32 Chapter 28.

~ Infiltration Dance ~

Narrator POV:

The ball is going on quite well, students schmoozing with each other, just like some of the teachers.

Oobleck is stuck with Port, whose laughing at presumably one of his ridiculous stories again.

Ozpin and Glynda are off to the side, talking about one thing or another.

One particular Faunus is watching everything happen from a corner, hidden from view by standing behind students.

And then she sees the one she was observing the most, heading towards Glynda. She doesn't know for what, but she had enough of sitting behind the lines waiting for anything interesting to happen, so she might as well mess around some stuff herself.

She makes her way to them too and just as Ironwood, who called out to the duo, started to extend his arm towards Glynda, Grim who now knew what the general wanted, interjected by standing in front of him. Ironwood's extended hand just happened to be missed by Glynda as it's now out of view behind the Faunu's back.

"Glynda, would you care for a dance with me? Can't have such a pretty lady stand here like a beautiful statue, that beauty needs to be shown off on the dance floor" Grimm extends her own arm, with an added little bow.

Ironwood is seen standing behind Grimmerin with a less than perfect face, he isn't looking that happy about any of this. Both the fact that he just got interrupted and because of who interrupted him. A sworn enemy of Atlas. Even if he doesn't really know how her being an enemy started, he sure knows why she remained one over the years.

Glynda who's surprised to see the Faunus standing in front of her doesn't even look towards Ironwood to see his expression.

"I suppose I can join you for a dance, been standing here and not doing much for a while now" The Professor takes it even though she is confused about why she was asked to begin with, after their last interaction, she thought that Crystal would never talk to her outside class time.

"Ozpin" She nods to the headmaster and then does the same towards Ironwood whose expression was now normal-ish "James" with that she leaves the two as Grim gets her out of there.

The two, start swinging and moving to the music, Glynda thought she'd be leading because she thought that Crystal was more on the passive side when it comes to these things. But to her surprise, she didn't even get the chance as the Faunus started dictating the entirety of the dance from the beginning.

So for a while, they danced in silence, Grim because she didn't want to say anything, Glynda because she needed to get used to the rhythm. But once Glynda managed to do that, she started asking the Faunus questions.

"Why did you invite me for a dance Crystal? I thought th-"

But Glynda didn't get to finish what she was saying as she got interrupted by Grim.

"And you thought right. We are done. I am just using you, as you used me, to get on Ironbranche's roots"

"And here I thought that it was a nice dance" Glynda commented, trying to break away from the Faunu's grasp. But she quickly realized that she can't get away as her hands are being held tightly.

So she tries even harder, even tried to turn around and start walking away. But no matter what, her trials bring no results as she's still being led through the dance perfectly.

"You won't escape me by your own choice. I will decide when we are finished and when to let you go. And if you want to get rough with me..." Grim gets closer to Glynda and she whispers into her ear "Well you already know that I love playing rough"

"What happened to you, Crystal? You used to act differently. It all changed when you came to my room to take back your staff and used my bath to change your hair color to red, which I had to clean by the way" Glynda says instead of commenting on what Grim said. Grim brought her head back in the meantime.

"Did I really change? Or did we just not know each other all that well? Besides classes and our nights together, we never hanged out together or talked about each other to one another. That didn't even happen post-coital where most people just speak out their feelings, the closest we got to it is the night when I came back angry and demanded sex with you and you asked me what happened before and after it. Oh and I left the bath for you to clean on purpose"

"I... Ok, then why are we... You doing this?" Glynda asks instead of what she wanted to truly tell who she still thinks is Crystal.

"Ironwood was about to ask you to the dance and as I said I want to get on his nerve. So I stole you away, I could feel just how pissed off he was at me from his gaze at my head"

"Why?"

"Oh, please. You already know"

"What do you mean?"

"Really? Trying to lie... To me? Really?"

Glynda sighs "Fine, I do know that you're enemies"

"And so are we, but sadly your status as an enemy is that of a 'low' rank compared to his"

"Don't worry, that's a good thing in my books, the fewer enemies the better"

"But where's the fun in that?"

"Well, we find fun in different mediums"

"I suppose we do"

The two continue dancing in silence after that, well only the Faunus is putting any effort in, as Glynda is barely reciprocating to it whatsoever, only enough not to fall to the ground. Which wouldn't happen anyway, as Grim wouldn't let that happen.

"Why did you come back angry that night? You never answered me. I didn't like it" Glynda asks breaking the silence again.

"I won't answer you, at least right now. But what do you mean you didn't like it? Woman, you were the most excited I've seen you, your excitement that night was only rivaled by our first time together. The way I acted was just like some real victims of sexual assault and rape, I just laid there, limp, taking it and not participating whatsoever as if I was beaten into it by fear and wishing it at all just to end or drugged up to oblivion. I didn't even speak while it was happening when I normally would. That night was just right up your kink's alley... You finished four times before you stopped. So don't lie to me about not liking it, you loved what happened"

Glynda is seen with a red face, she also looks around multiple times to see if anybody heard what the Faunus has said, but luckily for them, they were a little bit further away from the people and only a few others were near them, and don't seem to be paying attention to them.

"Shut up about it, that's not what I meant!" Glynda whisper-yells at Grim.

"Huh? Then what did you mean?" The Faunus asks truly confused.

