Hey guys! Guess who's back. So... this was more difficult than I expected to write. I'm just gonna stop making promises. Apparently I suck at keeping them. Anyways I don't own RWBY. Enjoy!

(Dante's POV)

We've been watching as the matches go on. Paying close attention to Mercury and Emerald fighting the two members of team CRDL. There wasn't much for us to learn there. Yang also already had her match and I just hope she calms down. Dealing with her when she's like this can be quite a challenge. Oh well, I always did like a challenge. "Hey." Neal says shoving my shoulder and signaling to look up.

"The next match will be between Dante and Neal of team RADN vs. Sun and Neptune of team SSSN!" Professor Oobleck announces. I grin at Neal as we walk forward.

"You ready to kick ass and take names?"

"They're our friends." He says looking forward. I mentally sigh.

"Make sure to not hold back." I let him know as we reach the center of the arena with Sun and Neptune in front of us.

"You two ready?" Sun asks us.

"Like you even need to ask." I say as the environment roulette starts.

"Just remember not to be a sore looser." Neptune tells us.

"You should remember that too." Neal tells them. The roulette finishes and the lucky winners are, drum roll please, forest and ice on their side, with mountain and dessert on ours.

"Fighters are you ready?" After no complaint Professor Port continues. "Three, two, one. Begin!" I immediately charge Sun, going to bash his ribs with Sharar. However he jumps over the strike and me. I turn around and block a punch Sun with my arm. I wind back my other arm and try to strike him with Sharar. He back steps, but I extend my weapon to it's full length, causing it to hit Sun square in the chest, knocking him to the floor. As he's on his back I whip the spike ball into my other hand. Sun jumps back onto his feet and takes out his bo-staff. He goes to hit my side, but I create a small explosion in my hand, knocking Sharar to block the attack. I quickly roll my wrist, sending Sharar into an overhead attack, but Sun blocks and pushes it back. I back step with it and I pull the chain back into the shaft of my weapon. Sun transforms his staff into a pair of nun-chucks and goes on the offensive. It takes all my focus to make sure that I block all of the attacks, it's like his attacks are in a never ending loop. Once he finally finishes, we're still for half a second before I'm shot with some kind of electrical burst in my side, and I'm knocked into the dessert, rolling through the sand. I groan in discomfort as I feel sand falling into my clothes. I stand up and start to shake out the sand from my pants leg.

"Really Neptune? Really?" I ask beginning to take off my shoes and pour out the sand.

"Sorry Dante." He says before Neal charges him. Sun walks over to me as I finish airing out my clothes.

"Okay, I'm good." I tell him, waiting for Sun to charge me, his weapon now back into staff mode. He begins swinging his staff around trying to hit me, but it's a lot easier to deal with than the nun-chucks. When he goes to hit my side, I duck underneath it, letting it sail over my head. I take the momentarily opening, to place my hand on his chest, and place a booster, kind of like what a rocket would have on him. It sends him flying away, as he screams, right into Neptune. I run over to Neal as they crash into a tree.

"Hey, how have you been?" I ask Neal as our opponents rip off the booster and destroy it.

"Pretty good. You?"

"I think I have sand in my underwear." I complain trying to readjust without using my hands, which is not easy.

"Not cool Dante!" Neptune yells at me.

"While that could be argued for, it's still funny." I tell him grinning. My grin quickly fades as he shoots at me, but I quickly dodge it by diving to the floor. And no matter what anyone else says I did not scream. Nope. Not even a little bit.

"Really Dante?" Neal asks me, holding out his hand.

"It really hurts... and stings." I mutter taking his hand and stand up. "Do you have a plan? I'm open to suggestions."

"Hope for the best." He says shrugging his shoulders, before blocking a hit from Sun..

"That's a plan I can get behind." I tell him blocking Neptune's strike and feel the electricity paralyze my arms for an instant. That's no good. I'll need to fix that later. Neptune continues to attack me, but I'm forced to try and dodge all of his attacks. Clearly the electricity isn't strong enough to paralyze a human body, but my arms are a different story. I need a conduit to pass the current through my arms into something else. Sharar can act as a conduit for the current, but if I use it as is I'll be unable to counter attack.

Guess I gotta use my trump card.

I back step away from Neptune putting some much needed distance between us. I send a pulse of aura into my arms deactivating the 'skin' coating on them. "What's this? It appears that Dante has been harboring mechanical arms this entire time." Professor Port tells the audience.

