"You're not sure about her, are you?" Roman asked, walking over and leaning on his cane next to her. She shook her head. She was terrified. Cinder had this air about her…
"I know… I'm sorry. But the rats have been talking. The usual hubbub and rumors - the idiot's creed. Superstition and wives' tales." He sighed heavily, flopping into the puffy leather chair along the small room's wall. They had money, oh they had a lot of money, but Neo preferred the small house. It reminded her of when they had first started off, just two vagrants picking pockets and running petty thefts. Humble origins, if one were to stretch the word.
"I wouldn't have believed all this talk of maidens and magic, until I saw her back. We're playing with fire Neo, and I'm thinking I might just be talking literally here." Neo cast her eyes down, nodding slightly. She could see it in his shoulders. It wasn't his choice.
"We'll figure a way out of this Neo." He promised, though he never met her eyes. "We always have."
He pulled his lighter out and drew a cigar out of his ivory jacket pocket. His eyes sparked alongside the flint, but the flame didn't catch for a moment. "Damn," Torchwick muttered, striking it again. Again. Again. It finally caught.
Neo stalked out of the room, heading for the kitchen. She opened the freezer and drew out the tri-colored ice cream within. She prepared herself a bowl, then walked back to the living room and sat down on Roman's lap, curling into his chest and tucking her legs up so her feet rested on one of the leather arms and her back against the other.
"It's alright, princess…" He spoke absent mindedly, rubbing her shoulder and repeating the mantra that he had so many times. When the mob had threatened to kill her because he had stolen from them. When the police closed in and they had to run from Mistral. Every time that it seemed there was no way out.
Roman owned the mob now.
And they had never ended up in jail.
This wouldn't be any different.
Neo scooped up some of the pink ice cream, her favourite for celebrations and happy times, and held it up to his lips. Snapped from his revery, he smiled at her and wrapped his lips around the sweet treat.
"Our resident bull-headed friend, Mr. Taurus, seems to have had a poor day today." Roman mused as he removed his hat and hung it on the wooden stand near the bungalow's door. He sounded happy, so Neo perked up, leaning forward from where she was sat on the arm of his chair and tucking her chin onto her hand, itself balanced on her crossed knee. She blinked up at him with one pink and one white eye.
"Don't get too excited yet," She smiled at his attempt to contain her excitement. He was practically jumping off the walls. He had that swagger and bounce in his step that he did after making another look a fool. Last time she had seen it was when he paid off a highwayman while simultaneously cutting his purse. They walked away with twice as much money as they had showed up.
"Okay, get excited Neo!" He strutted up to her and slid his hand along the inside of her hair, tucking it behind her ear. Had she been a cat faunus, Neo may have purred. Instead, she blinked, flicking her white iris to a deep purple, and looked up at him with half lidded eyes. "Not that way." He chuckled, although she saw his pupils dilate. He sat down, and she took her seat on his lap. He shuffled a little uncomfortably, but stilled when she touched her nose to his.
"It seems one of his pets ran away. A stray cat, so to say." Roman cooed excitedly. "The White Fang… Can't believe I didn't think of it. It's the perfect way to test her. Now, this little kitty had the advantage of a train, but if we can sneak someone out from under her nose…" He grinned wildly as Neo turned excitedly in his lap, straddling him and grabbing his cheeks desperately. She searched his eyes, her own wide, looking for what she hoped she would fine.
"Neo… If this works, we might be able to get out."
Neo dove on him, hugging him tight. She wondered if he could feel the slight trembling in her back. They could get away from her. They might actually escape!
A tear slid down her cheek, and when she pulled back, she found his green eyes glowing in the pale moonlight, almost a turquoise shade from the blue tint. He reached up, and a gloved finger brushed the tear away.
"It's gonna be alright, Neo…"
"My, my, what a nice shop you have!" Torchwick exclaimed with a bright smile, waving his cane about. He walked through the low bookshelves towards the counter at the back, holding Tukson. Neo trounced along atop the shelf, neatly skipping over the books on stands, holding her closed parasol across both her shoulders, leaning her hands on it.
"Who are you?" There was a throaty growl from the counter as the man crouched low, ready to fight.
"Relax," Roman drawled, hanging his cane on a forearm and spreading his hands in a show of friendliness. Then he held his hand out, its back presented, as though to a dog so it could sniff him.