"I meant I didn't like the fact that you were angry and upset, which is why I asked you multiple times about what happened to you because I was worried. After that night you seemingly returned to normal, so I just thought it was a one-time thing and never mentioned it again. I would never talk so openly about my sex life and especially about this weird 'kink' that I seem to have and never known about it prior to meeting you"

Grim stays silent at what she just heard. Glynda who's still embarrassed about what came out of the Faunus's mouth also stays silent, but only because she heard nothing back from Grim.

Grim, nevertheless, still leads the dance perfectly, even while in thought. Glynda still does the bare minimum, as she wants to leave, but can't.

Then suddenly a "Really?" came out of Grim's mouth. It was so sudden that Glynda had to take a double take if she heard something.

Glynda thinking that the word was directed to her, opens her mouth to reiterate that what she said is true and she meant it wholeheartedly.

But before she could do that, the Faunus speaks to her. That 'really' wasn't to her, she of course doesn't know that.

"How would you like to resume our nightly actions?"

When Glynda heard that question, she completely froze and stood still. The action that Grim allowed to happen as she also stopped moving.

"Does that mean... You forgive me for what happened?"

"No, I will never forgive or forget about that, but that doesn't mean that I don't give people other chances. So, let's say I can 'overlook' our past and continue as if it was new. And don't worry, you also don't need to forgive me for how I behaved until now"

"I never saw it as being your fault, so there's nothing for me to forgive you for. But... I don't know if I want to do it again, yes all of those nights felt nice and were warm. But it would more than just awkward, there're other reasons that I don't think we should do this again"

"I understand, doesn't feel the best for me either. But I can look past those feelings and other reasons. But I won't pressure you into making a decision. But we can talk about it and many other things another day, what do you think? I am not going to lie, these students are very stale when it comes to sex. They are so boring in bed. No experience, no clear preferences... Not once did they manage to get me off. So I'd like to get some action"

"I don't want to hear about your other exploits, especially about my own students... Now I will subconsciously wonder in the middle of my classes which one of the girls slept with you and which ones didn't while teaching them"

"Well, good luck with that, as it wasn't 'one' of them, it was a lot, lot more than that"

"Ugh!" Glynda lets out an annoyed grunt and after a momentary pause, she gets serious "I will agree to meet up to talk, but only if you tell me more about the kidnapped victim when we do meet up"

"No" Grim simply shuts down the request without needing to think about it.

"I know what you're thinking, but this isn't what it seems at first glance. Yes, I would tell whatever you answered to Ozpin, but unlike before when I was doing things because he asked me to, this will be my own volition. After our... falling out I guess, even if we were never anything more than sex partners, Ozpin asked me multiple times to try to get back in touch with you by any means necessary to get information out of you, but I refused every time. I had my own reasons for doing so, other than the fact that you'd probably see through it all. I will ask you questions about it and you'll be free to choose which ones to answer and which ones not"

"You know if you lied just then about the Ozpin thing, I probably would've broken your arm right now" Grim states blankly as their palms are still being held together.

"Do you really need to say that? It really ruins the mood and whatever it is that we are trying to accomplish here"

"Maybe, but I am serious about it, so be glad that you were being truthful. Anyway, didn't you overlook one big thing with your proposal?"

"I know that you might just refuse to answer all of the questions I have, but... I will take that risk, the person you kidnapped is very important, both to me and Ozpin. So a chance for any kind of information, I will take it"

"Well, let's say I answer even one of your questions, what's to say that the information I give out is not false?"

"IF it were any other person I was trying to get information out of, then perhaps I would have to consider that possibility. But this is the one thing I know for sure. You never lie and speak out your mind honestly" Glynda says confidently.

And what the professor said is definitely true, but she doesn't know that unlike Crystal, Grimmerin, while also being honest, she loves to withhold any and all information from anybody, so it doesn't mean that she would say what Glynda wants to know even if she were to answer.

"I see..." Grim says out loud and stays silent after all. Glynda thinks that the Faunus is in thought about her proposal, so she waits patiently for an answer. Both the answers she would be fine with. If the Faunus said no, that would be it for their interactions. If she said yes, then their next talk would decide everything.

Of course, Grim wasn't thinking about it, in reality, she was conversing with Crystal about what she should do since it's more... Well, literally only Crystal's problem than hers.

"Well, I agree to that request, it doesn't actually matter at this point anyway" Grim answers while releasing her grasp on Glynda, their hands finally separating for the first time since they started dancing.

"What doesn't matter?" Glynda asks confused, barely realizing that her arms are free.

"Nothing, just speaking to myself. Anyway call me whenever you want to meet up, as I will have a lot to do after tonight, so I can't dictate when we meet up this time"

"Sure and thank you for agreeing to this"

"Mhm, well let's conti- What?"

Glynda looks at the Faunus confused, she was about to be asked to resume dancing again if she's not wrong about that, but out of nowhere, the Faunus just said 'what', which clearly wasn't directed to her.

Then the professor sees who she still assumes is Crystal moving her head in another direction and she sees her nose move when it moves slightly when the Faunus sniffs around.

Then she stops and turns back to Glynda "Where was I? Should we dan-" But yet again it gets interrupted by another episode of the Faunus "I don't care about her, so no!"

Grim then spots the confused and even slightly creeped-out expression on Professor Goodwitch's face and smiles awkwardly.

"Anyway, dance?" Grim stretches her arm out.

"Uh... O-okay?" Glynda... answers? The Faunus's request.