"That explains why he was so hesitant on taking any attacks from Neptune." Professor Oobleck continues.

"So, that's it." Neptune says in an 'aha' moment.

"Yeah, but now here comes the counter attack." I say pulling Sharar in half. I connect the half with the spiked ball on my right arm, with the ball right in front of my hand. While the side with the chain connects to my left, the chain extending behind my elbow. I wince a little as it connects to my nerves, giving me full control of the chain. I charge at Neptune and when he goes to strike me, I grab his weapon with my left arm and keep the chain connected to the ground, allowing the electricity to pass through harmlessly. I grip it tightly, before winding back my arm, and punching him, smashing the spiked ball in his face. I create an explosion right between us and send him flying out of the arena.

"And Neptune is out of bounds. Things aren't looking too good for Sun." Oobleck announces. I race over to Neal and Sun to see Sun kick Neal back.

"Neal, grab on!" I say whipping the chain at him. He grabs it, "Stay in the air," I tell him before sending him back at Sun. Once he lets go I move the chain into a vortex like shape, while spinning it. I create small continuous explosions at the base of the chain, shooting the explosions out all around Neal. I can't exactly see what happens next, but the professors are announcing that it's our win. I disconnect Sharar from my arms and put it back together. I walk over to Neal and high five him.

"Since when could you do that?" He asks and I grin at him.

"Since forever."

(Neal's POV)

Yang and Weiss' match just ended, with the rest of team RWBY carrying Weiss to bed, with her complaining about it. I look up once the roulette finishes and see it's me and Dante against Sun and Neptune. I turn to Dante, but he looks deep in thought, probably about tomorrow. "Hey." I say shoving his shoulder. I nod up at the jumbo screen and he follows it. Professor Oobleck announces the match as Dante grins at me, and we start walking up to the arena.

"You ready to kick ass and take names?" I look forward as I roll my eyes.

"They're our friends."

"Don't hold back." He tells me and I only nod. We reach the center of the arena, staring face to face to face to face with Sun and Neptune.

"You two ready?" Sun asks.

"Like you even need to ask." Dante says, as I take out Greyswindir.

"Just remember not to be a sore loser." Neptune taunts us.

"You should remember that too." I tell him with a small smirk. Then the environments come up. Mountain and desert on our side with ice and forest on theirs.

"Fighters are you ready?" Professor Port asks us. I go into my fighting stance, with my left side slightly in front and Greyswindir poised to attack. "Three, two, one. Begin!" Dante immediately charges Sun, but I wait a moment. Allowing Neptune to come after me. He goes to stab me with his trident, but I push it aside, making it go right by my ribs. I go for a side slash, but he manages to pull his weapon back fast enough to block it. We continue to trade blows with each other, neither one making contact, so when he goes for a swipe attack, I block it, and push towards him. He manages to hold his footing as we're locked in a contest of strength. I pull out an arrow from my quiver, going to stab him with it, but he jumps back. So in one fluid motion I change Greyswindir into it's crossbow form, sling the arrow into it, and fire it at Neptune. While I was doing this he also transformed his weapon, and fired at me. We both dodged each others shot and before I could charge again I hear Dante grunt in pain. I turn around to see him rolling through the sand. My bad.

"Really Neptune? Really?" Dante asks, while removing his shoes. I sigh, transforming Greyswindir and turn back to Neptune as he apologized to Dante. Once that's done I charge Neptune and in his momentary distraction I slash across his stomach. Reversing my grip on my sword, I slash at him going up, and then kick him to the side. I'm about to continue, but Neptune is tackled by a... flying Sun? I turn my head to face Dante as he runs towards me. "Hey, how have you been?" Dante asks, as Sun and Neptune rip off some device from Sun and violently destroy it.

"Pretty good. You?" I ask rolling with it since it's Dante.

"I think I have sand in my underwear." He complains moving his legs around.

I'm about to halfheartedly comfort him, but Neptune yells, "Not cool Dante!"

"While that could be argued for, it's still funny." Dante says, letting everyone know he's not sorry. At least until Neptune fires at him and Dante jumps to the ground screaming.

"Really Dante." I ask holding out my hand, trying not to laugh.

"It really hurts... and stings." He mutters taking my hand so I can lift him up. "Do you have a plan? I'm open to suggestions." He asks me.