Tukson's eyes narrowed, but he straightened. "What do you want?"
"I'm just a fellow salesman." Torchwick introduced himself with a cheery smile as Neo reached the end of her shelf and twirled into a flip with a twist, landing next to the counter. She let her momentum carry her onto the top and she crossed her legs, tucking her hands together on her parasol, now clutched atop her thighs, and squeezed her arms. His gaze flickered down to her chest for a moment, and his composure was lost. She flashed him a grin, and whipped her blade out of the parasol-sheath.
He staggered back a step.
"Neo…" Roman warned. They were supposed to be playing nice with him. She sheathed her weapon and hung the handle off Tukson's desk. She smiled at him, winked, and gave him another quick peek in apology.
"Anyways my wolfy friend-" Roman broke off as Neo tilted her head at him. "What?"
Neo poked a finger upright next to each ear and wiggled them.
"A cat? What? Like a puma?" He asked, a confused look crossing his face. She smiled and nodded her head vigorously.
"She's actually not wrong." Tukson offered
"... Anyways," Roman drew out the word, offering his annoyance to Neo. She took it with a shrug. "We're here to discuss a business proposition. Word around Vale is you're looking to skip town. Now, maybe you have an extra appendage like a tail or something, but I've never heard of a faunus growing a helping hand. Would you like one?"
Neo swung her legs as she sat atop the nice cafe that overlooked Tukson's Book Trade, licking at the strawberry ice cream cone. A few hours ago, the faunus would have booked a seat on an evening airship that would take him far away. That was the tenuous part. Once he arrived in Vaccuo, Roman had arranged for the faunus to become a ghost. All he had to do was make it another few hours, and he would be home free.
And then she and Roman could do the same. And they'd finally be away from her.
Then, she saw them.
A cone fell from a slim hand and landed two flights below. She pulled out her scroll and took a picture of the silver-haired teen and his green-haired accomplice. She quickly typed out Roman's number and sent it.
Neo held her breath as they walked up to Tukson's store, holding her breath as she saw them approach the door. She impossibly wished for them to keep walking, right by the store. It must have just been some coincidence that they had found their way there.
Of course it wasn't.
Neo's heart sank as they stepped inside. A moment later, the windows went black.
"Well shit…" An exasperated sigh whistled through the air behind her. Neo didn't look back. Instead, he came and sat beside her, overlooking the precipice of the roof. "I don't know how… But they must have access to all the records going through the CCT. We can't get out by public transit. I doubt even fake names would work."
He sounded as defeated as she felt.
She flicked open the lighter she had snuck from his pocket when he sat down, then struck the flint. It didn't catch. Roman shook his head.
"I don't think so princess." He puffed his cheeks out as he exhaled. "If we did steal a ship, where would we go? Atlas would flag our ship immediately, Mistral is in Cinder's pocket, and arriving in Vaccuo by non-civilian airship… We might as well slit our own throats."
She wrapped her arms around his closest one and leaned her head on his shoulder, looking up at his strong jawline. He looked lost, something she had never seen before. There was always that spark behind his eyes, the one that spoke of a thousand ideas that he could use to get his way. Or, more often, her way.
"Sometimes I think I've been alive too long, Neo." He muttered, looking over the edge of the roof. She stiffened beside him. He looked her way, seeing her lip trembling, and hugged her close. "Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere… I just sometimes feel lost. Like this world is racing around and I can't keep up, let alone stay ahead. I've picked up my life and moved on so often I forget what I left behind, and I feel so hollow.
"You're all I have Neo." He turned his emerald green eyes on her, a dark shade falling over them. "And I wouldn't trade it for anything." There was an iron resolve in his voice, and she didn't doubt it for a second. "You're all I have, and you're all I ever want. We're going to make it through this. I promise."
His face was like a thundercloud, stormy, and on the brink of breaking into fury.
She reached up and stroked his bottom lip gingerly, and his eyes squeezed shut as his face softened. He reached down to caress her face, pressing his forehead against hers, looking into her violet eyes.
"Me too, Neo. Me too..."
Torchwick laughed as the kitten broke open his door.
Everything fell into place.
There were some moments that the world threw everything into his lap, and he just had to be clever enough to see it. Normally it was on the fly, when he didn't have time to fully think everything through. This was perhaps the most beautiful of all these moments.