But before Glynda could take it yet again, she hears the Faunus say something, this time on the verge of losing it.

"UGH! Fine Crystal!"

It startles the professor, as she didn't expect it at all.

Grim clears her throat and then directs her attention to the apprehensive professor.

"Well, we will have to postpone this for now. Talk to you later!"

Grim winks at Glynda and quickly walks away.

"W-what just happened? Wait...? Why did she say her own name?" The professional huntress is left wondering with a confused filled head.

While that goes on with Glynda, Grim who was berated by Crystal in her mind is now on a mission to search out a very peculiar-smelling individual.

And eventually, she gets where her nose led to. And just like Crystal thought, Penny's standing right there in the open, moving her small body, awkwardly but without a care, to the sound of music.

Meanwhile, several minutes ago.

A lone and tired-out Ruby stands drinking punch away from everybody, who's joined by Jaune.

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

"Yep" An audible *pop* can be heard as Ruby emphasizes the 'p'.

"To the socially awkward" Ruby giggles and they clink glasses together.

"Sorry things didn't work out with Weiss" Ruby says after a slight moment of silence.

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

"What do you mean?" Ruby lets out confused.

"Well, come on, not many people can pull off blue hair" Jaune begins to drink his punch, after finishing his words.

"No, I mean, Weiss came to the dance with me"

Jaune chokes in surprise. Jaune turns to Ruby "Uh, what?"

Ruby looks in a different direction, which prompts Jaune to do the same. The two see Weiss shown trying desperately to coax life out of a wilting white rose. And also see her look visibly upset when she fails to do so.

"Yeah, Neptune rejected Weiss and I was there, so I asked her to come here as a teammate and friend. Yang and Blake agreed to go together, so I thought that being here as a team together would be better than being alone and left out"

Laughter draws Weiss', Ruby's, and Jaune's attention to Sun, Yang, Blake, and Neptune as the latter entertains the others with some impressions and other silly faces. Jaune, shown to be observing as well, becomes visibly perturbed.

Jaune kindly says to Ruby "Thank you for doing that"

"It's nothing big... She did dance my legs off though"

Jaune doesn't pay attention to what Ruby said as, after his first sentence, he spoke in a low growl "Hold my punch"

Jaune hands Ruby his glass, who takes it just as fast as Jaune vanished from the view, even if she was a little confused about why she was to hold onto it. Nevertheless she chose to drink from it instead.

As Jaune makes his way across the room, shoving other students aside, some of which were not even in his path, he stops short and watches as Pyrrha passes by. He watches her walk glumly up the stairs and this seemingly causes him to have a change of heart as he starts following her up the stairs instead.

Jaune sees Pyrrha on a balcony alone, so she approaches behind her.

"Hey, Pyrrha"

Pyrrha turns around to face him "Hello, Jaune"

Jaune approaches "You okay? I haven't seen you tonight"

Pyrrha turns back to the balcony "Arrived late, I'm afraid"

"Well, you look really nice"

Pyrrha raises her hand near her mouth outside Jaune's view "Thank you" and just as quick as her hand rose her hand fell down just as quickly.

Jaune tips nervously on his toes "Your, uh, date isn't going to beat me up for saying that, is he?"

"I think you're safe for tonight" Is the answer that Jaune gets.

Jaune rubs his hands as he asks the next question "So, where are they?"

Pyrrha turns back toward Jaune, her head sinks in melancholy "There is no one"

Jaune chuffs nervously "What?"

"Nobody asked me" Pyrrha states glumly.

"But that's..." He gestures towards her "You're Pyrrha Nikos!" He continues dumbfounded "H-How could nobody ask you?"

Pyrrha turns her back on Jaune again "I've been blessed with incredible talents and opportunities. I'm constantly surrounded by love and praise, but when you're placed on a pedestal like that for so long, you become separated from the people that put you there in the first place" But it wasn't for long as she turns back to face him again "Everyone assumes I'm too good for them. That I'm on a level they simply can't attain. It's become impossible to form any sort of meaningful relationship with people. That's what I like about you. When we met, you didn't even know my name. You treated me just like you treated anyone else. And thanks to you, I've made friendships that will last a lifetime. I guess you're the kind of person I wish I was here with. Someone who just saw me for me"

Pyrrha looks at Jaune and then walks away while Jaune simply stares in astonishment.

"W-Wai-!" Jaune tries to call out to her, but can only watch as Pyrrha turns a corner. Neptune then appears on the balcony, having passed Pyrrha, gesturing toward Jaune.

"Hey, uh, Jaune, right?"

Jaune sighs "Yeah"

"This party's pretty lame, huh? I mean, ballroom dancing. Pfft"

"Yeah" He repeats and then looks back out over the balcony.

Neptune gestures back to where the dance is happening "Cute girls, though, huh?"

Jaune, having experienced so much in so little time, growls in frustration as he turns back to Neptune and gestures to him "Is that all you think about?"

Neptune raises his palms to waist level "Huh?"

"Do you even care about the girls you're hitting on? How do they feel about you?"

Neptune says feeling attacked "Whoa!" throwing his palms up "Where's this coming from?"

Jaune opens his arms wide "How could you just turn her down like that?"

"Wait, w-who?"

"Weiss!"

"I, uh... it, uh..." Neptune stutters "It just didn't work out, you know?"

