knew because he noticed how you were covering for me all night. And then you danced with me all night!"
"It was certainly a change of pace from what I usually do at these shindigs," Ruby winced. Penny's feet may have been made from an experimental alloy, but hers were not. She could only step on them so many times before her soles had gotten sore.
Penny blinked in surprise. "You didn't enjoy dancing with me?"
Ruby flashed her friend a smile. "No worries. Like the general said, it's just another battlefield. One I need to get as good at as dueling. Even if it's not as cool."
"Oh," Penny remarked, a saddened frown marring her face. "I'm sorry. It was so much fun for me. I should have realized it wasn't for you. I need to get better at understanding people's emotions and actions."
"Huh? Oh no," Ruby panicked. "I… I didn't mean it like that."
The pair stopped in front of Penny's team's dorm room, one girl in her fine-tailored red suit and the other in a cute pastel green dress. The silver-eyed Signer shuffled nervously, trying to put together the words to comfort her companion, who had gone morosely still despite a night of wonder and fun.
"It's… It's just… dueling is easy for me. It feels natural. Even when I'm losing, I still feel like I'm in my element. With dancing or people in general outside my friends really, I feel… awkward. Like, they talk and I hear them, but I feel like I don't get them. I want them to be happy and I want to make them happy, but sometimes it feels like I just don't know how to connect to them," Ruby explained. "I know I can be… obsessive when it comes to forging and dueling, and you've always been happy to do that with me. You never made me feel weird for how much I loved them. So, I wanted to return the favor and help you do something you wanted to do."
Penny's face brightened up, though a sliver of sorrow still stained her visage. "Thank you. But… I have no illusions about what I am. I was built for the battlefield. And the helping people and dueling part? I like that. I am proud to be that. But I don't want it to be all I am. If I can, I want to try to be… a normal girl with normal knees. But I don't want to force you on a battlefield you're uncomfortable with if that's the cost–"
"Hey, hey!" Ruby objected, taking hold of Penny's hand. "You didn't 'force' me to do anything. I choose it. I mean, I may not like dancing, but I like you. A lot."
Penny smiled softly, placing her opposite hand over the silver-eyed girl's. "Do you mean it? Because I like you a lot too, Ruby."
"I do–wait!" Ruby exclaimed, suddenly realizing how close she'd gotten with her friend, her cheeks lighting up the color of her suit as she comprehended what her words had sounded like. "You do know I meant like and not like-like, right?"
"Like-like?" Penny quizically repeated, her head tilted in confusion. "I am not familiar with that term. What does it mean?"
"It means… uh… uh…" Ruby muttered, her voice unable to rise above a blubber in volume. "Curse you, lack of social skills, how dare you get me into this."
Fortunately, where her minuscule social skills had abandoned her, fate had not.
The door to Penny's dorm room swung up. A brunette with a bob cut, soft orange eyes, and official Atlas Academy-issued pajamas stood in the doorway, looking utterly exhausted and just done. For some reason, Ruby felt like she knew her from somewhere.
"Salutations, team leader Aoi Zaizen!" Penny merrily waved.
Oh, right. The girl in the limo that Weiss was terrified of being seen by. That was where Ruby knew her from!
"Penny. The general called me about the escort change," Aoi wearily spoke, politely nodding in greeting to Ruby before turning back to her teammate. "I'm glad that you had a good time at the dance, but these doors are thin and I am trying to sleep. So please move your flirting somewhere else."
"Flirting?" Penny queried.
"I–I think you are misreading the situation!" Ruby protested.
Aoi glanced down at the girls' hands, still held together. "Yes, I'm sure that's just platonic handholding."
"It is!"
"Then take it somewhere else so I can sleep please," Aoi pleaded. "For some reason, this hallway was really popular with people who wanted to do 'extreme dancing' if you know what I mean."
Ruby cocked an eyebrow. "Extreme dancing?"
"But the dance was still ongoing?" Penny asked. "I'm sure the ballroom could accommodate any intense styles they wanted to try."
Aoi groaned. "Dear gods, there's two of you."
