19

Chapter 19: The Final Dance

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Jaune yawned into the hallway, patting his mouth with his hand.

"Didn't get enough sleep last night?" Pyrrha offered him a soft smile as the two of them walked down the corridor.

Jaune nodded. "Yeah. Up a bit earlier than I wanted to be."

Pyrrha frowned. "Did you have a nightmare again?" Jaune nodded. "You know you can wake me if you ever need to."

Jaune did know that. He really did. "Thanks, but it's not necessary. Most of the time they're about losing you. When I wake up and see that you're okay, it calms me down."

Pyrrha hummed. "Is that what is was about last night?"

"No." Jaune admitted. "It was… the same as last time."

"Beacon engulfed by flames from the inside?" Pyrrha sounded concerned.

"Yeah. I don't know why I keep having it." It was a strange topic for a reoccurring nightmare, and it happened the same way every time. Beacon was burning from the inside out, Pyrrha by his side. She always asked what he was going to do, what his choice would be.

But the dream never let him make that choice. It never showed him the result of his actions.

"It could be stress about the mission." Pyrrha posited. They were on their way to be briefed for their individual assignment, so that seemed likely. It was on Jaune's mind last night as he drifted off after all.

"I don't know…" Jaune was somewhat nervous to be meeting Tortuga, the only AceOp he hadn't met in Atlas. Pyrrha showed no such lack of confidence. She had met plenty of important people from all over Remnant, after all.

It wasn't long before the two of them arrived in the mission briefing room. They entered and Jaune took a look around. He hadn't ever actually seen any of the official Beacon briefing rooms: the ones used by official hunters whenever they came around for new missions. It wasn't as high-tech as the ones he had seen in Atlas, but still had functional mission boards and maps plastered to every wall.

Tortuga turned away from a schematic of their target to greet them. "Morning kids."

"Um, good morning… Miss…?" Pyrrha asked.

"Just Tortuga." She smiled and waved them in. Both Pyrrha and Jaune looked over the floorplan in front of them.

"So this is the place?" Jaune asked.

"Yep." Tortuga said. "Used to be a White Fang safe house. We think they might have been using it to store supplies, or maybe even weapons." She smirked. "'Course you already knew that, since you were the ISR teams in the first place."

Jaune tilted his head. "ISR?"

"Intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance." Tortuga tapped a few buttons on the scroll beside her. "The bugs you planted here aren't operational anymore. I read your report, putting them all over the roof was an interesting move. How did you get them there without being spotted?"

"I used my semblance to move them into position. I can control magnetism." Pyrrha answered.

Tortuga raised her eyebrows. "So that's what it is… Right. Unfortunately, none of the bugs are operational now."

"What??" Jaune exclaimed, "we just put those in a week ago!"

"Intelligence suggests that weather-related difficulties took them down, that or animals. Still, we can't rule out the possibility that hostiles discovered the instruments and removed them. In that case, since it's a White Fang safe house, they might just abandon it altogether, thinking the Vale police are onto them, but… I don't think that's likely, given what you found inside. Let's talk about objectives.

"Since it's a White Fang safe house, it's unlikely that we'll find our primary HVTs, Cinder Fall, Emerald Sustrai, and Mercury Black present. That said, there will likely be plenty of insurgents, and possibly secondary HVTs, such as Roman Torchwick and Adam Taurus. Atlesian intel suggests Taurus is not in Vale at the moment, but prepping for that possibility is important. Since capture is our main objective, we will be limiting the use of HE ordinance."

"So what's the plan then?" Jaune asked, looking down at the packed layout of the safe house. It was nothing like the warehouse that the two of them and Ruby had attacked, there were tons of rooms to clear, angles of attack, and other dangers.

Tortuga looked them both over. "Either of you trained in CQB?"

Jaune looked up and blinked in confusion at yet another acronym he had never heard of.

"Not traditionally." Pyrrha said.

Tortuga chuckled. "That's expected. I've seen your fights. You've got good fundamentals. What about you?" She turned to Jaune.

"I… don't know what CQB is."

"Right. First years." Tortuga's tone wasn't mocking; it was as though she had genuinely forgotten she was working with someone less experienced than she was used to. "Close quarters battle. Probably hasn't been covered yet. CQB with Grimm is a massive danger in certain locals. Unfortunately, CQB against hostiles is much worse. That's why we'll be working with a handful of military police trained for this type of situation. We'll handle most of the entry and clearing, but the two of you are the only ones who have ever entered the compound before. That makes you both invaluable resources."