"You know, we really ought to stop meeting like this. People are gonna talk." He taunted, swinging his cane around his finger before setting it on his shoulder.
That Atlesian general had showed up. After what Roman was about to do, there was no doubt he would be imposing on security. It was no secret that good 'ol Oz was on the Council's short list these days, and with the Vytal festival so close…
Roman could hardly help himself from laughing.
All he had to do was get beaten.
The general would no doubt take custody.
On his flagship.
He had only gleaned a few pieces of the witch's plan, but from what he knew, the first thing to go would be the Atlesian droids. Next, the CCT.
Oh, this was beautiful.
He gets locked up in the flagship. He slips a note to Cinder after getting captured. It shouldn't be too hard, a fair bit of the soldiers were already hers. He tells her that when the time comes, he and Neo could plant their little Red Queen in the General's ship. Cinder would break the CCT.
Then, he and Neo would be in the most well equipped ship on Remnant with a blank pass to go anywhere in the ensuing chaos of the destruction of the world's communication system.
The runaway - Blake, he thought it might be - grimaced at him, and dashed forward. Roman didn't stop her.
"Woohoohoo!" Roman grinned as he slapped the button. It was not a mindless violence. It was a genuine celebration. Neo grinned beside him as he poked and prodded the ship's controls, getting a feel for all its mechanics.
They had done it.
By trusting them with this, Cinder had finally given them the opportunity they had been frantically searching for. A ship with which to flee, and the single best equipped one in the world! Especially now that they had blown the rest out of the sky, falling like little birdies.
Roman had worked out a few details since Neo had opened his cage, hardly restraining herself from launching herself at him after so long. Around them lay the obstacles that would have held them back, but now it was just the two of them on the ship. A direct path to freedom.
The ship held detailed geographic maps of the Kingdoms, and had shielding technology that would hide them from any sonar or radar systems. They could land a few miles outside of a kingdom and walk in, pretending to be delirious travelers. They could pick any small town, live out their days there.
Just the two of them.
Just like he had promised.
Neo walked up behind him and tapped one shoulder before sliding to his opposite side. He looked over his shoulder before turning the other way to find her. She looked up at him with violet eyes.
He took her hand and smiled
"We did it." He whispered excitedly, beaming down at her. She tapped her foot impatiently. She was already in heels, she could hardly go up on her tiptoes. He smiled, and leaned forward, pressing his lips lightly against hers.
She grabbed his hair roughly and pulled him into her. It had been months since she had tasted him. She opened her mouth, urging him to do the same by tickling his lip with her tongue. He obliged, and the two embraced passionately.
Some immeasurable time later, they broke apart, Neo a little short of breath. Roman was too though. She smiled at him shyly.
"Now, let's have some fun before we say goodbye to our old friends, eh?" He hopped joyfully back over to the controls, hand twirling in a circle. "Hm, let's see. What does this button do?" He poked a big red button. The airship responded with a shake and a satisfying rumble. Neo giggled.
Neo dragged the tip of her blade along the airship as she sauntered up to Red. The girl who had tried to take it all away from them. Who wanted to stop them when all they wanted to do was go, to escape the hellish nightmare of their past few years. Finally, she and Roman could live away from it all.
But little Red, the oh so noble huntress, thought that was too good an ending for them.
Well who was she to decide that Neo couldn't be happy? Who was she to say that she and Roman should be separated for the rest of their lives? Who was she to take everything from her?
So she took her time, pointing the sharp blade at her, letting Red know the price for her crimes. Letting her know that no one was going to stop them. Not when they were so close.
And then, faster than Neo could see, Red pressed the release on her parasol.
Neo gasped as the wind snatched at her weapon, tugging her off the airship and flinging her into the night.
"NEO!" Roman yelled after her, and Neo turned, tried to reach out to him, but a black cloud swallowed her, and she lost sight of him.
She alighted on the ground, twisting around and searching for the ship. Where was Roman? How could she get back to him?
And then she saw it.
The flaming ruin of what had once been the command ship.
She sunk to her knees, seeing everything she ever wanted crash through the tops of the highest buildings before plowing into the ground.
She knelt, frozen in fear, jaw ajar. This couldn't be real.
They had been so close.
Roman…
No.