"What? Do you think that you're too cool, too many other options? Weiss Schnee asked you to the dance. What in the world could possibly keep you from go-" Jaune would've continued if it weren't for the fact that he got interrupted by Neptune.

"I can't dance!" He says shamefully spectating the ground.

Jaune's wrath disappeared immediately and was replaced by calmness "Beg your pardon?"

"I can't dance, man!" Neptune lets out pathetically.

"But... you're so cool!"

"Thank you. I try really, really hard"

"You would rather break a girl's heart and go to a dance alone than just admit to everyone that you can't move in rhythm to music?"

"That about sums it up, yeah"

Jaune says "Well, I certainly feel a lot better about myself" while turning back to the balcony.

"Please don't tell anybody. Look, if you want Weiss, she's all yours. I don't wanna get in your way"

Jaune turns back towards Neptune and places his palms on the stone banister "Do you like her?"

"Yeah, I mean I don't know her too well yet, but she seems pretty cool"

"Then just go talk to her. No pickup lines, no suave moves, just be yourself. I've heard that's the way to go" Jaune states, crossing his arms.

"Yeah, but then-"

"Hey! You don't have to look cool all the time. In all honesty, if you could be a little less cool, I'd really appreciate it"

Neptune considers Jaune's advice and then answers "Yeah, okay"

"Go talk to her. I guarantee it'll make her night..." Jaune remembers Ruby and then adds "Or at least add onto it"

"Thanks. You're a really cool guy, Jaune"

Neptune approaches Jaune, holding his fist out for a bump, Jaune approaches him as well "Alright, don't lie to my face"

The two of them bump fists and Neptune walks away.

Jaune then sighs and says to himself "All right, only one thing left to do"

Somewhere else, after Grimmerin's and Glynda's dance. And the talk between the two guys.

If one were to look above them to the second tier, they'd see the organizer of this kickass ball, Yang, leaning on a handrail and overlooking the festivities.

Ruby approaches her sister and leans on the rail as well "You know? I think we really needed this" Yang says to her.

The two oversee the view together, seeing Blake and Sun slowly dancing because Yang isn't there. They then see Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie Waltzing together.

And then they both see something that surprises them, they see Grimmerin standing to the side of Penny watching both her and the guards behind her as Penny dances alone.

"I didn't realize that Grim was here tonight" Ruby comments.

"Me neither... How did she sneak past us?" Yang adds a question at the end.

"I don't know" Ruby simply says not minding it any longer "But you did a really great job planning it all!" She praises her sister.

Yang, quickly losing interest in the Faunus because of Ruby's words, reaches over to her little sister "Aw, thanks!" She expresses gratitude by crushing Ruby in a one-arm hug as she flails frantically, trying to get out of it "It wasn't all me, though. Weiss did a lot too"

Ruby stops struggling and looks down at Weiss seeing Neptune approaching her and rubbing his neck nervously when he does. Weiss invites him to sit with her.

Yang chuffs "Tomorrow it's back to work"

"I'm sure we can handle whatever gets thrown at us" Ruby comments, but then hears sudden fits of laughter and giggles, which draw the sisters' attention to down below "Ex-cept for that" Adds Ruby when she sees the scene.

They see Jaune wearing a white dress with a blue ribbon. They see a shocked Pyrrha who witnesses the same view as them but from up close.

"That has to be embarrassing, right?" Yang comments.

"It's Jaune we're talking about, so I don't think that that's what's on his mind right now" Ruby answers her sister.

"I suppose... I will never let him live this down though"

"Cut him some slack, Yang"

"Nop" Yang pops the 'p' "Let's go back there to see it from closer" Yang says grabbing Ruby's hand and running down before the little sister could say anything.

And the two sisters get down just as Nora starts flailing excitedly "Ren. This... Is... Happening!"

The two of them see Ren looking confused "Wait, what "is happening?"

Nora grabs Ren and drags him out onto the dance floor with Pyrrha and Jaune. And with that queue, team JNPR starts performing an elaborately choreographed dance.

"Wow! They can dance" Yang comments.

"They sure do, they must've practiced quite a lot to pull it off" Says Ruby.

"Yeah, but I am sure that Jaune being in a dress wasn't a part of the practice"

The JNPR dance shortly ends with a culmination of Jaune spinning Pyrrha.

"I had no idea you were a dancer" Pyrrha says to Jaune.

"Yeah, well, these things tend to happen when you grow up with seven sisters"

Jaune dips Pyrrha and then spins her away.

Meanwhile with Blue and White.

"So, what made you change your mind?"

"Huh?"

"You said you were embarrassed at first. What made you come talk to me?"

"You're looking at him" Neptune directs his eyes at Jaune, Weiss following the direction also sees Jaune dancing with Pyrrha "You got some good friends looking out for ya" Neptune adds.

"Mhm... I do" Weiss agrees, but, unlike Neptune's eyes that stay on Jaune and Pyrrha, Weiss's eyes dip to the side seeing Ruby and she stares at her.

"Indeed, I do" She says to herself again.

Jaune and Pyrrha continue to dance. Ren and Nora start doing a kind of disco dance and eventually even Sun and Blake and Yang join the mix.

Penny who was just about to start doing the 'robot' gets interrupted when her guards go stiff and put their hands on their weaponry, so she looks back at them. She sees them look at something intensely, so she follows their direction and sees somebody gazing straight at her.