Tortuga snapped a picture of the paper floorplan with her scroll and brought it up on one of the big screens that lined the room. "Consider this your first lesson. What do you see?"

Jaune knit his eyebrows together. His team had put together the layout they were looking at on-screen. "Uh…" Jaune struggled to come up with what type of answer he was supposed to give. "A really dilapidated house? I mean, some of the walls aren't even there anymore." It was true. Some of the walls had either massive holes in them, large enough for someone to fit through, or had been taken down entirely.

Tortuga frowned and turned to Pyrrha. "I don't see room to maneuver." She answered.

"Oh yeah, that too!" Jaune added onto his answer.

"That's what makes it close quarters combat. Let's take another look." Tortuga turned to face the map. "First, walls don't just fall down. Those were deliberate demolitions." Tortuga drew a line with her finger from the back of the structure, which bulged out from the otherwise mostly rectangular house. "This minimizes distance to travel between weapons caches here," she tapped the end of the southern hallway, "and to ideal lines of fire on the only doorway entrance here," she tapped what used to be a kitchen before it had a wall blown out. "Which means, someone here has combat training.

"Speaking of, that back area is a perfect spot for a DFP, defensive fighting position. If I was expecting an attack, I'd line that bulge with sandbags and use it to house multiple barricaded shooters. You have a line directly to the only entrance to the main living area. Anyone coming through that doorway is going to get shot up. In fact, that entire hallway is a fatal funnel feeding directly into the best spot for a DFP."

Jaune wasn't sure what half of the terms meant, but he understood enough to know that this could become very tricky. "O-Okayyy… we know the problem, but what's the solution?"

Tortuga turned her head and nodded in approval. "Good. There's always a solution. It's just a matter of finding it." Tortuga flipped to another version of the map with several markings on it, the plan that she had drawn up. "Now the real briefing can begin."

It was several hours later when Jaune emerged from the room, drowning in an alphabet soup of Altesian military jargon and acronyms. Tortuga had crammed so much information into both of their heads that Jaune was positive it was spilling out of his ears. Stand-off distance, pulling long, dynamic entry, slap charge, wall charge, defensive fighting position, barricaded shooter, high explosive, rules of engagement, doctrine, near threat, far threat, point of domination, cross coverage, pulling security, isolation unit, battle position, it just went on and on and on. He could still hear Tortuga's voice drilling the three basic principles of CQB into him. 'Surprise, speed, violence of action. Surprise, speed, violence of action.'

He still wasn't even sure what the heck 'violence of action' was even supposed to mean.

"You look like you're about to faint." Pyrrha giggled with a hand in front of her mouth.

"You're not??" Jaune said.

"I had similarly intense briefings regarding opponents before important matches. My trainers believed in knowing one's enemy."

Jaune grimaced at the reminder that Pyrrha didn't have a normal childhood, but quickly perked back up when he remembered that this time there was something he could do about that. "Hey, uh, Pyrrha? I know we didn't get to go to the dance, but, uh… I know you were looking forward to it, and I was wondering if you'd maybe be interested in dressing up like we were going to the dance and take some pictures?" Jaune stumbled through his planned invitation. "It won't be the same as the dance, but it could be fun. Ren and Nora said they would be happy do it with us—if you want to!"

Jaune's heart beat in his ears as he waited for her answer, and worried she didn't want to be reminded of what she had missed, and maybe he had upset her. His worries were unfounded as she spoke up a moment later.

"Jaune, that's…" Emotion started to well up in her voice and she had to pause to compose herself. "That's really thoughtful of you. I would love to do that."

"Really?" Jaune's face lit up.

"Yes, really!" She smiled at him and Jaune felt his heart soar. He was so happy that he didn't even mind when he walked face first into a door a few seconds later.

---

Cinder took her time walking down the halls of Beacon. After all, the time she had left to walk these halls was running out. For everyone.

Not that they knew it. After the incident at the Vytal Festival dance, Cinder was left was with a difficult choice. Not showing up the next day meant casting immediate suspicion on herself and her team. However, if they knew she was responsible, walking back into Beacon the next day would mean the end of her mission. Another failure.

Cinder called the school's bluff. She still had no idea how anyone had known what she was doing, but there was always the chance Emerald had messed up and not noticed someone who had left. Cinder knew it was a risk to return like nothing had happened, but it was a calculated one. Beacon's forces hadn't chased her down that night, they had hunkered down in a defensive crouch, wasting time talking all night, doing nothing.