Somewhere on that ship, Roman was alive. They would find another way out of Vale. The two of them, together. Just as they had planned. They would run away, forget the world, and let it forget them.
The spell broken, Neo stood shakily.
She stumbled through the streets, feeling nauseous and lightheaded. She staggered like a drunk, cadence uneven and careening from side to side, barely keeping her balance.
As she got closer to the wreckage and she could smell the acrid stench of human hair and flesh burning, she lost it. Leaning against a wall, she let the contents of her stomach go. Then dry heaved a few times for good measure. Tears streamed down her face, and she wasn't sure if it was from the bile or from the injustice of it all.
Scraps of metal littered the ground and smoke choked the air as she approached the wreckage and the ruins the ship's fall had scattered about.
She didn't want to be alone.
The only figure in the desolate landscape, Neo walked, trying to stay below the smoke so she could breath. She became short of breath anyways, though she didn't know if it was the fire or the ache in her chest that made her want to scream her vocal cords away all over again.
There was nothing. There was no one.
Neo sat. She was safe here. In the midst of the inferno, nothing would touch her. So she sat in the middle of the ship's broken frame, letting the flames engulf everything around her. The roaring of the firestorm dimmed to her ears after awhile, nothing more than background noise.
She was sat in the bridge, though only half of it remained, and what was left was skewed at an awkward angle so that when she lied down, it was like trying to sleep on a hill. She looked through the veil of smoke and fire and clouds, and tried to imagine the stars. Nighttime had always been her favourite. The little twinkling stars way up high like diamonds, glimmering away, no matter how terrible the world got. I didn't matter if her parents had been butchered and she had to watch.
It didn't matter that she had screamed so loud for so long she couldn't talk anymore.
It didn't matter that her nightmares came to life around her as a child, a byproduct of her semblance, and the others were scared of the girl who made demons.
It didn't matter she was on the streets by the time she was four.
None of that mattered.
Because in the infinite darkness, there was some little pinprick of light.
Like when she had met Roman.
So she let the world burn around her, waiting for her star to come back to her, and wishing on those above that he would.
He didn't.
Somewhere about in the whirling winds a crow flies round and round.
Below it the girl whimpers in her sleep, such a heart wrenching sound.
When she woke, the flames were dead. The fire that burned and twisted and destroyed and consumed was gone.
All that was left were ashes.
She was sure that a diamond could survive a fire. She just had to sift through those ashes.
So she did.
A scrap of red cloth and a charred lighter. That was what was left of her diamond.
She snapped the flint wheel and the spark flared up, caught on the last whispers of butane, and a flame sparked to light. She held it under the red cloth, tilting her head as the fabric caught instantly.
She had slept as a city burned, a massive firestorm that leapt from building to building and roared throughout the world. She had slept.
But now she watched intently as the fire licked away at the small piece of fabric.
And her eyes were red.
The halls were dark and the shadows seemed to growl at her as she walked through the eviscerated skeleton of the warehouse. Nonetheless, Ruby ran on. She could have sworn she had seen Yang, just a step in front of her, stepping around the corner. No one else had the same long, gleaming hair that shone in the dark.
She rounded the corner, and she stilled. They were all there.
Blake, standing tall and strong, eyes burning and vindictive. Weiss, chin up and bright eyed, happy. And Yang standing there, smiling, her arms crossed.
She hadn't seen them for so long…
She walked forward, reaching for Yang. Her sister was smiling at her. Ruby had missed her a lot, and here she was. Whole. Complete. The old Yang.
When she touched Yang's cheek, the illusion shattered.
It fell apart around her.
Just like everything else in the world.
In the middle of the spacious room was sat a small girl, the washy light of the moon deadening any color so all Ruby could see was a veil of hair masking a face. She had her legs crossed, and a small heap in the space between her thighs, but Ruby couldn't make out what any of it was.
Above her was a man, head bowed and hidden behind a bowler hat with an orange feather sticking out of it. He wore an immaculate white suit, and a cane hung on his arm as he lit a cigar.
It was Roman Torchwick.
"Hello, Ruby Rose." Torchwick sounded exactly as he had all those years ago on top of the airship. He looked up at her, orange hair swept over one eye, and a glint of jade flashing at her mirthfully. "It's been a while."