But due to her orders, she quickly gazes behind the specific person and then at some other random people. Trying to show that she hasn't seen her and then Penny closes her eyes and starts doing the 'robot' anyway.

But that doesn't last long as that somebody approaches her and the two guards, who are really close to drawing their weapons.

"Calm down boys, this beast isn't here for you this time. And I am certain that you won't be showing off the 'might' of Atlesian soldiers right here in front of all of these students who are having fun? Right?" Grimmerin says to the guards smiling.

"what am I even talking about... I already ticked your boss off and he didn't give any orders to get rid of me, so you won't be doing anything against his will. So continue standing there and doing nothing" She waits for a bit after her mocking, to see if there will be any kind of reaction.

"Good Doggies" She adds when she sees nothing.

"Now then, Penny" Grim says, getting Penny to stop dancing and open her eyes to look at her "Been a while since we have seen each other... Would you be so kind to tell me why there are Atlas people guarding you? Do they have something on you and perhaps you need help?" The Faunus pauses, throwing a quick glance towards the guards "No, couldn't be, you'd deal with them quickly and with no problem... So, is there something that I should know?"

What follows Grim's question is silence.

"Do I know you? I think you're mistaking me for somebody else" The words that break the silence.

Grim's eyes go wide from surprise and then she smiles proudly "I have to hand it to you, you're one of the very few to immediately tell me apart from Crystal. I am pleasantly shocked. But this makes it easier and way quicker than it was going to be. Seeing as Crystal isn't here, I will give you her message. She misses you and would love to meet up to hang out after she comes back, so she will search for you. Oh and don't try to hide, she and I will smell you from very, very far away as we both just familiarized ourselves with your unique and good smell. Now then, I will go. Bye! By the way, the name's Grimmerin, better, remember that, if you're planning on being Crystal's friend" With that Grimmerin leaves the Atlas guards and the Robot-girl alone.

And the Robot-girl, Penny is left standing there confused and trying to understand what just happened. At first, she didn't believe that her 'disguised' words worked, but then as her friend continued talking, it turned strange. Apparently, that wasn't her friend but somebody else. This situation is really hard for her to compute.

Now with Grimmerin who is going outside to wait for the main event, she can't wait and watch what transpires between Yang and Blake. She just heard from the small microphones attached to both of them that Blake wanted to talk with the blonde sister.

In the meantime, she has a conversation with Crystal inside her head.

"Why did I do that? Well, I might as well show Ironwood that I exist, I don't think there's a better opportunity than this. After tonight he might attack us or something thinking that I would be laying low. But after he realizes that there are two of us and that one of us, me, actively attacks his people rather than just wait like a sitting duck, he might re-think and invest some time into defense instead thus leaving us to do what we want for a while"

"If it doesn't work then so be it, it's not like much changes anyway, we might've lost the surprise factor but him actually meeting me in battle would never happen, as there's nothing he could do that would bring me out. So if it doesn't work the way I have it planned, then when you both fight he will have somewhere in his mind that I exist which could limit his thinking in some way"

"Of course, I am right... But none of it truly matters as nobody will ever beat us no matter what they throw at us"

While Grim was talking with Crystal, somewhere else, something else is happening.

Mercury and Emerald are observing the students from the second tier.

"It appears all the dancers have partners" Emerald says seemingly into nothingness, but it gets picked up by Cinder on the other side of the ear-bud.

"How long do I have?" Emerald hears back a slightly distorted voice of Cinder.

"You should probably be home by midnight, to be safe" Mercury cuts in.

"I'll keep my eye on the clock"

Ruby, who needs a breather from tonight's activities walks to the exit, she then walks out of the dance hall and into the night air. But instead of taking a breather, she sees a suspicious figure jumping on the roofs.

Grimmerin who was already outside sees this and clicks her tongue in annoyance. The timing couldn't be any worse. She sees Ruby start walking toward where Cinder jumped and she has to make up her mind.

She knows that Cinder could defeat Ruby easily if she really tried, but she also knows that she wouldn't do that because of Crystal. which could lead to problems and maybe Ruby would end up seeing who's behind the mask.

She looks up towards one of the balconies, seeing Blake already there waiting, it's miracle that the cat Faunus isn't looking towards the night sky and instead seems to have her back turned towards it.

Grim grits her teeth and then with a slight spur of 'Cinder' from somebody inside her head she starts acting. She wants to have fun, yes, but Crystal is the most important.

She starts running toward Ruby to try and distract her. She changes the station from the one following Blake's and Yang's soon-to-come conversation into the one where the three villains hang in.

"Cinder" Grim says.

"H-huh? Grim, what are you doing in here?" Cinder answers back confused.

"That doesn't matter right now, the little Sister saw you and is following you, albeit slowly as I smell her in the vicinity now"

"I see" Cinder's voice comes to Grim and then a pause follows it.

"I'll handle it, you don't need to intervene"

Grim pauses and stops moving "Sorry, What?"

"What? Don't trust me to deal with the girl?"

"She has nothing on you, but that doesn't mean that she won't get a chance to see who you are, there's always a chance"

"Sure, but if she sees you interrupting her, she will most likely get suspicious about you"

Grim squints her eyes, but there's nobody to see that.

"Everybody is already suspicious about me, so it doesn't matter"

"True, but now they would suspect that you have an ally and the only 'friends' that you hang out with are us"

Grim taps her foot repeatedly on the ground.