She was still anonymous, and that was how she planned to stay, until it was too late. It was with a certain smug satisfaction that Cinder had passed General Ironwood, dictator of tin cans, in a corridor without even provoking a glance.

With classes done for the day, Cinder was looking forward to setting aside her ruse for the day. In the safety of her dorm she could plan with her subordinates. Not that there was much planning left to be done at this stage. In the early days at Beacon, the three of them met nightly, bouncing ideas off each other. Cinder always had the final say, but she found that letting them both speak freely generated the creativity that a plan of their magnitude required.

Cinder opened the door to her dorm to find Mercury laying on his back under one of their beds, his mechanical legs sticking out from under the bed.

"What are you doing?" Cinder asked, a hint of derision in her voice.

Mercury didn't immediately respond from under the bed, but instead carefully extricated himself and once he was out from under the bed he sat up, looking her dead in the eye. "Hey there Cinder. Just been catching up on some reading."

Cinder narrowed her eyes. "Is there much light under our beds?" He clearly wasn't reading. What was going on?

Mercury laughed, a fake hollow laugh very much unlike the few times Cinder had genuinely heard him laugh. "Don't know. Hey, it's real nice outside, don't you think? This weekend is going to be miserable. Why don't we enjoy the weather while we can? Besides, don't you think it's hot in here?"

Cinder tilted her head, trying to suss out the meaning behind this strange exchange. "I was planning to do my work in here." She said carefully.

"I don't know if that's a good idea, what with this heat. You're gonna regret missing the nice weather." Mercury said offhandedly. So something was wrong with the room, Cinder concluded.

Cinder could work with that. "Hmm… Do you think Emerald would enjoy the nice weather too? She was never one for the heat." A plainly untrue statement.

Mercury smirked, and gave a firm nod. "Probably." Cinder moved to grab her jacket. "You should leave that behind. It's warmer than you expect." Cinder retracted her hand, clearly understanding that something now was amiss.

"Emerald's finishing up sparring class. We can meet her there." Cinder told Mercury.

Cinder took her cues from Mercury as they made their way out of the dorm. He was silent, so she was too. They crossed the campus until Cinder spotted Emerald. She was talking with a rather young looking student with black hair. His uniform was rather ill-fitting, being a size too large. Emerald was under orders to make friends with several students on campus, but the boy was not one of them. Emerald spied Cinder and wrapped up her conversation with the boy, waving goodbye to him fondly.

"Who was that?" Cinder asked.

"No one!" Emerald responded quickly. Cinder curled her lips slightly. She had trained Emerald better than that. "I-I mean he's one of Penny's friends."

Cinder relaxed her gaze. Penny was one of Emerald's primary targets, but Cinder hadn't expected her to apply herself so readily to the task, even infiltrating Penny's social circle. Cinder reached out a hand and placed it reassuringly on Emerald's shoulder. "I'm glad you've been able to make so many friends." Emerald understood the veiled approval, and relaxed her posture. "Mercury and I were planning to enjoy the nice weather. You should join us."

Emerald nodded. "Of course, Cinder."

Cinder smirked. There was never any need to convince Emerald to follow her orders, unlike Mercury. The girl always obeyed.

Mercury led the three of them on a little procession into the Emerald Forest. Finally, he judged them to be a sufficient distance from the school and stopped them all. "The room is bugged." He said plainly.

Cinder wheeled on her subordinate, her veins filing with ice. "What?"

"The room is bugged." Mercury repeated with a shrug.

"What do you mean it's bugged?" Emerald asked, eyes wide.

"I mean: it has microphones in it. To listen to us. I found one under the bed."

Cinder could feel the ice retreating, being replaced by a slow-burning rage. "How did you find it?" She said.

"You put me in charge of our security here. I sweep the rooms every week."

For a moment Cinder allowed herself to feel grateful to her past self for having selected such competent associates. They were both able to operate with a degree of autonomy. "Who put them there?" She demanded.

Mercury gave her a look. "How should I know? You know how sensitive those things are? If I get close they'll know I'm tampering with it. You didn't help anything when you said I was under the bed."

"What are we going to do?" Emerald sounded worried.

Cinder's mind immediately started reevaluating her previous assumption. Beacon was the obvious candidate behind bugging their dorm room. But if they had reason to bug their room, why hadn't they made any other overt moves against her? Did they not truly realize the scope of her plans? Suspected her of something else entirely? What could be the reason?