"Hope for the best." I shrug my shoulders, before blocking an attack from Sun's staff.

"That is a plan I can get behind." Dante tells me, but I'm a bit too preoccupied to answer, blocking Sun's attacks. I go for a counter attack, slashing across his staff, but he black flips with the force as his staff turns into two nun-chucks. I pull out an arrow from my quiver and ready my stance, my left side, with the arrow, slightly in front, and hold my sword farther back. "What's this?" We hear Professor Port ask. "It appears Dante has been harboring mechanical arms this entire time."

"That explains why he was so hesitant to take any attacks from Neptune." Professor Oobleck explains.

"Since when was that a thing?" Sun asks me.

"Not long." I answer shrugging my shoulders. Sun seems to accept the answer since he charges me and for the first attack I push the nun-chuck to the side with the arrow,but that doesn't stop Sun's attack. He continues with his attack, and I continue to block his attacks similarly with the arrow. I keep a close eye on his nun-chucks and my arrow, knowing it can only take so much damage. Once it does, I back step, and go to slash Sun. Instead I'm met with air, as he jumps over it, and kicks me in the face knocking me back.

"Neal grab on!" I hear Dante yell. From the corner of my eye I see his chain coming towards me, so I grab onto it. "Stay in the air." He tells me before whipping me back at Sun. I don't know why, but I listen to him and use my semblance to stay in the air after letting go. As I quickly close the distance between me and Sun I notice a circle of explosions around me. I decide to ignore it and slice Sun once I reach him. I land on the ground crouched and don't stand until the professors announce our victory. I turn around to see Sharar in two parts connected to Dante's arms, until he takes them off, and puts it back together. He walks over to me and we high five.

"Since when could you do that?" I ask curious why he didn't tell us. He grins at me and I mentally sigh.

"Since forever.

(Ashley's POV)

After the boys' match I headed straight for team RWBY's room. There's something I need to confirm. Once I reach my destination I start knocking on the door. "Blake, it's me. Can you let me in?" I wait a couple of seconds, but there's no reply. "I understand that you probably want to be left alone, I need to talk to you about something." I wait a bit longer, and am met with nothing, but silence. "Come on Blake! I'm begging you here."

"Begging me for what?" A familiar voice comes from behind me. I turn around to find Blake, with a raised eyebrow. I look at her, back at the door, and then back at her.

"Oh." I say, realizing Blake wasn't inside, but then that means I was talking to the door. "Oh." I mutter looking down embarrassed.

"Well?" She asks me.

"Can we talk inside?" I ask, eyes never leaving the floor.

"Sure." Blake walks past me to open the door and in my peripheral I see the end of Raphael's scarf. I try not to stare at it as I follow her inside, but it's so weird seeing anyone, but him wearing it. She sits on her bed and I sit across from her on Weiss'.

It's quiet for a few seconds before I start. "How have you been?" She sighs looking down.

"It's been difficult, to say the least. Losing Raph... it's been the most painful thing I've ever experienced. Knowing that I won't be able to ever see him smile and say 'I've got this'. I'll never be able to see or hug him again. I'll never be able to feel the safety or strength he gave me just by being around." As she spoke tears started to stream down her face, but I didn't look away or offer comfort. I need to see this.

"Did you love him?" She nods, trying to wipe the tears away.

"Yeah. I did, do. Last night when he left..." She paused as a few sobs escaped her. "He almost kissed me and I-I think that's when I knew he wouldn't come back. He was never that open about how he... felt and I doubt he ever planned to." At the end she started sobbing uncontrollably, hugging herself tightly, as she bowed her head.

"Blake this is the last thing, and I want you to answer honestly. Do you hate Cinder?" She doesn't respond for a few seconds, but the she looks up. I already know the answer, but I need to get it from her. She looks a me in the eyes before nodding. That's all I need. I stand up and hug Blake as tightly as I can. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." I'm sorry for putting you through this again, but I needed this. That Cinder needs to be stopped, no matter what. I need to be prepared for what's to come. This is my fault. If I just let them turn Cinder over to the police at the beginning then none of this would be happening. I have to own up to this. If anyone's gonna kill Cinder, it's gonna be me.

I think I did a pretty good job with the fight especially since I was waiting forever to show Sharar's second form. I hope you guys thought it was cool as I did and that you enjoyed the chapter. Remember to review, follow and favorite if you hadn't already. Later.