Chapter 1: Just Beginning

The sharp din of dress-shoes pacing in circles along the concrete backstage was enough to set off even the gentlest of Faunus. Ear after ear pricked up in annoyance among every group of man-beasts as they passed the ecstatic redhead, clad in his staple bowler hat and suit.

"Tonight's the night Neo! This is the moment I finally win over these filthy mutts!"

He made sure to mouth the last few words to his female companion, sitting cross-legged on the crate at his side. Roman Torchwick may be an arrogant, hotheaded racist, but he's not dumb. He knew the danger of expressing his…views around a couple hundred White Fang revolutionaries.

His pacing came to a gliding halt in front of the classy bodyguard, emerald eyes shifting down to meet hers.

"Sorry to make you look up from your scroll, princess." He spat every consonant with an unsubtle rage, "You're good for nothing but fighting, you know that? I can't even get a few words of praise out of that pretty mouth of yours."

The hot venom of his words made a home on the lit cigar he pushed between his lips. Gloved hands meeting silver curtains at the other end of the storage room, and out he went onto the warehouse floor turned makeshift stage. He stopped short to marvel at his ace in the hole, a glorious hunk of steel he had recently ordered Neo to "borrow" from an Atlas-bound cargo train.

He lifted his gloved fingers from the mech and, as he strode past Faunus soldiers, Grimm masks and robes abound, uttered a soft "Show time", finding his place in the eyes of the crowd.

Neo could hear the clamor of booing as soon as the curtains embraced each other. She was seething. In all her years of "working" for him, she'd never once been paid and yet, here she was, putting up with him like some kind of babysitter.

"I'd better head out there with him," she thought, "he could get himself killed."

She entertained that idea for a little bit, smiling ear-to-ear at the image of the ginger being torn apart by the very Faunus he was trying to gain the favor of.

She tucked her scroll away to a small pocket inside her corset, laced up her ivory boots, and strode in the footsteps of her employer, taking a place far to his side. Shuffling between the claws and tails of the white-robed figures all about, her mismatched eyes scanned the host of beasts below.

Roman began the speech Neo knew all too well. The last couple of days, as they hid out in hotel after hotel around Vale, she'd heard it repeated over and over again to her, and faced his anger as she refused to even smirk in reaction. That was just her way.

But now, as he recited it to the horde before them, she saw the weight his words carried in their eyes and their shouts.

"Now, I'll be the first to admit, humans are the worst. Case in point. So, I understand why you'd love to see us locked away or, better yet…"

"Killed."

And with that, the pack at their feet went into a frenzy. All save two lone Faunus. A monkey and cat, shuttering in place and eyeing each other like common prey, searching for a means of escape from the predator.

Neo could tell they were looking at the breaker box at the back of the stage. Roman could too, apparently, as after his speech drew to a close and he had unveiled the Atlesian Paladin behind the curtain, he ordered several White Fang guards to, reluctantly, apprehend the pair.

She couldn't quite tell what she saw in those two, but she knew one thing for certain; this was her chance. Neo heard, among the chaos, a soft voice scream "Sun, the window!" and with that, she drew her sword from its umbrella sheath and, with one quick slash, cut the power to the entire building.

"Have fun seeing in the dark, asshole."

Roman hadn't seen her slice the breaker. In fact, he wasn't seeing much of anything over the thick cover of darkness when he ordered her to follow him, entering the paladin and illuminating the warehouse with the red glow of its lights.

She winced as Roman slammed through the warehouse wall in chase.

"Damn."

And off she pranced behind him, grinning like a child at what would come next.