It made no sense. To potentially tip their hand to Cinder pointlessly, she couldn't comprehend such arrogance.

That only left other factions. One of them could've wanted to use the audio to blackmail her. Taurus had initially mistrusted her, and their first meetings had not been friendly. Still, the boy had proven as loyal as he was pig-headed. Cinder couldn't think of anything he had to gain from this. Turning her in only set his plans back.

That left Roman Torchwick. The criminal had proved to be far more competent than Cinder could have ever hoped. In fact, he was too good at his job. Nothing seemed out of his reach. Cinder was positive that if he could sell her out to Vale in exchange for something he wanted, he would. Privately, she was able to admit to herself that the criminal and his sidekick had never been under her heel as firmly as the others were.

There was more evidence against him. Early on, he had expressed dissatisfaction with Cinder's planned use for all the dust they had been stealing. Cinder was no fool and understood just what a fortune that she was forcing Torchwick to pass up. He had killed for less. Turning her in meant that all he would have to do was outwit the White Fang, and he could live like a king for the rest of his days.

For a criminal of his caliber, that would be easy and Cinder had no doubts that's exactly what he planned to do.

"Have you been practicing with your semblance?" Cinder asked.

"Uh, yeah, of course. You told me to." Emerald answered.

Cinder pulled out her scroll. "Torchwick is behind this and planning to betray us. Right now, he's still at Mountain Glenn. That means his residence in the city should be unguarded." Cinder added a marker to her map in the heart of downtown Vale. "Let's pay him a visit while he's out."

Emerald nodded. "And afterwards?"

Cinder took a moment to consider her options. Returning to the dorm was infeasible, along with any location primarily associated with Torchwick. But the White Fang was still loyal. Cinder marked another location. "There's a White Fang safe house here. As a precaution we're going to spend the entire week there, starting tonight, regardless of whether or not we are able to eliminate Torchwick's threat."

Mercury crossed his arms. "What about our timeline?"

The loss of Torchwick would throw a wrench into everything. Delaying meant extra risk. If Torchwick was starting to turn, that could represent a dramatic shift in the balance of power. If not carefully managed, it would spell failure.

"The situation has changed; the timeline must change accordingly."

Beacon would fall sooner than expected.

---

"You're distracted." Weiss tapped the corner of the table they were sitting at.

"Huh? No I'm not." Yang said.

Weiss looked unconvinced. Yang felt a little guilty. Here Weiss had planned what was going to be the perfect date for the two of them, and she was off thinking about something else. And it was the perfect date, so far. Weiss had taken her to Vale's boardwalk, which Yang didn't even know existed.

According to Weiss, it was open irregularly, because they needed enough hunters to patrol the entire length and the shoreline. Still, Weiss had carefully monitored the boardwalks schedule, and fortunately for the both of them, it was open this week. Yang told Weiss that she was definitely in charge of planning events for the two of them forever. Weiss had smirked and held her head a little higher after that.

Yang loved the boardwalk. It was packed. The rest of Vale might've been hot and humid, but a gentle sea breeze blew in and cooled the boardwalk. Dozens of shops, stores, and attractions lined the side opposite the shore.

The two of them had entered at one end, and in the distance Yang could see a massive Ferris Wheel and roller coaster. Neither of those interested her as much as the drop tower though. Sure, Yang could get the feeling of freefall whenever she wanted by jumping off the cliffs surrounding the Emerald Forest, but still, that tower looked awesome.

Yang grinned at Weiss as they entered, hands intertwined. At first, Yang really was having a blast. The pair walked down the boardwalk and laughed at all the goofy things people were selling. Weiss scoffed at a shop that offered 'free body piercings.'

"That can't be sanitary," she had said.

Stranger still were all the shops that sold hermit crabs. Who comes to a boardwalk and buys a hermit crab?

The first stall they stopped at was one of those break-a-plate games. Of course, they were much studier plates than anything you'd find in the cafeteria, carnival rules and all. Still, Yang was pretty sure it wouldn't pose much of a challenge. Weiss and Yang exchanged a look with each other as the unsuspecting proprietor handed Yang three baseballs. She rocketed the first one through the center plate, shattering it on impact. The owner gave Yang a dirty look, but let her pick out a prize.

Yang let Weiss pick out her favorite, and graciously gave her girlfriend a stuffed animal, a cute little dolphin. Weiss gave Yang a kiss on the cheek, but told her that now she had to win one for her too.