"What do you mean?" Ruby inquired. "Wait, you weren't at the dance?"
"Not really my scene," Aoi said, scowling away from the two girls. "I'd rather stay away from big parties when I don't have to show up to support my brother."
"Oh, I feel that," Ruby nodded in understanding. "If Yang hadn't put on the dance, I would not have been there."
Aoi hummed at the news, visibly unsure what to make of the silver-eyed girl's statement that she was Yang's sister, and therefore on the same team as Weiss. "Well, you got an excellent suit for it. Clover's people do good work."
"They do! And I for one am glad that you were there," Penny smiled to her escort. "But the general asked me to be back in the room by curfew, and I do not want to cause him any more trouble tonight. Good night, Ruby."
"Night, Penny," Ruby said, the girls releasing their hands from each other as Penny twirled past Aoi and into the room. "It was nice to meet you, Aoi."
"And you, Ruby," Aoi nodded. She paused as she started to close the door. "Thank you for taking care of her. I know she can be a handful."
"Aw, no. She's awesome," Ruby waved off. "I'm the one who's a handful."
"Life's a handful," Aoi shrugged. "Be careful who you let into yours."
"Is that an ominous warning about Weiss, because she's actually really ni–"
Aoi closed the door, leaving Ruby awkwardly standing in the hall. She sighed and turned to return to her own room.
Only to find Weiss and Blake standing at the corner, clearly having watched the entire thing. The black-haired cat faunus grinning while the heiress was as white as her ivory locks, clutching her hands, utterly scandalized.
"You held hands. In public," Weiss squeaked, as if Ruby had shoved Penny against the wall and done something from Blake's filthy Ninjas of Love books.
"Should've kissed her," Blake declared, looking like she wished something out of Ninjas of Love had happened.
Weiss gasped. "Is Yang right? Are you courting her?"
"What? No! I told you, that's just something Yang does to mess with me," Ruby furiously refuted. "I don't even know how I would do that if I wanted to."
"Ah, natural rizz," Blake smirked, shooting Ruby a thumbs-up. "Nice."
"What? What the heck is 'rizz'? You know what, nevermind, it sounds stupid," Ruby shook her head. She pointed intently at each of her teammates. "How much of that conversation did you hear?"
"None," Weiss scoffed, crossing her arms in offense. "We are not so rude as to eavesdrop."
"Just spying?" Ruby snarked, causing Weiss to pout with indignation.
"We made sure to stay far enough away that we couldn't hear anything specific. We did want to give you some privacy. Though it wasn't exactly hard to figure out you're hiding some sort of secret for Penny," Blake said, raising her palm to calm Ruby when the younger girl was about to speak up at that. "Don't worry. We're not going to pry. If it's Penny's business, we get it's not your secret to tell."
"A secret between lovers," Weiss whispered, shaking as she looked at Ruby as if she'd suddenly turned into a zombie.
"Ugh. That's not going away any time soon, is it," Ruby groaned. "Thanks for understanding anyway, guys."
"We're a team, aren't we," Blake reassured her. "I admit, it's nice to be on the 'giving support' side of this dynamic for once."
"Glad you're in good enough shape to do it," Ruby said, the three girls starting the walk back to their own dorm room. "Oh, by the way, Weiss, you still haven't told me what you want me to put down on your sick form."
"S–Sick form?" Weiss stammered. "Are you going to take my purity in preparation for Penny and cripple me with syphilis?!"
"Okay, going to ignore that," Ruby decided. "I mean so you don't have to go on the away mission. Remember?"
"Oh. Right. That," Weiss nervously chuckled, running her fingers through her hair. "I… actually… was thinking… maybe I'd come with you guys after all."
"Cool," Ruby shrugged. "Less paperwork for me."
"We're glad to have you on the mission," Blake smiled.
Weiss whipped towards them both with an angry scowl. "Aren't you going to ask why I've made such a sudden turnaround?"
"Nope," Ruby smirked.