Ruby was stone still. She had seen him swallowed. She had seen him kicked into the ship as it burst into flames. She had seen it crash into the city.
Roman Torchwick was dead.
"This isn't possible." She murmured, looking at the thief.
"Oh it is. I'm not really here. Not in so many words." He chuckled lowly as he puffed on the cigar.
"What-"
"Did you know that she used to have nightmares?" Roman looked down at the girl at his feet. Ruby began to distinguish a part in the girl's hair, one side lighter than the other. She narrowed her eyes, and recognition dawned on her. She had seen the other girl for no more than a few minutes, but she would never forget Neopolitan.
But she didn't look terrifying now. She didn't look in control. She looked like a child, alone and lost.
"When she was young, very young, her parents died. Right in front of her. Butchered by a madman. She watched as he stabbed her father thirty seven times. She watched as he forced himself on her mother. She watched, wide eyed, because children don't know how to look away. She was next. Fortunately, a huntress came along and saved her. Dropped her at an orphanage."
"I don't understand." Ruby murmured. Torchwick looked away from the girl at his feet to the one who was now kneeling on her knees, frowning.
"She remembered every single stab wound. She remembered watching as her mother was violated. Even if she ever forgot it, she would still have a permanent reminder. Her throat. She had screamed so loud for so long that she shredded her vocal cords. She kept screaming, and now they'll never heal.
"She stayed away from the other kids. She was terrified, and nothing could save her at night. Spectres of her nightmares would materialize around her, and the other kids thought they were demons. They hated her. They would hit her, they would shove her. They were scared of the manifestations of her terror that her semblance would conjure up. It was never really her fault.
"The huntress brought her from one hell into another.
"Then, she was on the street. She grew up there, learning how to fight, how to be ruthless. She had no friends, so eventually she made friends with her demons. She never beat them, she just let them become part of her. They stopped showing up at night after that.
"That's what I am. I'm what's left of me in her. I'm one of her demons; one of the monsters she made friends with. She was so scared at first, when you took him from her. Me. Us. I don't know. These things get confusing.
"And just like the last huntress she met, you threw her into a special sort of hell...
"I used to just watch her while she slept. I was her troubled dreams, but I would try and soothe her. Eventually, I stopped going away altogether when she woke up. I wasn't just a nightmare anymore… I grew because, in a way, she stopped waking up from her nightmares. She just brought them along with her."
"You're… An illusion?" Ruby was bewildered. Roman cocked his head at her. He leaned on his cane, kicking his foot up to rest toe down next to the other.
"Sort of. I'm something… More." He took a long drag of his cigar, the end glowing a dim orange in the otherwise blanketing wash of the moon. He sighed, letting the smoke escape his lungs and choke the air around him. "I'm afraid there's not much left of the Neo I loved in there. She must recognize that on some level, or I wouldn't be here. You killed her, just as much as you killed me."
His green eye turned to her, glinting in the pale moonlight. Ruby's heart sank.
"I didn't!" She started, and his lip curled into a snarl.
"You did. You killed him!" The voice changed for a moment, heightening in pitch and growing feminine, and Torchwick flickered. When he reappeared, he was composed again, brushing some imaginary lint from his hat. The cigar was gone. "I'm… sorry about that."
"It's… Okay." Ruby said dumbly.
"I would advise you against arguing though. Or saying anything really. She didn't bring you here to talk. She brought you here to make you understand. This isn't a discussion, it's education."
They stood across from the little girl who had not moved, and as far as Ruby could tell, had not breathed.
"Is she awake?" Ruby wondered aloud.
"Technically… I suppose. She's not all there anymore though. Only little pieces of her mind. That's why I'm here. She's not ready for you to see yet. She wants to explain everything first, but she doesn't know how. Speech has been gone from her since her first devils danced with her. Now she struggles with even coherent thoughts. She also can't help but thinking about me now, what with you being so close. You and I are just about all she thinks of now."
"Why me?"
"Because you took everything from her. Why did you come to that ship that night?" Ruby opened her mouth to speak, but he held up a leather gloved hand. "Don't. We were going to leave. Did you know that? Vale was done. It was destroyed anyways. Stopping us wasn't really going to do much, and we were going to go away. Live simple lives away from everyone. It's all I really wanted for her." His hand brushed against her hair, but just passed right through it. Ruby's heart pulled at the sight.