Cinder who's near the Cross Continental Transmit System Tower hears no answer from the Faunus, so she says "Leave this to me, go continue what you were doing"

Grim grits her teeth again and then looks towards the balcony that's quite far away, but she can still clearly see it and Yang is already there. Then she turns her head back to where Cinder is and soon Ruby will be.

Annoyed she says "I can't do that"

"Why?" She hears from Cinder.

"Because Crystal said so"

"Ah... Then do what you want to" And then Grim hears ridiculously loud snow noise, she quickly removes the ear-bud from her ear.

After a moment she puts it back in "Did Cinder just...?" She asks the two underlings.

"She left" Emi answers her blankly.

After that Grim puts her own ear-bud away "Is this what you wanted Crystal? Neither of us being happy?"

She receives no answer from Crystal inside her mind.

"Ugh!" The Faunus angrily lets out.

And right there after she resumes running after Ruby, this time with more speed as she focused on her legs.

Outside the Cross Continental Transmit System Tower, Cinder who's dressed as a cat burglar stealthily approaches an armed guard. She knife-hands the back of his head, rendering him unconscious with a stunned grin on his face. She drags him behind some bushes.

Inside the building, Cinder casually approaches more guards.

The first soldier that sees her, starts speaking to her "Excuse me, no one's allowed in this area" But Cinder being the amazing woman she is, just continues on with the approach "Stop!"

The soldier opens fire when Cinder does not heed his words. She charges in and easily manages to overpower him. First, she punches the soldier and then grabs his arm.

The almost fall-maiden kicks another soldier and uses the first one's gun to neutralize him. She then kicks the soldier's knee and throws him against a handrail. Two more soldiers rush her wielding batons, instead of shooting from long range for whatever reason.

Cinder forges herself a pair of black blades from fire Dust and slashes at both of them. Batting the first aside she advances on the second and strikes him before sweeping both legs. The first soldier recovers but she blocks each swing with her blades. After blocking a kick she elbows and then shoves him to the floor. As he tries to get back up she flips over to kick him in the head, effectively knocking him out. Cinder then checks for the arrival of more guards before moving on to the elevator.

Meanwhile inside it.

"Hey, man, do you know the Wi-Fi password?" One of the two guards asks the other one.

"It's Beacon, but replace the E with a three and add a pound symbol to the end" The other one being a good 'ol pal answers, even if he thinks deep inside his mind that his friend might be a tad bit stupid. Why asks for a wi-fi password when you're not on your Scroll or on any other device to connect it to?

The elevator door opens to show Cinder waiting. One of the guards notices the fallen men outside. Both guards grow apprehensive as Cinder casually walks onto the elevator, the doors closing as she turns around.

It's best to say that the one soldier who needed wi-fi will now need life-support powered by it. And the other one judging his friend won't be doing that anymore as he got bonked right into the head thus becoming just as dumb as his friend... Now they can bond over it.

Outside the building, Ruby approaches and sees the unconscious guard. She gasps and pulls out her Scroll, dialing for her weapon locker which crashes into the courtyard and opens to reveal Crescent Rose.

"Little Rose, why would you need your weapon on such a lovely night?" As Ruby was about to go pick up her Crescent Rose, she gets interrupted by a voice.

Ruby sees that the voice's owner is the one and only Grim.

"I just saw somebody suspicious"

"Wow... Thanks for that"

Ruby blinks in a confused pause and shortly thereafter gets what Grim meant "No, that person was even more suspicious, she was jumping over roofs"

"Double wow..."

Ruby blinks again in a pause.

"No, no, that's not what I meant!" Ruby coughs out to reset herself "Look, I saw somebody not doing what they were supposed to be doing and that's dancing! So I followed them and now there's a knocked out guard, there's some baddie walking around here"

"Where's this body?"

"Right there" Ruby points to where the body is, right out in front for everybody who stumbles into the scene of the crime to see. What is Cinder thinking?

Grim walks close to the body "Ok, let's check if the soldier's dead before we continue moving" Grim says, hearing no answer, she turns around only to see Ruby slinking away.

"Really?"

Ruby startles and stops her motion.

"You aren't even going to check if the person is okay before moving on? That's pretty harsh"

"I was, but you're here... So I just wanted to get into action and help the other soldiers"

Grim squints her eyes at the younger girl, who's twiddling her fingers from the stare.

"Okay, okay" Ruby finally breaks in "Let's check the body... And I was serious about checking him if you weren't here"

"Well, you, wanting to go in there to fight whoever did this to a... Pfft" Grim lets out a quiet snort, which Ruby barely picks up but doesn't pay much attention "Professional soldier" The Faunus finishes what she wanted to say "That's quite brave of you"

"Thank you!" Ruby puffs out proudly.

"And twice as stupid"

"Aww" Ruby deflates out pathetically.

"Rushing into a fight without a plan isn't a wise move. Especially when you're supposed to be a leader. And you're also alone, without a team or other people to help you. Scratch that, it's not twice as stupid, it's... What's the four times word for the same meaning of 'twice'?"

"Isn't it just four times?" Ruby answers confused, but honestly, she herself doesn't know.

"Really? It doesn't have an equivalent? Well, that's an error in the language then. But yes, what you wanted to do was four times as stupid as it was brave"

"Aww" Ruby deflates even further from being berated.