Her plan was thwarted though. Word must've travelled quickly that they were huntresses in training, because every stall they stopped at was mysteriously closed or malfunctioning, and they couldn't play. By the third stall, Yang was positive Weiss was going to throttle the poor teenager that was working the booth. For her part, Yang was doing everything she could to keep from laughing at her girlfriend's misfortune.

Yang loved calling Weiss her girlfriend. She hadn't come to Beacon expecting anything like this to happen to her, and as cheesy as it would be to say that it was love at first sight, it definitely wasn't. Weiss had been a good partner academically, but her attitude was awful those first few weeks. Yang had nearly thrown her out a window during training one day before realizing what her partner's deal was. She was like Yang, or at least the Yang from a few years ago. She didn't know how to process her anger, how to direct it towards something productive, so she took it out on whoever was around her. That realization had made dealing with the heiress much easier. It was through that realization that she had come to understand her partner.

Eventually, that led to them opening up to each other more. Weiss told Yang about her family, Yang told Weiss about her past. Somewhere along the way, she fell for the heiress.

Yang still had a dumb smile plastered to her face thinking about it when Weiss stamped her foot impatiently. She had finally given up on trying to win anything at any of the carnival stalls, and dragged Yang by the arm down the boardwalk. It wasn't long before she found what she wanted, an arcade. The heiress made straight for the prize counter.

"How much for that?" Weiss pointed up at one of the large stuffed animals hanging from the ceiling. The beleaguered clerk told her that it was 10,000 tickets. Weiss nodded curtly and dragged Yang to the back of the arcade so they could get their game cards. "Here." Weiss handed Yang one of the cards after paying.

"Uhh… you know that getting that many tickets is basically impossible, right?" Yang said. That was how these places made their money.

But Weiss was determined to let nothing stop her now. "Not for us. We're huntresses." She swiped her card at the nearest game, a skee ball machine. Yang shrugged, and swiped in at the other one.

The score counter reset to zero and illuminated a dot for each of the nine balls Yang had remaining. Yang picked up the first ball and held it in her hand, feeling it's weight. She looked down the lane before rolling the ball, a bit too hard. It hit the barrier above the bullseye hole and rolled back down, netting Yang a measly 1000 points. Beside her, Weiss had rolled her first and just barely missed the bullseye, but still getting it in the 2000-point hole.

Weiss scowled and adjusted her aim, before rolling another, which perfectly made it into the bullseye, netting her 5000 points. "Hey, nice one!" Yang grinned.

Weiss looked quite pleased with herself, and even more so when she managed to repeat the motion for the next three throws. Yang was having less luck, but still managed a bullseye, and one wild throw that went into the tiny 10000-point hole off to the side.

Weiss managed a machine high-score of 65,000 points after also getting two of her balls into the 10000-point hole.

"Let's see how many tickets that netted us." Yang said.

"With any luck, it'll be most of what we need." Weiss said, scanning her card. Her jaw nearly dropped when her card said that the game had only netted her a measly 65 tickets. "What?!" The heiress fumed indignantly.

Yang laughed. "I told you, these places are scams!" Yang would know, she had spent more than one afternoon in one with Ruby back in Patch.

"I didn't think it would be so—so little!"

Yang shook her head. "It's like this in every arcade, Weiss." Yang could see the gears turning in her partner's head.

Weiss scanned the arcade floor. "What pays out the most tickets then?"

Yang tilted her head towards the entrance. "Follow me." She led Weiss to a machine right by the entrance to the arcade, which had remained vacant since they had gotten here. "Hope you like dancing."

Weiss stared at the machine. 'Welcome to Step Mania!' it blared, inviting them both to 'step right up!' "What is this?"

"It's a rhythm game! You step on the arrows as they come up on screen, in time to music. The easy levels don't give many tickets, but the harder levels pump out tons if you can beat them. Here, lemme show you how to play!"

Yang took her girlfriends hand and led her onto the platform. Weiss looked at the screen in front of them apprehensively as Yang explained how to play. Then she selected the easiest song, and they were off. Yang's brain was on autopilot, the level far too easy for her, letting her focus on Weiss. The heiress picked up the concept quickly, but kept under- and over-stepping trying to move from arrow to arrow.

Together the pair climbed through the beginner difficulty. Weiss still had no trouble even as they reached the hardest levels. Yang, of course, also was breezing through them. Both were showered in 'Full Combos!!!' The easy levels posed a bit more of a challenge, with new notes and combinations. But after analyzing the first level, Weiss had incorporated the new steps.