"You were hurting people." Ruby mumbled. Torchwick plagued her still. Watching him die like that…
"And you weren't? When you killed me? You destroyed everything she had. I was all that was left for her. You threw her from the heavens into the fiery pits of Vale.
"There was something inside her that was broken after that. It splintered, fell apart, and there was only one thing that held it all together. It was you. It was making you know what it was like to be her."
"You're going to kill me." For the first time, Neo shifted, just the slightest straightening of her slumped back. Torchwick laughed.
"No, not right away… Death is easy. Take a ghost's word for it. But everyone loves in their own way. Some people love themselves so much they can't ever love anyone else… I thought I was one of those people for a long time. And then I met him, or she met me, or…
"She loved me. That's the important bit. She loved me with her whole heart, and just when I was about to give her the world, you tore that away from me."
Neo shuffled and made her way to a knee. She stood up, and lights flared to light all around the warehouse, burning the moonlight away with the fluorescent glare of light bulbs.
Ruby slumped when she saw what it revealed. All around the edges of the warehouse were barrels of gasoline with wires running around them. Enough to light up the night sky.
But that wasn't what killed Ruby, what ripped her heart from her chest and shredded it against a million knives. That wasn't what made her insides squirm and squeal like a newborn babe left outside for the wolves. It wasn't what made Ruby's entire body turn to ice and shiver like she was a sick dog left out in the freezing rain.
It was what Neo was wearing.
A black ribbon wrapped around her arm, twirling around it and covering her shoulder. Her neck was hidden behind an orange scarf, and as she stood, instead of leaning against a parasol, she leaned against a thin rapier with a small cylinder full of dust.
An animalistic cry ripped itself from her throat. It was a wail, a cry of absolute heart-wrenching pain. Of the world ending, because without them, there was nothing left of Ruby Rose.
"Have you ever danced with the devil, Ruby Rose? Have you ever tangoed through the fires of hell? Have you ever seen the world burn around you, and watched it? Do you make friends with demons and rejoice as the pale moonlight eclipses the sun?" Torchwick was snarling now, and his form was flickering as Neo looked down at Ruby. Her eyes were red. Then lilac. Then and icy blue. And then a warm amber.
"This Neo, whatever is left of her, was born in the fires of Vale. Suiting then, that she should leave this world the same way she came into it. Dancing with the devil, alight with his fire."
Ruby staggered to her feet, knew she should try and run, try to do anything, but her eyes were locked on those three emblems, those three pieces of her past. Come back to haunt her.
Torchwick laughed.
Neo smiled.
And the world ended in flame.
A/N:
Moncon came around again! This month was Neo + Revenge. Not my top pick for her, but I did my best, which I sorely feel I should say was far from my best.
Part of it's the limitations of the contest - no excessive violence or ghastly imagery. Initially, there was going to be a scene with Neo after everything just as a charred corpse sitting there, showing how she was consumed by her need for revenge. I compare her and demons a lot, using the biblical reference of Satan falling from the sky and Neo falling from the ship to talk about how a new Neo, heavily associated with fire, was born. That Neo wasn't supposed to be a person though, she's a monster. That's why Torchwick shows up, partly due to madness, and partially because Neo's rationality can no longer be Neo herself. She doesn't have any left. So she displaces it into him, alongside any love and happiness she might have felt once upon a time. Having her finally look like something that's not human (I would have described her grin as giddy and inhuman) would hammer home how revenge changes us. I'll probably make the edit and reupload that once the contest ends.
Ruby is pretty inconsequential here. The story isn't about her. Despite her noble intentions, Ruby did do something that wronged others. She started the cycle of revenge. Neo only ended it because she was already 'dead'. In a somewhat Hamletian way, it only stopped because there was no one left to die. I almost considered making the whole thing an illusion to show how it wasn't Ruby dying that mattered, but Neo's obsession with that that was important. It would have cheapened how Neo changed though, and she would have inspired more pity and sadness than she should. Who she is now doesn't deserve any kindness. She's the epitome of a monster. Not a sad wreck, though what led her to become who she is was arguably sad.
I'll say, Torchwick is my favourite part of this for me. Having him come back as a manifestation of her illusions, I'm proud of the idea, if not the execution.
Anyways, thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed! Sorry for the little rant.
-Unjax