"Well, not that it matters to me, you are your own person, so do your own thing. But I am coming with you, just in case. So go ahead, move on ahead, I will check the body alone"

"Really?! Thanks a lot, Grim, you're not all that bad. See you!" Ruby exclaims happily and unloads her Crescent rose, now with it in hand she rushes into the Tower.

"Oh and for your information" Ruby hears Grim again and stops dead in her tracks, turning only her head to face her.

"Yes?"

"I also jump over roofs, so triple wow"

"...Sorry!" Ruby awkwardly apologizes and runs off.

"Now then" Grim looks at the body, she doesn't need to inspect it whatsoever as she already knew that the soldier's still alive and only knocked out.

She scans his body and thinks for a while. And then her eyes travel down, down, all the way to the bottom, to the feet of the guard.

She pulls out one of her knives, puts it into the knocked-out soldier's hand, and then stabs herself below the ankle. She then breaks the knife at the point perfectly, leaving the edge of the knife inside her leg, blocking out the blood spillage. Now if one were to look they wouldn't see anything, only at a specific angle would it seem strange.

The other broken part of the knife she puts back inside her holsters and with that, she follows after Ruby.

Meanwhile with Cinder and her goal.

The elevator doors open to show Cinder examining a Scroll, the two guards are knocked out and sleeping tightly.

"Oh! That's handy" One of the guards' Scrolls had the wi-fi on and there's a lot of personal information available to her now.

She pockets the Scroll and walks out of the elevator, heading toward the control consoles nearby.

Cinder touched the ear-bud in her pocket when she put the Scroll in and paused for a split moment.

"Nah" And with that, she decided not to put it on again. Thus she missed Emerald's and Mercury's tries at reaching out to her and their warning about Ironwood leaving the ball.

Cinder puts the hacking device onto the mainframe of the Tower and a bunch of random code started appearing on a computer screen which changed into a Queen chess piece.

And all of the other monitors in the room light up.

"And I am done here"

As she starts to walk away, she notices the elevator doors opening "Must be that Ruby" She murmurs to herself and hides behind a desk.

Ruby steps out of the elevator slowly, brandishing her weapon, she calls out "Hello?" As she stumbles due to her high-heeled shoes "Is anyone there? Hello?"

Cinder smirks confidently then rises from her hiding place and steps out toward Ruby. But her confident walk out gets paused midway as she sees a Faunus right near Ruby.

Cinder's eye twitches, when she said to do whatever she wants, she didn't insinuate this! Well, she will have to do with this. And if she attacks Grim with the intent to hurt her, then Ruby should vouch for her thus not putting any suspicion on her or on them.

"Excuse me? You know, it's not a masquerade party, so why don't you take off that-!" Ruby gets interrupted.

Cinder produces a container of dust from her belt expelling a cloud that glows. Condensing into glass shards that go flying at Ruby and at Grim.

A battle ensues as Ruby defends herself and then opens fire. Cinder blocks each shot with her hand as parts of the outfit glow, she then notices that Grim is missing, so she quickly side-jumps to the left. Her prediction was correct as she sees Grimmerin's leg sweep the floor just as her own got off the floor. Cinder's eyes also catch something very interesting in and on the Faunus's leg. An injury with blood starting to tick down it.

Now she understands what she's doing here. Good, then this won't have to get ugly at all.

Cinder once again summons a pair of blades, Ruby launches herself forward for an attack on her but Cinder dodges. This time she obviously sees Grim, who winks her right eye, understanding the signal she moves her head to the right just as three knives fly past her head.

Then her eyes and outfit start glowing again as she combines the blades into a bow and fires four arrows. And she doesn't choose to explode them either, instead, she makes the choice of letting them interact with the environment.

She shoots two arrows at each target. Ruby jumps back dodging them which is perfect for Grim because now she's in front of her. Ruby sees Grim also dodge the arrows, but vaguely enough to not see the result.

Then all three people hear the elevator door open.

Three things happen in an instant, simultaneously.

Ruby making a novice mistake of turning her back to the enemy, turns her head towards the door and sees Ironwood.

Cinder escaped quickly through an open hatch in the roof, which is there for circulation. The space is just enough for her to squeeze through.

And finally, Grim, who, earlier dodged one of the arrows fired by Cinder and actually caught the second with her hands. With the arrow, she lightly pierced the small hole made by her knife edge which she took out before the kick, thus opening the wound. Now it seems that she got hurt. And because she didn't move all that much after that faux kick, the blood didn't drip anywhere but in her new spot.

Ruby was visibly glad to see Ironwood, but only until she looked back and noticed that Cinder has disappeared.

"S-sir Ironwood, t-there was an intruder! We must follow after them" Ruby calls out turning to face him again.

"Is that so? Well, I seem to be looking at one right now" He states calmly.

"W-what?"

Ironwood then talks out loud "I need soldiers in the highest level of the tower and more of them searching the grounds around it. We have a problem"

"Wait, Sir! I am not an intruder... Are you really going to lock me up? I am too young to go to jail"

"Calm your cheeks there, little girl. Somebody as weak as you wouldn't hurt anybody, thus no prison time for you" Grim says from behind Ruby.

"Y-yeah, exactly Sir! I am t- Wait..." Ruby stops herself from continuing what she was about to say.

She hears Grim chuckle, but this time from her side.

"The piece of log means me, you're off the hook, so why don't go you back to your team and dance away the night, you did all you could for now"

"I am no-" Ruby was just about to say that she isn't going anywhere as she still has to say what happened to Ironwood.