Yang spent the time just watching her girlfriend. She loved her ability to break down any problem into something doable. Nothing was too big for Weiss, no problem too much to overcome. Whether it was their end of semester exams, one of Oobleck's awful history papers, or just a silly game, Weiss would analyze it until she was able to triumph.

"How are you still winning when all you do is stare at me!?" Weiss panted. They were both starting to sweat now. Yang was still narrowly coming out ahead after each song, but she had hardly noticed.

"Years of practice, snow angel." Yang winked for good measure. Weiss narrowed her eyes. Guess that meant things were getting serious now. Yang loved that too, her competiveness.

"You're full of it, Xiao Long." Weiss scrolled into the hard songs. Yang bit back a number of responses she was sure would make the heiress blush.

Hard was when things really kicked into overdrive. It was full of specific combinations that had to be executed extremely quickly or the entire run would fall apart. Unsurprisingly, Weiss wiped out on the first song. She stared at the screen, fuming as if it had personally offended her. Yang couldn't resist, and leaned over to give her girlfriend a kiss on the cheek.

"W-What was that for?!" Weiss stammered.

"You're cute when you're worked up." Yang said.

Weiss sputtered and quickly reswiped both their cards to replay the song.

They made it halfway through the hard songs before Weiss and Yang both admitted that there really was no going further. After the fourth fail in a row for both of them, and sweat pouring off of both of them, Weiss went to scan her card. It still wasn't enough for the massive stuffed animal hanging from the ceiling, not even close.

Weiss looked back at the dance machine. They had already played it for a couple hours, and Yang was pretty sure she couldn't take another two. Her muscles were definitely going to be sore tomorrow. Weiss must've shared her thoughts, since she cashed in her tickets for a cute little plushie shark. Weiss grumbled about it not being as good as what Yang got her.

"What matters is that it's from you. Thanks, Weiss." Yang smiled softly. She swore she could see a blush creep up the heiress neck, but that could've just been all the impromptu exercise they had just done.

They left the arcade and grabbed custard from the place across from it before walking further down the boardwalk. The sea breeze cooled them down as they went. Holding Weiss' hand and ice cream at the same time was a challenge, but Yang didn't dare let go.

Even after the pair finished their dessert, Yang was still hungry, so when they passed by A Slice of Vale pizza parlor, they stopped by. That was where Yang saw them, in the next booth over. A pair of sisters, a few years younger than her and Ruby. The older one was wiping grease off the face of the younger one with a napkin.

Weiss prattled on about the dance game, which she had really taken to. She was discussing a better strategy for managing her footwork on the harder levels, but Yang was only half-heartedly listening. Her attention was firmly fixed on the sisters.

"You're distracted." Weiss tapped the corner of the table they were sitting at.

"Huh? No I'm not." Yang said.

Weiss followed Yang's gaze and sighed. "It's Ruby, isn't it?"

Yang nodded. "Do you… do you think I'm a bad sister? For being upset when she told us?"

"No." Weiss said immediately. "'You have every right to be angry.' That's what you told me when Blake told us about her past, right? You have every right to be angry, Yang. She should have told you."

"And you." Yang added.

"Yes," Weiss nodded, "but you more. She's your sister. You shouldn't have to learn her secrets the hard way."

"I didn't even know she had secrets." Yang grumbled, looking down.

Weiss reached across the table and offered Yang a comforting hand. "My sister Winter never told me that she was planning on joining the military. I found out the morning she left, along with the rest of our family. I felt hurt that she never told me beforehand. But I forgave her, almost before she was gone. I love my sister, and I know you love Ruby." Yang raised her head. "Someone very special once told me that she wasn't going to tell me how I should feel, and I'm not going to tell you how to feel either. But… I think you've already forgiven her too."

Of course Yang had. She looked at Weiss. "Yeah, you're right. Okay, when we get back, we're going to talk to them." Weiss smiled back at Yang.

Yang did her best to enjoy the rest of their date, which wasn't hard with Weiss at her side. The sun had already dipped well below the horizon before they decided that it was best if they returned to Beacon, but not before being sidetracked by a photo booth.

The first couple photos turned out well, as they had actually posed for them, but by the end, very little of them was actually visible in the photo as the session's purpose had devolved from taking photos to making out. Not that Yang minded in the slightest.