Weiss pouted indignantly, crossing her arms in a huff. Soon, however, a pensive look took over his expression, her eyes listing towards Blake. "Remember when I called out to you to use the Damage Step to dodge Ren's negation during your tag duel?"
"You mean the tip that wouldn't have worked if Ren wasn't being nice?" Blake clarified. "The one that you, me, and Pyrrha didn't realize was wrong because we've all been running ourselves ragged for weeks?"
"Yes. That one," Weiss sighed. "I just thought… what if that'd been real? What if on this mission, you miss something that I wouldn't, and I wasn't there to help you guys? I guess… I'm still scared of doing something wrong and hurting people I shouldn't like my father has, but… I'm more scared of doing nothing and maybe losing one of you guys because of it."
"Aw! Thanks, BFF!" Ruby grinned, giving Weiss a side hug as they traversed the Beacon halls.
Blake smiled warmly at the heiress, patting her on the back. "We'll be with you the entire way. And we'll do good together, for sure. Though I'm not sure what our chances of getting to Mt. Glenn are."
"Huh?" Ruby said. "Didn't I tell you guys?"
"Tell us what?" Weiss inquired. "You've been with Penny most of tonight."
"Oh, right. My feet stopped throbbing so I forgot," Ruby chuckled before flashing a big smile. "I talked Ozpin into letting us go on the Mt. Glenn third-year mission!"
"Are you serious?" Blake gasped.
"How on Remnant did you manage that?" Weiss' eyes narrowed. "Did you make another reckless bet like during the Promotion Exams?"
"Yeah. But I won this time, so everything's fine! I'm even seeing him tomorrow before we leave for a quick tutorial about my eyes' magic," Ruby boasted. "Man, everything tonight is coming up Team RWBY."
Weiss rolled her eyes while Blake chuckled. The cat faunus fished around in her deck box and pulled out a certain card.
"Well, as long as it's a night of wins, might as well add one more," the dark-haired Obelisk Blue said, passing her leader the procured card.
Ruby's jaw dropped when she saw a by-now familiar orange swirl atop a dark blue background. One she'd so far only seen on the side of the field opposing her.
"Polymerization?!" she squeed, practically hearing Starving Venom salivating with excitement. "Are you serious?"
Blake nodded. "I know I haven't been in any mental shape to help you with this for the last months. But hey, the good thing about it being simple to learn is that I can probably teach you before we head out tomorrow."
"What about now? We could go grab a duel arena and try it out now!" Ruby pleaded, hopping up and down with excitement. "Everyone's too tired from that silly dance. There's not gonna be a line to book them. We can hurry and make it before lights out!"
Weiss faceplamed. "Did you learn nothing from our fiascos during all this?"
"You've waited this long to Fusion Summon. One more night isn't going to kill you," Blake diplomatically declined. "We've got a huge and very dangerous mission tomorrow. A good night's sleep beforehand is the way to go."
"Ugh! Fine," Ruby groused. "Let's get back faster, hit the hay faster, and wake up faster so I can finally Fusion Summon faster!"
The leader of Team RWBY grabbed her teammates' waists and raced off to their dorm room in a blur of her semblance. Rose petals littered the halls behind their white and black dresses and fine-tailored red suit.
RWBYRWBYRWBYRWBYYUGIOHYUGIOH
Ilia flinched as she watched Banesaw go flying across the Mt. Glenn cave, the towering masked faunus smashing against the rockface. She and Perry dashed to him from the sidelines of the duel checking him over for wounds and helping him back to his feet. Meanwhile, Torchwick and his mute little gremlin sniggered at the result of the match.
Banesaw: 0 Life Points
Winner: Adam Taurus
"It's ready," Adam declared, his new samurai with glowing green robes and razor-sharp blade claws beside him after striking the winning blow. "Which is less than I can say for you."
"B–but I tested the Gate Guardian contact fusions like you said to," Banesaw stammered. "Wasn't the data helpful?"
"Oh yeah, very helpful," Torchwick snarked. "Telling the heiress and the bimbo where we are was especially appreciated."
Banesaw growled. He shoved off Ilia and Perry and stomped towards the human thief, pointing an accusing finger at Neo. "She tried to kill me!"