"She isn't going anywhere. I still need to hear what happened here" But she gets beaten to it by Ironwood himself.

"Yeah, that..." So that's the only thing she can add to it.

"Oh, so what? A Faunus's words don't matter to the great general of Atlas? I've seen everything just like little Rose did. Quite a Racist military person we have, no?"

"It's not about the race or whatever 'joke' you want to continue spewing. The day I trust you is the day when you're dead. As the only time, evil people can be trusted is when they're buried deep underground"

"O-ho, big words from a decently-sized man. But I only believe those that can actually get something done. I can't even remember how many times I was supposed to be 'eliminated' by now. So instead of words, how about you show what you got, mhm?"

Ruby who's stuck between the two intense individuals doesn't know what to do. She doesn't understand what's going on, to begin with. They are supposed to be looking for that intruder who escaped, but now the two who should be helping are about to fight.

Ironwood doesn't fall for, who he assumes is Crystal's provocations. Nobody from Atlas knows about Grimmerin yet, except for Penny who has almost figured it out.

So the two are stuck staring at each other in an intense eye-lock.

Before it gets broken by Ruby gasping out loud "Grim, you're hurt!" Ruby kneels down to check it immediately, she slightly cringes when she touched the blood. She gazes at the arrow not knowing what to do.

"Uh... Ruby?"

Ruby cranes her head up "Yes?"

"I know that seeing an injury must be a rare occurrence for you, but you do realize who I am right?"

Ruby blinks a few times and then quickly jumps back "Right... Your semblance" She comments awkwardly. Ruby checks her hand, a few of her fingers have blood stains on them.

She then looks around awkwardly and in front of both Ironwood and Grim, the little sister leans to the side and wipes it on one of the consoles.

Neither of the two comments on what just happened and Grim directs her attention back at Ironwood, who speaks first.

"Grim? That's what you call yourself in Beacon and hide your identity from the students?"

"Eh..." Grim looks blankly at the general "Sure, whatever you say. Anyway, with Ruby's help here, you just saw a wound on me, I don't have to say where it came from do I? Or is the general not smart enough to understand it?"

"You don't need to say anything. In fact, just stay silent, until my soldiers show up. They should be here shortly"

"I see, well, I can help you in searching for the intruder. Your soldiers spread out all over Beacon. The intruder should be laying low and couldn't have gone far. And when your soldiers are in place, I simply activate my semblance which you know plenty well what it does. Unlike me, who doesn't feel pain, this person should be shocked because of the sudden pain and stumble as it's in a particular part of the leg. And boom, you caught yourself the baddie. You get one more medal, a branch, or whatever it is that you collect. And we all go our own ways happily. Deal?"

"No" Ironwood shuts it down immediately.

"Ah, well it is what it is. Then, I will just leave as I have somewhere to be. Bye now. Ruby, good luck, see you another day"

And Grim walks past Ironwood, who doesn't move to stop her.

Grim smirks, all talk but not bark. But who can blame him? At least he's smart enough to not get himself killed and just send his minions to their death instead. Quite a good leader.

"Uh... Thanks, Grim, bye!" Ruby answers after a moment.

Ironwood looks at Ruby, who gazes quite kindly upon the Faunus. So she already has others wrapped around her finger. Just like before, she sleeps with civilians, making them feel goodwill towards her, and then she just hides behind them all the time thus giving them no chance to get her.

This is the best chance he has gotten in a long while of catching her, so with a heavy heart, he stops her.

"Okay, I will take your help"

Grim stops in surprise hearing the general say what he just said.

"Who are you?" She asks not turning around.

Ironwood doesn't answer, but he also has his back turned to her.

"Well, unfortunately, it's too late for that now"

"What" Ironwood turns around.

"The injury? Yeah, it's gone. You shot your shot and missed it entirely. Congratulations General" She gestures to her leg that's back to new "Can't have me walking with blood dripping to the ground, people might think that I am on my period... Oh wait, I can't have those" She laughs out loud. This goes on for several seconds before Grim stops and looks at Ironwood's deadpanned face.

"That didn't make you happy? Well, maybe this will cheer you up, you can have the arrow. Physical evidence is helpful after all"

Grim moves a few steps and extends the arrow towards Ironwood. But just as he was starting to move his hand to take it, the arrow disintegrated into nothing.

"Ah..." Grim blinks innocently "Good luck on your investigation. Wish the Atlesian Military all the luck in catching the enemy. Well, ta-ta" And with a chuckle, Grim turns around and steps into an elevator.

She also waves at Ironwood as the elevator door closes.

The Atlas General is left standing paralyzed from what just happened. He clenches his fist. He won't ever trust her even when she's already dead.

"Uhm... Sir Ironwood?" Ironwood's attention gets caught by the captain of team RWBY.

"There are more arrows stuck in the... ground..." She gestures to where the arrows... Were supposed to be.

"Riiight. They disappeared" Ruby looks away awkwardly from Ironwood's gaze "Uhm... Sorry!"

Meanwhile back at the dance hall.

Cinder whose already dancing with Mercury leisurely after a perfect heist, feels a slight tickle in her ankle. It seems Grim has finished her part too. So her smile gets broader than before.

"Why are you so happy?" Mercury asks.

"Nothing, just enjoying the perfect night"

~ End of Chapter 28 ~