"You've still got a bit of lipstick on your neck, snow angel." Yang grinned.

Weiss hiked up her jacket a bit higher. "Shut up, you oaf."

---

It was getting late by the time the pair made it back to their dorm, and Yang wondered if they had missed dinner. Fortunately, Ruby and Blake were still in the dorm, waiting for them.

"Hey guys." Ruby called out, running over to her sister. "We wanted to talk to you about something."

"What's up?" Yang asked.

"It's about what we told you," Blake said, coming to stand next to Ruby. "We know that it wasn't fair to you that we kept it from you, and we want to make it up to you."

"We're not going to miss anymore team meals, or game nights, or anything else." Ruby continued. "We're going to be the best teammates we can from now on."

"Our team will always come first." Blake added. "We'll include you in any plans we make going forward, and we won't keep anything from you."

"And... We're sorry. We should've told you about what was going on sooner." Ruby said.

"That means a lot, guys." Yang said. Secretly, she had been scared that Ruby was pulling away from her. She was worried that her sister was a stranger. But now, she knew that wasn't going to happen. "You know I can't stay mad at either of you, but I'm glad you both want to make things right." Yang pulled Ruby into a hug, and Ruby returned the gesture.

"I love you, sis." Ruby said.

"I love you too." Yang replied.

Weiss and Blake watched from the sidelines with matching smiles on their faces. They knew this marked a new chapter for Team RWBY - one where they were finally all on the same page again.

"So… in the spirit of telling you everything again, Jaune asked us for help tonight." Ruby said, as Yang released her from the hug.

"What does he need?" Yang asked. It wasn't often that Jaune asked them for anything.

"Do you still have access to all the equipment from the dance?" Ruby asked.

---

Pyrrha looked beautiful in her dress. Jaune could hardly take his eyes off of her as they walked towards the ballroom. He felt a little guilty about staring so much, but for once Pyrrha wouldn't notice. She was wearing a blindfold as Jaune held her hand and guided her. Jaune had wanted it to be a surprise when they got there. Pyrrha had teased him lightly when he asked if she would be okay with it, but said that she trusted him to get her there without the two of them falling flat on their face. Jaune was less sure.

Jaune had been nervous about making her uncomfortable, but Pyrrha had insisted that she was fine with it. She trusted him. Still, as Jaune pushed open the door, he couldn't help but feel nervous.

He held a finger to his lips as he walked in with Pyrrha, heart pounding in his chest. He was so nervous, but he knew he wanted to do this for her. He had felt so bad that Pyrrha had to miss the dance to fight Cinder, but Pyrrha had told him that she was just glad that she could help him.

"You can take off the blindfold now," he told her softly. Pyrrha did as he said, gasping in shock as she took in the sight of the ballroom. It had been redecorated, mostly, to look like it did the night of the dance that Pyrrha missed. They weren't able to get it perfect, but everything was mostly back to how it was that night.

"Jaune… what is this?" Pyrrha asked, turning to him with wide eyes.

"I felt bad that you missed the dance," Jaune explained. "So everyone worked together to throw another one. I know it's not the same, but I wanted you to be able to enjoy the dance."

Pyrrha was speechless for a moment before she threw her arms around him in a tight hug. Jaune was surprised, but he hugged her back just as tightly. Nora whooped in the background and declared that their dance had started and Yang grinned as she started up the music.

Jaune was surprised when Pyrrha pulled away and took his hand, leading him to the dance floor.

Together they danced to make up for the night they hadn't been able to, laughing, happy to be with their friends. Nora took Ren out to the dance floor several times to join them. Weiss and Yang couldn't keep their hands to themselves, but eventually Ruby broke them up and Team RWBY all chatted together, occasionally coming out to dance with Pyrrha and Jaune.

Jaune hardly noticed much more than that. The first time he had danced with Pyrrha, he was just starting to realize that they might be more than friends. Now? Well, he knew his feelings.

He would always be in love with Pyrrha.

Tomorrow was the day that Jaune had been dreading ever since he had laid eyes on Pyrrha again at Beacon. They were going to try and capture Cinder, to stop the Fall of Beacon, once and for all. If… if the unthinkable happened, at least Jaune wouldn't have any regrets.

---

Roman Torchwick stretched in the elevator as he made his way back to his penthouse in Vale after a long day of corralling idiots. Neo stared at her reflection in the polished metal. Even years later, she was still fascinated by her appearance. Though the average joe would be forgiven if they thought it was vanity, Roman knew it wasn't.