"Duh. You talked," Torchwick rolled his eyes, the pink and brown-eyed shortie merrily nodding beside him. "From what I hear, you broke down like a baby the moment you saw Weiss Schnee and her Blue-Eyes. Or, would it be a puppy in your case–"
Adam's new samurai drew its shoto sword and chucked it at Torchwick's head in a single smooth motion. The moment it struck, the thief and his perky minion shattered like glass. The real things swiftly appear several yards off from where the illusionary ones had seemed to be.
"Touchy, touchy," Torchwick tutted as Neo silently snickered. "The bull always sees red, am I right?"
"My men are mine to discipline. Not yours," Adam snarled. "Get back to getting the train working."
"Gladly. Not like you animals would be making much progress without me," Torchwick shrugged, he and Neo sauntering off with a cheerful swagger. "Seriously, he acts like we weren't the ones to go break him out of prison after."
Adam's knuckles clenched in fury as he watched the racist criminals leave. The moment they were out of sight, he stomped up to Banesaw and slugged the taller man in the stomach.
"Adam!" Ilia shouted, Perry looking like he wanted to speak up as well, but was too crippled by jittering fear.
"You told me you were strong. You told me that you were willing to die for the cause. You told me that you would give anything to make the Schnees face justice for what they did to us," Adam lowly growled to Banesaw, ignoring Ilia's protest. "You lied."
"No, I–I don't know what happened!" Banesaw pleaded. "But it won't happen again! Next time I see that heiress, I'll cut her to pieces!"
"Will you?" Adam sneered. "Or will you spill our location again?"
"Adam, stop!" Ilia demanded, rushing over and putting a hand on her old friend's arm, doing all she could to insist he let Banesaw go without outright attacking him. "It's been weeks since The Club. Our patrols haven't seen hide or hair of hunting duelists. Even if Blake and her friends do know we're here, they clearly haven't told anyone else. And we only need to be here a week more."
Adam glared at her from behind his Grimm mask. For several long seconds, she was terrified he'd order his new Contact Fusion to cut her apart and then do the same to Banesaw.
Thankfully, the bull faunus chose in the end to pull his fist from Banesaw's stomach, the bulkier man gasping for breath.
"You will return to Mistral," Adam ordered as he stalked away. "This train will have fired and our glorious victory will be all over the CCT, but I want you to personally inform the High Leader. Don't let the Albains try to take the credit."
"Y–Yes, sir," Banesaw said.
The Blood-Soaked Bull disappeared back to his taskmaster duties for the work crews. Ilia and Perry once more helped Banesaw up to his feet.
"You okay?" Ilia asked in concern.
"Fine. Just happy to contribute," Banesaw replied, disturbingly sincere as he coughed from the pain. "All for the cause. All for our people."
"Yeah," Ilia murmured, much less sure. "All for our people."
For their people, The Breach would make all Vale scream in one week.
And that's a wrap on the Dance Arc!
As I mentioned before, this is an arc I really love in canon, so I hope I was able to do justice to its dual purpose of the theme of rest/relaxation's value and stealthily building up the threat in this adaptation. There were a lot of moments this arc that I was really looking forward to showcasing, from the opening Ruby vs. Cinder duel to the grand spectacle of the Action Duel Tag Matches.
This chapter had a lot of quieter moments that I'd been looking forward to, with foil dynamics explored in both Ruby's conversation with Ironwood and Yang's conversation with Mercury. Ren's reveal that he can see Astral being the pin on his and Pyrrha's turmoil so far was definitely a big scene that I've been building up to for a long time. And in the process of writing the chapter, other smaller moments that I love appeared as well, like Weiss being utterly scandalized that Ruby and Penny held hands.
But for now, it's time to say goodbye. And when we return, Mountain Glenn awaits.
Remember to check out and add to this story's TVTROPES PAGE! I check my stories' pages often and I always enjoy it when they grow. :)
Thank you for Reading! I hope you enjoy what comes next!
Go Forth and Conquer!