Neo had a complicated past with her image. One that Roman never asked about. To him, it didn't matter what her past was.

The elevator dinged and Roman stepped off and through the door into his suite. The evening sun cast long shadows inside the penthouse. "You know; I'm starting to think we need a vacation. Somewhere tropical, maybe."

Neo shrugged noncommittally, making a beeline for the kitchen. Roman was always sure to stock ice cream, and let Neo help herself to it as much as she wanted whenever they were here.

Roman shook his head. What was a criminal to do? He walked over to the desk that constituted his study and started opening the drawers. It wasn't just a regular desk, and he had installed more than a few special tricks. He opened one of the drawers and pulled out a key, inserting it into the underside of the drawer, pushing up the false bottom. Torchwick reached inside to retrieve the burner scroll he used to communicate with Little Red, but he groped around for it without seeing it.

Confused, Roman pulled back the false bottom entirely, only see that the scroll was nowhere to be found. Roman knit his brows together. He was nearly certain he had left it in there. "Neo," he yelled into the kitchen, "have you seen the-"

But Neo was nowhere to be found. Roman could see the entire kitchen, and the little gremlin had disappeared. Roman barely had time think where else she could be when a voice made him whip around.

"How very disappointing, Roman." Cinder Fall stepped out the shadows. Behind her stood Mercury and Emerald, looking as smug as ever.

"Cinder!" Roman did his best to sound pleasantly surprised. "What a pleasure!"

Cinder held a scroll in her hand. "Is this what you're looking for?" Roman's eyes went wide as he recognized the scroll he had been searching for moments earlier. Flames sparked from Cinder's eyes as the scroll was engulfed by flames in her hand.

Roman chuckled. "I'm going to have to bill you for that." He did his best to discreetly look for Neo. Had she sensed Cinder and her cronies before him?

"Why don't you drop the act?" Cinder said. "We know what the scroll was for. We know what you've been doing."

"What, me? Been doing your bidding, of course." Roman stalled for him, still looking for Neo. As Cinder sneered he noticed the faintest flicker of Neo's semblance. She was crawling along the wall, blending into her surroundings, trying to get behind Cinder and her crew.

"You've been working for our enemies." Cinder accused.

Roman's mind tried to work overtime to figure out how he was going to talk his way out of this. And he would have to talk his way out. He and Neo were good, but he wasn't going to gamble against a maiden, half-power or not.

Neo, however, hadn't gotten the message. She crept ever closer to the group. Roman raised his hands. "Guilty as charged." He theatrically took a seat behind his desk and put his feet up on it, hands behind his head. "It was time to get out while the going was still good. Make sure the door didn't burn me on the way out."

Neo stopped advancing. Roman prayed to the gods she understood. It seemed like she had, and she silently slipped out the door. Roman breathed a sigh of relief.

Cinder materialized a ball of fire in her hand. Time was running out, but Cinder was in no rush. Roman was trapped, and they all knew it. "So, what did me in?"

The boy's lips curled up in a sneer. "We found your bug in our dorm."

Roman moved his legs off the desk, suddenly interested. "My what?"

"Did you think you could trick us, Roman?" Cinder's gaze bore into him. "You can't run now."

Roman did his best not to laugh. Of course, when Cinder finally caught him, it wasn't for anything he had actually done, but something he didn't do. Just his rotten luck. "I know when I'm outmatched. If I'm going to die, I'm dying with dignity." The three of them tensed as Roman reached into his coat pocket, but he only pulled out a cigar. "You won't begrudge a man his last cigar, will you?" Roman did his best to sound friendly.

Momentarily unsure of what to make of this, Cinder quickly regained her confidence. "Of course," she purred.

Roman reached for the drawer to grab a lighter. His hand moved past the first drawer, where he would usually get one from, and down to the bottom drawer, where he stored his most sensitive documents. Ones that he would rather see burned to a crisp than ever see the light of day.

Roman felt along the edges, and pulled out a special lighter that was concealed in the drawer. He placed it on the desk as he put the cigar in his mouth. "You know, I always wondered how this partnership would end. Can't say I ever saw myself going out like this though."

"With a whimper?" Emerald taunted.

Roman smiled and grabbed the lighter. "I was thinking more with a bang." He flicked the lighter, igniting the extremely volatile dust inside.

And then Roman's penthouse exploded.

Notes:

Chapter 19! Bit of a longer chapter, didn't want to add any of these scenes to the next one.

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